Most recently, I’ve been invited to teach on the topics of food storage and preparedness at BYU-Idaho’s Education Week August 2-4th. As the date is fast approaching, I need to practice my presentations and decided to open them up online using Facebook Live. I’ll be offering the following schedule for my own practice and as a profitable class for all who join in. Each class is one hour in length. Feel free to pass this invitation on to others as you feel to do so!
Most recently, I’ve been invited to teach on the topics of food storage and preparedness at BYU-Idaho’s Education Week August 2-4th. As the date is fast approaching, I need to practice my presentations and decided to open them up online using Facebook Live. I’ll be offering the following schedule for my own practice and as a profitable class for all who join in. Each class is one hour in length. Feel free to pass this invitation on to others as you feel to do so!
I’ve recently come across a couple of good ideas that can be “thought forward” to emergency preps. They share a similar theme, so I decided it was worth a post to combine them. Today’s idea is preserving fresh items (or pantry items opened prematurely) in the event you’re without electricity. Some might think this is a funny thing to prepare for, but if the lights go “out” my belief is that they won’t be coming back “on” all too quickly, so we’d better be ready to adapt.
Fresh Foods in Food Storage?
In addition to all the shelf stable food items we store, preparing a plan to grow fresh foods by learning to garden and sprout (so long as conditions allow it) is extremely important to consider. Nutritionally as well as for so many other reasons, having a bit of fresh food to eat, even in small amounts, would be (and I use this adjective most sincerely) *awesome*. The problem is, we’d likely have times in growing food where there’s a surplus; we can’t use it up fast enough and don’t want it to go to waste. Well, there are a couple of ideas I’ve come across to help in this area that I’d like to share. Continue reading
So, hello again! It’s been a while. Don’t worry though, I’m still here, I’ve just been buzzing around lately getting used to a new family schedule at home. Let me fill you in just a little on what I’ve been up to (and no, I’m not quitting blogging)…
Before starting the blog, my husband and I homeschooled three of our kids for more than five years. After a big move across the country, we felt much more comfortable with our new area’s public schools so we enrolled the kids in school. Lucky for me, this window of time allowed the opportunity I needed to post recipes here in earnest and get the ball rolling, which I’m very grateful for.
Well, a couple months ago the winds changed and my husband and I realized a lot of good for our specific kids’ needs would be met if we returned to homeschooling again. We went with it and that’s where I’ve been spending a great majority of time lately. Although it’s been a busy adjustment, I’ve been sincerely loving it and life is very good.
This doesn’t mean I won’t continue to post when I can, but you’ll need to be patient with me. Another place we can connect is via Facebook where I post more regularly . If you’re ever wanting to find me to see what I’ve been up to, that would be a good place to find me. Also, as for Twitter, I’ll see about working on my presence there, but right now my focus is really at home.
Personal life updates aside, I’ve been excited for all the recent interest in Wonder Ovens. I was invited to contribute a power packed introduction post all about them for Backdoor Survival’s Blog recently. Additionally, there continues to be lots of interest from emails I’ve gotten both asking for wonder oven paper patterns and hearing back from readers who’ve finished making them for themselves. I love being a part of it!
Just so you know, my last batch of paper patterns went out in the mail just last week and I’m planning my next batch to go out in February. If you’re interested, yes, I’m still sending them out! Email me at myfoodstoragecookbook@hotmail.com along with a physical mailing address to send it to. If you’re living in the US, I’ve started asking for a return of $2 to cover the shipping. You can just mail it back to me using my return address or I can send you an invoice through Paypal.
So, on to today’s business. I was so excited to get to be a part of a blog tour for a wonderful new book that’s come out on sour dough/ natural yeast cooking.
Authored by Melissa Richardson, her second book “Beyond Basics with Natural Yeast”, builds on principles taught in her first book “The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast”. Since I was gifted my first start over the summer by a generous reader, I was particularly interested to find out the publishing company for this book was looking for blogs to review it. They needed reviewers and I needed instructions. Since I’m such a beginner when it comes to baking with natural yeast this book absolutely thrilled me for all the options which were discovered!
This is my fun start container, btw. And now, I’ve found a great book to boot! Continue reading
Exciting news! For those who’ve been wanting to buy a wonder oven pre-made, Joyce from Prepared in Every Way.com (who’s blogged, authored and been involved with preparedness podcasting for many years) has now begun making and selling Wonder Ovens full time. I’m so excited that she’s decided to take this project on for all the rest of us! You can find her at My Wonder Oven.com (love that name, btw!) and she’s offering them at a very reasonable price: $47.50 + shipping.
To kick off this new adventure, she’s giving away this very cute October “pumpkin” of a Wonder Oven! Details are given below.
**This giveaway is now CLOSED, however please continue to utilize this post for information on where to go to BUY a Wonder Oven** Continue reading
This week and next, there are two product giveaways going on with a collaborate of preparedness bloggers that I know just about any of you would love to win! I’ve never participated in group giveaways like this in the past (mostly because I’ve had other things I’ve been focusing on), but with two products in a row being given away this month which would ideally suit my goals on this blog, I decided to join in. If you’re a My Food Storage Cookbook Facebook fan (which I hope you are), you’ll already have entries awaiting for you in the drawing. You’ll need to be sure to *follow each of the links below* to get to the entry pages in order to participate. Also, to clarify, these are TWO separate giveaways which are going on, each with different links given below; one is for this week and the other is for next week. Woo Hoo!
**These giveaways are now CLOSED** Continue reading
Wrapping up National Preparedness Month, I’d like to give away this super cute wonder oven to help at least one more person get more prepared! For those who’ve been wanting one for a while, here’s your chance!
**This giveaway is now CLOSED** Continue reading
There are patterns and principles, long since tested, that can make anyone more effective in whatever kitchen space they find themselves in. This post is a collection of rules you should know as well as the best shortcuts and re-purposed items I’ve found that have made a difference in the way I’m able to effectively work in my kitchen.
These ideas, while they’ll do tremendous things for the way you feel about your kitchen today, are also something I’ve come to appreciate as an added layer to my food preparedness too. Not only does an organized kitchen make you want to cook more, (encouraging you to get better at the skills themselves) but in an extreme circumstance, it’s benefits could even include a much faster and smoother transition if relocation to a new space was necessary. There are lots of reasons to put thought into both your kitchen space as well as the tools/ ingredients you use most to find the path of “least work” for the “greatest return”. Continue reading
Wow, it’s been a while! I didn’t intend to break from blogging so much in June but it just flew away! For those who have followed over the past couple summers, you know summer time for me is pretty much “off season” for the blog. While I’d love to keep playing and keep connected to all you folks all year long I’m (for sanity reasons) a seasonal blogger/ facebooker, etc. Maybe one of these days I’ll figure out how to balance more while the kids are home all day, but I haven’t gotten to that point yet. So now, with the entrance of summer, my time has officially been handed over to my little people…and my medium sized people, as my teens are becoming not so little anymore. (Btw, for those who are new here, my kids are 15, almost 13, 11, almost 7 and almost 2. And to add one more little tidbit to our summer’s craziness, three of these kids’s birthdays — plus their dad’s birthday — land in the month of July, if you can imagine the odds. We celebrate some of the birthdays in June –so it’s been party central here lately– this because each July we take off on a massive road trip lasting 4-6 weeks to visit family in ID, WA and UT. Every year I begin this road trip asking myself “why drive three days with kids like this??” and every year I come back home with a satisfied answer for myself.)
For those who asked about classes: our travel calendar this year didn’t end up allowing enough spare time for the classes to happen {sadly}. Sorry about that, maybe next year (?) Or, perhaps one of these days I’ll get moving on some other way to bring classes instead to your computer screen, that’d work too! Ideas or suggestions on that? Feel free to pass them along!
All this said, there’s a bright spot. I couldn’t leave you hanging all summer without posting this wonderful tutorial my friend Eva offered us. Eva is another friend of mine who moved here from outside the US having gained wonderful real life training growing up on how to cook with basics ingredients — this time in the Baltic region of the world. I’ll tell you more about her in just a minute, but first a little about the recipe…
If you’ve tried making homemade spaetzle — or homemade noodles at all — in the past this recipe is probably the fastest one there is. You’re going to love it!! For anyone who’s never made spaetzle before, you now have the easiest way to do it at your finger tips! For our purposes, this post is going up to emphasize the *method* of making the spaetzle, the recipe is included here as well, but it’s Eva’s everyday recipe including fresh eggs. Definitely use it if you have fresh eggs on hand, but if you’re looking for a storeable recipe, check out my post for Hungarian Goulash with Spaetzle from a few years ago. Again, it’s a great 100% pantry ingredient recipe from Shari Haag’s “The Everyday Gourmet” cookbook and we’ve loved it! The great thing is, from now on I won’t be taking forever cutting noodles into a pot! Continue reading
A couple of weeks ago I was asked by a couple of you whether there was another way to cook meat in a wonder oven other than the plastic bag method I originally posted here.
I’m SO glad for the question because it caused me to look at things in a different way which now has gotten me thinking about other directions this style of cooking can be taken! Plus, going forward it’s going to save me supplies and money since the improved container (at least the one I’m going to be using from now on) negates the need for me to buy bags anymore. (Yay!!) More on that in a minute. Continue reading
I’m excited to have been invited to join up with many other great preparedness bloggers today, adding a post about the biggest threat I see in our aim for preparing for the future. Here’s my contribution, you’ll want to “hop” over to see others which have been posted by following the links below.
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The “biggest threat” to successful preparations, that I see, is the act of storing food away (relaxing and thinking you’re prepared) but neglecting to have a plan for it.
Through this post, I’ll detail 9 areas of planning which need to be addressed — in addition to the storing of food — in order for your food storage to become a “parachute” in your preparedness plan, effectively serving (and possibly saving) your family the way you want it to.
Without taking a close look at these details and double checking your preparations it’s easy to find a false sense of security lulling you to sit back and relax. All the while- as you’re thinking you’re taken care of in the food storage department– an oncoming train could be barreling it’s way around the corner and you’re in fact not ready for it. Continue reading
We all know wonder ovens keep things hot for extended periods of time, however it’s useful to know they also keep things cool, even frozen in the very same way!
As an example of this, last summer our family took a road trip at which at one point – going from point “A” to point “B”– we knew we were going to be arriving to a family reunion the very same night our family had been assigned to make dinner for the group. We wouldn’t have time to visit a store, so before leaving we picked up frozen hamburger patties and packed them in the wonder oven to travel with us. Once we’d arrived and were ready to make dinner, a full 12 hours later, we pulled the hamburger patties from the wonder oven to use and they were still rock hard frozen. Of course we gathered a group from the family together (those kind enough to indulge me in my thrill of all things wonder oven) and oohed and ahhed at the “wow” of these pillows!!
Keep Frozen Foods Frozen
For this reason, having a wonder oven is extremely useful for many reasons. If you’re freezer went out for whatever reason, you could save some of your food from perishing by simply bundling it up in your wonder oven pillows. The more pillows you have on hand, the more food you could save!
In keeping things frozen, another use for them is to keep either a set of pillows with it’s container (if you have room) or just a single pillow –with a way to secure it around your food– in the back end of your vehicle to keep ice cream and frozen foods frozen on your way home from the grocery store. Here in TX, everyone knows ice cream is the last item you buy when grocery shopping, just to be able to get it home before it melts! With a wonder oven pillow on hand, you don’t have to worry — you can even go run a few errands afterward — the ice cream will stay frozen.
Keep Cold Foods Cold
Another application, one that I use a lot, is in using my wonder oven pillows (here in the Texas heat) to keep things cool. Simply by wrapping up the food in one of the pillows, keeping the food surrounded by the insulating beads within the pillow, foods such as lunch meats and cheese can be kept cool for hours (all day if needed) for picnics, etc. It’s so easy and it doesn’t even require a container! Continue reading
Read with consideration, this method (whether the bran is to be attributed to it’s success) is currently under investigation…
Chocolate lovers, listen up! I was given permission to post an experiment that’s been 5 years in the making (not my own), attempting to pin down the most successful way to store chocolate long term.
The following quoted recommendation (found by our tester 5 years ago) is what initially triggered the test you’ll read below.
“I have stored both M&M’s and chocolate chips. You cannot put an oxy pack in with them [while storing] because it will make the oil in the chocolate go rancid. I have experimented for years and have found storing them with bran is the best. I’ve even tried storing it with sawdust (instead of bran) but the chocolate went rancid in 2 years with the sawdust. I’m not sure what it is about the bran but it works. I have had chocolate stored for up to 15 years now without it going bad. I have stored it in three different ways:
1- Sealed in # 10 can (the best way for storing larger amounts of it)
2- Stored in a mylar pouch (not very good because the mice go through mylar pouches in nothing flat)
3- Stored in buckets (okay but not very efficient because once you open the bucket and let the oxygen in the chocolate goes bad very soon, 1 -2 months)Instructions:
Leave the chocolate in it’s original package and pack (bury) the package in wheat bran. Then seal the can. You can usually get 4 packages of chocolate chips in one #10 can and then fill the rest with bran.”
Storage Test
Wanting to try it himself, here are the results from our featured 2nd tester of this method (in his own words):
“Today I opened a can of assorted Hershey’s kisses that was sealed in February of 2009. It was stored in a basement with a fairly even temp. between 50 and 75 degrees. I made sure to completely surround the original packages with the wheat bran and used no oxygen absorber. I found that 4-10oz. packages fit perfectly into a #10 can. The critical thing, I believe, is to ensure that all the packages are surrounded individually on all sides.
The candies have no off smell whatsoever, and virtually no discoloration. The taste of samples from each bag was, to me, no different than the day they were purchased. I consider this method of storing chocolate a smashing success!!!”
**
To get a better picture of what was really going on, I sent a note to a friend of mine, Cheryl Driggs (author @ www.simplyprepared.com), who I consider highly knowledgeable in storing techniques and food science. My question was whether the “bran” had anything to do with it or if it was just a filler of space. Here’s her reply, for anyone who might like to consider it. She writes:
“I don’t think it has anything to do with the wheat bran. I think it has more to do with filling up the space and pushing out the air so anything would work.
Also, I’ve never heard the idea that using an absorber causes chocolate to go rancid. Rancidity is caused by oxidation. If there is no oxygen there won’t be oxidation so it should be just the opposite. Absorbers should prevent oxidation and rancidity, however LDS Church home storage recommendations currently don’t recommend using absorbers with high fat foods until further research is done (although you do find them in commercial packages of jerky and other foods).
Part of the reason his chocolate came out well is the fact that he stored it at such a low temperature. The white coating that appears on chocolate is called “bloom”. Heat causes the fat in the chocolate to rise to the surface. The bloom is chocolate fat.”
What say you? Please share a comment with us if you’ve found success storing chocolate.
There are a lot of things I wasn’t expecting at the outset of this contest. Of course I knew it would be a great experience for anyone who decided to join up, but I didn’t know I’d sit reading submissions each week cheering on the participants (for all my family to hear), laughing out loud at their funny weekly experiences, or feeling so touched by their notes of gratitude.
Another thing I didn’t expect to have happen was seeing how fast participants ended up catching on to food storage cooking and how good they got at it! I already knew if I could do it anyone could, but the motivation of a contest really fueled the fire and got the job done (and then some)! All recipes added up, it’s very impressive to see what these “once novice” prepper cooks accomplished in the short span of three months!!
Here are the stats:
What an ending! Welcome to Dawn Dockery, who jumped in Week #11 with 38 points and submitted a huge 170 points for Week #12! Week #11’s point winner goes to Amanda Shulz! Here are weeks 11 & 12’s prizes along with their winners respectively:
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We had a total of 79 recipes turned in for weeks 11 & 12! I decided to combine them according to participants. Also, just FYI, I only got through about half of the post in adding the links before it was just too late and I had to go to sign off for the night. I’ll finish up the links here next week.
Everyone listed here was entered in for the four prize finale… the announcement of those winners (along with our overall contest winners) is in the next post (posted today as well).
Be sure to click on the image if you’d like to have a closer look! In no particular order, here’s all the wonderful food storage recipe testing that was done over the last two weeks!
1– Bacon Ranch Pasta Casserole
2– Butter made from shelf stable (Gossner’s) cream
3– Creamy Pineapple Dessert (made with Dream Whip, picture #4)
5– Garlic and Chive Hoagie Buns
7– Pepporcini Sandwiches (using canned beef)
8– Ranch Dressing (made with homemade mayo and blended with a manual blender!)
1– Granola Bars (recipe found here)
3– Meatless Taco Soup (recipe in notes area below)
Review: We usually add ground turkey to this, but I wanted to make it Food Storage friendly. I am a meat lover so I didn’t think I would love it, but I liked it just as much!
4– Copycat Olive Garden Breadsticks (found in week #10’s recipe submissions from Paula)
Review: Husband loved these. I made one batch and then decided I should have doubled it, so I hurried and made another batch. I have a picky eater who doesn’t like garlic flavored bread so decided to do one batch plain or with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on it, and the other was garlic. Huge hit. Love this recipe.
5– Whole Wheat Pita Bread (also in week #10’s submissions, from Brittney. Recipe included again in notes here below.)
Review: I think these were supposed to be easy, and for some reason they weren’t super easy for me. I started one on fire and started a hot mitt on fire in the process as well. It was in intense night in the kitchen. But they taste good! I just put some honey on one to try it out and was excited! I will be making these again, with a fire extinguisher close too. 🙂
1– Alfredo Pizza (pizza made with jarred alfredo sauce as the sauce base as well as to sautee the chicken in.)
“This was okay—much better when we used the rest of the sauce for dipping.”
2– Atole (a Guatamalan hot oatmeal drink)
“We put it in a bowl for our girls, and they call it “Oatmeal Soup.” My daughters went a little overboard on the cinnamon and sugar in the pictures!”
3– Rice Pudding
“YUM!”
4– Cornbread
“This recipe was okay. It was pretty dense, but the flavor was good. I’ll keep the recipe until I find a better one.”
“This was the birthday cake for our little girl who turned ONE! She loved it, as we all did. It was perfect!”
“This recipe used a rennet tablet for the cheese. I wondered how it would turn out. Maybe it turns out okay with regular milk, but with powdered milk, the flavor wasn’t too pleasant. Plus I couldn’t get enough whey out to knead it. It was too jiggly.”
7– Honey Sesame Chicken (recipe in notes)
“This was incredibly delicious. I might make a double batch just for myself!”
9– Korean Beef (recipe in notes)
“YUM! I had sesame oil and sesameseeds, so I threw them in as well. This was delicious!”
10– Shredded Beef Chimichangas
I used the shredded beef taquitos recipe from My Food Storage Cookbook to make chimichangas along with some homemade flour tortillas. THIS WAS THE BEST FOOD STORAGE RECIPE YET!!! Wow. Delicious is an understatement! (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the meat. When I texted my husband this morning to send me a picture of his that I sent for his lunch, he said sorry, he’d already eaten it on his way to work! It was so yummy he couldn’t wait. Haha)
11– Spanish Rice
“This was yummy. It was a perfect side for our homemade chimichangas!”
12– Oven Baked Oatmeal
“This is my third oven baked oatmealrecipe. I like it more than the last, but the powdered milk had a very strong flavor that I couldn’t get past. I’m going to have to keep looking.”
13– Survival Bread
“This was an interesting recipe. The flavor was . . . interesting. A little addicting, but not in a delicious-I-need-more way. It was just a hmmm-that’s-interesting way. So we munched and snacked on it. It was very sweet, and once it cooled, it was very hard. I didn’t have orange or lemon jello, so we used strawberry.”
14– Flour Tortillas
15– White Chicken Chili
“This recipe was a little bland. Probably because I left out the can of green chiles, but I didn’t want it to hot for the kids. It definitely needs something to add more flavor though.”
16– Flour Tortillas
(…all links from here on out will be added soon…)
1– Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
2– Balsamic Tortellini
3– BBQ French Bread Pizza
4– Biscuits
5– Homemade Bread Crumbs
6– Bread
7– Butter
8– Butter
9– Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Pancakes
10– Cherry Yogurt Bread
11– Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
12– Cinnamon Raisin Bread
13–Dream Whip
14– Classic Buttermilk Pancakes
15– Franks & Beans
16– Gravy
17– Green Beans
18– French Bread Pizza
19– Hot Breakfast Rolls
20– Hot Ham Rolls
21– Mac and Cheese
22– Mashed Potatoes
23– Meat Pie
24– Mexican Tortilla Lasagna
25– PB &J sandwiches
26– Pineapple Baked Ham
27– Pineapple “Fluff” Dessert
28– Powdered Milk Butter
29– Rice
30– Rice Crisp Oatmeal Cookies
31– Rice Pudding
32– Samoa Brownies
33– Homemade Tortillas
34– Yogurt #1
35– Yogurt #2
1– Homemade Butter (made with a hand crank butter churn)
2– Triple Berry Crisp
1– Beef Burritos
2– Butter (made with shelf stable cream)
3– Homemade Caramel
4– Chicken Noodle Casserole
5– Homemade Hamburger Buns
6– Lemon Mousse
7– Mexican Tortilla Lasagna
8– Homemade Tortillas
9– Tuna Salad Sandwiches
Vicki formatted the four pictured recipes she made (along with a great commentary) in a document. Here are her documents for week #11 & 12:
Week 11 – April 22-23-2014 Biggest Prepper Challenge
Week 12 – April 30-2014 Biggest Prepper Challenge
Whole Wheat Pita Bread
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon honey
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 cups flour, plus additional for kneading
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon salt
Cornmeal for sprinkling baking sheets
Combine yeast, honey and 1/2 cup warm water in a large mixing bowl. Stir together then set aside for five minutes. In a separate bowl, mix white flour and wheat flour together with a whisk, set aside. After the five minutes, make sure the yeast mixture is foamy. Add 1/2 cup of the flour mixture to the yeast mixture. Combine. Cover with saran wrap and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.
After yeast mixture has doubled, add oil, salt, remaining 3/4 cup warm water, and the rest of the flour mixture. Stir well into a dough. Dump dough onto a floured surface and knead dough for 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Add a little bit of flour when it is needed. Shape into a ball and put in an oiled bowl. Cover with saran wrap and let rise for one hour.
When dough has doubled, punch down and separate into eight pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, flatten with hand, then roll out with rolling pin to make a circle with a 6-7 inch diameter. Place dough round on a cookie sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Roll out all the sections. Cover cookie sheets with clean cloths and let rest for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 500 degree F. Place an oven rack on the lower part of the oven and remove the other rack. Lay the pitas, four at a time, directly on the oven rack. Cook for 2 minutes or until just puffed and golden, turn over and cook an additional minute. Let rest on a cooling rack for two minutes then wrap in foil to keep warm until serving.
Atole (Guatemalan Hot Oatmeal Drink)
1 heaping cup oats (instant or regular, both work well!)
2 1/2 cups water
dash salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups milk (made from powdered milk)
Heat water, salt and sugar in pan until boiling. Add oats, cook for 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, heat up milk in microwave for 2 minutes or bring to an *almost* boil in another pan. Pour milk in blender and add hot cooked oatmeal mixture. Start blender on low and hold onto the lid with a towel- this is a full load for a blender so start slow. Increase blender to high and blend until smooth. Serve in mugs. Add a sprinkle of cinnamon if you like!
Bulgolgi (Korean Beef)
1 can of beef
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
¼-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
sprinkle of salt
pepper
dried chives for topping
Directions:
Heat skillet on medium heat. Toss in meat. Then the honey and soy sauce. Add everything else except the chives. Simmer for a few minutes. Spread on rice and top with the chives.
Honey Sesame Chicken
1 can chicken
salt and pepper
2 TBSP sesame oil
2 TBSP onion rehydrated
½ C honey
¼ C ketchup
½ C soy sauce
½ tsp garlic powder
small pinch of red pepper flakes
4 tsp cornstarch
1/3 C water
sesame seeds and dried chives for sprinkling on top
Sprinkle shredded chicken with salt and pepper. Saute onions in oil, then add the honey, ketchup, soy sauce, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Stir. Then toss in the chicken. Bring to a boil, then simmer and start rice. Let the meat simmer while rice cooks. When rice is done, dissolve 4 tsp of cornstarch in 1/3 c water in a small bowl. Mix cornstarch/water into chicken sauce stirring constantly. Warm it so the sauce is slightly thickened. Top rice with chicken and sauce, then sprinkle on sesame seeds and chives.
With so many preparedness voices out there (with the ever growing number of emergency preparedness “experts” on the internet and otherwise), I thought I’d focus my post today on a preparedness planning idea I’ve used that’s helped me filter and safely navigate all the information (and misinformation) as well as keep things balanced in my life. It’s not always 100% fool proof, but it’s a whole lot better than going it alone.
First off, as far as preparedness matters go, I don’t have to tell you it’s easy to get overwhelmed, distracted, scared and even sometimes downright frozen from all the information that’s available and not knowing what to do with it all. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the busyness of collecting ideas feeling like you’re being productive simply by collecting them, but yet at the end of the day (or week or month) you don’t seem to have much to show for it.
What do you work on first and who do you trust for advice? Continue reading
One more week completed! Here’s the current standing on points:
Part of running a week by week contest like this, especially since it’s something which hasn’t been done before, is keeping a pulse (coming from you, the audience) on what’s working and what’s not. Of course, my goal in all of this is to utilize this contest to serve the greatest number of people I can. This said, judging by the response on the facebook contest this current week, my take is it’s not exactly what participants are looking for (which is fine). So with that, along with the fact that I’d like to give everyone who wants it a final chance to win something fun from the contest prize bag, I’ve decided to pool the remaining weekly prizes from both weeks #11 and #12 into a drawing open to anyone who decides to submit a 100% recipe between now and the end of the contest.
This does not effect the overall participant’s placements at all.
All who cook over the next two weeks will be eligible.
This is going to be fun!! I’m excited for all those who end up winning these great prizes. If you haven’t gotten involved yet, this is going to be a great opportunity to put yourself in the running for a great prize while also trying out cooking with food storage! Here’s the way I’m running the last two weeks. Ultimately simple (or atleast it seems simple to me), but if you have questions, go ahead and ask away!
A prize package of three pantry sized cans of three great Thrive products, sponsored by our very own Amanda Schulz (visit her shopping site here!!) Her package for you includes a pantry sized can of each of the following:
Freeze Dried Sausage Crumbles
Instant Black Beans and
Freeze Dried Sweet Potatoes
From Foxhill Corporation, it’s a $90 camp oven!! Camp ovens fit over one burner of a gas or wood stove and allow you to bake as you usually would. Simply light whatever heating source you’re using, center the oven over it and adjust the flame to reach baking temperature. Because these units are compact, they don’t require a lot of heat. In using one, to prevent burning, start out with low heat and increase it gradually until your temperature is right. They’re made from rust resistant heavy aluminum, which further allows them to bake evenly.
In the collage above I pictured the smaller single unit, to demonstrate how it’s used. However, the unit being featured for our prize is the actually the double unit, measuring 10 x 10 x 9 1/2″ and weighing 4 lbs. Additionally, the package includes:
From Campmor.com for emergency lighting, heating and cooking, our next prize, a Tri Outlet Safety Post, turns a propane tank into a multi-use tool!! You just screw the pole onto a bulk propane cylinder and it allows up to three propane accessories to run at once. The post is 30″ tall and retails for $35.99.
To go along with this prize, is a compatible lantern, the Coleman Northstar Propane Lantern, retailing for $59.99. By placing the lantern on top of the pole, you’ll have light at the optimum height for any kind of area lighting.
A distributor of Goal Zero’s easy-to-use portable solar power products, the website powerinapinch.com is donating Goal Zero’s newest lantern, the $79.00 Lighthouse 250!! Product Description: Lantern and USB power hub in one. This bright lantern has 250 Lumens and three brightness levels and hand crank. Recharge through USB or solar. Also gives you the ability to recharge all your small USB devices right from the lantern. Integrated USB cord to recharge your phone twice, camera, gps, Guide 10, or to give a boost to a larger device like an iPad.
If you’re looking to go solar, whether it be panels, power packs or tools for lighting, the guys over at Power in a Pinch offer a wide variety of products to choose from. Get an idea of what they can offer you by checking out a video (a product walk through) HERE.
I’m excited to finally get to share week #10’s prizes with you! Here’s what’s coming up this week:
Brought to us by The Prepared Hour, our weekly points winner this week will receive our second collection of Do Terra Essential Oils. It includes three 15 ml bottles, including Wild Orange, Clove and Peppermint oil and retails for $60. If you remember, Clove Oil landed on the First Aid Supply list I posted last week for it’s usefulness for toothaches. In addition, each of these essential oils have many uses (including using them in your cooking if you like). Here are some ideas of what each can be used for (as suggested HERE). Thanks going out to The Prepared Hour for this great prize!
Wild Orange
Diffuse Wild Orange for its effectiveness killing pathogens, and enjoy its incredible aroma while it disinfects and kills bacteria. It is an excellent oil to diffuse in a car during long trips. Wild Orange is certified by the FDA to be GRAS and 1-2 drops in ¼ cup of water can be taken internally for acid reflux or heartburn. Use topically for a calming, yet invigorating, massage. Use in a spritz to spray bed sheets or as an fragrant pathogen killing spray in bathrooms and kitchens. Use with a carrier to sooth an infant’s tummy. Use topically in a massage during the early stages of a cold.
Clove
Clove’s traditional use for dental pain is still helpful and is used and recommended by dentists. A few drops on a cotton ball and placed on the painful tooth, dry socket or gum area will provide relief for an hour or two. This application makes it a perfect addition for home dental emergency. Its analgesic properties also make it suitable, when diluted properly with a carrier oil, for help with muscle and joint pain. Further when mixed with water Clove can be used as an antiseptic spray to clean and disinfect surfaces and countertops. Adding one or two drops of Clove with carrier oil creates a stimulating disinfecting rinse. When diffused in to the air in small amounts, Clove is a powerful eliminator of airborne microbes.
Since this oil has strong properties it should be used with care for topical applications. Avoid sensitive areas or those that have sensitive skin. Usually for oils that can cause skin irritation it is best to dilute in a carrier oil at a 1% dilution or less. Use with care during pregnancy.
Peppermint
Many studies have noted the power of Peppermint, even in smaller amounts for stomach problems. Aromatherapists have long suggested using Peppermint either internally, aromatically, or topically for indigestion, nausea, or other digestive ailments. Topically a 1 or 2% dilution with a carrier can be massaged over the abdomen.
Peppermint is often used to improve mental alertness and acuity. Apply Peppermint to the back of the neck to help relieve stress and tension. It can be applied to the temples to relieve headache. When applied to the bottom of the feet, Peppermint creates a cooling sensation and may help to reduce fever. Its aroma is uplifting and invigorating and when used topically can be soothing to tired, sore muscles. Its cooling sensation is perfect for fresh breath and opening the sinuses and airways. The FDA certifies Peppermint as GRAS. Mixing a drop of Peppermint with a blend of other oils will help the body absorb the constituents faster. Caution: Has a strong cooling sensation. Do not use with infants. Use with care during pregnancy.
This week’s facebook contest prize is a collection
of a few of my favorite books!
**
The Everyday Gourmet by Shari Haag
I’ve used this book over and over again on my journey cooking with food storage as well as here on the blog. Unfortunately this book is no longer available for purchase (unless you count the single used copy I found on Amazon for $125). It’s a great book in learning to add a bit of style to cooking with long term food storage! I feel like I’ve gained all the use from it I can personally, so this book is being given away straight from my own book shelf. The type of person who is working hard on their family’s food storage recipes is exactly the type I want to pass it on to! 🙂
In addition to searching for it’s title here on my blog, here are two other reviews on the book for you to check out:
Eating Food Storage’s “My Favorite Food Storage Books”
And Prepare Today’s review on one of it’s recipes found here.
“So Easy to Preserve”
from The University of Georgia’s Cooperative Extension
With canning season right around the corner this extension book, “So Easy to Preserve”, details everything you’d want to know about canning and preserving. It came highly recommended to me by a canning expert who I personally trust (and who’s guest posted on canning here), Cheryl Driggs. Because it seems to go in and out of being found “in stock” on the extension’s site, I ordered an extra to be able to give one away. Authored by two Ph.D’s in food science, you’ll be able to trust the direction it gives you as you use it for a reference in canning and food preservation.
Bread in a Bag by Pam Emick
Compliments of the author, another favorite book of mine is in the mix this week: “Bread in a Bag”. I reviewed this book a while ago and I love the concept and recipes it offers. It’s all about “pantry-meal” type convenience for breads! Thanks Pam, for offering this book to this week’s winner!
Water Treatment Kit Prize
For whatever reason, the Rafflecopter widget is having problems for me this week, so the water treatment kit from Water Pure Technologies will instead be given away to the contestant who has the most points in this week’s submissions who hasn’t yet had a chance to win it! Easy enough! 🙂
Alright then, I’ve taken enough of your time gabbing on this. Go on and get cooking!
Weekly recipe/points submissions are due to me Wednesday night (for anyone who’s new, you can check out the details on submissions here) and {important} our facebook contest (detailed here) will end instead at 7 am CT on *Saturday morning* this week, so I don’t have to wait up late to call it at midnight, lol! I’m getting old and I need my sleep!
I’ve been trying to decide the most helpful format in which to archive our participant’s experiences since many of you have been asking how you can get a list of their recipes. For me, one of the best parts of this contest has been the additional ideas and resources discovered through our contestants and I don’t want this information to get buried as just another contest. Instead I see it as a collection of experiments that can become a useful part of the blog. So this new format is what I’ve come up with.
So this is how it’ll go from now on… I’ll be updating each of our past weeks in the same way you see here. My goal is to have everything done and ready for you in this way by the end of May. However, if you want to know the information on any specific recipe you’ve seen sooner than that — (for example, if you’re participating and you want to try one of these recipes for yourself) just sent me an email and I’ll be glad to help you out.
Alright then, to get started, let’s see where our participants stand in placement overall as well as what they’ve earned in points!
My Food Storage Cookbook 