This is tougher than I thought, keeping track of the food we eat through out the week.

Flour/Grains

Rolled Oats 1.5 cups

Steel cut oats 2 cups

popcorn 1/4 cup

rice flour 3 cups

wheat flour 11 cups

rice 4.5 cups

pasta 3 pounds

Oil  2 cups oil of corn or olive oil not including the butter

Beans 1 can of black

Vegetables 1 can of corn, 1 can of green beans, 2 cups of freeze dried onions, 1 cup of mushrooms, 1 can diced tomatos, a large #10 can of crushed tomatoes, 1 small can of tomato sauce, lots of freeze dried  vegetables.

Fruits we opened #10 cans of bananas, pineapple, mangos, grapes, fuji apples. We all snack on these and add them to smoothies.

Cheese 3.5 cups freeze dried cheese

Milk 3 cups instant

Eggs  4 tablespoons whole egg powder, one fresh egg, 3.5 cup scrambled egg mix

Meat 1/2 cup sausage freeze dried, 4 pints of canned chicken, 2 cups of seasoned freeze dried chicken, 1 cup of freeze dried ground beef, one can of beef chunks.

We are down to 2 pounds of butter

Salt and Bouillon 1/4 cup

Sugar white and brown 3 cups, 2 cups of honey

Other Items 

opened a can of freeze dried ice cream sandwiches

opened a #10 can of peach drink mix

1 cup of sunflower seeds

4 tablespoons of sprouting seeds

sesame seeds

1 can of coconut milk

1 box of whipping cream

3 cups of brownie mix

6 teaspoons of mexican vanilla

We are going through the syrup too.

This morning I made steel cut oats. To mix it up a bit I added freeze dried blueberries just before serving the hot mess. It was good after adding the brown sugar, maple syrup and cinnamon. I also made a smoothie with the kefir that was really ready to be used. Kefir is a probiotic. Similar to yogurt. When you buy these little kefir grains you can use them indefinitely as long as they are taken care of. I asked Julie the owner at Cultures for Health how kefir grains do with powder milk (reconstituted of course). Julie said the kefir grain disintegrate in powdered milk and disappear. I was sad to hear this.  I am currently feeding my kefir grains the milk delivered by our milk man.

Lunch: I get working and don’t like to stop what I am doing to make something to eat. So at lunch time I heated up some leftover spaghetti and sauce from our Friday night dinner. I made 2 pounds of pasta that night for us and our guests. It was plenty. I had nearly a pound of leftover fettucini noodles. I popped popcorn for Pagey and her friend who was playing over. I also made some toast and butter.

For after school snack today I whipped up a pasta salad, it had freeze dried asparagus, red bell peppers, onions and mushrooms then fettucini again and some vinaigrette Julz mixed up for our sprout salads. The pasta salad was okay, I added a bit of goat cheese from the fridge. That gave it a gourmet taste. Oh and some salt and pepper.

I was hungry tonight. Its cool how fast dinner can be to fix when eating from food storage. I whipped up chicken and dumplings in about 15 minutes. I boiled several cups of water added freeze dried peas, dehydrated carrots, celery, onions, chicken bouillon, a can of green beans, a can of corn, a pint of my pressure canned chicken and some potato beads to thicken up the broth. A few herbs, thyme and sage and some pepper. Whipped up the dumplings, flour, oil, milk, salt and baking powder. Let those cook in the boiling soup and served. Everyone enjoyed it. It was filling and loaded with vegetables.

Pancakes for breakfast. Used my Thrive whole egg powder and instant milk in the batter. My brother-in-law found these outdoor grills that use propane. Anything and everything we cook on it tastes excellent! I am so glad we bought the grill. We will cook breakfast outside in 18 degree temps. We can make like 14 pancakes at a time! When its Sunday and you want to get to church on time that is a very handy thing. No one has to yell, “I get the first one!”. They still do yell it but everyone gets the first one.

I have had this binder I use for my recipes I am given or find and print from the internet for 10years. Its a mess. It works for me. I think its important to have hard copies of recipes incase you can’t access the interent for some reason. So I keep my tried and true recipes in my binder.

The chicken curry is a tried and true. I have never made it with food storage though until today. I had about a cup of coconut milk in the fridge from my last recipe I made, the chicken mango stir fry. It was just the right amount for my chicken curry.

I used my pressure canned chicken for the curry. I dumped it with the liquid along with all the seasonings the recipe calls for: cumin, garlic, ginger, turmeric  curry powder, and pepper. I also added freeze dried green chilis and freeze dried onions. I stirred it around and then added a can of chicken broth, the coconut milk and the freeze dried tomatoes. I was amazed how the freeze dried tomatoes held their shape. When I use fresh tomatoes they cook down and disintegrate in the curry, so Reese will still eat the curry. With identifiable tomatoes he wasn’t willing to even taste it. Reese ate rice with soy sauce and butter for dinner.

When I was making the curry chicken tonight I thought I was out of curry powder. I have been in a stock up (not stock pile) mode and I added about $100 worth of herbs, spices, and teas to my food storage last June. I purchased the herbs in 1 pound packages. Yes so nearly a life time supply. I love Mountain Rose Herbs, they have high quality products and the prices are a very good value. My mother in law is an herbalist and recommends all of her clients to purchase from Mountain Rose or Star West Botanicals. I have a half of pound of curry powder in my freezer. I store most of my herbs and spices in my freezer or in my cold storage. I want the freshness to last as long as possible.

Who doesn’t love a treat on Sunday night. I got out my Thrive brownie mix and made brownies in a muffin tin. I saw a pan that bakes individual brownie squares so everyone can have an edge piece. I figure a muffin pan would give me the same result but in a circle share rather than a square. Plus I have the muffin tin already!

German pancake, FAIL. My sister in Seattle loves German Pancakes. I thought I would give it a try. I used the scrambled egg mix in this recipe. It never really puffed up and was burnt around the edges  I am not sure where I went wrong.

It was very dense. The good news was, since I have never made a German Pancake before my kiddos didn’t know what to expect. Pagey called it a “pancake pie”. I had a piece too. It tasted good, the result just wasn’t what I knew it could be. We all ate it with syrup and butter. Nothing went to waste.

Scrambled Eggs were a hit. Mr Incredible loves scrambled eggs. So he whipped up a batch using the scrambled egg mix. Reese and him ate them all. I am cool with that. I don’t care much for eggs.

The kiddos ate Cup O Noodle for lunch. Does anyone else buy these cases of noodle cups when they are on sale for the case lot, or at Costco? I know it is NOT nutrient dense food. More like nutrient non-existent.  They are quick and easy and cheap. As long as my family doesn’t have them everyday I am good with it.  I ate left over spaghetti from last night. We went to the Young Ambassador performance at the Conference Center’s Little Theater. The whole family enjoyed the performance. Its so fun to get out and do out-of-the-normal activities.

Beef Stroganoff to the rescue.  I needed a quick dinner tonight. Mr. Incredible and I went out with some friends. Mr. Incredible has been wanting to see Skyfall, the latest James Bond movie. We missed it in the first run theaters. I really like paying the cheap theater prices, $2 a ticket! Four of us went to the movies for the price of one at the big theater. The seats are decent and the theaters are clean. Its not the old gross second run theaters. We enjoyed the movie.  This is where I need to confess. I bought movie popcorn and 2 treats! I fell off the wagon.  Well actually Mr. Incredible did and I ate them too. We made a fast dinner for the kiddos but didn’t have time to eat any ourselves. I am not sure if this is really breaking the rules or not. I think it does technically. We are not suppose to eat at restaurants or go grocery shopping during this entire challenge. Movie popcorn and candy? I go to the theater to eat the popcorn. The kiddos loved the beef stroganoff. I used Thrive sour cream powder and freeze dried mushrooms. My canned beef chunks are wonderful. The sauce is done by the time the noodles are through cooking.

I made an egg scramble this morning. I had 4 potatoes left and shredded two of them for breakfast. I mixed up the equivalent of 5 eggs using the scrambled egg mix. I chose to add mixed bell peppers. I have fallen in love again with Thrive’s mixed bell peppers. They are so good. And a #10 can lasts forever! I also added freeze dried onions, and freeze dried sausage and some freeze dried green chilis. All Thrive of course.

I walked away from the hash browns to help Julz order some photos for a school project. The potatoes burned pretty bad in the center. I cut out the burnt part and the rest was okay. I have no resources to waste. I added the scrambled egg mix and the veggies and the rehydrated and drained meat. I used the left over liquid to deglaze the pan and then dumped in the eggs and veggies. The skillet was excellent. I am slacking on my picture taking. It looked similar to the skillet I cooked last week. This one was not as greasy.

For lunch I made chicken soft tacos with our left over chicken and tortillas from our enchiladas last night. After school Reese had a friend over. Reese’s friend wanted waffles. I swear waffles are our go-to food. We snacked on freeze dried pineapple, and freeze dried fuji apples. Oh we opened a can of freeze dried ice cream sandwiches. Reese really loves them. I really love Thrive freeze dried double chocolate ice cream bars.

Last week I invited my friend Rachel and her family over for dinner for tonight. She has four children and her husband and my husband are in a similar line of work. Rachel brought a yummy guacamole dip, fresh bell peppers and celery sticks. Loved it!

I made spaghetti, a dinner staple. We eat spaghetti all the time. I was amazed when I realized its been 12 days and we have not had spaghetti for dinner yet. Tonight was the night.

We used all Thrive vegetables. This is a recipe Mr. Incredible found in the summer and made a batch using fresh vegetables. Mr. Incredible does not normally cook up recipes in the kitchen. I was thrilled with how well it turned out when he made it this summer. Tonight I asked him to dig out the recipe again so we could make it for our pasta. This time it was even better because the prep time was cut in half since we used all Thrive veggies. Mr. Incredible said, “I like cooking with Thrive.” Marvelous I tell you! I have canned crushed tomatos and tomato sauce  in my food storage. I also used and love the versatility of the Thrive tomato powder. I make it into tomato paste all the time.

I am storing many pounds of Italian organic whole wheat pasta. The sauce  was served on fettucini tonight.

After school today I made the kiddos a tortilla with cheese. They also ate Thrive mangos, and a smoothie. I keep kefir grains and make the kefir into a smooth when its ready. I save the powder from the bottoms of my fruit cans to mix into the smoothies. The freeze drying process removes 98 % of the water from the food. Some of the fruits have turned into powder at the end of the can from jostling around during shipping.

Today we added strawberry powder and peach powder to our smoothie. Gigi helped me make it.  I have some mango powder and more strawberry powder to add to the next smoothie. Normally I add frozen berries and other frozen fruit to thicken it. With the food storage exercise going on, I am adding ice instead. I add a quarter cup of Thrive fruit drink and a cup of water and ice, ice baby. I like my smoothies cold and thick.

This is not cheating. On Tuesday I invited my brother’s family over to dinner for tonight. My gracious sister-in-law offered to bring something to the dinner. She is such a doll. I asked her how she felt about bringing a green salad.  She did and it was fabulous because she is fabulous herself. We got to eat fresh green salad tonight. And my brother’s family got to eat yummy chicken enchiladas from our food storage. Even Stevens.

Enchiladas start with tortillas. At 2:30 this afternoon I started dinner.  It needed to be ready by 6:oo pm. Don’t you just love slaving away in the kitchen?  I am totally kidding! The more familiar I am getting in cooking with my food storage the easier, yummier and quicker it becomes. Its like my creative mind starts working and I have ideas about making this or that with what I have on hand. It is amazing!

While the dough rests I make the filling. Its a cinch because is all shelf stable. I use cream of chicken soup. I know some of you are rolling your eyes at cream of chicken soup. Its not the healthiest choice but it is shelf stable and its for company. And it is for company. Honestly this is how I make my creamy chicken enchiladas, with cream of chicken soup. Sorta lame-O but totally yum-O. I add some spices and green chilis. I added two pints of my canned chicken. My cousin in Arizona taught me how to pressure can chicken. It is wonderful! And so easy. Promise. As long as you have a pressure canner. When I find chicken for a song I load up and pressure can several pints. Normally a pint is plenty for a dinner for my family.

At 4:45 I do need to start the tortillas which I whip up in 5 minutes. The dough I mean. Then I enlist Julz to help me roll or cook the tortillas. I have learned it is best to give my kiddos choices, they love to choose the task they do. And honestly I appreciate the help so which ever she wanted to do would be marvelous. She chose rolling the tortillas. She doesn’t like working next to the hot stove. She is rolling the dough and I am baking the tortillas.  I tell her we need to have the enchiladas wrapped up in the oven by 5:30, we have 20 minutes to get them done. Ready, set,  go. Its like Cupcake Wars and Julz loves that show.

With the enchiladas in the oven, I make refried beans with the rest of my pinto beans. Beans are a residual food in so many ways. The refried beans are okay. I will have to explore other recipes. Cheese we used Thrive Colby cheese tonight. We are a cheesy family.

It was a good day livin’ on our food storage. This is a great exercise for me in all sorts of ways. I am so happy my family rocks and is willing to do it with me! No photos. With company it threw everything off and I forgot to get my camera out when we were eating.

Heather Lorimer is a Platinum Thrive Consultant, a mom of soon-to-be four, and a former home economics teacher. She has a fabulous blog about cooking with her food storage. I have been eyeing the Chicken Mango Stir Fry on her blog for several months now. Tonight I cooked it up with some modifications. Yes I am a modifier.

Rather then telling you the differences between the two recipes. I am simply going to explain what I did for dinner, inspired by Heather.

In the past I have made coconut rice for my family. Both times it was not received well, okay they hated it. Mr. Incredible and I on the other hand love coconut rice. The kiddos prefer just plain rice. Tonight I cooked up the last of the basmati rice I had on hand. I love those long, long grains of basmati rice.

While the rice was steaming. I rehydrated the Thrive Seasoned Chicken in my pyrex 2 cup measuring cup. I filled it with the freeze dried chicken slices then poured boiling hot water to cover the chicken. I covered the  measuring cup  with a plate and let it hang out while I worked on the marinade. Since freeze dried chicken in already cooked it is a bit tricky to marinade. I wanted all the flavor of the marinade so I mixed it up and when the Thrive Seasoned chicken was finished rehydrating in the hot water I let it sit in the marinade for a little while.

I have Nellie and Joe’s key lime juice in my fridge. I have a super Key Lime pie recipe that calls for it. Lime juice is always handy for me. No lime zest though. This is the lime I used in Heather’s marinade.

In a separate dish I put 1 1/2 cups of mangos, the onions and mixed bell peppers. I pour the excess liquid from the chicken on top of the fruit and veggies. Those rehydrated for about five minutes.

In a frying pan I added a bit of olive oil. Poured the chicken and marinade in the pan and stir fried them for a minute or so. Next I added the mangos, peppers and onions. Since I didn’t add the coconut milk to the rice. I added a half a can of full fat coconut milk to the stir fry. I let that simmer for a few minutes. Added some freeze dried cilantro. Done. Served over plain basmati rice. When you eat this dish, food storage is the last thing on your mind. Lucky I store coconut milk in my pantry. Not enough though. Its on the list.

No cheese in this recipe. As I am cooking out of my food storage I realize how much cheese I use in my everyday meals.

This is not what I was thinking when I was searching high and low for a recipe. I did want to have a oat bar that Julz could eat, meaning it had none or very little sugar. I found this recipe at Kath Eats and used it.

Nuts. A half cups of walnuts or almonds. Last Christmas in a white elephant gift I got was a bag full of nuts in their shells. After Christmas Mr. Incredible asked if we should just throw them away since we don’t own a nut cracker. I said no, and threw the bag in my “health food” cupboard. I wonder if I am the only one who had a “health food” cupboard. I was raised in Seattle Washington by a hippy granola mom. She is amazing. She cooked from scratch when I was young. No sugar was in our house growing up. She made yogurt, bread and sprouted all sorts of seeds to eat. She birthed her babies at home using certified nurse midwives. And even gave homeschooling a shot. My mom ate to live, she didn’t live to eat. As a child I didn’t eat to live, I lived to eat. If something looked, smelled, or had a weird texture I wasn’t touching it. I can relate to my Reese completely. And I let him live to eat too. The food in my “health food cupboard is stuff like, millet from Eden foods, kombu and wakame (sea vegetables), dry chick peas, raw sunflower seeds, chia seeds, agave nectar, brown rice syrup, raw almond butter, polenta, dates, raisins, and nuts in their shells. I have another cupboard for vitamins and supplements, herb teas, essential oils, conventional and homeopathic medicines.

Aaah, my tangents are so tangenty.

I used raisins, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds. The nuts I used were almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts. Kath’s recipe includes no sugar. Thats a good thing. Except I could not wrap my head around oats in a recipe with zero sugar. I did sneak 3 tablespoons of brown sugar into this recipe. It still qualified as Julz compliant.

This is the mixture poured into a parchment paper lined pan.

Julz and I both thought these would be better with apricots instead of raisins. I am also thinking freeze dried mangos.  Mr. Incredible is snacking on them and likes them the best out of the fam.