Taste Test Tuesday: I Can't Believe It's Food Storage recipes

Yesterday I shared my review of the food storage cookbook:  I Can't Believe It's Food Storage by Crystal Godfrey.  Today I want to list &/or link a couple of my favorite recipes from the book and/or her website:  www.everydayfoodstorage.net.

Easy No-bake Blender Cheesecake:  find here on her website, I also posted about it here.  This recipe uses dry milk to make sweetened condensed milk, you can also use dry milk in this recipe to make yogurt cheese to replace cream cheese.
Cheeseburger Meat Loaf:  this is one recipe I have only found in her book--not on her website, I have altered it to fit my family's tastes & to use more food storage items--maybe I'll share my altered version sometime.  This recipe uses dry milk to make evaporated milk.
Whole Wheat EZ Bread:  find here on her website, I've also posted about it before and made pull-apart breads with it--see apple cinnamon pull apart bread, or pull-apart bread in recipe index.
Cheeseburger Mac n Cheese:  find here on her website, or the post I did on it here.  This recipe uses Magic Mix and dried onion
Magic Mix, Magic Mix Fudgsicles and other things made with Magic Mix (these are also found in the New Ideas for Cooking with Basic Food Storage cookbooklet I posted about before at different times) 

These are just a few of the recipes my family has enjoyed from this cookbook and the website:  www.everydayfoodstorage.net, there are many other great recipes!!!  I highly recommend this food storage cookbook, along with the New Ideas for Cooking with Basic Food Storage cookbooklet for those just starting out with using food storage--the recipes are great and easy.  But even if you are a food storage guru, you may find some things you haven't tried and like.

Taste Test Tuesday: Greek Yogurt Pancakes

Mmm...pancakes.  We like our pancakes, particularly when they can be made a little healthier.  These greek yogurt pancakes replace the usual oil used in pancakes with greek yogurt, they also use whole wheat flour, so I like to think they are healthier than your run of the mill pancake mix pancakes.  This recipe works great to use dry milk both for making the greek yogurt as well as the milk needed.

Enjoy!

Taste Test Tuesday: Easy Pizza

Today's recipe is simply how to make some really quick and easy pizzas using buns.  I love the simplicity of english muffin pizzas, but didn't have english muffins on hand, but I did have hamburger buns, so....  I thought I'd try making them into pizzas and hope for the best.  They turned out fine.  The bun wasn't soggy but crisped up a little--mmm, and it was a great way to use buns that needed to be used.  The buns can be regular or wheat, homemade or not.  Very kid friendly.

Enjoy!

Taste Test Tuesday: Sprouting Wheat

April Showers...Sprouting.  Whether using a sprouting kit, plastic bag with paper towel or a jar, sprouting wheat is easy and a great way to increase vitamins and minerals.  When wheat is sprouted, it can be used in salads, breads, on sandwiches and more.  It can also be planted to make wheat grass, or even to grow a new wheat plant.  I've not really used the jar method, because I've liked the tray or bag methods better.

Enjoy!

Taste Test Tuesday: Quickmix Banana Muffins

Banana Muffins, mmm... And now an even quicker way to make them--yeah!  For this recipe I used  whole wheat quickmix.  It made making muffins quick and easy.  So here is the recipe:

Enjoy!

Taste Test Tuesday: Beef Stroganof

Today's recipe comes from my sister-in-law.  I've tried a few different beef stroganof recipes, and liked each, too.  So here is one of them...  Though I didn't add as many mushrooms and I used dried onion and minced garlic.  When I made it, it was a little liquidy so you will want a bowl to serve this in rather than a plate.  This can also be served with rice/wheat instead of noodles.

Enjoy!

Taste Test Tuesday: Lasagne

Today's recipe has been adapted to use cooked cracked wheat.  You can make it without the wheat of course, but the wheat adds extra nutrients and fiber.  Using wheat in ground meat recipes is a great way to extend or lesson the amount of meat needed.

Enjoy!

Taste Test Tuesday: Grilled Pizza

The pizza dough recipe I am sharing today is one of my favorites--it is the one I use most often.  It works great in the oven, or as showing today on the grill.  I grilled the first side a little too long (as the pictures show), but it still turned out great, a nice and crispy crust.  I used a volcano grill this last time when I made this pizza.  I got this pizza recipe from a Relief Society meeting a few years back.  I've used this recipe using all-purpose flour, but also using a combination of wheat flour and all-purpose flour--both have turned out fine--I do add a little bit more yeast when using wheat flour.

Here are the during pictures:  the first is after flipping the crust over and putting the toppings on, the second shows the Volcano oven lid to help bake the pizza and melt the cheese the rest of the way.  I used regular pizza sauce and cheese rather than the olive oil mentioned in the recipe above.

Taste Test Tuesday: Cheese & Beef Bake

First of all, this week at Kroger Ronzoni pasta is on sale!  When you buy 10, the final cost is only 49 cents!  Yeah!  This is one of the better deals on pasta that has happened over the last few years--so stock up.  The usual sales-the buy one get one free-tend to only get the price per box down to about 60-80 cents.

And so, today I am sharing a pasta & wheat recipe:  Cheese & Beef Bake.

I adapted this recipe slightly--I added the wheat, green onions and used homemade taco seasoning rather than a packet, but otherwise it is pretty much the same.  The original recipe I have came from my sister-in-law.  Using only 1/2 c of cooked cracked wheat, it wasn't noticeable at all, flavor-wise or otherwise.  I think I may try it with some dehydrated peppers next time.  I used medium shells pasta, but macaroni or other pasta shapes would work too.

Enjoy!

Taste Test Tuesday: Peach Crisp

MMM...peaches!  Today's peach crisp recipe was created when I had a few peaches that I needed to use, it turned out yummy.  I used whole wheat flour instead of white flour, and it still tasted great.

Enjoy!

Taste Test Recipe catch up: Wheat recipes

The recipes I am sharing today use wheat (or not).  The first, Hamburger Casserole, I didn't include wheat in the recipe but it is the same as the other ground meat recipes, simply add 1/4 c or more of cooked wheat berries or cooked cracked wheat.  The great thing about adding wheat to ground meats, is it doesn't stand out taste wise.

Next is Hamburger Pie, again a great recipe to add wheat to as well as beans and dried veggies.

And now chip dip.

Popped wheat doesn't use ground meat, but I wanted to share it anyway.  Be sure to pop wheat without any oils or butter so that when it starts popping up, it won't hit you and burn you.  Simply add any oils & seasonings after it has been popped.  I noted that this is much harder to chew than popcorn, so I wouldn't recommend giving it to young children or anyone who can't chew hard/crispy foods.  It is a tasty snack otherwise though.

Taste Test Tuesday: Taco go'ins

Today's recipe uses wheat.  Cooked cracked wheat adds well to ground meats.  Like taco meat.  Simply brown the meat, then add the cooked cracked wheat along with any seasonings or veggies.

Add more or less cooked cracked wheat.  If just starting out using wheat start with only about 1/4 cup per pound of meat, then slowly increase it to even half and half or more if want.  Cooked cracked wheat has a similar size and texture as browned ground meat so it fits in nicely.

And since refried beans go well with tacos, here is a recipe for using the dried refried beans from LDS home storage centers:

These refried beans with salsa and cheese go great with tortilla chips, but also work well to add to tacos and burritos.  If you like dryer or runnier refried beans, adjust the water amount, with the amounts listed above it is just the right consistency to scoop with a chip and have it stay and not break the chip while trying to scoop.

Enjoy!

Taste Test Tuesday: Bacon Burger

Today's recipe uses cooked cracked wheat, cooked bulgur can also be used.

These bacon burgers tasted great and the cooked cracked wheat wasn't noticeable.  I think I also added some chopped onions to the mix.  You can use all one type of ground meat, but I had bought some 80% lean ground beef on sale and wanted to use it, but by mixing it with the usual 95% lean ground turkey I buy I felt it was a little healthier than all ground beef.  But, really you can use all of one or all of the other.  I find if I use all ground turkey, I prefer to add a little more onion and pepper than if I used all ground beef.

Note:  Wheat berries are the whole wheat kernel.  Bulgur or cracked wheat is wheat kernels that have been course ground into smaller pieces (about 2-4 pieces from one kernel).  These terms are often interchanged, but really bulgur is wheat that has been cooked, dried, cracked and the chaff removed (making it cook faster—think of instant rice compared to rice).

Taste Test Tuesday: 5 Dry Milk Recipes

Milky May:  Today as sort of a grand finale of Milky May I will be sharing 5 recipes rather than one that use dry milk.  First, I will highlight 3 recipes I have tried from the wonderful dry milk recipe handout found here:  http://peaceofpreparedness.com/Resource%20Library/Recipies/Got%20Milk%20Recipes%202011.pdf.Then I will share a recipe using a recipe from www.everydayfoodstorage.net that I have tried and liked.  And lastly a peanut butter no bake cookie using prepared dry milk.

The recipe in the handout for this is actually called Bacon Brunch Pie, but as I was making it I thought it was more like a crustless quiche and so thought of it as Basic Quickmix Quiche, with either name, it is good.  I thought it would go great with sausage or other meats like ham or even browned ground beef.  I used fresh eggs instead of egg powder when I made it.  I also didn't use bacon bits as the original recipe calls for but cooked bacon crumbles/pieces.  I also added the tomatoes thinking to serve some shredded lettuce on top for a kind of BLT quiche.  Whether by itself or with lettuce with it, it had the consistency of quiche or scrambled eggs with veggies in it.

Another recipe from this great handout:  Country Gravy

MMM.  This gravy was yummy.  It is much like the gravy that can be made with Magic mix.  I like them both as they are both quick and easily seasoned to taste.

And again from peaceofpreparedness handout:  Pasta Primavera

I added cooked chicken to this as well--adding it with the rehydrated veggies--it did make it so there wasn't as much creamy sauce--just enough to coat everything lightly so if you do like more sauce with your veggies and pasta, you will need to add more of the sauce ingredients:  flour, dry milk, sour cream and water.  Depending on how hot or mild you want it, you will want to adjust the dried pepper and crushed red pepper amounts.  As is, it was ok for me but a little hot for others--it really depends on individual likes.

Now onto another source for great food storage recipes:  www.everydayfoodstorage.net.  The Chocolate Cake Cookie Mix recipe below is using the chocolate cake mix found here:  http://everydayfoodstorage.net/2012/02/27/making-your-own-cake-mixes-food-storage-style-dark-chocolate-cake/food-storage-recipes, there is also a great handout about making your own cake/muffin mixes and how to adapt recipes to mixes--see the above post link for that.  So onto cake mix cookies using this cake mix recipe.

I'll admit I like this cake mix made into cookies much better than when I made it into cake using the recipe shown on everydayfoodstorage.net.  When it comes to chocolate cake I like the homemade-made-from-scratch chocolate cake much better than this cake mix or store-bought cake mixes.  But this cake mix does make excellent chocolate cookies!!!  They are so yummy!  The variations my family has tried:  using peanut butter chips (I think we also added chocolate chips when using peanut butter chips); using white chocolate chips and chocolate chunks, just chocolate chunks.  ALL variations were delicious.  When using teaspoon to tablespoon sized balls, it makes around 50 cookies.  Also, if using melted butter instead of softened butter, you will need a little more mix.  Also, this is a batter that unless you have a powerful mixer, you will need to mix by hand--especially as you add more mix to make the dough stiff and add chocolate chips--a wooden spoon works great for mixing.

And now for another cookie recipe:  Peanut Butter No Bakes

This no bake cookie recipe comes from a church congregation cookbook that I have, it simply calls for milk, I simply adapted it to use dry milk and even cooked cracked wheat.  Great with or without the cooked cracked wheat.

Enjoy!

I hope the recipes I have shared this month, as well as in the past, have been helpful in giving ideas on using dry milk.  For more recipes that use dry milk, click on labels then dry milk or go to the recipe index page and look for recipes that indicate they use dry milk.  Enjoy!

Taste Test Tuesday: Magic Mix

Milky May:  2 recipes today:  Garlic Rosemary Chicken and Magic Mix

Garlic Rosemary Chicken:  This recipe uses Magic Mix--recipe & information below.  With the amount of chicken I used as shown in the picture, there was just enough of the creamy sauce to coat the chicken rather than having chicken in sauce to top the rice.  The amounts of chicken and sauce can be adjusted to family likes--whether you like having chicken in a creamy sauce or having chicken lightly coated by the creamy sauce.  The seasonings can also be adjusted as well as replaced with other seasoning blends.  Freezer meal alert:  this freezes well, simply reheat in a microwave--works good to make individual servings or family size servings.

Magic Mix can be used for sauces, gravies, puddings, cream soups, etc.  I have made all of these using Magic Mix in the past, including making homemade fudge-cicles-mmm.  It is really a nice mix to have on hand for making quick meals that need white sauces, gravies, soups, etc.  It works really great with recipes that use cheese--parmesan, cheddar, mozzarella--things like chicken alfredo, macaroni and cheese, casseroles that use cream soups and cheese.

Enjoy!

Here are some websites with more information on Magic Mix and recipes to use them:

http://www.theideadoorfiles.com/index.php/self-reliance-food-storage-prepardness/161-preparedness/food-storage/203-basic-food-storage-booklet --this leads to a recipe booklet for items sold by LDS home storage centers, it includes recipes using dry milk and Magic Mix.  Love this recipe booklet, many useful recipes.

http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/pub__3295363.pdf --Utah State extension Magic Mix pamphlet, uses instant powdered milk

http://extension.usu.edu/duchesne/files/uploads/FCS/Freezer%20Meals/freezer%20meals%20agogo_packet.pdf--includes a recipe or two that uses Magic Mix

http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/em4693/em4693.pdf  --Washington State’s extenstion Magic Mix pamphlet

Taste Test Tuesday: Whole Wheat Basic QuickMix

Milky May:  Today I will actually be sharing a few recipes, because they use the same basic mix that I want to share.  Not only does it use whole wheat flour but it also uses dry milk powder.   The recipe for this Whole Wheat Basic Quickmix I got from a friend from Michigan, she is one of the ones who got me started with my zeal for using wheat often and in different ways many years ago.  So on to the quickmix recipes...

I love this mix, it makes delicious biscuits!  And it is whole wheat!!!

MMM, just thinking about these biscuits.  I've made them plain, I've also made them with additional seasonings and cheese, both are delicious.  If I haven't shared my apple cheese biscuits in the past, I will have to share that another time, but this recipe will also work by adding shredded cheese and rehydrated dried apples.  The picture above were ones I made with shredded mozzarella and italian seasoning.

My kids love chocolate chip pancakes--I've used both regular sized semi-sweets and mini, the minis don't sink to the bottom of the batter as easily as the regular sized chips do (this is true for breads and muffins too).  You can also add a little peanut butter, or pumpkin, apples and cinnamon, etc. for some different flavors--adjust the liquid/oil slightly as needed.  For the pancakes, I made them without any oil, but if you would like you could add 1-2 T of melted butter or oil to the batter--this is where pumpkin or peanut butter would replace the oil rather than adjusting the liquid.  As for the waffles, I made them after mixing up the pancake batter, I doubled the recipe, then after using about half of it for pancakes, I mixed in some oil (no extra egg this time) and they turned out fine, though I think having the extra egg would be better, so the oil amount above is actually just a guess-timate, it could be as much as 3/4 cups, but I think I used at least 1/2 c worth.

Tomale Pie is another recipe that can use this quickmix, but it is also very good with cornbread.  I share this recipe, because it is good but also it shows that the biscuit mix/cornbreads can be used as a crust of sorts for pot-pies and such.  This is also a good recipe to add dried veggies-like carrots, onions, peppers, etc.

Enjoy!

Taste Test Tuesday: Corn Bread

Here's another cornbread recipe that can use dried eggs, dry milk powder, and whole wheat flour and still taste great.  MMM.  I adapted a recipe from a church congregation cookbook to use egg powder and whole wheat flour.  When I make it I also use milk made from powdered milk.

Enjoy!

Milky May:  A long while ago I mentioned my intention to share information and recipes using dry milk powder during the month of May.    I've shared recipes and information in the past about dry milk powder, and will probably repeat some of that information but hope to share some recipes I haven't shared yet as well.

Taste Test Tuesday: Blueberry Pie

MMM, blueberry pie!  The nice thing about this pie recipe is that the fruit can be frozen, fresh or rehydrated.  I used frozen when I made this, directly from the freezer that is not thawed.  It thickens up as it cools, and is even thicker the second day.  Great with whip cream or icecream--mmm here we come!


Enjoy!

Taste Test Tuesday: Fruit Pizza

This is one of those recipes that shows you can adapt recipes to use whole wheat flour instead of all purpose and use freeze-dried fruits instead of fresh.  This recipe has been adapted, but the original recipe came from The Essential Mormon Cookbook by Julie Badger Jensen.  


Enjoy!

Taste Test Tuesday: No Bake Cookies

MMM... cookies!  This recipe isn’t much for any new year’s resolutions to lose weight, but at least it has whole grain in it!

This recipe is adaptable to your tastes.  I added about 2 tablespoons of cocoa this time.  You can also increase the oats to 1 1/2 c and omit the wheat or decrease the oats and add more wheat.  In the past I have made no bakes using cooked whole wheat berries.  Just a note about using the wheat berries--the day after, the wheat berries were much harder to chew--I don’t know if it is because the sugar in the recipe crystalized within the berry or not, but I would suggest that if you are going to use wheat berries, make sure the cookies are eaten the same day they are made.  This recipe is also good adding some shredded coconut, sunflower seeds or chopped peanuts (I use crunchy peanut butter anyway).

As far as the milk goes, I used reconstituted powdered milk this time.  It turns out just the same.  If you don't have reconstituted milk on hand, here is what you need to make just 1/4 c worth:  1/4 c water, 3/4 T dry milk powder, mix well until no clumps.  I suggest using a container larger than 1/4 c to do the mixing, the other option is to simply put the water and dry milk powder in with the sugar and butter and mix it up that way-- (I added it already reconstituted). The dry milk powder amount is for non-instant dry milk powder.  If using instant you will need to double the amount.

Enjoy!