Don't buy cream puffs and eclairs (they are crazy-cheap to make!)

(It was a rainy Thursday afternoon. I was stuck inside all afternoon, so guess what? You get me this morning, as I had time to type up what I was doing -- baking. Now aren't you lucky?! Haha!)

This week, the grocery ads for Mother's Day are featuring cream puffs and eclairs for $6 for a 7 to 9-count package.

They are so easy to make (really!!), and crazy-cheap.

I baked 15 medium-size cream puffs the other day, for under $1. Here's the breakdown in cost:

• 1/2 cup butter -- 50 cents
• 4 eggs -- 36 cents
• 1 cup all-purpose flour -- 8 cents
• 1/4 teaspoon salt -- 1 cent

total to make my own cream puffs -- 95 cents. Even if your grocery costs are double mine, it would still be under $2 to make a batch of 12 to 15 cream puffs. My filling (whipped cream and fruit -- remember the whipped cream I bought on markdown, whipped, then froze back in February?) will cost about 50 cents for the whole batch. So for me, my price per cream puff will be about 10 cents per filled puff. The grocery store cream puffs work out to almost $1 per cream puff!

So you're thinking, "what do I need 15 cream puffs for?" Well, unfilled cream puffs freeze beautifully. You can use however many at a time that you need. And since the batter to make them is not at all sweet, you can use them to hold savory as well as sweet fillings. I sometimes make tiny cream puffs (referred to as cocktail-size) to fill with chicken salad, to take to potlucks.

Cream puffs are egg-risen. Once they puff up, they have a hollowed out spot inside, just right for a dollop of filling.

For a dessert, I pull frozen, unfilled cream puffs out from the freezer, allow to come to room temperature for 20 minutes, on the counter, then fill with either sweetened whipped cream, ice cream, or homemade vanilla pudding. You can frost the tops, sprinkle with powdered (confectioner's) sugar, or drizzle with a chocolate glaze or syrup.

What's the best, though, is if these are for guests, they look so spectacular everyone thinks I'm some sort of master baker!

I bake the cream puffs, in advance, so I'm not rushed at the last minute. (I baked the Mother's Day brunch ones on the Thursday before Mother's Day, then froze unfilled.) If more than a day in advance, I pop them into a ziploc and freeze them.

Here's the recipe I've been using for the last 30 years, and that my mother used for 20 years before that.

For 12 to 15 3-inch diameter cream puffs:

ingredients:

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs

equipment:

heavy-bottomed medium saucepan

large spoon

small bowl and fork

rubber spatula

large baking sheet

Prep:

Place rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (non-convection). Grease the baking sheet.

Cook:

In the saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add butter, and stir until butter is melted. Stir in salt.

Add the flour, all at once, and stir vigorously until throughly mixed in, and a large mass develops. Remove pan from heat.

In small bowl, beat 1 egg with fork. Add to this slightly cooled flour/butter/water mixture, and beat vigorously. When thoroughly combined, break 2nd egg into small bowl, beat with fork, then beat into the flour/butter/water mixture. 

By now, the mixture is cool enough, that you can add the last 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well in between, whole, and not need to beat the eggs in a bowl first So, add the last 2 eggs, one at a time, and beat vigorously until thoroughly combined. You'll have to beat hard for about a minute or so.

With the large spoon and a rubber spatula, spoon the batter onto greased baking sheet. The dollops will be about the size of a ping pong ball, before they naturally flatten. If desired, you can flatten the "points" with the back of a spoon, dipped in water. It's not necessary, but does make them more professional-looking.

Bake:

Bake the cream puffs at 450 F, for 14 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees F, and bake for about 20-22 additional minutes, until golden.

Allow to sit on baking sheet for about 1 minute, then remove to a cooling rack. Cool throughly.

Filling cream puffs:

Just before serving, use a serrated knife to cut 1/3 off of the top, leaving a large hollow inside. Fill with sweetened, whipped cream, ice cream, cornstarch pudding or meat/egg-based salad. For the dessert cream puffs, you can also add a few slices of strawberries or a few blueberries, after the whipped cream. Replace the tops.

(Fill just prior to serving, as the pastry will become soggy if they sit too long already-filled.)

Once filled, sprinkle with powdered (confectioner's) sugar, drizzle with chocolate glaze or syrup, or ice with a thin frosting.

These freeze beautifully. Once cooled, slide into a large ziploc, whole and uncut, and store in freezer up to 4 months.

As far as calories go (I really am trying to cut back on extra calories, I know, hard to believe when you see me posting about cream puffs), these are only as naughty as you make them. Unfilled, each one has 107 calories. If filled with sliced strawberries (13 calories for 1/4 cup sliced) and use a fat-free whipped topping (15 calories for 2 tablespoons fat-free Cool Whip), then sprinkle with confectioner's sugar, you can make a "decadent" dessert for under 150 calories. Even if using real whipped cream (30 calories for 2 tablespoons whipped), instead of fat-free whipped topping, the calorie count only "jumps" to 150 calories.

To make eclairs:

For eclairs, the recipe is exactly the same, only instead of using a spoon to form the dough on baking sheets, fill a pastry/icing bag, without the tip, with the dough. Pipe in ribbons, directly onto greased baking sheet, 1-inch wide, 3-inches long. Bake as above, at 450 F to start, then 325 F to finish, until golden. Slice eclairs horizontally, and fill with ice cream, whipped cream or cornstarch pudding.

April Grocery Money Journal (spent $43.52 per week)

If you think about all the ways you have saved big bucks over the years, you probably think of things like shopping around for a good used car, negotiating points on a mortgage, paying off your mortgage early, and shopping second hand. 

These are all money savers, that's for sure. But do you think about grocery savings in the same "big bucks" way? You should! You can save a whole lotta money on groceries. I know this from my own experience. 

I've been married about 27 and 1/2 years. Those first 12 months of marriage, I was careful with our spending. But I still managed to spend about $70 per week on groceries for the 3 of us. Then, I had a revelation about how much I was spending, and how much I could save over the course of a lifetime, if I just cut our grocery spending in half. No, make that more than half. My goal was to reduce our grocery spending to $30 per week. I did this basically overnight. So, for the last 26 years, I've been spending an average of $40 per week on groceries. Based on national "thrifty plan" averages of grocery spending around the $400-500 mark for a month for a family, I estimate that I have saved at least $230 per month, multiply that by 12 months, then 26 years, and I have saved our family a minimum of $71,760 !!!

If you add in that we have always, every single day, packed lunches for my husband and kids for work and school, we have saved an additional $60,000 over buying a quick-service meal in a school cafeteria or counter service restaurant. Those two figures, spending less on groceries combined with always packing (and not buying) lunches, comes to a total of over $130,000 !!!  That is a substantial amount of money, and will only keep growing over the coming years.

Careful attention to grocery spending has indeed paid off in big bucks for this family! 

Have you ever figured your savings on groceries, in total, over many years? I bet you've saved a bundled!

Now on to the grocery shopping for April.

April 1, 2014. Easter falls in April this year, so I will have a lot of opportunities to stock up on different items, at close to rock-bottom prices. Which means, I will be spending a lot of money this month.

I have my regular budget of $170, plus a carry forward surplus of $72.31, for a total available to spend on groceries of $242.31. In case you missed it, the carry forward surplus is the total of amounts not spent from the grocery budget, in previous months. I'm trying not to spend too much of that surplus, but hold on to it for future months. But we shall see.

April 3. QFC to check markdowns. I found 2 gallons of whole milk marked down to $2.29 each, and 4 containers of mushrooms for $1.19 each. The containers of mushrooms were marked as 8 ounces each. I took several over to the scales to weigh and found 4 containers right around 12 ounces each. That works out to $1.59 per pound (for a total of 3 pounds). A great price for fresh mushrooms. I used 2 of the containers fresh, in meals, and sliced and sauteed the other two to freeze for future meals. Total spent today $9.34.

April 4. Trader Joe's, hoping they have cocoa in stock again. They do! I buy ten 9-ounce containers, at $2.49 each. This is the best price on cocoa powder in my area, even beating the restaurant supply 5-lb bag price. Cocoa and chocolate products have increased in demand, worldwide in recent years. The prices just keep ticking upwards. Do you remember when you could buy a candy bar for 3/$1? Now the regular grocery store price on a single-serving candy bar is between 79 and 99 cents in my area. Market analysts expect the wholesale price on cacao to rise sharply in the next couple of years. My plan is to just keep us stocked. I'll buy additional containers of cocoa powder, as we use our supply, as my budget allows, and until the prices rise. In addition to cocoa powder, I picked up 3 bananas at 19 cents each. Total spent today -- $25.47

Fred Meyer as I had non-food items to pick up there. I also had a coupon for ground coffee, 33 ounce containers for $5.99 (limit 2). I bought 2, spending $11.98 Month to date spending -- $46.79

April 5. Dollar Tree for lasagna noodles. spent $1

Walgreen's has eggs for $1.29 per dozen. I'm not sure if eggs will be less just before Easter or not, so I buy 7 dozen. Spent $9.03

Cash and Carry restaurant supply for sugar in 50 lb sacks. They have an ad that can be viewed online. I check it most Mondays. Sugar is $18.75 for 50-lbs this week. While there, they have russet potatoes for $1.98 in a 15 lb sack, which works out to about 13 cents per pound. I just buy the 1 sack. Spent $20.73 for a month to date total of $77.55

April 11. Fred Meyer has in-store coupons each week. I find their ad online, then decide if I'll take family members with me. They have in-store coupons for butter ($2 for 1 pound), canned pineapple (88 cents for 20 ounces) and 8-oz bricks of cream cheese (88 cents). My 2 daughters came with me and picked up coupons, too. In total, we bought 6 pounds of butter (there was an additional coupon on 1 pound of butter!), 12 cans of pineapple and 8 bricks of cream cheese. Total spent -- $29.42.

Walgreen's has olives with in-store coupons this week, at 89 cents per can. I buy 10 cans of black olives and 2 jars of green olives, for a total spent of $10.68. Month to date spending -- $117.65

April 13. As it turns out, Walgreen's does put eggs on sale this week before Easter, at 99 cents per dozen. I pick up 10 dozen. I'll freeze about 5 to 6 dozen, and the sell-by date is mid-May on the rest of the eggs for fresh eating. Spent $9.90

Albertson's for cheese, 2 pounds for $4.99, limit 1 with coupon. I pick up 1. Spent $4.99

April 15. QFC has hams on sale for 99 cents per pound. Even though I still have a ham in the freezer, I pick up 2 more hams. Total spent -- $19.83. These don't have to be in the freezer until late May, giving me time to clear out spots for them. Month to date spent -- $152.37

April 18. Fred Meyer has butter on ad with coupon, again. I only need 4 more pounds to fill my stock, so one daughter comes with me. While there we find half gallons of skim milk for 75 cents each, that's $1.50/gallon! I figure I have room for 12 half gallons in my freezers, so I buy 12, and we get 4 pounds of butter at $2/lb. Total spent $17.00

Trader Joe's for bananas (19 cents each). 22 is my number. It seems to be the exact amount that we can go through without completely tiring ourselves of bananas. Spent $4.18

Country Farms produce stand. I'm there early enough in the day to find a full markdown bin. I buy 3 smallish heads of lettuce for $1 total, 6 green peppers for $1.98, 6 kiwi fruit for 99 cents, plus a small head of cabbage at 50 cents/lb and 1 large sweet potato at 79 cents/lb. Total spent -- $5.97 Month to date spending -- $179.52

April 19. The Easter bunny is doing a little last-minute shopping. While here I buy 1 box of green tea. spent $1.

April 23. After Easter, I stop by Dollar Tree for marked down Easter chocolate. This isn't great quality chocolate, but it works fine enough for s'mores during the summer. The candy is all 50 cents/bag. I buy 10 bags, plus 1 bag of marshmallows, for a total spent of $6. These bags of chocolate candy are 5 ounce bags. The standard size bag of chocolate chips that I buy is 12 ounces. The Easter chocolate works out to $1.20 per 12 ounces. The best price I ever find on chocolate baking chips is $1.79. If I compare the price of chocolate for s'mores to candy bars, the candy bars are even more expensive per unit, so after-Easter clearance chocolate candy is our best option, price-wise. And I have even used this clearance chocolate candy, all chopped up, and added to cookies, as a cheaper "chocolate chip".

Anyway, total month-to-date spent --  $186.52. Or, $43.52 per week. 

I did spend a little into our carry forward surplus. However, I still have $55.79 in surplus remaining *and* a very well-stocked kitchen. May looks like it will be a tasty month!

April was holiday month this year with Easter mid-month. I always spend more during holiday months, not because we buy extravagant foods, but because there are a lot of stock-up deals surrounding holidays. This April, that meant butter, ham, eggs, cream cheese and canned pineapple.

The next stock-up opportunities will be on bbq/picnic items, such as hot dogs, just before Memorial Day and 4th of July. Even the high quality hot dogs go on sale around these holidays. When given the choice, our family prefers Hebrew National beef hot dogs. Their regular price is around $5 for 7 hot dogs. They typically go on ad for about $3 to $3.50 a package.


Just curious, what is it that you find interesting about my grocery money journal? What would you have not bought, that found it's way into my cart?