Being Frugal with Mixes

One way to be frugal is to try and find substitutes for some of your favorite mixes. What I'm referring to are a few the usual suspects that come in pretty handy when making other meals: such as onion soup mix and taco seasoning. Both of these mixes can be pretty pricey at the store, but if you can find a good substitute recipe, you can save a good deal of money. However, the problem comes in trying to find a good recipe.

What I would like to do today is share two of the recipes I've discovered that seem to be fairly close to the originals. I cannot take credit for creating the recipe, so I will include a link to the original site.

First up, here is a great copycat recipe for mixing your own Lipton's Onion Soup Mix. I've tried this one myself and it is really close to the store-bought variety. As you know, this is a salty soup, so if you want to decrease the sodium, I would go for a low-sodium beef bouillon powder. Since I made ours using the regular beef bouillon powder, I do not know how the low-sodium variety will affect the taste, if at all.

What you need...

• ¾ cup of minced onion


• _1/3 cup of beef bouillon powder


• 4 tsp. onion powder


• ¼ tsp. crushed celery seed


• ¼ tsp. sugar

Combine all ingredients in a mason jar and mix well.

recipe courtesy of... recipezaar.com

Next, I would like to share a copycat recipe for Taco Bell Taco Seasoning mix. I have used this recipe for well over a year and my family just loves it.

The measurements for this recipe is for use with one pound of ground beef.

What you need...

• 1 Tbs. flour (I substitute powdered sour cream for this ingredient)


• 1 Tbs. corn starch


• 1 Tbs. dried minced onion

• 2 tsp. chili powder


• 1 tsp. beef bouillon powder


• 1 tsp. garlic salt (to reduce the sodium content, I substitute granulated garlic, instead)


• 1 tsp. ground cumin


• 1 tsp. paprika


• ½ tsp. onion salt


• ¼ tsp. sugar

Again, I use a jar to mix and store this mix.

recipe courtesy of... Robbie's Recipes

For even more recipes, please visit these sites, because there is a wealth of information there. By spending some time on these and similar sites, you can discover even more to help you live a more frugal life.

I Got a Major Award

It's been quite some time since I've received any awards, so I was very pleasantly surprised when I received these awards from my good friend over at Mom's Cafe Home Cooking.


The first award is...


You're Going Places, Baby Award.
When accepting this award, the person receiving it must tell where they think they will be in ten years.

So, where will I be in ten years? Probably still trying to think of an answer to this question. Actually, since the kids will be off on their own, I think I'll get off my butt and get a real job: "Welcome to Walmart!"


The second award is the...

Beautiful Blogger Award.

In accepting this award, the recipient must tell seven things about themselves.

1. In high school, I took flying lessons, but it became too expensive and I had to quit


2. I like experimenting in the kitchen


3. Even though it was very hard work, I thoroughly enjoyed building our retaining wall


4. I really enjoy doing maintenance work


5. I would rather be busy doing something, than sitting around and doing nothing


6. I enjoy learning new things and sharing that knowledge with others


7. I would still like to learn how to fly

Finally, the...

Sunshine Award.

I would like to pass these awards along to...

Confessions of a Psychotic Housewife

BeadedTail

Split Rock Ranch

Ann's Snap Edit & Scrap

Taco Pizza

We didn't have any taco shells, so I decided to breakout the old pizza starter instead, so I guess that you can call this being pseudo-frugal, As you can see from the shape, I've given up, for now, on the round pizza variety and decided to play it safe and just form the dough into the shape of the baking tray. Hey, on the highway of life, if it's easy, I'll take that off-ramp.

I pre-bake the crust (you can use the pizza dough recipe from My Pizza Dough Recipe and after it cools, I slather on the sour cream and then sprinkle the cheese over the top. I cook the meat and once it cools, I spread that over the top and then cover with the remaining cheese and bake.

Anyway, here's the cost breakdown of this meal:
Meat...$5.13
Cheese...$2.85
Sour Cream...$1.50
Spices...I have no idea, but it's under $1.00 (I make my own taco seasoning)

Total...$10.48 (I just added the $1.00 for the seasoning)

Okay, I can see that you might be saying, "what's so frugal about that???" That's kind of pricey for a meal. Well, I would have to agree, but this wonderful pizza provided three meals for my family. The per-meal cost for each person was: $1.16.
($10.48 / 3 people= $3.49 / 3 nights = $1.16)...not too bad, actually.