30 Days to a Better You

Things I bought to swell my meager food storage:

2 cartons salt
3 extra spaghetti noodle boxes
3 lbs Beanland mix (it really is that good)

Yes, yes, baby steps all but the journey of a thousand miles, et cetera, et cetera...

All Hail the Dutch!

Deb keeps posting about wheat this, healthy that, her plants on water rations so I thought I would chime in as her not-so-healthy but really tasty nemesis - White Bread Girl! I have been playing with a Dutch Crunch recipe and think I have it now. I have a pic but it's stuck in my camera...sorry!

Dutch Crunch Bread

2 - 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
2 tsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup warm water (105 to 110F)
1 - 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup warm milk (105 to 110F)
2 - 1/2 to 3 - 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar

Topping

1 tbsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (105 to 110F)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup white rice flour (Not sweet rice flour)

Bread: In a large bowl combine yeast, water, milk and sugar. Stir to dissolve and let sit for about 5 minutes until the yeast is absorbed. Add vegetable oil, salt, and about 2 cups of flour. Stir until well mixed. Add remaining flour a couple of tablespoons at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Turn out on to a lightly flour surface and knead for about 4 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Place in lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap (don't stick it around the dough just cover the top). Let rise about 1 hour until double in size.

Once dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into either two medium sized loaves or into 10 to 12 rolls. Place on a lined baking sheet: cover & let rise for 15 minutes while you prepare the topping.

Combine all topping ingredients in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly. Let it stand until the rolls are done rising.

Spread a generous layer of topping on each roll (think of it as a spooned on icing) - don't worry if it runs on to the pan. Let rise for another 20 minutes.

Bake at 375' for 20 to 25 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes. To reheat place in foil in 375' oven for 10 minutes.

Round Foot Gardening

The day after tomorrow our family is going to start our "hunker in the bunker".


I planted some of my deck planters this morning. Just in case we need some extra oxygen in the bunker. Considering the fact that I have a "black thumb", if we actually get anything BUT oxygen (such as vegetables) it will be nothing short of a miracle. I planted one tomato plant, one green pepper, two peas, chives, parsley, and several flowers(that way it won't be SO depressing if the veggies don't grow). I also planted seeds for radishes and spinach.

I don't think we'll be harvesting any vegetables during May - a few herbs maybe - it will be unlikely that we'll get anything else. I will try and take very good care of my little deck garden. Whenever I am wishing for fresh produce, I'll go out and water....

...I hope they don't drown.

TVP Thursday

(I made this meal on Thursday)

The ingredients.

Vegetarian Black Beans and Rice.

Into one medium size pot add:
1 can black beans
1 can pureed black beans
2 bay leaves
a handful each of dried onions and dried peppers
about a cup of sausage TVP
about a cup of water - maybe a cup and a half

Bring to a boil and then simmer for a little while. Serve over rice.

The verdict:

Alex just kept going back for more. I liked it a lot. Steve liked it a lot. Nathan liked it. Danny wouldn't try it (try not to be too shocked - he did eat a lot of the Honey-Wheat Bushman's Bread). I usually make black beans and rice with regular sausage (Jimmy Dean), but found that I didn't miss the "real" sausage at all. This one's a winner.

This recipe for black beans and rice was made completely with food storage items.

$12.37

A week from tomorrow we'll be starting our month long, self imposed food storage odyssey.

I have $12.37 left from last week's grocery money...I need to spend it by tomorrow.

What groceries would you buy if you only had $12.37?

Hunker in the Bunker 2009

Several years ago we had some friends in our ward that spent an entire month only eating from their food storage. Yes, I thought they were nuts. Who would want to do something like that? Next month we will be that nutty family.

Starting on May 1st and continuing for the entire month our family will live off of our food/household storage. We discussed it last night at FHE. The boys were surprisingly receptive - although Danny did want to know if that meant we couldn't spend money on other stuff (computer, video games, etc...). After assuring him that we weren't going to include those things we made a menu for a month of meals. Well, we made a menu for most of a month of meals. I still need to fill in 2 or 3 days (Daniel's choice for those days was "mashed potatoes" - I need to add a main dish).

I plan to tape a piece of paper to the refrigerator that says "Things I WISH we had in our food storage!" We will perhaps use it to supplement our shopping list at the end of the month.

I don't plan to go shopping on April 30th and stock up on produce, milk, dry cereal, bread, etc...Nope. It will be a month of powdered milk (since I don't personally drink milk, this won't bother me much) and homemade bread. In fact, I don't think I will go grocery shopping at all next week - we'll just use up the milk and bread that we already have.

Wish us luck - you can contact us through short-wave radio, code phrase: "The Bunker"- later in the month we may change that to: "Tired of powdered milk - I want a Frosty!"

TVP Tacos

Textured Vegetable Protein = TVP= meat substitute

We recently ordered a variety of TVP products from Shelf Reliance - taco, sausage, beef, ham and chicken. Over the next few weeks I plan on trying them all. Today's choice: Taco. Right now a #10 can of Taco TVP is on sale for $10.44. A case of 6 is $59.53. Each can supposedly has 40 servings (10 cups dry TVP).

It was simple to make - pour 1 1/4 cup boiling water over 1 cup TVP - let sit for 10 minutes. That's all. That made enough taco "meat" for 9 tacos, and one taco salad. Fairly close to 1 lb. of hamburger. It also meant that dinner was ready in 10 minutes. It usually takes me 10 minutes to defrost my meat, then another 10 to 20 to cook and season it.

Verdict:

Not bad - the boys and Steve wolfed it right down.

• Did it taste like taco meat? Close enough.
• How was the texture? It was a little softer than ground beef - but not mushy.
• Will we use this again? Yes. While not quite the same as meat, it worked well in this application - and was a lot easier and less messy to prepare than ground beef.
• Overall I'm pleased to add this to our food storage.
  

I'm thinking of trying the sausage next week - working it into black beans and rice. We'll see.