Weekly Roundup - 7/7 - 7/12

Kate over at Kate's Kitchen wrote a GREAT article about a Living Pantry and what that means.

Just a reminder at The Obsessive Shopper that having a food storage includes more than just food. Unless you want to stink for 3 months!

A few tips straight from my life:

*Looking for more storage ideas? Clear out your clutter! Go through your house and giveaway or toss the things you don't use! In a fit of domesticity display the other day, I cleaned out our glass cupboard. I put all the baby bottles into storage, since she is passed that stage, and tossed the sippy cups that leaked. After straightening and organizing the rest, I had a whole SHELF empty that I immediately filled with food! So go tackle some closets and cupboards and see if you can make room for food storage.

*Don't know how much sugar/flour/etc you would use for three months? The next time you open a new package of whatever, mark down on your calender the day you opened it and the size of the package. When it's empty go back and see how long it took your family to use it up. That should give you a better idea of how much of those basic items to store.

Food Storage Friday - Rice Pilaf

Since we are gathering rice for our long-term storage this month, we thought it would make sense to give you some rice recipes!

Here's our lineup of ingredients for rice pilaf (complete recipe is at the bottom of this post):

Salt, pepper, rice, boullion cubes, 1 can peas, 1 can green beans, 1 can chicken, 1 onion

First, heat some oil in a skillet

When it's warm, pour the rice in and start browning it.

Meanwhile, start heating 4 cups of water and 4 boullion cubes in another skillet (or you could just use chicken broth. I prefer boullion cubes because they are great for food storage).

Be sure to stir the rice often so it doesn't burn.

Meanwhile, your broth should be getting hot. Let it boil.

When the rice is browned, pour it into a casserole dish. As you can see here, mine wasn't TOO brown, but some of the pieces were burning so I decided that it was enough.

Pour the boiling broth into the casserole dish with the rice.

It will completely cover the rice.

Now, cover with aluminum foil and bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

While it's baking, cut up your onion. The recipe I found actually calls for dried onion, which is great to have in your food storage, but I didn't have any so I just used a regular onion.
After 30 minutes, your rice should look like this.

Next, just mix in your canned meat, veggies, and almonds (optional). As you can see in the picture, I threw in a can of corn at the last minute. Put it all back in the oven uncovered for 30 more minutes.

Rice Pilaf (serves 6-8)
2 c rice
4 c liquid (chicken or beef broth, whichever you prefer)
4 Tbsp oil
2-3 cans veggies (your choice)
1/4 c dried onions (or 1/2 onion)
1 can chunk turkey/chicken/beef (your preference - match to whatever broth you used)
3/4 c slivered almonds (optional)
salt/pepper to taste

Instructions:

Set oven to 375 degrees.

Heat oil in skillet. Add rice and brown for a few minutes, stirring often. Meanwhile, put your broth in a pot and set it to boil.

Place browned rice in casserole dish, and cover with the boiling broth. Cover and bake 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes are up, take the rice out of the oven. Rice should be cooked and the liquid will be absorbed. Add canned veggies, meat, and nuts (optional), and mix well. Return to the oven for 30 more minutes.

This dish is so versatile! You can add any veggies you have on hand, and you can even make it vegetarian by using vegetable broth and leaving out the meat. When we ate this for dinner, I served it with some canned fruit - a true food storage dinner, and it was delicious. There is also a LOT left over.

Printable-Rice Pilaf Recipe

How To: Make Homemade Syrup

So homemade syrup is both EASY and delicious. And if you know how to make it, then it's one less thing to store, because you'll already have sugar stored, right? Well, you should.




Ingredients: Brown Sugar, White Sugar, Maple Flavoring, Vanilla flavoring and Water


Heat the water to boiling and then add sugar. In a pinch you could use all white sugar, but it wouldn't taste quite as good. Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved.


Remove from heat and stir in the maple flavoring....


...and the vanilla flavoring.



All done! Go eat some pancakes. This will store for a long time in your fridge because it's just sugar and water. If you have lots of syrup eaters in your family, double or triple the recipe, it's delicious.


Print Recipe



Homemade Syrup

2 cups water
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp maple flavoring
1 tsp vanilla flavoring


Boil water in a saucepan. Add sugars and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in flavorings. Serve. Store in the refrigerator.