We are not starving by any means. But Gigi did have a little melt down about not having oranges, apples, or anything she could fix by herself. I understand it’s hard, especially when I am not a very scheduled food eater. I can eat a lot at 9:30am and then not think about food until 3:30pm. That has worked before since there were things available my kiddos could just grab and eat when they felt hungry. This experience of planning and cooking 3 meals a day is certainly an adjustment for us all.

The kiddos were home from school today for the holiday. Mr. Incredible made scrambled eggs and cooked up the sausage links that I had pulled out of the fridge on Sunday to defrost. I freeze sausage links in dozens so everyone can eat two sausages each when we use them. That is enough meat and keeps us from eating too much meat. Mr. Incredible added freeze dried mushrooms, freeze dried onions, and a few mixed bell peppers (all freeze dried vegetables). He uses 2 cups of scrambled egg mix every time he makes eggs for breakfast. That makes plenty of eggs. Everyone gets what they want and there are still leftovers.

This morning I made waffles. I know I have lost count how many times we’ve eaten waffles during the past 3 weeks. These waffles turned out extra yummy today for some reason. I used half whole wheat flour and half white flour. I used the whole egg powder and powder milk. Maybe its the mexican vanilla. Easy breakfast before church. No photo of the waffles.

Some of the kiddos ate bread and butter on the way to church. I took out my frozen sausage links to defrost in the fridge so we could eat those this week. We are winding down. We have 10 more days on our food storage challenge.

Grains

44 1/4cups flour
Did you know there are about 4 1/2 cups of flour in 1 pound of grain? 1 cup of wheat will grind into 1.5 cups of flour.

3 cups rice

3 cups macaroni noodles

1 cup other pasta

1 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup popcorn

Oil

4 tablespoon butter ( I am not really keeping track of butter, because I know we are consuming 5 pounds of butter over the entire challenge)

3 2/3 cup corn or olive oil

1/2 cup butter powder

Salt

I started out the morning baking an apple crisp for breakfast. I know its a dessert. But you only live once and heck we are living on food storage so we have earned dessert for breakfast! Plus apple crisp had a cup of oatmeal in it, and that is a breakfast cereal. Mr. Incredible and I were going out on a date and Grandma was coming over to hang with the kiddos while we were gone. I took a photo and then put the crisp in the oven.

A dang good dinner! I made some for dessert tonight (its not a dessert, its a soup). We all had a bowl after we had finished up the small first dinner I cooked. Shepard pie and fry bread/scones whatever you call them. I was raised calling yeast dough fried in oil, fry bread. But Mr. Incredible calls pieces of dough fried in oil, scones. Reese called them scones tonight too. I call the pastries you can buy at coffee shops with blueberries and white chocolate chips, scones. Anyway that’s what we ate tonight for dinner. Gigi loved the Shepard pie. I must admit it was good. Mr. Incredible and she finished it off.

I am looking for alternatives in my food storage that I can use to spread on bread. This was instigated by the amounts of fresh butter we use and how I do not have the freezer space to store that much butter for my family.

I am storing butter powder. I have used butter powder for cooking applications but not so much for spreading on toast.  I am one of those people who eats bread so I can eat, taste, savor the butter on top. I consulted with my good friend Heather who is also amazing with food storage, check her blog out, to get some advise on the butter powder. I have a play-by-play with photos to show you what I came up with in implementing Heather’s advice.

I am not a chocoholic. I enjoy chocolate and sweets. I don’t have to have dessert after every meal or even something sweet. But lately I have been dying for some chocolate. Not brownies, but solid milk or dark chocolate. You can imagine how happy and grateful I was to find some “emergency chocolate” bars in my Shelf Reliance party supplies. Not some but one XL Symphony bar with almonds and toffee chips. I am so happy to have it! I am breaking off a square or two and savoring them. I have shared it with Mr. Incredible but no one else knows about the candy bar, even he doesn’t know where I am hiding it.

I just found this recipe today. I made it tonight for dinner using Thrive instead and it was amazing! I love it and Mr. Incredible said it’s his favorite lentil soup now. All my kiddos ate it cheerfully. This is yummy. And oh so easy. It does take time to simmer to get the lentils soft. Just throw it in a pot and forget about it for a while. This soup was so good and easy I wanted to do a price break down on cost per serving. I am basing my ingredients off of my recipe using Thrive freeze dried food.

I did not pressure can black beans today. But after our meals I realized we need to eat more beans because they stick to a person better than white rice.

I baked a loaf of french bread yesterday intending it for french toast this morning. And it worked. I used 2 fresh eggs and 1 scrambled egg mix egg plus our Rosehill Dairy milk. Sprinkled some cinnamon and vanilla into the mix. I cooked the slices of dipped toast on an extra oily pan so we wouldn’t spread butter on the slices after they were done. I am becoming a nazi about our butter. I should lay off. I really want the butter to last. I will whip up some of my powder butter and see how that is received.