French Vanilla Coffee Creamer

Well I don't know about the rest of you, but I like to have a cup of coffee or two to start my day. I always buy coffee beans, preferably Caribou coffee beans from Sams Club, and I need flavored creamer.

Even though I buy flavored creamer I also buy coffee syrup at Sams Club to add to my coffee. It just seems for my tastes the flavored creamers are usually lacking in full flavor for me. I don't know maybe my taste buds are jaded.

As we all know these flavored creamers can get a little expensive, so I found a recipe for making your own creamer. It is fairly inexpensive to make and tastes just as good as those premade creamers in the store.

All you need to make your own coffee creamer is sweetened condensed milk, milk or heavy cream, (I buy mine at Aldis) and coffee syrup. I used french vanilla flavor, but if you look at Sams Club you will find an assortment of flavors. My mind is already wandering to the different kinds of creamers that I could make. They have blue and red raspberry, coconut, chocolate, caramel, cherry lime, Irish cream, hazelnut and Kahlua. I probably missed a few too. And remember if you buy these syrups you don't just have to use them in your coffee they have other uses too. I use the raspberry in my lemonade to make raspberry lemonade. Super yummy!

Just mix these ingredients together in a old creamer container or in a mason jar and you've got your own homemade coffee creamer. So on those mornings when you run out of creamer you can quickly reach in the cupboard and make up your own.

Homemade Coffee Creamer

French Vanilla Coffee Creamer
14 oz sweetened Condensed milk
14 oz milk or heavy cream
4 t Vanilla Coffee Syrup
a container for mixing it in like a mason jar or old creamer container.

Pour all of the ingredients into your container. Put the cap or lid on tightly and shake vigorously for a few minutes until combined well. Refrigerate.

adapted from www.mrshappyhomemaker.com

Honey Mustard Salad Dressing

Garden Salad with Honey Mustard Salad Dressing

It's that time of year for serving up some fresh salads for lunch or dinner. I really enjoy having salads year round, but this time of year is especially nice with all those fresh vegetables that are starting to come into the produce section. I can't wait to go to the farmer's market.

This last grocery trip I found that Aldi's had cucumbers, so naturally I had to pick some up along with a bag of salad mix. I know it's kind of cheating, but sometimes a girls just gotta have a quick, healthy salad and those bags are great in a pinch.

My daughter had fallen in love with this Honey Mustard dressing that I had picked up at Aldi's, but now of course I haven't been able to find it there ever since. She keeps asking me every time that I go grocery shopping if I found it yet. I'm holding out that eventually I find it again.

Well to help her with her Honey Mustard desire I decided that we could try and make it ourselves. A sort of DIY thing. I just so happen to be looking at my new Simple and Delicious magazine and found a recipe for Honey Mustard Salad Dressing. How convenient!

Since it only called for like four ingredients I decided that I'd give it a try. Of course when I went to Aldi's I couldn't find Dijon mustard so I settled for this other mild mustard with herbs and I just used regular vinegar instead of the cider vinegar. I also put the ingredients into a shaker to mix. The result was a sweet and tangy honey mustard dressing.

I might try and mess around with the ingredients a little to perhaps try and make a spicy mustard dressing with this hot, spicy mustard that Aldi's sells. I really don't think a person could mess it up. I think the family would be up for something hot and spicy like that.

Anyways, you've got to try this recipe. It is really good and it sure spiced up our garden salad. Let me know if you try and make another kind of honey mustard dressing with your own twist.

Honey Mustard Salad Dressing

Honey Mustard Salad Dressing
3 T honey
2 T Dijon Mustard
1/4 C cider vinegar
1/2 C canola oil

Combine the honey and mustard in a small bowl. Add the vinegar and whisk until blended. Gradually whisk in the canola oil. Serve over a garden salad. If using a shaker shake before pouring over your salad.

Homemade Taco Seasoning

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

 

Well as promised on my facebook page I'm going to share my recipe for Cinco de Mayo. I'm making it very easy today. My recipe is homemade taco seasoning.

I have too many times wanted to make tacos and have found I have no taco seasoning mix in the cabinet. Because of this it has forced me to find an alternative, making my own.

After perusing the internet I came upon a few recipes that I just kind of tweaked and made my own. It is quite good and after thinking about it, I don't think you could really mess this one up too much. I used this recipe last week when I made taco salads with my daughter. Sorry there are no pictures of the salad. They were so good we just gobbled them up.

 You can use this with either hamburger or chicken. And as I stated before not only can you make excellent tacos with this it works great to use in taco salad. I also usually buy my seasonings at Aldi's making it easier to make this seasoning mix. The spices are at a reasonable price and the jars are large.

Taco Seasoning Mix

Homemade Taco Seasoning Mix
4 T chili powder
3 T paprika
3 T ground cumin
1 T dry minced onion
1 t garlic powder
1/2 t cayenne pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Store in an air tight container until ready to use.
When preparing taco meat use 2 t of seasoning mix and 1/4 C of water with 1 lb of hamburger. I always cook my hamburger in the microwave, drain and then add the seasoning and water. Cook for 2 minutes and your done.
You can use chicken to make this too.