Homemade Rice-Y-Roni Mix

Once there was a dishwasher I had to work with who was a bit cranky. Nobody else really got along with her. That's how ornery she was. One morning she was in the middle of a tirade about having to wash egg pans. I walked over to talk to her and noticed a piece of rice up her nose. Giggles started to ensue on my part, which made her even more mad, as she didn't think I was taking her drama serious enough. When I stopped giggling, I told her my discovery. I don't know what that has to do with this blog post, except that every time I make rice I think of the dishwasher and wonder if she still has that single grain of rice in her nose. Not that I want anyone else to think of that when they go out to eat. Yikes.Mixes on Monday starts today.  I was down at Preparing Wisely setting up the new food storage recipe of the week display, and thought I'd pop over to the blog and make sure the recipe was here as well.  We hauled out one of the 50 lb bags of long grain white rice (25$) and all the ingredients that one would need to make about 150 of these mixes for their own food storage...and then I realized wow...this is soooo coooool! It really does save a lot of money to make these things at home.   I have so many mix ideas that sometimes I forget how much I really do rely on these homemade convenience foods. I may not always have one up every Monday, but I will try my best to keep things interesting around here. Why do I make my own mixes? For one thing,they are way cheap. I'm kind of famous in my family for my um...frugality. I guess that's a good way of saying I'm cheap. Not that I don't know how to spend money or that we are totally broke, but for all the times we where having problems it became a habit. Now I'd much rather spend the money other places besides my food budget. Plus, and this is a big plus, I know exactly what goes into my mixes. If I make them from all natural ingredients, then there is no question what I'm feeding my family. That being said, I use the Amazing Soup Base of Glory from Preparing Wisely because it is not loaded with MSG and salt and junk. If you us the super cheap stuff, be prepared for a super cheap tasting mix. I bought the big can and it has lasted me forever...and I use it all the time. Just saying...it's worth the investment.  

So today I thought I'd share my rice-y-roni. My mix makes 8 cups cooked rice, which is about right for the 6 people in my family. Ace is a big eater. A value size box of commercially made stuff makes 3 cups of cooked rice. For about 20 cents a mix I make a bag that makes the 8 cups. Yes, like I say, I'm cheap. I'd rather buy new shoes than boxes of rice. 

I'll usually make 8-10 mixes at a time, this takes about 20 minutes but is well worth it. It takes us about a month to go through them since we don't eat it every night. In each quart size bag or quart jar I put 2 cups of long grain  rice:

and 1 cup of broken spaghetti noodles or fideo noodles.

Then I put the flavoring ingredients in snack bags (one seasoning packet per mix)

2T bullion (I use msg free low sodium Beef Base of Glory! ) 

2T Dehydrated Onion dry onion, 1T Dehydrated Carrots dry carrots  1/8 tsp celery seed 1T Chef Tess All Purpose Seasoning, 2tsp dry parsley, 1 tsp garlic powder.

Other flavor ideas:

Mexican: Use onion and carrot but for seasoning, use 1T taco seasoning, Or 1 tsp each: garlic, cumin, oregano and chile powder.
Oriental: Use onion carrot and celery seed, but also 1 tsp curry and 1 tsp Chinese 5 spice, 1/2 tsp ginger and 1T garlic powder.

Curry Chicken: Use Chicken Base of Glory!!.chicken bullion, all the original seasoning plus 1tsp saffron 2tsp curry powder.

I write the name of the flavoring mix on the bag along with how much liquid to add to the mix to prepare it.
Simple right?

To prepare you will need:

2 T butter or oil

4 cups water (or stock if you omit the bullion in your seasoning)

In a 2 quart pan with a tight fitting lid, brown the rice and noodles in the oil until noodles are a nice deep brown, but not burned. Add the water and the contents of the seasoning mix. Bring to a boil then cover and reduce heat to low for 20-25 minutes, until tender.

Last night we grabbed a bag of the curry chicken homemade stuff and cooked it up with one of my favorite freezer meals. Grilled herb chicken with blackberry sage sauce. It was awesome.

There you go.

Serving Size: 2.5 oz
Amount 1 cup cooked rice Per Serving
Calories 250
Calories from Fat 60
Total Fat 6g
Cholesterol 0mg
Total Carbohydrate 50g
Dietary Fiber 3g
Protein 7g

There you go! Happy Food Storage cooking!

How to Make English Muffins

 I wanted to show a little bit of fun with something that seems to be one of those "lost arts". English Muffins. I promise if you can make bread dough, you can make these. It's not rocket science. I have found a few tricks and have also found this recipe to be pretty good for light fluffy muffins. Auntie Em sent me a recipe book that had this recipe in it, and the directions. My mouth dropped when I saw how easy they were. Why had I not been making them for years?! So, I started practicing. I love this recipe, I do however also use the overnight started bread dough for these too, and it works really well for great flavor. Make the dough as usual and when it comes time to shape into loaves, shape and cut into English Muffins instead.

Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins
3 cups bread flour (if you use whole wheat, add about 1/4 cup more liquid)
1 teas. Salt
1 T. Dry yeast
1 teas. Sugar
1 cup Warm milk (I have a friend who uses buttermilk...mmmm)
1/2 cup raisins (optional. apparently some people think raisins are "of the Devil")
1T cinnamon (I add clove, ginger, and nutmeg as well)
2 oz. Butter, melted

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and leave in a warm place. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm (105 F) milk (M−Waved). Let froth, then mix in the butter. Stir all the liquid into the warm flour and beat well until smooth and elastic. More complete directions for forming dough and proofing can also be found in the overnight started bread tutorial. Cover and proof in a warm place for 50 minutes or until doubled in bulk. Turn onto a well−floured board and
knead, working a little more flour if necessary to make the dough easier to shape. Round up the dough, roll into a thick sausage shape. I use a lot of flour to coat these. Some people don't like to do it that way but I think it makes them look really cool...and not stick to my counter tops. Always a plus.

Using the sharpest knife you have, slice into 8 to 10 portions, each about 1 1/2
to 1 3/4 inch thick. Shape each one into a round with straight sides

I usually score my bread with the knife so I know what the heck I am doing. Really scientifically calculated too(...oh come on). It sounds smart. I just eyeball it. It should make about 10. I doubled the recipe so if it looks like I got a ton... I did. My kids love them.

Put onto a greased baking sheet. Personally, I love the cornmeal coating so I lightly (very lightly) mist the pan with a little oil and then sprinkle it with a good coating of cornmeal. Then I put some cornmeal on the top of them too. Cover (use plastic wrap) and put in a warm place to proof for 30−40 minutes or until springy to the touch. Leave room for expansion and be careful not to over−proof, as the muffins will get flabby and lose their shape. Big words for saying..."don't let them get super pooofy". I know a lot of things that get too poofy and lose their shape. NO comments on my thighs. None. Random moment there sorry.

The cornmeal on top keeps it from sticking to the plastic while it raises. Sorry I didn't get a picture of the plastic wrap covering the muffins. You will just have to use your imagination.

Lift the muffins carefully onto a cast iron skillet or a thick bottomed skillet (like the 12 inch Lodge 3 Quart Red Enamel Casserole Dish --I love mine...but it's blue or the Lodge Logic Deep Skillet  would also work.) and cook over very moderate heat for 5-7 minutes until pale gold underneath. Turn and cook the other side 5-7 minutes as well. Moderate heat for me was medium heat (#4 on my dial) but every stove is different, so try not to get it too hot. It took me about 40 minutes to make all of mine. We made 20. Days like that I wish I had an electric skillet or something. However, it did make me think that if I was camping...I could totally make these since they don't need an oven!

One secret I found to getting them to bake really well, was to use a tight fitting lid. Oh...and if you can, dump out as much of the stray cornmeal as you can between batches. It will burn a little and add a not-so-amazing flavor.

Enjoy. Wrap in a cloth and keep warm if cooking in batches. To serve, insert a knife in the side, pull the top and bottom slightly apart,and insert slivers of butter...or just crack them open and dig in.

There you go. Happy Muffin making.

Homemade Hamburger Skillet Meal Mix for you Food Storage

 I try to recreate mixes that are commonly used at home, but make them more natural and less expensive for your food storage. . We've been playing around with the double cheeseburger hamburger skillet meal mix. Do You know the skillet meal mixes I'm talking about? They're the ones where you take a pound of lean hamburger and brown it in a skillet. or vegetarians use
1 cup of TVP Beef rehydrated with 3/4 cup of hot water for 5 minutes.  I have to share something that has really saved my family budget on cheese sauce.  

Powdered Cheese

Honeyville's Powdered Cheese Sauce may be used in all cheese sauce applications including: toppings, pastas, nachos, spreads, soups, dipping sauces and casseroles. Our dried cheese powder requires no refrigeration and is ideal for camping, travel, and long-term food storage. This product may be stored for up to 12 months opened, and 3 to 5 years in airtight sealed cans. Once the powdered cheese is rehydrated it should be refrigerated and used within 4 days.

To make your own skillet meal mix:
Tess' Double Cheeseburger Hamburger Skillet meal mixyield: 10, 1 oz sauce mixes

2 1/2 cups Honeyville cheese sauce powder

1 1/2 tsp granulated garlic

1T granulated onion
2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Directions:

Combine all ingredients well. Use 1 oz (1/4 cup mix) to 3 oz of macaroni noodles (about 2 cups). I put the dry powder with the noodles in quart size storage bags with the label "cheeseburger helper".

When hamburger is browned, I add 1 cup hot water and 1 1/2 cup milk or soy milk. Bring to a boil and cover. Simmer 8-10 minutes until noodles are tender. Sauce will thicken a little more as it cools.

Your family may want more salt or seasoning. Adjust as needed.

If you are doing gluten free, use rice noodles and adjust the cooking time as needed.

 TVP...Add the meat replacement after the noodles cook instead of browning it, you just cook the noodles with the sauce mix and then fold in the 'veggie burger. Nice.

There you go.
.

How to Use Tomato Powder

Last week I did a segment on  Valley Dish making a classic family favorite of ours. Eggs poached in tomato sauce.  I can't even tell you how much fun I had adapting this recipe to use...tomato powder! 

I did a post on Eggs in Tomato Sauce...and World Peace and in it I shared this  Israeli Egg dish called shakshuka. It seemed time for me to adapt it using food storage, since I loved it so much!   It also seemed like a perfect time to introduce folks to the basic "how to" on Tomato Powder  tomato powder.  Each #10 can has almost 50 1/4 cup servings, so it's very good for maximizing your space in food storage situations.  

 I had to giggle when one of my dear friends said to me, "What the heck-fire do you do with tomato powder?!" Well...I'm here to tell you that you use it anywhere you use tomato paste, tomato sauce, or tomato juice.  The perk is that it is shelf stable for up to 10 years! So no more throwing away cans of tomato sauce that have gone bad, burst, or had the acid eeek through them.  

Right off the can of Thrive Tomato Powder  it says, "Substitute  Tomato Powder in any dish that calls for tomato paste or sauce. It's perfect for stews, soups, Italian sauces, caseroles or pasta. Easily create homemade spaghetti sauce or put together a steaming soup with tomato powder. THRIVE Tomato Powder can be rehydrated with a ratio of 1 part powder to 4 parts water, though this ratio can be altered to reach desired consistency for various recipes."

1⁄4  cup + 1⁄2  cup water= 6 oz.tomato sauce or 

3⁄4  cup tomato paste

 1/4 cup Dehydrated Onion, 1/4 cup dehydrated bell pepper (available in the store), 2 tsp granulated garlic.

 

Added 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp black pepper (fresh ground).  I store my spice seeds whole so the shelf life is about quadruple what the ground spice shelf life is.  Just a handy little tip.  Added 1T paprika.

Add the spices to 1/2 cup tomato powder and 2 cups water for a thin tomato sauce.

I poached the 8 eggs in the sauce combination about 12 minutes and sprinkled generously with Kosher Salt...The Real Stuff sea salt.

Use tomato powder anywhere you use tomato sauce. From Pizza to ketchup...it's a great way to add tomato to your food storage!


It would be easy to make a meal mix using the 1/2 cup tomato powder, 1/4 cup onion, 1/4 cup bell pepper, 2 tsp garlic, 1 tsp cumin and 1/2 tsp black pepper. Put in a half pint jar and seal. To use for dinner:

 Just add 2 cups water until well combined.  Put in a pan and cook over medium heat, cracking eggs into the tomato sauce and cooking 12 minutes.

Using Freeze Dried Fruit to Make Jam?! YES!

Now seeing that my teaching next week will be basics on homemade jam and canning safety, I had to do some experimentation. You may ask, "Can luscious homemade jam really be as simple as adding water and a few basic ingredients...and yet be so far above most people's grasp?" I wonder that exact question. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just too "simple silly". I hope I am. I hope that when folks read my words of wisdom and sound understanding that they will feel empowered to make wonderful things. Now...that being said I don't know how to say this...but this raspberry jam was made out of a little honey, some freeze dried raspberries and some pectin. Why freeze dried? Well...just for the danggum-fun-of-it-all. Honey...because I found this yumm-a-licious honey made from my native Sonoran Desert Blossoms...and I was a happy girl.

For argument's sake, let's just say that perhaps raspberries are out of season and I have a can of freeze dried fruit just laying around my house. If I don't have to spend money...even on a bag of frozen berries...I won't. I'm a tight wad. There. I said it. I like freeze dried fruit for making muffin mixes and cake mixes. Plus I saw these at the Preparing Wisely store I would be teaching classes at starting next Tuesday...and I was curious if it could be done. So...that being said, I got a can.

They look really crazy freeze dried...but the only ingredient in the can is raspberries!

Chef Tess Raspberry honey jam

4 cups freeze dried raspberries (or frozen work)

1 1/2 cup honey ( I love the dessert blossom honey)

2 cup water (only add water if using freeze dried berries)

1/2 cup UltraGel or 1 box (1.59 oz) low sugar pectin

Combine all ingredients in a pot for cooked jam except the UltraGel. This hydrates the berries and they look remarkably like what they are...real berries.

Bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes. Whisk in the ultra gel or pectin. Return to a boil and cook a minute more.

Process in sterile half pint jars in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes at sea level.

Freezer jam is even easier. Simply add the honey, water and fruit together. You can also use agave nectar in place of the honey if you need lower glycemic or vegan sources. Use freezer pectin instead of low sugar pectin. Ultra gel works in both applications (cooked or freezer jam).

Once the berries have absorbed the water, add the pectin or ultra gel. Stir a minute or two. Freezer pectin will take about 10-20 minutes to gel. Ultra gel will set almost instantly. Transfer to freezer safe containers. Keeps good up to a year in freezer safe containers.

There you go. Fast easy jam even with crazy dried fruit. Who knew?! Now don't you just want to come to my jam class next week?!

Call Troy or Tracey to save your spot.

Preparing Wisely
(480) 964-3077

Homemade Instant Pudding Mix

 Today I wanted to share a little information about using modified food starch for mix making. Thanks once again to Troy and Tracey at Preparing Wisely for sharing this cool stuff with me. This is called Ultra Gel. It gets thick in hot or cold liquid so it works amazingly well in instant pudding mix. I love that I don't have to cook the pudding, even though I could if I wanted to do so. Sometimes I love getting that cooked pudding skin...but most of the time when I'm making pudding I want it fast. My Father in law Mr. Putt-Putt is eighty something...and he loves his pudding cups. This saves us money. Fair enough right?

It can be used to replace the starch in any of the mixes I have on my blog including:
Cream Soup Mix at a fraction of the cost
Homemade cream of condensed soup replacement
Gravy Mix made easy

Nutritionally it's pretty low calorie and carbohydrate.

It's gluten free but not corn free. It can also be used in sugar free jam. Really!

It holds well and, unlike regular corn starch, it keeps it's thickening power after freezing.

For instant pudding I wanted something with about four ingredients, instead of the list found on a box of store purchased stuff. I try to stay as natural as possible. You know how I roll right? Well this is what we have come up with.

Instant pudding mix:

1/2 cup sugar or sugar free "spoon-able" alternative

1/3 cup ultra gel Ultra Gel

1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp LorAnn flavored oil of your choice (*butterscotch, vanilla, butter cream...you name it.)

I happen to use vanilla infused sugar on a regular basis for this. I keep vanilla beans in quart jars full of sugar. After about 3 weeks, the sugar has a very nice vanilla flavor. Yes...that is a vanilla bean sticking out of the top of the sugar...not a worm. Zoinks. That would be nasty.

To make into pudding:

2 cups cold milk or soy milk

Whisk the pudding mix into the milk and chill 10 minutes. Serve cold.

It will be about this thick at first. The longer it sits the better the set.

Other flavors:

*Pistachio pudding, add 1/4 cup fine chopped pistachio and 1/8 tsp pistachio flavor

* chocolate pudding, add 1/4 cup cocoa to the mix

*caramel pudding, use brown sugar instead of white sugar

*coconut cream pudding, use coconut milk instead of milk

*lemon pudding, use 1/2 tsp lemon zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon in finished product.

There you go.

Super Chia to the Rescue!

I know you've heard the commercials for years about the chia pets where a person hydrates these seeds and spreads them on a clay figurine and then watches them grow into fluff. Cha-cha-cha-chia! Well...now you have reason to hydrate them and add them to your life! My first exposure to these little wonders happened when my brother in law, the mortuary guy, came home from a funeral. He said there was a bishop at the chapel who had lost eighty pounds by adding chia seed to his diet. He was not the guy who died. He was the guy who decided to take his own health into his own hands...When I bring this up with the chia, I'm not talking about a gimmick diet plan here, just sensible use of a wonderful grain. Imagine my joy at finding the Chia Seeds in a 1 lb bag at a really low price (just around  8$) at our local Preparing Wisely store. I wanted to try it out. Well...the owner Troy was kind enough to show me how to use them.

According to Troy Chia was cultivated by the ancient Aztecs, and was honored as a super food. Chia is one of the best plant sources of beneficial Omega-3 oils, especially a-linolenic acid (ALA). Scientific Research on Omega-3 and other essential fatty acids (EFA) continues to prove that EFAs support cardiovascular health, comfortable joint mobility, immune system function and overall cellular energy. Chia is often stored for long periods of time as a Survival Food, since it does not quickly turn rancid like other sources of Essential Fatty Acids. Chia is high in vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, potassium and phosphorous. It contains many antioxidants, including significant levels of caffeic acids, quercetin and flavonols. Chia is an excellent source of high molecular weight soluble fiber, which supports healthy bowel function.

When Chia is mixed into a liquid, it forms a thick mass due to its high content of beneficial mucilages. This slows the digestion of carbohydrates in the digestive system, leading to a feeling of fullness, and reduces the spike in blood sugar that often accompanies the ingestion of carbohydrates.

Looking at the Nutrition Facts and Analysis for chia seeds revealed a glycemic index of 1. That's amazing for a grain!

So, I decided to give it a try as a drink. 2T mixed into 2 cups of cool distilled water.

The seeds make this crazy suspension that made my little boys say I was drinking frog eggs. I don't care. I was now sucked into the new world of chia.

I drop one or two droppers of stevia natural sweetener into the chia and water mixture and drink it like a thin pudding. I've had it everyday for breakfast for the last two weeks. I've lost six pounds. So...I'm going to keep taking chia shots. They're all natural and a wonderful way to add fiber and wholesome goodness to my life. Thanks most especially to at Preparing Wisely for having these bags in the store! I'm also down to my last few tablespoons...and that means I'm going to see them soon. Hooray for chia! Try them out. I love them!