Idea Queen Tips & News

Yesterday was my son’s birthday, so it was his choice on what we made for supper. I thought he’d say tacos since mom’s taco meat is his absolute favorite (move over Taco Bell!). Much to my surprise he said “pasta”.

I knew exactly which type he was talking about, because it’s the one we make the least. Usually when I make pasta it’s fettucini or mac and cheese. Those are the only two my daughter will eat (I don’t know what’s wrong with that child - she doesn’t even like spaghetti!). But since it was his birthday, he picked the one pasta dish his sister doesn’t like.

I actually love this recipe, and jumped at the chance to make it again. The last time we made it was clear back in December, so yeah I was excited. It came out pretty good too, and we cooked it the same way we did last time (See Angel Hair Pasta Recipe).

He was happy, although we had to pry the pot from his hands and convince him he really should use his own bowl. It’s rather funny to watch him scarf this pasta since he’s normally such a picky eater!

In the middle of the snow storm the other day, we had to make due with supper. I was really wanting to make beef stroganoff with our pound of hamburger, but sadly had no sour cream.

Luckily I managed to find a unopened block of Velveeta cheese, as well as a box of pasta shells. Pasta is pretty much a staple in this house, and I always make sure we have at least some form of it on hand (usually we always have fettucini, spaghetti, angel hair pasta, and egg noodles).

So mac and cheese with hamburger it was, even though I’d never actually made it with hamburger before. I don’t know why, because my mom always made it that way when I was a kid. However, I’m pretty sure her mac and cheese was out of a box. Mine is always homemade.

I did learn the other night there is in fact a limit for the cheese. It was a little too cheesy, which honestly I didn’t know what possible. Oops, now we know! For a regular box of pasta shells, apparently half a box of cheese is plenty.

My regular mac & cheese recipe can be found on the pasta recipe page.  Basically you cook it just as you think you would, slowly adding cheese and milk to cooked (and drained) pasta. Even though there was slightly too much cheese, it was still pretty good. The kids liked it, so that was good enough for me!

This is one of those ingredients I always have in my home. Must to my surprise, it’s something some of you may be looking for as well! While most of these don’t use powdered milk as the main ingredient, it’s still important to the recipe.

Homemade Pizza Crust

Homemade Pizza Crust
3/4 c. warm water about 80 degrees F
1 Tbl. olive oil
1 Tbl. brown suger
1 tsp. italian seasoning (avoid garlic - yeast will not rise)
1 Tbl. powdered milk
2 1/4 c. Unbleached white flour
1 tsp. active dry yeast.

Add ingredients in order in bread machine, making small indention in flower for yeast (Make sure it does not touch liquid). Set bread machine on “dough”. If you don’t have a bread machine, mix ingredients together and kneed dough for 5 minutes. Lightly coat with olive oil and place in bowl. Let rise for 30 minutes. Use half the dough for thin crust (freeze the rest), or all the dough for thick crust. Bake for 5 mins at 425* before adding toppings. (For “mega pizza” with loads of toppings, skip the baking before adding toppings).
White Bread Recipe

We posted this one the other day, but thought we had better post it again because it does use powdered milk. This recipe probably does need a bread machine, unless you want to kneed it yourself. A normal bread machine has a dough cycle of an hour and a half, most of that time spent letting the bread rise. Here’s the recipe:

Classic White Bread
3/4 cup water
2 cups flour (unbleached)
1 tablespoon nonfat dried milk
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter (original recipe was applesauce)
1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Put ingredients in bread machine on dough cycle. Grease bread pan with butter, and preheat oven to 325*.

Quite a few of our bread machine recipes use powdered milk, so if you have a bread machine you might want to check out our bread machine recipes ebook.
Milk Bath Recipes

These recipes do use powdered milk as the main ingredient. There are far too many to list here, so we are just going to give you a link. You can find all the milk bath recipes at Idea Queen. It’s part of our bath and body recipes collection, which is currently under “Money Saving Ideas”.

Other Recipes for Powdered Milk

Pasta is something I use powdered milk in quite a bit. Have you ever had the Pasta-Roni angel hair pasta? My homemade version sometimes includes powdered milk, depending on how I make it. It helps make the pasta stick together a bit, and includes milk without using “real” milk.

If you have recipes for powdered milk, do be sure to leave us a comment!

You know those boxes of Pasta-Roni you find in stores? Back in my college days, I was a sucker for them. Granted I couldn’t ever eat one by myself, but I sure tried. The angel hair pasta was my absolute favorite - a week never went by that I didn’t have this one at least once or twice.

When my first kid came along, I started experimenting in the kitchen. I got the idea I could duplicate certain recipes. Some came out pretty good, some not so much. The angel hair pasta I did pretty good with, and has always been my son’s favorite meal.  The other night I nailed the recipe to a T, and it was a complete accident.

My normal way of making this angel hair pasta recipe was pretty simple. Once the pasta was cooked and drained, I used olive oil and butter to make it less sticky then added my spices. Most of the time I use basil, a little cilantro, and a whole lot of garlic salt.  I also a bit of powdered milk to pull it all together.

The other night I messed up. It was a stupid mistake really. There wasn’t enough water in the pot! I noticed this a bit too late, so added real milk to keep it from burning towards the end. I added my spices and other ingredients too. I couldn’t believe how much closer I was to the real thing! There it was, my absolute favorite recipe duplicated to a size that feeds my entire family. Perfect!

So the next time you are looking for a quick pasta recipe, have some fun with angel hair pasta. Use the tips above, or just use what you’ve got in the kitchen. If you need the exact recipe for my angel hair pasta, you can check it out on our easy pasta recipes page.

Have fun!

Some of us absolutely can not style our hair without some sort of gel. Especially those of us with curly and hard to manage hair. It adds up though, and can get quite expensive buying different hair care products.

The following recipe for homemade hair gel is on our home hair care recipes page at Idea Queen.  It’s also found (with many, many others) in the Bath & Body recipes ebook, which has over 250 different recipes you can try out at home.

Homemade Scented Hair Gel
1 cup water
2 Tablespoons flax seed
2 drops scented oil — your choice of scent

NOTES : Use as you would any hair gel product.