It's the end of the month and I hope you were all able to complete this month's goals of grains, school supplies and recipes containing grains. I thought I would share some recipes with you that use the ingredients from our goals this month. I am always on the lookout for new recipes and I found all of these recipes at allrecipes.com. All Recipes has a way to search the recipes by a certain ingredient at the top of their home page. I found all of these recipes by typing in the ingredient word like cornmeal, and pasta and then rice, and every recipe with those ingredients were found. (there are a lot!) These are the recipes that I found and thought would work good with food storage.
Low-Fat Alfredo Sauce
8oz Fettuccine pasta cooked
1 C milk
2 T flour
1 C cottage cheese (I use low fat)
1/2 t garlic powder
3 t minced onion
salt and pepper
1/2 C Parmesan cheese
2 C cooked, diced chicken
In a food processor blend all but the chicken and pasta. Heat sauce in pan and add chicken and pasta. This recipe is a great base recipe and you can add many other spices to fit your taste buds. The sauce also doesn't get as creamy as real Alfredo sauce since it is a lighter version.
Berry Cornmeal Muffins
1 1/4 C flour
1/2 C cornmeal
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 t salt
1 T baking powder
1 C milk
1/2 C butter melted (can substitute 1/2 C white bean puree)
1 egg
1 C berries (frozen, fresh, or dehydrated)
Mix all ingredients together. If you use frozen berries you will need to dredge the berries in the flour so they don't bleed while cooking. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Let the muffins sit for 10 minutes before taking them out of the pan.
Salsa Chicken and Rice
1lb chicken cubed
taco seasoning
1 T oil
1/4 t salt and pepper
1 can chicken broth
1 8oz jar salsa (any hotness you prefer)
2 C instant rice
8oz shredded cheddar
Dip the diced chicken into the taco seasoning and brown in the oil, salt, and pepper until juices run clear. Add the broth, salsa, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn off heat and add rice. Sprinkle cheese on top and cover. Let sit 5 minutes.
(I use regular rice so I let it simmer longer and I also add 1 can of black beans and 1 can of corn. I serve this with tortillas and sometimes with tortilla chips)
August Goals:
GRAINS: 300lbs per person per year (that is a minimum amount) We added oats in Feb. and wheat in June so in Aug. we are adding pasta, rice, cereals, corn (cornmeal), and granola bars (they happen to be on sale in Aug. for school time).
cereal: 10 boxes per person per year
cornmeal: 10lbs per person per year
pasta: 40lbs per person per year
rice: 40lbs per person per year
**Remember that the amounts are only recommended amounts and you need to store what your family will use.
Non-Food Goal: Purchase school supplies to have on hand. Having extra scissors, paper, and pens will come in handy.
This month you will need to collect RECIPES that use pasta, rice, cornmeal, wheat, and oats. Keep the recipes in a box or notebook and try them out before you decided they are a keeper. This is also a great way to rotate and use your food storage.
Enjoy the journey!
Enjoy the blessings!
Feel the peace!
On a side note: I found the funniest post on why you should have a Mormon friend-Hoarder Edition. Click HERE to read the funny post. It is food storage related and lets us laugh at ourselves. :)
One of the most daunting tasks in life is cooking dinner every single night. With 5 children I have to have dinner prepared nightly. The reason it is so daunting is my children don't like to eat the same meal over and over, and just trying to think of what to cook is overwhelming. Having a variety of recipes and ingredients on hand eliminates the repetition and headache of what's for dinner.
I found a system of organizing recipes that works for me, a recipe binder, and it also is how I build my food storage. Being able to prepare a variety of meals with your food storage will eliminate appetite fatigue in an emergency. It has been found that people will quit eating altogether instead of eating the same food over and over. (click on the pictures for a larger view)
The first step in getting organized is to know what recipes your 
family enjoys. I sat down one afternoon and wrote down every recipe that my family likes and it came out to 5 weeks worth of meals. I wrote down every meal on a calendar type page and put it in a plastic sheet protector. This will be the first page in your binder.
Every d
inner will have it's own individual page with the whole recipe written down with any side dishes also written out. This eliminates having to find recipes from different sources. Each page will also go in a plastic page protector. This way you can take out a page if you don't want to use it anymore and insert a new recipe. This method allows you to change your recipes whenever you feel like it.
Now it's time to make the grocery list. Since every recipe is written out for you with all the ingredients, it is really easy to make a shopping list. Write down every ingredient and the amount from every recipe into sections like produce, meats, frozen, etc. This now becomes your
food storage list too. You know exactly how much chicken or carrots you will need for all of your meals. When these ingredients go on sale at stock up prices you will know how much to purchase. This method allows you to save money as well because you are buying a lot of one item as its lowest price. You will start to notice the prices of the items that you use and you'll know when to stock up. Before this method I did weekly shopping trips and bought what was on my menu plan for that week. Using the binder method I only buy the items at stock up prices. I watch the grocery ads for the items that are on my menu plan list. This way I am building my stockpile and getting the lowest price at the same time.
One of the things I noticed when writing down all of my recipes was that a lot of the ingredients crossed over into other meals. This makes it easy to store the food that my family will eat. I also store canned or dehydrated foods to substitute for the fresh ingredients so that I can still make the same recipe without it being too different. I love this system because if I don't fell like making what is scheduled for a certain night I can swap with another night because I have all the ingredients on hand. I also eliminate the 4:30 panic of what's for dinner. Give it a try and see how easy it is to have dinner prepared every night and have your pantry full of ingredients.
August Goals:
GRAINS: 300lbs per person per year (that is a minimum amount) We added oats in Feb. and wheat in June so in Aug. we are adding pasta, rice, cereals, corn (cornmeal), and granola bars (they happen to be on sale in Aug. for school time).
cereal: 10 boxes per person per year
cornmeal: 10lbs per person per year
pasta: 40lbs per person per year
rice: 40lbs per person per year
**Remember that the amounts are only recommended amounts and you need to store what your family will use.
Non-Food Goal: Purchase school supplies to have on hand. Having extra scissors, paper, and pens will come in handy.
This month you will need to collect RECIPES that use pasta, rice, cornmeal, wheat, and oats. Keep the recipes in a box or notebook and try them out before you decided they are a keeper. This is also a great way to rotate and use your food storage.
Enjoy the journey!
Enjoy the blessings!
Feel the peace!
On a side note: I found the funniest post on why you should have a Mormon friend-Hoarder Edition. Click HERE to read the funny post. It is food storage related and lets us laugh at ourselves. :)
Welcome to August! I can't believe how fast this year is going by! I hope you were all able to gather some, if not all, of the July items. This month is back-to-school month and with that are some great sales on school supplies and some of the food associated with school, like cereal and snacks.
August food goals:
Grains: 300lbs per person per year(remember that yearly numbers are bare minimum amounts, store what your family will need)-pasta, rice, cereals, cornmeal,and granola bars. (oats and wheat are part of the grain category, but we collected oats in Feb. and wheat in June. If you didn't get the recommended amounts before, feel free to store those as well. Flour is also a grain and you can store it this month, but we will be gathering it in Dec.) The grocery stores will be having sales on breakfast foods and snack foods for school lunches.
Pasta=40lbs per person per year
Rice=40lbs per person per yearCereal=10 boxes per person per year
Corn=10lbs per person per year (use to make cornmeal as well as popcorn)
Granola bars*=boxed granola bars will go on sale and purchase as many as your family will use.
*(granola bars and cereals are both things that can be made from oats. We stored oats in February and you will need 20lbs per person per year. That is a bare minimum and I would recommend storing more than that so you can make granola bars, granola cereal, and other snacks)
Click HERE to view previous posts on oats.
OR
Click HERE to view previous post on oats.
RECIPES: Your other assignment this month is to collect recipes that use the 
grains listed above. These recipes need to be on paper, not the computer, because in an emergency there won't be a way to retrieve those recipes saved on the computer.
Check out allrecipes.com
They have an option at the top of the page that allows you to type in the ingredients you want and they will search all of their recipes to find those that fit your ingredient list. This is a great website to find new recipes. The recipes are all star rated and I always read through the reviews to see what other cooks have said about the recipe.
August non-food goals:
School supplies-Students are not the only people who need school supplies, everyone needs scissors, glue, paper, crayons, markers, tape, pens, pencils, etc. Watch the ads for Staples, Office Max, Office Depot for penny sales on all these items. Walmart also has great price points on these items. In an emergency some of us may be home schooling and having the supplies to be able to teach our children will be necessary.
Enjoy the journey!
Enjoy the blessings!
Feel the peace!
