Saturday is a special day...

It's the day I blog about what I made from food storage this week!

Before we started this blog, I would have been so lost in an emergency. I would have looked in my pantry and thought, what can I do with dry peas and cream of chicken soup??? Thankfully, now I buy with a plan and have recipes on hand. And once a week, I make something using ONLY non-perishables, to make sure my family likes it and to train myself on how to do it, just in case.

This week, I cooked up some dry chickpeas and made that hummus again. It was dee-vine. I spread it on tortillas, on homemade bread, on carrots. I may have even eaten some plain. Maybe.

I also had lots of chickpeas left over, so I will probably make the Tomatoes and Chickpeas recipe that Abbie shared yesterday.

Did you make anything completely from your food storage this week? Get in the habit... it will pay off in an emergency, guaranteed.

Food Storage Friday: Tomatoes and Chickpeas

Mountain Man and I are always trying to find different recipes with beans, to save money and eat healthier. We definitely found a winner with this one. Original recipe here.



Ingredients: chickpeas, whole tomatoes, cumin, coriander, olive oil, cinnamon stick, red pepper flakes, ground ginger (or fresh ginger, which stores remarkably well in the freezer), mint, parsley


First off you combine all the spices and herbs (minus parsley and mint) in heated oil and cook about two minutes. Your kitchen is going to smell amazing.



Add in your whole tomatoes, I don't see why you couldn't do this with fresh tomatoes if you had some from your garden.


Use a wooden spoon to break up the tomatoes into smaller pieces.




Add the chickpeas, the star ingredient. I've really begun to love chickpeas. Mainly because of this recipe. Oh my, I love me some hummus.




Simmer, stirring every once in a while until thicker. About twenty minutes. Then chuck the cinnamon stick--you don't need it anymore.



Ladle over rice.


We have mint growing in our garden (garden=food storage), so we topped our dishes with it. Mint grows like a weed by the way. If there's one thing anyone can grow it's mint. Grow it in a pot though, otherwise you'll have it all over your yard--like I said, a weed.


The parsley is dead though, so dried works fine.



This was absolutely delicious served over rice, and chock full of protein! When rotating, serve with sour cream or plain yogurt.



We had a bit of leftovers, so later in the week we mashed it up and fried them as pancakes. Then served them with a fried egg on top. Yum-o


Tomatoey Spiced Chickpeas
Epicurious.com

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Rounded 1/4 teaspoon hot red-pepper flakes
1 (1 1/2-inch) piece cinnamon stick
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes in juice
2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup finely chopped mint


Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until it shimmers, then cook cumin, coriander, ginger, red-pepper flakes, and cinnamon stick, stirring constantly, until fragrant and a shade darker, about 2 minutes.

Add tomatoes with juices, breaking up tomatoes with a spoon, then add chickpeas. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 20 minutes. Discard cinnamon stick.

Stir in parsley and mint. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Basic Cooking Skills: Basic Brownies

Every other Thursday we will post about different basic cooking skills. Knowing how to prepare meals from scratch is a very important step in becoming self-reliant, which in turn is a crucial component of being prepared. Being able to cook meals for your family will give you confidence, more family togetherness time, and lower your food budget=more money for food storage! If you have a basic cooking skill you'd like to learn, email us! These meals contain perishable food items as this is a different series than our food storage recipes.

Now, most of you are thinking, brownies? Who needs to know how to make brownies? The box always tastes better!

Which is true, box brownies are delicious and easy. But here's a "just as easy" recipe which will be great to have in your arsenal if you just don't want to/or can't run to the store.



Ingredients: Sugar, flour, cocoa powder, vanilla, eggs and butter



Start by melting the butter. You can do it in the microwave too. I usually do melt the butter in the microwave, but I just broke the glass rotating dish in my microwave. Anyone know where you can pick up one of those?



Start mixing ingredients. This here is your basic brownie mix: sugar, flour and cocoa powder



butter


eggs


vanilla


done.


Grease a baking dish. (Can you tell I've been painting?)



And pop it in the oven.



A couple extra steps is all it takes.



These brownies are delicious. If you want thicker brownies you can decrease the size of your pan. I like to make them in large pie dishes and cut them into wedges. Another variation is one of our favorites. Layer half the brownie batter in the pan, then layer three symphony bars on top and finally cover up with the rest of the batter, bake as usual. Oh yum.


Basic Brownies

1 cup butter, melted
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
4 eggs
1/4-1/3 cup cocoa (depending on how dark you like your brownies)
1 tsp vanilla
salt-dash

Mix ingredients together and bake at 350 degrees F. for 35-40 minutes.