All-purpose Baking Mix, Breakfast Puffs, Horchata/Rice Milk

I have a dilemma- We're not even into week 3 yet and I've already spent all but $28 of my grocery budget. OK, so that's not too big of a deal since I've already bought most of everything that we'll need for this month, but there are a few things we'll still need to buy: 5 gallons of milk, 5 lb chicken, and at least 2 dozen eggs. Lucky for me chicken has finally gone on sale for $1.49/lb.. But unlucky for me? I want to buy more than 5 lbs at that price! I also found a really good price on canned tomatoes again and I'd like to buy more vegetables before the end of the month. $28 doesn't go that far... So I need to again get creative.

I've decided to cut down on the amount of milk that we're buying and make some rice milk instead. I love rice milk! and so do my girls AND it's easy to cook with- but I'll still have to buy enough cows milk to sate my husband and son (boys are so picky!).

Rice Milk/Horchata

1 cup uncooked white long-grain rice

5 cups water

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

(For Horchata)
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup white sugar

Directions

1.Pour the rice and water into the bowl of a blender; blend until the rice just begins to break up, about 1 minute. I used pre-ground rice flour (I borrowed my friend's grinder a few days ago) so I was able to skip the blender. Let rice and water stand at room temperature for a minimum of 3 hours. The longer you let the rice soak, the better the flavor, in my opinion.
2.Strain the rice water into a pitcher through cheesecloth and save the rice bits to thicken rice pudding if you desire. At this point you've got your rice milk. If you want horchata:
3.Stir the milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and sugar into the rice water. Chill and stir before serving. Serve cold. 
 

The other thing that I did yesterday was to make some baking mix and some breakfast puffs. The baking mix is similar to Bisquick at a fraction of the cost and having some on hand makes it really easy for my 15-yr-old to throw together a batch of pancakes if I ask him to- which is NICE.

Baking Mix

9 cups flour

2/3 cup dry milk

1/4 baking powder

2 tsp salt

1 cup shortening, oil, or butter (or a combination)

Mix flour and other dry ingredients. Cut in oil or shortening with a mixer on low speed until the consistency of cornmeal. Store in an airtight container up to 6 months in the refrigerator and no longer than 3 months in the pantry. This recipe uses a 5lb sack of flour when doubled.

Breakfast Puffs

2 cups baking mix

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp butter, softened

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

For egg puffs: (Pick and choose all or a combination)

2 additional eggs

2 tsp milk

1/2 cup shredded cheese

1/4 lb chopped sausage, bacon, ham

1/4 cup chopped chives

1/4 cup chopped sweet pepper

salt & pepper for sprinkling

For cinnamon Puffs:

1/2 cup melted butter or olive oil

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 400 F. Grease 24 mini muffin cups. Mix baking mix, sugar, butter, milk and egg. Beat vigorously for 30 seconds. For egg puffs, fill muffin cups about 1/3 full. Fill another 1/3 with your choice of vegetables, meat and/or cheese. Beat eggs into a measuring cup along with milk and pour over the top of each filled muffin cup. Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

For Cinnamon Puffs: Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full. Bake 10 minutes. Mix sugar & cinnamon in a bowl. Quickly roll puffs in butter/oil, then in the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Makes 24 puffs. (I usually double this recipe and make a batch of each kind)

And easy way to pop the mini-muffins out of the tin is to use a small baby spoon. It doesnt scratch the teflon and it's small enough not to break the muffin.