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.