Weekly Meal Think

Here are some things I am thinking of making this week:

I really need to use up the zucchini from the Bountiful Basket.  It's nearly the last vegetable in the fridge.  So I am thinking of making my friends zucchini soup.

I also have a few carrots and celery so I am thinking of making a chicken pot pie.  I'll attempt a whole wheat pie crust and use canned chicken to save on what's in the freezer.

I have been looking for some new recipes with beans and rice, but most of them are mexican related.  I'd really like to expand my repertoire of bean recipes.  Inspired by this sweet and sour bean recipe, I am thinking of trying to use beans as a replacement in chicken recipes.  It sounds weird I know, but I think that the recipe I used for this peach jam chicken recipe would be good.

I am also thinking of making something less food storage related like a creamy pesto pasta.

What are you making for dinner this week?

New Recipes Tab

I have done some reformatting of the blog to make way for the new recipes tab.  Now you can find all the recipes from my blog in one place!  Let me know what you think.

Asian Pork Meatballs with Brussel Sprouts

I have mentioned several times that I was thinking about making pork meatballs with brussel sprouts (here  for example).  Well, I finally got around to it.  I am not really a fan of brussel sprouts, but these meatballs are great.  So if you ever have some brussel sprouts that you need to use up, I am thinking that these are the way to go.

1.  Slice up the brussel spouts.  I think I probably had about 12 ounces there, don't you think?

2.  Add 1 pound ground pork.  I ground my own.  This is my little helper who was very impressed with the meat grinding attachment on my KitchenAid.

3.  Add in 1 T. minced garlic, 1 T. grated ginger, 1 T. sesame oil, 1/4 c. soy sauce, 2 T. dried onions, 2 eggs, 1/2-1 c. bread crumbs (enough so that it sticks together).

4.  Form small meat ball and place on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 until the middle reaches 160 degrees.  About 30-45 minutes.  I didn't time it.  Don't hate me.

You can enjoy these with a side of rice and any of your favorite Asian sauces.  Sweet and sour would be good, but teriyaki would also be delicious.  And you ate some brussel sprouts.  Pat yourself on the back.

How I started my food storage: Part V--Sugar

Well, friends, this will be the last post in the how I started my food storage series.  I saved the best for last: sugar!

The food storage calculator I used as a reference point when I began my food storage journey 5 years ago suggests 40 pounds of sugar per person for a year supply.  I just use a 6 gallon bucket with a gamma lid.  At one point I had a back up bucket too, but that's now gone.  I should note, however, that if you like to can, especially, jam.  Store more sugar!

The suggested amount of honey at 3 pounds per person won't work for bread makers.  If you are going to be making a whole wheat bread recipe with honey (like mine) then you will need 33 pounds to make 4 loaves a week.  Thanks to my in-laws we have always had a full supply of honey.

I do have a few #10 cans of brown sugar in my storage, but I no longer buy the stuff since I can make it.  But this also means I need a larger supply of molasses.  One pound per person won't cut it.

I haven't ever put together a supply of sugared drinks or gelatin because I just don't use them.  But I have seen recipes on how to make fruit snacks from gelatin.  That could change my mind.

On to corn syrup.  Now I know that high fructose corn syrup has a bad rap, but I will make a plea for storing some corn syrup.  First of all, it's not the high fructose kind.  But more importantly there are a few handy uses.  The first is this pin:

Source: cometogetherkids.blogspot.com via Katherine on Pinterest

If your kids like to make bubbles as much as mine.  You will love this recipe for bubbles.

1/2 c. Dawn dish soap
1/2 c. corn syrup
2 1/2 c. water

Store some corn syrup.  Make your kids happy.

The second use for corn syrup is that adding a tablespoon to sugar based syrups (think home made maple syrup or even my vanilla recipe) will prevent it from crystalizing.  I  know.  Mind boggling.

So the last sugar item we store is jam.  Three pounds per person is not really enough for us.  I do, however, think measuring jam in pounds is less helpful than say, pints or quarts.  But that is beside the point.

This last year I canned 10 pints, 2 quarts and one 12 ounce jar of peach jam (and a few other jams).  We are down to our last 5 pints.  That's a lot of jam!  It's mostly my husband who loves it.  It's his mom's recipe.  He grew up eating it.  She once told me she canned 50 quarts a year!  Can you imagine?  In any event, we eat a lot of jam.  But then we make a lot of homemade bread.  The two seem to go together.

I hope all of this rambling about my food storage has been helpful.  Let me know if you have any specific questions.  Thanks for reading!!

All Hail the Blendtec! Yes, it can grind your wheat!

Photo from here.

So, my sis has one of these blenders.  They are not cheap.  She has admitted to me that one of the reasons she bought it was because it could grind wheat.  So she invited me over to help her make my whole wheat bread.

The first thing we had to do was grind the wheat.  It can only do 2 cups of wheat at a time, but then it only takes 1 minute.  I confess, I was skeptical.  But, DANG!  That blender can blend wheat flour!  To say I was impressed is an understatement.  The flour was super fine and soft.  And it makes delicious bread.  I know because after making bread we made pizza dough for dinner.

So all you Blendtec users (Fiona, I'm thinking of you) bust out your blender and make yourself some whole wheat bread!!

How I started my food storage: Part IV--Cooking Essentials

In this installment of how I started my food storage I am taking up "cooking essentials" as they are listed in the food storage calculator.  If you are looking for something to purchase that will make you feel like you are making headway on your food storage, I suggest you start here.  These item are not expensive and once you check them off your list you will feel such a sense of accomplishment that you can move on to tackling something like wheat.  That's what I did.

You will need one pound of baking powder and one pound of baking soda per person for a year.  My only thought is that you might want to up your baking soda amount for cleaning purposes and so that you can do things like this with your kids.

It's pretty easy to get 5 pounds of salt per person.  You might, however, want to store more than one kind.  I use more kosher salt than table salt for example.  I also have some canning salt on hand.  But I am thinking of switching to Real Salt because of the trace minerals that are in it.  It's more expensive, but might be worth it.  Have you ever used Real Salt on a regular basis?

Just so you know the 1/2 pound of yeast per person is not really enough for bread making.  According to my calculations, I would need 2.5 pounds of yeast to make 4 loaves of bread a week.  So, for a year's worth I am going to have more on hand.

With regard to the vinegar, 1/2 gallon is not going to be enough if you do any amount of canning.  It's also a good cleaning agent.  I think you might have to decide on your own what is right for your family's use.  Another thought is you might want to have different kinds on hand.  I like to have white and cider in gallon jugs.  And smaller amounts of rice and red wine.  (That's red wine vinegar people.  Sheesh.)

With the exception of the salt, all of these things should be rotated regularly.  So it's a good idea to have the amount you want on hand and then purchase more as you use it up.  If you are a better record keeper than I you could keep track of how long it takes you to go through a box of baking soda for example.  Then you might be better able to determine how much you need.

Yellow Squash Casserole

I think I have mentioned before that I read cookbooks in bed.  The other night I was reading this:

It was written by three women who lived in the ward that I grew up in.  One of the women, Maurine Hegsted, lived across the street from us.  Another, Beth Brown, lived a block or so away.  Her girls were some of my best friends growing up.  This cookbook is really cool.  It had the recipe for 7 layer dip before it was popular.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if these ladies invented it!  There is also the most amazing recipe for beef kabobs that has been a family favorite so long we claim it as our own.

Well, the other night I found a recipe for zucchini casserole.  I thought I would give it a try, but I gave it my own twist.  In the first place, I used summer squash.  Here's how I made it:

1.  I diced up three summer squash and half an onion.  I sauted them on medium heat in a little olive oil until they were good and soft.  Maybe 8-10 minutes.  

2.  I also added some small baby carrots sliced up.  

3.  In a separate bowl you are supposed to mix a can of cream of chicken soup with 1 cup of sour cream.  In my case it was about 1/2 c. sour cream and 1/2 c. plain yogurt because that was what I had.  I added in the squash mixture when everything was tender.

Then, in a separate bowl, I melted a cube of butter and mixed in a package of seasoned stuffing.  It makes crunchy stuffing flavored bread crumbs.  Yummy.

I layered a casserole dish with 1/2 stuffing mixture, the squash/soup mixture and the other 1/2 of the bread crumbs on top.  I baked it at 400 for 20-25 minutes until heated through and the stuffing was a bit brown.  You wouldn't have to do it that I, I just had the temperature up for some chicken.

It was so delicious!  Thank you Beth Brown, you are your co-authors created an awesome cookbook.

How I started my food storage: Part III--Fats

I'm back with part three of how I started my food storage.  Today, I take up fats.

I have a confession to make.  Fats have never been my strong suit when it comes to food storage.  I have never had a year's supply on hand.  Perhaps part of the problem is that fats are by nature perishable.  Recommendations are that oil is only good for 6 months to a year.  This is not the kind of thing you can purchase and stick in your garage for 20 years.

Some of the other reasons that I found fats difficult is the list and amounts on the calculator.  Four pounds of shortening is just plain gross given that I try to avoid hydrogenated fats.  And two quarts of salad dressing is just silly when I prefer to make my own.  And there is no way I would go through two quarts of mayo.  If need be I can make that too so long as I have an egg.  I have yet to try it with powdered eggs, but you know I will.

So what have I done about fats?  I try to have a few months supply on hand of what I do use.  I like to cook with olive oil.  I use canola in my bread and for frying.  I keep butter in my freezer and we purchased some Red Feather canned butter--which is super expensive but awesome.  And I like to have several cans of spray canola oil for pancakes and my bread pans.  I don't skimp here either.  If the first ingredient on the can isn't oil, I don't buy it.  Some cheaper brands have the first ingredient as water.  Totally not worth the savings.

I will also let you know that I wanted to have a backup for spray oil in case I ran out so I purchased an oil mister.  I tried it on my bead pans and it was worthless.  I have no idea why.  So if you are thinking of purchasing an oil mister don't expect it to be useful for bread making.  I do like to use it for pancakes and french fries--it's easier to coat fries and uses less oil!

So how much oil should I store?  I am in the process of figuring that out.  I did some calculations and if I make 4 loaves of bread per week (I make about that now) it would use 1 and 2/3 gallons of oil.  That doesn't include any cooking.  But the recommendation is that you have 2 gallons per person for a year's worth.  I actually think that would be pretty close.  Plus I need to factor in olive oil and some other fats like peanut butter.  But you know, food storage is a work in progress.

Before I leave this fatty topic, let me say something about powdered butter and shortening.  I have used powdered butter, but have had mixed results.  See here and here for example.  My feeling is that it works ok for baking and some cooking, but not so much for anything else.  You can't spread powdered butter on bread.  The best use may be in a white sauce mix I have made.  I want to try it in a few more baking recipes, like applesauce cake--mmm  . . . applesauce cake.  I just lost my train of thought.

I suppose that this Self Reliance Experiment is a bit about figuring out what I want to store.  I use this as an opportunity to experiment.  I don't expect to have all the answers anytime soon.  Perhaps you can let me know what you do about storing oil?

P.S. I love butter.

Homemade No Bake Chewy Granola Bars (almost like Quaker)

I have mentioned to several of you that I have this great recipe for chewy granola bars.  Well, I made some today just so I could share them with you.  The original recipe is found here.  They are so easy, I double the recipe.

1.  In a bowl (that can withstand some heat) mix 4 cups quick oats (not rolled) and 2 cups crispy rice.

2.  In a large sauce pan mix 1 cube butter (not pictured because I used 1/2 c. oil.  Butter tastes better but oil can be used in a pinch), 1/2 cup honey and 2/3 c. brown sugar (or 2/3 c. sugar and 2 t. molasses).

3.  Bring to a rolling boil.  Turn it down to medium heat and boil for two more minutes.

4.  Mix in 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Then pour syrup over dry ingredients and mix well until all the oats have been combined.

5.  Press into a greased cookie sheet.  Sprinkle 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips over the top and gently press in.  They are ready to eat when the chocolate has set back up.  I sometimes use the fridge to help with that because I have no patience.  But careful because the are a bit tricky to cut once they are cooled.

There you go.  A quick snack from (mostly) food storage items.

How I started my food storage: Part II--Milk and Legumes

Well, friends, the journey continues.  If you missed the first installment of how I started my food storage, you can find that here.  I will also link to the food storage calculator again in case you want to refer to it.

Today I am talking about milk and beans.

The food storage calculator calls for 60 pounds powdered milk, 12 cans of evaporated milk, and 13 pounds of "other milk".  What is "other milk"?  Seriously, what other options are there for storing milk?  Sweetened condensed?  What am I going to do with 13 pounds of sweetened condensed milk?  Maybe one of you know?  Well, now that I have that off my chest . . .

I think milk was probably the most expensive of the items to purchase.  60 pounds per person is a LOT of powdered milk.  It took a while to get it all.  I made a trip to the LDS cannery at Welfare Square and dry packed several cases.  But it was time consuming.  Since I had the money at the time, I also purchased several cases from emergency essentials.  We are not using a lot of milk right now (I mostly put it in recipes) because I want my kids to drink whole milk, but we have it available.

Beans.  You'll notice that the food storage calculator has the beans divided up into several kinds.  I don't use lima or soy beans.  I figured that the details were less important that the totals: 60 pounds per person for a year.  That's the same amount the LDS Church recommends.  So I decided what kind of beans I thought we would eat and stored those.  Some I purchased in #10 cans.  I also got a 50 pound bag of pinto beans and put it in a 5 gallon bucket.  It's not sealed for long term storage so I really ought to get working on that bucket.  Plus I have canned cooked beans from the case lot sales.  Now I just need to find some more bean recipes.