Everyday Home Storage-Ensign Article

I found this great article in the March Ensign (an LDS monthly magazine) all about making food storage a part of our everyday lives. 

Making home storage a part of our everyday lives can seem daunting and expensive but this article has great ideas on how to have a home storage on the smallest of budgets.  If you don't get the Ensign magazine or would like to print out this article...CLICK HERE.  It had great ideas on how to establish a home storage and also on facing adversity.  

I can personally testify that my family has received both spiritual and temporal blessings from following the counsel of our Prophet. No matter what your financial situation is, you can prepare by taking home storage step-by-step.  "Home storage is not an event, it is a process."  And if it feels like nothing is going your way, have faith, pray, and the Lord will bless you!!

Prepare Today Homemade- Black Bean Quinoa Salad

Black beans and Quinoa-a perfect pairing!!

Honeyville Grain has introduced me to a whole new world of grains.  Quinoa has been popular for a little while now, but I have just recently jumped on the quinoa train.  I took a class at Honeyville that introduced me to many new grains that are so incredibly healthy for us.  Quinoa has a really high protein content and is actually a complete protein. (great for vegetarians!!) I was always kind of nervous to tastes quinoa because I thought it was going to be kind of like oatmeal, but I was so wrong.  It is soft and only a little bit chewy, kind of like rice.  It has a mellow flavor and all of my children ate it for dinner.  

 Black Bean Quinoa Salad
1 t oil
1 onion chopped
3 cloves garlic

3/4 C uncooked Quinoa
1 1/2 C broth
1 t cumin
1/4 t cayenne
salt & pepper to taste
1 C corn (canned, fresh, or frozen)
2 cans black beans rinsed and drained (I only used 1 can)
1/2 C cilantro

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned. Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with vegetable broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes. Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans and cilantro. 

I also made some Naan bread (or Indian fry bread) to go along with the quinoa.  It was chewy, warm, and delicious.

 Naan Bread


1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (2 1/2 t instant yeast)
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons salt
4 1/2 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons minced garlic (optional)
1/4 cup butter, melted


In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. (I used my bosch to do the kneading) Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.

Punch down dough, and knead in garlic. Pinch off 16 small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, and allow to rest for a few minutes.  Preheat your oven to 475 degrees with a pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven.  

Dough ready to be baked in the oven.

Form each ball into a 6" circle using your hands to form the circle.  Place a few circles into the oven on the pizza stone.  Cook for 3-5 minutes or until the dough has a few dark spots, and is slightly puffy.  Remove from the oven and rub with butter. 

My kids loved the bread!!  And I have a new love of Quinoa!!  Plus it was so quick to get dinner on the table.  I will be adding a few more quinoa recipes to my family's meal plan!! 

Manual Washing Machines & Long-Term Dairy Storage

The title may seem odd, but that is what my life was all about the past few days.  It was a time of experimentation with food storage theories, and also a household mini-disaster where my emergency preparedness came in handy.  I took a class at Honeyville Grain last summer taught by a sister team, Afton & Jenee, and they had some interesting ideas on how to preserve eggs, cheese, yogurt, sour cream, and cottage cheese. (click HERE to see that post) I tested some of their ideas and so far so good!!  I also had a slight disaster when our washing machine died.  Of course the minute we can't do laundry all my kids were insistent they HAD to do laundry right now!  


One of the ideas that I learned in that food storage class last summer is if you store your yogurt, sour cream, and cottage cheese containers upside down in the fridge they will stay fresh for months.  I may have taken this too literally, but I wanted to make quiche for dinner the other night and it called for cottage cheese, and lo and behold look at what I found in the back corner of the fridge....

 The date I used this in our dinner was February 22, 2012....seven months after putting this container in the fridge, upside down.  And you know what?? We are all alive today to tell you that turning your containers upside down WORKS!!!  I was convinced that just because my washing machine was broken that we were all going to be up all night with food poisoning and I would have no way to wash the sheets :)  But I was almost doing a happy dance when I opened the container and smelled it and it was exactly like fresh cottage cheese from the store!!  (I also have a post on storing cheese and eggs on the shelf for next week, so stayed tuned for that one!)


Now onto the mini-disaster...my washing machine broke and we are now waiting for a new one to be delivered (in maybe a week).  I have a potty-training 3 year old who goes through 3-4 pairs of underwear a day. (she's 3 so don't worry about her being embarrassed, maybe in 10 years :)  And of course she is now out of clean underwear and I was very close to buying new ones when I remembered my manual washing machine.  

Notice the pull-up and no pants :) They were all dirty.

 I have had a manual washer in my storage room but hadn't put together the whole contraption.  Today was the day we put it together and used it!  

We first drilled a hole in a gamma lid.

See how it all fits together.

I added a few drops of detergent and the clothes.

We started with the lid on but it was actually easier to use the suction of the plunger with the lid off.  My 2 youngest LOVED this job!!

 I drained and rinsed the clothes in the same bucket and wrung them out and then we dried them in the dryer.  What really caught my attention was how much water I would need to do laundry every week.  We used a 2 liter bottle and counted how many it would take to fill the bucket to be able to do a load of laundry.

 It took four 2-liter bottles to fill the bucket half-way with enough water to wash 6 pairs of child size 4 pants. And that was only to wash, more water would be needed to rinse the clothes.  I have quite a bit of water storage but I am adding to it everyday now!!  We had fun washing the clothes in a bucket but it was actually kind of hard.  It hurt my hands to hold the plunger after awhile and after ringing out the clothes my hands were so dry from the detergent.  I am working on  making a clothes ringer out of buckets, but I had to do it with my hands.  The bucket also doesn't hold that much.  My son is 8 and it held 4 pairs of his pants and we left the lid off the bucket to move them around with the plunger.  My 12 year old did her laundry in the bath tub and used the plunger.  I actually think that was a better way to do a large load, but it was hard on her back to bend over for that long.  (Imagine my back after doing that) 

We learned so much from doing this simple task of washing our clothes in a bucket.  I can also watch for food sales and stock up on sour cream, cottage cheese, eggs, and cheese and have the knowledge to be able to store them for months, while saving my family money!!  Learning NOW before a disaster is what I think is so important!!  Don't wait for an emergency to try out your sun oven, or porta potty, or manual washer.  You'll deeply regret not learning skills now when you have the time and energy to do so.  

(Click HERE to view a previous post on washing clothes without electricity)

Prepare Today Homemade- Creamy Tortilla Soup

I have been searching the Internet for new slow cooker recipes to use in my Saratoga Jacks thermal cooker,  and one of my favorite sites is called 365 Days of Slow Cooking.  Karen, the author, cooked in her slow cooker EVERY day for 1 year and blogged about it.  She currently has a new cookbook out and still blogs about her slow cooker adventures.  I love slow cooker recipes because they work so well in my Saratoga Jacks thermal cooker. 


My husband and I have date night every Friday night and I usually let my kids make their own dinner, but I decided that I am going to try a new dinner in the thermal cooker every Friday.  My kids can open it and serve themselves when they are hungry.  This Friday I made Creamy Tortilla Soup from 365daysofcrockpot.com.

This recipe was mostly canned goods, with only a few ingredients from the fridge.  In a situation where refrigeration wasn't available I would have used garlic powder and lime powder (dehydrated lime that had been powdered in the blender).  I would also leave out the cilantro in an emergency, but you really need it if you make it for dinner.  The cilantro makes this soup!!

I boiled my ingredients in my thermal cooker pans, stacked them and put them in the base, but the slow cooker will work perfectly. 

 Creamy Tortilla Soup (from 365daysofcrockpot.com)
1/2-1lb chicken breasts (I used a bottle of home canned chicken)
1 C chicken broth
1/2 C picante or salsa
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 t lime juice
2 garlic cloves
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 t cumin
1 C corn
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 C chopped red pepper (I didn't add this, my kids aren't that adventuresome yet)
1/2 C or more of chopped cilantro 
tortilla chips
sour cream
cheese

Place chicken, broth, salsa, tomatoes, lime juice, garlic, cream of chicken soup and red pepper in slow cooker.  Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours.  Remove chicken and shred with 2 forks.  Add the chicken back in and then add cumin, cilantro, and corn.  Cover and cook for another 30 minutes.  Serve with tortilla chips, cheese and sour cream.


For the thermal cooker I brought the chicken through black beans to a boil for 3 minutes and placed it in the cooker. I added the cilantro when it was finished and let everyone decide if they wanted cheese and sour cream.  It was so yummy with tortilla chips.  Even though I was going out to dinner I kept "tasting" this soup.  It was so good!! The only thing I may change next time is the corn.  My kids aren't really into eating corn lately but other than that this soup is a keeper!!

Long-Term Produce Storage...Kind of...

A few weeks ago I posted about growing green onions on your windowsill and I am still doing this, and the onions are growing for the 3rd time since cutting.  I was seriously so excited when I found that it worked.  Well, this week I found a new tip that I wanted to share.  It is a way to preserve your celery and have it last at least 4 weeks.  

Photo of wrapped celery from 3monthspreparation.blogspot.com

If you wrap your celery in tin foil before placing it in the fridge it will last for weeks, and  it will still be fresh and crisp when you pull it out!!  This is where I learned this from.  Crystal Young, the blogger I learned this from, also stored broccoli for weeks wrapped in tin foil, and heads of lettuce too!!!

Crystal is a Christian mother of 10 and she decided to feed her family from her food storage for 3 months without going to the grocery store.  They didn't go to the store (except for more baby formula and her husband's deodorant) and she cooked all her meals and snacks from scratch.  She also blogged about her success' and failures at 3monthspreparation.blogspot.com.  I sat and read through her 90 day challenge for 2 hours last night.  I was inspired by her words and motivated by her skills!!  Crystal has such wisdom and faith and sees God's hand in all she does for her family.  I strive to have the faith of someone like her.  

There are so many ways to save money and to live frugally and I am still learning everyday.  I get so excited to learn a new trick and I hope you find them useful too!!

Update:  After 2 months of growing the same green onion bulbs they seemed to stop producing.  I started with new bulbs and they are shooting right up.  I'll keep track of how long the next batch lasts. 

Prepare Today Homemade - Cream of Broccoli Soup

I have felt really bored with my family's menu lately and so I have been going through some cookbooks trying to find some new ideas.  One of the books that I am trying to use more often is called "The Everyday Gourmet" by Shari Haag.  She uses all shelf-stable items to create gourmet meals.  These aren't your typical beans, wheat, and rice meals.  I decided to try Cream of Broccoli Soup and it turned out thick, creamy, and perfect for a cold winter day.

 This picture doesn't do this soup justice.  It really was a little more green from the broccoli, but either way it was really good.

This soup requires a cream sauce mix and I didn't have any on hand and it donned on me that I had the dry ingredients to make a mix.  I tell ya, I really am very literal and thought I needed to buy a white sauce mix. So when I googled white sauce mix I realized I had everything to make it :)  See I am still learning everyday :)  I shared the recipe on Saturday, click HERE to get the recipe.  

 The recipe calls for dehydrated broccoli but I used the Honeyville Freeze Dried broccoli and it worked great!!  It costs around $15 for a #10 can but they do have case lot sales and that is where I got it for about $13.  It looks, tastes, and cooks just like real broccoli!!!


Cream of Broccoli Soup 
From "The Everyday Gourmet" by Shari Haag
2 C dried or freeze dried chopped broccoli
2 t dried diced carrots
1 T dried onions
2 t dried mixed peppers
2 T all-purpose flour
6 C water
1 1/2 C white cream sauce mix
1 bay leaf
1 t dried parsley
1 t ground thyme
6 whole pepper corns (I didn't have these and I just used regular black pepper)
dash nutmeg
3 eggs (3 T egg powder + 6 T water)
1 C thick milk (1 C water + 1/8 C powdered milk)  I don't really know why this is called thick milk because it is really a smaller ratio than making milk from the cannery from powdered milk, which is 1 C milk + 3 T powder.  I just added it as called for in the recipe and it turned out.  

In a medium saucepan, add the broccoli, carrot, onion, peppers in a touch of oil. (Watch it carefully, mine burned)  Heat on low and saute for 1 min.  Sprinkle with flour and stir.  Add the water and white sauce powder.  Stir well.  Add the bay leaf, parsley, thyme, and pepper corns.  Using a whisk, stir until all ingredients are well mixed .  Cook 30-40 minutes or until veggies are tender.  Using a stick blender, puree the soup.  (pour in batches in a blender if you don't have a stick blender).  Then add the nutmeg, eggs, and thick milk.  Stir and serve.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serves 4-6.

Serve with some warm, crusty artisan bread for a delicious, gourmet meal!! 

Provident Pantry-Homemade Mixes

One of the biggest tips when you are trying to save money is to make your own mixes from scratch instead of buying the prepackaged ones from the store.  Just the other night I needed a white sauce for a cream of broccoli soup I was making and I remembered a book that I have called "MixA-Meal" by Deanna Bean & Lorna Shute.  This book is full of mixes like the white sauce mix, a roll mix, banana bread, biscuits mixes, etc.  Having these on hand will save you time and money.  You can find the book at amazon.com, Honeyville (SLC store), and other retailers.  I think it is really worth the little extra time to buy flour, sugar, powdered milk, etc. in bulk and put a few mixes together. 

This is the white sauce mix that I made the other night.

This is all you need to make a white sauce mix.

White Sauce Mix
4 C powdered milk (non-instant from the cannery, if you use the instant from the grocery store you need double the amount of non-instant so 8 C in this recipe)
4 C flour
4 C dehydrated butter or margarine powder
2 t salt

Mix all and store in an airtight container.  To use:  1/2 C of white sauce mix and 1 C hot water and whisk over medium heat until thick.  Stir constantly to prevent scorching.  

Use this mix for soups, chowders, scalloped potatoes, white gravy, creamed veggies, chicken a la king, etc.  

I found a great blog that has many recipes for making mixes.  Everything from seasonings and soup mixes to pancake mixes.  Click HERE to see it! Find which ones work for you and try one out.  I recommend you try a half batch first in case you don't care for it.  I made a tortilla mix once and it didn't turn out so well and I had made a whole #10 can of it!  What a waste of money!  So definitely try it out in a small batch first.