Oh, yummy!

When your picky five year old raves about something, it's probably worth sharing. So here you are:

So Incredibly Easy Black Bean Brownies

1 15 oz can black beans

1 package brownie mix

That's it. I'm serious. Just open the can of beans and blend them in the blender, undrained. Unless you really want to drain them, then you better add about 1/4 cup water while blending. Then just mix it with the brownie mix and bake it like the directions say. Oh, and don't forget to let the kids lick out the bowl because you don't have to stress about any raw eggs.

One of the things I learned in my children's nutrition class long ago was that you don't need to deceive kids. My daughter and I had these first at a food storage activity put on by our stake. When she saw them and asked what they were I told her they were bean brownies. She wanted to try one anyway and then ended up eating about 5 while declaring, "these don't even taste like beans! They taste sooooo good!" (like she would know anyway, she has never tasted beans!) Now hopefully since she knows she has eaten beans, she will be more likely to try them again in the future. She asked if we could make some so I got the ingredients today and we made them for family night. Big hit people, and if you've been putting off trying to bake something yummy with beans in it because it seems too complicated or you think it won't turn out, put it off no more. Go try these.

Recipe 2:

Tortilla's! I finally found my recipe! I mean, I didn't make it up, it's just the one I'll be using from now on. These turned out so good that my same picky five year old was eating them right off the grill as I was making them. And they are even more nutritious than the bean brownies. So here you go:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup white flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix those and then mix in 1/2 cup softened (but not quite melted) coconut oil.

Then dump in 3/4 +1/8 cup boiling water and stir around pretty good and even knead a little if you want to.

Roll into about 16 little balls and put them on a cookie sheet. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and let sit for about an hour. Then roll the balls out into tortilla's and grill on a hot griddle for about 30 seconds on each side.

You can find the original recipe here: http://www.survivingthestores.com/homemade-flour-tortillas-with-coconut-oil-recipe-meals-with-my-deals.html

I halved it again though.

I have tried other tortilla recipes before and never had this kind of success. These were not only yummy, but behaved the way tortilla's should, you know, wrapping around your fajita's without crumbling to bits.

I gave up on my no dairy experiment and went back to buying cheese today. I feel happy and inspired and excited about making meals again! I really love cheese. And that's all for now folks.

Kefir Bread and Puffy Pancakes

I found a bread recipe that looked easy enough to try with my Kefir. You can find it here if you are interested. But here's how I changed it. I split it in half because I always split new bread recipes in half in case they don't taste that good. That and I only had half the Kefir it called for.

So here's what I did.

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups Kefir

Soaked for 24 hours

Then I stirred in 3/4 tsp baking soda (not sure why it needed this)

1 1/2 TBS sugar

2 TBS melted butter (I didn't split these in half because I wanted the bread to taste good)

about 2 cups white flour kneaded in.

This made enough for one loaf.

As you can see my loaf is a little flat. I could have let it rise longer but I wanted my friends to sample it while they were here. They loved it and we decided it actually doesn't taste like sour dough at all. The texture turned out really nice and fresh out of the oven it was quite delicious.

We are still struggling through our dairy free experiment and it's kind of hard. Yesterday I made some puff oven pancakes though and the kids seemed to like them. I used rice milk instead of regular milk and they puffed just as well. The texture was a bit different. Lighter and less filling but again, the kids didn't seem to notice a difference.

I'm really missing my cheese. Also, the Kefir seems to be making me not feel so good. So, my kefir is resting in the fridge while I decide what exactly to do. I was told that if you are not used to fermented things then it takes your body about 1 month to get used to it and you should ease into it. Maybe I'll try some kefir smoothies again next week. I love all the different milks we've tried. Rice, coconut, almond. They are all much better than cows milk to me so I don't think we'll be going back to that, but I will be buying cheese next week. I miss it way to much.

A one week challenge and a 3 week challenge! Oh, and some Kefir too

Yesterday I started a one week challenge of going dairy free to see if milk and cheese might be the cause of some problems one of my kids is experiencing. Actually, I should say we are going milk and cheese free. I can't seem to figure out how to cut out butter. I have no desire to buy margarine, and I'm hoping that a little pat of butter here and there won't affect our experiment.

My three week challenge is an exercise challenge. I have an exercise video (which I love!) by Karen Voight and Elle Macphearson. In the beginning of it Elle makes a promise. She says that after doing this video for 1 week you'll feel different. After two weeks you'll look different to yourself. And after three weeks everyone else will notice a difference. I started on Monday (actually I did it a couple times last week too, but we won't count that.) I was too tired to do it on Tue, but I did it yesterday. I plan to do it today and tomorrow and maybe even Sat. too. So my goal is at least 4 days per week for three weeks and see if anyone else notices how good I feel.

Besides all that I am also reading Pres. Hinkley's biography and trying to keep a positive optimistic attitude. Oh yeah, and one more thing. My friend gave me so me Kefir and it's multiplying on my counter! If you want to read up on it and it's benefits check out this site:

http://www.makingkefir.com/ It has a nice little video too.

I have so far just been using it to make smoothies. One of my kids loves these tart kefir smoothies and begs for more. Kefir is supposedly gentle on the stomach but so far it has been a little rough on my tummy. My husband say's, "well duh! You are introducing entirely new bacteria into your gut. Of course it's going to cause some gas!" He won't even try it because he says he's happy with the bacteria in his gut already. So today I am using my kefir to try my hand at some sour dough bread. I'll let you know how that turns out. I'm excited!

Three Berry Pie

Friday night is a ward party wherein we're supposed to bring a pie. Since I was making a pot pie for dinner anyway, I decided to make the pie for Friday. And you can't make one to give away without making one for yourself, right? I have all three of these frozen berries, so it made sense to use them in a pie recipe that I found here. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Meat pot pie

Today I made some cream-of-something soup with the white sauce mix that I talked about a couple of days ago. I thought I needed it thick in order to imitate the can of condensed soup, but realized that I didn't need it that thick for my tuna-noodle casserole that I had for lunch. So I ended up using only half of it. Talena had a great suggestion for the other half: chicken pot pie for dinner. Yay! So that's what we're having for dinner tonight.

I cooked half a bag of frozen carrots along with a cup of mixed vegetables, with a teaspoon of chicken bouillon in the cooking water, then stirred in half a can of green beans (also left over from my lunch), a can of pork that I rinsed and drained (I meant to get a can of chicken, but I guess it was pork) and the leftover thick creamy stuff. Poured it into a pie crust, but a top on it, and now it's baking.

Whole Wheat Bread 2

Another whole wheat bread recipe. This one uses canned milk, something that I came across when I was going through our food storage. We have (had) three cans of it, and the expiration date was October 2010. I don't have a problem with using things past their expiration dates in cases like this. I don't think it's going to poison me. The expiration date doesn't mean that on that day it's going to shrivel up and expire. It just means that the quality of flavor and nutrition is not guaranteed past that time. So I found this recipe, and, of course, included my own modifications: Namely, I added 1/4 cup more water and put 2 tablespoons of powdered eggs in with the flour in order to replace the 2 beaten eggs. I also used a heaping tablespoonful of yeast instead of 2 tablespoonfuls of yeast. Oh, and I didn't exactly measure out three tablespoons of honey. How do you measure three tablespoons of honey? Sticky stuff. No, I just used a knife to scrape three scoops of honey into my 1/3 measuring cup that I had used for the oil so that it was about half full and figured that it was close enough to three tablespoons of honey. Also, the flour doesn't specify whether to use all whole wheat or part white (other than the presumption of the title), so I'm using part bread flour. Because I know from past experience that most whole wheat breads taste best when you use part white flour.

With that introduction, here we go:

100% Whole Wheat Bread from Louise P. Eddy in the book Cookin' with Home Storage

1 1/2 cups warm water

1/3 cup oil

3 tablespoons honey

2 eggs beaten

1 can evaporated milk

2 tablespoons yeast

1 tablespoon salt

7 cups flour

Mix in order and raise in greased bowl, 35-45 minutes. Punch down, divide into 3 loaves. Raise for 20 minutes. Bake 350 degrees 45 minutes. This dough can be used for dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls.

My version:

In a mixer bowl combine:

1 3/4 cups very warm water

1 can evaporated milk

1/3 cup oil

3 tablespoons honey

1 heaping tablespoon yeast

Let that sit while you grind the wheat into flour, then add and mix well, scraping sides of bowl as needed:

4 cups whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons powdered eggs, sifted

Let it sit for 15 minutes. Then add:

2 cups bread flour

scant tablespoon salt

Mix together, scraping sides of bowl.

Add:

up to 1 cup more flour as needed to make a soft dough.

Knead in the Kitchen-Aid mixer for 10 minutes. Lower the bowl and let it sit for 40 minutes, then raise the bowl and turn on the mixer for a minute to punch it down. Divide into three greased loaf pans, cover with a cloth, and let raise for 20 to 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Turn out of pans onto cooling rack.

Stay tuned while I try this. Later I'll let you know how I like it.

Powdered Milk

Crystal from EverydayFoodStorage.Net has a suggestion for mixing powdered milk and making it taste good. In her step-by-step tutorial, she suggests adding a spoonful of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla. Well, when I mixed up powdered milk the other day, I tried her suggestion. I do not like it. It tastes like sweetened vanilla-flavored milk. Which isn't necessarily bad, especially if you're pouring it over oatmeal. But for just drinking or using in your mashed potatoes, I don't recommend it. Just sayin'.

More Backward Menu Planning with Food Storage

I don't know why I call this menu planning, because my 'planning' takes place when Jim calls to say that he's on his way home from work, and I know I have 30 minutes to get dinner on the table. I guess you could call it my own personal little challenge. Also, I've gotten spoiled with this microwave that Matthew gave us, that used to by Mother's and Daddy's, that thaws meat so quickly and efficiently. But, that was last night. Let me back up to the night before.

Monday, January 23

• Hamburger-Bean Enchiladas
• Spanish Rice with Mixed Vegetables

Tuesday, January 24

• Orange Chicken
• Mashed Potatoes
• Green Beans

It's been 12 days since I've been to the grocery store. I still have chicken chicken thighs and two salmon fillets in the freezer, as well as canned chicken and pork. I've used the 2-pound block of cheese sparingly, and we still have about half a pound of it left. I used the last of the eggs on Sunday morning, so no more scrambled eggs for breakfast. But that's okay because I use my powdered eggs to make hot cakes or muffins, and today we had oatmeal. Oh, yeah, I used the last of the (sour) milk for hot cakes yesterday morning. But a couple of days ago I mixed up some powdered milk, and that is just fine with us to have to pour on our oatmeal or granola. We still have oranges and 'cuties' in our fruit basket, along with a couple of apples, and we really need to eat more of those. But even if we didn't have them, we have plenty of grape juice and apricot nectar and bottled peaches and pears and canned applesauce to get us by.

I'm kind of taking pride in not having to go to the store. However, I'm getting ready to make a trip soon and buy some more eggs and bananas and some green veggies and carrots. I'm almost out of raisins. The canned pineapple needs replenishing. And I want to make a trip to the local Mill to get some more whole grain cereals, rolled and cracked.

My goal is to keep using the food storage and minimize trips to the store, and when I do buy stuff, let it be things to keep the food storage rotation moving along.

Creamy Oatmeal

I'm sure I saw this recipe and a picture tutorial for making it on a blog somewhere this week, but now I can't find it. And soon after I saw that, I came across the same recipe in one of these food storage books that I have. But now I can't find it, either. However, that didn't deter me from trying it this morning. The recipe is simple, and it turned out good. I think this will be my new way of making oatmeal on the mornings that we have it.

1 part oatmeal (1/2 cup per person)

1 part milk (see proportion, above)

1 part water (see proportion, above)

Put this in a pot, add a shake of salt and a handful of raisins if you like, and turn the heat to medium. Stir it every two or three minutes, keeping the heat on medium, until it begins to bubble. Still keep the heat on medium and keep stirring it every couple of minutes, until it thickens up and looks nice and creamy. This takes about 15 minutes or so, I think. While it was cooking I ironed Jim's clothes for the morning and checked my email (gotta set a timer for that one so I don't get lost in my own world and let the oatmeal burn!).

Serve with whole wheat toast and butter, milk and a little sugar and cinnamon if you like.

Keeper!

Granola yummmmmm!

I finished making the granola, and it turned out pretty well. I was interested to read on that other site, that I referenced in my previous post, that the thing that makes granola clump together is the oat flour. I wonder if wheat flour serves the same purpose? Because the recipe that I used calls for wheat flour. This granola that I made does have some clumps in it. Maybe if I were to use a mixer and mix it together more thoroughly next time it would clump even more. But, whether or not it clumps, it does taste good, and it is crispy-crunchy. They were right--as it cooled it got crispy. I do recommend that simple little recipe. As for the coconut, I haven't really even tasted it in there, so I think it could be optional. I was not able to find freeze-dried apples in my food storage stuff after all, so I didn't put apples in; just raisins and almonds. I hope to acquire some dried apples sometime in the near future, and when I do, I'll use them.

This one is a keeper.

We started a wish-list of things we'd like to buy. Topping that list is a food dehydrator. The mini-orchard that we planted year before last will be producing soon, and, in addition to bottling fruit, I would love to dry apples, peaches, pears and plums. Yummmm!

Honey Coconut Granola

This is from the Cookin' with Home Storage book by Peggy Layton. I am trying this recipe because I happen to have coconut in my fridge that needs to be used, and I like granola, and this sounds like something simple that I can do with the ingredients I have on hand.

4 cups rolled grain (I'm using oatmeal)

1 cup coconut

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup cooking oil

3/4 cup honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

Thoroughly mix together. Spread on a cookie sheet, bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes stirring occasionally while baking.

After cooking add any or all of the following:

1/4 cup sunflower seeds (don't have today)

1/4 cup coarsely chopped almonds or pecans (I have some almonds)

1/4 cup sesame seeds (not today, sorry)

1/2 cup raisins or other dried fruit (I have raisins and I may have a can of dehydrated apples)

*Note: Stirring these things together was interesting, as the honey made them clump all together. I thought I could manage with a wooden spoon, but used a table knife to help me scrape and separate the clumps. An electric mixer would probably be even better. Spreading it out on the pan makes for a soft, pleasing texture. The smell of this baking is really, really good. It smells like honey and vanilla and oats all in one. Reminds me of lovely-scented lotion or a skin treatment of some kind.

*Note 2: I set the timer for 5 minutes at a time so I could stir it every five minutes. Not sure what the point is of baking it. Is it just to melt the honey so it's easier to stir things together? Or is it supposed to cook the oatmeal or toast it or something? I do like my granola to be crunchy, not mushy.

Aha! After baking it for 25 minutes, I did an internet search of "How long should I bake granola?" I came up with additional instructions from: PreparedPantry.com:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

1. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together except for the dried fruit. Set the dried fruit aside.
2. In another bowl mix the sweetener, oil, and extract together.
3. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. The liquids will be absorbed and the granola will become darker and shinier.
4. Spread the granola in a shallow baking pan. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and stir the granola with a large spatula so that it does not over-brown on the bottom and edges. Add the optional fruit and nuts.
5. Return the granola to the oven and bake for an additional 12 minutes. Remove the granola from the oven and let it cool on the baking sheet. Letting the granola cool on the baking sheet will retain the clumps. Once the granola has cooled, scrape it into a large bowl.
6. Store your granola in a sealed container and use within ten days. May be stored for longer periods in the refrigerator or freezer.
   

So now I'm adding the additional almonds and raisins and apples. Stay tuned for a future post telling you how it turned out.

p.s. I don't know why this part is printed in all caps as if I were shouting!

Basic Hot Cakes

Here's the recipe:

1 cup wheat flour (may use part white flour)

1 level teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 scant cup milk

2 tablespoons oil

1 large egg, beaten lightly

Sift dry ingredients. Combine milk and oil and egg and add to dry ingredients. Then stir until moist but not too much. Cook on hot griddle over medium heat.

Here's the variation I made this morning:

1 cup wheat flour

1 level teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon powdered egg, pressed through a sieve to "sift" it

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour milk (hey, it was going bad, so this was a good way to finish it up)

2 tablespoons oil

Stir dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl combine milk and oil then add to dry ingredients. Let it sit a couple of minutes while you preheat the griddle, then cook 2 minutes on one side and one minute on the other over medium heat.

And here's the variation I would have made if I didn't have sour milk needing to be used:

1 cup wheat flour

1 level teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon powdered egg, pressed through a sieve to "sift" it

1 heaping spoonful powdered milk (about 2-3 tablespoons)

1 cup water

2 tablespoons oil

Stir dry ingredients together. Combine water and oil and add to dry ingredients. Cook as above.

Comment: I think the sour milk might make it a little lighter and flufflier, kind of like buttermilk or sour cream would do. But, whether it does or not, it's the best way I know of to use up sour milk and feel like I'm not making it go to waste.

More Menus

Last night's dinner was baked bbq pork chops--the kind where you put two pork chops in a small casserole dish and find the almost-gone bottle of bbq sauce that's in the fridge and add a bit of water to the bottle and shake it up good to try to get every last bit of bbq sauce out and pour it over the pork chops before putting a lid on the casserole dish and baking it at 350 degrees for an hour or so. I also had half a head of cauliflower and a piece of broccoli left from what I bought last week, and it needed to be used or thrown out, so I tried roasting it in the oven as the pork chops baked, sort of like they did on Our Best Bites, only probably not really, and it turned out okay. And then I cooked some white rice on the stove. And that was dinner. Dinner was kind of rushed last night, because we were anxious to get out the door to go to a movie. Do you know how often we go to movies? Not very. We went and saw We Bought a Zoo, and we both enjoyed it very much.

• Barbecue Pork Chops
• Roasted cauliflower and broccoli
• White rice with butter and salt

For tonight's dinner, I thought peanut butter chicken over spaghetti noodles would be good. But I can never seem to find the recipe that Talena has given me a dozen times, probably because I always think "Oh, that's simple--I'll remember it." Also, knowing that it calls for Italian salad dressing from a bottle, which I don't have on-hand, I decided to experiment and come up with something similar. It turned out okay. In fact, I think it may be a keeper.

Peanut Butter Chicken

In a frying pan heat a teaspoon or two of oil and then add:

A chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces*

Stir and cook it till it's white on all sides. While it's browning (or "whiting), mix together in a small bowl:

2 tablespoons crunchy peanut butter

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 to 2 tablespoons vinegar (I used a little balsamic, and a little red wine, but rice vinegar would probably be the best)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

2 pinches (probably 1/8 teaspoon) crushed red pepper

When the chicken is white on all sides, but not cooked through, add the sauce to the pan, cover, and simmer on low while you cook the spaghetti noodles according to the package instructions. Serve chicken and sauce over noodles.

*Tonight I took the frozen chicken breast from the freezer and thawed it in the microwave. I actually prefer doing that, because the chicken breast is still partially frozen, and it's easy to cut it with a pair of scissors into bite-size pieces and drop them directly into the hot pan.

Also, in reading one of the books that I checked out of the library, called Stocking Up, I learned a bit about freezing vegetables, and I remembered that last summer we actually preserved some of our green bean harvest by blanching and freezing two or three gallon-size bags of them, and I realized that I need to be using those and not expecting them to stay good in the freezer forever, especially while I buy frozen green beans from Sam's Club to use instead. So tonight I got out some of those green beans from our very own garden and cooked them up to have with our peanut butter chicken and spaghetti. Turned out pretty good.

• Peanut Butter Chicken
• Spaghetti Noodles
• Green Beans
• Brownies with cream cheese frosting and chocolate-mint-M&M's-sprinkles on top

Oh, and you may have noticed that I had a dessert tonight of special mint brownie cupcakes. Aunt Louise made these, posted about it on her blog, and sent me some to taste! I enjoyed them very much.

Incidentally, one of the things I read about in the book Stocking Up is how to make your own cheese and cottage cheese. A lady at the temple was telling me that she has taught classes through the USU extension service about using powdered milk, including how to make your own cottage cheese from powdered milk. Hopefully I'll soon be writing a post about my own homemade cottage cheese, made from powdered milk. But don't hold your breath too long...

Whole Wheat Bread

Last night I wanted to make bread, but was feeling lazy about it, so I just did a simple recipe. It looks and tastes like I made bread from the food storage; in other words, it's not the best bread I've ever made. But it's okay.

5 cups whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon yeast

2 cups water

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 tablespoon salt

Place the yeast and the flour in the mixer bowl. Add the water, honey, oil and salt, and mix with a dough hook until it all comes together, stopping and scraping the sides of the bowl so it will come all together. Mix in another 1/2 cup or so of white bread flour, then let the mixer knead it for 10 minutes. Shape two loaves and put into greased loaf pans and let it raise for 30 minutes or so. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

I figure that with my experimenting with food storage recipes, I might as well experiment with different bread recipes. I got out the recipe book, but I still did my own thing. In this case, the book called for a Vitamin C tablet, and I used the lemon juice instead. Somewhere I read that a little citric acid in the bread dough acts as a dough enhancer. I'm not sure exactly what it does, but I've put a bit of lemon juice in my bread dough ever since. And these food storage recipe books that I checked out of the library call for the citric acid, so I guess I'm on the right track.

Dehydrated potato cubes

This is what the little dehydrated potato cubes look like. We have a lot of them, and I haven't been too thrilled about using them. But the dinner we had tonight turned out pretty good. In fact, it's a keeper. It was very filling, and I think one reason may be because of all the butter powder in the white sauce. Or maybe it's because the re-hydrated dehydrated potatoes swell even more once they're inside of you. Anyway, I'm sure it really would feed a family of 4 to 6.

Scalloped Potatoes

3 1/2 cups water, 2 cups dried potato dices, 3 tablespoons minced onion, 1/2 teaspoon chicken bouillon, 1 1/4 cup warm water, 1 cup Super Quick White Sauce Mix (recipe to follow), 1 (15-oz.) can Spam Lite, diced OR 2 (5-oz.) cans chunk ham, broken up OR 1 can pork from the cannery, drained and rinsed.

Place potatoes, onion and bouillon in 3 1/2 cups water and simmer 20 minutes. In separate saucepan, whisk white sauce mix into 1 1/4 cup warm water. Bring to boil and simmer for 1 minute. Drain any remaining liquid from potatoes. Stir white sauce into potato mixture. Add a little more water if too thick. Stir in meat. Serves 4-6.

Super Quick White Sauce Mix

4 cups instant dry milk, 4 cups powdered butter, 4 cups flour, 8 teaspoons chicken bouillon, 2 teaspoons salt

Mix above ingredients together, store in covered container, label and date. Use within 6 months.

Thin white sauce: 1 cup warm water and 1/2 cup white sauce mix

Medium white sauce: 1 cup warm water and 1/2 cup white sauce mix

Thick white sauce: 1 cup warm water and 3/4 cup white sauce mix

Whisk white sauce mix into water. Continue stirring over medium-high heat until boiling. Lower heat and simmer 1 minute. If needed, hold sauce for a short time on low heat.

For another white sauce mix recipe, check out this blog: everydayfoodstorage.net.

And to make a "cream-of-something" soup from the "Magic Mix", check out this.

So, the recipe, above, for the scalloped potatoes--when it has you make up the white sauce, it turns out really thick. I think that's the equivalent of making the "cream-of-something" soup.

Food Storage Meal

So today I looked through our food storage and learned that--guess what?--we already have dehydrated vegetables. We have celery, onions, mixed peppers, carrots, and potato cubes. Plus we have a can of dried apple slices. We have dehydrated re-fried beans. We have a #10 can of instant chocolate pudding mix. And we have a #10 can of butter powder. I think there's even a can of dehydrated mushrooms. Who knew?

Those are all in addition to the bottled peaches, pears, apricot nectar, grape juice, tomatoes, and jams that I knew we had. Oh, did I mention that we have jam? Plum syrup and jam from 2009. Apricot jam from 2006. Strawberry jams from 2007. Blackberry jam from 2009. Apricot jam from 2010. And more blackberry jam from 2011. Then there is the case of strawberry jam and the case of marionberry jam from the cannery from 2011. Anyone need jam?

So I decided to try making a meal from the dehydrated vegetables. I followed the recipe in the Foodstorage in a Nutshell book for rehydrated potatoes potato soup. But partway through I switched it out for scalloped potatoes and ham. Only I don't have ham; I have cans of pork. So that's what we're going to have for dinner tonight. We have approximately 16!!! #10 cans of dehydrated diced potatoes, so now I've learned a way to use them, and I'll let you know if and how we like them.

Tonight's menu:

• Scalloped potatoes with pork
• Canned green beans
• Carrot sticks, broccoli and cauliflower florettes
• Grape juice
• Molasses Ginger Cookies (recipe follows)

3/4 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

2 tablespoons water

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon powdered egg

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Additional sugar

Cream shortening and sugar, then cream in molasses and water. Add the flour, powdered egg, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and ginger all at once and mix. Drop by rounded teaspoons into a bowl of sugar and roll it around, then place on cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Backward Menu Planning

I am going to tell about the meals we have, after we have them, and let you know whether or not I liked it. I'm experimenting with recipes this week, trying to use the food we have on-hand, rather than buying more. Do you ever have those times where you run out of grocery money and need to use what you already have? Well, this is one of those times. Between our freezer and our pantry and our food storage, we have a lot of food to choose from, so it's not a big deal. I just have to be creative.

Saturday January 14: Jim's birthday dinner request

• Sloppy joes seasoned with Wal-mart brand sloppy joe seasoning packets and tomato sauce
• Macaroni salad
• Potato salad
• Green Salad
• Potato chips
• Apple pie and ice cream

This is not my favorite menu, but Jim likes it, so that's good.

Sunday January 15

• Chicken Rice Casserole made with 3 cups of rice, 6 cups of water, 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, 2 or 3 cups of baby carrots, 8 chicken thighs, and a package of onion soup mix--all baked in the oven at 350 degrees for 3 hours.
• Green Salad
• Peach Cobbler and ice cream

We had company over for dinner on Sunday, and this is what we served. It's always a big hit.

Monday January 16

• Chicken Mexican Soup: I'm not sure what recipe I altered from the Campbell's Soup Recipe website, but it may have been along these lines: Santa Fe Chicken Tortilla Soup or maybe it was this one: Slow-Simmered Chicken Rice Soup. Actually, I'm pretty sure it was neither of those. But I sauteed a large onion and a red bell pepper, then added a can of tomatoes and a can of water, a teaspoon or two of chicken bouillon granules, and half a teaspoon each of cumin and garlic powder, then simmered those for ten minutes before adding a can of chicken and simmering it for another ten minutes. After that I stirred in about a cup and a half of leftover rice from the chicken-rice dinner we had the day before. After we put the soup in our bowls, we sprinkled a little grated cheese on top. It was a little heavy on the chicken, in my opinion, but really good. (I don't generally like cumin, because it smells like stinky tennis shoes, but the recipe called for it so I put in about half of what it called for, and it wasn't bad at all.)
• Country Cornbread from the Lean and Free 2000 Plus book (Thanks, Josie, for telling me the recipe.) This recipe does not call for any sugar, but I assumed that the canned creamed corn would help to sweeten it a bit. Well, we ate it with lots of honey. And maybe it could have used a little more salt, too--but then, I didn't measure the salt.
• Bottled Pears for dessert

Tuesday January 17

• Baked salmon fillets (no seasonings other than the sauteed stuff below)
• Baked potatoes
• Baked acorn squash
• Steamed broccoli
• Sauteed onions, mushrooms, canned tomatoes, garlic powder, dill weed, and lemon juice--served over the top of the salmon. This is a recipe from one of the menu mailers from Leanne Ely, so I'm not going to give the proportions here as that would be breaking copyright laws.
• Experimental Pineapple Ranger Cookies

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon powdered eggs

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup crushed honey bunches of oats with cinnamon crunches

1/2 cup coconut

1 cup crushed pineapple, drained

1 cup chocolate chips

Mix all the ingredients together, creaming shortening and sugars, then adding the others one at a time. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

I started making these Ranger cookies, (with my substitutions, as usual) and when I got in the fridge to find the coconut, I saw the leftover crushed pineapple sitting in there, begging to be used, so I added it. Big mistake! The pineapple turned this chewy cookie into a cake-like cookie. Also, the honey bunches of oats that no one has liked did not help it. Even so, I'm sure we'll eat them. Just not a keeper.

As for the rest of the dinner, the topping for the fish was pretty flavorful on the dill and lemon side, but I liked the texture of the onions, and it was nice to have something to flavor the fish. And I like baked potatoes and squash and broccoli, so the rest of the meal is a keeper.

Spinach tortellini

This recipe from Leanne Ely's menu mailer meals is one that I've tried before, and Jim didn't seem to mind it (even though it has spinach in it). So when I saw tortellini on sale because it was the last day of the expiration date, I bought it and fixed it for dinner. Basically, you cook the spinach-cheese tortellini according to the package directions, and in another pan you sautee stuff like canned tomatoes, onions, garlic, spinach, and some seasonings. When the tortellini is done you drain it and then stir it in with the mixture, along with a can of tuna or half a can of chicken.