Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Polly Want a Homemade Cracker?

This morning I had an excess of ambition so by 8:00 I was baking my first tray (of 3) of homemade multi grain crackers.  I adapted a recipe for wheat thin like crackers by adding some Greek yogurt that needed used up, some soy milk with the same characteristics and some cornmeal, flax, wheat bran, wheat gluten and protein powder tossed in for good measure.  Since adopting a vegetarian diet I am extra concerned about getting the amount of protein I need each day.  Ergo, the added gluten and protein powder under the auspices that every little bit will help.

All told the recipe, as adapted, made 38 ounces of yummy crackers (minus the couple that had to be taste tested for quality control purposes). 

I have been taxing my math midget mind to try and guesstimate what the ingredients cost me (flour, oatmeal,oil,salt,cornmeal,flax,wheat bran, wheat gluten, protein powder, yogurt and soy milk).  Since I bought a lot of this from approved foods or bought the store's value brand my guesstimate is that the crackers cost me less than $1.50.

Wheat Thins at Target, according to my computer, cost $2.54 for 9 ounces or 28 cents per ounce.  Therefore, if my math is correct, 38 ounces would cost me $10.64.    Counting in the cost of baking them, I still saved $9 this morning! 

Mixing up the crackers took about 10 minutes max.  Rolling them out maybe another 10.  Baking took the longest since I have a mini oven so had to do three batches at about a half an hour per batch.  In a bigger oven I could have baked them all at once and saved time and propane.  So for 20 minutes of effort and 50 minutes total I saved $9.

If I just take into account my actual "working" time of 20 minutes max, I earned an hourly "wage" of $27 this morning.  And the retirement fund gets to hold on to $9. :-)

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