The more you cook your own meals the more adventurous you become.  As you peruse cook books and magazines looking for new recipes, it is not unusual to get all excited about a potential dish only to be stymied by one ingredient that you have never had in your pantry.  It doesn’t make penny-pinching sense to purchase a new ingredient that you may never use again.  Before you run to the grocery and purchase a 15 oz jar of an ingredient for which the recipe only requires 1 teaspoon, determine whether or not there is a reasonable substitution available.  This same thought process applies to perishable ingredients that you don’t use often enough and will go bad before the expiration date.  For instance, recipes for pancakes and biscuits often call for buttermilk.  Since I don’t use buttermilk for any other purpose I never purchase buttermilk.  Otherwise, I would be throwing away money along with the expired buttermilk.  Instead, I use a substitution.  (Mix 1 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice.  Let stand 5 minutes.)

So, think outside the recipe box and keep on cookin’!!