35 Homemade Spice Mixes and How to Use Them

Making Homemade Spice Mixes is a great (and delicious) step to take towards having a healthier lifestyle. It's a simple thing to do, helps you avoid the additives in the store bought packages, and it helps save money too.

To save you time in addition to money, I've rounded up 35 Homemade Seasoning Mixes that are sure to become faves in your home--quite a few of them are mine and believe me, they get rave reviews!

I've enjoyed making my own homemade spice mixes for a very long time and thought I would share the fun by pulling together this post of 35 Homemade Seasoning Blends--and how to use them.

Why Make Your Own Homemade Seasoning Blends

Save Money

When you make your own food, rather than buying packaged, pre-made products, you save money. Plain and simple.

Having someone else make things for you costs more. Plus, since you are buying more things (the raw ingredients and the finished product), you are likely wasting more as food does spoil. Spices don't really spoil, but they do lose flavor.

Get Control Over Ingredients

My oldest has life-threatening food allergies, so it's been important for us to have control over what goes into our food. And now that our whole family is gluten-free (due to my thyroid disease and us just trying to be healthier), this has become a "family affair."

Besides food allergies, however, there are other ingredients in typical store-bought spice blends that you may not want to be consuming.

Things like:

Silicon Dioxide - a free-flowing agent. Some think this could cause blood issues.
Maltodextrin - can lead to gastro intestinal problems
MSG - reportedly can lead to brain cell death
Natural Flavors - these can be just about anything -- including the "brain-cell-killing" MSG
Modified Food Starch - typically sourced from wheat (a gluten concern), or corn (a GMO concern)
Hydrolyzed Proteins

How Substitute Spices When Making Your Own Spice Blends

Don't have all the spices you need to make one of these homemade seasonings? No problem!

You can most likely find an appropriate substitute here. If not, if it's a smaller part of the recipe try omitting it completely--it might not make that big of a difference.

35 Homemade Spice Mixes and How to Use Them

Following are some fantastic recipes for spice mixes that you're sure to love. You can of course use them as is, or tweak them to your liking.

For more thoughts on ways to tweak recipes or make your own blends from scratch, see this post on how to make your own spice mixes. It's sure to be a big help.

"This seasoning is used in the traditional Chex Mix recipe and is also good sprinkled on chicken or other meat, added to vegetables, etc.

It can add an extra dash of flavor to casseroles and even to egg dishes in the morning. One of my favorites is to make 'smashed' potatoes in the oven with homemade Lawry’s seasoning salt on top!"

Homemade BBQ Chicken Rub

Homemade Garlic Powder

Use in any recipe that calls for fresh garlic--1/8 tsp = 1 clove garlic.
Or use in seasoning blends and recipes like Chili Powder, Crispy Green Bean Chips, and "DORITO®" Popcorn

Garam Masala

According to the blogger behind this spice,

"Think of garam masala as a finishing spice that is added almost at the end of the cooking. Usage of garam masala is not restricted to curries or biryanis, sprinkle it on your salads, add it to your marinades or use it as dry rubs for meat before grilling."

Homemade Mustard Dry Rub