Taste Test Tuesday: Beach Street Chicken

MMM.... Today's recipe, Beach Street Chicken, is so yummy!  I got this recipe from here:  http://dealstomeals.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-favorite-pasta-recipe.html.  It is delicious.  This works great to use a sun oven to cook the chicken, it also is a great prepare ahead recipe (freezing the chicken with the marinade ingredients).

Enjoy!

Taste Test Tuesday: Cheese Ravioli

Last week I shared the recipe for making homemade ricotta cheese, this week I am sharing a recipe that uses it--Cheese Ravioli.

I don't have a ravioli maker thing, so I used a rolling pin and a pasta maker to roll out the pasta to a uniform thickness then put globs of cheese filling on it like on a cookie sheet and covered it with another rolled pasta sheet (or folded it over).  I then used a pizza cutter to cut them down to size and sealed the seams simply by pressing a little.  I wasn't exact or anything and it shows in the pictures, if I had wanted to I probably could have made them look nicer.

Tastewise:  both the store bought egg and egg powder pastas turned out fine, without much taste difference between the two.  We did prefer the taste a day or two later to the first day, for some reason after cooking them and sitting in the fridge, then being nuked in the microwave, they actually seemed to taste better.

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!

Wednesday Why: Shelf-Stable Meals/Menu

What are some shelf stable meals?  And what is an example of a 1 month shelf stable meal menu?  When I say shelf stable I mean food items that can remain on a pantry/cupboard shelf until opened.  Also if using dehydrated foods, will need to store more water to rehydrate these items compared to their canned counterparts.

Some great meals that can be made using shelf stable food items are:  Soups, chilis, noodle dishes, rice dishes, baking mix foods, cereals/grains; all with canned/dehydrated fruits and veggies as sides.

Specifically:
Soups/Chilis:  canned soups/chilis or homemade using: broths, canned/dehydrated veggies & meats, canned/dry beans, pasta sauces, salsas, tomato sauces, jarred sauces and rice or noodles.
Noodle dishes:  Make casseroles, soups or pasta/sauce dishes.  Simply add canned/dehydrated meats, veggies, condensed soups, jarred sauces/salsas and seasonings to taste.  Like spaghetti or other noodles with pasta sauce, canned noodle dishes (like ravioli, Spaghetti O's, etc.), boxed or homemade Mac & cheese (using jarred cheese sauce or velveeta since these don't have to be refrigerated until opened), ramen noodles.
Rice dishes:  casseroles or soups using rice.  Simply add canned/dehydrated meats, veggies, condensed soups, jarred sauces/salsas and seasonings to taste, just like with noodles.
Potato dishes (using potato flakes):  Make up flakes to mashed potatoes, add canned/dehyrdrated meats/veggies/condensed soups and seasonings to make casseroles--using mashed potatoes as a crust of sorts
Potato dishes (using dehydrated potato dices, slices, shreds, etc):  make casseroles by adding condensed soups, canned/dehydrated meats or veggies and seasonings.
Baking Mix dishes/foods:  pancakes, biscuits, waffles, pot pie/pie/cobbler crusts/topping, cornbread, breads, some cakes and cookies
Cereals/Grains:  using dry milk for drinking milk and thereby the milk in cereals, oatmeals, grits, cracked wheat cereal.  Make wheat cereal with wheat berries or cracked wheat and sweetener/jam.  Crackers are a great 72 hour kit item, but also great for meals at home--use with tuna/canned chicken, PB&J or cheese.

Sample 1 month menu using shelf stable meals:

You may have other favorites that already use or could use shelf stable items in place of fresh.  When you find a meal that your family likes that uses only shelf stable items, then write it down and add it to your rotation.

When making your own menu, you can choose any number of breakfasts, lunches and dinners, I chose 7 different meals to rotate through, you can do more or less.  Then simply stock up on the items needed to make those meals--even though these items are shelf stable, you will want to use and rotate through them before the expiration date.

Hope this helps in giving ideas on meals that can be made when the fridge/freezer isn't working.  All of these meals can be made using an alternative cooking method if the electricity is out.  I originally put this menu together a few years back in preparation for hurricane season, knowing that if one hit, the electric could be out for anywhere between a day to a couple of weeks days.

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: Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

This chicken alfredo recipe uses SOS mix.  Utah State University cooperative extension put together a little cookbook with SOS mix and recipes that use it, it can be found here:

http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/FNP_101.pdf http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/FN_Cooking&Baking_2011-02pr.pdf

SOS mix can be used in place of canned creamed soups, and for other cream sauces and soups.  Cheap and quick!

Here is the recipe, with a few adjustments on my part based on what I used.  Technically you could cook the noodles in with the sauce, like the original recipe calls for, but I found it made the sauce way to runny and I had to add more noodles to equal the sauce.

Enjoy!

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: Spicy Pinto Casserole

Got 30 minutes to make supper?  This recipe can be prepared in 30 or less*, uses only one pot and is pretty healthy too.  Besides that, it uses food storage items--beans, dried veggies, canned goods, pasta.  

A note:  if using canned corn &/or olives, drain first, but for the Rotell--don't drain.

Adjust this recipe to your tastes:  use more or less of any of the ingredients to match what your family will eat--if adjusting the liquid levels be sure to adjust the pasta/dried veggie levels accordingly. You can increase the heat of this dish by using Hot Rotell, rather than original or mild, by increasing the chili powder or by adding a few dashes of hot sauce, chopped chili peppers or crushed red pepper flakes (add these along with the onions and garlic in the first step).  If you don’t want the heat, use Mild Rotell, or even canned or fresh tomatoes without the green chilis.  For a different flavor, add taco seasoning to the pinto beans & meat (if using).  If you want more of a chili soup rather than a pasta dish, feel free to leave the pasta out.  This recipe really is adaptable to multiple tastes as you can see.

I’ve also prepared this recipe in a sun oven (solar oven), and it turned out fine.  I of course couldn’t fry up the onions in the oil in the sun oven but was able to simply heat them and continue following the rest of the recipe as stated--adjusting the time to mesh with using a sun oven--so it does take longer to make in a sun oven, but still turns out.  Each step takes about 20-40 more minutes in a sun oven than on the stove top, but no electricity is used and it doesn’t heat up the house, which especially right now is a plus!  One hint though:  When using a sun oven use a little less water (more towards 1 to 1.5 cups rather than a full 2 cups) so your pasta doesn’t get over-cooked.  

When I cook beans, I cook a large amount, then freeze in 2-3 cup portions or puree them for using in baked goods.  My favorite ways to cook beans:  #1 a pressure cooker--this makes the whole process so much faster, you don’t have to presoak the beans just sort & rinse, then cook!  #2 slow-cooker--my favorite for white beans--sort & rinse then soak overnight.  In the morning, drain the soak water and then fill a full knuckle & a half with water over and above the level of beans.  Turn to low and cook until the skin on the beans cracks and peals off easily when you blow on them (spoon out a few and do your blow test)--about 8 hours (maybe as little as 6 or as much as 10, adjust to your slow-cooker).  

Other bean cooking tips:  don’t use acidic foods or juices during the cooking process (can use after the beans are fully cooked); don’t add salt to the water that you are cooking beans in (again can use after); cooked beans can be put in the fridge and stay safe to eat for up to a week, or frozen for up to 6 months without loss of flavor, nutrients, etc.  When reheating beans add a little water to keep them from being dry.

*by cooking the beans & browning the meat ahead of time (and then freezing for quick meals) this meal is prepared in 30 or less, if you don’t have beans and meat already done, the preparation time does increase significantly if you are doing beans on the stove top, or by about 30-40 minutes if cooking them in a pressure cooker.  Follow your pressure cooker’s instructions for doing beans.

Hope you enjoy!