Food Storage

If you know me or have been reading my blog, you know that I am in the thick of canning season, which rebuilds my stores of all sorts of produce that comes from the garden. I was also raised in a house that had an amazing food storage, and the concept has always been familiar to me.  Recently, I was introduced to the concept of not just storing food--in my case, whatever was randomly on sale or whatever came from the garden, but to actually formulate meals and then buy enough food to be able to create these meals without ever going to the grocery store for fresh items.  This comes in handy if there's a natural disaster, or a disaster of some other kind--like job loss.  Of course, we hope that we will always be able to supplement our meals with fresh items from the store, but what if?  Oh, and is it cheating if my meal plan uses items that have to be frozen?

I recently tried to come up with a family plan that incorporates what I already have stored that will turn into a meal, and then builds so that I have more meals and some variety in the food at that. I dutifully researched, looked into a couple of books, and then made the plan and wrote it down in my planner.  I've lost my planner, but I thought I would write what I could remember so that hopefully you could be inspired, too.

Here's the list of what I can remember. I had more, but they are in my missing planner and I will post them later if I find it.

Meal Options:


Spaghetti
Chili (canned or homemade) with cornbread or Navajo tacos
Meat Gravy
Serity’s casserole
Breakfast for dinner (pancakes, waffles, muffins and bacon/sausage)
Fried Rice
Bean & Rice burritos
Sweet Pork & Rice

meals to try (meaning I'm not storing 3 months' worth of ingredients if my family won't eat it):

chicken rice bake
Tamale pie
Beef & Lentil Soup
Janet's chicken
Teriyaki ham

Side Options:
Frozen corn
Green bean
Peas
Peaches
Applesauce
Pineapple
Pears
Jello

We went to Macey's and bought some powdered milk, powdered eggs and powdered butter to put into the rotation and see how they work.  (A few months ago, we got a small portion to try from a neighbor, but our dog ate it before we could really try it out.)  Anyway, I'm thinking as long as SE gets his chocolate chip cookies, he will gracefully eat just about whatever I fix!

I've also discovered that you can substitute ground flax seed for eggs, and you can substitute applesauce or mashed beans for the oil in a recipe, so I'm going to try putting that in some of the recipes and see how it goes.  I've already tried the flax seed in cornmeal pancakes, and they were delicious. The only drawback to the flax seed is that it definitely looks like it has "grain" in it, so if you have picky eaters, it might not go over so well.  However, I hear it hides well in chocolate flavored baked goods such as cookies and brownies.  Mostly, it's nice to know I have options other than fresh eggs!
If you are interested in any of the recipes I've mentioned, just comment below or send me an e-mail.

Harvest Harvest Harvest Can Can Can

The harvest at the garden continues.  I sent SE away last Saturday so he could have an adventure, and I spent my time making salsa.  Woot, woot! I know--so lame to have time to myself and then use it doing household stuff, but sometimes you just gotta do it. 
I had already canned stewed tomatoes and green beans earlier in the week, but I saved salsa for Saturday because it takes so much time to cook down, and if I do it after work, it ends up being really late at night before I am done.  Not only do I have to function the next day, but I have fallen asleep and awoken to the smell of burning food before. One of our main family rules is to avoid calling Search and Rescue, and I suppose that it applies to canning as well.  Sigh.  That makes Saturday "Salsaday."   I thought I was making one batch of salsa, but I had enough stuff for two, and I ended up with 10 pints.  ("Salsaday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for...well, whatever needs salsa, I suppose. :))  I tweaked the recipe by adding 1/3 cup of lime juice, and when SE tried it, his comment was, "Wow, that has great flavor, and a little kick!"  It's a joke with us every year--we put in jalapenos, seeds and all, every batch but the salsa never even rises to the level of mild. My brother jokes that it's more like tomato sauce.  You can rest assured that I don't waste my yummy salsa on him.  Anyway, this year's salsa might be "mild."

I STILL had extra tomatoes after that, so I made tomato soup and froze it.  I got a really yummy recipe from my neighbor, and I believe it goes something like this:

4 lbs tomatoes, peeled and seeded (I blanch the tomatoes to peel them and then just leave the seeds in since I don't have a food processor that takes them out.)
6 cups chicken broth
2 medium onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 TBSP butter
salt and pepper

Fry the garlic and onions in the butter until the onions are clear and you aren't crying any more because of the smell.  :)  Add everything else to your soup pot, and simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Blend in a food processor or blender, and return to heat and simmer for 45 minutes, or until it has thickened slightly.  I use a hand blender and just blend it right in the pot.  It can be served either hot or cold.  You can sprinkle it with basil or add a dollop of sour cream. 

Due to the cold spring, I had pretty much figured that we wouldn't be getting many peaches this year--probably enough to eat, but not enough to can.  However, I came home last night with a big bucket of peaches and pears.  I am sure we will eat a lot of them, but somehow I'm going to have to find time to can what we can't eat.  That should be interesting, seeing as how we are going fishing all day on Saturday!  Somehow I have to learn to reconcile Betty Crocker with REI Girl.  Wish me luck!