Country Mushroom Rice Mix (Sidekicks Copycat Recipe)

I had some leftover dried mushrooms from my oven drying spree so I decided to try out a new side dish. I decided to do a Lipton's Sidekicks copycat and came up with...

Country Mushroom Rice Mix

2 tablespoons powered milk
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon dried mushrooms (more if you like)
1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
pinch pepper



What else you'll need

2 1/4 cups water
1 cup uncooked rice
2 tablespoons butter

Combine mix with cold water and add in rice and butter.



Simmer in a saucepan on medium heat until rice is tender.



I served this with honey garlic salmon and steamed broccoli and it was very good! The rice was creamy and full of flavor.

Fattoush Salad Dressing Mix

In recent months I became addicted to the miracle that is fattoush salad. Fattoush is a delicious Lebanese salad topped with crunchy pita chips and the chicken that goes into a Shawarma. It's so sour and crunchy and healthy to boot! But it's expensive. At $12 a pop the Lebanese take out place on the corner was seeing WAY too much of my money. Eventually I sweet talked a couple of the workers into the secrets of their dressing and was able to nail a replica in the Mix It Up Kitchen.

Fattoush salad dressing mix

2 teaspoons ground sumac
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon mint
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper



Sumac is a dark red powder that gives it the sour taste and is absolutely essential. It can be found at any middle eastern grocery store, and recently Bulk Barn started carrying it as well.

What else you'll need

1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil



Combine mix with juice and oil and shake well. You'll need to chill it in the fridge for a while because at first all of the dry ingredients will float to the top until they are well soaked.

A good fattoush salad is made with romaine, cucumbers, tomato, onions, peppers and various other vegetables. Toss the salad in the dressing and mix it well.



This salad is famous for the crunchy pita chips inside it and the perfect way to use up stale pitas. Pita bread seems to go stale about an hour after you buy it. Simply dry it out in the oven and then crumble and toss with olive oil.



The salad makes a great side dish, but it's even better as a complete meal topped with grilled chicken marinaded in my shawarma mix or my regular grilled chicken marinade.



This dressing was an exact match to the take out place on the corner! Which means I'm going to be saving a lot of money in the future.

Lulu's sweet zinger salmon rub

These days the rage is all about getting more omega 3 in your diet. They put it in nearly everything- butter, eggs, breads, crackers, pizzas, chips, wraps... The problem is that the cheapest way for companies to do this is using flax, and somewhere along the way I developed a flax allergy.

Lucky for me I can still eat the food with the highest levels of omega 3- fish! Salmon especially has more omega 3 than any other food out there and it's delicious as well. I usually make a maple garlic salmon but I recently ran out of pure maple syrup and wanted to try something new with what we had. So...

Lulu's sweet zinger salmon rub

2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried garlic flakes
1/4 (or more) teaspoon hot pepper flakes (1/4 for mild, as much as you want for hot!)
1/4 teaspoon salt



Mix the spices well, breaking up any brown sugar clumps.



Sprinkle or rub the mix onto the salmon portions before cooking.



Bake at 350 until fish flakes easily with a fork. I served ours with an assortment of local vegetables roasted in olive oil and the meal was incredible!

Gluten free fish and chip batter mix

After sweets, the thing my husband misses most now that he's eating gluten free is battered foods, especially... fish and chips!

Gluten free fish and chip batter mix (coats 8 pieces of fish)

3/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 cup corn flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika



What else you'll need

1 cup water
1 tablespoon vinegar

Combine mix with water and vinegar and stir, then place in the fridge to chill for up to 1/2 hour. I like to shake my dry ingredients in a jar to mix them evenly.





Dip pieces of fish in batter to coat evenly, then fry in oil on medium to medium high heat, flipping to cook both sides.





Once fish is golden brown on both sides, place on a paper towel to drain excess oil.



I served ours with lemon wedges and homemade sweet potato fries.



It didn't taste exactly like 'real' fish and chips, but it was very good. The batter tasted somewhat like Fritos because of the corn components, which was very yummy! I'll be making Frito fish again very soon!