Farmer's Market Report

Today was the last day of farmer's market this year in St. George. I am really going to miss it. Sigh! Most of the produce vendors are gone, and there were a lot of craft sellers there today. I immediately went hunting for Lea's Micro Market, because I get my sunflower sprouts from her. If I remember correctly, her farm is in Veyo. Anyway, she has terrific greens and sprouts.

Today she had bags of bok choy, greens, sprouts and she had bunches of turnips.

She gave me a taste of the white turnips, and all I could say is "I'll take some!". They are really delicious. I'll use the turnip greens in a recipe also. I also bought a bag of greens and a container of sunflower sprouts (LOVE THESE...yummers!)

From another vendor, I bought some cilantro in a pot. I am tired of paying such a high price for cilantro. I am going to put the pot in my kitchen window, and for $4, I will get a lot more cilantro for the money.

I will use the turnips tomorrow for Sunday dinner, and maybe the greens. Check back on Monday, when I will post about how I prepared them!

Menu Planning and CONTEST

Today's topic, menu planning, is really all about getting yourself organized to cook. Do you ever hear yourself saying, "I don't know what to make for dinner!"? You are not alone, especially if you hear yourself saying this about 30 minutes before everyone expects to sit down to a meal. So, half of the battle is to decide, in advance, what you are going to make for your evening meal.

• First, select a menu planning template from off of the internet. I found a cute one on http://www.futuregirl.com/ that you can download for free. If I could show it here, I would. If only I was techno-savy...sigh! Or, Google menu planning template for more free options. You can also just get some paper; draw a line down the middle. Make 6 vertical lines across the paper as shown on the picture.

• Second, make a list of meals that your family enjoys. Ask your family to help you make the list. You will be surprised with what everyone comes up with! At this point I consider what I might need to use up that I have on hand. I also consider what is on sale at the grocery store.
• Third, fill in the left hand column with each dinner menu.
• Fourth, create your shopping list from the meals you have planned, along with other staple items you might need. I keep my shopping list where everyone can see it, so that if they see we are out of something, they write it down. Click on the picture below for a close-up. You'll notice I only plan dinner. For me, breakfast and lunch items are easy and I always have those items on hand. You may want to plan all of your meals.

Do you have a favorite menu planning template? I’d love to hear what you do that makes menu planning fun for you. While we are at it, it is time for a contest. Just make a comment on this post, and I will be giving away a fun menu planning, recipe package. Share this with your friends or on your blog.

Pasta with Beet Greens and Raisins

I found this wonderful recipe on http://www.myrecipes.com/ ...and it is from Cooking Light. I thought I'd give it a spin, because I had some baby beets with attached beet greens. I knew I'd be roasting the beets, but wanted to also use the beet greens. So, here are the ingredients:

8 oz uncooked mini Penne pasta
1/4 c. raisins
1 1/2 TBSP Olive Oil
2 c. coarsely chopped beet greens
2 tsp bottled, minced garlic
3 c. toasted slivered almonds
salt and pepper to taste
Note here....I didn't read that the almonds were to be toasted...so mine weren't and it still tasted great. The raisins I have on hand I got in huge bags at Costco and are so moist and plump that I couldn't help but graze on a few while I was cooking. They are also organic. I used fresh garlic cloves because I had them on hand and want to use them before they become dried up and yucky.

Above is a picture of where I have cut off the stems to the beet greens. Then, roughly chop the beet greens. Get out a good sized frying pan, heat the oil then add the minced garlic and greens. Cook until wilted.

In a separate pot, cook the penne pasta. While that is cooking, add some hot water to the raisins and let soak for about 5-10 minutes, then drain off the water. Once everything is ready, drain the water from the pasta, add all of the ingredients together and mix until everything is equally distributed.

This is such a delicious dish. I served it with roasted chicken and sauteed beets. I only have a little chicken left....pasta is all gone. Try this! I think you'll have a new recipe for your files that you will want to make again and again.

Potato Tortillas from food storage

Behold, the can of instant potatoes from my food storage. I am partial to fresh peeled potatoes being used to make mashed potatoes. I guess that is why I still have a bunch of cans of instant potatoes! I have used instant potatoes to make bread before, so I thought I'd try out the recipe for Potato Tortillas in my cookbook, Gourmet Tortillas by Karen Howarth. These are delicious, and yet another way you can use and rotate your food storage.

In addition to the instant potatoes (use any kind of mashed potatoes for this recipe), you will need flour, baking powder, salt and butter.

I start out with the mashed potatoes in a glass measuring cup. You need 1/2 c. potatoes (prepared), then add water to yield 7 ounces (nearly 1c.). Next, in another bowl, put 1 1/2 TBSP softened butter. If you need to microwave it to soften it, do it in 10 second intervals. In this same bowl, add 2 1/2 c. white flour, 1 tsp. salt, and 1 1/2 tsp baking powder. Then, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the flour resembles coarse meal. This distributes the butter throughout the flour, which gives you a uniform product. If you don't have a tool for this, just use 2 dinner knives, and cut through the entire mixture with the knives going from the center to the edge of the bowl, in opposite directions.

Next, add the mashed potato/water mixture and mix well. You want a soft ball of dough. If you have a bunch of leftover dry ingredients in the bottom of the bowl, removed the ball of dough, then add a little bit of water to moisten the remainder. When it is a soft dough, gently knead it into the main ball of dough.

Once you have the ball of dough, cut it into 8 pieces with a serrated knife, as shown below.

Take these pieces, shaping into small balls of dough, and slightly flatten the top. Cover these with a dishtowel and let rest for 15 minutes.

Heat up your cast iron skillet (or frying pan), and begin rolling out one ball of dough at a time. Each tortilla should be about 8 inches in diameter. You can check your first one with a ruler if you want.

Carefully lift the uncooked tortilla onto the skillet, and let it cook (while you being to roll out the next ball of dough) for about a minute on low to medium. When bubbles appear on the top, it is about time to turn the tortilla over.

The tortilla should be lightly browned. When you are finished rolling out the second tortilla , it will be time to take this one off of the skillet and put it on the cooling rack.

Doesn't that look delicious? I thought so, so I put a little butter on it and ate it while I finished cooking the rest. All of the time I was doing this, I was on the phone with one of my BFF's, Cindy Lou. See, it isn't that hard!

After you cook each one, just stack it on top of the previous one on your cooking rack. When they are all cooked, let them cool for 5 minutes, and put them in a ziplock bag (I used a bread bag because I am out of gallon sized ziplock bags). You can store these in the freezer, or in the fridge or just leave them on the counter top for up to one week. Enjoy!!

Food Storage Friday 10/24/08

I made the ultimate sacrifice of my dignity this morning, and decided to share my food storage areas with you. Yes, it looks a bit disorganized. We moved into this house a couple of months ago, and I'm still getting everything where it belongs.

The first two pictures are of some of my storage in a closet in the extra bedroom. I have several buckets of wheat, barley and oats. I also have cases of chicken chunks and the tomato soup I mentioned in a previous post. I also have #10 cans of dehydrated foods such as apple slices, pudding, potato pearls and other items. You'll notice that the boxes have been labeled several times. I need to go into the boxes and re-label them with the correct contents. I always reuse the boxes.

The next two pictures are of the items I purchased this week. I got the rice at Costco, and the other items at the LDS dry pack cannery. I have an appointment to get a dry pack canner in a week, and will be packing the food into the #10 cans then. You'll notice the can lids and oxypacks on top of the box. The oxypacks keep the food fresher for much longer. When packed properly, studies have shown that grains and powdered milk will keep up to 30 years. There will be some loss of nutrition, but the food will still sustain life.

On the picture below, you'll notice that I have a case of pinto beans and a case of hard red wheat. I decided to go ahead and get them already packed in the #10 cans. The cost was only 50 cents more than if I would have done them myself. A bargain! At the LDS dry pack cannery, there are certain items that you can pick up that have already been packed in the #10 cans. You do not have to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to purchase at the cannery.

Below are pictures of my pantry. I have organized and reorganized this pantry, so don't be too critical! I tend to purchase bulk amounts when items are on sale and when I have a coupon for the item. I got all of the electrosol dish washer detergent for free this way. I got the liquid dish detergent for $0.25 cents per bottle on sale with a coupon for each bottle. If my pantry looks kind of wacky that way, this is the reason for it.

The Malt-o-Meal cereal on the top shelf was all free after coupon, too. Sometimes I get items I wouldn't normally purchase, but since they are such a good deal (like FREE) after coupons, I get them. If I really won't use them, they go to a family in need, or to the food bank.

The buckets in the pictures below have orange lids. This are gamma lids, and allow you to easily access the food in the bucket buy twisting the lid off. I'll show this in another post.

Well, there you have it! I have a three month supply of food we would normally eat (some not pictured and some in the freezer) and will have my 1 year supply (again) after Honeyville Grain delivers the last of what I ordered. It really wasn't difficult. Feel free to ask questions in the comment section or email me at thelittleredhenfoodsite@live.com For more information on storing food, go to http://www.providentliving.org/

Oatmeal tutorial and the Marga flaker

Want to start your day with a delicious bowl of oatmeal? Try flaking your own groats! Pictured below is my breakfast this morning, and it took all of 7 or 8 minutes to make. I love putting a bit of brown sugar and raisins on my oatmeal, but topping oatmeal with applesauce sprinkled with cinnamon is another yummy option.

My friend Holly has a roller/flaker, and has convinced me that I needed one also. Yes, she was right on! Now I'm going to convince you that you need one, too! This is a flaker made by an Italian company, called the Marga. I paid $89 for mine at a local food storage store (they sell dehydrated foods in #10 cans, grains, appliances, etc).

You put the groats (oat grain) in the hopper, set it on 3 (to flake) and turn the handle. In 30 seconds or less, you have freshly flaked oats. The picture below is of groats in the hopper.

I wanted you to see what it looks like once it is flaked....click on the picture for a closer look. This is the amount of flaked groats just after a few turns of the handle.


I ran some back through on setting 1 to make instant oatmeal just so you can see. When groats are processed, the finer the grind, the quicker it cooks. Above would be the 5 minute cooking oats (which is my preference) and below would be the quick cooking oats, which would take 1-2 minutes to cook. If you process it further, it would be instant.

When you cook any grain, you use one part grain to 2 parts of water. So, for 1/2 c. flaked oats I used 1 c. water. If you like it thinner, just add a little more water, or add milk when you serve it.


Hopefully this has given you a little more knowledge about oats. Steel cut oats are groats that have actually been cut with steel blades. It is really delicious, too, you just can't do it at home. For the family that wants to store grains for their 1 year supply of food, groats and a roller/flaker is really a great idea. The nutritional value in the grain is preserved by waiting to process it just before using it. By the way, you can flake wheat, barley, etc. with the Marga.

Disneyland and Mission Tortillas / Boudin Sourdough Bread

We had a family weekend at Disneyland just last weekend and had a great time. My idea of a great time and that of my DH and DS's is just a bit different. We ran from attraction to attraction as a family most of the time, but when we were in California Adventure, we parted ways for a time. They wanted to ride the Tower of Terror (I think that is what it is called), so I made my way over to the Mission Tortilla Tour. I am a huge Mission Tortilla fan. If I'm not making my own tortillas, I usually buy this brand.

I'm not sure exactly what the equipment is in the first picture, but below is where the dough pieces go down the conveyor belt from the right, and are flattened into tortillas in the press (middle). You can click on the picture to see this close up.


Next, they are heated, and then, they are cooled on the conveyor belt (left).

After they come off of the belt, a nice Mission Tortilla employee hands you a freshly made tortilla....yummy!
They have a person that also shows you a variety of ways to use their product. They had recipe cards to take also.

Boudin Sourdough Bakery tour was right across the way. I went through that tour also. I didn't get pictures....sorry! I was too busy juggling my bag, backpack and half eaten tortilla. If you do go to California Adventure, you'll have to take these tours. You won't be disappointed!
Oh, by the way, I have actually ordered some of Boudin's sourdough bread. They have some cool stuff through mail order. This makes a great gift also! http://www.boudinbakery.com/