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Thursday, January 21, 2010

Insomnia turned productive

I had insomnia last night, And was up until almost 5am. I have been loving making my own things, Making them tastes better and saves so much money. So I spent most of the night googling and swagbuck searching MYO, Make your own convience foods etc. I found some awesome sites with great ideas I never even thought of. Here are some that I found and checked out.....
www.farmhomelife.blogspot.com
www.northerncheapskate.com
www.thriftyfun.com search convienence recipes
www.saveadimein09.blogspot.com
www.thefamilyhomestead.com
www.newfluwiki2.com

I have about 10 more sites to look at, but these I checked out last night and today and got some great recipes.

We loveeeeeeeee with a passion ranch dressing, I make it almost every meal. I use the bulk powdered from walmart, I think it is the same as 10 packets, And it costs almost $7, really expensive for us when we use so much. So I found a recipe last night for making my own. It took me only a few minutes to whip this up and I used ingredients I already had. I made the hidden valley ranch and my homemade ranch for dinner, We had a taste test and it was unanimous, Everyone liked the homemade better, More flavorful they said!!!!
Homemade ranch dressing (dry )
1/2 cup dry buttermilk powder
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp dill weed
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp onion flakes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper

Combine all ingredients in food processor ( I used my little chopper) grind until a fine powder is formed. Store in airtight container. To prepare dressing..
Combine 1 tablespoon powder with 1 cup mayo and 1 cup milk.
* I saw recipes that added saltine crackers in this mix, I added 7 saltine crackers in before I put it in the grinder, I did this because we like ours thicker and thought this would help. And I believe it did).
Vanilla chai tea mix, My son and I are chai tea addicts. I like my old mix that I make myself, But it is quite pricey for how much we drink it. So I tried this dry mix and it was really good, Good enough that we are changing to this recipe.
Vanilla chai tea mix
1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup powdered non dairy creamer
1 cup french vanilla powdered non dairy creamer
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp white pepper
Combine all ingredients in food processor, I again used my little chopper. Blend into fine powder, store in airtight container. Add 3-4 tablespoons mix to cup of hot water or milk. ( We used milk and it was great!!!)
I also made the homemade pancake syrup early this morning and everyone ate it this morning with the waffles my hubby made and all raved about it, Hubby most of all !!!!
Pancake recipe
! cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
1/4 teas vanilla
1/4 teaspoon maple flavoring/extract

mix water and both sugars vanilla and maple flavoring in saucepan, on medium high bring to boil, Let simmer for 15 minutes or until thicker. When done I wanted mine thicker, So I added 1/4 cup of corn syrup to mine, Then I filled an old pancake syrup container when the mixture was cool enough. Store in fridge. If the mixture gets gritty or hardens, Just pop in microwave for a few seconds to dissolve it.

Happy MYOing, Michelle

4 comments:

Jessica said...

The ranch sounds great!! And so much better for you than the processed stuff. I may have to try your recipe :)

Unknown said...

I need to bookmark and come back for these recipes. They sound fun, yummy, and frugal!! :)

frugalredneck said...

I love that ranch mix sooo much, We have had it for dinner ever since I made it, and lunches with carrots, Infact I have no more carrots left!!!! It does have a stronger dill flavor then the store bought, Which I loved instantly!! And we must be loving the chai tea, I hate to admit it, But between my son and I we have almost gone through 1/2 the container already. Michelle

Anonymous said...

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for the link love!

Trixie