Food Storage Friday: More Quinoa

Just to continue the discussion on quinoa from yesterday's post, here are a few recipes we've made on the blog with quinoa.

Breakfast Quinoa

Curried Quinoa

Do you have a favorite quinoa recipe? Please leave a link in the comment section if you want to share!

All about quinoa

image source

We talk a lot about longer-term food storage items like wheat, beans, rice, and oats, but another food to consider for your food storage might be quinoa.  What's quinoa, you ask? (okay, maybe everyone already knows except for me!) Here are the facts:


What is it?  I don't know about you, but I didn't grow up eating quinoa, and in fact I hadn't even heard of it until about a year ago.  Pronounced "KEEN-wah" (or "kee-NO-wah"), it's often treated as a grain (because of how we cook it), but it's actually in the same family as spinach and Swiss chard.


Nutrition. Quinoa is a great choice for food storage (and everyday cooking in general) because it has great nutritional value.  Quinoa has a similar nutritional value to brown rice: it is a carb that is high in protein (higher than brown rice), and is actually a complete protein source (it has a "balanced set of of essential amino acids for humans", according to wikipedia.). Quinoa is also a good source of dietary fiber, and phosphorus, and is also high in magnesium and iron.  Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest.


How do you prepare it?  Quinoa is a great alternative to rice and couscous - it is fluffy and light when cooked, and has a mild, nutty flavor.  In fact, most people cook quinoa just like they cook rice - boil 2 cups of water for each cup of grains.  You can even use your rice cooker. Quinoa has a slight bite to it when ready (similar to al dente pasta).  You can also season it any way you wish - adding vegetables, chicken stock, etc.  You can also make quinoa for breakfast, seasoning it as you would season oatmeal.  Quinoa flour can be used in gluten-free baking.


As you can see, quinoa is extremely versatile.  The only downside is that it can be quite pricey (try buying it in bulk if you can - I'm pretty sure "Whole Foods" has some in their bulk section).  


What's your favorite way to fix quinoa? Any recommendations/suggestions?


(thanks to wikipedia for providing most of the information in this post!) :)

How to: make homemade laundry detergent

Today's guest post comes from Hannah's sister, Emma.  I know that this isn't necessarily "food storage", but of course being prepared covers many aspects, including having enough laundry soap to get you through at least 3 months!  And as far as saving money goes, this looks like the way to go.

Homemade laundry detergent is cheap to make (it costs about 3 cents a load) and works really well. My mom warned me that it doesn't make suds or bubbles and some people thinks that means their clothes aren't clean. I didn't think it would bother me not to see bubbles but it really did at first! I kept thinking it wasn't working. But you'll get over it after a while. I bought a years supply of everything I need for about $15.

What you need: 

1 5.5 oz. bar Fels Naptha soap

2 cups washing soda

2 cups 20 Mule Team Borax

Water

Bucket with a lid
*you can find all of these items in the laundry soap aisle*

Grate the entire bar of Fels Naptha soap. This takes a while but it's worth it when it comes time to melt it.

You'll end up with something that looks like grated cheese.Pour the washing soda and borax into your bucket.Put the grated soap into a saucepan and cover with water.On medium/low heat, stirring, until the soap is completely melted. Do not boil.

Add to bucket with powders and add hot water...

...anywhere from 3-5 gallons worth.Stir and you're done! Cover with a lid and stir again the next day. The consistency is gelatinous or "goopy"- just give it a quick stir or just don't let it bother you :). Use 1/2 cup to 1 cup per load.

I hope this is useful to all of you! I know I've loved it. It's been a long time since I've bought laundry soap. It's also hypo-allergenic and fragrance free for babies. But if you like it scented, you can add a couple of drops of your favorite scent (like lavender) at the end.

Thanks, Emma!

Have any of you ever made your own laundry soap?  How did you like it?

Food Storage Tuesday

Every Tuesday, we post specific items you should gather in order to supplement your 72-hour kit, your three-month supply, and your longer term storage.  If you are new to our blog, don't worry!  You won't be left behind.  Just start up where we are and follow along.  You will eventually have everything completed.  Once the 72-hour kit is complete, we'll be putting together emergency car kits again (week by week).  Once those are done, we'll gather the 72-hour kits again.  So don't worry, just jump on in and join us where we are today!


This week for your 72-hour kits, add a first aid kit.  You can spend as little as $10 on these, or as much as over $120!  Shop around and determine what will be best for your family.  Some kits are very large, which probably won't be a good option.  Also this week, add copies of personal documents to your kits.  Wills, copies of birth certificates, current pictures of your family members (to show people if someone gets lost), etc.  You should also have copies of insurance cards, and perhaps even copies of patriarchal blessings.  Also, it would be a good idea to send copies of these documents to a member of your family in another state/area, just in case you do lose access to everything in your home (fire, flood, earthquake, etc).


How's your three-month supply coming along?  Don't forget medications and other OTC medicines that you may use.  Also, even if you don't take vitamins now, you might want to store some in case your food storage diet doesn't supply everything you need. 


This month for our longer-term storage, we're gathering BEANS!

Food Storage Friday: Black beans & quinoa

This week's recipe is adapted from this recipe found over at the Allrecipes website (one of my favorites). If you aren't familiar with quinoa... you should be! We'll be doing a post about it soon so you can familiarize yourself with it.

Black beans with Quinoa

serves 10

1 tsp vegetable oil

3 cloves garlic (I used jarred garlic)

3/4 cup uncooked quinoa

1.5 cups vegetable broth

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup canned corn (drained)

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup cilantro (if you're rotating, aka not eating straight from food storage only)

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic and saute until lightly browned.

Mix in quinoa, vegetable broth, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt & pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Once the quinoa is done, add corn and black beans. Simmer until heated through.

Enjoy!

Food Storage Tuesday

Every Tuesday, we post specific items you should gather in order to supplement your 72-hour kit, your three-month supply, and your longer term storage.  If you are new to our blog, don't worry!  You won't be left behind.  Just start up where we are and follow along.  You will eventually have everything completed.  Once the 72-hour kit is complete, we'll be putting together emergency car kits again (week by week).  Once those are done, we'll gather the 72-hour kits again.  So don't worry, just jump on in and join us where we are today!


This week for your 72-hour kits, add flashlights and batteries (if needed).  You should get one flashlight per person, or at least one flashlight per 2 people.  We recommend getting "crank" flashlights so that you don't have to worry about batteries running out or going bad.  This flashlight from Amazon has good reviews, so there's one option.  Shop around though and find what works best for your family.  Crank flashlights are definitely a better choice, in my opinion, rather than having to buy batteries, then replace batteries eventually, and then worry if they will work when you need them to.


How's your three month supply coming along?  Mine is dwindling slowly but surely (since we're moving soon), but I'm looking forward to starting up again after we are settled in our new house in Florida.


This month, we are still gathering BEANS for our longer-term storage!  There are a lot of options here so choose your favorite and stock up, or get a variety.  Don't forget to also get any seasonings that you will need with the beans.

Motivational Monday

"Provident living will never be out of fashion. This is not a
retreat back to the 19th century but the direction we need to go as we
move headlong into the 21st. The same skills and ideas for which
Relief Society has always stood hold many of the answers to the
challenges we are facing worldwide."

Jeffrey R. Holland (March 2011 Ensign)

Food Storage Friday: Quick Wheat Bread

I'm always excited to find a new wheat bread recipe, especially with the word "quick" in the title.

This recipe hails from the "Keeping Up Cookbook" that I've been singing praises about.

Note: if you haven't made the Pantry Honey-Mustard Chicken yet, do it tonight. So delicious. And again, this isn't a paid advertisement. The authors of this cookbook have no idea who I am.



Ingredients: wheat flour, white flour, sugar, salt, milk (made from powdered milk), white vinegar, baking soda


Here's my half white/half wheat flour mix.


Add the sugar to the flour

then the salt

And whisk together


In a separate container, mix up your milk (if making it from powdered milk)

Add the vinegar


And the baking soda


Quickly transfer the mixture to a larger container before it spills over because as you whisk the milk and baking soda, it bubbles like crazy


Add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix well




Put batter into two greased bread pans


And bake! This is basically just a whole wheat version of soda bread, which I don't necessarily love, but it tasted great with dinner (soup!) and the leftovers made great croutons.

If you love whole wheat bread but hate the time it takes, this recipe is for you.

Quick Wheat Bread
adapted from Keeping Up Cookbook

4 cups wheat flour
2 cups white flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp salt

1 cup (plus a little more) powdered milk
3.5 cups of water
------------------------enough to make 3.5 cups of milk
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 tsp baking soda


Mix first four ingredients together. Mix powdered milk, water, vinegar and baking soda together separately until foamy. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well. Pour batter into greased bread pans and bake for an hour at 350 degrees.

Reader Question - What snacks are best?

I know we aren't currently working on the car kits, but we got a great question from a reader a couple weeks ago, and Abs and I want you all to weigh in with your opinions!  The question is,


What kinds of snacks work best for the car kits?


So, readers, tell us: what kinds of snacks do you pack in the car kits?  I think the biggest thing to consider is that chocolate melts, and other things might night hold up well over time (although, you should rotate your food every couple of months if you haven't eaten it by then).


(Thanks, Mary W, for the question! If anyone else has questions, please feel free to contact us at safelygatheredin (at) gmail.com)

Food Storage Tuesday

Every Tuesday, we post specific items you should gather in order to supplement your 72-hour kit, your three-month supply, and your longer term storage.  If you are new to our blog, don't worry!  You won't be left behind.  Just start up where we are and follow along.  You will eventually have everything completed.  Once the 72-hour kit is complete, we'll be putting together emergency car kits again (week by week).  Once those are done, we'll gather the 72-hour kits again.  So don't worry, just jump on in and join us where we are today!


This week for your 72-hour kits, add 1 change of clothes per person, as well as a set of scriptures or other book you want to pack.  When packing the clothes for your kids, be sure you are packing something that will fit them for the next 6 months (you should rotate your clothes every six months).  Always pack clothes that are appropriate for the upcoming season in your part of the world.  If you live in Florida, you will want to pack light clothing for the summer.  If you live in Maine, you might want to pack long sleeves, even in the summer.


How's your three-month supply coming along?  Don't forget things like toilet paper, diapers, etc!


This month for our longer-term supply we're gathering beans.  You can store them in 5 gallon buckets, or #10 cans if you have access to a canner (check around if you are interested in borrowing a canner.  Some stakes (LDS congregations) own them and lend them out.).

Motivational Monday

“The world is busy with its own cares,
sorrows and joys, and pays little heed to
you. There is but one great pass-word to
success,—self-reliance.”

William George Jordan
(1864 - 1928)

Food Storage Hunt: Hannah

We hope you've enjoyed our Food Storage Hunt: Where do Food Storage Bloggers Store their Food Series. Wow, that's a mouthful.



In case you've missed it, here's the bloggers we've featured:

Abs From Safely Gathered In
Liesa from I Dare You to Eat It
Aleasha from Safely Gathered In
Wendy from iPrepared
Rick from Family Prepper
Julie from Food Storage Made Easy
Crystal from Everyday Food Storage

We've loved seeing everyone's take on how to store food. Thanks all for participating. Today we'll have our last feature: Hannah!

First, may I remind you that I am moving in June, so my food storage has dwindled quite a bit over the last few months (we're eating through it now, then hopefully will replace it quickly after we settle into our new home).  Also, to be honest we haven't had much food storage over the last year because we just moved into this apartment last June (my husband is an intern right now, and will be starting his radiology residency this June in Florida, hence all the moves!).

First of all, I can't really complain too much about the storage space we have here, because we have walk-in closets in both bedrooms.  However, since we have no garage or shed, our closets are full of things like tools, a dolly, a ladder... you get the picture.  To be honest, our new home in Florida won't have a ton of storage space, but we will have a garage, so all the non-food storage items (like tools!) will be out there, freeing more space in the house for our food storage.

So, I know you want to see pictures so here they are!

This is our little hall closet.... I keep some of our three-month supply on the bottom 2 shelves.  Clearly needs some organization right now......

This is my kitchen closet... it's narrow but I'm so grateful to have it!  You can see that I keep some #10 cans of food on the bottom.  With a bit of organization I could make the space work a lot better, I'm sure.

 I also keep boxes of #10 cans under my older daughter's bed.  There's also some bottled water under there.

Also, since my girls' clothes are pretty small (and short), there was a lot of empty space under their clothes hanging up in their closet.  So, I have a big box of #10 cans under there.  White flour, wheat, oats, sugar, powdered milk.  If we were going to be here longer than a year I would have put more effort into organizing.

This is an old wooden crate that I found at an antique store a few months ago.  Right now it's on its side acting as a little nightstand in my girls' room.  Inside, there is food storage!

Here's another wooden crate in my little laundry closet... ignore the cooler sticking out the top.  There is also food storage inside.

The other side of my laundry closet has my dehydrator and hand mill.

Finally, this is another crate that I found at the antique store.  It's a banana crate and I love it!  Right now it's sitting on top of our TV armoire and... you guessed it!  There is food storage inside.

I am excited it move into a new home and come up with some new ways for storing food in a new space.  I'm not going to lie, it's been difficult to stock up on food storage over the last year since we are so transient right now.  I don't think that's a very good excuse, though, since many of you are much more transient than I am!  I really admire people who moved a lot yet still have a good supply of food storage.

Anyway, soon I'll have a new place with new ideas (hopefully!).  Once we're all settled, Abs and I will both have to give you tours of our new food storage spaces (since she is moving too!).

Food Storage Tuesday

Every Tuesday, we post specific items you should gather in order to supplement your 72-hour kit, your three-month supply, and your longer term storage.  If you are new to our blog, don't worry!  You won't be left behind.  Just start up where we are and follow along.  You will eventually have everything completed.  Once the 72-hour kit is complete, we'll be putting together emergency car kits again (week by week).  Once those are done, we'll gather the 72-hour kits again.  So don't worry, just jump on in and join us where we are today!


We are starting the 72-hour kits again! The first thing to think about is what you want to keep your kits in. Many people use backpacks (including big backpacking backpacks) which is a good choice. I have also heard of people using rolling suitcases which I think is a great idea (and in fact I might switch over to these... At least one anyway). The point of your 72-hour kit is to use in an emergency (obviously). Keep in mind that you could be using this kit at home, or you might need to transport this kit to another location (which is why backpacks and rolling suitcases are good options). I have heard of people using big Tupperware boxes but those would be difficult to transport in my opinion (if you had to be traveling on foot).


So, this week, decide what will work best for your family and get what you need. Check out thrift stores for the best deals.  I recommend one pack per person... Some will be packed lighter than others, for small children to carry. Like I said, I'm thinking of switching over to a wheeled suitcase we have (plus some small backpacks that I already have, that the kids could carry). Abs uses backpacks for herself and her children, with a big backpacking backpack for her husband to carry (with most of the water, haha).


For those of you who have your kits done (or have started them), what do you use? What do you recommend?


How is your three month supply coming along?  Remember, make a food storage plan and create a master grocery list from that.  Each time you visit the store, grab a few items on your list.


This month for our longer-term storage, we're gathering BEANS!  I love, love, love beans.  So versatile, so filling, and healthy.  In fact, I am proud (and a little embarrassed?) to say that I finally cooked my first edible batch of dry black beans.  I'll admit, I've always been a "canned beans" kinda girl (they're so easy!) but I am totally converted now.  I just soaked 'em overnight, then drained and rinsed them the next morning, and then let them simmer on the stove for a few hours.  This version is much cheaper than canned beans, and healthier since they don't have any added salt.  Now I just have to find a good blend of spices to make them really taste great. Suggestions?

Motivational Monday

"At the root of self-reliance are the dignity
and importance of seeing ourselves as
children of God regardless of circumstance,
culture, or location."

Elder M. Russell Ballard
Becoming Self-Reliant, Spiritually and Physically, Ensign, March 2009

Food Storage Friday: Salsa!

Brittany here.

I found this salsa recipe a while back and thought I'd share a modified version. While some of the ingredients technically aren't shelf-friendly, they can all be substituted.


Ingredients: can yellow corn, can white corn, 2 cans black beans, can Italian-style diced tomatoes, small jar pimientos, minced garlic, olive oil (not shown), as well as ingredients below.


These are some non-shelf friendly ingredients, but you can sub bottled lime juice and dehydrated onions. The red onion, however, I think counts as a shelf-safe item because you can store them in a cool dark place for a few months at a time.


First drain and rinse the black beans. Using a battered strainer adds to the rustic authenticity of the recipe. Or something.


Then drain (without rinsing) the tomatoes, pimientos (which are subbing in for a fresh red pepper in the original recipe), and corn.


Pour them all into a bowl. Add 1/4 c. lime juice (this took two limes for me), 1 T. minced garlic, a small red onion diced, and 4-5 green onions. Sub in 1 T. dehydrated minced onion for the green onions as needed.

Stir it all together and then pour 2 T. olive oil over before serving.


YUM!

My husband was "Mmmmmm"-ing a lot when he tried this, which is always a good sign. He said, "And the best part is that it doesn't have cilantro!" The original recipe actually calls for a bunch of cilantro, which you're welcome to add if you have some fresh from your garden or dried in your cupboard.

Heather's Cilantro, Black Bean, and Corn Salsa from Allrecipes.com

1 can yellow corn
1 can white corn
2 cans black beans
1 can Italian-style diced tomatoes
1 bunch cilantro, diced (optional)
4-5 green onions (sub 1 T. dried onion), diced
1 small red onion, diced
1 jar pimientos
1 T. minced garlic
1/4 c. lime juice
2 T. olive oil

1. Drain and rinse black beans. Drain other cans. Add all ingredients but oil and stir together well.
2. Drizzle with olive oil before serving.
3. Serve with chips or as a side to tacos, chicken, etc.