Add a little spice to your life with homemade seasoning blends. You’ll save money by buying spice in bulk and save time by having a multi-purpose seasoning at the ready.
It’s so easy to spend a lot of money on groceries. You don’t have to be extravagant to watch those pennies slip through your fingers. Tonight FishPapa and I stopped at Trader Joe’s during our date night. Yes, sirree, we know how to live it up!
The date was great. The shopping trip was a little disappointing. Things keep going up in price or my favorite items get discontinued, presumably because they are not making a big enough profit for the manufacturer.
Case in point: my very favorite Harvest Whole Wheat Bread is gone. Kaput. It disappeared a few weeks ago. The bread was $2 a loaf and made with only six ingredients, one of them filtered water. It was healthy, wholesome bread that I could afford. Vanished into thin air.
As the paper boy in that really strange John Cusack movie would say, “I want my $2.” My $2 bread, that is.
Previously, I would buy about three loaves a week, and it was cheap, easy sandwich bread. The other breads are $3 or more, inching us out of budget-range. And so now I’ve got to bake it myself if I want good quality, cheap bread.
The whole point of my little rant is that it’s easy to spend money. It’s harder to save it.
I’m determined to continue developing and practicing techniques that help us eat well and stay under budget. I think you could say that my mission in life, whether it be parenting or eating, is to make the most of what you have.
Add a little spice to your life.
One of my favorite ways to add great flavor without spending a small fortune is to make my own spice mixes. I’ve been doing this for at least five years, probably longer. It started out with making my own Taco Seasoning and has morphed into other homemade spice blends. I haven’t bought those chintzy foil packs in forever. (They’re loaded with junky ingredients, don’t you know? “To preserve freshness” or “prevent caking”, they add other things besides spices.
I’ve purchased the expensive bottled blends as well, but really? You can do this yo’self! In like 60 seconds.
I use small, half-pint mason jars to store my spice blends. I like to use the small plastic caps that can be reused easily. If I use lemon zest in the blend, I store the mix in the freezer; otherwise, it just goes on my spice shelf.
(I’ve included spice blend recipes in my cookbooks, too.)
Uses for spice blends
I use custom spice blends on a daily basis to add flavor to a number of dishes:
- salad dressings and vinaigrettes
- sour cream dips
- seasoned meats
- sauteed or grilled vegetables
- soups
- sauces
- on salads, potatoes, French fries, or garlic breads
There’s really no end to the combinations of herbs and spices you can create or the many uses for them.
One of my favorite blends is my vanity spice. Yep, I named it after me. 🙂
I love to use garlic and Italian herbs in my dishes, so I made a seasoning salt that combines these flavors. I’ve used it in practically everything. And it works every time! Yay for FishMama Spice! (Sounds like a girl band member, doesn’t it?)
Mix up a batch or two of FishMama Spice and keep it on hand. Sprinkle it into dressings, on meats ready for the grill, on potatoes or commercial French fries. I love it in sautes of chicken and vegetables.
Recipe: FishMama Spice
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon fine sea salt
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon basil
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Combine all of the ingredients in a small jar. Store in the cupboard.
Preparation time: 5 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): about 3 tablespoons
I highly recommend mixing up your own spice mixes in order to save money and time in the kitchen. Who’s got time to fumble with a bunch of jars and shakers. Make one spice blend and use it in a multi-purpose way.
You can buy big canisters of spices at Costco or the small packets in the Mexican food aisle of your grocery store. Both methods will be cheaper than buying the small glass jars. You can freeze extras for longer storage.
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Hi Jessica: I have to tell you that I had to laugh out loud in front of my computer when I read that you and your hubby were out on a date night and stopped at the grocery store. Your statement: “yes sirree, we know how to live it up” gave me such a chuckle because many times when my husband and I go out on a date night, the same thing happens. No matter how good your intentions are about focusing on yourselves for an evening, life always creeps back in to remind you that date night is now over! Anyway, it was such a funny little thing that you said and I love people with such a great sense of humor; thanks for the laugh. 🙂
I don’t make my own spices but the thought sounds like a good one. The one thing that I do is buy fresh dill, especially in the winter because I like it in chicken soup, and I dry it out in the oven and put it in a container for when I need it. It’s amazing how much it costs for a tiny little plastic jar of this and other spices. It costs me practically nothing to buy a bunch of fresh dill and I get more from that than what’s in the jar. I really should start doing that with parsley too because I use that in almost everything. Something I’m doing later this afternoon is that I have fresh basil growing in a pot in my backyard and every year, I take a large bunch of it, put it in my blender with some olive oil and make basil paste. I then put it in ice cube trays and freeze it. Tomorrow, I’ll pop out each cube, put them in a freezer bag and next Winter when I’m making spaghetti sauce or soups, or stews, I just take one out and throw it into the pot. I also have chives growing and I usually cut some and put them in the freezer too. They are soft and dark green when I defrost them so they can’t be used for a garnish but they can be thrown into a recipe if needed. Does this count as spices? 🙂
Can you give a bit more detail on drying the dill? I have an Aero Garden that is going wild with dill, and I love the idea of saving it for chicken soup next winter! Thanks for any help.
Hi Holly:
Buy a nice size bunch of fresh dill. Give it a light washing but don’t put it right under the water because it will get very wimpy. I just very quickly run it right past the stream of tap water. Pull off the springs of dill from the branches; it doesn’t matter if there are some small stems in it. You can’t pull off each individual piece of dill. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Spread the dill out as evenly as you can on the paper. Bake at 300 till it’s all dry; I’m not sure how long, maybe 20 minutes or so. You’ll see, when it looks like tumble weed it’s done but don’t burn it. Let it cool and put in a Tupperware and in the refrigerator. I never freeze mine and it’s always good.
I used to only make my own taco seasoning, but after reading your blog and realizing how many spice blends recipes call for that I may use only once or twice, I now make them all myself. Your blend sounds like it would be tasty on BBQ!
Yes, and it’s great in tuna salad. Just tried that yesterday.
I love the Fish Mama Spice! That’s the next on my list. And funny side note, I was just talking about that movie with a friend!
I make most of my own spice mixes, but have been unable to create a good tasting version of the Sunbird Fried Rice Seasoning mix. I’ve tried several times and it has always fallen flat with my family. Any suggestions?
I don’t know that I’ve ever had that so I don’t know. Did you google it?
This came at just the right time. Last week I dropped my favorite lemon pepper spice grinder from Aldi outside and it shattered and to add to that I got a black eye from hitting the screen door knob and to add further pain Aldi was out of lemon pepper grinders when I was there last. I’ll try one of these homemade spices.
When Life hands you lemons…. 🙂
Mixed some up today sans thyme. Bill add that later. Looking forward to trying it perhaps on tilapia tomorrow.
It’s great on fish!
Awesome post! I love making my own spice blends…..and my own bread, too!
Many compliments on the roasted potatoes. Enjoyed the seasoning blend so I made up a larger batch. I had a plastic cap on it, but then I had washed up a Parmesan cheese shaker container to use for a craft project when I eyed the lid and my little mason jar. That green lid works great! (okay, so a novel-to-me idea but fun, free, and helpful) Now waiting to use up another container to use for a different jar. 😉 And yes, I prefer to grate my own but I keep this on hand too.
If you run out of green cans to use up, I found shaker tops at Target that are made for mason jars. 🙂
Good to know!
Whoa great! I made 6 of your mixes today. Thanks for your recipes.