The Toxic-Free Kitchen

Fascinating! And certainly something to aim for, especially in these homes where we are dealing with allergies.

I have known for a long time that our modern kitchens need way more storage than our ancestor's kitchens. The reason is simple: we buy everything already mixed up while they only bought the base ingredients.

For example, most kitchens today have pancake mix, Bisquick, cake mixes, cookie mixes, brownie mixes, muffin mixes, and maybe even bread mixes (especially if they own a bread machine), plus flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, corn starch, and flavorings. The truth is, all of these different mixes are 95% the same ingredients;

• Flour
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Salt
• Sugar

They might also contain powdered butter and/or eggs and/or milk (which aren't nearly as healthy as the fresh versions in your fridge).

Oh, and of course, preservatives and artificial colors and flavors that aren't needed in the raw ingredients but are necessary to keep the mixes from going bad before they are used.

The only real differences are in the flavorings and the proportions (and that doesn't really vary much. If it is a desert it has more sugar:flour is about it.)

So if you get a good cookbook (or Google) and just practice you should be able to do away with all the mixes and only have the basics, which you probably have on hand anyway. I only have cake mixes and my Hubby's favorite muffin mixes. All the rest (pancakes, muffins for the rest of us, cookies, bread, etc) we make totally from scratch, usually with 100% whole wheat flour.

A couple of weeks ago I even began making the buns for our Sunday Morning hamburgers from scratch (I get them ready the night before and just put them in the fridge on a cookie sheet, all ready for the oven first thing in the morning. By the time the patties are done, so are the buns.)

I am working on a cake recipe to replace those mixes now.
 
This reduces the need for storage, is cheaper (you pay to have someone else put the ingredients together for you), has less preservatives and colorings, and gives you greater control of the health of the product (allergies? learn to substitute. You can use healthier sweeteners such as honey or maple syrup instead of sugar. And you can replace up to about half the flour with whole wheat without affecting the flavor of the product much, greatly increasing the vitamin and fiber content of your food).

Next time I'll cover cleaners.