bear - thank you for this thread! it's a great idea! i think that once you've stocked up on those basic ingredients, it gets really cheap to make things from scratch.

i'd love a good pepper sauce recipe for steak - DP loves it & i'm sorry to say that i've resorted to the powdered kind but i'd far prefer to make it properly!

i love mexican food & have been known to buy the old el paso kits on a regular basis. but recently i found a recipe for chilli that i really like. i use it to make enchilladas and i can really notice the difference in flavour & salt content from the packaged versions. but it would work for tacos as well or burritos or a baked potato filling