Cream Cheese

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Sariah

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 rehydrated 1/3 cup raspberries in hot water. I let them sit about 3-5 minutes.

Next I drizzled the water that the raspberries had soaked in over the 1/2 cup butter powder. (Heather had advised me to use the raspberry water to rehydrate the butter powder)

I mixed it with a fork and continued adding raspberry water to the butter powder until it became a spreading consistency.

Then I added some honey. I didn’t measure, about what you see in the bowl.

Heather highly recommended adding powder sugar to the raspberry honey butter. So I did.

Then I stirred in the rehydrated raspberries.

Here is what it looked like.

I spreaded it on a slice of bread and took a bite. Yuk! Very butter powder tasting.

So back in the bowl it goes with a good helping of powder sugar. I would guess two generous tablespoons. Sorry for the lack of measurements. When I was stirring it the second time I felt like I was making frosting.

The powdered sugar turned the honey raspberry butter shiny and thinned it out a bit.

I spread it on another slice of bread and it was much, much better. Nothing like butter. Its more like raspberry flavored cream cheese. That’s how I “sold” it to my kiddos when they came home from school. It is not Julz compliant so she ate her bread with regular butter.

Chocolate. Store Chocolate!!

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Sariah

chocolate chips 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.

Since Julz has been on a no candy/sugar diet she is storing her Halloween candy down in the cold storage. I am leaving that be. The kids had Valentine’s parties on Thursday at school. So they have their own stashes of treats.

Chocolate chips are most definitely on the list to add, 50 pounds, to my food supply. I do have some tootsie rolls and dum dums canned in #10 cans. My sister and I canned them together over 2 years ago. But I am not opening those during our challenge. Those are for a real emergency.

Mr. Incredible’s Favorite Lentil Soup

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Sariah

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.

pasta $1.00– the recipe calls for a half of pound
onion (fd) $1.38
celery (fd) $1.10
carrots (dehydrated) $0.38
chicken broth 2 cans $1.50–using bouillon would cut the cost even further
diced tomatos (I puree so Reese can’t identify them) $1.09
sausage crumbles (fd) $3.32
herbs and spices $0.50–I pulled that number out of my head. I didn’t want to get down to the nitty gritty.

I ate 3 bowls, Mr. Incredible at 4 bowls, Julz had 2.5 bowls, and the other three kiddos had at least one bowl each. Probably three more bowls of soup for lunch tomorrow. This recipes makes, conservatively, 12 servings for only $10.27. $0.86 per serving, that is awesome! Lentils are so nutritious too.

I served it with my homemade bread that I baked today. Yes, I am now baking bread. All of our store bought bread has been eaten. My family loves my bread. I do too. Its a recipe that my mother in law gave me. The recipe makes 3 loaves. We consumed 2 of the loaves between 3 pm and 7 pm. Thats the work of six mouths. I don’t mind making bread. About two years ago I decided I was going to master the art of homemade bread making before I had to rely on the skill. My sweet mom in law came over and tested my dough for me until I figured out the “touch”. I have it down now. Its nice to have an expert to consult with.

Here is a loaf of dough before its baked. The bread next to the bowl of soup is the finished product. Vitamin C, I tell you, its the secret. I just ground up 1 500mg children chewable orange vitamin C with my wheat today.

Its Valentine’s Day. I saved up something special for breakfast this morning. Waffles, strawberry compote and whipped cream! Yes whipped cream. You already know my secret. Shelf stable whipping cream is handy. Julie referred to it as a dead medium, in the case of making Kefir with UHT(ultra high temperature) dairy. I don’t know how healthy it is to eat UHT dairy. But for breakfast this morning I tried not to think about it too hard and just enjoy my organic unbleached white flour (I know the whiter the bread the sooner you’re dead), strawberries, and UHT whipped cream.

French Toast, California Casserole, Chicken and Rice

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Sariah

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.

We have used all of our store bought bread out of our freezer. We had about 2 loaves when we began the challenge. I have made my french bread recipe several times now. The fam likes my whole wheat bread I bake too. I just haven’t baked any during the challenge. That will change now. Did you know that adding vitamin C to your bread make it softer and fluffier? My dear neighbor taught me that a couple months ago and it really works. She said just add a tablet or 2 of ascorbic acid to your wheat while you are grinding it up. So I did and it makes such a difference in the quality and texture of my bread. I am adding vitamin C tablets to my list of supplies to store. My neighbor recommends the cheapest ones you can find. I love that!

Lunch. Pagey wanted California Casserole. The menu is starting to repeat. Its been over 15 days now. So don’t get bored. There will be some de ja vu happening this last half of the month. Its great because with Thrive I can whip up the whole meal in the time it takes to boil the macaroni noodles. I made enough of the CA casserole for the kiddos to eat after school too.

Dinner was chicken, rice and broccoli. We are a 3 cups of rice family. That means I need to cook 3 cups of rice to feed my whole family well. I was lazy and the pot I needed to use, that would fit 3 cups of rice,was dirty and so I only cooked up 2 cups of rice in my smaller pot. That was not enough. It did help me with portion control. How many cups of rice do you need to cook for your family’s rice based dinners?

I have had a packet of Shirley J Universal sauce in my spice cupboard for nearly a year. Tonight I used it for my base on the creamy chicken part. It was good but it did not make enough sauce. I added a pint of chicken, a cup of freeze dried broccoli and 1/4 cup of freeze dried onion. I love Thrive’s freeze dried onions. They smell so good and taste so yummy in everything I add them to. Thrive food is incredible food.

Snacks today: Cinnamon tortillas, I have a package and a half of whole wheat store bought tortillas. Mangos, pomegranate yogurt bites, hmmm. I think that was it.

Tuesday: German Pancake Success! and More

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Sariah

I found a better recipe for the German pancake and decided to try it again this morning. And it turned out how I expected. I used my food storage of course. Thrive scrambled egg mix, instant milk, flour, salt. Oh and I blended it in the blender like the recipe says to do. Everyone loved it and ate it up. I made a smoothie again today.

For lunch I had popcorn. I had made the bowl earlier while the German pancake was cooking, Pagey wanted to eat some. We love to sprinkle the cheese blend over the popped kernels. It turns regular popcorn into cheesy popcorn. Add a bit of salt, no butter we are rationing it. But the oil it was popped in was enough to get the cheese powder to stick. I store 50 pounds of popcorn. I picked it up at Sam’s club for about $20 last summer.

Mr. Incredible ate the left over pasta salad. I added some blue cheese crumbles and sunflower seeds to it for a little more pizazz. I am in love with Thrive freeze dried asparagus. Its wonderful and just like fresh asparagus.

Reese has a field trip tomorrow. I thought I would make the french bread recipe and use half of the dough for a loaf of bread for tomorrow’s breakfast, french toast. And the other half of the dough to make pretzels. Pretzels have been on my mind since the challenge began. Probably because I remember making pretzels when I was 12 almost all by myself. I was so pleased. When the kiddos got home from school they helped me roll out and shape the last of the dough we were turning into pretzels. We boiled them in 4 cups water and 4 tablespoons baking soda until they floated about 30 seconds. Placed the boiled twists on a cookie sheet and baked them for 10 minutes. Julz and I ate them with salt and mustard, everyone else had them with cinnamon and sugar. Yummy and fun afternoon snack. Reese said he likes eating from Thrive because we try new things like pretzels. He is my adventurous one. And he is taking two pretzels in his lunch for his field trip tomorrow.

Mr. Incredible requested beef, bean and cheese burritos tonight. He made the tortilla dough while Julz and I were at viola. When we got home it was ready to roll and cook. We whipped those out. Opened a can of our beef chunks, added 1/2 cup of salsa and some brown sugar. Also used 2 cans of our black beans. Sprinkled on some Thrive freeze dried cheese and they were eaten up. Everyone had at least two and loved them. Mr. Incredible said he could eat those every night for the next 15 days. I have some cans of black beans we used tonight. But I am going to pressure can some dry black beans tomorrow so I can rotate some of the dry beans. Plus they are so much less expensive.

Another day is done. They do go by so fast.

Week Two’s Food Totals

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Sariah

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.

Monday: Steel Cut Oats & Smoothie, Pasta Salad, Chicken Dumplings

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Sariah

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.

Sunday: Pancakes, Chicken Curry and Brownies

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Sariah

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!

FAIL German pancake, Scrambled Eggs, Beef Stroganoff

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Sariah

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.

Scrambled Egg Skillet and Spaghetti

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Sariah

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.

photo (2)

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.

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