Master Mixes
Maybe your grocery bill makes you cringe. Or perhaps the alphabet soup of unknown ingredients on food labels causes you to shudder. Either way, there’s help.
Putting together your own master mixes makes cooking convenient and cheap meals a breeze.
“Generally speaking, I don’t tell anyone to buy anything,” says Connie Castor, a nutrition educator with the WSU Spokane County Extension Office’s Food $ense program. Not commercial baking mixes, not meal kits, not even packets of taco seasoning.
All, she says, can generally be made at home at a savings of 20 to 45 percent. Plus there aren’t any surprising ingredients. “You know exactly what’s in it.”
Take the extension office’s basic master mix (recipe follows). Nutrition educators calculated the cost of their mix versus that of the popular national brand Bisquick. They report that one cup of their master mix costs about 24 cents, whereas Bisquick costs about 45 cents per cup.
Now that meal kits line grocery store shelves as families look for quick and easy dinner solutions, Castor spends much of her time teaching low-income residents how to make their own quickie meals from pantry ingredients. “I like to play with recipes,” she says. To make homemade substitutions for store-bought meal kits, she says, “I basically take the package and read through the ingredients to see what’s in it. Then I look at spices and items that people normally have on hand.”
She says the Food $ense program’s skillet meals cost between $3.50 and $7 to make eight to 10 full servings. These include meals such as lasagna, cheesy macaroni, hamburger stroganoff, chicken cacciatore, taco skillet and others. Compare that to the cost of store-bought meal kits, which cost at least $2 to $3 for the kit and require additional ingredients such as meat, Castor says, and they usually make fewer servings. “Why buy it?”
So if you’re looking to reduce the grocery bill or feel more comfortable knowing what’s in your meals, here are some recipes to try:
Basic Master Mix
From WSU Cooperative Extension
4 cups all purpose flour
4 cups whole wheat flour
11/3 cups nonfat dry milk
¼ cup baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1½ cups vegetable shortening or margarine
Stir dry ingredients together until well mixed. Cut in vegetable shortening or margarine until well mixed. Store in closed, covered jar or can for up to two months. Refrigerate if margarine is used. Stir lightly before using in recipes.
For a lower-fat version, use ¾ cup shortening or margarine.
Yield: About 11 cups
Master Mix Biscuits
From WSU Cooperative Extension
2 cups Master Mix
½ cup water
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Add water to dry mix. Stir about 20 times. Turn dough onto lightly floured board or table top. Knead 2 to 5 strokes. Roll or pat to ¾-inch thickness. Cut with biscuit cutter or cut into squares with knife.
Bake on ungreased pan for 12 to 15 minutes.
Yield: 10 (2-inch) biscuits
Approximate nutrition per serving: 112 calories, less than 1 gram fat (no saturated, 3 percent fat calories), 4 grams protein, 24 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 1.6 grams dietary fiber, 256 milligrams sodium.
Variations: To make specialty biscuits, to dry ingredients add 1/3 cup grated sharp cheese or ¼ cup minced, crisp-cooked bacon or 1/3 cup raisins and 1 tablespoon sugar. Proceed with recipe.
To make pancakes, use 2 cups Master Mix, 1 cup water and 2 beaten eggs.
To make pizza crust, follow ingredients for biscuits, knead dough 5 or 6 times then spread dough on pizza pan, add desired toppings and bake in preheated 425-degree oven for 20 minutes.
Master Mix Brownies
From WSU Cooperative Extension
1 cup Master Mix
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square pan.
Mix dry ingredients together. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Pour into pan. Bake for about 25 minutes.
Yield: 12 servings
Approximate nutrition per serving: 131 calories, 1.3 grams fat (.3 grams saturated, 8 percent fat calories), 3 grams protein, 28 grams carbohydrate, 35 milligrams cholesterol, 1.5 grams dietary fiber, 117 milligrams sodium.
Master Meat Sauce Mix
From the Ohio State University Extension
4 pounds ground beef or turkey
1 cup minced onion
3 (6-ounce) cans tomato paste
4 cups tomato sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon salt
Brown ground beef with onion in a pan. Drain. Add other ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn down heat to a simmer and simmer 20 to 30 minutes. Add water or tomato juice, while simmering, to thin, if necessary. The mixture should be thick but not pasty. Divide into 1-cup portions and freeze.
Master Meat Sauce Mix can be used for Sloppy Joes, Spaghetti, Mini Pizzas, etc.
Yield: 9 cups
Approximate nutrition per ½-cup serving: 207 calories, 11 grams fat (4.8 grams saturated) 21 grams protein, 6.5 grams carbohydrate, 67 milligrams cholesterol, 1 gram dietary fiber, 778 milligrams sodium.
Master Casserole Mix
From The Spokesman Review Dorothy Dean Homemaker’s Service
2 cups instant dry milk
¾ cup cornstarch
¼ cup powdered chicken bouillon
1½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
4 teaspoons onion powder
¾ teaspoon crumbled thyme
¾ teaspoon crumbled basil
Measure all ingredients into large bowl, mix well. Store in tightly covered container. Label and date. Use within 2 months.
Yield: 3 cups
Cheesy-Mac Bake
From Dorothy Dean
¾ cup casserole mix (recipe above)
2 cups water
2 tablespoons butter
2½ cups grated cheddar cheese, divided
4 cups cooked macaroni
1 tomato, cut-up
½ cup minced green pepper
¼ cup dry bread crumbs
Measure casserole mix into saucepan; gradually add water, stirring until smooth. Add butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil and boils 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in 2 cups cheese. Add macaroni, tomato and green pepper. Turn into greased 2-quart casserole. Sprinkle bread crumbs around edge of casserole and remaining ½ cup cheese in center. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
Yield: 6 servings
Approximate nutrition per serving: 414 calories, 20 grams fat (12 grams saturated, 45 percent fat calories), 20 grams protein, 37 grams carbohydrate, 61 milligrams cholesterol, 2 grams dietary fiber, 795 milligrams sodium.
Crab Cashew Casserole
From Dorothy Dean
½ cup minced celery
2 tablespoon minced green onion
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
½ cup casserole mix (recipe above)
1½ cups water
1 (6½-ounce) can crab, drained and flaked
1 cup cashew nuts
1 (3-ounce) can chow mein noodles
In saucepan, cook celery and onion in butter until tender. Stir in casserole mix. Gradually add water, stirring until blended. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil and boils 1 minute. Combine with crab, cashew nuts and 1¾ cups chow mein noodles. Turn into greased 1½-quart casserole. Top with remaining ¼ cup noodles. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes until hot and bubbly.
Yield: 8 servings
Approximate nutrition per serving: 220 calories, 14 grams fat (3.9 grams saturated, 58 percent fat calories), 9.6 grams protein, 14.5 grams carbohydrate, 25 milligrams cholesterol, 1 gram dietary fiber, 503 milligrams sodium.
WSU Taco Seasoning
From WSU Cooperative Extension
Make a double or triple batch of this and store in an airtight container for up to a year for quick use in skillets, tacos and casseroles.
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dehydrated onion flakes
1 teaspoon ground cumin seed
Combine all ingredients and use to season 1 pound of ground meat or beans. For more mildly seasoned meat, use less seasoning.
Yield: About ¼ cup mix
Approximate nutrition per tablespoon: 20 calories, .7 gram fat (no saturated fat, 27 percent fat calories), less than 1 gram protein, 3.8 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 1.6 grams dietary fiber, 620 milligrams sodium.