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.

Chinese Salad

Okay, I really don't know if this is a salad that the Chinese people would eat, or even if they eat and enjoy salad. But it uses some ingredients that are sometimes found in Chinese cooking (at least, the kind of Chinese foods that I've had here in America), and together they make a green salad that, so far, is my favorite. Here's what I put in it:

1 head red lettuce, chopped or shredded

1 bunch spinach (washed, stems removed, etc., etc.)

1 small head Napa cabbage (I found this to be young and tender and mild, with just the right amount of crunch), sliced thinly

1 package cherry or grape tomatoes

2 tomatoes, sliced for salad

1 or 2 carrots, peeled and shredded

1/4 to 1/2 head of cauliflower flowerettes

1/2 cup or so (not a lot) of purple cabbage, chopped small

Combine all those ingredients, and any others you like, and serve with a bit of ranch dressing and some Chinese noodles and slivered almonds sprinkled on top.

I just ate this for my mid-morning snack, but I ate it over the top of the leftover sweet-and-sour pork, brown rice, and sauteed vegetables. It was soo good.

For the sauteed vegetables, I put 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a heated pan, and sauteed the following until tender:

1 cup celery, sliced on the diagonal

1 cup onion, chopped

1 can bean sprouts, rinsed and drained

1 can mushrooms, drained

You may not like the mushrooms or the bean sprouts, so feel free to leave them out. You may like to try some other vegetables that I did not want to put in, such as bamboo shoots or water chestnuts.

Serve over a bed of brown rice, with sweet and sour pineapple pork on top, followed by the above salad.

I'm liking how I can eat a big mid-morning snack and it's okay. I mean, sure, I ate two pieces of toast and two eggs and a plum for breakfast. But that was three hours ago, and I was hungry for more than "six almonds" or "1/2 cup of cottage cheese" or some other ridiculously unsatisfying suggestion from some of the diet advice that I've read. The emphasis in the Lean and Free 2000 Plus book is on feeding our bodies, not starving them, and I really like that!

Cinnamon rolls

This morning I made these cinnamon rolls from Dana Thornock's Lean and Free 2000 Plus book. They are light and yummy, and I highly recommend trying them.

Ellen

Crockpot Bean Soup

I threw some things in the crockpot last night around 5 p.m., knowing that we would be hungry after our session at the temple. It turned out pretty good, so I thought I'd share the "recipe" on here.

In a crockpot combine:

2 quarts water

1 cup dry soup mix from the cannery

1 cup 12-bean soup mix (this is a combination of dry beans--pinto, red, kidney, black, lentils, black-eyed peas, Navy, split peas, etc.)

1 bay leaf

2 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder

1/2 large onion

2 huge carrots peeled and diced

2 ribs celery cut up

1/2 pound ground turkey, broken into pieces

Cook for 4 hours on high. Then add a can of corn (I included the liquid) and a can of stewed tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste.

We ate it with toast and butter, and a big plum for dessert. It hit the spot for me.

My Menu for the Week

I'm writing this here partly to share with you all, and partly because I lost my menu and I want to remember what I have planned so I'll do it :)

Tue: Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken

Put the chicken (whatever kind you want, I used chicken breasts, but you could use wings or thighs) into the crock pot. In a bowl mix 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 cup water. Pour over chicken and cook on low or high for as long as you need to. I did about 7 hours on low. Half an hour before serving, put some rice on to cook and add some pineapples to the crock pot. I served with broccoli and green salad. I was still hungry afterward, but it was delicious! Oh, and I also tried to add some cornstarch when I added the pineapples to thicken the sauce but it didn't work. I think I should have transferred it to another pan and warmed it more but I didn't want to do all that.

Wed: Taco soup and twice baked potatoes

Thur: Hawaiian Haystacks (using the leftover pineapples I saved from Tue)

Fri: Leftovers (and get a roast out to thaw for Sun.)

Sat: Homemade pizza (and make extra dough for rolls tomorrow)

Sun: Roast and mashed potatoes and gravy and rolls

Mon: Chimichanga's using leftover roast

Let me know if you'r interested in any other recipes, and I would love to see your menu's too!

Depression Cooking

Hey Josie, check out this YouTube TV series. It features 96-year-old Clara as she teaches you how to cook meals from the Depression. It looks like the series is about five years old, as the first two I've watched say she's 91 years old. Anyway, it's pretty cool. Basic, cheap, filling and nutritious meals for your family.

http://youtu.be/3OPQqH3YlHA

Meatless Chili

Last week when I was really on a healthy-eating kick (I still am, but I'm okay with eating meat this week, lol), I came up with this meatless chili recipe, again made from the ingredients I have on hand. I had leftovers for lunch today, and it still tastes good. And, just so you know, this recipe is made possible because Jim (Dad) bottles our dry beans for me so they are convenient to use, so that I will use them.

Easy Meatless Chili

1 pint bottled (or canned, I suppose) pinto beans, rinsed and drained

1 pint bottled (or canned, I suppose) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 pint bottled homemade salsa (made from the USU's Extension Service approved recipe)

2 pints canned whole tomatoes (or a quart bottled if you like)

1 tablespoon chili powder

That's it. Combine it all in a pan and heat through, letting it simmer on low for a bit. Between the chili powder and the salsa, it had just the right heat level for me, and I didn't need to add any salt, I suppose because of the canned and bottled stuff.

Also, when we bottle beans, no matter how hard we try to guestimate the right amount of beans to put in the bottle, they always swell more than we think and end up being crammed in there. So if you use store-bought canned beans, you may need an extra can of beans, in which case you might consider another kind of beans, such as Navy or Kidney or something.

Spinach-Fruit Salad

With our dinner last night I wanted to serve a salad, but the only greens I have on hand are from a bag of spinach that I bought a few days ago. Usually I think of spinach salad as having strawberries in it, but I don't have any fresh strawberries on hand. I do, however, have lots of apples, and a few walnuts. Oh, and look!, there are some dried cranberries, too! So I looked up a recipe for spinach-apple-walnut salad. I found several to choose from. I guess the main thing I needed was a dressing recipe. So here's an approximation of what I came up with (measurements are approximate):

Divide evenly between two serving plates:

2 handfuls of spinach

1 apple, cored and cubed

a few walnut halves, broken (I actually heated a frying pan and put these in it, along with a sprinkle of sugar, and stirred them around til the sugar melted and coated them a bit)

a few Craisins or dried cranberries

In a blender combine:

2 tablespoons frozen cranberry juice concentrate

2 tablespoons water

4 tablespoons safflower oil

2 tablespoons vinegar (I used cider)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Mrs. Dash

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Blend all together. Taste to see if you need to add more salt or sugar or vinegar or something to give it a bit of pleasing tang. Then pour a little over the two salads just before serving.

We also had some hamburger-stroganoff for dinner, which I made as roughly follows:

1 pound hamburger, cooked with

half a large onion, chopped

When the hamburger is longer pink and the onion is soft and cooked through, drain the juices and add:

a can of cream of mushroom soup

a can of mushrooms

a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce

Stir till heated through, then remove from the heat and stir in a big spoonful of sour cream or plain yogurt. Serve over cooked rice or noodles.

Cooked carrots and broccoli were the vegetable(s) we ate with the meal, and I had a slice of bread and butter with honey on top for dessert.

Anyway, it was a good meal.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Last night I tried out these Pumpkin Pancakes from allrecipes.com for dinner. They were so good! I think I will start buying pumpkin puree now and trying other pumpkin dishes because even my kids liked the pancakes. I wanted to share the recipe here so besides posting the link I will copy and paste it too. I hope that's ok:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a separate bowl. Stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

I just put all the wet ingredients in my blender and blended them a bit then mixed all the dry ingredients together and dumped in the wet. These were the fluffiest pancakes I've ever had. They were a little bland but I think that's because I was missing the ginger and allspice. I still loved them though!

Couponing

So I've decided to actually plan some menus based on what's on sale, and use coupons to help me find some good deals. The thing that triggered this decision was when the Deseret News sales person called us last week and practically begged us to sign up for the newspaper again. They have a deal going on where you just get the Fri-Sat-Sun paper for one low price. The best part about the Fri paper is the crossword puzzle; the best part about the Sat paper is the Church news and the crossword puzzle; and the Sun paper--well, I guess I'll learn to use the coupons.

My new effort has coincided with the grand opening of Salem's new grocery store. Stokes, of Idaho, has come to Salem and opened a combination grocery store and Ace Hardware store. Today was their Grand Opening. I stopped by there twice, and Jim stopped in once. Everybody in Salem stopped in there today, I think. It's been crowded every time we've been there. They had some good sales, comparable to what I mapped out for Smith's and Macey's. Their boneless skinless chicken breasts were on sale for $1.29 a pound, so I bought two packages, along with some pork chops and some chicken thighs. I came home and put together some freezer meals. My hope is that these will last us for at least a week, hopefully two, when combined with what we already have on hand. Broccoli and cauliflower were 79 cents a pound, sour cream 98 cents, fresh pineapple 79 cents a pound, and a package of coleslaw was 99 cents.

The freezer meals I put together include:

barbecue crock pot chicken (for sandwiches)

ginger chicken to be served over coleslaw

peanut butter chicken (to be served over spaghetti noodles and snow peas)

apricot-honey-glazed chicken (I kind of made this one up)

and one other chicken one, I forget.

and 2 packages of apple-honey pork chops

I still have some coupons and lists for Smith's, Wal-Mart, and Walgreens, but they'll come as I am in the area.

Fresh Salsa

I was at Fred Meyer last week and they were having a cooking demo to try to sell me on a nifty product that chops stuff up and makes life oh so simple. Anyway, the lady doing the demo threw together this salsa in like two minutes. It was so good! I almost paid $30 for the cheap plasticy product she was selling. Instead I just bought the ingredients I saw her use, came home, and made myself some salsa with a good old fashioned knife. Mine was almost as good as hers! And it took me longer to make but it was still easy and delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 of a yellow bell pepper
• 1 roma tomato
• 1/2 of an onion
• handful of chopped cilantro (cutting it in with your shears works nicely)
• Big squeeze of a fresh lime
• a snip of a hot pepper (optional, I didn't do this)


Chop up vegetables and cilantro and combine them in a bowl. Squeeze in the lime and stir it all up. Scoop with some chips and enjoy the super fresh flavor!

• 

As you can see this recipe doesn't make much. I was worried mine wouldn't work out so I didn't make much for starters. It did work though and even my youngest two kiddos enjoyed it!

Danish Sweet and Sour Cabbage

A couple of years ago, when Jim was serving as a bishop at BYU, we were invited, along with the other bishops and leaders in the stake, to a dinner with President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, when he was there visiting for stake conference. So the meal that was served was planned and prepared by a member of the high council and his wife, based on a Danish-style menu. The foods were not what I was used to, but I enjoyed them all, very much. I remember some cabbage that must have been similar to this recipe. Sometime soon I hope to try it, but in the meantime I've posted it here so I can find it again when I'm ready:

Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
• 1 2-pound red cabbage, thinly sliced (about 12 cups)
• 6 Tbsp sugar
• 2/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Method

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add cabbage and sauté until slightly wilted, about 5 minutes. Add sugar, toss to coat evenly. Add vinegar. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover, simmer until cabbage is tender, stirring often, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serves 6-8.