Money Saving Flavorful Gravy Mix, Soup Mix, and Condensed Soup Mix updated

Hello my darlings! Monday is the day I share a few tips and tricks for cooking and baking with food storage.  It's always a happy-happy-joy-joy-day when I can visit my friends Callie and Tenille on the Cookin' Cousins blog! This is what they are sharing with their readers today (I'm guest bloggin') and I wanted to share it here as well. These are revised recipes and I think they're even better than the ones I've done here in the past. 

 Today we are dawning our bright frilly aprons, putting giant fluffy flowers in our hair and bustin' out the rick-rac embellished calculators to show you how to save real money!  Welcome to Gravy and Sauce Mix basics. I can't stop bouncing! I'm so excited to show you how to save some cash-oh-laa, add some flavor, and have convenient mixes that are practical enough to use every day. Now that I have my three-prong thesis statement out of the way. Are we ready to begin?

The first mix I want to share is a real money saving tool. A single packet of gravy mix at the grocery store averages about 70 cents. Sometimes more or less on sale. My main concern isn't always saving money. The other side of the mixes is that they usually taste so flat and have a list of ingredients ten miles long. The gravy mix I use is also a base for soups. It can be used for beef stew or sausage biscuit gravy. It's simple enough to just add water (or milk for creamy soup) and cook on the stove. It also, ironically, costs just a few pennies to make. My small batch yields 2 cups of mix. That's about double the amount of gravy than what the average store-bought variety will provide. Oh...and for double the amount, you're looking about 12 cents per mix. If you made that a 1 cup serving...it would be 6 cents. Pennies. Oh. Did I also mention that it is gluten free?!

Chef Tess Basic Gluten Free Gravy Mix
 1/4 cup cornstarch or Ultra gel
 1T plus 1tsp beef or chicken stock granules, MSG free** if you prefer (make sure it's labeled gluten-free)
1T onion powder or Freeze Dried onions
 1 tsp chef Tess All Purpose seasoning
1 bay leaf

Mix Directions: Place all ingredients in a half pint seal able jar. Repeat as needed however many mixes you want to make. Please note, this mix makes 4 cups of gravy.

To prepare: Whisk mix with 4 cups milk or water (broth or stock if you omit the bullion). Simmer over medium heat stir occasionally 10-15 minutes.
Smaller Batch
yield 2 cups
2T cornstarch or Ultra gel
2 tsp beef or chicken stock granules (Haco Beef Base is my favorite)
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp Chef Tess All Purpose seasoning
To prepare small batches: Whisk mix with 2 cups stock or milk in a medium sauce pan with a heavy bottom. Simmer over medium heat 5 minutes for corn starch sauces, 10-15 minutes if you use flour.

Yankee Beef Pot Roast Gravy 

2 cups  Freeze Dried Diced Beef

1/4 cup ultra gel or cornstarch

1/4 cup Freeze Dried Mushrooms

1/3 cup  Dehydrated onion

2 tsp beef  bouillon /stock granules ( Haco Beef Base is my favorite.)

1 tsp dehydrated minced garlic

1 tsp Chef Tess All Purpose Seasoning

1T  Tomato Powder

Pour the gravy mixture into a 2 quart pot. Add 4 cups of very hot water to the gravy mix. Whisk well.  Place on a stove and bring to a simmer 15-20 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave covered 5 additional minutes. Serve over baked potatoes or mashed potatoes.

 To make this a 52 method meal in a jar that includes the mashed potatoes, go Here. 

This is a recipe that I use as the base for any cream soup or sauce. It's got a short list of ingredients and it works for the basics of life. The basics of life will happen on Tuesday night...or in any emergency.  That being said, for food storage the main thing to remember is that you can keep this mix in  pint jars sealed and labeled for a quick dinner anytime of the year. They keep fresh up to 5 years (for best flavor) so please be sure to label and date clearly with an oxygen packet at the top of the jar for optimal shelf life.
Chef Tess Cream Basic Soup/sauce Mix for Food Storage
1/2 c All Purpose flour (or for gluten free use 1/4 c cornstarch or ultra-gel) 
2/3 c  instant non-fat dry milk 
1/3 cup  sour cream  powder
2T  butter powder 
1 bay leaf
2 T  Freeze Dried Onions
 1 T   freeze dried celery 
1T Chef Tess All Purpose Seasoning 
 2 T chicken stock or bouillon  granules (No msg if you prefer. I like the low sodium like Haco chicken base  )
To prepare: combine soup mix with 6 c water  and whisk until combined over medium heat. Simmer 15-20 minutes. Add any flavor variations you like...2 c chopped broccoli or cauliflower, potatoes, corn, carrots, chicken, clams, crumbled bacon. If you want a cheese soup, be sure it gets added only at the very end after soup is off the heat or it will be grainy. This mix can also be used as a white sauce!
Have fun with this one! Add dehydrated potatoes, freeze dried vegetables and meats.
Tomato Soup: If you want creamy tomato, you may add 1/4 cup cup of tomato powder, but be sure to also add 1tsp baking soda to keep it from curdling when it cooks. 
Medium Batch cream soup/sauce mix 
(yield 3 cups soup/sauce)
1/4 c  All Purpose flour (or for gluten free use 3T cornstarch or ultra-gel) 
1/3 c  instant non-fat dry milk
3T   sour cream  powder
1T  butter powder 
1 T  Freeze Dried Onions
1 1/2 tsp   Freeze Dried Celery 
1 1/2 tsp  Chef Tess All Purpose Seasoning 
 1T chicken bouillon  like Haco chicken base  (Haco says they are msg free and  low sodium)
To prepare: combine soup mix with 3 c water  and whisk until combined over medium heat. Simmer 15-20 minutes
Small Batch Cream Soup/sauce Mix  (Yield 1 cup soup/sauce)
1 1/2 TablespoonHoneyville All Purpose flour ( gluten free use 1T cornstarch or ultra-gel) 
2T    instant non-fat dry milk
1T  cup  sour cream  powder
1 1/2 tsp  butter powder 
1 1/2 tsp  Freeze Dried Onions
 1 1/2 tsp   Freeze Dried Celery 
1/4 tsp  Chef Tess All Purpose Seasoning 
 1 tsp  Haco chicken base 

To prepare: combine soup mix with 1 c water  and whisk until combined over medium heat. Simmer 15-20 minute (or 5 minutes for cornstarch)

Now. This is a big one. Try not to pass out (or pass anything in general for that matter). 
How many casserole recipes start with a can of cream-o-gunk soup? I know a lot of guys and dolls who can't even make dinner without it. Now, suppose your family food budget went from several dollars a week going toward those cans...to several pennies a week. Would that save some good cash?
 Oh yeah! Mama needs a new pair of shoes! What am I saying? Mama needs a pony!
What if you could control every single ingredient in your recipe as well. There's nothing wrong with cutting out a lot of undesirable added chemicals. There. I said it. Be a control freak. Control is good. It's good in hair gel and it's good in cooking. Though, I'm not ever mixing the hair gel with the soup. That would just be wrong. {Insert dramatic eyeball raise on the face of Chef-Tess}  Use one mix to replace one can of soup condensed soup.
Tess' Condensed Soup replacement Mix
1/4 c Corn Starch or 1/3 cup ultra-gel
2 tsp chicken bouillon/stock granules ( My favorite is Haco chicken base ) 
1 T  Freeze Dried onions
1/4  instant non-fat dry milk
2T  sour cream powder
1/2 tsp Chef Tess All purpose seasoning 
To prepare:Combine mix with 1 1/4 cups water whisking over medium heat.

  

 Heat until thick, about 5 minutes. It will thicken more as it cool so don't add a lot of extra thickener or you'll end up with glue.

 Yes. It does weigh just about the same amount as the contents of one small can of cream-o-gunk soup. Give or take 1/2 an ounce. I'm not worried.

 If you use ultra gel, you can skip the cooking step and just combine the full mix with the 1 1/4 cups warm water using a wire whisk. It will thicken in about 5 minutes. Yes. You did just make instant condensed soup pudding. Mmm. Pudding pie. 
*Chef note: Cornstarch will lose it's ability to thicken once frozen, opt for Ultra gel for freezer sauces.
Cream of mushroom: Crush 1/4 cup  Freeze Dried Mushroom Slices down to  2 T crushed freeze dried mushrooms. Add to your mix.
Cream of Celery: Add 2 T  Freeze Dried Celery  to the mix.
Here's a handy-dan-delicious tip. Put the single batch in a snack size zippy bag. Expel as much air out as possible and put up to 4 baggies in a quart size wide mouth jar.This is not only a fantastic way to have the equivalent of one can of soup condensed (bwhaha condensed soup more condensed soup), but also an easy grab when you have a recipe that calls for condensed soup. Just pull out a baggie. I don't even write cooking directions on the baggies (who has time for that?). I simply write how much water to add on the top of the jar. I actually double the recipe and know that each baggie will make 2 cans of soup. This quart size jar stuffed with baggies makes the equivalent of 10 cans of soup. Each mix (using cornstarch) cost about 7 cents. Yes. 10 cans worth of soup for 70 cents. That's a whole lot less than 10$ for 10 cans (on sale).

  

There you go my lovelies! Make some time-saving, cash-ohhh-laaa saving, sanity-saving homemade sauce and soup mixes. 

Do you want the printable version of today's recipes. Yes. Of course you do. Click: here.

**End Note: MSG free will depend on the company who makes the base or bouillons. Some say MSG free but contain autolyzed yeast extract. The ones I use are labeled MSG free, but contain the yeast extract, meaning it's not the same compound as MSG per say. If you want to know more about this go here.  

"According to the European Association of Specialty Yeast Products (EURaSYP), the content of free glutamic acid in yeast extract ranges from 6 to 13 percent of total protein and in end products is less than the content of foods with naturally occurring glutamic acid. Their members agree not to add MSG or glutamic acid beyond what naturally originates in the yeast itself...(here)."

Again, and as always... You do what you feel is right for you and your family. If I can eat seaweed with naturally occuring yeast and the products I use don't exceed that amount, as I understand it, they should be fine. I prefer the flavor and the salt content of the brand I use. I try to offer healthier alternatives here. If you want to just make the mixed without the flavor extracts, you can do so and then use homemade or packaged stocks in place of the bouillon and in place of the liquid in the recipe. These are things that have worked for me and my family. Use organic versions if you want. These recipes can act as a guide. I've made the soup and sauce bases using non-gmo soymilk powder as well and it has ben great!I have not tested them using almond milk or rice milk.

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

I am no longer the corporate chef for Honeyville but we still love them dearly. My family is greatly blessed and relies heavily on the extra money brought in by sales tracked back to this site. This is also the company that packages and sells my spice line as well as my food storage cookbooks. Thank you so very much for your support. Xoxo!

Yankee Pot Roast Gravy and Butter-Garlic Mashed Potatoes (52 Method Continues)

How can I possibly top this meal? I mean...can I? What in the name-of-all-that's-freakish am I thinking with this meal other than the fact that some red-blooded-American boys are going to just want to kiss me! This is about as meat-n-'taters as one can get when it comes to a meal...and add to that the fact that it is shelf stable 3 years! It's loaded with real tender beef, mushrooms and onions in a savory gravy... Oh dear. Bless my ever-prepared-heart.  Speaking of that, I'd like to thank my darling friends at  Honeyville for providing the bulk of  ingredients used in today's post! They have been so kind as to ask me to write their food storage cook book and many of my meal-in-a-jar recipes will be included in that book.

My 52 jar method Meals in a jar will be the theme all week! So, if you like what you  see, plan on visiting all week. I'll try to have at least 4 new posts up this week with new recipes and some that I've re-vised to be more natural and user-friendly. If you are new to the meals in a jar, go here and get some details on how the meals are done as well as the basic safety guidelines. If your scroll through the rest of the 52 jar method posts, there are a lot more recipes, ideas, and helpful tips when making the meals. I answer a lot of questions in the comment sections as well. If I had to re-cap each detail in each  new post, it would take a lot of time and space. So. That being said there are a few things I will always re-cap in each post.   

First, however, I'm gonna say, "Duuuuude! I got that Yankee Pot Roast Gravy and Butter-Garlic Mashed Potatoes right out of this jar." I know...it's hard to believe how cool this is.  Try not to pass out. This ends up making 4 cups of thick buttery-garlic mashed potatoes and 4 cups of this  savory pot roast gravy with mushrooms and onions. It's a hearty filling meal. Bet you'd never believe so much food could come out of this little space right?!

So what's the down-low on the jars?!

1. You will be using a method  some have called "dry pack canning" but it's actually called Vacuum packing. No liquid or pressure canning is necessary. If you opt to use the freeze dried meat in the recipes  NOTE: The repacking of Freeze Dried Meat must be done within 24-48 hours of opening the can and must be done in a dry environment. Once repacked you must use an oxygen absorber to make sure there is a vacuum oxygen free environment. I recommend using a 300 cc oxygen absorber for each jar. This will make the vacuum packing effective. You can use a food Saver with a jar attachment for this in place of the oxygen absorber, but will need to make sure your machine is designed to be used with the jar attachment. Some of the food Savers are called "meal savers" and are actually not designed to use with the attachment. I called the FoodSaver company myself to be sure that the attachment I had was right for the machine I was using. 

2. You can also pack in mylar bags (the ones that are silver-colored), but again need to use the oxygen absorber. This size I use is designed to absorb a gallon size amount of air, but I'd rather err on the side of over-vacuum than not enough. No. You can't use the foodSaver clear plastic bags for long term storage. They are not designed for that purpose. When I say "long term" I'm talking 3-5 years. 

Chef Tess' Yankee Pot Roast Beef and  Gravy 

Over Butter Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Gravy Ingredients:

2 cups Freeze Dried Diced Beef

1/4 cup ultra gel or cornstarch

1/4 cup  Freeze Dried Mushrooms

1/3 cup Dehydrated onion

2 tsp Haco Beef Base (no msg, lower sodium and great flavor)

1 tsp dehydrated minced garlic

1 tsp Chef Tess All Purpose Seasoning

1T Tomato Powder

Mashed Potatoes:

1 1/2 cup  Potato Pearls

1 tsp granulated garlic

3T powdered butter

To make the Quart size jars:

Put the gravy ingredients in the bottom of a quart size jar, making sure it is a very dry day when re-packing the meats. Shake the powdered ingredients into the solid ones.

 To add the potato layer, place a sandwich size zipper bag inside the jars.

I'm not going to lie. I'm a huge fan of the Potato Pearls. They make a more compact "bang for the buck" in the small space we have in the jars. Flakes will work but it will take about 2 cups of those and you will need to add seasoning. Potato pearls are already pretty buttery and have a good flavor. They don't have as long a shelf life as other potatoes, thus the 3 years instead of 7-10 as we've had with other meals. 

Place the pearls in the baggie while it is in the jar and add the butter powder and the garlic.  You can find these at the Honeyville retail stores but not at their online store. 

Seal up the bag and then put an oxygen absorber at the top of the jar, being sure it is inside the jar and not at all on the rim.  Oxygen absorbers need to be done all at once at the very end of packing since once you open the package of absorbers, they start chemically bonding with air. They are a ONE TIME use. Once they've done their job, the make a dramatic-swooning exit and will never be alive again. So...plan accordingly. They need to be packed within 20 min to an hour of opening the bag from whence they came. Swoon. Swoon. Top with a new clean lid and tighten the canning ring as tight as you can. In about an hour, the jar lid will pop, letting you know a vacuum has been achieved. 

To prepare the meal:
Carefully remove the bag of potato pearls by opening the bag and emptying a little into a 2-quart metal bowl and then easing the baggie out of the jar. Pour the entire contents of the potato baggie into the bowl.  
Pour the gravy mixture into a 2-quart pot. Add 4 cups of very hot water to the gravy mix. Whisk well.  Place on a stove and bring to a simmer 15-20 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave covered 5 additional minutes. While the gravy sits, heat 3 cups of water in a separate pan. Bring the water to a boil and pour into the potatoes, stirring well. 
Scoop potatoes onto a plate and top with the hot, chunky, meaty, luscious, savory, divine-ambrosia of beef...Pass out. Wake up with mashed potato on your face and some beef in your eyebrow hairs. Mmm. Pretty.

If you decide to use a fork, it's probably better, but I think it would be very manly and cool to just stick your face into that pile of gravy-stuff and freestyle.  Oh dear. Ladies, however, can be delicate if they desire. {Picture me with a very delicate-looking expression on my face...right below the chunks of beef in my eyebrows. Twitching. }

3. There you go!  Enjoy. 
4. How many calories?  365 calories a serving (1 cup potatoes, 1 cup gravy) 

Share these recipes with your friend! Get the word out that they are here!  PLEASE...make sure my name stays with the recipes.  Try to think how it would feel if you had worked on the recipes yourself. You'd want not only the credit, but also a way for people to contact you if they had questions. I ask you to please be mindful of that. Plus, they are my copy-written work and that is just the law. Thanks.

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

Creamy Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup Mix

Today is my birthday. Don't ask how old or how much I weigh...I might punch you in the forehead. Respectfully. Then give you smooooches. I will always be younger than my geezer- pushing husband Ace ...and I just lost 33 lbs. That's as close as I will get as far as straight answers go.

As for today's Mix Monday, last week I shared the basics of Holiday Soup and Gravy Mix (The 101) so I thought for the next couple weeks I'd follow up with the actual recipes from the class. This week it's the recipe for my creamy Italian sausage soup mix. Put everything in the bottle in the order it is listed in the recipe, the cream soup mix on the bottom of a pint mason jar...

My Cream Basic soup mix:

1/2 cup flour (or for gluten free use 1/4 cup cornstarch or thick-gel)

2/3 cup instant milk powder

1 bay leaf

2T dehydrated onion,

1T freeze dried celery

1 tsp granulated garlic

1tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2tsp thyme

2T bullion (optional) (omit previous salt if you use bullion)

Then to turn that into the Creamy Italian Sausage and Tortellini soup mix, I top the rest of the jar to the rim with these ingredients in order:

1/2 tsp Italian seasoning, dash of dehydrated grated lemon zest, 1/4 tsp fennel seed, 1/4 cup freeze dried bell pepper, 1/4 cup sausage TVP, 1/4 cup freeze dried mushrooms. The jar should be full to the rim with freeze dried veggies.

They keep fresh up to 5 years (for best flavor) so please be sure to label and date clearly with an oxygen packet at the top of the jar.


To prepare, combine soup mix with 8 cups water if you are not using noodles (for a richer cream soup, use milk) and whisk until combined over medium heat. Simmer 15-20 minutes.

Decorate the jar as desired. Label with cooking directions for the folks you're giving the mix to, or for yourself for future use.

Where are the noodles?! I give them with the soup in a little cutie baggie with a ribbon. Isn't that girlie? Yeah. They are the dry tortellini...tri-color. I use two cups. Add the noodles to the soup when you add the water or milk. It is also possible to put the whole mix (noodles included) into a Quart size mason jar! Then you don't have to have a baggie at all. Increase the water to 10 cups for recipes using 2 cups of dry noodles so the soup won't be too thick.

I like how the bag looks in a little red wagon.

There you go. Make some holiday mixes!

Holiday Soup and Gravy Mix (The 101)

I don't know any family that wouldn't enjoy a little warm soup on a busy holiday week. Especially a homemade soup in a personal packet of love from a good friend or family member.

Welcome to my kitchen...all decked out for Holiday soup and gravy mix making! We keep busy...but it's so fun! The first thing I do is get out my freeze dried goodie boxes. I have carrots, potatoes, celery, onions, tomato powder, MSG free bullion, bell peppers, mushrooms, TVP sausage, and instant milk. All of these I get from my favorite Preparing Wisely Store in Mesa.

The thickener I use is called thick-gel, also at Preparing Wisely, but you can also use flour or cornstarch if you don't have it. The advantage of using thick gel over cornstarch is that it will stay thick after freezing or boiling for a long time, where cornstarch will loosen up.

You will also need a good funnel. Bright red if you can find one. That will look really good in your pictures and make people smile when they read your blog. Admit it...you just smiled right?

Most of my recipes are for pint or half pint jars, unless I specify otherwise. I pack the jars way up to the very tipper-top of mount Crumpet...then I smash it all down with the lid and I clamp it. See how I can rhyme too? No charge for awesomeness.

If I call for whole spices, like fennel seeds, it is because they will have a longer shelf life. If you use an oxygen eater packet in your jars, they should be shelf stable for 4-5 years or more! Isn't that awesome? Why? because there is no air in there and the jar is non-porous. It won't let in air.

I also use the funky-cool lids that are just freaky fun and coordinate the colors of the whole thing. I probably do this because I don't have daughters and I feel this incessant need to add ribbon and lace to something smaller than myself. Be warned...I'm not boppin' them on the heads of field mice...but little bunny fru-fru had it pretty close...cute little baby girls.
Or Mason jars...whichever I can wrangle down and get to hold still for five seconds.

For the fancy-schmancy boon-doggle bling-age, I found this cool self adhesive beaded ribbon stuff. It was, believe it or not, intended to be used on lamp shades. Now tell me ladies, why in the freak-fest would I put that cute stuff on a lamp shade that my boys will throw a soccer ball at and break anyway? No...better to put it on sad little jar ring that needs a little attention. Really...my friends will appreciate the jars far more than they will...a lamp shade. I swear I have the coolest friends ever.

I is also very important to your social standing to coordinate your bows and jars with the ones sitting next to it, so as to really impress your churchie friends. Okay...and really...I don't care. If someone thinks for one minute all my jars really look like this, they have not seen my "functional" food storage cabinets. Nope. Not all looking this swanky. Just the show pieces to be given away. For everyday (not Martha)...the jars are just plain with hand written cooking instructions scrawled across the top in sharpie. Feel that...that's all the pressure to be perfect...leaving. You do what you want. I'm not checking your cupboards.

Oh...and for dang sure, if I give away one of these gorgeous little love jars to a friend and a year later it is still on top of the kitchen cabinets as a "decoration"...I'll think they don't trust my cooking. So. There it is. I like it when people crack it open and feed it to the family.

Note: I don't have all the recipes up here yet. That will take me a few days to type, but know that they are coming...and rejoice.

How much do you pay for gravy mix and soup mix? It's so easy to make and so painfully cheap that once you see it, you will be shocked! It only takes a few minutes to make several of these mixes and from all the sauce and soup classes I have had, this is the one mix that people say they use the most. Home basic gravy is a great skill to have. I've seen a lot of money go down the drain for those store bought convenience foods like gravy mix. Why? Most of them have flat flavor, no frills. If you look at the ingredients list, it seems like it could be much shorter. Am I right? This mix I make is still loaded with good complex flavors, but it's also quick. It's a good marrying of basic meets a bit of gourmet. My gravy isn't super thick like pudding. It's thick enough to coat the back of a spoon nicely. If you want thicker gravy, you will need to double the flour. For the best complex flavor I add my all purpose seasoning in place of the pepper, thyme, and celery seed (there's a lot more spices and herbs in mine). I always use the bay leaf. It not only adds great flavor, but is a natural deterrent for bugs. Not that it will be sitting on the shelf that long. If you prefer to use prepared stock in place of the bullion, it will be awesome! I use flour because it is a sauce I can freeze well in casseroles. If you want a faster cooking gravy, use the recipe for quick cooking gravy.



Chef Tess Basic Gravy Mix

1/2 cup flour3T beef or chicken stock granules, MSG free (optional...you can prepare with real stock)2T onion powder1T garlic powder (not granules or it will be too strong)1/2 tsp ground celery seed1/2 tsp black pepper1 tsp ground thyme1 bay leaf

Mix Directions: Place all ingredients in a half pint seal able jar. Repeat as needed however many mixes you want to make. Please note, this mix makes 8 cups of gravy.To prepare:Whisk mix with 2 cups milk or water (broth or stock if you omit the bullion), when smooth add 6 more cups of milk, water or stock. Simmer over medium heat stir occasionally 10-15 minutes.Smaller batches? 1/4 cup mix yields 2 cups gravy. Divide between 4 snack size baggies and provide 1 bay leaf per bag.



Individual smaller batches for gluten free quick cooking gravy:1T corn starch2 tsp bullion (MSG free)1T onion powder1 tsp garlic powder1/8 tsp ground celery1/4 tsp ground thyme1/8 tsp ground black pepper1 bay leaf


To prepare small batches:Whisk mix with 2 cups stock or milk in a medium sauce pan with a heavy bottom. Simmer over medium heat 5 minutes for corn starch sauces, 10-15 minutes if you use flour.
My Cream Basic soup mix:

1/2 cup flour (or for gluten free use 1/4 cup cornstarch or thick-gel)

2/3 cup instant milk powder

1 bay leaf

2T dehydrated onion,

1T freeze dried celery

1 tsp granulated garlic

1tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2tsp thyme

2T bullion (optional) (omit previous salt if you use bullion)

keep this mix in pint jars sealed and labeled for a quick dinner anytime of the year. This basic mix goes on the bottom of the jar. Then I top the rest of the jar to the rim with freeze dried veggies. They keep fresh up to 5 years (for best flavor) so please be sure to label and date clearly with an oxygen packet at the top of the jar.


To prepare, combine soup mix with 6 cups water (for a richer cream soup, use milk) and whisk until combined over medium heat. Simmer 15-20 minutes. Add any flavor variations you like...2 cups chopped broccoli or cauliflower, potatoes, corn, carrots, chicken, clams, crumbled bacon. If you want a cheese soup, be sure it gets added only at the very end after soup is off the heat or it will be grainy. This mix can also be used as a white sauce!



Have fun with this one! Also, if you want creamy tomato, you may add 1/4 cup cup of tomato powder, but be sure to also add 1tsp baking soda to keep it from curdling. Just a little tip.

Bonus Recipe:

Tess' Condensed Soup replacement1/4 cup flour (or gluten free: 2 T cornstarch)1T chicken bullion granules (also available in low sodium and MSG free variety)1T dry onion flakes1 bay leaf1 tsp Chef Tess All purpose seasoning (or a Mrs. Dash of your choice.)

For cream of mushroom, add 2T crushed freeze dried mushrooms.


To prepare: Combine mix with 2 cups milk or broth whisking over medium heat. Heat until thick, about 10-15 minutes. For an extra rich creamy base, add 1/4 cup cream cheese at the end of cooking. Use one mix to replace one can of soup.



You may cook several batches at once and then freeze them in 2 cup measurements to replace a can of soup in most recipes. Cool well. If you use pint size freezer bags, they are perfect. Lay them flat when you freeze them and then they can stack very nicely. They will "curdle" a little when defrosted, but once boiled will return to that creamy texture (so it's fine to use them in recipes for casseroles and so forth.) Cornstarch will lose it's ability to thicken once frozen, so for gluten free, opt for Ultra gel or Thick gel for freezer sauces.

There you go.