Not sure which category this belonged in, but this seems good as any. We've been trying to cut our food budget lately, and one thing I realized is that we already eat a lot of bulk foods, CSA/homegrown veggies, etc., which is fairly cheap, but we spend a good amount on things like condiments, oils, etc. I've started trying to make some of these myself. This isn't an outright challenge so much as a place to share motivation, recipes, etc. I find that if I have a recipe I know will work (because someone else has already tried it!) that I am more likely to go for it. I would love to have a bunch of recipes for homemade versions of stuff people usually buy posted in one thread!
Things I was already making myself:
-deodorant (alcohol, water, and essential oils in spritzer)
-liquid soap (grate leftover bar soap, mix with boiling water until the right consistency -- definitely doesn't suds as well as the commercial stuff but it seems to clean my hands fine)
-jams, jellies, pickles (I am a big canner), kim chi, sauerkraut, hot sauce (good sriracha recipe:
http://food52.com/recipes/6441-fresh-sriracha-aka-home-made-rooster), gari (sushi ginger):
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/homemade-pickled-ginger-gari/-a lot of cleaning supplies (vinegar/water combo to clean almost anything, bringing out the Bon Ami for the nastier jobs)
New things I tried recently:
-vegetarian broth powder -- we use a ton and it's expensive. I used this recipe, but will halve the salt in the future, it turned out way too salty but otherwise I found it just as good as the stuff I'd been buying:
http://www.simplehealthytasty.com/2010/07/homemade-vegetable-broth-powder.html -roasted chick peas -- awesome healthy snack, I found I needed to cook them for more like 40 minutes with a lot of shaking to prevent burning
My sister recently sent me a ketchup recipe she swears by, which I need to try as I eat a ton of ketchup, and a vegan mayo recipe that she tried, was unsatisfied with, and is tweaking.
So -- what else can I make myself rather than buy overpriced store versions? One thing I tried in the past and was unhappy with was laundry soap. Anyone have a homemade recipe that works?