Frugal Homemade Seasoning Recipes

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

30 Jan 2009 01:10 PM

Forget the entire expensive spice rack where the spices expire before you can even use them all. You can save money and space, too, just by making some of your own seasonings. It isn't as hard as you might think. You just keep a few basics on hand, and you can make up your own personal collection of spices for a lot less than buying those little bottles at the store.

I am a big fan of seasonings because you can do so much with them to make inexpensive food very tasty. Here are my favorite recipes for frugal homemade seasonings.

Garlic Salt or Onion Salt

You haven't lived until you have had garlic salt on homemade pizza. It works well with lentils and rice, too!

Just take salt and garlic powder add them together! If you look at garlic salt purchased in a bottle, that is all that it is. I usually do a three to one ratio, three tablespoons of salt to one tablespoon of garlic powder. Do the same to make some onion salt.

Want to save even more money? Make your own garlic powder. While garlic salt can be made on the spot, garlic powder need a little more prep work, although it is still pretty easy to make.

Garlic Powder

Basically, you are going to dry out the garlic and then pulverize it. This is a great way to use up garlic that may be on the verge of spoiling.

Take a garlic bulb, peel it and separate it into cloves. Next cut the garlic into thin slices and place them on a cookie sheet. Dry the garlic slices at 150 degrees until all of the moisture is out and it is crumbly. While it isn't easy to burn the garlic at that low temperature, you still want to keep an eye on it. Let the dry garlic cool. Then place it in a food processor, coffee grinder or spice mill and pulverize it into powder. You can make it corse or fine, however you prefer your garlic powder. That is it!

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog, caring for little ones in the Baby Blog and now relationships in the Marriage Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here or subscribe to the blog using the subscription box on the right.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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Memartha (306) 30 Jan 2009 03:51 PM

These are great ideas. I like the thought of making my own garlic powder, fir sure! However, there's a great seasoning company called "Badia" that stunned me with their low prices and large amounts. While over in the spice aisle, McCormick is selling 1 ounce of garlic powder for $3.00, in the Mexican aisle, Badia is selling 10.5 ounces of garlic powder for $3.99! They also sell mega-size, but I've never needed that much garlic powder at once. They so the same with onion powder, and sell smaller sizes of a wide variety of spices for remarkably low costs. Cumin for $169, etc. If you don't have the time to make your own (though that sounds wonderful), you might check out the Mexican aisle and see!

Memartha (306) 30 Jan 2009 03:53 PM

Uh, typo. That was cumin for $1.69. I would never pay $169 hard earned bucks for a spice. Not even saffron! LOL

Mary Ann Romans (26876) 30 Jan 2009 05:38 PM

Very true! You might want to check out this earlier post:

http://frugal.families.com/blog/grocery-sneaks-how-one-item-can-have-three-different-prices

Tashi (1013) 04 Feb 2009 12:12 PM

Thanks for the ideas for seasonings! I would love to find some for, say, mixing into pastas, hot dishes (or, as the rest of the country/non-Minnesotans call them, "casseroles"), chicken dishes, etc. I heard that KFC's "secret recipe" is pretty much dry ranch dressing mix, with a few other things thrown in. But never tried that yet. I don't do fried foods often at all, for obvious health reasons. Do you know of some other seasonings we could make at home? Thanks! :-)