Okay, sorry for the delay in posting again. Got an unexpected date night last night so everything else went out the window, LOL!
The casserole with the wheatberries and hamburger (dubbed Wheaties Casserole) was a hit. Hubby wanted a little more oomph to the spices, but kids and I loved it just the way it was! Recipe came from Shelf Reliance website (www.tracey.shelfreliance.com). It filled a 9x13 pan and was very filling. A side of corn, some bread, and a salad, and this would feed a small army easily.
Then for last night, I wanted to try the beans and rice "recipe" from the old Tightwad Gazette book. It said to use a pressure cooker, 1 cup of dry beans in a "large pot" which is supposed to fit inside your pressure cooker, and then rice in another small pot that fits inside the "bean pot." Both pots have water added, and water in the bottom of the cooker, foil is put over both inside pots, and cooked at 15 lbs. pressure for 30 minutes.
I wanted to try it as written, but I don't have any pots that can fit inside the pressure cooker (especially since you're supposed to boil the beans on the stovetop before you put them in the cooker, and all my pots have long handles, LOL!), and trying to fit 2 containers inside that cooker was just not happening.
I ended up using a heavy cereal bowl for the beans, and did the rice in a separate pot on the stove. I put 1 cup of dry pink beans in water in a pot and brought them to a boil on the stove. Once they boiled for a minute or so, I drained the water off and put the beans in the deep cereal bowl with 2 cups fresh water and 2 TBLS oil. I think maybe that's when I should have put some spices in there, and maybe more water, because the beans were cooked well, but didn't have much broth, and had zero flavor, LOL!
I put the lid on (I had never used a pressure cooker before, just my pressure canner), and got it up to 15 lbs. pressure. Then I got the rice going (used white rice although brown would obviously be healthier) in another pot. I do it the way my mom does, and it works really easy and isn't sticky. Put the rice in with lots of water (don't measure the water, just use a lot) and bring to a good boil. Keep it boiling, with lid off until you test the rice and it's as done as you like it. Pour the rice and water into a big colander and rinse the rice with cold water really well. Use a fork or your hands to really work the water through all the rice, to rinse off all the starch (that's what makes it sticky). Then let it sit in the colander for a while to dry off, and every once in a while fluff it with the fork so it all gets dry. Turns out great with no stress on timing or stickiness.
After 30 minutes, I was really nervous about the pressure-dropping part. With canning, you just turn the heat off and let it cool down all by itself and don't mess with it. With pressure cooking, you usually take the cooker to the sink and run cold water over the lid to drop the pressure quickly. This was scary to me! I didn't know exactly what I was supposed to do with the weighted pressure gauge, so I took it off with a pot holder once I turned the heat off and it stopped jiggling. Then I waited for the stream of hot steam to stop coming out the vent (which only took a minute or two), and then I carefully took the whole thing to the sink, remembering that there was a cereal bowl inside with the beans in it! Ran the water over the top, and nothing cracked or blew up! After a couple of minutes of that I VERY CAREFULLY tried to open the lid. This was where I was really expecting the lid to shoot out of my hand and all things bad to break loose, LOL! But it was fine, and I pulled the tin foil off with tongs and fished out a couple of beans and they were done! In 30 minutes! Bland as all get out, but done.
So, overall it was a good first attempt. I will try putting garlic and onion in with the beans next time, and may just try cooking them in the cooker itself, because I would want to make more than my little cereal bowl could hold. It would be great to be able to do both the beans and rice in one cooker, but I don't know how that would work. More experiments for the future!
So, overall, a couple of good days for cooking from food storage. I have no idea what I'm doing tonight, because we planned to do the date night tonight, but I'll post tomorrow and let you know what I did and how it turned out!
Tracey
Friday, April 8, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Wheat Berries and a Food Storage Dinner
Well last night I was going to be a good girl and try to make a total food storage dinner, but then my hubby's buddy came over with steaks to barbecue, and my plans happily went into the fridge! I was planning a larger portion of the mac and cheese, and a hamburger wheat casserole.
The mac and cheese didn't come out exactly the same as the smaller portion I had made for lunch. I think I had too much nutmeg in it. I'll put the recipe for the smaller portion at the bottom of the post, and when I get the "family sized" one figured out properly, I'll post that as well. It was still good, just had an obvious nutmeg flavor, LOL!
The hamburger wheat casserole recipe came from the Shelf Reliance website (we're dealers for their food storage products - great stuff!). It uses cooked wheat berries which are the whole wheat "seed" before it is ground into flour or anything. There's different ways to cook them, like slow cooker on low all night or you can even boil water and put the water and wheat berries in a thermos overnight and they will be ready in the morning (just make sure to leave enough room for expansion - they really expand!). All the recipes I've seen say to use twice as much water as wheat berries.
Since I hadn't thought far enough ahead to have wheat berries already cooked, I decided to boil them on the stove. And then I wasn't sure if I was supposed to have 2 cups of cooked wheat berries for the recipe, or to cook 2 cups of raw wheat berries (which would yield like 4 cups cooked) so I went for the big amount. Boiled for a long time, but they got soft. Now they're in the fridge waiting for me to finish the casserole tonight.
Messing with the wheat berries reminded me of a cereal we used to eat when Jeff & I were first married. We did the thermos trick with the wheat berries, and they would still be warm in the morning, and we'd put them in a bowl with a little milk and sugar, and eat them just like any other cereal. So this morning, my little girl and I had some of them for breakfast that way, and even though they were cold from the fridge, it was still great. She didn't get much sugar, LOL, but she still asked for seconds! That's a good sign!
I think it's awesome to find ways to use the grains without having to grind them into flour first! I'm also going to try soaking and sprouting the wheat berries and see if that still works for a good-tasting breakfast cereal, since it would be WAY more healthy for you than cooked. Keep you posted on that one!
So tonight I will finish up the casserole. Using freeze-dried hamburger in it (could also have used home-canned hamburger, and I've got a friend who says she home dehydrates hamburger all the time), and everything else I think will be food storage. It uses shredded cheese on top, and I have freeze-dried shredded cheese, but I will probably use fresh cheese and just grate it myself, and save my FD stash for when the crud hits the fan and I have absolutely no other option!
One of the big things going on is that my mom and I are going to check out a canning machine for sealing #10 cans from her church (she is LDS) and do a big canning day at my house. She is 82 and appreciates the economy of buying dry goods in big bulk bags (like 25- and 50-pound bags) but she just can't work with quantities that big, so we will be canning stuff up in the #10 cans for her like rice, flour, sugar, beans, oats, etc. I'm still trying to decide what I will be putting up in them, since it does cost for the cans (I think it's $1 per can), and they are not necessary to keeping foods safe and secure. Gotta weigh the convenience versus the cost, and I am sure I will do some just to have the experience (probably some bulk dehydrated apples at least) but I'm not sure we want to divert our food funds to #10 cans.
We will also be inviting friends and family over to do this with us, as we really believe it's in everyone's best interests for as many people in our area to be prepared as possible. Less people knocking on your door later if they're prepared now. And it is a blessing to be able to use this canner and have this opportunity, so we want to spread that blessing around as much as possible.
In case anyone is interested, it is possible to buy already-canned items from the LDS church either over the internet or from a local cannery and the prices seem to be better than I've seen anywhere else. There's just not much selection - literally only about 15 items. But what they have is VERY good priced. I will try to post links tonight for the online ordering and the list of canneries. If you want to purchase from a cannery, make sure you call first, because each one has different policies, and some won't sell to non-church members at all, some want you to come with a member, and others have days or times that they are open to the public. So just call! And if your cannery is one that requires you to have a member "sponsor" you, look up your local LDS congregation (called a Ward) and call them and just explain that you're interested in food storage, and the cannery, and is there a time when members will be going over there and could you join them. They will probably be SUPER helpful.
So, that is what is happening so far today! I'll post more tonight after dinner and let you know how the casserole went!
Small-Portion Mac and Cheese
2 oz macaroni pasta (uncooked)
1 TBLS butter (you can use butter powder or margarine powder or probably even Crisco in a pinch)
1/2 tsp flour
1/4 c milk (for powdered, use 1 TBLS +1/4 c water)
1 TBLS cheese blend powder
cayenne pepper
nutmeg
Salt the pasta water well and cook the pasta. Drain, but reserve 1/4 c of the water, and set pasta aside.
Melt butter, slowly whisk in the flour, then add the milk to make a basic white sauce. Add the cheese blend powder, and a tiny pinch of each of the spices. If the sauce is too thick, add some of the reserved pasta water to thin it. Using the pasta water will help the sauce to cling to the macaroni, as it has the starch in it.
The first time I did this, I added a little more flour, and a little more milk so there was more quantity of the sauce. It turned out AMAZING!
Tracey
The mac and cheese didn't come out exactly the same as the smaller portion I had made for lunch. I think I had too much nutmeg in it. I'll put the recipe for the smaller portion at the bottom of the post, and when I get the "family sized" one figured out properly, I'll post that as well. It was still good, just had an obvious nutmeg flavor, LOL!
The hamburger wheat casserole recipe came from the Shelf Reliance website (we're dealers for their food storage products - great stuff!). It uses cooked wheat berries which are the whole wheat "seed" before it is ground into flour or anything. There's different ways to cook them, like slow cooker on low all night or you can even boil water and put the water and wheat berries in a thermos overnight and they will be ready in the morning (just make sure to leave enough room for expansion - they really expand!). All the recipes I've seen say to use twice as much water as wheat berries.
Since I hadn't thought far enough ahead to have wheat berries already cooked, I decided to boil them on the stove. And then I wasn't sure if I was supposed to have 2 cups of cooked wheat berries for the recipe, or to cook 2 cups of raw wheat berries (which would yield like 4 cups cooked) so I went for the big amount. Boiled for a long time, but they got soft. Now they're in the fridge waiting for me to finish the casserole tonight.
Messing with the wheat berries reminded me of a cereal we used to eat when Jeff & I were first married. We did the thermos trick with the wheat berries, and they would still be warm in the morning, and we'd put them in a bowl with a little milk and sugar, and eat them just like any other cereal. So this morning, my little girl and I had some of them for breakfast that way, and even though they were cold from the fridge, it was still great. She didn't get much sugar, LOL, but she still asked for seconds! That's a good sign!
I think it's awesome to find ways to use the grains without having to grind them into flour first! I'm also going to try soaking and sprouting the wheat berries and see if that still works for a good-tasting breakfast cereal, since it would be WAY more healthy for you than cooked. Keep you posted on that one!
So tonight I will finish up the casserole. Using freeze-dried hamburger in it (could also have used home-canned hamburger, and I've got a friend who says she home dehydrates hamburger all the time), and everything else I think will be food storage. It uses shredded cheese on top, and I have freeze-dried shredded cheese, but I will probably use fresh cheese and just grate it myself, and save my FD stash for when the crud hits the fan and I have absolutely no other option!
One of the big things going on is that my mom and I are going to check out a canning machine for sealing #10 cans from her church (she is LDS) and do a big canning day at my house. She is 82 and appreciates the economy of buying dry goods in big bulk bags (like 25- and 50-pound bags) but she just can't work with quantities that big, so we will be canning stuff up in the #10 cans for her like rice, flour, sugar, beans, oats, etc. I'm still trying to decide what I will be putting up in them, since it does cost for the cans (I think it's $1 per can), and they are not necessary to keeping foods safe and secure. Gotta weigh the convenience versus the cost, and I am sure I will do some just to have the experience (probably some bulk dehydrated apples at least) but I'm not sure we want to divert our food funds to #10 cans.
We will also be inviting friends and family over to do this with us, as we really believe it's in everyone's best interests for as many people in our area to be prepared as possible. Less people knocking on your door later if they're prepared now. And it is a blessing to be able to use this canner and have this opportunity, so we want to spread that blessing around as much as possible.
In case anyone is interested, it is possible to buy already-canned items from the LDS church either over the internet or from a local cannery and the prices seem to be better than I've seen anywhere else. There's just not much selection - literally only about 15 items. But what they have is VERY good priced. I will try to post links tonight for the online ordering and the list of canneries. If you want to purchase from a cannery, make sure you call first, because each one has different policies, and some won't sell to non-church members at all, some want you to come with a member, and others have days or times that they are open to the public. So just call! And if your cannery is one that requires you to have a member "sponsor" you, look up your local LDS congregation (called a Ward) and call them and just explain that you're interested in food storage, and the cannery, and is there a time when members will be going over there and could you join them. They will probably be SUPER helpful.
So, that is what is happening so far today! I'll post more tonight after dinner and let you know how the casserole went!
Small-Portion Mac and Cheese
2 oz macaroni pasta (uncooked)
1 TBLS butter (you can use butter powder or margarine powder or probably even Crisco in a pinch)
1/2 tsp flour
1/4 c milk (for powdered, use 1 TBLS +1/4 c water)
1 TBLS cheese blend powder
cayenne pepper
nutmeg
Salt the pasta water well and cook the pasta. Drain, but reserve 1/4 c of the water, and set pasta aside.
Melt butter, slowly whisk in the flour, then add the milk to make a basic white sauce. Add the cheese blend powder, and a tiny pinch of each of the spices. If the sauce is too thick, add some of the reserved pasta water to thin it. Using the pasta water will help the sauce to cling to the macaroni, as it has the starch in it.
The first time I did this, I added a little more flour, and a little more milk so there was more quantity of the sauce. It turned out AMAZING!
Tracey
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Living on Love - and our Food Storage
Okay, first post! Starting this blog to document how the next few months (or longer, who knows!) of our homesteading life goes. We will be living off love and food storage for the foreseeable future, since we've run out of money!
Now that hubby has been laid off nearly a year, and I'm pregnant again (yea!), we have eaten up the savings and maxed out the "emergency" credit cards, and are down to the barest bones budget I've ever attempted. For our family of 5 (2 parents, 1 college-age son, and 2 toddlers) we are working with $100 per month for household items and $160 per month for food. Those can obviously be shuffled back and forth as needed, and there will be some drastic changes to my household items I've been buying to help free up more for food, but that's what there is to work with.
Thankfully, I married a very smart guy, and he already had some long-term food storage when we got married, so we will be living off that, with the additions of anything I can grow in the garden, and all I can get out of the chickens, rabbits, and goats. (Although we follow the Old Testament food laws, so we won't be eating rabbit meat.) And our little food budget, LOL!
I'll document pretty much every day what we're eating, and how I'm making it, using mostly food storage foods, etc. I know I've always wondered how people actually USE their food storage, and while there's lots more helpful websites these days than there used to be, I still think it might be helpful to track someone doing it day-to-day. So here we go!
First changes we're making are switching back to cloth diapers, nearly full time. I will keep the huggies on hand for hubby, and who-knows, and my 2-year-old is almost potty trained during the daytime, but my little guy (just turned 1) will have to work with what we've got for a small stash. About 10-12 diapers I think.
I'm also switching to homemade laundry detergent. Our graywater goes into a recycle system for the outdoors, so we have been using 7th Generation which is okay, but way too expensive. The bottle costs about $8 and it says it does 33 loads (I haven't measured my use against that, though) so that would be like 24-cents per load. Supposedly the homemade stuff can be as low as 1-cent to 3-cents per load. I've got everything I need (which is only like 3 ingredients!) so I'm going to try making a batch tonight or tomorrow. Let you know how it goes! And of course, like all good frugal housewives, I'll be hanging my laundry up to dry as soon as Jeff has a chance to put up a laundry line for me. I think I'll be able to hang the diapers too, and just fluff them on no-heat in the dryer so they're not like cardboard on little guy's hiney, LOL!
I also conquered my long-time goal of making a decent-food-storage mac and cheese. Got a recipe from someone at Backwoods Home Magazine forums and it turned out awesome! Way better than the boxed stuff, and darn near Stouffer's frozen kind! I used the Cheese Blend Powder that we have so much of in our food storage, and in the past it has NEVER tasted right, not even tasted good at all. This recipe had me make a white sauce then add in the cheese powder and a couple of pinches of spices and it made all the difference in the world! I am going to fiddle with it a little bit tonight, make another batch, and then I will post my final recipe. I think if I add just a little of my freeze-dried cheese to the sauce, it will be as good as the frozen Stouffer's kind.
Jeff is out working on the raised beds for the garden right now. We've got some seedlings under lights in the bathroom, ready to harden off and transplant as soon as a bed is prepared. Then plenty more seeds ready to start. We will have a small garden close to the house with the raised beds, and then an "overflow" area near the barn for warmer-weather crops and stuff that takes up more room (squashes, melons, potatoes, etc.). I'll be doing lots of canning and dehydrating this year!
So there's lots going on in our efforts to live on this tiny little budget, and I'll do my best to keep you posted on all of it!
Talk to you tomorrow!
Tracey
Now that hubby has been laid off nearly a year, and I'm pregnant again (yea!), we have eaten up the savings and maxed out the "emergency" credit cards, and are down to the barest bones budget I've ever attempted. For our family of 5 (2 parents, 1 college-age son, and 2 toddlers) we are working with $100 per month for household items and $160 per month for food. Those can obviously be shuffled back and forth as needed, and there will be some drastic changes to my household items I've been buying to help free up more for food, but that's what there is to work with.
Thankfully, I married a very smart guy, and he already had some long-term food storage when we got married, so we will be living off that, with the additions of anything I can grow in the garden, and all I can get out of the chickens, rabbits, and goats. (Although we follow the Old Testament food laws, so we won't be eating rabbit meat.) And our little food budget, LOL!
I'll document pretty much every day what we're eating, and how I'm making it, using mostly food storage foods, etc. I know I've always wondered how people actually USE their food storage, and while there's lots more helpful websites these days than there used to be, I still think it might be helpful to track someone doing it day-to-day. So here we go!
First changes we're making are switching back to cloth diapers, nearly full time. I will keep the huggies on hand for hubby, and who-knows, and my 2-year-old is almost potty trained during the daytime, but my little guy (just turned 1) will have to work with what we've got for a small stash. About 10-12 diapers I think.
I'm also switching to homemade laundry detergent. Our graywater goes into a recycle system for the outdoors, so we have been using 7th Generation which is okay, but way too expensive. The bottle costs about $8 and it says it does 33 loads (I haven't measured my use against that, though) so that would be like 24-cents per load. Supposedly the homemade stuff can be as low as 1-cent to 3-cents per load. I've got everything I need (which is only like 3 ingredients!) so I'm going to try making a batch tonight or tomorrow. Let you know how it goes! And of course, like all good frugal housewives, I'll be hanging my laundry up to dry as soon as Jeff has a chance to put up a laundry line for me. I think I'll be able to hang the diapers too, and just fluff them on no-heat in the dryer so they're not like cardboard on little guy's hiney, LOL!
I also conquered my long-time goal of making a decent-food-storage mac and cheese. Got a recipe from someone at Backwoods Home Magazine forums and it turned out awesome! Way better than the boxed stuff, and darn near Stouffer's frozen kind! I used the Cheese Blend Powder that we have so much of in our food storage, and in the past it has NEVER tasted right, not even tasted good at all. This recipe had me make a white sauce then add in the cheese powder and a couple of pinches of spices and it made all the difference in the world! I am going to fiddle with it a little bit tonight, make another batch, and then I will post my final recipe. I think if I add just a little of my freeze-dried cheese to the sauce, it will be as good as the frozen Stouffer's kind.
Jeff is out working on the raised beds for the garden right now. We've got some seedlings under lights in the bathroom, ready to harden off and transplant as soon as a bed is prepared. Then plenty more seeds ready to start. We will have a small garden close to the house with the raised beds, and then an "overflow" area near the barn for warmer-weather crops and stuff that takes up more room (squashes, melons, potatoes, etc.). I'll be doing lots of canning and dehydrating this year!
So there's lots going on in our efforts to live on this tiny little budget, and I'll do my best to keep you posted on all of it!
Talk to you tomorrow!
Tracey
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