A prototypical example of what I am looking for would be fruit juice. Where I am at the only options for something that isn't orange or apple are overpriced lemonades with about thirty to fifty percent fruit content and truly expensive 100% ones.

Usually I simply buy the expensive ones and add 1-2 parts water ending up with better tasting juice at same or less cost.

Another step would be squeezing fresh fruit yourself but that adds time, space, complexity and money costs.

What things can be done in a typical kitchen without buying additional single purpose appliances? Sufficiently multipurpose ones or small tools are fine. Basically I want to reduce the number of steps in which the food is industrially processed.

I’m wondering what people choose to drink with a Mac and cheese meal? This has long been a conundrum for me. Probably for 20 years I have finished making the mac only to stop for a minute and think “should I have milk? Water? Soda/pop? Something else?”

Seriously, I have this question almost every time. Doesn’t matter if it’s homemade mac or kraft box. For the last 8 years it hasn’t really come up because I just didn’t buy mac and cheese (box “dinner”), but now I have a kid coming into the age where they want it occasionally so it’s back on the menu.

Am I being weird about this?

Are there other foods that people have a hard time pairing with a drink?