THE CHEAPSKATES CLUB
  • Home
  • Join the Club!
    • Twenty Reasons to Join the Cheapskates Club
  • About Us
    • Cath's Story
    • Ask Cath
    • Glossary of Cheapskating Terms
  • Forum
    • Current Forum Discussions
    • How to Use the Member Forum
  • Inspiration
    • Getting Started
    • 31 Days of MOO Index
    • Articles
    • Housekeeping Routines
    • Budget Renovations
    • Saving Stories
    • Learning Centre
  • Recipes
    • Recipe File Index
    • Meal Plans
    • Add a Recipe
    • $300 a Month Food Challenge >
      • $300 a Month Food Challenge
      • The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
  • Newsletters
    • Newsletters 2023
    • Newsletters 2022
    • Newsletters 2021
    • Newsletters 2020
    • Newsletters 2019
    • Newsletters 2018
    • Newsletters 2017
  • Saving Money
    • Latest Tips 2023
    • Latest Tips 2022
    • Cheapskates Tip Store
    • Tip Sheets
    • Top Tip Competition
  • Contact
    • Changing Details
    • Help Files

MOO YOUR OWN CAKE MIXES

21/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Save money by limiting the expensive or extravagant items you buy. For example, if you love an exotic, organic cake mix but it’s expensive, buy one every other month. Consider it a special treat when you have it, rather than something you must have every week or two.

Or better still, MOO cake mixes, store them in ziplock bags and you can make a cake whenever you feel like it.

MOO Vanilla Cake Mix
Ingredients:
4 cups plain flour
4 cups SR flour
6 cups white sugar
1/4 cup baking powder
2 tsp salt
2-1/4 cups unsalted butter*

Method:
Combine all the dry ingredients and then cut in the shortening with a pastry knife until it is very fine.  Place in a 4 litre airtight container.  Store for up to 3 months in the fridge.  Bring the cake mix to room temperature to use it.

*Note: Use real butter, do not be tempted to use margarine.

To make a cake:
Ingredients:
4-1/2 cups cake mix
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c vegetable oil
2/3 c milk

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.  Grease and flour a 33cm x 23cm cake tin.  In a large bowl mix eggs, vanilla and oil. Add the cake mix, stir to combine. Then stir in the milk.  Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
0 Comments

MOO BISQUICK AND THE CONVENIENCE OF MOO PACKET MIXES

21/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
MOO Bisquick Banana Bread - the nicest and easiest banana bread ever!
I love the convenience of mixes ready to go. At the moment I have chocolate cupcakes, tea cake, sultana muffins, cranberry muffins, cream of chicken soup, taco seasoning, spaghetti seasoning, pizza dough, doughnuts, instant custard, white sauce mixes all in jars (I love them too) or ziplock bags. I print the ingredients and method either onto a label or straight onto the jar or bag with a Sharpie so anyone can take a mix and make it. Means Wayne or the children can help me with baking or meal prep without my supervision or even input.

Annabel, over at The Bluebirds are Nesting (Blue Wren in the forum) is doing a series on pantry preparedness. She posts a new topic each week and this week it was mixes.

I love mixes. They are a vital component of my pantry, my stockpile and go a long way towards helping to keep our grocery bill to $320 a month.

I can't remember the last time I bought a cake mix. Hannah bought a couple last year and made them, red velvet cupcakes if I remember correctly. We HATED them - they tasted so fake, had a horrible after-taste and left a greasy, thick feeling in our mouths. And they were expensive.

During MOO Month I shared my go-to chocolate cake mix recipe.
Picture
A few years ago I put together a small ebook of mixes, called Make Our Own….Mixes. It's one of the more popular downloads in the member's centre, having been downloaded almost 32,000 times since it was first published! That's a lot of people MOOing mixes, or with the knowledge to MOO them.

Annabel was asking for a Bisquick recipe. Bisquick isn't a common ingredient in Australian recipes, but as the Internet makes it so easy for us to find and try recipes from other countries, and as it is a popular product in the USA and Canada, knowing how to MOO it means we can try these recipes, save money on the packets and keep the nasty ingredients out.

This is my Bisquick recipe. I use it to make biscuits, scones (if we are camping, otherwise I make Lemonade Scones), crumble topping, shortcakes, pancakes, pastry, as the base in impossible pies and quiches - it's very versatile.

MOO Bisquick Mix
Ingredients:
6 cups plain flour, sifted
3 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter

Step 1.    Measure the sifted flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Use a wire whisk to blend thoroughly.

Step 2.    Cut in cold butter using a pastry cutter until thoroughly incorporated. Store refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 months.

This makes 6 cups of mixture. I pack it in 2 cup portions in ziplock bags in the freezer because I don't have room in the fridge.

I keep most of my mixes in the freezer. Why? Well firstly because I don't have the shelf space for them. Secondly, some of them contain butter or oil and need to at least be refrigerated.

They can be used straight from the freezer, if there are any clumps just break them up before you add the wet ingredients.

Here are two of the ways I use it.

Picture
MOO Bisquick scones, hot and ready to enjoy
MOO Bisquick Scones
Ingredients:
2 cups MOO Bisquick mix
2/3 cup milk.

Method:
Mix to a dough. Gently press out to about 2cm thick. Use a glass or scone cutter dipped in flour to cut into rounds. Place on a baking paper lined scone tray. Bake at 210 degrees Celsius for 12 - 15 minutes or until risen and golden.

MOO Bisquick Banana Nut Bread
This delicious banana bread uses MOO Bisquick as a shortcut. With the addition of cream cheese and walnuts you have one of the easiest and nicest banana breads you've ever tasted.

Ingredients:
2 cups MOO Bisquick mix
1 cup sugar
250g cream cheese, softened
3 medium bananas, mashed
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Grease and line the base of a loaf pan. Beat sugar and cream cheese together until smooth (it's easier if you use the mixer for this step). Add in the mashed bananas and eggs, and beat until well combined. Gently stir in Bisquick and walnuts, until just moist. Spread evenly into the loaf pan and bake for one hour. Cool completely before serving.

This is a very moist banana bread, it doesn't rise to a high loaf, and it's just great for using up brown or black bananas. It also makes a great Gift in a Jar - just pack the dry ingredients in layers in a jar, add a label with the ingredients needed and the method. Add a pretty jar topper and a ribbon and it's ready to go.

Mixes are great. MOO mixes are even greater. If you haven't tried to save money, time and energy with MOO mixes, give them a go. I'm sure you'll love the convenience and the cost.
0 Comments

MOO CAKE MIXES

21/1/2020

2 Comments

 
Picture
Boxed (or packet) cake mixes are convenient - to a point.  You still need to add the wet ingredients, usually egg, water or milk, butter or oil, so what you're paying up to $9 for is basically flour, sugar, a rising agent, flavouring of some kind and then a whole lot of things you can't pronounce and really shouldn't be eating.

That cake mix convenience ends up costing you up to $11!

If you make a cake from scratch you'll use flour, sugar, butter or oil, milk or water, an egg or two, flavouring of some kind and if you didn't use self-raising flour, a rising agent (baking powder or bicarb soda, depending on the recipe). And your cake will cost you under $2!

Now cake mixes are supposed to be convenient time savers because you just dump the contents into the mixer, add the wet stuff and beat for 3 minutes.

If your recipe is a one-bowl mix, like the I've shared below, you do the same thing - dump all the ingredients into the mixer and beat for 3 minutes.

It may take you a minute to measure out the flour, sugar and flavourings so a from scratch cake will take you 1 or 2 minutes longer to get to the baking stage. At a saving of up to $9 a minute or two is nothing.

And they will both take about the same time to cook too, so no saving there.

If you really love cake mixes, and I confess I do, you can quite easily make your own.

When I'm baking a cake I get out a half a dozen ziplock bags and measure out the dry ingredients for 7 cakes, the one I'm baking and 6 to put in the cupboard. The bags are labelled with the type of cake the ingredients will make - chocolate, coffee, butter, sultana, cherry or whatever, a list of wet ingredients and the instructions. I do this a lot so I have marked the bags with a Sharpie. Once the mix has been used the bag is washed and dried and put away ready to use again - and the instructions are already written on it.
Picture
​This is a quick chocolate cake I make into MOO Cake Mixes.
Quick Chocolate Cake
Dry Ingredients:
3 cups SR flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup cocoa

Wet Ingredients:
2 cups cold water
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp white vinegar
3/4 cup vegetable oil

You can double, triple, quadruple the quantities (I measure out 7 lots at a time). Put the dry ingredients into ziplock bags and seal. Label the bag and add a list of the wet ingredients and the instructions.

To make a cake add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.

One quantity will make 2 dozen cupcakes or two 20cm square cakes. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 25 - 30 minutes for 20cm cake (or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean). Bake for 12 - 15 minutes for  cupcakes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
2 Comments

Crockpot Caramel Sauce Recipe (Dulce De Leche)

4/11/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
This very simple caramel sauce is so easy to make, and can be used as a tart filling, as a dip, and as a sauce so when I saw the tinned version in Coles last week, for $6 per 430g jar I was gobsmacked!

​Honestly, it is so simple to make, and costs under $3 to make twice the quantity if you MOO the condensed milk.

It makes a great gift too.

Ingredients:
2 cans condensed milk (or one quantity of MOO condensed milk)
4 screw top preserving jars

Method:
Pour condensed milk equally into the four jars, leaving 3cm of space at the top of each jar.
Screw lids on VERY tight.  Place jars in slow cooker, then fill slow cooker with warm water until jars are fully submerged, with about an extra 3cm of water above the jar lids. Cook on LOW for 9 hours.
After 9 hours, carefully remove jars with tongs {they’ll be HOT}, and allow to cool for 30 minutes.
After jars have cooled, remove lids, grab some apple slices, and start dipping into your delicious caramel sauce!

Notes
Extra caramel sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.  Enjoy cold throughout the week, or microwave to soften it up before using. 

​This recipe is from the Slow Cooker Recipe File
0 Comments

Use Those Celery Leaves

23/9/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
MOO Celery Salt!

Use those Celery Leaves! I love celery salt and use it a lot. Instead of discarding the leaves, place them onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake in a gentle oven for a few minutes until the leaves are dry and crumbly. When cool mix thoroughly into a small pot of salt. You can use a mortar and pestle if rock salt, or a small grinder if you prefer.

​From the Tip Store: Cooking: Ingredients
0 Comments

MOO Condensed Milk

11/6/2017

2 Comments

 
Picture
I've just been browsing the Coles catalogue for this week and notice that condensed milk is on sale for $2.50, save 70 cents. I was gobsmacked! It's obviously been a while since I bought condensed milk because the last time (I just checked my notes) it was $1.69!

I do use condensed milk quite often, in baking and to make Russian caramels, but I can assure you I wouldn't be if I had to pay $2.50, let alone $3.20, a can (and those cans are about 30g smaller than they were when they were $1.69!).

MOO condensed milk has been a staple in my pantry for years. It's easy to make, tastes and works exactly like the tinned version and costs less than $2 to make more than double the quantity you'd be paing $3.20 for.

Here's my go to condensed milk recipe - and don't worry about being able to store it before it goes yellow. It will keep in the fridge for at least a week, longer if you turn the container upside down. But it freezes! Yes, put any extra in the freezer until you're ready to use it in another recipe.

MOO Condensed Milk
​Ingredients:
1 cup hot water
2 cups skim milk powder
2 cups white sugar
6 tbsp butter or margarine

Method:
Place all ingredients in a food processor and mix for about 3 minutes. The mixture will be quite thin, but thickens on standing for about an hour. Use immediately or refrigerate for up to one week. Can be frozen, thaw before use.

Makes 3 cups.

Seriously, it is so quick and easy to make and so cheap - why would you ever spend your hard earned dollars on tinned condensed milk?

Shared from Debt Free, Cashed Up and Laughing
2 Comments

    Archives

    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    March 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    December 2010
    September 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    March 2009

    Categories

    All
    $2 Dinners
    $300 A Month Food Challenge
    BBQ
    Beauty
    Bread
    Breakfast
    Budget
    Cakes
    Centrelink
    Children
    Christmas
    Cleaning
    Cooking
    Craft
    Crochet
    Debt Free Cashed Up And Laughing
    Debt Reduction
    Desserts
    Drinks
    Easter
    Electricity
    Entertainment
    Family
    Finances
    Financial Help
    Gardening
    Gift Ideas
    Gluten Free
    Groceries
    Grocery Bduget
    Grocery Shopping
    Handmade Christmas
    Health
    Holidays
    Homemaking
    Kitchen
    Laundry
    Leftovers
    Living The Cheapskates Way
    Meal Planning
    Meatless Meals
    Mixes
    MOO
    Mother's Day
    Natural Remedies
    No Bake
    Organisation
    Pancakes
    Pie Maker
    Preserves
    Preserving
    Pressure Cooker
    Price Book
    Real Estate Selling
    Recipe File
    Recycling
    Saving
    Sewing
    Shopping
    Shopping List
    Snacks
    Special Occasions
    Stockpile
    St Patricks Day
    Tip Store
    Valentine's Day
    Vegetables
    Want Not
    Waste Not

    RSS Feed


About Cheapskates

Getting Started

Tools & Guides

Follow Us

Cath's Story
You Really Can Live on One Income
Join the Club!
Site Information
Contact
Begin here
Newsletter Archive
Journal Archive
$300 a Month Food Challenge
Forum
Cheapskates Tip Store
Cheapskates Recipe File
Tip Sheets
Facebook
YouTube

Copyright ©2001 - 2023 The Cheapskates Club, All Rights Reserved
  • Home
  • Join the Club!
    • Twenty Reasons to Join the Cheapskates Club
  • About Us
    • Cath's Story
    • Ask Cath
    • Glossary of Cheapskating Terms
  • Forum
    • Current Forum Discussions
    • How to Use the Member Forum
  • Inspiration
    • Getting Started
    • 31 Days of MOO Index
    • Articles
    • Housekeeping Routines
    • Budget Renovations
    • Saving Stories
    • Learning Centre
  • Recipes
    • Recipe File Index
    • Meal Plans
    • Add a Recipe
    • $300 a Month Food Challenge >
      • $300 a Month Food Challenge
      • The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
  • Newsletters
    • Newsletters 2023
    • Newsletters 2022
    • Newsletters 2021
    • Newsletters 2020
    • Newsletters 2019
    • Newsletters 2018
    • Newsletters 2017
  • Saving Money
    • Latest Tips 2023
    • Latest Tips 2022
    • Cheapskates Tip Store
    • Tip Sheets
    • Top Tip Competition
  • Contact
    • Changing Details
    • Help Files