Herbes de Provence

Herbes de Provence via 52 ways to grill
1 part dried Tarragon
1 part dried Oregano
1 part dried Dill
1 part dried Thyme
1 part dried Rosemary
1 part dried Garlic Flakes (i used garlic powder)
1/2 part Sea Salt
1/2 part Fresh ground Pepper*
1/2 part dried Lemon Zest*

Combine all ingredients.
*I didn't have lemon zest so instead of 1/2 part pepper and 1/2 part zest I just used 1/2 part lemon pepper

Cajun Spiced Grilled Chicken

Whoops!  I found this photo in my camera.  I think it's from way back in Sept.  Well it's December and cold now.  Who isn't hankering for a big ole piece of grilled meat?

I think this Cajun Spiced Grilled Chicken from Supper for a Steal is Mrblocko's new favorite grilled chicken recipe.  It's mine too now that I've cut out nearly all of the soy in my diet.  (This Firehall Marinade is the best marinade in my opinion.  Curse you tasty teriyaki sauce!!!!)

You wouldn't think that a marinade with Cajun and Italian seasonings would make a good combo.  Somehow, it's magical.

Cajun Grilled Chicken from Supper for a Steal
½ c olive oil
2 T Cajun seasoning
2 T Italian seasoning
2 t garlic powder
juice from ½ lemon (I used 1 1/2 T lemon juice)
1 t black pepper
4 large chicken breasts, pounded flat

In a large ziploc bag mix all ingredients together. Marinate 30 -60 min, turning 2 or 3 times.
Remove from marinade and grill over med high for 5 -8 min per side depending on thickness.

I cant believe it has no Salt Seasoning Blend

Here's a quick little post about this salt free spice blend I found this winter.

It's the strangest thing...it totally tastes like it has salt in it!  So much so that I double checked all my spices to make sure they didn't contain any salt.  (They didn't.)

I must have some really strong garlic powder because the seasoning is really garlic-y.  If I were to make this spice blend again, I'd cut the amount of garlic and onion powder by half.

Saltless seasoned salt blend from Big Bears Wife
5 t onion powder
1 Tablespoon paprika
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon ground mustard
1 t dried thyme
1/2 t dried basil
1/2 t pepper

Blend all ingredients together and store in an airtight container.

Creole Seasoning Blend

via

The other day I came across a recipe that required Creole seasoning.  I had gotten some Cajun Seasoning from Penzey's Spices a while back that I thought would be similar in flavor.  To my surprise, I discovered that we had used it all up!  Of course I didn't realize this until I had already begun stirring things up in the kitchen.

A quick search yielded a recipe from Type A Parent.  I had all the ingredients except for the celery salt so I omitted that.  I'm listing the recipe with it in case you'd like to add it.  Also, I'm listing the amounts as a ratio.  The original recipe was for tablespoons, but I wasn't sure if I'd like the blend so I only made a small amount.  One part in my recipe was 1/2 tsp.

I feared that this blend would be too spicy, but we thought it was just right.

Creole Seasoning from Type A Parent
4 parts sweet paprika
2 parts onion powder
2 parts garlic powder
2 parts dried oregano leaves
2 parts dried sweet basil
2 parts dried thyme leaves
1 part black pepper
1 part white pepper
1 part cayenne pepper
1 part celery seed (optional)

Blend all ingredients and store in an airtight container.

Maple Pumpkin Butter

I was rummaging through the freezer the other day and I came across some leftover canned pumpkin.  Hooray!  It's been months since I made something new and interesting from pumpkin.

Yes.  I wanted to make something new.

I've made a LOT of things from canned pumpkin: rolls, sloppy joes, pie, soup, cornbread, bars, granola, bread pudding, oatmeal, waffles, sweet bread, microwave mug cake for one, ice cream, pancakes, and bagels...just to name a few. 

Making something different was going to pose a challenge! 

I did some hunting and found a recipe for Maple Pumpkin Butter over at the blog called Chatelaine. 

How perfect and simple.  Blockette and Mrblocko both love pumpkin butter but I rarely buy it for them because it is always on the pricy side.  Not so with this version! 

I love pumpkin so I stock up when it goes on sale around Thanksgiving.  I also used my own pumpkin pie spice blend.  Then I used homemade maple syrup.  These things cut down on the cost as well.  Even if you buy your pumpkin full price, use real maple syrup and pricy spices, this will still be less costly, and taste better than the fancy little jars of pumpkin butter in your supermarket.

 The pumpkin I found in my freezer happened to be a scant 2 cups, so I used scant measurments of the rest of ingredients.  After cooking the concoction, the recipe yielded a heaping cup.

ingredients before cooking for a half hour.

Maple Pumpkin Butter from Chatelaine.
2 cups pumpkin purée
1/2 cup maple-syrup (I used home made maple flavored syrup)
1 tsp pumpkin-pie spice (make your own)

Combine pumpkin purée with maple syrup, pumpkin-pie spice and 1/4 cup water in a medium saucepan and set over medium. Cook, stirring frequently, until mixture thickens and turns dark brown, about 30 min.

One note of caution, I found that if I didn't stir the pumpkin butter constantly it bubbled up and made a mess over the stove.  So, I did what I do with most menial household tasks, I yacked it up on the phone.  Standing in front of the stove for 30 min just stirring and doing nothing else is boring!  So if you can't multitask, put on some good music before you begin this recipe.

After cooking...notice the deeper, darker brown color.

Raspberry Chops

source

A few months ago Penzey's Spices came out with a coupon for a free jar of Raspberry Enlightenment.

 Well you know me, I'm all about the free stuff.  So I headed over there and snatched that bad boy up.

The thing was, I had no idea what to use it for.

After much searching I decided to make these Raspberry Enlightenment Chops from Diet for Foodies.

Ok. OK. I didn't actually make these chops.  I had this recipe on the menu back when Blockette was sick with the croup, only I didn't know it yet.

Before taking her to the doctor, I set out all the ingredients for the marinade, and asked Mrblocko to mix it all together so the chops could have enough time to marinate.

When dinner time rolled around, I also had the nerve to ask Mrblocko to bake them while I made mashed potatoes.  I was sick as well, and multi-tasking at dinner was not in the cards if we wanted to eat sometime this century.

I believe Mrblocko browned the chops in the pan, then finished them off in the oven.  He poured the marinade over the chops while they baked in the oven.

This made the tastiest spicy sweet gravy.

Of course I didn't realize this until AFTER dinner when I was packaging up the leftovers.

DOH!

At least we got to enjoy the gravy on our leftovers!

My gravy separator was too large to work properly for the small amount of gravy in this recipe.  Once the gravy had cooled and congealed a bit, I just skimmed off the solidified fat at the top.  This isn't necessary, but I thought the gravy was too thin otherwise.

If you're not fortunate enough to have some Raspberry Enlightenment in your pantry, have no fear,  just substitute it with some seedless raspberry jam!

Raspberry Spice Marinade from Diet for Foodies
1/2 c wine or raspberry vinegar (I used pomegranate vinegar)
1/2 c oil (I used olive oil)
2 T soy sauce
5 T raspberry enlightenment (or jam)
5 T brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
1/2 tsp chipotle pepper ( I used cayenne)
1/2 t dried ginger
1/2 t salt
1 clove garlic, or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t ground pepper
1/2 t dry ground mustard

Mix all of the ingredients together in a ziplock bag.  Put in your meat.  (I used 4 thick boneless pork chops.) Marinade in the fridge for at least 4 hours, and as long as over night (or all day). Grill or bake as needed for the thickness of your chops. (USDA guidelines, as of this post, say cuts of pork should be cooked to a minimum internal temp of 145F, with a stand time of 3 minutes before cutting. )

Spicy Grilled Mushrooms

These grilled spiced mushrooms from Home Skillet totally blew my mind.
Ka-boom with the flavor explosion!

I'm already a huge fan of mushrooms. 

 And grilled? 

Sign me up for that.

There is just something simply amazing about this spice mix. It's smokey, sweet, savory, and spicy, with just a hint of salty. All that, combined with the meaty savory flavor from the mushrooms, and you have every flavor base covered. (At some point we are going to have to try this rub on grilled chicken. Mrblocko and I agree it would be awesome as well.)

And get this...Mrblocko asked Blockette if she wanted to taste a mushroom. Our daughter who won't eat a mushroom, even if you paid her, said "YES!" That will give you an indication of how enticing they had to have smelled for her to want to give a mushroom a taste test.

Get this, Blockette said she actually liked them. 

My child. 

Liked a mushroom. 

Woah. 

Although, they were too spicy for her to eat more than one. To her credit, the mushrooms were right on the edge of my heat tolerance level. Any hotter and they would have been too spicy for me.

The original recipe was even spicier. The spice blend calls for 2 tsp each of ancho and New Mexico Chile powder. I used 4 tsp of Chili powder instead. Once we run out of this batch, I will reduce the cayenne pepper from 2 tsp to just 1 tsp. I think this will make the spice blend with in Blockette's heat level. Mrblocko will probably be a bit sad, because he thought the spice blend was perfect the way it is. He can always add a pinch of cayenne to his portion of mushrooms and bring the heat up to inferno if he wants.

Amazing spicy grilled mushrooms from Home Skillet
Spice blend
1 T kosher salt
1 T black pepper
2 ½ t garlic powder
1 ½ t onion powder
1 ½ t oregano
1 ½ t basil
¼ t cinnamon
3 T brown sugar
1 T smoked paprika
1 T paprika
4 t chili powder
1-2 t cayenne

Combine all spices and store in an airtight container.

Grilled mushrooms
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, halved
4 tablespoons canola oil
1 ½ tablespoons mega spice mix

Place mushrooms in medium bowl. Drizzle oil and toss with mushrooms. Sprinkle on spice mix, coating mushrooms evenly. Set aside and prepare grill.

If using charcoal, light charcoal according to package directions or using your favorite method. Once 80-90 percent of charcoal ashed-over, spread into single layer, put cooking grates on, cover, and let grates heat up for 5 min. Adjust height of charcoal and air vents, if applicable to get a nice hot temp(350-400F).

If using gas grill, set temperature to high (350-400F) and cover for 5 min to heat grates.

Using a paper towel, coat cooking grates with thin layer of oil. Try to not let it drip down onto the coals to prevent flare ups. Place halved mushrooms on grill, cut side down. Cover, and come back in about 2-3 min to check on them. Once they’ve started to soften up just a bit, and bottoms have a nice char, remove from grill and serve hot.

Seasoned Salts

I might seem a little odd for me to be posting about seasoned salts. I'm usually writing about how to eliminate salt from food and seasoning blends. Sometimes it's nice to use seasoned salts as a dry rub for meats, or for roasted/grilled potatoes.

One day I found two slightly different recipes for seasoned salt blends. I thought it would be fun to give them both a test drive.

The first one I made was seasoned salt from Family Feedbag.

It contained: Garlic powder, paprika, onion powder, white pepper (I broke both of my pepper mills, so white pepper was the only ground pepper I had on hand.) and salt.

The second seasoned salt was Mock Lowrys Seasoned Salt from Group Recipes.

It contained, cornstarch, turmeric, sugar, onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, and of course salt.

Here's what they looked like all blended up:

The Family Feedbag seasoned salt is on the left, and the Lowry's Copycat is on the right.

The Lowry's kept wanting to separate after the initial blending.  I'm guessing this was because of the cornstarch.  Because of this, and the fact that the Lowry's was so much lighter than the first salt blend, I was convinced I would prefer the Family Feedbag version.

Color me surprised, because we all liked the Lowry's better.  Not that the other blend was bad, the Lowry's was just a bit better balanced.  I think it was the sweet from the sugar and the heat from the smoked paprika.

Once I run out of both seasoned salts, I'll most likely make another batch of the Lowry's seasoning.


Seasoned Salt from Family Feedbag
1/4 c salt
1 T onion powder
1 T garlic powder
4 t paprika
1/2 t pepper

Copycat Lowry's from Group Recipes (I doubled this recipe)
2 T salt
2 t sugar
1/2 t smoked paprika
1/4 t turmeric
1/4 t onion powder
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t cornstarch

Dutch Apple Pi(e)

Happy Pi Day everyone! Let's celebrate and eat some pie!

As I had apples in the fridge...way too many apples...I chose to make an Apple pie. I've been battling a head cold and didn't much feel like fighting with a crust I also decided on a super easy funky version of a Dutch apple pie. (Insert Dutch joke from Austin Powers here.)

I found this recipe for an unconventional apple pie from Eat Good 4 Life. The crust is made from the same crumble topping that is usually seen on top of a Dutch Apple pie. Perfectly no fuss for my foggy head-cold brain.

The recipe from Eat Good 4 Life is actually an adaptation of a recipe for dutch apple pie found over at Taste of Home. I made a few changes and my version lies somewhere between the one on Eat Good 4 Life and the one over at Taste of Home.

I really liked how the glaze turned out.  I was surprised at how much it thickened up.  It looks just like the glaze that you find in the canned apple pie filling.  Hooray! (Although I do think it's odd when I'm happy something I make looks store bought.  I mean if something is going to look store bought, shouldn't I save myself the trouble of making it from scratch?)

While this recipe does taste best warm on the first day, I suggest that you wait more than 15 minutes to slice the pie.  As you can see in the picture above, I have a giant fork acting as a sort of pie filling dam.  If you are impatient and cut the pie too early your slice of pie will look like this:

It looks more like an apple crumble than a slice of pie.  I mean if you're going to get techincal, it really is a pie-crumble hybrid.  If you want it to look like a slice of pie on your plate, have patience!

Here's my version of this pie

Apple Crumble Crust Pie adapted from Taste of Home and Good Food 4 Life
Crust:
1c unbleached flour
1c Whole wheat flour
1c brown sugar
1/2 c old fashioned oats
1 stick (8 T) butter
2 T olive oil
2 heaping t cinnamon

Filling:
4-6 c peeled, chopped apples (I used a total of 5 1/2 c Fuji, Jonagold, and Honeycrisp, only because that's what I had.  Use apples of your preference.  The pie would have been ok with 4 cups, but more than 6 cups would have been too much.)
2 T lemon juice
1 t vanilla
1-2 t apple pie spice (see below)
1/3 c sugar
1/3 c brown sugar
3 T cornstarch
1 1/4 c water

In a large bowl, combine crust ingredients; set aside 1 cup for topping. Press remaining crumb mixture into an ungreased 9-in. pie plate; set aside. For filling, place prepared apples in a large bowl. Toss with lemon juice, vanilla and apple pie spice. In a medium saucepan, combine sugars, cornstarch and water until smooth; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 min til thickened. Remove from the heat; pour over apples and combine. Pour into crust; top with reserved crumb mixture. Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Apple Pie Spice from Baking Bites
1/4 cup ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground allspice
2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamom (optional)

Combine all ingredients for desired mix and blend well. Store in a small, airtight container.

Salt Free Taco Seasoning

Like GIR, from Invader Zim, I loves me some tacos. (I love the little tacos. I love them good.)

Soooo...it was no big surprise when I noticed that we were precariously low on Taco seasoning. (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!)  I like to make my own stuff as it is cheaper, tastes better and I can make it salt free. 

So I did a little search on here and...what?  No posts found.  Hmmm....so I went looking in my handy black recipe binder.  WHAT??  It wasn't there either. Uh oh.  What in the world did I do with the recipe?

Ugh.  It was back to square one on trying to find a good recipe.  After much searching, here is what I came up with:


Salt Free Taco Seasoning
4 parts chili powder*
4 parts paprika (I used half smoked and half regular)
2 parts cumin
2 parts cornstarch 
1 part cayenne (or more depending on your heat preference)
1 part oregano
1 part onion powder
1 part garlic powder
1 part cocoa powder
1/2 part coriander
1/2 part pepper (or more depending on your heat preference)** 

Mix everything up and store in an air tight container.  I like to use 3-4T for one pound of meat. 

*If you want this really spicy use ground chile (ancho or chipotle) powder which is much different than chili powder.  If you want this Taco seasoning to be salt free, make sure your Chili powder doesn't contain salt.  Most of them do.  You can make your own chili powder if your store doesn't sell the salt free kind.

**I used white pepper as it was the only stuff that was already ground, and I was lazy.

Spice Girl

One of my friends is in the process of moving.  Like everyone does when they move, she was complaining about the amount of stuff she and her family has accumulated.  During one phone conversation she mentioned how she had way too many spices, some that she never even used.

I laughed at her.  Yes.  Laughed out loud at her, not even the fake lol that people write these days.  Nice friend I am eh?

See the thing is, I have a LOT of spices.   One might even go so far as to say that I have a problem.  An addiction to spices.

I mean I knew I had a lot of spices, but I didn't realize how many I actually had until I couldn't find the Red Pepper Flakes the other day.  I wondered how bad things actually were so I took inventory. I had 37 different spices or blends..in one cabinet, and 47 in another.

Yeah, like I said...I MIGHT have a teensy weensy problem.

It's really not my fault though.  Penzeys Spices is my pusher.  See when you sign up for their catalog they send you coupons to try spices out...for free.  FREE I tells ya.  Really yummy spice blends.  Spice blends that your child gets addicted to and must have on eggs or chili or whatever so when your free stuff runs out you have to go back to Penzeys and actually buy some more.  Because you are a good and wonderful mother, and not because you like them too.

Pumpkin Granola

Get a load of that massive granola-y goodness.

OM. NOM. NOM.

This isn't just any granola. It's pumpkin granola from Baked Bree. The weird thing is that it's not too much different than my go to recipe for granola.  The main difference is this one doesn't have any filler Rice Krispies, but does have pumpkin.  Hmmm...since this granola has applesauce and pumpkin in it, does it qualify as eating a fruit and a veggie?  Well if the government considers pizza a vegetable, then the answer must be a resounding YES!

I made a few minor additions to this recipe.  First I added about 1/2 c coarsely chopped walnuts, and quite a bit more than 1/2 c of sliced almonds.  I just dumped the almonds into the cooked and cooled mixture until I thought it looked almond-y enough. I also added 1/2 c steel cut oats, 1/4 c wheat germ and 1/4 c ground flax seed.  I add all that to my regular granola for extra fiber so I did the same here.  With all those add ins the granola didn't clump up as much as it probably should.  I don't particularly care for the huge chunks in my granola either, so it worked well for me.

When this first came out of the oven, I snuck a tiny bit to test taste.  At the time, I didn't think it was anything special.  However, once the granola cooled, the spices and slight pumpkin flavor emerged.  YUM!  It was difficult to stop eating. It tasted that good.

This really is the perfect granola for the fall and winter.  There is something about it that tastes really hardy.  More so than my go to recipe.  I'll keep making my usual granola in the spring and summer.  I think the extra spices would be too heavy for the warmer months. 

Pumpkin Granola from Baked Bree
5 cups rolled oats
1/2 c rough chopped walnuts (optional)
1/2 c steel cut oats (optional)
1/4 c wheat germ (optional)
1/4 c ground flax seed (optional)
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (you can buy this or make your own. See below.)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar (use splenda brown sugar to reduce the sugar)
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (Make sure it's puree, not pumpkin pie filling)
1/4 cup maple syrup (I used the fake stuff, go ahead and use sugar free if you want)
1/4 cup applesauce (Again, sugar free is ok, I used Cinnamon applesauce as I am a cinnamon fiend)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup sliced almonds (or more if you are like me)

In a large bowl, combine oats, walnuts, flax, wheat germ, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and brown sugar. In another bowl, combine the pumpkin, maple syrup, applesauce, and vanilla. Pour the pumpkin mix into oat mix. Toss til coated. Spread onto baking sheet lined with foil or parchment. Bake in a preheated 325F for 20 min. Take granola out and stir it around. Bake another 20 minutes or until granola gets crisp. (I usually have to cook mine for about an hour to get it as crisp as I like it.) Take granola out and mix in the cranberries and almonds. Store in an airtight container.

Pumpkin Pie Spice from Baking Bites
1/4 cup ground cinnamon
2 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cardamom

Mix everything together and store in an airtight container.

Italian Spice blend

I got a free jar of pasta sprinkle from Penzeys a while ago. It was the perfect thing to shake into red sauce, on bread sticks, toasted cheesy bread, pizza...etc. All that shaking used up the container pretty darn quick. Then I was sad. No more Pasta Sprinkle. And I wanted some. Now.

So I did some searching and found this recipe on Food.com. Perfect! I omitted the red pepper flakes because the original didn't have any heat to it. The only difference between the Italian Blend I made myself and the one from Penzeys is my own contains marjoram. I'd never used marjoram before. I still couldn't tell you what marjoram tastes like, but it does seem to amp up the flavors of the other herbs in the mix.

I've found that this recipe fits nicely in my 1/2 cup jar from Penzeys. So the new mix got dumped into the old jar. I even grabbed a sharpie and wrote the following recipe on the outside: Or, for those of you who don't read chicken scratch:

2T Basil

2 T Marjoram

1 T garlic powder

1 T Oregano

1 T Parsley

1 T Rosemary

(1T Crushed Red Pepper Flakes)

Now, when I run out again, I won't have to flip through any recipes. It's right there! Talk about instant gratification.

Espresso BBQ Sauce Fail

I found this recipe for espresso barbeque sauce over at A Good Appetite. I thought since Mrblocko likes coffee so much, it would be the perfect sauce to use in the BBQ pulled turkey. I made it and took a test taste. It was quite bitter. I thought, well maybe after it sits overnight in the fridge it will improve. Lots of things improve once their flavors have a chance to marry.

The next day I took another test taste. Nope, still very bitter from the espresso. I thought maybe it was just me, since I was not a big fan of coffee. Surely Mrblocko would like it? Even Mrblocko thought it had a bitter aftertaste. Maybe if you are a super mega coffee fan, or need to find new and interesting ways to infuse caffeine into your system, you would get a enjoy this type of BBQ sauce.

One final note. The result of this recipe may have been due to expired ingredients. My instant espresso was all hard packed into the jar, and not loose and fluffy like it was when I first bought it. I'm guessing this was a result of going from the excessively humid summer to the excessively dry winter. The container was about a year old. It was not, however, past the expiration date so who knows.

Espresso Barbecue Sauce from A Good Appetite
1 c ketchup
1 T molasses
2 T red wine vinegar
dash of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t onion powder
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t cayenne pepper
1 T brown sugar
2 T instant espresso powder

Mix everything together in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar and  espresso. Let simmer gently about 10 minutes to meld flavors. Makes about 1 1/2 cups

Ras El Hanout-Moroccan Spice Mix

After making my own chili powder I was curious what other directions for spice blends were out there in the recipe world. After a brief search I came across something called Ras El Hanout on Recipezaar. Ras el Hanout, meaning "top of the shop", is a spice mixture from Morocco that can contain anywhere from 10-100 different spices. This particular blend contains 14.I chose to test this spice blend out as a rub for grilled pork. Yes. Pork. I do know that there is something inherently wrong about using an Arabic spice blend on pork. I like to think of it as super special fusion cuisine.

So how did it taste? Pretty good. It was an interesting combination of savory and sweet spices unlike anything I've ever had before. The pork chops were very thin and so they got cooked quicker than expected. Subsequently, the meat was on the dry side. Mrblocko suggested they would be perfect with a piece or two of grilled apple slices. What goes better with pork chops than apples! We'll be giving that a try next time.

Ras El Hanout from Food.com
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons turmeric
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Mix all the spices together. Store in an airtight container.

Salt Free Chili powder

When I ran out of chili powder the other day, it got me to wondering if I could make up my own with the spices I had on hand. I did a search for chili powder recipes and found that most of them contained a lot of salt. I don't know about you, but I certainly don't need extra salt in my diet.

I've encountered a similar problem at the grocery store. Most of the chili powder in the spice aisle contains salt as well. I did find one brand at Meijer called Simply Organic that didn't contain salt. Their chili powder tasted every bit as tasty as the saltier versions. The price was comparable per oz to a brand name like McCormick. That was a shock to me as organic usually equals less money left in your wallet. Now, the salt free version was twice as expensive as the store brand generic chili powder. The generic store brand's second ingredient was salt. When it comes to spices I guess you get what you pay for. Salt is a cheap filler ingredient.

In my scouring the interweb I found this recipe on Budget101.com. Blockette loved helping me combine all the spices together. She wanted to smell every jar before I added it to the mix. Blockette would tell you I was a mean mom because I wouldn't let her stir our chili powder concoction. She gets a bit overly enthusiastic when she helps out in the kitchen. Silly me, I wanted to make sure the spice went into the jar and not on the counter, the floor, on the cats and in my hair.

So how does the new chili powder taste? I haven't had the chance to cook with it yet, but it smells delicious. I don't make a lot of chili in the summer as it seems to heat up the whole house. Since I just made the chili burgers I won't be making those for a while either. I'll be sure to post when I do use the new spice blend and let you know how it turned out.

Chili Powder from Budget 101
3 tablespoons paprika
2 teaspoons ground oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Combine dry spices and seal in ziploc or vacuum seal bag (or jar). Measure all into a ziploc bag, seal & shake to combine.