Hunan seasoning mix

We are leaving for vacation again tomorrow so I'm posting today to make up for the fact I'll be gone for the rest of the week and the beginning of next....

I went out for Chinese food a couple weeks ago and ended up pretty much shaking from the giant dose of MSG. I am a huge fan of stir fries and Asian foods, but I am learning to cook them myself to avoid the shakes.

Hunan Seasoning Mix (single use)


1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon dried cilantro
pinch cayenne
pinch mustard seeds

What else you'll need

1 pound boneless skinless beef, pork or chicken cut in cubes or strips
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Combine meat, oil and soy sauce and marinade meat for 30 minutes-1 hour, then stir fry on medium high.

I served mine with rice and steamed baby carrots. I used to stir fry my veggies with the meat but I find steaming them makes them easier for my daughter to chew while she's still little. My husband LOVED this recipe and wanted to eat it for every meal for 2 days. It has a pleasant sesame pepper taste to it.

Tabbouleh Mix

It's sad what motherhood has reduced me to sometimes, but an exciting outing for me these days is going shopping at Costco and trying all the samples. I always make sure I go close to lunch or dinner time so I can hit as many as those little tables as possible.

Last week one of the samples was tabbouleh salad which was very delicious but also very expensive considering how cheap the ingredients are. I had also seen several boxes of various 'tabbouleh mix' in the grocery stores lately so I knew I needed to mix it up!

Tabbouleh Mix Single Use

½ cup cous cous
1 tablespoon sun dried tomato finely chopped
¾ teaspoon parsley
¾ teaspoon dried mint
¾ teaspoon dried chives
¾ teaspoon dried onion flakes
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon dried garlic flakes
Pinch pepper

What else you'll need

3/4 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Combine mix ingredients, oil and lemon in a bowl and stir until evenly mixed. Pour in boiling water and stir, then cover with a plate and let it sit for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve warm or chilled.

Chili Seasoning Mix

We've been trying to buy organic for the dirty dozen lately but it's just IMPOSSIBLE to find organic bell peppers, and I need them to make tasty foods like fajitas, spaghetti sauce and chili.

This summer I grew bell peppers in my garden so I could have some 'organic' ones to cook with and this week a squirrel knocked a semi ripe one loose (those stupid squirrels) and forced me to use it a little early. So I made... Chili!

Chili Seasoning Mix (single use)

2 teaspoons cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon crushed oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
pinch cloves

What else you'll need

1 pound ground beef, browned or vegetarian alternative
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
3 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 bell pepper, diced

Brown the beef and then throw all ingredients into a stock pot or slow cooker and simmer until peppers are tender.

It was very delicious and my daughter especially loved it. She kept yelling 'It's a chili!' all night.

Butterscotch Pudding Mix

After staring at some boxes of pudding mix in the dollar store recently and wondering how my daughter would like pudding, I decided to try my own mix. I had made chocolate pudding at the Mix It Up party this spring (but forgotten to take pictures!) so I thought I would try another flavor.

Butterscotch Pudding Mix (single use)

1/4 cup powdered milk
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon corn starch
pinch salt

What else you'll need

1 cup cold water
2 tablespoons melted butter

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, or if making fat free pudding, omit entirely. I used it but feel it may have tasted better without. Combine the mix and water in a bowl and stir until well mixed, then pour into the saucepan. Simmer the pudding, stirring frequently until it begins to thicken. Pour into a glass bowl and store covered in the fridge until chilled, then serve.

I felt it tasted like butterscotch pudding, but I am not a pudding person so my husband will eat it later tonight and probably love it. My daughter gave it a good try like the adventurous eater she is, but asked for applesauce instead.

Faux Hamburger Helper Mix

I grew up a bit of a food snob. We turned out noses down at ground beef dishes like sloppy joes and shepherd's pie. When it came to processed and semi-processed food- forget it! Which is why until last night I had never eaten anything resembling hamburger helper in my entire life.

Mixing it up has made me open to new things and I'm glad it has. Unless it's got eggs, I'm determined to try anything I can think of a mix for. I noticed some tempting looking boxes of hamburger helper on sale in the grocery store last week, but they all had MSG, which doesn't sit well with me. So....

Faux Hamburger Helper Mix (single use)

1/4 cup powdered milk
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
pinch basil
pinch oregano
pinch celery seed
pinch cayenne

What else you'll need

1 pound ground beef
375 grams (about 12 ounces) of uncooked pasta noodles
6 cups water

Brown the beef until fully cooked. Combine mix with 1 cup of the water and stir until smooth and pour into pot with beef, then add other water and noodles. Simmer for 15-20 minutes until noodles are fully tender and sauce is thick.

I've never eaten the 'real stuff' to compare it to, but my husband said and he says it's similar only better- like comparing fresh baked Mac and Cheese to Kraft Dinner. Whatever the case, I liked it quite a bit and my 2 year old daughter ate 3 plates of it. I am no longer a hamburger helper snob!

Pickling Spice Mix

It's always been a dream of mine to have a big vegetable garden, but over the years something always stood in my way- living in an apartment or out of the country, being hugely pregnant, having a colicky newborn or a 1 year old that wouldn't stop eating rocks and dirt. But this year with a 2 year old who could safely play in the yard while I gardened I finally got my wish!

It was a bit of an experiment this year, but my best crop so far has been a spur of the moment choice at the garden center- pickling cucumbers! Every time a bunch ripen I make a couple jars of pickles out of them. I LOVE pickles. I think everybody does.

Pickling Spice Mix (makes enough for an army of pickles)

2 tablespoons peppercorns
2 tablespoons mustard seeds
1 tablespoon allspice berries
1 tablespoon coriander seed
1 tablespoon dill seeds
1 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
8 bay leaves crumbled
1 cinnamon stick crumbled

I put my cinnamon stick in a bag and smashed it with a wrench to get it into little bits.

What else you'll need (for each jar of pickles)

1 pint (500 ml) Mason jar
2-3 large pickling cucumbers, sliced
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup water
1.5 teaspoons pickling or sea salt
1 sprig of fresh dill
1 clove garlic, peeled

Use 1 teaspoon of pickling spice for every pint jar of pickles made. Place pickling spice, dill, garlic and sliced pickles in the jar.

Bring the vinegar, water and salt to a boil in a saucepan and then pour it into the jar on top of the cucumbers. Seal and cool, then store in the fridge. Pickles will be ready to eat in 2 weeks and last for at least 2 months. If you want pickles to store in the cupboard all winter you have to sterilize the jars and then boil them again once they are full and sealed. I don't have a big enough pot so I had to make 'refrigerator pickles'. I can't see them lasting more than 2 months in my house anyway...

Once you have waited the 2 weeks for your pickles (or in my case 12 days as I cheated), your pickles will be ready to eat and looking very pickle-licious. Nom nom nom....

Faux Rice A Roni Mix

These days I'm always trying to think of new ideas for mixes to create and the best place to look is always in the grocery store. It seems like every time I go shopping they have come out with new packets of side dishes (like side kicks or noodles and sauce) and judging from the number of them for sale they must be pretty popular!

Today was another one of those days where after a doctor's appointment for my daughter, grocery shopping for her birthday party this weekend and a play date with one of her little friends when it came time to make dinner I realized I had forgotten to defrost the meat. Whoops.

We already did Thai take out once this week and I'm going out for dinner tomorrow night so I wanted to keep the cost down- which meant chicken from the deli counter at the grocery store and home made side dishes. What a perfect chance to try out a new mix.

I decided my first one should be the original starchy side dish mix....

Faux Rice A Roni Mix (single use)

2/3 cup uncooked rice
1/3 cup broken uncooked spaghetti pieces
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon dried garlic flakes

Nutritional yeast can be purchased in any health or bulk food store and is the key ingredient in another mix of mine: Low Sodium Bouillon Mix. If you can't find any you can replace the yeast flakes and salt in this recipe with 2 tablespoons of bouillon, but this allows you to avoid MSG or other chemicals found in store bought bouillon.

What else you'll need

2 tablespoons butter or oil
2 cups water

Combine mix, butter, and water in a saucepan and simmer until rice and noodles are tender. I used a rice cooker to make mine because I wanted to run out and buy the chicken while it was cooking without burning our house down. It came out perfectly in the rice cooker.

I quickly tossed a salad to go with our chicken and noodles. Not bad for the last second is it?

I don't think I've actually eaten Rice A Roni since I was 10 years old but it tasted exactly the same and it tasted GOOD!