Looking back over 2011, I would say that the biggest change that has happened in my kitchen is that I’ve started to make my own mixes.

It started this summer when I was making my Fluffy Pancakes for Milo on a regular basis. You know, in the morning, the time when pancakes are typically made.

I found myself fantasizing about the boxed pancake mixes that I grew up with, the omnipresent box of pancake mix which can still be found in most American pantries to this day:

Oh the convenience! Boxed mixes are made for early morning cooking and baking! I wished I could just measure out the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients, give it a few good stirs, and be done with it.

Then I thought: “Wait, why can’t I?”

I quadrupled the dry ingredients of my pancake mix, put it in an airtight container in the pantry with a sticker on it which reminded me of the quantities needed per batch, and voila! Homemade vegan packaged pancake mix!

This led me to wonder what else in my day-to-day life would be even easier if I made a mix beforehand, and I started making mixes like crazy: waffles, corn muffins, muesli, even nuggets!

I happened to make a batch of nuggets mix today and I documented the process so that you could see how easy it is:

First I measure out the dry ingredients for one batch of the recipe into a bowl:

Then I mix the ingredients, and I use a measuring cup to double-check the total amount of dry ingredients, since this will be my dry measurement later:

Now that I have my dry measurement, I quadruple all of the dry ingredient amounts and add it all to a storage container. I like to reuse my coffee cans, since they hold a lot:

Shake it well to mix up all those ingredients, or enlist a kid to do it for you!

Finally, write the measurement on a sticker on the container. I also write the measurements for the liquid amounts, so that I don’t have to drag out my cookbook every time that I want to make nuggets.

Ta-da! So easy! Now the next time that I want to make nuggets, it’s just that much easier to get the ball rolling. This is also a great way to enlist another member of your household to do more cooking: some cooking novices might have trouble following a recipe, but literally anyone can mix dry and wet ingredients together and shove it in an oven.

What was your biggest food revelation in 2011?