Adapted for food storage from this Mel’s Kitchen recipe, which she says happens to be her family’s favorite dinner, this one’s a sure “kid and family” pleaser. The recipe calls for 4 oz ”1/3 less fat” cream cheese, which cooperates perfectly with our pantry-made cream cheese recipe! If making 100% with food storage and trying to cook the Spaghetti Pie in a sun oven (mid morning is best), consider making the cream cheese the night before, (allowing it to strain overnight) so it’s ready to go in the morning.
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Savory Beef with Mushroom Gravy
26 May
You’ll think you’ve died and gone to food storage heaven with this one!! Really, IMO it’s an amazing find. I knew it was magic when I heard two of my kids {NOT mushroom eaters} raving about it at dinner and telling me this was one of the best food storage meals I’ve made. (Say what?!) Seriously, it’s that good. The complexity of flavors will make you think you’re enjoying the gravy from Mom’s Sunday pot roast while in reality it takes just 20 minutes to make (besides also being a lot less fattening).
I took cues from this Mel’s Kitchen recipe to come up with it, adding in a few dried shiitake mushrooms on my own to deepen the flavor. Served over rice or bread, this is one meal that you’ll look forward to storing for.
serves 8 Continue reading
Homemade Hamburger Helper: 9 varieties
4 Apr
Print any of the hamburger helper recipe cards!
salisbury potato stroganoff cheesy jambalaya
cheesy italian shells cheesy beef taco
We’re all looking for an easy way to get dinner on the table. Most nights we’d like it to be without too much thought and without having to worry whether the family is going to eat what we make. Betty Crocker and other manufacturers have made a killing on the idea of “dinner in a box” albeit with the price of preservatives, colorings and chemicals added in. Enter Suzanne McMinn. This gal heads up the site “Chickens in the Road” and she’s figured out a number of the Hamburger Helper boxed dinners for us, allowing us to enjoy the convenience we want minus the additives we don’t.
Now I have to be honest, I’ve never bought Hamburger Helper and only learned about this website and recipe idea from a reader who asked for a food storage version of it. But I’m so glad she did! And can we say “pantry meal time”?? I love it when I see people naturally coming up with the same idea. Ready packed meals make sense whether you’re using them day to day or to have on hand in case of emergency, whether the emergency be immediate –to have ready to grab and go with your 72 hour kit– or longer term.
Thanks to Suzanne doing the hard work, I’ve done the much easier part of translating them to food storage. And btw, there are all kinds of additions you can make to these recipes, I’d suggest visiting Suzanne’s original blog post for more ideas on that. Also, all of the recipes call for 1 lb. ground beef (or about 2 cups cooked), so if you’re using fresh ground beef (or hamburger from the freezer) that’s the amount you’d need.
Each recipe serves 4-6
Beef “Unstir-fry” with Homemade Asian Noodles
10 Mar
Print the recipe card! homemade asian noodles
I’ve been bugged for how expensive Asian noodles are to buy at the grocery store and making them with my pasta maker is too much effort for a stir-fry dinner {which we like to have pretty often, helping to use up those carrots, celery and onions and whatever else is left in the fridge}. So I was excited to find this much simpler “skillet-based” Asian noodle recipe, which turns out to be a lot like making crepes.
I tried it here as a full-on food storage meal out of curiosity to see if stir-fry was even a palatable possibility minus the fresh vegetables. While the vegetables were missed, the flavor was still good and we liked the noodles. While I won’t repeat the stir fry idea, the noodles themselves are keepers.
Crispy Orange Beef
29 Nov
Print the recipe page! crispy orange beef
Have a Chinese restaurant favorite at home, and better yet, planned as a meal in your food storage plan! This meal goes together really fast. By the time the rice is cooked, dinner is served!
serves 4-6
Papas Rellenas: Stuffed Potatoes
6 Nov
Print the recipe page! papas rellanas
For those not following me on facebook, one of my kids fell and broke his arm last week and did such a great job of it (he’s an over achiever 
) that he needed surgery to fix it. So life got shuffled around for a week but he’s doing better now, thank goodness. Fingers crossed that we have a less exciting week this week!
Okay, so today’s recipe is a food storage version of Peru’s delicious Papas Rellenas. Papa… what?? If you haven’t had these before, let me fill you in. Unsure what to order at a Peruvian restaurant, these were suggested to me by a waiter once and I’ve loved and ordered them ever since — so you know, I’m like an expert and all. In a nut shell, we’re talking about mashed potatoes stuffed with a ground beef empanada- type filling, formed into fun little “faux potatoes”, breaded and (usually) fried to crisp. Yummy. Except at home I opt to bake rather than fry them. They’re healthier this way, but really I bake them mostly because I don’t want to store the extra oil. And one of these days (though not today, thank you storm clouds) I’m going to see if they’ll work in my sun oven. I think they will if I have a good hot day.
Kids love these! They’re great for dipping, so if you’ve got a kid who likes to dip — and what kid doesn’t — they’ll probably like them. Also, there are lots of recipes to be found online for vegetarian fillings using various grains and beans rather than meat if you want to go that route. Thank you, Peru (and I’m sure other countries too), for pappas rellenas!
serves 6
Ground Beef Stroganoff
27 Oct
Print the recipe card! ground beef stroganoff
Thanks to Kathy Clark, author of Dinner is in the Jar for permission to share this recipe! Packed as a pantry meal it’s really fast and easy to make and everyone likes it!
Chia “Real Meat” Meatballs
13 Oct
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These meatballs, made with real meat (as opposed to the wheat meat meatballs I tricked all my kids with) use ground chia seeds as a binder in place of eggs. No kidding! I was so excited to find out chia can do this! Due to their gelling properties when soaked, chia works as a substitute for eggs in all kinds of baking. (It also makes wonderful pudding, but we’ll get to that another day.) I’m quite smitten by these little chia seeds. They’re simply amazing! God truly thought of everything and gave them an extra handful of “nutrition” and “usefulness” when the plant gifts were handed out 
.
We’ll get to the recipe (which is also pretty great) in a minute, but first I have to pause for a moment to introduce you to these amazing little seeds.
Beef Empanadas
18 Apr
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Before we were married, my husband spent two years in Chile as a Mormon missionary where he enjoyed many an authentic empanada. It’s funny because he’s pretty picky as we’ve since had them at restaurants, always quickly comparing them to the ones he remembers. In fact, there’s only been one restaurant’s empanadas that he’s been happy with in all the places we’ve tried!
Considering myself up for a good challenge, I’ve been wanting to find an empanada recipe that would pass his test to make at home normally and w/ a few food storage substitutions be able to use in our food storage plan. Well, this recipe worked! He happily (even quietly) finished off a plate of four of these and said they were “good”, which for him is really quite a compliment.
Making Tamales
5 Apr
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Frankly, I don’t want to have to say goodbye to tamales … ever. It seems like every three months or so I find myself desperately craving these little corn-husked bundles, at which point you’ll find me visiting the homemade Mexican grill down the road and spending $1.45 for a 2 tamale fix. What would happen if there weren’t tamales to be bought from the wonderful spanish speaking “I’ve-made-tamales-my-whole-life” women at the restaurant? Sadness, I tell you.
To avoid such I set out to find a reasonably simple way to make my own. Mind you I’m not interested in spending all day in the kitchen (as some recipes suggest) no matter how much I’m wanting tamales. On top of that, I wanted a recipe who’s staple ingredients could be stored long term. Once again I turned to a reliable recipe testing source, Cook’s Illustrated (specifically their “Best International Recipe” book) to teach me how to make something that before I’d only bought. What I found was an uncomplicated recipe that brought everything to the table I was looking for and turned out some pretty great tamales if I do say so myself!
Oh , and did I mention this recipe provided another perfect chance to save fuel by using my wonder oven? (*see this video if you’re wondering what a wonder oven is!)
Wonder Oven Lasagna
10 Mar
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Since I’ve been on a Wonder Oven cooking kick lately I thought I’d throw out one more idea on the topic before taking a blogging break next week to go on a trip with my family.
This has to be the easiest way out there to make lasagna! I love it because it only takes one pan to make and I can get it started and then forget about it until dinner. To make it into a long term storage meal, use either freeze dried or home canned beef/sausage (in the sauce), food storage ricotta style cheese in place of fresh (see 8/24th’s post) and top it with rehydrated freeze dried mozzarella cheese. {P.S. — you can see how freeze dried mozzarella is rehydrated and used by checking out either 10/5th’s or 1/21st’s post.}
This is so easy that a simple step by step with pictures is all it needs here on the blog for explanation … Enjoy!
Bread Making Day: Meat Pie & Cinnamon Raisin Bread
29 Feb
The first step after bringing wheat home to store is learning what to do with it. The second step (and possibly the more difficult one) is getting to work and using it. So lets talk daily bread — probably the biggest place your wheat could go!
As far as taste, you’d pick homemade bread everyday if a magic fairy delivered it to your door and made you choose between it and a loaf of bread from the grocery store. So…if you’re storing wheat but buying bread I’d bet it’s only because of how much time it takes. Learning how to make the bread is easy. Where it becomes overwhelming is in constantly adding “making bread” to your already crazy busy life. Who has the time to do that??
I’ve discovered (atleast for me) the key is making an event of it once every 2-3-4 weeks and making enough all at once to keep in the freezer. Today’s post is about what I do to turn out 11 – 15 loaves of bread plus dinner that night and breakfast for the next morning and still keep my sanity. True, it makes a mad scientist mess of my kitchen for a few hours, but in the long run it saves me time and work.
Shredded Beef Taquitos
14 Jan
Print the recipe page! Shredded Beef Taquitos
I’ve been seriously craving taquitos all week! And what do you know? I looked up a recipe and realized that everything I needed to make them was just waiting to be put together from food in my food storage. While they’re definitely an infrequent indulgence, they were surprisingly easy to make and tasted so SO much better than the frozen variety!
Prep time: 30 minutes
makes 10 -12 taquitos Continue reading
Kids Love It Casserole
9 Nov
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This casserole (originally from Taste of Home) was affectionately nicknamed “Casserole of the Year” by my oldest son at six years old as he pronounced it the best casserole he’d had all year. The nickname stuck, so that’s what we call it at our house. I’ve personally not met a kid who doesn’t eat this up, spinach and all. This is my long term version of it, as far as comparing it with it’s original recipe (which is what I use when storing as a 3 month meal), it still gets eaten up just as quickly so I think that’s a good sign!
serves 8-10
Hungarian Goulash with Spaetzle
19 Oct
Print the recipe page! hungarian goulash with spaetzle
I’m going to Europe with this dish — who’s going with me?! Hungarian Goulash is very different from American Goulash. We love it and lucky for us it adapts to being a food storage meal without any trouble!
Spaetzle — a German dumpling-like noodle — is a lot of fun to make, especially with kids! It’s something different on the table but yet it goes with all kinds of things. This noodle recipe is brought to us courtesy of Shari Haag’s book “The Everyday Gourmet”.
Pairing these two together makes for a good hearty meal! Guten appetit!
Beef & Sour Cream
28 Sep
Print the recipe card! beef and sour cream
This five minute pantry meal comes from Jan Jackson’s book “100 Day Pantry”. I’m grateful to her for allowing me share it here! We’ve really enjoyed this ‘nothing to it’ meal — I’m sure you will too!
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Roast Beef Soft Tacos with Multi-grain Spanish Rice
17 Aug
Print the recipe page! roast beef soft tacos with multi grain spanish rice
I’m thrilled to get to introduce you to two more of my favorite recipe resources today with this recipe. “Multi-Grain Spanish Rice” is the creation of grain guru Chef Brad from his book “Those Wonderful Grains II”. I love this rice and grain combination in particular– we’ve served this to dinner guests and everyone’s loved it. Next, the recipe for homemade tortillas comes from one of the best food storage cookbooks on the planet “The Everyday Gourmet” by Shari Haag. I love her recipe for homemade tortillas featured here because they’re not oily at all. They crisp nicely when cooked and can even be made into quick tortilla chips if desired!
Swedish Beef over Rice
15 AugPrint the recipe card! swedish beef over rice
This simple pantry meal is requested often by my two oldest kids. In fact, they love it so much that I’ve even caught them trying to eat leftovers for breakfast the next morning. Crazy — I know! Thank you to “It’s in the Bag” for this yummy main meal –you can find the book to purchase at www.cedarfort.com .
Serves 6
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Dilled Beef Stroganoff over White and Wild Rice
10 Aug
Print the recipe page! dilled beef stroganoff over white and wild rice
This is a shelf stabilized version of a recipe from a favorite cookbook of mine (one that you’ve probably never heard of) called “Cook Smart: Camilla’s Catering Secrets for Home Cooks” by Camilla J. Koenigseder. I love this recipe! It converted well using food storage ingredients.
Pantry Meal Pot Roast
3 Aug
If ever there was a fast and delicious pantry meal this is it!
Prep time: 5 min … maybe
Cook time: just needs warming up
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