Oh No! I'm Out Of... Cooking Options To Help When You're Out
By Christine Steendahl
Apr 7, 2007, 16:45   For a lot of cooks, there are times when we don't have the proper ingredients in the pantry to cook our desired meal. If you find yourself in this situation, don't despair, there are usually other ingredients that can easily be substituted, saving the cook a trip to the grocer. Here are a few.

Milk
A lot of recipes call for milk. If you find you are out of milk or don't have enough to finish a specific recipe, make sure you have a supply of evaporated milk on hand. Evaporated milk or reconstituted milk can be kept for long periods of time and once mixed with water and often a drop of butter, can easily taste just as good as regular milk.

Baking Powder
If you don't have baking powder readily available, use baking soda and a drop of buttermilk. For a tablespoon of double acting baking powder, substitute 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and a 1/2 cup of buttermilk.

Self Rising Flour
Self rising flour is easy to create at home, just combine one cup of all purpose flour with 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

Butter Milk
Ran out of butter milk? You can quickly prepare your own. You can substitute 1 cup of butter milk with 1 cup whole milk and a tablespoon of vinegar. You can also substitute 1 cup of butter milk with 2/3 cup of plain yogurt and 1/3 cup whole milk.

Garlic
Need garlic, but don't have any? Replace it with garlic powder instead. About 1 clove of garlic equals 1/8 of a teaspoon of garlic powder.

Honey
You can easily substitute honey with sugar and water. 1 cup of honey equals about 1 and 1/4 cup of sugar and a 1/4 cup of water.

Substituting Sugar
If you don’t have sugar on hand or would like to replace it because of health issues, here are some tips to substitute sugar:

Sugar can be substituted with maple syrup, corn syrup, brown sugar, honey, stevia, and molasses. However, some recipes will ask for sugar or a granular sweetener and not syrup due to baking and texture requirements.

If you would like to decrease the amount of sugar you eat because of health issues, look for the many sweeteners, sometimes called sugar alternatives on the market. These sweeteners include but are not limited to, Sweet and Low, Splenda, Equal, and plant based Stevia.

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