Popcorn shrimp batter mix

My husband and I are working our way through season one of 'Big Bang Theory', an episode or two every night. Yes, we're THAT behind on the times. Once the kids are in bed we kick back in our new 'his and hers' recliners (best idea ever!) with some sort of treat and finally get to relax. On the nights that we're not feeling like something sweet, we've really been into popcorn shrimp- but I'm not into the fact that a bag that you pop in the oven is at least $10 and full of all sorts of chemical additives.

I recently learned you could buy massive bags of little shrimp at costco for $10 as well, about 4 times as much as those regular bags of popcorn shrimp from the grocery store. So I decided to mix it up and the results with fabulous!

Popcorn shrimp batter mix (single use)

3/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 teaspoon icing sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder



What else you'll need

1 pound cooked salad shrimp (the tiny ones)
2/3 cup ice cold beer (or in our case, root beer)
oil for frying

Pre-soak shrimp in ice water while you're assembling the batter, then drain and dry. Combine mix with beer (we don't drink, so we make our batter with root beer (or sometimes even gingerale, since we don't drink soda either but keep gingerale in the house for illness). Stir mixture until it's a thick batter, then stir in shrimp until evenly coated.



In a small frying pan filled with oil on medium high heat, spoon lumps of battered shrimp into the pan and fry it for a couple minutes until it starts to brown. Remove using a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel.





This will take several batches if you use a small pan (this will save you money as you don't have to use as much oil to submersed the shrimp). Serve hot with seafood sauce and enjoy!!

Play dough mix

This mix isn't food, but a very useful mix for parents to have in their cupboards.

They are always selling new play dough 'sets' for $20+ that basically include a couple of cans of dough and a few plastic doohickeys to shape it into various things. But I find that stuff such a waste of money- play dough is always getting left out to harden and mixed together to form disgusting new colors. The plastic doohickeys get old and broken fast.

I've been making my own play dough for a while now, and buying my daughter various plastic cookie cutters at the dollar store to mix things up. She also likes making layer cakes using different sized cups to cut the pieces and decorating them with unlit birthday candles.



Homemade play dough is awesome- it's softer, it smells better and it's REALLY cheap to make. The problem is that most recipes make a BOATLOAD. But, play dough is better in smaller amounts because it's a lot less wasteful when it gets left out over night and turns into a giant rock. I figured if I could keep cake mix in the cupboard to whip up at a moment's notice I could do the same with play dough!

Play dough mix (big batch- makes 4x2 containers)

4 cups flour
2 cups salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar

I store it in a flour container and it half fills it. So a double batch would fill it right up, although that's a LOT of play dough!



What else you'll need

1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil
food coloring

Combine 1 1/2 cups of mix with water and oil in a small saucepan and stir well. 'Cook' on medium heat, stirring vigorously with a spatula until it starts to thicken.



Let it cool and then knead into a ball.



Divide into 2 small containers and add 8 drops of food coloring of your choice to each, then knead until the color is uniform.



An inexpensive gift under $5 would be to make the 6 colors of the rainbow in little dollar store containers and add on a package of plastic cookie cutters. (Plastic rolling pins and pizza cutters also make nice additions).

Roasted Red Pepper Cream Cheese Seasoning Mix

Well I survived the week and am almost better, although my house was completely trashed in the meantime and we have almost no food left here. I can finally buy groceries today!

One thing we did have here was plain cream cheese, due to a massive sale on plain cream cheese a while back. We also have dried sweet red peppers- those were also on sale, and I dried some in my oven when I didn't have enough time to use them all fresh. They were perfect to use in...

Roasted Red Pepper Cream Cheese Seasoning Mix

1 tablespoon dehydrated red peppers
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon salt



Combine mix with 250 grams (8 oz) of plain cream cheese (I regular sized package) and let sit in the fridge for at least 20 minutes to let the flavors meld.



I like my cream cheese on toasted bagels... this one didn't last very long at all!

Blackened Seasoning Mix

I am just getting over the flu. Who gets the flu in May? What a waste of beautiful weather!

I didn't make it grocery shopping this week so we are still eating from our freezer. Aside from all the ground beef, we also have a giant bag of frozen sole I bought at Costco, so I wanted a new way to cook it. I looked around and came up with...

Blackened Seasoning Mix

2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon- 2 teaspoons cayenne (1/4 for super mild-feed-to-your-kids, 2 for super spicy or anything in between)



I put mine in a dollar store spice jar with a shaker top. A double batch would probably fill the jar.



Blackened seasoning is good on chicken or fish, but I had fish to use up so that's what I made. I'll probably use the rest of the jar on some chicken later this week.

I coated the fish in melted butter, sprinkled on the seasoning on both sides and then pan fried it.





I served it with homemade fries and steamed broccoli. It was perfect!

Sun dried tomato and basil rice mix

I didn't like the smell of whatever chemical they use on commercial sun dried tomatoes, so recently I learned how to make my own instead. They are absolutely amazing! I've made them twice in the past couple weeks now. Sun dried tomatoes add great flavor to mixes and other cooking. Here is one I came up with that I love.

Sun dried tomato and basil rice mix

1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder



What else you'll need

1 cup uncooked rice
2 cups cold water
2 tablespoons olive oil

Combine mix with water in a small sauce pan and stir well. Stir in rice and oil and simmer on medium heat until rice is cooked.



I served it as a side dish with chicken and asparagus. It was delicious!

Copycat Cheeseburger Macaroni Hamburger Helper Mix

Car repairs loom on the horizon and in an attempt to save money we're eating everything in our freezer and cupboards before we buy too much more. I have a HUGE amount of ground beef in the chest freezer and am tired of every recipe I have. I considered buying some Hamburger Helper until I read the box and saw what was in it so instead I'm working on a new series of copycat mixes like...

Copycat Cheeseburger Macaroni Hamburger Helper Mix

1/2 cup powdered milk
1 tablespoon corn starch
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt (use 1 teaspoon if you want it to taste like 'real' hamburger helper, which is ridiculously salty. Use 1/2 if you don't want to die of hypertension)



What else you'll need

1 pound ground beef browned
3 cups cold water
1.5 cups uncooked macaroni
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

In a saucepan combine mix with cold water and stir well. Add in macaroni and cooked beef and simmer until pasta is cooked and sauce thickens. Stir in 1 cup of cheese until it melts.



Top with 1/2 cup of cheese and serve.



This was SO delicious! It won't be so hard using up all our food if I can make things like this.

Copycat Epicure Cheese Dip Mix

I have both attended and hosted an Epicure party, and both times the sales person served their extraordinary baked cheese dip to everyone. That stuff is like crack and it's all part of their plan- because to make it yourself you have to buy not one but THREE overpriced jars of seasoning. That ends up coming to around $30 just for seasonings alone (then you have to buy all the cheeses too!).

I was determined to crack their cheese dip, so what I did is individually conquer each of the three dip mixes it's made of, and then combine them. Here it is...

Copycat Epicure cheese dip mix (single use)

1 1/4 teaspoons chives
1 teaspoon dried dill
1 teaspoon dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon bacon bits
3/4 teaspoon parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon dill seed
1/2 teaspoon dried lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
pinch thyme



What else you'll need

1 package of cream cheese (8 oz)
1 cup mayo, yogurt or sour cream
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

Combine mix with wet ingredients in a small covered casserole dish.



Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-30 minutes. I stirred mine halfway through so the spices would mix once the cheese had begun to melt.



Serve hot with veggies, sliced baguette or corn chips. Or in my case all 3...



Don't worry about leftovers. There won't be any. I just saved you $30, as well as from a pushy salesperson trying to get you to host a party. You're welcome :)