Author Archives: Robin

Macaroni and Cheese

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What is it about kids and Macaroni and Cheese?
I don’t care for it and, years ago I told Mellyn, “My kids don’t like Macaroni and Cheese.” After watching them one afternoon, Mellyn laughed at me and said, “Your kids ate bowlfuls of macaroni and cheese today!” They have been hooked ever since. Although I still don’t care for the stuff I secretly call “Yellow Death,” I am grateful my kids never refuse to eat this easy concoction. Thanks Mellyn! Continue reading →

Cheesy Chowder

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Dehydrated potatoes, carrots, onions and celery are so inexpensive, making this recipe easy on your budget and your time (everything is already peeled and diced for you!) This chowder was adapted from a recipe my sister claims to be one of her favorites. I am hoping my version will be a contender.

Original Recipe By Becki Continue reading →

Powdered Cheese Sauce

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Powdered Cheese Sauce is not my first choice in the world for storing cheese for my recipes, but it does have its benefits. First, I purchased this can for $22.00. The can itself states that it is reconstituted in a water:powder ratio of 4:1. This can had 10 cups of powder in it. That would make 40 cups of cheese sauce for $22.00. BUT I found that a water:powder ratio of 2:1 was more appropriate when I was trying to add it to recipes. 4:1 was just too watery. It was hard to work with it that thin. So that makes 20 cups of cheese sauce for $22.00.
Now lets talk fresh for a minute. The local grocery store I shop at periodically has 8 oz. bags of shredded cheese or 8 oz. bricks of cheese on sale for $1.99. When it goes to this price I stock up my refrigerator and usually don’t have to buy again until I find it on sale again. 8 oz. of fresh cheese is approximately 2 cups shredded. That makes fresh shredded cheese $1.00 a cup.
Back to powdered cheese sauce. The price I paid for 20 cups of cheese sauce is very comparable to buying fresh. It has a long shelf life, and I could probably find it discounted if I watch the sales. So why is this NOT my #1 pick? I found it difficult to substitute in any cheese recipe. I have to do more than just hydrate and add. It doesn’t work just like fresh cheese. My family noticed every time I used it instead of fresh shredded cheese.
There were a few success stories in all my attempts. I will not lie to you. This is a great way to make macaroni and cheese. It is also good for casseroles and soups. So it’s not my #1 choice, but it is my #2, and I will continue to store this version of cheese as long as I have kids in my home requesting mac ‘n cheese for lunch.

Clam Chowder

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Another staple from my one great cook! I personally don’t like clams, but my husband LOVES them. I just discreetly remove a bowl of this for myself out of the family pot BEFORE I add the clams. Then no one is any wiser that my dish is different. I don’t have to eat clams, but I don’t need to make my kids think they shouldn’t either. I like to let them decide on their own!  Recipe from Karen. Continue reading →

School Chili-burgers – ADD LINK TO BUNS

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The PTA at my Elementary school used to make a version of this recipe to sell to kids at lunch time for fund raising. The potatoes in the recipe really cut down the amount, and therefore the cost, of the ground beef. Here it really stretches my dollar as freeze dried ground beef is no where close to cheap, BUT hash brown potatoes are. The sauce on these is by far my favorite, though childhood memories may be keeping me a little biased. Continue reading →

Onion

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This is a great item for any kitchen. I use it so much that fresh onion has little place on my shopping list. WIth the use of dried onion I keep from crying too much in my kitchen either.

Picking just 5 recipes that go well with dehydrated onion was very hard for me. I hope you find something you like in this weeks pickings.

Honey

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Pass the honey, Honey! Yes, we are corny in our house and yes we say this to each other at the dinner table. We use honey a lot and it is usually on our table. The more I work with honey the better I like it. I use it at Breakfast, lunch, and did I mention dinner?

I have never bought honey in large 5 or 6 gallon buckets. I just buy the biggest and cheapest bottles I can find. Costco serves me well in this area, but as long as the bottle is not to big for me to handle and use I will buy it. I like my honey to be rotated often so I don’t have it crystalize. Although all research available tells me that it doesn’t harm a thing to let it store long term and crystalize, I would rather not have the extra work of melting and getting it out of a large container. Does this mean I have a lot of small bottles of honey in my storage? It depends. To me 25 bottles is nothing when I use it daily. It has never expired and never crystalized. It is always good and ready when I am and easy to pour out of my bottles.