Saving Money With Homemade Convenience Mixes

organic_wanabe

thriftlady, what quantities do you use for your pancake mix? Do you still need to let it settle for 30 mins or so?

meanmarie

azjh...lots of baking can be done in a heavy pan on top of stove, using a lid that fits reasonably well. You wont manage a fruit cake but 'doughy' mixes, sweet or savoury work very well....you do need to watch and turn quite often to prevent burning.

Shortie

Queenie wrote: »

I feel saddened that the only comments appear to be negative and somewhat critical

Queenie, I hope you didn't read my post as critical as I was one of the top ones relying.... I was simply laughing at my lack of culinary skills. I think they're a fab idea an bookmarked the site when I read the post

thriftlady_2

Organic wanabe my pancake recipe is from More With Less Cookbook. You don't need to let it stand, it isn't for big thin British style pancakes but for small fat US style ones (like Scotch pancakes/drop scones).

This is it
6 cups plain flour
1 tbsp salt
6 tbsp baking powder
6 tbsp sugar
2 cups dried milk

Mix and store in an airtight container (I use a 4l ice cream tub - cake tin would do)

To use
mix in a bowl
1 egg beaten with a fork (I skip this because dd is allergic)
1 cup water
2 tbsp melted butter or oil
1½ cups pnacake mix

Pour onto a hot griddle or non-stick frying pan to make 4-6 inch pancakes. Batter is quite thick.
Makes about 8. I freeze leftovers and reheat in the microwave.

As you can see the mix is basically flour and baking powder to which you add all the other ingredients. It's got the milk already in there but it is as easy to add fresh milk, although not as cheap of course. Once I've worked out how many 1½ cups are in the whole batch I think I'll make them from scratch each time as the container of mix takes up a lot of room.

organic_wanabe

thriftlady - thanks for that (not sure if my "Thanks" button is working). I'll give it a go (never made the small pancakes before - strange since I'm Scottish!). Should save some time by measuring it all out together. Might try them for the lunchboxes.

Off topic - what happened to your weight watching? So much for my new year resolution - no willpower so I haven't even lost an ounce and Summer will be here very soon.

thriftlady_2

organic_wanabe wrote: »

Off topic - what happened to your weight watching? So much for my new year resolution - no willpower so I haven't even lost an ounce and Summer will be here very soon.

Don't ask I'm still trying, but have given up on WWs - can't stick to counting things:D I'm trying just to eat less, and eat more slowly. I'm also cutting the booze down a bit (too many midweek bottles of wine).

Samphire

Thanks Queenie, with an active 2 year old, a part time job and being 18 weeks pregnant this sort of timesaver that still gives me the satisfaction of making proper home cooked food sounds great, and I can't wait to try the recipies. I notice that the all-purpose mix uses canola oil, what would the UK equivalent to that be?

thriftlady_2

Canola oil is rapeseed oil I'm sure any veg oil (apart from olive as it is too strongly flavoured) will do. I expect canola was chosen because it is also high in monounsaturates like olive.

Queenie

Grrr!! Posted a reply and it's been gobbled up by the cyber monster!!! :mad:

Here's the shorthand version:

thriftlady - yes, I'm guilty of taking the comments personally.

I wouldn't recommend and endorse something which I hadn't tried and tested and believed would be of help in the moneysaving context of this website. I'm also guilty of egotism, insomuch that having been on this site for a few years now, I'd like to think others realised that I wouldn't simply post something without having tried it first and believed it to be of benefit to the majority.

Clearly we all have differing time contraints and no matter who posts what, we all do so in the belief that it will be beneficial - hence why I became demoralised to find a couple of initial comments being negative.

Having tried the mix myself and no longer having the luxury of being at home each day and "time rich", maybe I got carried away with my own enthusiasm for the mix - hey, I *still* think it's a godsend

As for the oil, I use sunflower oil in the initial mix; when marg is called for, I only use butter.

The pancakes from the mix I posted are very similar to the one's you posted, thriftlady, and I can vouch for their tastiness - in fact, made up some banana and cinnamon one's for brunch the very morning d12yo's footie team had a stonking win and he was awarded "Man of the Match". Having the mix sitting in my freezer makes it oh so easy to rustle up something homemade and speedy, not to mention cost effective and in our household it's now a regular habit when I do our monthly shop to make up a batch.

Ok, you have admission of guilt on two counts I'll write myself 100 lines and send myself to bed early! :rotfl: (No, no! Don't stop me!!! I have a great book on the go and being sent to bed early simply means I get to enjoy it all the more and sooner )

Hadley

I've got a great book that is full of homemade mixes it's called Marnie's Kitchen shortcuts by Marine Swedberg it's an American book and worth it for the Chilli mix alone.