Holiday Baking Archives - Canadian Budget Binder

Classic Date Squares

November 16, 2014 By Mr. CBB 6 Comments

SINK YOUR TEETH INTO THESE! Are these the best date squares ever? You bet they are so plan to make a double batch if you want them to last longer than a day! Everyone knows I’m a huge fan of the chocolate fudgy brownie but aside from a chocolate treat classic date squares are number one in my books. I am also a big fan of oatmeal raisin cookies or just about any dessert that involves oatmeal like Nicola’s Oatmeal jam filled squares. I make these classic date squares a few times a year and they never last. Some of my colleagues ask that I make them for work now ever since I brought them in for a bake sale last year. If you aren’t into baking date squares but you love them as much as I do then you might buy them at the grocery store, coffee shop or your local bakery. What you will notice is the price tag for one date square is pretty high. I have yet to find a thick, chewy date square for under $3.00. Ouch! I can make this full tray of date squares for around $8.00. We all know that baking […]

The Grocery Game Challenge Nov 4-10, 2013 #1: Holiday baking on a budget

November 5, 2013 By Mr. CBB 30 Comments

HOLIDAY COOKIE SMELLS FILL THE AIR The holiday season is fast approaching and whether you buy cookies or enjoy baking cookies some of the best cookie recipes may cost your holiday baking budget some cash if you don’t plan in advance. With less than 2 months until the festivities there’s no better time to get baking than the present. If you wait until the last-minute you might find you get overwhelmed with having to shop for gifts, plan a dinner, getaway to the relatives, work and friends Christmas parties and then bake on top of it all. Some of my favourite Christmas cookie recipes that I like to bake and to eat are the butter cookies and the sugar cookies both of which are fairly inexpensive to make with butter being the costly baking ingredient. Making sugar cookies from scratch are probably one of my favourite cookies to make because it reminds me of home. My mum used to make shortbread but the butter, sugar and shortbread cookies all taste the same with a bit of difference in texture. This past year I posted a few of our favourite holiday treat recipes such as chocolate peanut butter balls, coconut balls […]

Filed Under: The Grocery Game Tagged With: Baking, Bulk Barn, Christmas cookie recipes, Costco, decorating cookies, food basics, grocery budget, Holiday Baking, Holiday Recipes, No Frills, shoppers drug mart

The Grocery Game Challenge November 12-18,2012 Ho,Ho,Ho,Holiday Treats!

November 13, 2012 By Mr. CBB 66 Comments

Did someone say Holiday Treats? Last week in The Grocery Game Challenge we talked about planning to bake for the holidays and what you needed to do. Now that the weather has changed some of our neighbours have flipped the switch on their Christmas lights and put out their holiday decorations. We woke up to see our skylight this morning covered in snow and like kids we both rushed to the front window to see what the night had brought for us. Sadly, it was a small dusting but clearly the snow is on its way. For some it is still very early and for others like us we like to get a jump-start into the festive season so we can be enjoying it with friends and family as the weeks slide on in and party invites start to come in. The festive spirit has already ignited as we spread some holiday cheer. So we decided to make a few easy Christmas recipes in the upcoming weeks starting in December and I will post them every Sunday as a Holiday Treat Special. Every Sunday I post a recipe from Mr.CBB’s kitchen on the blog. It’ s the only time a week […]

Filed Under: The Grocery Game Tagged With: Budget, Canada, Christmas, Christmas and holiday season, Cookies, Festive, grocery budget, Grocery Game Challenge, Holiday, Holiday Baking, IKEA, money, Nestlé, Party, Peanut butter, planning

The Grocery Game Challenge Nov 5-11, 2012- Holiday Baking Planning

November 6, 2012 By Mr. CBB 51 Comments

Holiday Baking can see the Grocery Budget sky-rocket as prices for baking ingredients typically rise up for the Holiday Season. This potentially just adds more pressure to the grocery budget and why planning is important. Last weeks Grocery Game Challenge I brought up the topic of Holiday Baking and how it could be a budget buster. We don’t bake as much as we used to as we found we had more hanging around than we were giving away each year. I don’t remember making any traditional British holiday recipes myself when I lived in the UK I do remember each year my mum would make a lovely British Christmas Cake, comparable to a fruit cake. Mrs. CBB fell in love with this cake (probably because of all the nuts and alcohol in the cake). Now we have narrowed it down to a few Christmas Balls that we enjoy making and packaging for friends and bringing to gatherings. What we like to do is shop ahead of the festivities so we are ahead of the game especially when work parties start in November for some folks. This year we took advantage of Bakers Chocolate Squares found at the Dollar store for only $2.00 which normally […]