Category Archives: gifts

May 04 3 comments
gifts, in my kitchen, recipe, vegan, vegetarian

Easy, Delicious, Inexpensive Soup Mixes

Today I’ll be sharing three soup mixes that are easy, delicious, and inexpensive to make. If you missed my post about the benefits of making a mix, click here to catch up.

Before the recipes, here’s how you’ll make the mixes. You’ll put the mix ingredients into a ziplock bag. Then, choose one of these options to write the rest of the directions or ingredients:

  • Write on the Ziplock bag. However, that could be a serious nuisance if you decide to reuse the Ziplock bag, and say, decide to put brown gravy mix in there next time around. I have to admit, I have been doing this lately, but I have also come up with some other ideas for you to try.
  • Print off labels with the “wet” ingredients and baking instructions listed, and stick them to the bag and hope that they stay stuck in the freezer.
  • Print off a paper with multiple directions per sheet of paper, and cut the paper apart. Place one little directions sheet either inside the mix or tape it to the outside. {Did that make sense?}
  • Make a “master directions cheat sheet” for ALL your mixes on some cute paper, print it off, and tape it to the inside of the door of, say, your spices cupboard. The cupboard should be close to wherever you would assemble the mix. And SHHH! don’t tell anyone it’s there. They’ll think you have a magnificent memory, and it’ll be our little secret.

Now, here are the recipes.

Lentil Soup Mix

Place all those goodies above in the ziplock bag. On the label or ziplock bag, write (or type) the following directions:

Place in a crockpot (slow cooker) with 1 quart water, 2 carrots (peeled and sliced), and 2 diced potatoes. Simmer on high for 6-8 hours. Add 1 quart stewed tomatoes just before serving, and serve with cornbread (why not use the cornbread mix!)

Split Pea Soup Mix

On the label or Ziplock bag, write (or type) the following directions:

Place mix in crockpot (or slow cooker) and add the following: 2 quarts water, 1 carrot (chopped and peeled), 1 rib celery (chopped and peeled). Cook in crockpot on high for about 6-8 hours. Serve with cornbread (made from your own mix, of course).

Middle Eastern Red Lentil Soup

  • 1 cup red lentils
  • 1/2 cup dry minced onion
  • 1 tsp. cumin
  • 1 tsp. coriander
  • 2 tbsp. white rice
  • 1 tsp. salt

On the label or bag, write (or type):

Add to a crockpot (slow cooker). Add 8 cups of water. Cook on high for about 4-6 hours.

Happy soup making!

In addition to making my own family happy, I have made these as gifts for coworkers. Especially around Christmastime, people love receiving the gift of an easy, delicious comfort food meal that is homemade!

This post is linked up at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.

Apr 29 0 comments
gifts, homemaking

Mother’s Day Gift Guide

floral gift tags
Photo credit

Mother’s Day is coming up in a few days! Have you thought about what to get your mom yet?

Here are a few great ideas that I’ve seen for making your own gift:

Now, let’s say you don’t have time or, like me, you can’t ship her something you made for whatever reason. You can still send her something handmade that will make her feel special! Think Etsy! I love shopping on Etsy.com. I can always find something pretty for the occasion. Here are a few beautiful things that I found when I recently browsed, looking for Mother’s Day gifts (and I don’t get compensated for linking to any of these — I just had fun browsing and picked these out all by myself):

Of course, you can always find great gifts on Amazon.com:

(Please note, I am an Amazon affiliate, so when you click to order on Amazon via links on my blog, I do get a small compensation. Thanks for supporting Island Homemaker!)

Happy shopping or crafting! I hope you have plenty of fun.

Apr 13 9 comments
frugal living, gifts, homemaking, in my kitchen

Top Ten Reasons to Make Your Own Convenience Food Mixes

Baking Mix

1. They taste good. Duh. Isn’t that one reason why we pick up mixes at the store? Whether it’s a cake mix, a box of mac and cheese, or a box of elaborate cous cous with olive oil and garlic, you’d have to agree that if it didn’t taste good to someone in your house, you wouldn’t buy it. You also have to agree that homemade food generally speaking tastes so much better than those boxes at the store!

2. Saves money. When you make mixes at home, you can stock up on whole food ingredients at bulk prices and make a whole bunch of goodies at a time. For example, it’s cheaper per unit to buy a box of split peas or beans at a wholesale foodservice store such as Smart & Final, Costco, or Gordon Food Service.

3. Make food friendly for picky kids. If Joey doesn’t like blueberries in his pancake or Susie doesn’t like mushrooms in her soup, you can leave them out.

4. Structure exactly what types of ingredients you want to add. It is easy to make food mixes for dietary needs and preferences. I do suggest that before making 10 or 12 bags of non-dairy whole wheat biscuits, however, you try them out and make sure your family likes them. If you prefer to add less sugar to your cornbread, you can! That’s the beauty of making your own mixes.

5. Avoid trans fats. Ever read a label and see something that says “hydrogenated” on it? Hydrogenated ingredients are not essential, and they are not good for you, either. They elevate the levels of “bad” cholesterol (LDL) and increase the risk of coronary heart disease.

6. Mixes make great gifts. In previous years, I have given homemade soup mixes to coworkers during the Christmas season, and they have loved them! You know how busy folks are during the holidays. It only takes a couple of minutes to put a soup mix into the crockpot and ta da! They have a meal ready after a long day of Christmas shopping!

7. Mixes are very slow-cooker friendly. Especially soup mixes. Cooking in the slow cooker is already easy. This just saves you even more time!

8. They are FAST and EASY to prepare. Whether you’re making soup mixes or baking mixes, you can mass-produce mixes in a short amount of time. Simply get out your ingredients, read over the recipe, and start adding ingredients to Ziplock bags. You’ll be surprised at how fast you can put together some great-tasting, healthy mixes!

9. Mixes invest in your future convenience. I love the idea of investing time today in making life easier tomorrow!

10. They make hospitality easier. We are admonished not to forget to entertain strangers (Hebrews 13:2). I believe that this call to hospitality goes beyond just having folks over. It might mean sharing food with those who have recently lost a loved one or gained a baby. Whether you take over a ready-to-eat pot of soup and steaming corn muffins, or whether you tie up some time-saving mixes and put them in a cute basket, think of how much easier it will be to heed the apostle’s admonition!

Well, have I convinced you? You’re probably either thinking, this is overkill… or show me more! Give me ideas!

I’m going to be featuring some delicious time-saving mixes that you can make in your very own kitchen, coming up in the next few days.

Be sure to subscribe, if you haven’t already, so you won’t miss any great ideas!

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday and Kitchen Tip Tuesday.

Apr 02 1 comments
frugal living, gifts

How I “got burned” buying flowers online

in a vase
{Flickr credit where credit is due: CCCvrcak}

Last year’s Mother’s Day shopping was a disaster. (Now, I know my mom is probably reading this so I should be careful with what I say.)

I ordered flowers from an online source that shall remain nameless to protect the guilty. Both my mother-in-law and mother live a long ways away so I had to get something nice and either mail it (which, you know, the USPS keeps raising its prices), or order it online.

I decided to order something online using one of those nifty coupons that the company e-mails out on a weekly basis.

But unfortunately, the discount only applied if you signed up for those free-shipping deals that you sign up for AFTER the purchase… which I found out well into the purchasing process. Then I had to print out a confirmation and SNAIL-MAIL it back to this other vendor.

Did I do it? Nope. I forgot about it. And then that “free” shipping company ended up charging my credit card on a monthly basis, and I couldn’t remember my login for the life of me.

I ended up writing a complaint to the flower company six months later, and fortunately for them, they did refund the entire amount that I had been charged on the monthly basis.

BUT my flowers for Mother’s Day were not really discounted, and neither was the shipping free.

That said, I have learned a few things from that experience.

1. Not every discount is what it states at face-value. Many discounts say Free Shipping* and then after the lovely asterisk (*) they proceed to tell you that you have to sign up for something. READ the fine print! Know what you’re getting yourself into!

2. Don’t sign up for anything after you make your purchase! Those other “partner” companies will get your credit card information from their partner, and proceed to bill you on a monthly basis. Not pretty!

3. You may comfort yourself with the fact that you can opt out and cancel after you request your free shipping. Beware! Not a good idea, considering human nature in most cases leans toward procrastination and forgetfulness.

4. You can find honest gift companies that will send gifts that will enable you to stay within your gift budget.

  • One company that I have used several times for lovely gifts at holiday time is Harry and David. I have been very pleased with the shipping and service every time I have ordered gifts for my loved ones from them. You can order flowers, chocolates, fruit, and more from them! Last I checked, they don’t charge you extra for whatever flower pot that the flowers are in. Frequently, other flower companies will charge you for this or that vase. I also like the fact that you can search Harry and David’s website by price.
  • I recently sent my dad an Amazon.com e-card with a gift certificate. (So easy—and you know how hard it is to shop for guys!) It was last minute, or I could have sent it by snailmail, I suppose. I was really impressed at Amazon’s selection of e-cards, and the process was very smooth.
  • Speaking of Amazon, I have bought numerous gifts from them before and sent them to my loved ones and never had any problems. And you gotta love their free super shipper discount!

Anyway. I have nothing to urge for or against any of these companies, and I am not being paid for recommending them. I am just speaking from personal experience. But if you are trying to order online for your loved ones this spring, do be careful to select companies that are honest with their discounts and provide all charges up-front. Know what you are paying for!

One last word: handmade or homemade gifts are awesome. I would do that if I could, but I don’t think it would be financially judicious for me to ship handmade gifts across the ocean to our loved ones for every little day. I might work on that for Christmas, though. We’ll see!

This post is linked to Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom.

Do you have any other tips for savvy/ safe online shopping for gifts? Or online shopping in general?