Baking Mixes

[Wendy99]

I received a brownie in a jar mix for a thank you at Christmas. It was so easy to make and it gave me the idea of making mixes (as we bake everything from scratch) to make it easier come baking times. I bought some mason jars (as I gave out some brownie mixes for Christmas) and I'm using some 1L pickle jars too for my mixes. In our cupboard I know have mixes for - chocolate cake, 2 batches of muffins, bread (for small breadmaker) and I have to replace my banana bread one yet. We end up doing a lot of baking through the week etc for school and work lunches (we are trying to reduce our grocery bills so we don't buy much in the way of school snacks, granola bars etc). This way during the week when we realize we need more snacks it will be so much easier for us to just add margarine, water, eggs and/or vanilla. Baking won't seem so daunting now I used a cut up 2L pop bottle spout so I can easily get the ingredients into the jar with little mess.

[Spirit Deer]

I use a canning funnel when I put stuff in jars, but the pop bottle is a good idea.

Instead of making individual mixes, I make up a single mix and then measure to see how many cups it makes and note that on the recipe. After that, I do the math and note the quantity of each ingredient in the mix to make multiple batches. I store them in glass jars of varying sizes, depending of course on how big a batch of mix each recipe makes. It's a lot less work to make up four batches at a time than four one at a time, and they take less room, too. When it's time to make them up, I just measure out the needed amount, which I've noted on the jar after measuring that first single batch.

I have some square labels left over from when I used floppy disks for the computer, and I use those to label the mixes. I put the mix instructions on there with a note where the original recipe is located, such as the name of the cookbook and page number. If it's a short recipe, I might just have everything on the label so I don't have to waste time looking it up each time I mix another batch. I usually cover the label with clear packing tape so the container can be hand washed as needed (don't submerge it).

I love making mixes! It's so easy and saves so much money. I mixed up three salt-free seasoning mixes yesterday and a couple cups of salt-free taco seasoning mix too. I'm sure I saved at least fifteen dollars over buying the ready-made stuff. LOVE THAT! And I have better control over what's in them, in this case, no salt. And I know I'm weird, but I like just seeing the mixes sitting there in their jars. I think they look nice, like home-canned stuff does.

[Wendy99]

Thank you for the tips and ideas