Easy Gift Basket with Homemade Mixes (free tags!)
When I needed a gift for friends moving into a New Home and a family having a New Baby, I decided to make some Gift baskets with Easy-to-fix homemade mixes. I have given baskets like these with favorite easy to prepare pantry mixes for years and they are always well received!
After all who doesn’t like a Chocolate chip cookie mix where all you have to do is add in some butter and eggs and whalaa- – cookies in no time! Another benefit is no chemicals, additives or things in our mixes we can’t even pronounce, yay!
Now back in the day, when all six kiddos were home I often made batches of mixes and kept them in my own pantry for easier baking. So I encourage you to make a few for yourself while you got all the ingredients out 🙂
How to Make Your Gift Basket
- Pick a container:
You can use a basket, or bowl, or an old cute vintage tin, lots of things work for making gift baskets. If you enjoy thrift shopping, like myself, often you can find beautiful ceramic bowls and amazing wire baskets to re-purpose into lovely gift baskets! - Make your mixes:
This part is easy! You just get out all your baking ingredients at once, add each recipe into the Ziplocs and then put it all away, no beating or mixing or dishes except for a couple measuring cups is all. Love this part!
I simply keep a handful of recipes I know are easy, and work well for this, and are favorites that get compliments when I give them, and that only take simple wet ingredients so the recipient can easily stir them together and get ’em in the oven and enjoy them! - Print your Tags:
Tie on the cute mason jar tags! The jar tags are all ready to use, just click below to download them. And if desired you can add in any extras like a carton of broth or a seasonal towel & cheerful muffin papers.
???? 6 Favorite Pantry Mix Recipes
1. Health-ified Ramen Noodles
This one I came up with for using in gift baskets for collage kids, because they love the ease of ramen noodles but goodness, they are filled with so many chemicals, So I came up with this recipe to health-ify ramen noodle making a bit 🙂
Also, I’ve found if someone is under the weather or is moving or had a new baby & have older children this recipe is much enjoyed. By using the healthy rice noodles along with wholesome broth and real spices it turns out great! Just simply put the rice noodle cake in a cellophane bag or ziploc with the tag attached (and often I include a carton of broth) in case the receiver doesn’t have chicken broth on hand. I also usually give 3 or so cellophane packages of the noodles in the gift basket. (There are 12 cakes of noodles per package. So you’ll have plenty, and one carton of broth makes several recipes of ramen).
Dry Mix: 1 cake of rice ramen noodles (in a cellophane bag)
Optional Extras: Carton of broth or chicken bouillon paste
On Tag they add-in: Broth + seasoning (use my seasoning salt or your favorite!)
2. One-Bowl Warm Weekend Brownies
Nothing more to say on this one other than it’s a suuuper easy recipe for the recipient to make and enjoy and easy cleanup, because it gets mixed & stirred in one bowl! (to health-ify these a bit you can use coconut sugar instead of regular sugar and they turn out great! 🙂
- Dry Mix (1 bag):
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cane sugar
- ¼ cup baking cocoa
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ⅔ cup chocolate chips
- On Tag they add-in: Butter, eggs, vanilla
3. Mom’s Yummy No-Bake Cookies
These are always appreciated because it’s a treat made with honey instead of sugar. And a lot of people don’t know you can make great tasting N0-Bake Oatmeal cookies using honey! (your kids won’t even notice!) These are so so easy, these might even become one of your favorites to enjoy, so check out the recipe.
- Dry Mix (1 bag):
- ½ cup whole oatmeal (not quick oats)
- 1½ tbsp baking cocoa
- On Tag they add-in: Honey, peanut butter, vanilla, coconut oil or butter
4. Chocolate Chip Muffins
Yes, I love this recipe too, because it just makes 6 quick n easy muffins, so the recipient doesn’t end up with a whole bunch of muffins but just a quick weekend treat!
- Dry Mix (1 bag):
- 1 cup flour (or oat flour for a healthier version)
- ¼ cup cane sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- On Tag they add-in: Yogurt or sour cream, oil, egg
Tip: Cornbread muffins also make a great pantry mix to gift!
5. Homemade Gourmet Pretzels
This one is always a favorite when I give it, again because it encourages some fun family time on the weekend. It’s great to give in colder weather when were all stuck inside, kids and adults love forming pretzels and sometimes even will send me a picture of shapes or letters they made their pretzel dough into. And the recipe tag suggests sprinkling with cinnamon & sugar for an extra special treat !
Now another one I have done that’s similar to this recipe is a homemade pizza dough mix and have included a card game or some fun cans of pop & maybe a jar of pizza sauce and families love receiving a make-your-own pizza night!
- Dry Mix (2 bags):
- Bag 1: 3 cups all-purpose flour + 1 cup bread flour (or just 4 cups all-purpose),
- 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1⅛ tsp salt
- Bag 2: 1⅛ tsp dry yeast + a pinch of sugar
- On Tag they add-in: Warm water
- Serving tip: sprinkle with cinnamon sugar for a sweet version!
Also great: Homemade pizza dough mix with a card game, pizza sauce, and soda for a Pizza gift & game night basket!
6. Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe is just my good ole well-loved Chocolate Chip Cookies. This is what I call a small batch (sometimes for large families I’ll make a bigger recipe, or you can put in 2 mixes and they’ll have plenty for all). Everyone always loves a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie, especially when the dry is all mixed up for you and all you have to do is get the few wet ingredients mixed together.
- Dry Mix (3 bags inside 1 cellophane bag):
- Bag 1: 1¼ cups flour, ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt
- Bag 2: ¾ cup brown sugar
- Bag 3: ¾ cup chocolate chips
- On Tag they add-in: Butter, egg, vanilla
I hope you’ll find lots of ways to give these mixes I hope they inspire you to keep it simple and you’ll end up blessing someone’s sox off with your kindness.
???? Extra Tips
- These baskets work for Mother’s Day, Birthdays, New Home Gifts, Baby Showers, Teacher Gifts, and more!
- Budget-friendly and easy to prep ahead.
- Tags are available to [Download Here] — print on cardstock, cut out, and tie on!
- BONUS: Keep mixes on hand for your own pantry — even your kids can whip up something sweet when they’re already prepped.
???? Tell us in the comments:
Which mix is your favorite? How did you gift it? I’d love to hear your ideas!
Happy Gifting!
