Thrifty Thursday – The Extended Mix
I enjoy baking from scratch whenever I can, but sometimes I either do not have the time, or I happen to find a great deal on a muffin or cake mix at the store and I decide to use that in my baking instead.
I recently found such a deal at the store. Muffin mixes were marked down to 48¢ per bag. I couldn’t pass those by! If I had coupons to go with the deal it would have been even sweeter! Trouble is that the premade mixes do not always go as far with my hungry children because they are made of white, refined flour or there just isn’t enough in the mix to feed everyone.
I want to share with you today how to extend those mixes you are able to get on the cheap, and make them a bit more healthy at the same time.
I learned this trick from a dear friend (and this works for cake mixes as well!). It is so simple and requires only a tiny bit of forethought: The night before you wish to use the mix, for each packet of mix, soak 1 cup of oats in 1 cup of buttermilk. Cover, refrigerate, and let sit overnight.
The next morning, take the oat mixture out of the fridge and make your mix as usual, adding the oat mixture when you blend all the other ingredients. It’s that simple!
This takes 1 bag of muffin mix and adds both soluble and non-soluble fiber to it, and extends the mix from 6 muffins to about 10-12, depending on how full you make your muffin cups. An added bonus is the extra calcium from the milk and the extra moisture of the muffin crumb. The buttermilk also adds a light fluffy texture to the recipe that is more reminiscent of homemade!
So, for pennies, you can add extra nutrition, flavor, texture, moistness, and stretch your mix farther!
I hope this little tidbit from a friend will bring joy to your frugal adventures today!
What other recipe stretchers do you use? Please share with us in the comments below.
This is a great idea! I can’t wait to try it!! I’ll bet you could even use it with a homemade muffin recipe if you were looking to stretch it a bit, but not necessarily double it. THANKS FOR THE HINT!!
An idea to add to this is making your own buttermilk. Save 1/2 – 1 cup of buttermilk and pour into a 1 quart glass jar. Add milk to make one quart. Stir well and allow to sit on counter overnight; then refrigerate. Voila! Cheap buttermilk. I’ve used this for years and only had to buy buttermilk once or twice. It does thicken up a great deal, so be sure to give it a good stir before you use it. If you need full quart for your recipe, just save out the 1/2 cup first and fill in the needed quart with 1/2 cup of milk. Works fine and you’ll never miss that 1/2 cup. ENJOY AND SAVE!!
Thank you, bzmomof8! That’s a great way to get more buttermilk!
I’ve only done the other substitution for buttermilk which is to add 1 Tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar to each cup of regular milk and let it sour for 5 minutes before using it.
I’m going to have to try it your way next time! Thanks for the tip!
Molly
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