Home => Cooking and Recipes => Food Preservation => Make Your Own Mixes
Related Articles: Make Your Own Herb and Spice Mixes | Rice Mixes You Can Make at Home

Make Your Own Mixes: Rotate Dehydrated Foods
by Mindy Gordan

Description: How to make your own mixes with dehydrated foods.

Sponsored links:

EASY, CONVENIENT AND INEXPENSIVE

Have some dried foods you need to rotate? Consider making a mix for everyday convenience. You can make your own bread, cake, muffin, frosting, salad dressing, sauce, cookie, salad dressing mixes, etc. All you do is dump all the dry ingredients together, whisk or mix together, and store in a covered container. Hey! Even the kids can do that! Preparation and cleanup time is very minimal AND you save a lot of money too! Try our Pancake Mix for fun.

PANCAKE MIX

8 cups white or whole wheat flour
3/4 cups shortening powder
3/4 cups powdered milk
3/4 cups brown or white sugar or 1/3 cups fructose
2/3 cups dehydrated whole eggs
1/3 cups baking powder
1 scant Tablespoon salt

FAVORITE FAMILY PANCAKES

1 scant cup Pancake Mix
1 cup water

Stir together. Let stand a minute and cook on a hot oiled griddle. Turn when bubbles break on top. Makes six 4-in. pancakes.

APPLE PANCAKES

Combine:
1 cup Pancake Mix made without sugar

Add:
1 cup apple juice

Mix-A-Meal Cookbook, p. 36.

TASTE AND HEALTH BENEFITS

Homemade mixes taste better and are better for you. You can eliminate or significantly reduce preservatives in your foods. Need to make modifications for special diets? No problem! You can use fructose in place of sugar. Just use approximately one-third to one-half as much and adjust to satisfy your own taste. Or, leave sugar out all together if needed. Need a no-salt diet? In place of salt try dehydrated orange flavorings for breads and rolls and dehydrated butterscotch flavorings for cookies. Or, you could reduce or leave out salt entirely if you need to. What about fat? In recipes calling for shortening, butter, or margarine powder, use half as much as a recipe calling for non-dehydrated ingredients. Who couldn’t benefit from a lower fat diet? The recipes will turn out light and fluffy. For a non-fat solution use applesauce in place of oil. A lactose intolerant individual can use dry soy milk powder in place of powdered dairy milk. You’ll never know the difference.

OTHER APPLICATIONS

Making your own mixes is also ideal for emergencies, camping, unexpected company or gifts. Useful and fun gift baskets are a snap to make using homemade mixes for bridal showers, birthdays, Christmas, and more.

TRY IT, YOU'LL LIKE IT!

Go ahead, try a mix and see for yourself how easy it really is. Then let the kids try and let them have some fun in the kitchen! Here’s a fun Cheese Sauce for nacho chips, macaroni and cheese, cheese and broccoli or topping for a potato bar.

CHEESE SAUCE MIX

4 1/2 cups dehydrated cheese sauce
2 2/3 cups powdered milk
2 2/3 cups dehydrated butter powder or margarine powder
2 2/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons onion powder

If you want to try a smaller mix first to see how you like it try a Mini-Mix instead:

CHEESE SAUCE MINI-MIX

1/3 cups dehydrated cheese powder
3 Tablespoons powdered milk
3 Tablespoons dehydrated butter powder or margarine powder
3 Tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoons onion powder

CHEESE SAUCE

Combine:
1 cup hot tap water
1/2 cup Cheese Sauce Mix (above)

Bring to a boil stirring with a wire whisk -- it only takes a minute! For a touch of color add a few parsley flakes (optional).

Mix-A-Meal Cookbook, p. 46.

Contact information: Mix-A-Meal Company, P.O. Box 971662, Orem, UT 84097-1662.

Reprinted with permission.