Sloppy Joe Mix

Whenever I think of sloppy joes I picture Chris Farley and Adam Sandler dancing and singing. I don’t think I’d ever actually eaten one before, because they look kind of scary, but I was determined to come up with a mix for them and try it out.

Sloppy Joe Mix

½ cup sugar
¼ cup paprika
4 teaspoons onion powder
4 teaspoons corn starch
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon pepper

What else you’ll need

1 pound ground beef
14 oz can of tomatoes

Combine ¼ cup of mix with tomatoes and beef and throw into your slow cooker on low for 6 hours. Can also be sautéed.

I served mine on whole wheat rolls with homemade fries and steamed baby carrots.

I was impressed by how far the meat 'stretched', we were able to get 6 huge sandwhiches out of one pound of ground beef. If I had made hamburgers I probably would have only been able to make 2 good sized ones with the meat. Sloppy joes might look totally disgusting, but as I discovered people eat them because they are freaking GOOD.

Stew Mix

I love making stew on a cold day. It’s the best way to make a bunch of cheap food taste great, or to use up whatever you have in your fridge. It’s only 3 weeks until spring (woo hoo!) so I’m trying to make all my winter meals one last time before it gets too hot to enjoy them.

Stew Mix

1 cup corn starch
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoons pepper

What else you’ll need

3 cups cold water
1 pound stew meat in cubes
8 cups chopped veggies (potatoes, carrots, frozen peas, yams, green beans, celery, parsnips- whatever you have).

In a slow cooker mix water, 1/3 cup powder and meat and cook on high while you chop the veggies. Add vegetables and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

I made mine with beef, 4 potatoes, 4 carrots and 2 cups of frozen peas. It was a hit, men and toddlers love stew, and it tastes even better reheated the next day.

Sweet and Sour Sauce Mix

Every time I go out for Chinese food I feel like I’m going to be sick immediately after. I guess it’s something about eating deep fried meat coated in syrup and MSG with oily, salty rice and vegetables on the side.

But….

Parts of it are so tasty that I just get a craving sometimes. So I concocted my own creation that gives me that sweet and sour taste without the gut rot afterward.

Sweet and Sour Sauce Mix

2 cups sugar
¼ cup corn starch
4 teaspoons ginger powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons salt

What else you’ll need

½ cup cold water
½ cup vinegar
½ cup ketchup

In a medium sized mixing bowl combine ½ cup mix with water, vinegar and ketchup, stirring vigorously with a fork until all ingredients are dissolved.

Pour into a glass baking dish with boneless, cubed chicken, pork or tofu. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes.

I make ours with boneless, skinless chicken breast and serve it with steamed broccoli and rice. The sauce is very sweet and isn’t exactly healthy, but it eliminates the other evils of breaded, deep fried meat, sodium and oil. It gives you all the sweet and sour goodness without feeling like you’re going to hurl afterwards and that’s exactly what I was aiming for.

Burrito Seasoning Mix

When you’re on a tight budget, burritos make an amazing meal. They are a tasty way to eat beans (which are cheap and high in protein), use up leftovers and feel like you’re eating take out. You can put all sorts of things in them- beans, cheese, tomatoes, onion, chicken, ground beef, avocado….

But they also taste good with just beans, especially if you spice it right…

Burrito Seasoning Mix

¼ cup onion powder
¼ cup garlic powder
1/4 cup chili powder
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon cumin

Use 2 tablespoons of mix for every can of beans.

If you’re only using beans and spices, you’ll need 2 cans of beans to make enough filling. If you plan to add cheese, meat or other toppings one can of beans will do.

My husband refuses to eat beans unless they have been pureed so I used a hand blender to mix them. I find this tastes better anyway and solves the annoying problem of beans flying out of your burrito as you eat them. I added ¼ cup of water when I blended them to make it smooth. I probably could have added more.

You can just buy tortillas, but I make my own burrito dough and then bake them in the oven.

Burrito Dough

2 cups flour
¼ cup butter
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup cold water

Mix flour, salt and butter, then slowly mix in water while kneading the dough until you have the desired texture for rolling out dough.

Divide the dough into 10 balls, and roll each out as flat as you can, stuff with filling and then wrap closed.

I like to brush mine with oil using a pastry brush to make them a bit crispier.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

I used taco sauce for dipping sauce but anything works- salsa, plum sauce, sweet chili sauce.

Dill Pickle Popcorn Seasoning

*This was an earlier attempt but is not as good as it could be. For a truly great dill pickle popcorn seasoning, go here*

Chips are so tasty and so fattening, but it’s really not the chips we crave, but the tasty seasonings on them. Popcorn seasoning is amazing, it lets you enjoy the tastiness of flavored chips with less fat and more fiber.

A few years ago I kept raving to a friend about the joys of popcorn seasoning, which wasn’t available where she lived. I talked about it so much that when I came to visit I brought 8 different kinds of it in my luggage. Since then I have mailed her several emergency refills of her favourite kind, but that will no longer be necessary. This one’s for you Megan!

Dill Pickle Popcorn Seasoning

1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon dill weed
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon dried chives
1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder

First I mix it up in a bowl, then I use a funnel to put my popcorn seasoning in those little glass spice jars from the dollar store. They have a lid with shaker holes and only cost 33 cents each.

Now if you want fat free popcorn you can just sprinkle the seasoning onto air popped popcorn, although not much sticks. Or you can drizzle a bit of oil or butter on it and then sprinkle it on, which helps it stick.

This seasoning doesn't have the same mouth puckering sourness as the commercial dill pickle seasoning, so I'll do some more experiments to try and re-create it, but it in the meantime this one is pretty tasty if I do say so myself.

Fajita Seasoning Mix

Fajitas are something I like to serve to a crowd, so when we have people over I’ll cook a big pan of the filling and lay it out on the table along with the wraps, shredded cheese, salsa, guacamole and whatever else I might have to stuff them with. It makes it easy on me to just let everyone make their own and I can sit back and enjoy our company.

My husband has been begging for fajitas for a while now so I thought I should probably make some tonight.

Fajita Seasoning Mix

1 tablespoon corn starch
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon cumin

Big Batch

6 tablespoons corn starch
4 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
1 ½ teaspoons cayenne
1 ½ teaspoons cumin

What else you’ll need

1 pound boneless chicken breasts cut in strips
Dash of vegetable oil
1 large onion sliced
2 red bell peppers sliced

Toss the chicken strips in about 3 tablespoons of mix and set aside.

Fry onion until tender and then add coated meat.

When chicken is cooked through add the peppers and cook until tender.

Serve with tortillas and your favourite toppings.

Delicious!!!!

Basic Sweet Sausage Mix

We order our meat from local farms and with it the most delicious sausages. They’re perfect for a quick lunch on a busy weekend, but quite tedious to use in recipes like pasta, gumbo or on top of pizza. Removing the chewy casings is just too much work!

But then I had an a-ha moment!

Somebody made these sausages with plain ground meat, and added spices. Wouldn’t it just be easier for ME to add my own spices to the meat and save myself all the work of disassembly? All I needed was to learn which spices went into sausages!

It seems that spicing sausages is really quite simple. It’s getting them into the damn casings in the first place that makes it work to make them! And since labor tends to cost money, a pound of my spiced meat for cooking costs us over $2/pound less than buying the sausages themselves.

Basic Sweet Sausage Mix

3 tablespoons cracked fennel seed
3 tablespoons black pepper
3 tablespoons salt

Use one tablespoon of seasoning for each pound of ground meat.

Tonight for Valentine’s Day I decided to make bow tie pasta with sausage, onion and red peppers.

My husband gobbled it up and begged for more. I would't say it's the most romantic thing he's ever eaten, but it did make for a nice dinner. Especially since for the first time since I've made the pasta he didn't complain about the chewy casings.