Saving Money With Homemade Convenience Mixes

azjh77

Makes me wish I had an oven!! Ours died a number of months ago. Anyone got any recipes for frugal non-bake cakes please? Or perhaps hob cook ones?

Thanks!

halloweenqueen_2

Thanks for your post Queenie!
I also go on www.hillbillyhousewife.com there are rice mixes etc that you can make and store in ziplock bags under the recipe section and they are fab!
I'm really pleased with the booklet, I like to have a day where I bag everything up, little DD helps, so the kitchen is in a mess once! as well as having several packets of food.

newlywed

Thanks. Have downloaded it to read later... anything that ends up saving me time is a big bonus.

Hardly sat down all weekend what with roast dinners, batch cooking and cake baking!!!

thriftlady_2

This is the ultimate book of mixes -not free unfortunately

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Mix-Over-Recipes-Every/dp/0762426020/ref=sr_1_8/202-4560088-2422211?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174906381&sr=1-8

I used to own it (big declutter meant it had to go). It has mixes for storing in the freezer and pantry. I didn't use the mixes for the reasons I mentioned in my earlier post, but it had some great ideas for recipes, especially baking. One rather fab bread idea was making little balls of dough and dipping them in butter and cinnamon sugar, then throwing them all in a tin and baking - 'pull apart bread' I think it was called. I just used my basic bread dough as it seemed just as convenient to measure flour, yeast, salt, sugar and water and make the dough as it was to make up a mix and then measure it out and add water - but that's just me If you like mixes this is a great book.

Check it out on Amazon.com and read the reviews.

thriftlady_2

Queenie, can you tell me if you used margarine as the recipes call for or did you try them with butter (marge is another black mark against them for me I'm afraid:D )

Has anyone else tried them with butter (or veg oil) ?

kittiwoz

The baked recipes look like they might be interesting (I'm not so convinced by the savoury convenience mixes for pasta, rice etc at the end). I've made American biscuits before and I think they are quite good. They're pretty quick and easy to make and another alternative to rice, potatoes, pasta, couscous etc. I'm interested how everyone gets on with using milk powder though. I tried switching to it for a while to save money but I found that the sauces I made with it split really easily. Has anyone else found that? I haven't used it in baked goods before but I imagine it would work OK.

Re. The Hot Cocoa Convenience Mix. I remember making that to take camping when I was a kid. You can make it with water boiled in the kettle too but what you have to do is put 5 heaped tsp in a mug and make a paste with a little cold water. Then add hot water from the kettle but let it come off the boil before you use it.

Fritha_2

I'm overjoyed that there's a taco mix on there, Himself has become addicted to Tacos (sigh) but what on earth is an instant onion! (I figure it's onion granules actually thinking about it)

Essentially, thanks Queenie :-)

thriftlady_2

kittiwoz wrote: »

Re. The Hot Cocoa Convenience Mix. I remember making that to take camping when I was a kid. You can make it with water boiled in the kettle too but what you have to do is put 5 heaped tsp in a mug and make a paste with a little cold water. Then add hot water from the kettle but let it come off the boil before you use it.

Camping ! Now that's where I think I'd find these savoury mixes useful - seasoned rice etc thanks for that Kittiwoz, I will do some more investigating.

As for dried milk, I use it a frequently but only for certain things; adding to hm yogurt (make it lovely and thick -add when making not after) and adding to muffins instead of liquid milk (obviously you add water instead), and in the pancake mix I mentioned earlier. It is fine for baking

dolly_day_dream

thriftlady wrote: »

Queenie, can you tell me if you used margarine as the recipes call for or did you try them with butter (marge is another black mark against them for me I'm afraid:D )

Has anyone else tried them with butter (or veg oil) ?

Thriftlady are you anti-marg because of the hydronated fats? I use Pure margarine because I am vegan and it does not contain hydronated fats which I also do not want in my food.

thriftlady_2

Yes, I am anti- hydrogenated fats dolly I also like my food to be as natural as possible so even a good marge like Pure is out for me (besides it's more expensive than butter). I think there are other hydrogenated fat free marges too, but you can't beat churned cream unless you are vegan of course.
Thank you though