One more week completed! Here’s the current standing on points:
With this, I have amends to make. In my excitement of creating a fun ending for everyone in the contest I inadvertently upset some people by my last post. Sorry about that. I’m most definitely human and didn’t mean to anger anyone by changing things up. You’re right though, I agree that the people who have been putting so much work into the contest still deserve a weekly “best points” prize for their last two weeks. I just didn’t think it through. It’s my first time around running a contest like this, so I hope you’ll understand I’m still learning too.
To make it right I’ll be letting our front runners know by email what the weekly prizes will be for weeks 11 & 12 and we’ll acknowledge everything in our final contest post.
Congrats to Amanda this week!!
Another 200 + point week for her this week!
Amanda has won a $60 package including:
Wild Orange
Clove
Peppermint
Thanks to The Prepared Hour for this great combination!!
Here’s what Amanda made this week:
2) BBQ Pork Sandwiches
3) Biscuits (Recipe Source: Peggy Layton Cookin’ With Home Storage- Mile High Biscuits)
4) Butter
5) Butter #2 (same method)
7) Homemade Caramel (in a Wonder Oven!!) Amanda promises to blogs about this soon over on her blog HERE, but until then, she says (just one word): “WONDERFUL! “
8) Caramel Brownies
9) Chicken and Dumplings — recipe below
10) Chicken Tetrazzini (Recipe Source: “It’s In The Bag” by Michelle Snow)
11) Chocolate Icing (see the handout at the bottom of the page via this link)
12) Cinnamon Rolls (from Peggy Layton cookbook Cookin’ With Home Storage)
13) Creamy Italian Chicken
14) Garlic French Bread
15) Gravy
16) Potato Salad
17) Strawberry Sherbet
18) Taco Rice (tomato sauce, rice, taco seasoning. Easy side!)
19) Taco Stuffed Shells
20) Yellow Cake
21) Yogurt
(She’s found success making yogurt by using directions both from the blog here as well as cheesemaking.com while using cultures also purchased from cheesemaking.com. Acidophilus tablets have not been successful for the most part in participant trials.)
Great job this week, Amanda!!
2nd place this week: Paula Herron
Still in the lead overall, Paula’s current week scored her 170 points.
Besides all of her recipes here, she also preserved fresh chicken eggs this week to be used in the contest in the coming weeks. She’s been very gracious in sharing her technique in doing this and has given me permission to share it. I’ll be posting that tutorial on Tuesday of next week. Stay tuned!
Here’s what Paula made this week:
1) 2 x 4 Soup
2) Potato Gnocchi (recipe mid way down the link)
“These turned out great. The kids, of course, liked them best. They are moist and filling and I could eat them for breakfast.”
4) Butter using Powdered Willpowder (Powdered Heavy Cream), as well as a 2nd trial using Gossner’s heavy shelf stable cream.
5) Caramel (had trouble getting it to set up, thinks she possibly didn’t cook it long enough)
6) Cream Cheese Danish “We liked the end result of this recipe but I will say if you chill the dough overnight (which I did) be prepared to let it sit to room temp. as it will be very stiff and hard to roll out otherwise. This will be a repeat recipe for us.”
7) Eggy Bread
“This recipe is a version of French toast and something we like. I will say that I liked the texture of the homemade bread for this better than storebought bread.”
8) Halluska
“I have never tried this type of dish before but because I like cabbage cooked any way I thought it sounded delicious. The meal did not let me down it was great! Everyone actually had seconds! I would definitely cook this again!”
9) Olive garden Copy Cat Bread Sticks
“This was my favorite recipe this week! Tastes just like the Olive Garden!”
10) Olive Garden Copy Cat Minestrone Soup
“This tastes amazing! Just like the restaurant version. Definitely a repeat recipe.”
11) Olive Garden Chicken and Gnocchi Soup
“This turned out just like the restaurant version. I really liked it, my husband, not so much. But, I need to say he doesn’t like Olive Garden either. This indeed is another quality food storage meal for the family!”
“Unbelievably my husband liked these best! He says they are great with a glass of cold milk.”
13) Ricotta Cheese (made with powdered milk)
“This is a skill recipe that I will continue to use over and over again. We love it fresh made!”
14) Strawberry Banana Muffins (home recipe, made in her Wonder Oven like this)
“This recipe is a normal bk recipe that we have used for yrs. just converted to all shelf stable ingredients. The muffins turned out really moist but tasty. I like mine more crunchy and brown so I will continue to use the oven, may try this in a sun oven next time.”
15) Yogurt Cheese
“I really like this type cheese over storebought because of the taste and creaminess. I like using it in my baking and as a spread on crackers or toast.”
16) Yogurt trial (did not set well she says, in this trial she used rennet tablets)
It’s great to see Angalee again in her entry this week! Here’s what she made:
1) Macaroni and Cheese
2) Honey Whole Wheat Bread
3) Monster Cookies
“I made half the batch with regular eggs and butter and the other half I turned it into food storage recipe using my homemade butter and applesauce for the eggs. I wanted to be able to do a taste test to see the difference between the two. No one in my family noticed the difference! I think the peanut butter hides the difference in flavors. The applesauce/homemade butter batch of cookies looked the same and had the same consistency as the egg/butter batch! Food storage creation success!”
“I couldn’t get this to thicken up to a butter consistency, it was more of a yogurt consistency. I blended and blended it for over 20 minutes, pausing to stir and then my blender started making weird noises because I was running it for so long so I just let it sit and after a while it hardened/thickened up. The recipe says the artificial butter flavoring is optional . . . I am thinking it might be a must. It was pretty gross by itself, we wouldn’t eat it spread on bread, but in a recipe it worked out great. I ended up using it in a cookie recipe to make the cookie recipe food storage friendly and you couldn’t tell a difference at all!”
Also, with the highest points for the week from our newbies, Angalee wins an H2O ResQ water treatment kit!!
Brittney Barney’s Week #10:
1) Chocolate Muffins
“These were yummy. I substituted M& M’s for chocolate chips, a fun surprise for the kids!”
2) Granola Bars
“I converted this from a best loved recipe to a food storage recipe. So excited it worked!”
3) Mock Frosty
“This was okay. I felt like the powdered milk flavor was too strong, which I couldn’t get past. But everyone else liked them so we’ll try them again. I also had to add more ice because they were pretty runny.”
4) Pita Bread
“These were so easy and soooo much fun. And when they turned out—WOW—so exciting! They looked professional! We filled them with tuna and pickles. Yummy!”
5) Cran-Pumpkin Muffins
“These were DELICIOUS! We ate the whole batch in one day. I almost made a second batch the next day. Definitely a repeat recipe.”
6) Scrambled Eggs
**
Finally, Barbara came in with a recipe she made this week, Samoa Brownies.
“I opened my coveted can of dehydrated eggs and used them! They worked great. I also used part of the can of butter that I won and part of my homemade butter for the buttercream frosting on the brownies. They tasted so good, but I felt that the coconut added just a little too much sugary taste. Everyone loved them!”
She posted this recipe on our facebook contest this week and came away with 64 likes! She wins the book combination I talked about (HERE):
“Bread In a Bag” by Pam Emick (Thank you Pam Emick for giving this book as one of our prizes!)
“So Easy to Preserve” by the Cooperative Extension of the University of GA
and “The Everyday Gourmet” by Shari Haag
By the way, one of my favorite readers (also a “Biggest Prepper” participant), Vicki Davis, tracked down an online shop this week that sells “The Everyday Gourmet” cookbook!! I’d thought it was long gone. You can find it for sale HERE. Thanks so much Vicki for letting us all know!
**
Recipes & Notes:
From Amanda
Chocolate Muffins
2 C flour
¾ C cocoa
1 ½ C white sugar
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ C milk (4 TBS powdered milk with 1 ½ C water)
1 egg (1 TBSP egg powder and 2 TBSP water)
3 TBSP vegetable oil
1 C chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350. Grease or line muffin tins. Sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and egg powder. Stir milk, egg water, oil and vanilla together and add to dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Granola Bars
4 ½ C regular oats
1 C whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt
½ C powdered butter
2/3 to ¾ C honey
¼ C brown sugar
Add-ins: 1 C chocolate chips, ¾ C craisins, pepitas, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, coconut, peanut butter chips, marshmallows, cinnamon and raisins, etc.
Mix together the oats, flour, baking soda, salt, and butter powder. Stir in any add-ins. Stir honey with butter (water portion), vanilla, and brown sugar. Pour over oat mixture and mix well. If it seems too dry, add more honey. Press mixture into cookie sheet. Press FIRMLY! If it doesn’t fill the whole cookie sheet, it’s ok to leave some space.
Bake at 325 for 18-22 minutes. Take them out and press them down again FIRMLY. Let them cool for 10 minutes. They will crumble if you take them out too early, or don’t press them down hard enough. Store in an airtight container, in freezer, or individually wrapped.
Cran-Pumpkin Muffins
1 ¼ C all-purpose flour
1 C whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
½ tsp salt
2 eggs (use powdered equivalent)
1 ¼ C sugar
15 oz canned pumpkin puree
½ C vegetable oil or applesauce
splash of vanilla
1 C dried cranberries
Combine flour, baking soda, salt and spice. (Add dry egg powder.) Whisk sugar and water equivalent for eggs (4 T) in a separate bowl. Add pumpkin, oil and vanilla to egg/sugar mixture. Stir into dry ingredients until moistened, fold in cranberries. Fill greased muffin pan 2/3 full with batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-22 minutes.
Mock Frosties
2 C ice water
1 ½ C non-fat dry milk powder
2/3 C sugar
¼ C unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
2-4 C ice cubes
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
5 second spray of Pam (for emulsification purpose)
Plase all the ingredients in the blender. Use more or less water for thicker or thinner shakes. Put on the lid and process on highest speed for a full 2 minutes. Serve.
Whole Wheat Pita Bread
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon honey
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 cups flour, plus additional for kneading
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon salt
Cornmeal for sprinkling baking sheets
Combine yeast, honey and 1/2 cup warm water in a large mixing bowl. Stir together then set aside for five minutes. In a separate bowl, mix white flour and wheat flour together with a whisk, set aside. After the five minutes, make sure the yeast mixture is foamy. Add 1/2 cup of the flour mixture to the yeast mixture. Combine. Cover with saran wrap and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.
After yeast mixture has doubled, add oil, salt, remaining 3/4 cup warm water, and the rest of the flour mixture. Stir well into a dough. Dump dough onto a floured surface and knead dough for 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Add a little bit of flour when it is needed. Shape into a ball and put in an oiled bowl. Cover with saran wrap and let rise for one hour.
When dough has doubled, punch down and separate into eight pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, flatten with hand, then roll out with rolling pin to make a circle with a 6-7 inch diameter. Place dough round on a cookie sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Roll out all the sections. Cover cookie sheets with clean cloths and let rest for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 500 degree F. Place an oven rack on the lower part of the oven and remove the other rack. Lay the pitas, four at a time, directly on the oven rack. Cook for 2 minutes or until just puffed and golden, turn over and cook an additional minute. Let rest on a cooling rack for two minutes then wrap in foil to keep warm until serving.
Perfect Scrambled Eggs made from Powdered Eggs-Make 8 scrambled eggs
1 cup dried whole eggs
2 tablespoons dry milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup water
Salsa
Place all ingredients into a 4 cup Pyrex glass measuring cup (or similar). Beat mixture for 3 minutes or until completely dissolved and frothy. (I use my immersion blender. And when I say beat I really do mean it. You are NOT mixing to combine. You are beating the eggs until they are all of the way dissolved and the are NO lumps. Then you are beating some more. By beating the egg mixture for a few minutes you are incorporating air into the eggs, this help the texture turn out right). Add 1 Tablespoon cooking oil to a large skillet. Over medium heat oil. Add the egg mixture to the hot oil. Cook eggs using medium low heat, stirring continuously until dry and crumbly.
Sprinkle in salsa and mix. Cook until eggs are pink.
I hope you’ve enjoyed following Week #10!
Two weeks from now we’ll wrap it all up. You can join in and be entered to win!!
See this post for details.
Hi Megan,
Have you seen this?
http://thesaltbox.co.za/the-wonderbag/
~Lonette
I haven’t seen that particular one (thanks for sending the link!) it looks a little like a design I saw from Vicki in Week #1 — she called it a “cooking pot cozy”. The Rachel Ray Show actually did a spot on Wonder Bag cooking in February
(show details here), I think people are catching on about the idea of it! It’s great to hear!!! 🙂
I am so excited about the essential oils. It is totally the next preparedness venture I want to jump into. So exciting!!
You know, I’ve found myself saying the same thing — about wanting to start with essential oils. I think I’m going to get started trying them out too!
Congratulations ladies! Everyone is doing a great job! Barbara the brownies looked so yummy!
Congratulations Angalee! I have learned so much from everyone and the recipes they’ve tried. The possibilities are limitless. Thanks Megan for all your time and energy! I truly appreciate it. I’m so excited about the books I won! More recipes!
Yep, and I heard from Pam about “Bread in a Bag”, she says it’s on it’s way to you. You should see it by the end of the week. It’s been a fun adventure for me too! Thanks to everyone who joined in on it!!
Congratulations Angalee! Woohoo!
Yay! I am so excited for the water purification kit! Thanks!!!!! It’s so fun to see what everyone has been making!
Me too! I’m excited you’ll get one! 🙂 You’re welcome!