Spice Up Your Life

One of the most interesting ways to "Spice" up your food storage is to add spices. Anything tastes better with a little flavor. You can change and enhance the taste of anything with a little help from your favorites. Spices are quite expensive so be on the look-out for a good deal. Look for bulk spices, check in discount stores, don't be afraid to try non-name brand spices that are significantly less expensive.

There are many different spices that you will pay more for regardless of where you buy them. If you shop around for the spices you can find for less, then you don't feel so bad spending more on some. Remember if you buy the large bottles of spices, like in Sams or Costco, and it seems that you are saving money, remember if you don't reseal in smaller quantities with a food saver or dry pack in mylar bags, you may actually be losing money with wasted quantities. Make a concentrated effort to decide which spices are important for you to store, how you will store them and how much you want, then start shopping.

I found several bottles of some of my favorite spices in Family Dollar. I couldn't believe how inexpensive they were. I bought some and compared them to the spices in my spice rack and couldn't tell a bit of difference.

I'm going to include some interesting spice blends which you can make yourself and tweak to your own liking for a lot less money than buying the designer spice blends in your supermarket. Make a small quantity at first and see what it needs or how you can make it better. By some inexpensive spice bottles and get mixing your blends and storing your favorites.

THAI BLEND
½ t. garlic powder
½ t. onion powder
½ t. ground cumin
1 t. ground coriander
¼ t. ground red pepper
½ t. ground ginger
1/8 t. ground cinnamon

MEXICAN BLEND
½ t. garlic powder
½ t. onion powder
1 t. ground cumin
½ t. ground coriander
¼ t. ground red pepper
½ t. chili powder
½ t. cilantro

MEDITERRANEAN BLEND
½ t. garlic powder
½ t. onion powder
½ t. ground cumin
1 t. ground coriander
1/8 t. red pepper
1 t. oregano leaves
½ t. thyme leaves

MOROCCAN SPICE BLEND
2 t. ground cumin
1 t. ground coriander
½ t. chili powder
½ t. sweet paprika
½ t. ground cinnamon
¼ t. ground allspice
¼ t. ground ginger
1/8 t. cayenne pepper (adjust to your taste)
Pinch ground cloves