mixes

Yummy and Quick!

I'm talking today about mixes.  Here's the thing...as I'm sure so many of you can agree, being a mom is a fast paced job, so I'm sure you would also agree that anything to make your job easier is well worth it.  It also makes sense to have storage items on hand in case of an emergency.  We for instance live in an area of the country prone to hurricanes.  Nobody wants to only eat canned goods for several days at a time when there is no electricity.  You are miserable enough, might as well eat some good stuff.  Admittedly cooking some of these might be a challenge but that's not what this post is about.

I thought I would share some of the mixes that I made.  For the first round I only made 1/2 of each of these mixtures, except the cookie mixes, those only made 1 batch anyway. 

Mixes are on the top shelf and part of second shelf .  So pretty!  I so love my jar pantry storage, it makes me happy.

So for the pancake/waffle mix, brownie mix, cornbread mix, and muffin mix I used these recipes.

The All Purpose Quick mix listed on the page above I replaced with this mix recipe.

The Cookie Mixes are from these recipes.

My hope is to obtain some freeze dried and dehydrated goods and make some jarred soup mixes.  Look, we buy these things all the time, for instance, do you enjoy Knorr sides?  What do you think makes up those mixes.  Well, I'm sure a bunch of stuff that is not good for use such as preservatives, but there are also dehydrated and freeze dried foods such as broccoli, and milk.  So why not make these things yourself and control the ingredients.  Still creating "quick" sides and meals but not sacrificing the health of your family.  Okay, okay, stepping off the soap box.  Anyway, I really look forward too stocking up my pantry with selves full of "convenience" food.  And yes, I do realize how close I am to going down the "survivalist" path, but they do have some good points and they will be eating very well when disaster strikes.  I just can't imagine watching my family and my kids suffer if there is a disaster and I haven't done things to prep my household for whatever situation might strike.  Whoa, stepping down from the soap box yet again.  Hey, keeping it simple, it would just be nice to add pretty little mixes to my wall o' jarred staples. 

Oh, back to the mixes, I printed all the recipes on my recipe cards and will add the mix recipe as well as the goodie recipe to my family recipe book.  Want to see that?  I'll have to show that off in a future post. 

put a name on it

It's takin me a year to figure out how I want to label my jars.  Spice jars and pantry jars.  I'm not only moving most of my dry goods and mixes to Mason jars due to a bug problem a few years ago, nothing like having to throw out all of your dry goods, but I'm also moving all my spices to small jars.  I needed a way to label all my jars.  I'm not a fan of the stickers on the pretty sparkly glass so that was out.  I'm also not a fan of stickers on the tops but that is a step better than being on the jar itself.  Hang tags are okay but the work of hanging all the tags with the potential to get messed up anytime you pour the contents out, well, I didn't like that idea.  See, this is why it took me so long.  Up until now I've just been using blue painters tape on the bottom of the jar.  I know, right!

Enter Pinterest. I kept seeing stuff painted with chalkboard paint.  How cool is that stuff! Now, I didn't want to use actual chalkboard paint and chalk because it's not very permanent but I did want the look of a chalkboard.  The following is what I came up with. 

See, kinda looks like chalkboard but it's not.  It's also white paint on the lid, not blue.  iPhone pics...oh well.

Wanna do this for yourself?

Supplies needed:
Jar lids
flat black spray paint
Painters pen
Newspaper to protect surfaces
Well ventilated area

Step 1: cover surface with newspaper and lay out lids

Step 2: spray lids with even layers of paint and allow to dry.  This may take several layers.

Step 3: label lids and screw on jars

Pretty simple right!

Of course I would not and did not use this on any canned foods such as the apple butter or the salsa pictured above.

As a note:  When changing the lids I did add an air absorber into each jar containing dry goods.  This helps keeps the items fresh and extends their shelf life. 

Another note:  I did not like the nozzle on the Krylon spray paint.  I had to have my husband spray the second batch because I could not compress the trigger. 
 



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