Oatmeal with Chia and Blueberries

One of my favorite breakfasts is hot cereal with chia. I usually add some organic blueberries or cherries (you can get them frozen at Costco).  I use a Marga Flaker to turn my oat groats into flaked oats for quicker cooking.

In the picture above, I combined flaked oat groats, flaked sprouted brown rice and added some oat bran and hemp seed. I use about 1/4c. of this and add 1 c. water to cook. Once the cereal has started to thicken, I add about 1/2 c. of sprouted chia. I keep this in the refrigerator and add to smoothies as well. Simmer on low until cereal is cooked and  mixture is thickened. Add frozen berries and stir into cereal. Top with a little yogurt if desired.

Quinoa, Red Lentil and Chia Pilaf

I found this recipe over at Original Fast Foods, and decided to give it a try. It makes a delicious side dish for fish. I had some (leftover) for lunch with some sliced tomatoes. I tripled the recipe so that I could put some in the freezer. I found this to be a one of those recipes that will be used often!

Quinoa, Red Lentil and Chia Pilaf
from http://originalfastfoods.com

1/3 c. quinoa (I use Bob's Red Mill as it is pre-rinsed)

1/3 c. red lentils

2 TBSP chia seed

1/3 c. shallots or onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 c. broth

1 large red or green sweet pepper, chopped (I used yellow since it was in the fridge)

1 large carrot, chopped

1/4 tsp thyme

If your quinoa isn't rinsed, so this first. Pick through the lentils for stems, rocks, etc and rinse these as well. Add all ingredients into a pot except for the pepper and the carrot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, or until quinoa and red lentils are tender.

Food: Home Bottled Tomatoes

I've had these bottled tomatoes done for a couple of weeks now. I love having home canned tomatoes on hand. I love fresh, but when I don't have fresh, these are the next best thing.

I got a case of tomatoes from Bountiful Baskets and ended up with 9 quarts of tomatoes. Love it!

I use bottled tomatoes for all kinds of recipes including, pasta sauce, chili and sauteed vegetables.

The next canning project will be black beans, since I've used up the ones I had on hand.

Canned anything lately? Share a link in the comment section.

Chili with Sweet Potatoes

I decided that today would be a great day to make chili. There are lots of recipes out there that use canned pumpkin. However, I'm using canned sweet potatoes in the recipe, mainly because I need to use it up. Canned food does go bad. I try to rotate my food storage every year, especially the canned items. The great thing about chili is that it is so easy. I just get my crock pot out, and start dumping the canned items in. I do add diced onion, garlic and seasonings. Today I added some things from my freezer as well. Here is what I added. You can add cooked ground beef if desired. We're not big meat eaters, so this will work fine for us.

15 oz. can kidney beans (rinsed)
15 oz. can small white beans
2 c. pinto beans (from freezer)
2 cans Rotel diced tomatoes with green chili
1 large can sweet potatoes (rinsed)
2 tsp cumin
1-2 tsp chili powder
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 c. cooked whole grain cereal (from freezer)

It's cooking away on low. I'll make some cornbread in my cast iron frying pan and serve them with some cheese, chopped green onions and sour cream.

Potato Pancakes from Instant Potatoes

One of most popular blog posts I've shared has been the one back in 2008 where I made potato pancakes using instant potatoes. I thought I'd share it again since I'm on the road and not cooking today.

Check out my original post here.  Instant potatoes are a great food storage item. I have a couple of cases of potato flakes in my food storage. They are easy to reconstitute. The type I have call for milk and butter, but they taste as close to fresh mashed potatoes as I've ever had.

Using Food Storage

I've been trying to use up what we have in the refrigerator and freezer so that nothing goes to waste. Think about how much food you throw out. I heard a statistic this morning on the Today Show that Americans throw out 25% of the food they purchase each year. I did a little googling, and found a report here that talks about food losses throughout the food system. It is a huge problem, and definitely the consumer does their share of wasting food. Anyway, we've gotten to the point where it is time for me to do some pre-cooking for convenience. Sometimes I just don't want to go through the process of making an entire meal. However, if I cook some things in advance, it is so easy to defrost using the microwave or overnight in the refrigerator.

So, I took an hour and a half this morning to cook up some items for "fast food" to have on hand.  I had purchased 100 pounds of potatoes which are in my garage.  I took 5 of them and washed and pricked them, and got them into the oven to bake.

At the same time, I got some brown rice out of my chest freezer, and put it in the rice cooker to cook.

Next, I defrosted 2 small containers of vegetarian chili from my side by side freezer in the microwave.

While all of that was going on, I got out a #10 can of pinto beans from my food storage, and sorted through 6 cups of beans. After getting all of the rocks and junk out, I rinsed them in a colander, and put them into the crock pot to make refried beans, which I blogged about here. This will cook from 12-24 hours. I happened to have pre-cooked bacon in the refrigerator that I bought at Costco a couple of weeks ago. We don't each much bacon, but Christmas around the corner, I thought it might be nice to have some on hand.

As soon as the baked potatoes came out of the oven, I cut one in half for my lunch. I put about 2/3 c. vegetarian chili (from the freezer that I defrosted) on the potato and garnished it with a little shredded cheese. I served it with a salad I had in the refrigerator. It was delicious!

 The salad dressing I used is a yogurt based dressing, with only 45 calories for 2 TBSP. Yummy :)

After the rice finished cooking, I dumped it into a large bowl to fluff it up and cool. Then, I measured about a cup or so of it into some small freezer containers.

Here is a picture of everything before it goes into the refrigerator.

The refried beans will continue to cook until late tonight or tomorrow morning.

This has really helped me spend fewer hours in the kitchen, and prevents us from ordering fast food.

Pinto Beans with Garlic

I had some pinto beans in the freezer, left over from a batch I made earlier this year. A last minute dinner dish was in order, so I did a quick google search, and came up with this recipe for Pinto Beans and Garlic from About.com. I made the following changes to the recipe:

• I added 1 extra chopped celery stalk


• Used canned diced tomatoes instead of paste


• 1 tsp of chili powder. The chili powder I have is from The Spice House, and it has a nice kick to it. We like our chili mild, so a teaspoon did the trick.


• I also added 3/4 c. water.

The result was a nice chunky bean dip! I served it with rice, scoopable tortilla chips and grated cheese. The verdict: a delicious, easy meal to prepare. It is a great vegetarian recipe, and a good way to use those beans in your food storage!

Here is the recipe the way I made it:

3-4 cups of cooked pinto beans

1 onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

2 carrots, grated

2 stalks of celery, chopped

1/2 tsp basil

3 cloves garlic

1/4 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp celery seed

1 tsp chili powder

1 can diced tomatoes

olive oil

dash pepper

Begin by adding a tablespoon or two of olive oil to a large pot. Saute the onion, pepper, and celery until onions are translucent. Add the the remaining ingredients, and simmer. Stir frequently on medium-low heat until beans are soft and beginning to break down. Serve with rice. Chips and cheese optional, but they really add to the meal.

Weight Watcher Fruit and Honey Bars

Here is a fantastic recipe for a homemade granola bar of sorts. I found the recipe in Weight Watchers magazine. Normally, I wouldn't be tempted to try this kind of recipe, because they never taste very good. I'm glad I did try this, because not only does it taste good, but it is low in WW point and calories. Not only that, but I have all of the ingredients in my food storage!

Fruit and Honey Bars

Prep 20 minutes, Bake 20 minutes, Serves 20

1/3 c. honey

2 large eggs (you can use powdered)

1/2 tsp salt

1 c. old fashioned rolled oats

1/2 c. instant nonfat dry milk

1/2 c. each: shelled unsalted pumpkin seeds

unsweetened shredded coconut

ground flax seed

dried apricots, chopped

dried cherries

1/4 c. whole wheat flour

Preheat the oven to 350*F. Line a 9" square baking pan with nonstick foil. Beat honey, eggs and salt with a fork in a small bowl until blended. Put the rest of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the honey mixture to the dry ingredients and pulse until mixture is slightly moistened. Press dough into baking pan until in is uniformly even. Bake until center is set, and edges are lightly browned. Let cool 10 minutes. Using foil, transfer the bar from pan to cutting board. Cut into 20 1 1/2" bars. Let cool completely, peel off foil.

1 bar is: 118 calories, 5 gm total fat, 2 gm sat fat, 16 gm total carb, 10 gm total sugar, 2 gm fiber, 4 gm protein My notes: I did not use the foil, but lightly greased the pan with butter. I did not use a food processor, but just chopped the dried apricots with a knife. I used raisins because I didn't have any dried cherries. I stirred everything together with a spoon. I preheated the oven, and the baking time was 20 minutes.

I really love this bar. I will have a couple with some yogurt for breakfast. Yummy! Give it a try and let me know how you like it.

Lentil Chili from Whole Foods

I got this recipe from Whole Foods. You can find the recipe originally posted here.

picture courtesy of Whole Foods.com



Serves 8

This simple vegetarian chili recipe uses lentils instead of beans. Brown lentils work best as they will hold their shape even when tender after cooking. Serve over brown rice or with whole-grain hearth bread.

Ingredients

8 cups low-sodium vegetable broth, divided
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 teaspoons salt-free chili powder
1 (16-ounce) package brown lentils (about 2 1/4 cups lentils)
2 (15-ounce) cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Method

Bring 3/4 cup broth to a simmer in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper and garlic and cook about 8 minutes or until onion is translucent and pepper is tender. Stir in chili powder and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add lentils, tomatoes and remaining 7 1/4 cups broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, 30 minutes or until lentils are almost tender. Uncover and cook 10 minutes longer. Stir in cilantro and serve.

Results

This was really good. We had nothing in the way of leftovers. None. It was that good. I did make some substitutions. Since I had already cooked up a bunch of lentils for another recipe, I used about 4 cups of pre-cooked lentils, and some chicken broth to make the correct consistency. I added the other ingredients, but only added 2 tsp of chili powder. I think it is better to start with a little, test for taste, then add a little more when it comes to chili powder. I bought my chili powder from The Spice House, along with many of my other spices. They are fantastic spices! My sister-in-law had given us a gift certificate for Christmas 2009.

I served this with some corn bread, and shrimp sauteed in olive oil, garlic and spices. A delicious dinner that everyone enjoyed.

Pureed Cannellini Beans Can Be Substituted for Shortening in Brownies

Pureed Cannellini Beans Can Be Substituted for Shortening in Brownies I'm putting together my notes for a class on using beans, and I thought I'd share this reference from  Journal of the American Dietetic Association (JADA).

This is a good thing to know when it comes to using your food storage. Another tip is to cook up some beans in advance, and put them in your freezer or bottle them. When you need them for a recipe, you will have them ready to use.

"Healthified" Pumpkin Bread - Recipe

Here is another good recipe that takes advantage of your food storage. You can use your dry egg powder in place of fresh, powdered milk and of either canned or frozen pumpkin.

 

Healthified Pumpkin Bread  from EatBetter America

 

Prep Time:20 min

Start to Finish:2 hr 40 min

makes:2 loaves (12 slices each)

2	cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 1/2	cups Gold Medal® whole wheat flour
2	cups sugar
2	teaspoons baking soda
1	teaspoon baking powder
1	teaspoon salt
1	teaspoon ground cinnamon
1	teaspoon ground nutmeg
1	teaspoon ground allspice
1/2	teaspoon ground cloves
1	can (15 oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1	cup fat-free (skim) milk
3/4	cup fat-free egg product
1/2	cup canola oil

	Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottoms only of two 9x5-inch loaf pans with cooking spray. In large bowl, mix flours, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves until well blended.
	In medium bowl, mix pumpkin, milk, egg product and oil until well blended. Stir into flour mixture until well blended. Spoon batter evenly into pans.
	Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Decrease baking soda to 1 1/2 teaspoons.

"Healthified" Pumpkin Bread - Whole Grains - Eat Better America

All American Pressure Cooker/Canner

Here is a picture of my latest kitchen purchase. It is the All-American 21-1/2-Quart Pressure Cooker/Canner! Isn't she a beauty? I bought it from Amazon...truly a great price! I am going to use this baby for the first time tomorrow morning. I am going to make Italian Wedding soup, and pressure can it to use later. I have some spinach I need to use up, some vegetable broth in the freezer, and some frozen mini meatballs that I can defrost. I'll take pictures and show you how nice the jars look afterwards. Making and canning soup is more nutritious and tastes better. I joined a canning group on yahoo. These people sure know their canning! I have the latest copy of Ball's Blue Book, so I'm ready to go. I get so much produce each week from Bountiful Baskets, that I want to use it all, and not waste any. Do you put up your own food? What are you doing these days to stock your pantry?

Freezing Surplus Fruits and Vegetables-Food Storage

POMEGRANATE ARILS........

CRANBERRY SAUCE MADE WITH FRESH CRANBERRIES!

20 CUPS OF FRESH PUMPKIN PUREE IN MY NEW CHEST FREEZER!

Long time, no blogging! I'm making an early resolution to blog a couple of times a week.

So, I woke up this morning at 8 am. Well, actually, I woke up at 6:30 am to feed and potty the dogs, then I went back to bed, and woke up at 8 am. Gotta keep my facts straight! Anyway, I had a plumber here to fix a previous contractor's poor work. What does all of this have to do with pumpkin, pomegranates and cranberries? I was up early enough to work on processing all of these foods today.

I started with the pomegranates. I had about 6 of them, and wanted to get them peeled and ready to use. I had seen a cool video of how to peel them underwater (makes less mess), so I tried it out. It worked well. Now I have 2 containers of pomegranates arils (the red seeds). Here is a link that tells you how to do it. I didn't cut mine up, just gently tore it apart in a bowl of cold water. I like the fact that they can be frozen. I like to use frozen fruit in my morning smoothies.

Next, I made some Cranberry sauce with my fresh cranberries. There is nothing quite as nice as some fresh cranberry sauce with turkey or chicken. I've been cooking turkey breasts in the crock pot lately, and now I have some fresh sauce for the next time I cook one. I put the rest of the large bag (costco) of cranberries in the freezer for future use.

Finally, I got to work on the box of pie pumpkins sitting in my garage. I put it out there to keep them cool until I could make a little time to process them. I got them at Albertson's for 50 cents a piece after Thanksgiving. That was a great deal on pie pumpkins!

Having my new range really was wonderful in helping me steam the pumpkin. I used my Vitamix to puree the cooked pumpkin, then put them in freezer containers. Pumpkin is the "new" banana. After reading a report about all of the pesticides used in banana growing, I've discovered that pumpkins are perfect for replacing banana in smoothies. You don't taste it, but it adds a nice texture. Also, there is a wonderful vitamin A perk that you don't get with bananas.

My smoothies are something like this: 1 c. spinach, 1/2c. pumpkin, 4 frozen strawberries (costco has huge bags of delicious strawberries), 1/2 c. yogurt (sometimes I make it myself in the crock pot) and whatever other fruit is hanging around (pear,pineapple,etc) and some water. It is usually around 350 calories, which is just about right for my breakfast.

So, it was a busy day of processing food, but it is done and the freezer is filling up nicely!

Chalupas using pinto beans from your food storage

I got this recipe for Chalupas from my wonderful neighbor and friend, Marty. This is a delicious recipe. I served it last Sunday with fry bread and my young adult sons really enjoyed it! You could serve it with tortillas or even with corn bread. The two main ingredients for this recipe are pinto beans, and a small, boneless pork roast. I cooked this in my crock pot for 8 hours (low-med setting) and it was terrific. I got the Hormel boneless pork roasts on sale and used coupons to get the price down to $4. This is definitely an under $5 dinner meal, and served 6 adults with plenty of leftovers. I also liked how quick and easy it is to get it in the crock pot.

Don't forget to sort out your pinto beans on a white plate or other light surface. You can see the rocks in the middle of the picture....pick those out and put them in the trash (unless you like to see the dentist for dental work!). I also rinse the beans before using them in the recipe.

Here is the recipe:

Chalupas

1.5 pound boneless pork roast (I used Hormel)

1 1/2 c. pinto beans, sorted and washed

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tsp cumin

4 oz chopped green chilies (canned)

1 T. chili powder

1/2 tsp oregano

1 tsp. salt

Combine all ingredients and pour water in to cover meat. Bring to a boil; cover and simmer 6-8 hours. Break up roast and cook uncovered until thick. Serve with tortillas, grated cheese, chopped onion, lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole, salsa and sour cream.

Sorry, I forgot to get a picture before it was eaten!

7 Layer Bean Dip: using food storage

Using the pinto beans from my food storage and making refried beans (posted here), I made a 7 Layer Bean Dip. Here are the ingredients:

2 cans refried beans (I used 4 cups of homemade)
Blend It Up Southwest Spice Blend
1 container guacamole, or 2 avocados mashed with 1 tsp lemon juice
4 green onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 c. salsa
4 oz. cheddar cheese, grated
1 small can black olives
1 c. sour cream

Here is my 1 1/2 quart casserole with my beans in it.

I sprinkled the Blend It Up Southwest Blend on top of the beans.

I used the avocados I had on hand...

I mashed them with a fork and added about 1/2 c. of Salsa to it to make a spicy guacamole. I also added 1 tsp lemon juice.

Layer the guacamole on top of the beans.

Take your green onions, and chop them up...

First layer your sour cream on the guacamole layer, then sprinkle the chopped green onions on top.

Next, add the chopped tomatoes.....looking real good!

Add the grated cheese and chopped black olives (I forgot to buy the olives....).

Serve with corn chips or as a side dish. This was a big hit at our house last night! Who says that food storage can't be yummy? Enjoy!

This is the refried beans that I had left over. I just put them into freezer containers, labeled them, and put them in the freezer for later use.

Crock Pot Refried Beans Recipe

This recipe comes from some friends of mine, the Cochrans, and it is easy to make. It makes quite a bit of refried beans, so do adjust the recipe if you don't have a big crock pot.

Ingredients:

6 c. pinto beans
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 TBSP salt
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (you can omit or use a vegetarian product)

I already cooked up the bacon for the broccoli salad we had for dinner (see previous post).

I've got plenty of pinto beans in my food storage. These beans should last about 25 years if unopened. I intend to rotate my storage. As I use up a few cans, I'll just drypack more, or you can purchase them by the case from any LDS dry pack cannery. You can even have them shipped to you, go to Provident Living for more information.

Measure out 6 cups of beans into a bowl. Don't put them into the crock pot until they have been sorted and rinsed. I use a small white bowl or paper plate to sort the beans. I pour about 1/3 c. at a time into the bowl and look for any rocks, discolored or shriveled beans. In the picture below, notice the 2 little rocks in the middle of the beans. Take these out.

In 6 cups of beans, here is what I pulled out.... you sure don't want to bite into a rock, so take care when you sort.

After sorting, make sure that you rinse the beans before putting into the crock pot. Rinsing is critical, because there is dust and dirt that you want to rinse off.....don't want that in you food! After rinsing a few times, pour the beans into the crock pot, and cover with water. I added the rest of the ingredients, and stirred. Make sure the beans are always covered with water; check them every couple of hours. Cooking time is 12-24 hours, depending on how old the beans are.

I could use my pressure cooker and just be done with the process, but not everyone has a pressure cooker. I'll be using the refried beans to make a layered bean dip for tomorrow. It is Super Bowl Sunday, so we will have some chips and bean dips, even though we won't be watching the game!

Southwest Lentils and Rice Recipe

Lentils are a great addition to your food storage. When served with a grain, such as brown rice, they make a complete protein. I like to cook my lentils (I love the red lentils) along with the brown rice in my rice cooker. You don't have to guess if you are burning the bottom of the pan with a rice cooker....it turns out perfectly!

You can make your lentils and rice recipe any "flavor" that you want. Both lentils and rice have mild flavors, so you can add any seasonings you want to get the desired result. I choose to make a southwest style.

First, don't forget to measure your lentils, then put them on a white paper plate and pick off all of the things that looks out of place. See my post here on how to do this. Pictured below, I show where I rinse the lentils. I just used my rice cooker pot, filled it halfway with water, pour the dirty water off...do this a few times.


Southwest Lentils and Rice

3/4 c. lentils
3/4 c. brown rice
1-2 tsp. Blend It Up Southwest Seasoning (or add cumin, chili peppers, etc)
4 cups chicken broth
1 small onion and 1 clove garlic, diced and sauteed in olive oil

Add all ingredients to rice cooker. It will cook for about 30-40 minutes and then switch to warm.

Here are the rinsed lentils with the brown rice.

Add the rest of the ingredients, put the lid on the rice cooker, then push the cook button. It will take 30-40 minutes to cook.
Here is a picture of the Blend It Up Southwest Spice Blend. You can go to their web site to purchase it here.

Serve the cooked lentils/rice with shredded lettuce, grated cheese and chips. You could also add some sour cream and salsa.

Another way to serve the lentils/rice is to fill taco shells with the mixture and add diced tomatoes, grated cheese, shredded lettuce, etc. I didn't have any tomatoes, but that would've made a great addition. Avocados/guacamole would be a great addition.

Some helpful hints

1. Keep your brown rice stored in a cool place. I have my brown rice in both the refrigerator and freezer. If you aren't going to use your brown rice up within 6 months, definitely store it in the freezer. It keeps it from becoming rancid.
2. Lentils store extremely well, but it is best to store them in a cool, dry location also. A basement food storage is ideal. I no longer have a basement food storage area, but have them in my pantry, which is cool and dry.

Baked Blueberry Oatmeal Recipe

I wanted to show you how this turned out....Baked Blueberry Oatmeal. First of all, I used an 8x8" pan, so I had to bake it for another 15 minutes to get the center cooked. Next time I will use a jelly roll pan and watch it determine baking time. This is really very good, and very filling. What is not to like about oatmeal, blueberries and cinnamon? I served it hot with milk....mmmmmmm. I still have some, so it will be another morning's breakfast. Thanks to my blogging friend, Trish, for sharing the recipe. It is posted at recipezaar here. Let me know how you like it by posting a comment.