Food Storage

I found a great new link that will help you get the best prices in preparing your yearly food storage. http://www.grocerycouponguide.com/articles/guide-to-sales-cycles-for-rock-bottom-prices/

I've reposted December Sales/Deals to help you get started. When you can combine sale prices with coupons, stock up. I posted the complete list even though I wouldn't necessarily buy all these items. Each family is different. Buy what works for your family.

DECEMBER Sales/Deals
Christmas dinner/Holiday party foods
Party/Deli platters
Cold cuts
Sour cream, dips
Crackers, chips
soda
Ham
Stuffing mix
Potato mix
Butter
Fresh potatoes
Gravy
Bread/rolls
Frozen pies
Green beans
Fried onion
Cream soups
Broth
Pie filling
Egg nog
Christmas dinner/Holiday party supplies
wrapping paper
cards
ribbon
bows
tape
paper plates
napkins
Baking supplies
Flour
Sugar
Butter
Cream
Cake mix
Brownie mix
Muffin mix
Breads
Pie Crust
Marshmallow
Whipped cream
Clearance items:
Post Thanksgiving clearance
Fall décor and craft clearance
After Christmas clearance
Occasions:
Chanukah
Winter begins
Christmas
New Year’s Eve
Kwansaa
Produce in Season:
Anjou Pears
Bok Choy
Bosc Pears
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Dates
Grapefruit
Haas Avocados
Kale
Kiwi
Kumquat
Lemon
Napa Cabbage
Oranges
Quince
Potatoes, Sweet
Red Cabbage
Rutabaga
Savoy Cabbage
Spinach
Squash, Winter
Yams
Turnips
White Potato

Cornbread

I don't like to cook using packaged items. I prefer scratch cooking where possible. I have fond memories of Jiffy cornbread and milk when I grew up. It was a favorite Sunday night meal. I've tried many cornbread recipes looking for a good substitute. This recipe is not at all like Jiffy, but I just love it. I'm told you can grind popping corn to make cornmeal using my wheat grinder, but I haven't tried that yet. I do like to keep a couple of bags of cornmeal in my food storage pantry. One day I will try grinding the popping corn.

Corn Bread

1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. oil
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt (I generally use homemade)
2-3 Tbsp. honey (you can sub sugar, but I like honey best)

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Combine butter and oil in 9 inch baking pan and place in oven to melt the butter while oven is heating up.
3. Mix remaining ingredients together and pour into the hot baking dish. Return to the oven for 25 minutes

By the way, now is a good time to pick up extra baking supplies. The sales are best now and around Easter. You should purchase roughly 25 lbs/flour per person for your year's supply. Flour is on sale at Super Fresh for 1.38/5 lb. bag. I generally purchase my honey from Sam's. You should stock around 3 lbs/person in your family. You should stock around 1 lb/person of Baking Soda and Baking powder. You should purchase around 5-8 lbs of salt per person. I keep containers of Sea Salt in my pantry as well as a large sack of Mortons purchased from Sam's.

I hope this helps in your Food Storage preparations.

Chocolate in a Cup

Jessica and I started weight watchers a few weeks ago. It's been going really well. The weight is not falling off easily, but it is coming off. We hope to get to goal weight in the summer. That gives us ample time to take the weight off. It takes discipline, though. I tend to avoid dessert, but sometimes a girl just has to have chocolate. This fits the plan. For the black beans, just take a can and whir in the blender. Freeze the extras in 1 Tbsp. amounts in the freezer. If you aren't counting points, you can substitute 1 Tbsp. oil.

Into the mug you put

1 Tbsp. egg whites powder
2 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. mashed black beans
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. flour
dash vanilla
1 tsp. instant coffee
3 Tbsp. cocoa

Mix together in mug and put mug in microwave. Cover and microwave 1 1/2 minutes. Take out and sprinkle with a sprinkle of chocolate chips or ff caramel sauce, or ff chocolate sauce. 4 points.

Pancakes

This recipe is a wonderful staple to have in your recipe book. It's whole grain, but you can substitute white flour if you must. I don't like whole wheat flour from the store. The oils in whole wheat begins to go rancid very quickly. Instead, I buy whole wheat kernals (wheat berries) from the cannery and grind up what I need for the week. What I don't use that day is put in the freezer to preserve the vitamins. Whole foods also sells wheat berries in the bulk food section. To grind my wheat berries, I use is WonderMill http://www.amazon.com/Wondermill-WonderMill-Grain-Mill-110V/dp/B000CPJKWC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1289746153&sr=8-4 . Fresh ground flour is amazing. I highly encourage you to invest in the grinder. We use both white wheat berries and red wheat berries. If you're new to whole wheat, I would purchase the white wheat. Your family will not be able to tell the difference with white flour.

I buy egg powder for my food storage at http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/powderedwholeeggscan.aspx . You can also find it at Emergency Essentials and Blue Chip Group. For my family of four it is recommended that you have 4 # 10 cans in your food storage.

Pancakes

Nonstick Spray
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup quick oats
1 egg or 1 Tbsp. egg powder and 2 Tbsp. water
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup cooking oil
pinch of salt

Preheat a skillet over medium heat. Use a pan with a nonstick surface or apply a little nonstick spray.
In a blender or with a mixer, combine all of the remaining ingredients until smooth.
Pour the batter by spoonfuls into the hot pan, forming 5-inch circles.

When the edges appear to harden, flip the pancakes. They should be light brown. Cook on the other side for same amount of time, until light brown.
Makes 8 to 10 pancakes.

Feed the Freezer

Wednesday night was Spaghetti night. This tradition began when the children were younger and went to AWANAS. To get dinner on the table and the kids to church on time, it had to be quick and easy. Even though the kids have long finished AWANAS, they get upset if I change this menu. Sometimes we have cheese ravioli with spaghetti sauce, lasagna or rosa pasta. Plain old spaghetti with meat sauce is the favorite though. I don't have any sauce, so I'll make some. I wont just make enough for tonight though, I'll make enough for a month or so. This way I'll cook once and clean once, but eat 4-6 times. That sounds like a deal to me.

Spaghetti

3 large onion chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
16 garlic cloves, minced (can use fresh, jarred or garlic powder, but fresh tastes best)
2 green bell pepper minced
Large can crushed tomatoes (from Sam's)
4 cans Italian diced tomatoes
2 cups water
2 veggie bouillon cubes
1 Tablespoon basil, dried or a handful of fresh, chopped
1 Tablespoon parsley, dried, or a handfull of fresh, chopped
1 Tablespoon oregano
1 Tablespoon salt
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
Red pepper flakes to taste
Tony Chauchere's to taste

Put . olive oil in skillet. Add onions and cook until begin to soften. Add garlic and bell pepper. When vegetables begin to soften add tomato puree and dices, water and seasonings. Cook for 20 minutes.

Variations: Sometimes I add 2 # ground meat, 3 links Italian Sausage and canned mushrooms. This is not a highly seasoned recipe. You will want to adjust the seasonings according to your families taste.

Note: For food storage purposes, I'll need to have 7 large cans crushed tomatoes, 28 cans diced Italian tomatoes, 8 pkg. veggie bouillon, 63 Tablespoons dehydrated onions, 1 3/4 cup olive oil,
9 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon, 14 bell peppers, frozen, 7 Tablespoons Basil, salt, oregano and parsley, 3 Tblsp Italian seasoning, bottle of red pepper flakes, can of Cajun seasoning. (I keep 4 large cans in pantry.)