Mix-A-Meal Cookbook

Do you want to spend less time in the kitchen and still make delicious meals for your family?  I know I do, especially in this July heat.  I attended another great class at Honeyville Grain today that was taught by the Mix-A-Meal ladies.  If you haven't heard of Mix-A-Meal, it is a cookbook with recipes for mixes that you make in bulk and then incorporate them into your daily cooking.

With Mix-A-Meal you will:

• Save up to 90% of the cost of commercial mixes by making your own delicious and tasty mixes! 
• Spend less time in the kitchen and enjoy that good old-fashioned taste.
• Lower the preservative content in your foods.
• Adjust mixes as necessary to fit special dietary needs.
• Make a shelf-stable mix for traveling, camping trips or unexpected company.
• Enjoy no-nonsense cleanup.  Just add water or a few simple ingredients.
• Give fun and useful gifts for any occasion (Baby & Wedding showers, Christmas, Neighbor gifts,etc)

The Mix-A-Meal Ladies

I know I wouldn't use a mix for everything I make, but there are several mixes I feel would be handy to have on hand.  The ladies showed us the onion soup mix and then they made a dip and Swedish meatballs with a white sauce with the onion soup mix.  I am not an onion dip fan, but this tasted really good! It didn't have that processed, fake food taste to it.  
Onion Soup Mix 
Combine:
2/3 C dehydrated chopped onions
1/2 C beef bouillon
1/2 C dehydrated butter or margarine
2 T cornstarch
2 t onion powder
2 t parsley flakes
Mix well and store in a quart jar.  Use in any dry onion soup recipe. 1/3-1/4 C of the mix equals one package dry onion soup mix.

These are the mixes that I am going to put together:

• Banana bread mix (I just canned 20 pints of bananas and this will make banana bread a snap to make!!!) 
• Onion Soup Mix
• Waffle Mix (my kids use this all the time by themselves to make breakfast)
• Tortilla Mix (again, don't ask about the first time :) 
• Hot Roll Mix

There are many more in the book, but these are the mixes I feel I would use. You can purchase the book on amazon.com  OR support your local business' and buy it at Honeyville Grain!!  

Honeyville does not compensate me for saying all the good things I do, I just honestly feel they are a wonderful company and they offer amazing products.  Honeyville is having the most incredible Prepare Your Ark Preparedness Fair on August 5th & 6th!!  They will have classes, giveaways (a Sun Oven, Volcano Stove, just to name a few!!), demonstrations, food & more!!  On Saturday there will be a free breakfast that includes, eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns, & drinks-all using food storage items!!

Honeyville Classes are taught by the experts in home storage and emergency preparedness.  I encourage you all the attend those that interest you!  They are FREE and so informative (plus we have fun and eat yummy food)!!  I have met some amazing friends in these classes along with learning useful information. 

Tuesday, July 19, 11 AM – “I Dare You to Eat It!” by Liesa Card.  You love her Wheat Fiesta Salad and now come and find out how easy it is to understand food storage and how it works best for your family.

Tuesday, July 26, 11 AM – “Pressure Cooking – Perfect Under Pressure!” with Lisa Barker.  Wouldn’t we all love to have a little more time in our day?  With an electric pressure cooker you can cut down on the time spent in the kitchen so that you can spend more time OUT of the kitchen.

Upcoming class during August - "Replacing the Five White Deaths", "All About Oats", "Dehydrating", "Coconut Oil-It's A Must", "Canning Basics"

Watch for our Preparedness Fair August 5 – 6th - Classes, Demo’s, Fabulous Prizes - You really shouldn’t miss this event!  Some of the Teachers are: Chef Tess, professional chef and nationally known blogger, Debbie Kent, presenter at BYU-Idaho Education Week, Glen Weeks, Leisa Card & Michelle Snow among others.

Call the store for more information about the classes & fair  801-972-2168
Honeyville Grain
635 No. Billy Mitchell Rd.
Salt Lake City

Check out the goals for July and get your water storage!!

Enjoy the journey!
Enjoy the blessings!
Feel the PEACE!!

Water

I don't know about you, but I LOVE water.  It's the first thing I drink in the morning and the last thing I put in my mouth before bedtime.  I am not a juice or soda drinker and I easily drink 90+ ounces of water per day.  If I don't drink enough water I get sluggish, tired, and I get massive headaches.  (something my kids inherited from me)  I honestly can't live without water!  (I know no one can actually live without water, but I really couldn't :)

Water affects so many parts of our bodies and most people do not get enough of it!  Water makes up about 75-80% of our brains, helps carry nutrients and oxygen to cells, removes waste, protects an cushions vital organs, helps the body absorb nutrients, etc, etc!

WATER.....

• One glass of water shuts down midnight hunger pains for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study
• Lack of water is the number one trigger of daytime fatigue
• A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy, short-term memory, trouble with basic math (so that's why I didn't do well in math classes)  and difficulty focusing on the computer screen
• You lose brain cells if you are dehydrated
• 2 glasses of water after waking up helps activate internal organs
• 1 glass of water 30 minutes before a meal helps digestion and helps you eat less
• 1 glass of water before taking a bath helps lower blood pressure
• 1 glass of water before bed helps avoid heart attack or stroke

As you can see water is essential and all of our lives depend on it!  This month our storage goal is to store water, water and more water!  It is a hot month in Utah and if there was an earthquake many of us would become dehydrated pretty quickly.  The best item to start with in your storage is WATER!!!!  Don't wait any longer, store water in juice, detergent, and soda bottles.  Buy 24 packs of water and store some in your car.  If you have the 55-gallon drums make sure you have a pump and also a container to pump the water into.  I never really thought how I was going to get the water from my 55-gallon drum to my kitchen.  I bought a 5-gallon container to use for this purpose.


Store your water today!!!


Click HERE to view all of the goals for July.

Enjoy the journey!
Enjoy the blessings!
Feel the PEACE!

New Goals For July

Scorching heat, fireworks, BBQ's, and family reunions=July!  Summer is in full swing and it's time for a new set of goals.  This month is all about water and storing lots of it!  It is suggested that you should store 14 gallons of water per person for a 2 week supply. This is the bare minimum for water storage, strive to store as much as possible.    

Goals For July

3-Month Supply Goal: Your assignment this month is to make an entire meal without using electricity.  No mixers, microwaves, ovens, stoves, toasters, you get the idea.  Use your camp stoves, sun ovens, BBQ's, Dutch ovens,  or campfires to cook your meal.  There is no use in having a camp stove tucked away.  Learn how to cook with it BEFORE the emergency!

Water Goal:  This month you need to learn how to shut off your water to your home.  Click HERE to read a great article with illustrations on how to turn off your utilities.

Financial Reserve Goal:  Try using a "cash only" system for grocery shopping this month.  Set a budget and only use your cash for purchases.  It makes you think twice about buying things when you are actually handing over cash and not just swiping a card!!

 Long-Term Supply Goal:  July is one of the hottest months in Utah and we all need to have extra water on hand.  Keep it in your cars, at your work, at home (in several places) and in your garage.  Use all of your soda bottles, detergent bottles and juice bottles to store cleaning water in.  I don't think I can stress enough the importance of having plenty of water stored.  

Emergency Preparedness Goal:  It is camping season and all the stores will have camping gear on sale!  When is that last time you had your family tent out, or aired out your sleeping bags?  Your goal is to set up your tent to make sure it doesn't need repaired or cleaned, and have a sleeping bag for every person in your family.  I would also suggest having a camping pad to go under the sleeping bag.  You will be extremely cold if you sleep in your sleeping on a tent floor.  The ground will seep the warmth right out of your body.  Your other goal is to have a Utah map in your car, with at least 3 different routes mapped out, in case you needed to evacuate quickly.


{Watch for sales this month on all BBQ items including charcoal, condiments, paper goods, etc.  Now is a great time to stock up on them and have them in your pantry to use all year round.}


Enjoy the Journey!
Enjoy the Blessings!
Feel the Peace!!

Paper Goods

Today is the last day of July. How did you all do on gathering water, oils/fats, paper goods, and charcoal? If you read this entry early enough you could still run to the store and purchase some of these items. I found some great facts on paper goods:

-Paper goods store indefinitely. You can store them in hot places like garages, attics,etc.

-In an emergency paper goods will become a necessity.

-You can barter with paper goods.

-Paper goods are easily disposed off if trash collection halts. Just toss them in the fire.

-Coffee filters are cheap and can be used for sandwich holders or small bowls to hold snacks. (the Dollar Store and Big Lots carry these)

There are 273 meals in 3 months. If one person uses one bowl a day that equals 91 bowls. There are 182 meals left after breakfast and that means you will need 182 plates per person if you are only using paper goods. That is a lot of paper goods. It really adds up when you do the math. I know it isn't the most "green" thing to do, but in an emergency I don't think too many people are going to be thinking about recycling.


July Goals:

WATER: Store 14 gallons per person for a 2 week supply. This is the bare minimum for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. I would recommend storing water everywhere you can think of, under stairs, in the car, storage rooms, under beds,etc. Use soda bottles, laundry detergent bottles (for cleaning water) and any other container with the word "PETE" on the bottom of it. That means is will hold up over time and is safe to store water in.

OILS/FATS: Store 25lbs of oils and fats per person for a year storage. This includes mayonnaise,butter, oils, peanut butter, salad dressings, and shortening. Stock up this month while the prices are lower, watch for sales on ketchup and mustard as well.

NON-FOOD STORAGE: This month we are storing paper goods, which includes: paper plates, bowls, cups, utensils & napkins. I priced these items this week and found some great deals.
Big Lots:
paper plates 60ct $1.00
plastic cups 54ct $1.50
napkins 100ct $1.00
spoons 48ct $1.00

Dollar Store
forks 48ct $1.00
bowls 36ct $1.00

Both stores have great prices, make sure to watch the size of the product you are buying. Big Lots has a 36ct forks package for $1.30 and you get 48 forks for $1.00 at the Dollar Store.

CHARCOAL is our other non-food storage item this month. Store charcoal in 5 gallon buckets to keep it dry, and it will last indefinitely. Watch for charcoal to go on sale throughout the summer months. You will need charcoal to cook meals with especially if you don't have other ways of cooking with out electricity.
To cook 1 hour a day for a year you will need 24 #15 bags of charcoal.

Enjoy the journey!
Enjoy the blessings!
Feel the Peace!

Pioneer Day

Happy Pioneer Day! Since today we are remembering our Pioneer ancestry, I thought it would be fun to take a look at how the Pioneers used what they had around them to survive.

I have a wonderful book called "Cookin' With Home Storage", by Vicki Tate and Peggy Layton. The author's are from Manti, UT and they do a wonderful job of using what you have in your pantry to make meals with. They also have added some Pioneer "recipes" for medicine, candy and cleaning, along with some of their food recipes as well. You can find their book at Deseret Book, Seagull Book, Emergency Essentials, and I have even seen it at Walmart.

CUCUMBER SALAD
Pioneer Recipe
2 large cucumbers
1/3 C cider vinegar
1/4 C water
1/4 C sugar
1/2 t salt
dash pepper
Cut the cucumbers into slices. Mix all the other ingredients together. Add the cucumbers and toss lightly.

"Soups were one of the most typical mainstays of the early settlers of Manti. Any leftover vegetables, any soup bones, and every scrap of meat was saved and made into soup" -Peggy Layton "Cookin' With Home Storage" p 133

PIONEER CREAM OF POTATO SOUP
1 1/2 C cubed potatoes
1 T margarine/butter
1 T onion
3/4 t salt
3/4 C water
2 C milk
1 T flour
Cook the potatoes, onion, and salt until tender. Blend the margarine and flour together and stir into the hot potato mixture. Stir constantly while cooking. When mixture thickens add milk and reheat. Modern day variation-add beef or chicken bullion to taste.

"It took several weeks to make the treacherous journey by covered wagon to Salt Lake City for medical care. If the Saints were sick they had to rely on the herbs that they could find growing wild." Peggy Layton "Cookin' With Home Storage" p 247

Doc Smith's Cough Syrup
1 C honey
1/2 C hot water
juice of 2 lemons
1 T glycerin
Mix well together and take 1 T at a time when cough persists. (I personally give my kids honey for really bad coughs. 1 T at bedtime really coats their throats and helps with the cough. Also, rub Vicks Vapor rub on the bottom of the feet and put socks on before bed and that helps with coughing-sounds weird, but works!)

CANKER SORES
Sprinkle dry Thyme on the canker sore. It should heal in a few hours.

OLD FASHIONED HONEY CANDY (lds.about.com)
Boil 2 C honey until it reaches hard ball stage (about 225 degrees) Pour onto buttered surface. When cool enough to handle butter hands and start to pull as you do for taffy.When honey holds it shape and has a golden color, twist into ropes and place back on counter and cut into pieces with scissors. Wrap in wax paper.

For more information and just a fun thing to read, click here to read a blog that is titled Pioneer Foodie, need I say more.
July Goals:
WATER: Store 14 gallons per person for a 2 week supply. This is the bare minimum for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. I would recommend storing water everywhere you can think of, under stairs, in the car, storage rooms, under beds,etc. Use soda bottles, laundry detergent bottles (for cleaning water) and any other container with the word "PETE" on the bottom of it. That means is will hold up over time and is safe to store water in.

OILS/FATS: Store 25lbs of oils and fats per person for a year storage. This includes mayonnaise,butter, oils, peanut butter, salad dressings, and shortening. Stock up this month while the prices are lower, watch for sales on ketchup and mustard as well.

NON-FOOD STORAGE: This month we are storing paper goods, which includes: paper plates, bowls, cups, utensils & napkins. I priced these items this week and found some great deals.
Big Lots:
paper plates 60ct $1.00
plastic cups 54ct $1.50
napkins 100ct $1.00
spoons 48ct $1.00

Dollar Store
forks 48ct $1.00
bowls 36ct $1.00

Both stores have great prices, make sure to watch the size of the product you are buying. Big Lots has a 36ct forks package for $1.30 and you get 48 forks for $1.00 at the Dollar Store.

CHARCOAL is our other non-food storage item this month. Store charcoal in 5 gallon buckets to keep it dry, and it will last indefinitely. Watch for charcoal to go on sale throughout the summer months. You will need charcoal to cook meals with especially if you don't have other ways of cooking with out electricity.
To cook 1 hour a day for a year you will need 24 #15 bags of charcoal.

Enjoy the journey!
Enjoy the blessings!
Feel the Peace!

"No Power....No Problem"

This month we are storing charcoal as one of our non-food storage goals. I must admit that I don't do a lot of cooking with charcoal, and I don't camp so I have not had huge experience with it. I am however, interested in finding out all things related to emergency preparedness and so I searched the web to find out all about cooking without power. There are actually several options when it comes to cooking without power and I found an amazing article that a woman named Debbie Kent (click here to view her website) put together for her stake. I urge you to read this article and print it out and find the cooking methods that will work for your family. If charcoal isn't the way for you, then plan on storing the items that do work for your family this month.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE "NO POWER....NO PROBLEM", BY DEBBIE KENT.

July Goals:

WATER: Store 14 gallons per person for a 2 week supply. This is the bare minimum for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. I would recommend storing water everywhere you can think of, under stairs, in the car, storage rooms, under beds,etc. Use soda bottles, laundry detergent bottles (for cleaning water) and any other container with the word "PETE" on the bottom of it. That means is will hold up over time and is safe to store water in.

OILS/FATS: Store 25lbs of oils and fats per person for a year storage. This includes mayonnaise,butter, oils, peanut butter, salad dressings, and shortening. Stock up this month while the prices are lower, watch for sales on ketchup and mustard as well.

NON-FOOD STORAGE: This month we are storing paper goods, which includes: paper plates, bowls, cups, utensils & napkins. I priced these items this week and found some great deals.
Big Lots:
paper plates 60ct $1.00
plastic cups 54ct $1.50
napkins 100ct $1.00
spoons 48ct $1.00

Dollar Store
forks 48ct $1.00
bowls 36ct $1.00

Both stores have great prices, make sure to watch the size of the product you are buying. Big Lots has a 36ct forks package for $1.30 and you get 48 forks for $1.00 at the Dollar Store.

CHARCOAL is our other non-food storage item this month. Store charcoal in 5 gallon buckets to keep it dry, and it will last indefinitely. Watch for charcoal to go on sale throughout the summer months. You will need charcoal to cook meals with especially if you don't have other ways of cooking with out electricity.
To cook 1 hour a day for a year you will need 24 #15 bags of charcoal.

Enjoy the journey!
Enjoy the blessings!
Feel the Peace!

If I Have To Eat It I Will.

Those of you with children may know how picky (adults included) they can be when it comes to food. Dinner time in our home always includes some complaint about not liking what has been prepared to eat. This got me thinking. Many people have the idea that in an emergency if they "have" to eat or drink something they will. If you have buckets and #10 cans filled with wheat and powdered milk, but have never used them, how will you know you like them. Even in an emergency you won't want to eat food that you don't like just because that is all there is.

Let's say you gather your family and have a milk taste test with several different brands of powdered milk, you may find your family really likes 

 milk A and not milk B or C. Now, what if you have only stored milk B? You will have to use your stored milk B to cook with, and plan on purchasing milk A for drinking. The milk from the LDS cannery is wonderful milk to cook with, but have you ever drank it? If you are planning on storing this milk for your children to drink you may find they quit drinking milk rather quickly. Studies have show that adults and children would rather starve than eat or drink something just because that is all there is. This can also happen if you are eating the same thing day in and day out. People will quit eating rather than eat the same thing over and over again.

Never store food that you have not tried. I know how expensive those #10 cans of fruit, dried butter, and honey powder are, but if you save them for an emergency and no one likes them, you will be wishing you had taste tested them before the emergency. As an example, I dried apples last fall every day for about 2 weeks. I was so proud of myself for saving money and having a fruit to put in my child's lunch that I didn't think that one of my kids wouldn't like dehydrated apples. Who doesn't like dehydrated apples? Well, one of my children won't eat them and I had no idea that she felt that way. This led me to find out that my kids love mandarin oranges. I haven't stored oranges because I don't care for them and I never knew my kids liked them. Now I am storing dehydrated apples AND mandarin oranges. Lesson learned, just because I don't like something doesn't meant that everyone else won't either.

Another thought on kids being picky is the clothes that they wear. What clothes do you have stored in your 72-hour kits? Don't think that they will wear things just because that is all there is. Make your life easier by asking them what they would like to wear (within reason) and store those.

How many of you have a wheat grinder, or solar oven? Do you know how to cook over a fire or with a rocket stove? Can you make bread or cheese or how about wheat meat? All of these skills are so useful if we didn't have

  modern conveniences, but most people think they will learn to do these things if the situation arises. I will use bread making as an example. About 2 years ago I decided to learn to make bread. It wasn't an easy process and I had many mistakes along the way. There are many things that can happen to make bread not turn out. By trial and error I came across a recipe that works for me and after 2 years of trying, I can finally make bread without stressing out about it. Do you want to have to waste time with a learning curve while trying something new? In an emergency you will need that time to feed your family, they won't be able to wait 2 years for a loaf of edible bread. (click here to see the recipe that I use to make bread)

I received a sun oven (solar cooker) for Christmas this past year. It has been so much fun learning how to cook in it. My kitchen stays cooler and I am 

 cooking without using any power. The sun oven is a learning experience and there is a learning curve with it as well. Not everything turns out, but I have the time and resources NOW to get all the kinks out. During an emergency with 5 hungry children waiting for food is not the time to learn. Take the time to learn NOW the things you will need for later. (click here to read more on the sun oven)

July Goals:
WATER: Store 14 gallons per person for a 2 week supply. This is the bare minimum for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. I would recommend storing water everywhere you can think of, under stairs, in the car, storage rooms, under beds,etc. Use soda bottles, laundry detergent bottles (for cleaning water) and any other container with the word "PETE" on the bottom of it. That means is will hold up over time and is safe to store water in.

OILS/FATS: Store 25lbs of oils and fats per person for a year storage. This includes mayonnaise,butter, oils, peanut butter, salad dressings, and shortening. Stock up this month while the prices are lower, watch for sales on ketchup and mustard as well.



CHARCOAL is our other non-food storage item this month. Store charcoal in 5 gallon buckets to keep it dry, and it will last indefinitely. Watch for charcoal to go on sale throughout the summer months. You will need charcoal to cook meals with especially if you don't have other ways of cooking with out electricity.
To cook 1 hour a day for a year you will need 24 #15 bags of charcoal.

Enjoy the journey!
Enjoy the blessings!
Feel the Peace!

July Goals

Happy 4th of July! With this in mind this is a new month and a great month to stock up on all the BBQ supplies that come with summer holidays. For the month of July we are focusing on storing water, oils/fats, and paper goods. July is a really hot month here in Utah, and having enough water stored should be on our minds all month long. You will need 14 gallons of water per person, and that is the bare minimum for 2 weeks.

WATER- Store your water everywhere that you can and in all sorts of different containers. Soda bottles are great water containers. The clear bottles can store drinking water and the colored bottles can store your cleaning water. (the color from the bottle can leak into the water) I even store water in my empty laundry detergent bottles, clearly marked as water. I will use that water for cleaning as well. (click here to view an earlier post on water) Watch for cases of water to be on sale this month, $2.50 or less is a great price for 24 bottles of water. If your family are not big water drinkers then make sure to store drink mixes in your pantry. The cannery sells a #10 can of fruit drink mix for $6.90 and Emergency Essentials sells Peach, Apple, or Orange drink mixes in #10 cans for $10.99.

If you store your water in 55 gallon containers don't forget to rotate it every 6-12 months, and store it up off of the concrete floor of your basement or garage.

OILS & FATS- 25lbs Per Person Per Year
I know, I thought how on earth could we be eating 25lbs of fats per year. It sounds like a lot, but think of all the times you use oil in cooking, or butter in baking. Or how many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches do you make in a year for your children? Here is a rough estimate of different fats and how much you will need for a year supply per person.

Butter 2lbs (can store in freezer up to 1 year)
Cooking oil 5lbs
Margarine 2lbs
Mayonaise 4lbs (2 jars)
Olive Oil 3lbs (can use for skin care as well)
Peanut Butter 4lbs (4 18oz jars)
Salad Dressing 2lbs (2 bottles)
Shortening 1 tub per person

This list is just a estimate of what one person would use in a year's time. If you don't like peanut butter then you wouldn't store it, and you may need extra in another category. I know I would need a lot more than the 2 packages of butter per person. Start keeping track of what you use and when these go on sale stock up. Look for condiments to be on sale this month for sure. With all of the grilling and holiday's this month, it is a great time to get your year's worth of mayo and salad dressing. Ketchup and mustard also go on sale, store those as well. I know that my children will be more likely to eat things with ketchup and ranch dressing on them. In stressful times I don't want to have to argue with my children about eating the food in front of them, ketchup may just save your sanity. Get your paper goods this month too. I don't want to worry about doing the dishes if our water is turned off, and it is just one less thing you'll have to worry about in a stressful situation.
Grilling is in full force during the summer months and now is the time to find great sales on charcoal. Even if you don't have a charcoal grill you will want to store it. Charcoal stores indefinitely is kept dry (5 gallon buckets work great). Remember to store newspapers, canned heat, or lighter fluid to start the charcoal. For an apple box oven or dutch oven: 1 hour a day = 24 #15 bags of charcoal to be able to cook one meal a day for a year. If you have a butane stove then store charcoal for extra help when cooking. Remember to never cook indoors with charcoal, it produces carbon monoxide and that is a deadly poison.
If you would like more information on how to build your own apple box oven, CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE INSTRUCTIONS.

or HERE FOR MORE INSTRUCTIONS


You now have your assignments for July. Even with summer travel and kids home from school, don't let preparedness get left behind. If you are overwhelmed start with the water storage. You feel immediately feel the peace of knowing you have water to drink and clean with. You will feel motivated to keep going and to slowly build your storage piece by piece. I know that everyone can do it and I am here to help if you need it.
Enjoy the journey!
Enjoy the blessings!
Feel the peace!