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Food Stamps Cooking Club: More Magic in the Mix?

February 4th, 2011

Could Sponge Bob Square Pants be covering Velvet Crumb Cake?

Do you have an EBT card from WIC or SNAP?  Are you getting goods from a food pantry?  Do you baby your food budget from the first day of the month to the last?  How about food commodities; did you get yours yet?  How is your Angel Food Ministries bundle holding up?  You are gonna LOVE what our good friend and faithful Club member brought by the Club House!  Just looky:

With great joy we offer this Guest Post from Maxine. God Bless Maxine!

“Tired of magic mix recipes yet?  I thought not!

If you’ve used Bisquick in the past, you may recognize this recipe for Velvet Crumb Cake, which was on the box for decades. It’s one of the all-time favorite Bisquick recipes, and after you try it—substituting magic mix, of course—you’ll understand why.

Frost it, and it’s dessert. With berries, it’s a fabulous shortcake. It’s a delicious coffee cake with a cinnamon-streusel topping. My husband’s aunt, a good German cook, substituted this recipe for the cake in her kuchen.

Here’s the simple recipe:

VELVET CRUMB CAKE
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 8 inch square pan.
1-1/3 cups Bisquick (substitute magic mix)
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons shortening (room temperature)–or try butter
1 egg
¼ cup milk
additional ½ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Except for the additional ½ cup milk and vanilla, beat all ingredients vigorously for one minute. Gradually add additional milk and vanilla and beat ½ minute longer. Pour into pan. Bake 35-40 minutes.

Double ingredients for a 13 x 9 pan.


CINNAMON STREUSEL TOPPING
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter or margarine (room temperature)
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Mix ingredients until crumbly. Sprinkle over cake batter before baking. Double ingredients for a 13×9 pan.

People have asked me why push scratch cooking, when it’s nearly a lost art.  This is “almost-scratch,” LOL. The first is that everyone should know how to feed themselves—it is THE most basic need and skill. Second—and this is super important for food stamp/EBT users—it’s cheaper. A lot cheaper. Third—it can be fun. Really!

Cooking from scratch isn’t difficult or extremely time-consuming. If I can do it, anyone can.  You’ll learn lots of shortcuts along the way. An older basic cookbook, such as Betty Crocker or Better Homes and Gardens, will be your best friend.

I would venture to say that any scratch cook could feed his or her family well at the USDA Thrifty level. Someone who really works the supermarket deals could do even better. Paula, over at Monroe on a Budget, feeds her family well at 80% of the Thrifty level. If you are accustomed to running out of money before you run out of month, I really encourage you to give scratch cooking a try. Learning to cook better is something you won’t ever regret—especially at 6 p.m.!”

~Maxine

Maxine, you are a genius and an angel.  Thank you so much!!!!!

Things have been buzzing around the Club House!   We find more new faces around the table each day – boy, are we thrilled – and because the new kids submitted their names and email addresses they will find a series of cooking tips in their In Boxes.  YAY!  Good on you! We love your comments; we adore your mail.  Send stuff to us at foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com  Thanks oodles!

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly.


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Posted in Baking, Cooking, Guest Post, Recipes, Tips

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Food Stamps Cooking Club: Professional Pancakes?

January 28th, 2011

You can perform like a professional chef with Magic Master Mix!

We have been concentrating on the Magic Master Mix and today we’ll share the method for PANCAKES!  These are so quick and easy and so very satisfying for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

PANCAKES

2  cups Magic Master Mix  *See our new Recipe Page for details

1   1/4  cups water or milk

1  egg, beaten

1  teaspoon vanilla

Combine all ingredients, stirring just enough to moisten dry ingredients.  Drop by spoon onto hot nonstick or greased griddle or frying pan.  When bubbles appear on the surface of the cakes, they are ready to be turned.  Cook to well browned.  This will give you about 12 to 16 pancakes.

Dress them up with syrup or honey, fruit and/or yogurt.  If they are a large enough, you can put some preserves or pieces of fruit in the center, along with – dare we say it? – whipped topping and roll them!   Lip smackin’ good!

When I was little, my dad used to sprinkle sugar over a pancake, shake a sprinkle of cinnamon on it, and roll it.  He would dunk one end into his coffee.   Now THAT is pancake heaven!

Here we are, smack dab at the end of the month.  The Angel Food bundles will arrive tomorrow but many of us are looking at bare cupboards and empty fridges this time of the month.

Pancakes are a wonderful, cheerful way to fill that gap.  Waffles are just right down luxurious.  Looky here:

WAFFLES

2  cups Magic Master Mix

1  1/4  cups water or milk

1  egg, beaten

1  tablespoon melted shortening or vegetable oil

1  teaspoon vanilla

Bake in a preheated waffle iron.  This will make 4 small waffles.  You might like to double or triple the recipe and keep the finished waffles warm in your oven as they all finish baking.

AHHHhhhh.  Comfort food!


Do you use SNAP or WIC, using their EBT cards?  If you do, you will see the value in the Magic Master Mix.  Maybe you have goods from a food pantry or you have procured a bundle of food commodities.  It may be that you are just frugal and watch every penny of your food budget.  If you have Angel Food you still may need to fill in the corners of your month…these are the reasons we are here.  We want to help you.

It is just delightful to have new faces around the Club House!  Can you hear us squealing and doing the Happy Dance as the names come in?  We love your comments and make every effort to reply to them in a timely fashion.

Our sponsors love having you around, too.  Even if you only window shop.  Just be sure to tell them, if you visit, that Mother Connie sent you!

Send us your ideas and messages to foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com.  WE LOVE YOUR MAIL!

Our Webmaster has added a new page just for recipes!  It’s a work in progress, so be patient.  Our webmaster is NOT very techy!  grin

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly.


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Food Stamps Cooking Club: Do You Know A Muffin Man?

January 24th, 2011

What IS it about muffins that are so satisfying and yummy? Maybe it's that they are very easy to prepare and vanish in a wink!

We have been discussing a Magic Master Mix on this page lately and in case you’ve missed it, we are making it available once again.  It is very easy to put together and VERY handy to have on your shelf for quick breads and fast meals on the cheap!

MAGIC MASTER MIX

8 cups unsifted enriched flour

1/4 cup baking powder

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon iodized salt

1 1/3 cups nonfat dry milk powder

3/4 to 1 cup vegetable oil

!. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and dry milk powder.

2.  Drizzle oil over dry mixture; cut in with pastry blender, fork or fingers.

3. Store in covered container in fridge.

This yields about 10 cups and keeps for about 3 months.

NOTE:  When measuring for mix, stir lightly, pile into cup-no shaking-and level off.

To make muffins:

3  cup + 2 tablespoons Magic Master Mix

3  tablespoons sugar

1  egg, beaten

1  cup water

Combine Magic Master Mix and sugar.  Blend egg and water, add to mix.  Stir gently just until dry ingredients are moistened.  Mixture should be lumpy.

SIDEBAR:  How come my GRAVY recipes don’t call for LUMPY? grin  END SIDEBAR

Fill well greased muffin cups 2/3 full, bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.  Congratulations!  You now have one dozen doozies!

Of course, you are free to add berries or raisins to this mix.  This is only a basic recipe.  Be careful not to be overly generous with berries and such, for they can weigh down the dough.

You could use cupcake papers to make these or even little baking cups-my mom used Pyrex oven proof bowls for her muffins-but if you make sure your muffin tins are well greased, you should have no problem.  When the muffins come out of the oven, just upset the tin on a cooling rack or towel to remove the muffins. Oh, the aroma will be scrumptious!

Do you use an EBT card from WIC or SNAP?  Do you have food commodities?  Do you have goods from a food pantry?  Maybe you use Angel Food Ministries?  HowEVER you fund your food budgets, we are here to help.  Maybe you have ideas you would like to share with the rest of the club.  We welcome your comments and your mail!  foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com  or just make your comment here on the blog where it says “Comments”…MAKE OUR DAY!

Some of you are new here. and we welcome you with open arms! We know you are new because we see new names on our roster as you entered your name and email so you can receive our series of cooking tips and very occasional messages.  WE THANK YOU FOR THIS.

We are also happy that you have been visiting our sponsors which include Saving Dinner, ToothSoap and Rapid Cash Marketing. When you get to their place, be sure to tell them that Mother Connie sent you their way.

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly.

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Food Stamps Cooking Club: Mixing It Up In The Kitchen?

January 11th, 2011

Humble as it seems, THIS is comfort food. Especially if there's bacon to be added!

Do you have a favorite comfort food?  If biscuits and gravy satisfy your craving for comfort food, even though the budget is tight, you will love today’s offering.

For those among us who depend on their EBT card from SNAP or WIC to fund their food costs; for those of us who regularly order Ange Food bundles; for those who keep a tight rein on their food budgets cuz they are frugal by nature – we can all benefit from the money saving Magic Master Mix in the previous post.  For those of us who avail ourselves of food commodities or depend on food pantries from time to time-this is totally affordable for all of us!

The Magic Master Mix is the basis for this Biscuit recipe. It is super easy to put together and ever so easy to use.  It is extremely cost effective, as well.

For biscuits, here’s the 411:

BISCUITS Using the MAGIC MASTER MIX

*See previous post for MIX recipe

2 cups Magic Master Mix

1/3 to 1/2 cup water  *Mother Connie prefers using MILK here but the Kitchen Police will not care what you use.  Especially since there is powdered milk in the basic master mix recipe.

Measure Magic Master Mix into a bowl; add a cup water.  Stir.  Add more water if needed to form soft dough.  Knead gently about 12 times in the bowl or a surface that has a sparing amount of the Mix.  Roll or pat to 1/2″ thick.  Cut into circles using floured biscuit cutter **Mother Connie loves Maxine’s idea of using the top of the baking powder can!.  You could also use a tumbler; you could even use a knife and cut out triangles or squares.  Bake in a preheated oven at 450 for 12 to 15 minutes.  Makes 10 to 12 biscuits.
Prepare to be delighted.

Biscuits lend themselves to a variety of pleasures.  Of course, a staple in the olden days when Mother Connie was growing up was bacon gravy over biscuits.  Another fave: biscuits with honey, paired with bean soup.  Biscuits make wonderful breakfast sammies-just slice them between the top and bottom  and fill that space with scrambled eggs.  Or eggs and cheese.  Mini pizzas are fun, using biscuits in place of pizza dough, too.

Thanks to all who have taken the time to enter their names and email addresses so as to receive our series of cooking tips and very infrequent messages.  We LOVE your mail, too! Just shoot us a hey at foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com!   We totally love having you leave comments on the blog, as well.

Our sponsors appreciate you, too. And you might like to cruise by our sister sites:  Mother Connie Sez, where  there is info regarding health and healing,  The Healthy and Wealthy You, which is pretty self explanatory.  There are a couple of other blogs but we’ll save those for another day!

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly.

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Posted in Baking, Cooking, Recipes, Tips

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