Universal Fruit Crisp Mix

Whenever I need to make dessert for company in a hurry, or have bought too much fruit and need to get rid of it, I make a crisp. It takes almost no effort and tastes amazing.

Universal Fruit Crisp Mix Single Use

1 cup rolled oats
½ cup flour
¼ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg


Big batch-makes 4 uses

4 cups rolled oats
2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg

If you're making a big batch you'll need to break up the brown sugar clumps each time you use it and shake it to evenly distribute the ingredients.

What else you’ll need

1 pound of diced fruit (apples, peaches, pears, mangos, ect…)
½ cup melted butter

Combine 1 ¾ cups of mix with butter and spread it on top of the fruit in a glass baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

I made mine with a bag of frozen mangoes because they were on sale. It tastes great with whatever fruit I choose to make it with though.

Shepherd's Pie Seasoning Mix

I used to think I hated shepherd's pie, but I had only eaten disgusting cafeteria style versions and had never tried a proper home cooked one. I wanted to give it a taste, because trying to save money means eating more ground beef. It’s cheap, it’s versatile and a little goes a long way.

Shepherds Pie Seasoning Mix (single use)

2 tablespoons corn starch
1 tablespoon sugar
1 ½ teaspoons bouillon mix
1 teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne

What else you’ll need

1 pound ground beef
½ cup water
3 cups frozen mixed vegetables
4 cups mashed potatoes

Combine mix with water until fully dissolved, then add ground beef and mix thoroughly. Brown beef mixture until cooked then add veggies and cook until heated. Spread meat and veggie mixture in a large glass baking pan and top with mashed potatoes. Bake in oven until heated and the top of the potatoes begin to brown.

It was actually really good, so good that I've started making it often. My daughter especially loved it because of all the tiny vegetables mixed in with the beef.

(Vegan) Pad Thai Sauce Mix

Every time we order Thai take out my husband orders pad Thai. I figured if I could find a way to make it at home we would save a fortune. He actually likes this version better than the take out kind! This sauce is vegan so it can be made into vegetarian pad Thai or one made with chicken or shrimp. Some pad Thai recipes use fish sauce but I tested it both ways and found the one made with soy sauce to be far superior tasting.

Single Use

3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried chives
½ teaspoon dried onion flakes
½ teaspoon dried garlic flakes
¼ teaspoon dried chili pepper flakes
¼ teaspoon pepper

Big Batch (makes 4 uses)

¾ cup brown sugar
4 teaspoons dried chives
2 teaspoons dried onion flakes
2 teaspoons dried garlic flakes
1 teaspoon dried chili pepper flakes
1 teaspoon pepper

What else you’ll need

½ package thick rice noodles, cooked
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons oil
4 teaspoons soy sauce

Optional extras

Leftover cooked chicken
Cooked shrimp
Tofu
Scrambled egg
Fresh garnish (bean sprouts, chives, cilantro)

Combine ¼ cup of mix with lemon juice, oil and soy sauce and mix well, then toss with cooked rice noodles. Add in any extras you want like chicken, shrimp, egg, tofu or veggies.

We put leftover roasted chicken and red pepper slices on ours. It was the best Pad Thai I've ever eaten.

Improved Dill Pickle Popcorn Seasoning

I’ve been checking out the stats on my blog traffic lately and what I’ve found is that aside from my regular readers, I’m getting a lot of hits through search engines. It seems the three biggest mixes are bouillon, burrito seasoning and dill pickle popcorn seasoning.

I stand by my bouillon and burrito seasoning mixes 100%, but I’ve always been a bit disappointed in my dill pickle seasoning. It’s good enough to eat, but it doesn’t have that mouth puckering sourness that everyone looks for in a dill pickle seasoning. I think it would be more aptly named ‘herb and dill popcorn seasoning’.

Anyway, heaven forbid should I disappoint strangers on the internet. That just won't do. So I went to work in my Mix it Up lab to create the perfect dill pickle popcorn seasoning. After four attempts with various ingredients I think I nailed it.

Dill Pickle Popcorn Seasoning

2 tablespoons dill weed
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
1 ½ teaspoons ascorbic acid powder

Ascorbic acid powder can be purchased at most bulk food or health food stores in small bottles. It’s very concentrated so it lasts a long time, and it gives it that sour pickle taste that the other one was lacking.

Because we didn’t feel like having popcorn, my husband and I did our taste testing on homemade potato chips. It makes an amazing chip seasoning too for those who want to try it. I love dill pickle chips even more than the popcorn!

In the end I was able to create a seasoning that while not identical to the commercial ones (with all their filler, chemicals and MSG), it still has that sour dill pickle taste that everyone seems to crave. With this recipe I feel I can finally sleep at night knowing I’m not letting down any strangers on google anymore.

Souvlaki Mix

In the past year we’ve made two big decisions: To switch to local free range organic meats, and to spend a few years as a single income family to keep our daughter at home with me. Because of these choices, one thing that really had to go was slab-of-meat meals. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In many other, healthier cultures meat is seen as a side dish rather than the main event. It hasn’t made too much impact either- my husband sits down to dinner and sees at least some meat in it and doesn’t question how much.

Basically what I need to do most days is take 2 small chicken breasts, chop them into little pieces and make a meal big enough to feed the 3 of us for dinner as well as lunch the next day. This usually happens in the form of some type of stir fry and everybody is happy.

The warm weather however has brought the scent of neighbor’s BBQ’s wafting in our windows and a discontented husband asking for BBQ chicken. After a little bit of thinking I came up with the perfect solution! Souvlaki!

Souvlaki Mix (single use)

1 teaspoon dried onion flakes
½ teaspoon dried garlic flakes
½ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon thyme

What else you’ll need

1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound chicken or pork cut in cubes
Skewers

Other optional items

Pitas
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Lettuce
Tzaziki sauce

Combine the mix, lemon, olive oil and meat in a covered bowl and let it marinade in the fridge for a few hours.

Spear the meat pieces onto metal or soaked wooden skewers and grill on the BBQ on high until meat is full cooked.

We served ours on pitas with salad, tomatoes, cucumbers and homemade tzaziki sauce (mix recipe to follow in the near future). Those 2 little chicken breasts made 6 very large and satisfying sandwiches and my husband was overjoyed that the delicious smell of grilling meat wafting in the windows was finally for him again.

Creamy Curry Sauce Mix

My second favourite thing to make with leftover roasted chicken is a chicken pasta casserole with creamy curry sauce.

Creamy curry sauce mix

½ cup powdered milk
¼ cup flour
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon garlic powder

What else you’ll need

¼ cup butter
2 cups cold water

Combine mix with water and stir until dissolved. Melt butter in pan and add mixture, stirring until thick.

To make the casserole you need

1 pound cooked pasta
2 cups leftover cooked chicken
2-4 cups frozen or diced fresh vegetables

Add pasta, chicken and vegetables to sauce and cook until heated. If you want you can put it in a casserole dish and broil for 6 minutes to give the top a crispier taste, but it's pretty good just mixed together as is too.

Lemon Pepper Chicken Rub Mix

Although I tend to use the same spice rub every time I roast a chicken, just because I’m lazy, we like it so much and we don’t get sick of it, the enormous popularity of the first rub has prompted me to try a new recipe so I could post about it.

Lemon pepper chicken rub mix (single use)

2 tablespoons dried lemon peel
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon dried thyme

Use one mix for each whole chicken or 4 chicken pieces.

I used a spoon to put the mixture on the chicken but had to rub some of it on myself as this mix is a bit more crumbly than the other one.

Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

I served mine with steamed asparagus and roasted sweet potato chunks.

I used the leftover bits of chicken to make the next recipe… to be continued….