Versatile homemade chocolate mix recipe

I love versatile recipes.. ya know, those recipes that can be used in many different ways? I'm always on the look out for base recipes that can be altered slightly for different applications.   Now this chocolate mix recipe is good for either serving warm as a fudge topping, cooled to use as a pudding, or frozen for a delicious Popsicle treat! One recipe, at least 3 possibilities!!! OOOh I love that!!

Chocolate mix
4 C instant dry milk powder
1 1/2 C sugar
1/2 C unsweetened baking cocoa
1 C flour
1/2 C cold butter

Combine the milk powder, sugar, flour and cocoa in a large bowl. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or fork until crumbly.  You really want to incorporate the butter in.  You can freeze this mix in an airtight container for up to 6 months, or refrigerate it for 3 months.

Additional ingredients to prepare:
2 1/2 C water
1 tsp vanilla

To make a batch, in a small saucepan whisk 2 C of the mix and water.  Bring to a boil, simmer until it thickens, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Cool slightly and either:

1. Serve warm over ice cream, waffles or whatever else you like a thick chocolate sauce on ( as written, this makes at least 4 C .. you may want to half it for sauce!)

2. Pour into serving dishes or a bowl, refrigerate until chilled for pudding (cover with plastic so you don't form a skin on the top.. unless you like pudding skin :) )

3. Pour into Popsicle molds or fill little cups; cover with plastic or aluminum foil and insert a Popsicle stick.. freeze for several hours and you have fudge pops! ( My kids favorite summer treat)

A little hint when you pouring into Popsicle molds: I use a funnel- makes it a little less messy!  You can portion this out any way that suits your needs.When I make a batch I can get 6 Popsicles and 3 single serve puddings.. perfect for after school snacks for my guys.

Homemade sweetened condensed milk recipe

Have a recipe calling for a can of sweetened condensed milk to make but then realize you don't have a can hiding in your pantry? Well, if you have powdered milk on hand, I have a solution for you! This recipe makes the equivalent of a 14oz can, and for me costs about $0.47 to make vs the store brand that's around $1.38 a can!  It really does taste the same, at least it does to me..I make this recipe once a week for my homemade vanilla coffee creamer.

Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 C instant dry milk powder ( I use store brand)
1 C sugar
1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 C hot water

Melt the butter and heat the water in the microwave (or on the stove if you prefer).  While that's heating, mix the milk powder and sugar in a bowl. Add the melted butter and hot water and whisk very well.  You can throw it all into a blender to mix too, but I like mixing stuff by hand.... good arm exercise! Ha ha...

The only time I will buy the canned variety is if I can get it cheaper than it costs to make. That doesn't happen very often, but around the holiday season you may find some good coupons (and if you have a store that doubles coupons, you may get some cans very cheap or free!)

Powdered Milk

Yeah, yeah.. powdered milk.. not the MOST appealing to drink, I know.. but it's not THAT terrible in a pinch! (I gotta make sure it's nice and cold, adding a tsp of vanilla helps it taste better too!)  Powdered milk for me is usually less expensive than its liquid counterpart.. though not by a huge margin.  In my area I can get a 4 lb box of powdered milk for $11.98. The non sale price of a gallon of milk at the moment is $2.98. Now a 4 lb box has approx. 80 servings which equals to about $0.149 /serving. A gallon has 16 servings and is about $0.186/serving. I realize that's only a savings of $0.037/serving... not even 4 cents!! But, every penny adds up..  it's a savings of $2.96/80 servings.. and if you figure a whole years worth of milk usage at a gallon a week... that's $30.78 saved!(We use more than a gallon of week in this house though!) If you don't like drinking powdered milk or just prefer the "real" thing... use powdered milk for your recipes.. that's what I do. I use the powdered milk for making flavored drinks (like iced coffee), in place of milk in recipes and to make some of my "convenience staples"- as I like to call them. Homemade sweetened condensed milk and homemade vanilla coffee creamer are two recipes I make often with it.

Do you already use powdered milk? What recipes do you use it in? Please share!

Keeping cool with no pool

It's hot in the summer time! When we moved, we left our beloved pool.. our oasis to keeping cool while playing outside.. oh how I can't wait to get a pool at our new home.. but that's not happening this year! And those water toys at the stores are a bit pricey for my taste.. So what's a mom to do? Well, for some cheap alternatives I've put water into buckets, given the kids some plastic cups and let them splash each other while running around. Of course we can use the sprinkler too.. water the grass and let the kids cool down at the same time. When we had a play set (at the old house) with a slide, we'd hook up the hose at the top and lay some landscaping plastic at the bottom (tucked under the slide) for a homemade slip n slide! Since we don't have a slide either at the new house, hubby had the great idea to use our little hill! He attached the landscaping plastic (that was given to us a long time ago.. apparently we don't use it for landscaping..hehehe) to the ground using plastic stakes that came with a tent we bought years ago. He was nice enough to stand there with the hose and let the kids go sliding down the hill! They had a blast! However you really wanna make sure the plastic is wet so the kiddos can actually slide down!

What ways do you keep cool outside with no pool?

When it's too HOT to COOK!!

yeah.. too hot!!

Wow the summer we've been having this year! I've just moved into a "new" house a couple of months ago, and unfortunately it doesn't have central air conditioning.. it doesn't have any HVAC system actually :( But we are planning on installing a furnace and duct work and yeah.. hopefully an a/c unit this fall. Doesn't help now though!! Today, like many days here lately, it's been just too darn hot for me to want to cook! Even standing outside minding the grill has become unbearable for me. But, we gotta eat! We've done cold sandwiches with raw veggies on such nights, my kids love to build their own sandwiches and especially using tortillas to make roll-ups. Tonight we opted for simple. The kids were gone most of the day spending time with their grandma and swimming in the lake at her house, so when they came home they were wore out and hungry! So we decided on salad tonight and a glass of homemade sweet tea... I love salads.

You can toss whatever you have in a bowl and call it good! Pasta salads, meat salads, bean salads... woo-hoo! Tonight I threw some romaine and iceberg lettuce, tomato, carrot, onion, broccoli, pine nuts and cheese in a bowl and am calling it supper! (with grapes on the side.. I like to toss my grapes right in, but SOME of the shorter people in my house prefer them on the side)  How do you like your salads?  Do you have any favorite go to meal on those too-hot-to-cook nights you'd like to share?

My Homemade sweet iced tea

Tea is a great, inexpensive beverage, and better for you than soda. Hot tea when the weather's cold is a soothing warm comfort, but when the weather's hot... time to switch to cold tea! I make tea a gallon at a time, and we go through it! I don't bother buying those bigger tea bags labelled for iced tea.. not sure why but they tend to cost more than the little individual bags (I buy store brand).. so I just use those.  I have two methods for making my sweet iced tea. One is using my coffee maker to brew the tea.

I put 16 individual tea bags in the pot, (making sure to have the tags hanging out for easier removal) and wait until the water is done brewing. I let it steep for 10-15 minutes, then I remove the bags and put 1 3/4 C sugar in the pot, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Then I pour the tea mixture into a gallon pitcher along with enough cold water to equal the gallon. The other method is using the microwave. I put 4 cups of water into a microwave safe cup (I use my glass measuring cup) and heat it until boiling (usually about 5 mins. in my microwave). Once the water is heated I take the cup out of the microwave, dissolve my sugar into it and then put in my tea bags. I let that steep about the same amount of time as the coffee maker method (or sometimes an hour... cause I forget what I'm doing- lol) Then I do the same as above, pour into a gallon pitcher with enough water to reach a gallon.. Sometimes I put the bags into the pitcher as well and let it steep over night,sometimes I put the sugar in the pitcher and then add the hot tea, and sometimes I'll use a sugar substitute like Splenda instead of sugar, just depends on my mood. How do you like to make your sweet tea?

Homemade lemonade

Here's the recipe I use for making lemonade. Remember, recipes are to taste, you may want to experiment to find your perfect combination. I love to suck on a raw, cold lemon.. {pucker up, baby!}But this recipe isn't too terribly strong... my kids love it!

1 1/2 C sugar
8 C water
1 1/4- 1 1/2 C lemon juice (about 8-9 lemons)- if you want to use bottled lemon juice from concentrate, you may want to use just 1 C of that..

I make a simple syrup with the sugar and 1 cup of the water. "What's simple syrup?" that just means heating the sugar and liquid (water in this case) to a quick boil to dissolve the sugar. You can do that on the stove top or in the microwave if you prefer.  Or don't do it at all! But I hate when the sugar settles into the bottom of the pitcher of tea or lemonade, so I make the simple syrup so it will all mix together wonderfully. Anyways.. I cool the simple syrup a little, then put the syrup, lemon juice and remaining 7 cups of water into a 2 quart pitcher, give it a stir then refrigerate it. OK, usually I go ahead and pour some in a glass with ice and start sipping away!!  Do you have a favorite recipe for homemade lemonade to share?

I Love lemons!

Lemons are so versatile! You can use them for personal care, cleaning, cooking, baking and to freshen the air! Whenever lemons go on sale, I try to buy at least 15-16. You may already know the many, many uses of lemons, but if you are wondering what are the ways I use up almost every bit of my lemon, read on..
What I do with my stash of lemons is this: I soak them in a little vinegar water (approx. 1/4 C vinegar to 4-5 cups water) for just a few minutes. I do that to help clean them of germs or anything else that lemon has come in contact with! Then I wash/rinse in plain water. Now I will use a zest/scorer (you can get one of those at almost any store selling kitchen gadgets) and get that beautiful yellow peel off the lemons. (Not all the lemons, I don't need that much zest in my recipes) I let the zest air dry a bit while I work on the rest of the lemon, then I'll freeze the zest for recipes) Next I cut the lemon in half and juice it. I will use that lemon juice in making lemonade (recipe here!), recipes or to make buttermilk (1 T lemon juice and enough milk to equal 1 cup)  when a recipe calls for it..  you can freeze your lemon juice if you don't think you will use it up within a week or two. I like to freeze it in amounts I know I may need..like 1cup measurements in a  freezer bag or by the tablespoonful (use an ice cube tray to freeze, then pop into freezer bag). Now for the leftover part of the lemon, some of them I will trim the ends so the lemon lays flat upright and pour salt in the now gutted middle. Place those around the house for supple air fresheners. They only last a day or two, but hey.. it's nice while it lasts! Other halves you can grind in you garbage disposal to help freshen it up or you put them in a jar, fill with just enough vinegar to cover.. put a lid on the jar and let is sit for a week..this gives you lemon scented vinegar which I use to make homemade cleaners. Of course you can rub that lemon on your skin too.. I don't bother but I know many that make facial scrubs with lemons. What ways do you use your lemon?

My attempt at blogging..

So I've been searching the web constantly hunting down frugal tips, simple scratch recipes (including making homemade "staple" items, convenience mixes etc) and I got to thinking.. wouldn't it be lovely to have a "one stop shop" for all this? Yes, yes it would! As a non-tech savvy type of homemaker, I have absolutely no clue how all this blogging works! {insert nervous laughter} But I decided better to try than not! So please forgive me {or laugh at me!} as I try to figure out how to blog.  In short... WELCOME TO MY BLOG! I hope you enjoy this blog as I share recipes, do-it-yourself projects, crafts, and tid-bits here and there as I learn them... and certainly a rant or a vent from a stay at home homemaker!