Make Your Own (MYO) green onion dip mix

So, Lance and I love green onion dip!  We eat a lot of it, but I hate paying for those little packages at the store.  And, I like being able to say I made it from scratch.  So, I set out to figure out how to make my own version of it.  I think it is pretty close to the store packages.

Green Onion Dip Mix

1/2 tsp dried green onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chicken bouillon granules

Mix together and store in a baggie or other container.  To use:  Mix the mix with 1 cup of sour cream and refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.

To Make dried green onion powder:  Clean green onions and cut into 1 inch pieces.  Place in dehydrator or oven at 145° for 6 hours.  Once dry, place in spice/coffee grinder and powder it or place in a ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to powder it.

This is perfect for using the tops of all the onions growing in your garden.

To make a large batch:

Mix 1/4 cup dried green onion powder with 1/2 cup of chicken bouillon granules and 2 tablespoons of garlic powder.  Store in a half pint or pint jar or any air tight container.

Homemade granola recipe

I finally gave in and tried making homemade granola.  It's good and so easy!  My 8 year old daughter liked it with milk, so that is a great thing.  It didn't clump together, but I read an easy tip to make it clump.  I'll try that next and then post it if it works.

Granola


7 1/2 cups quick oats
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsps vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar

Mix quick oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla together.  Pour oil and honey into a 1 cup measuring cup and microwave for 1 minute.  Meanwhile heat up the oven to 400°.  Mix the liquids with the oat mixture and combine really well.  Pour onto 2 parchment covered cookie sheets.  Bake for 10 minutes or until light brown.

Leftovers and potatoes

Tonight's dinner is leftover spaghetti (not much either) with a green salad and homemade bread.  The bread smells so yummy (it just came out of the oven).

My goal this weekend is to cook up a bunch of potatoes.  I bought a big bag of potatoes from Costco, so I want to bake up a bunch and dice / chunk some up for home style potatoes (and freeze them).  I'm thinking that I might do most of them that way, because that would be a big time saver for mashed potatoes, too.  Just pull out a bag of potatoes and  heat, add milk and butter and mash them up.  Others, I will bake and cool in the fridge and then shred for hash browns (and freeze these, too).

I really want to make things easier on myself by having these ready in the freezer and saving us money at the same time (by not going out, not wasting food, etc).

Do you have any time saver things that you do to?  Please share:D

Easy patty-melt type sandwich recipe

2 posts in one week????   Pinch me....  no, you don't really need to pinch me.

I did a twist on a recipe  ( http://blogchef.net/taco-grilled-cheese-recipe/ ) .  I didn't have leftover taco meat, but I did have a pound of ground beef that I needed to use (and the kids were on my last nerve), so instead of making baked ziti casserole like I wanted to make....I made a version of that recipe.

Instead of the taco meat, I seasoned my hamburger with granulated garlic and black pepper (a lot of both because I'm a garlic and pepper freak).  And, of course, crumbled the ground beef up.  4 out of 5 people ate every single bite.  That is saying a lot since our kids are 8, 6 and 3.  It does make a mess while you are assembling it, but oh does it taste good.  I'll be making it again, but I just might cheat and not crumble the meat up as much.  And, maybe I'll add in some onions to mine since I love onions, too.

There was something else that I was going to post about....but, my old age (41) must be kicking in now. 

Make your own convenience foods

I forgot about my blog:(  Life and it's responsibilities had me in its grip. 

But, I'm going to try and be a good blogger and post.

The past 3 weeks, I've been sick with a cold.  Yuck:(  That caused me to be a little lazy and I went to the grocery store and bought cookie mixes instead of making cookies from scratch.  Bad me.  Very bad me.

So, I've started making up mixes of things that I use a lot of.  I used my quart size canning jars to hold the ingredients in and made up 7 batches of pizza dough mix, 6 batches of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie mix and 2 batches of applesauce cookie mix.  It took 15 minutes to do this and has saved me lots of future time and money.

What kinds of things do you make up ahead of time?