Thrifty Thursday #4: Scratch Recipes & Homemade Snack Bags

Hey Friends! Having a good week? I've been working on getting caught up with house work in the mornings, and relaxing with the kids in the afternoon. Unfortunately I'm in pain again, and I'm completely caught off guard. I'm taking the day "off" today, but will get back to work tomorrow.

So, last week I presented some recipes and sort-of challenge to bake and make from scratch. Since then I've been searching on line to find a homemade alternative to Bisquick. There are some recipes that I really like that used it, but I don't want to buy it. This is one of the few things that I've missed from my pared down grocery list! I found some recipes, but I haven't made any yet. The one recipe I trust most is from King Arthur flour. My biggest hesitation is that it calls for shortening, which I really don't want to use anymore. I have about half a can of butter flavored Crisco that once it is gone, will not be replaced. I've only been using it to grease my baking pans. I'm thinking of substituing the shortening with coconut oil. Any other suggestions are very welcome!
King Arthur Quick Mix

Alright, on to some of my recipes. Most of my recipes are from an old copy of the Betty Crocker Cook Book that my mother in law gave to me. My Mom has a copy of this, as well, and was the cook book that we always used when I was growing up.  It's the first one I go to when llokng for a recipe. I've just tweaked many of them to my specifications!

~Basic Sweet Muffin~

1 egg

1/2 C. milk

1/4 C. oil

1/2 C. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 C. flour

1/2 tsp. salt

Beat egg, then mix milk and oil. Add dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Bake at 400* for 15 minutes. This makes 1 dozen standard size muffins.

I use only about 1/8 C. of olive oil and use 1/8 C. of unsweetened appla sauce. I also add 1 tsp. of vanilla. You can substitute 1/2 C. of all purpose flour for whole wheat flour. I usaully add chocolate chips for the kiddos. If you add about another 2-3 Tbsp. of milk, chocolate chips and pour the batter into a greased 8x8 square pan for chocolate chip bread. Bake at 350* until a toothpick come out clean from the center, about 25-30 minutes. Double the recipe and bake it in a 13x9 pan for a weeks worth of breakfasts!

~Golden Layer Cake~

2 1/4 C. flour

1 1/2 C. sugar

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 shortening**

1C. milk

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

Pre-heat oven at 350*. Grease pans. Measure ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Blend for 30 seconds on low, scraping bowl constantly. Beat for 3 minutes on high , scraping occasionally. Bake until toothpick comes out clean in the middle. Makes a 13x9 cake or 2 8"/9" layers.

**recipe calls for shortening, but I felt it was too dry and I don't want to use Crisco anymore, so I use olive oil. The cake is wonderfully moist now!

~I have a child that will only eat chocolate cake, but loves cinnamon. I added about 1 tsp. of cinnamon to the batter, and he loves it! If you don't have ingrdients for frosting (like me this past Wednesday!) add chocolate chips to make a snack cake. Very yummy!

~Black Midnight Cake~

2 1/4C. flour

1 2/3 C. sugar

2/3 C. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 1/4 C. water

3/4 C. shortening**

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

see instructions for Golden Layer cake above.

I have not tried to substitute unsweetened applesauce for the shortening/oil yet. I did try to substitute some of the flour in the Black Midnight cake with whole wheat flour with dissapointing results, but it was before I started using olive oil. I just haven't had the nerve to try again! I hope you try out these recipes. If you do, let me know, I'd love to hear how they worked for you!

And now, something I've been so excited to show you! Say hello to my reusable snack bags!!!!

Three large, two medium and four small snack bags.

I used sew-on velcro for the large and medium sized bags. These will hold pretzelsor crakcers.

I used sticky backed Velcro on the small snack bags, which are lined. These are for cookies/cookie bars.

 

From just one 99cents reusable shopping bag, I made 9 reusable snack bags for my Dear Hubby and kiddos to use for their lunches! How cool and thrifty is that?!?!? I got the wonderful idea from, of course, Pinterest. There were lots of pins of cloth snack bags using ripstop nylon, but I didn't really want have to search or pay for it. And then I found a pin using reusable shopping bags. I will go into detail on how to make these in a future post. But they are super easy to make.

 

Well, that's all for this week! Hope you hve a lovely rest of your day.

Blessings,

Kelly