Upgrade To Organic #1: How to make organic tomato sauce from organic tomato paste
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Do you want to learn how to lower your grocery budget and buy organic food — at the same time?
There’s a persistent whine floating around that crappy food is cheaper than healthy food.
Not so.
True, if you usually buy Nutri-Grain bars and you upgrade to KIND bars, you will experience sticker shock — but whole, wholesome, nutritious, homemade food is almost always cheaper than processed food.
Pound for pound and calorie for calorie, whole food is less expensive than processed junk “food”. How do I know? I’m a total nerd in the kitchen. I weigh everything I prep and cook on my kitchen scale; not for portion control or weight loss, but to quantify whether I’m actually saving as much money as I think I am by making most of my family’s meals from scratch.
What if you already buy real food and cook healthy meals from scratch? Can you upgrade to organic without blowing your grocery budget?
Yes. Yes, you can.
It will take a little more effort and a little more time, but it can be done! I have more time than money, so I’ve done the math for you. Join me on my geeky quest to feed my family whole foods AND stay under budget on my grocery bill!
Upgrade To Organic #1: Make organic tomato sauce using organic tomato paste.
How much money do I save? $85 a year!
I was using two 15 oz cans of Muir Glen organic tomato sauce each week. I had a Doh! moment one day when I was grocery shopping and realized that tomato sauce is just watered down tomato paste. I was paying the good folks at Muir Glen for a product that is more than half water!
I added 9 oz water and 1/2 tsp salt to a can of organic tomato paste and created* Cheaper Organic Tomato Sauce!
*I hesitate to call this a recipe because it’s dead easy, but there’s a printable recipe card at the end of this post because it’s nice to have the proportions on hand.
Now I buy the 12 pack of organic tomato paste at Costco for $6.72 — $0.56 per 6 oz can.
My savings show that you can save a lot of money on your grocery bill — even if you already buy organic!
If you currently buy conventional tomato sauce, you can save $9 a year just by replacing one can of conventional tomato sauce with one can of organic tomato paste each week. That’s better than a poke in the eye!
Check out the tables below to see how much money you can save on your grocery bill by using organic tomato paste to make organic tomato sauce.
Table 1: If you currently buy organic tomato sauce
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Table 2: If you currently buy conventional tomato sauce
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How much time do I spend making my own tomato sauce? 52 minutes a year (that works out to $98 savings per hour!)
Our family uses at least 2 batches of this tomato sauce recipe each week. I make a 4x batch every two weeks.
- My daughter uses it as a base in her homemade organic ketchup recipe.
- My daughter uses it on tacos (instead of hot sauce) and to “cool off” spicy dishes like chili.
- My son uses it as a base in his secret taco sauce recipe.
The Verdict
Yes! You CAN upgrade to organic AND save money on groceries — at the same time!
Upgrade to organic AND save money on your grocery bill by making your own organic tomato sauce!
Is there a food, ingredient, or recipe you want to upgrade to organic? Leave a note in the comments, or on Twitter.
- One 6 oz can tomato paste (organic)
- 9 oz water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Open and remove both ends of the tomato paste can.
- Use one can end to push the tomato paste through the can into a 2-cup bowl.
- Stir in water, a little at a time, until smooth.
- Stir in salt.
