Cooking with Food Storage

Every week I'll be featuring in detail an ingredient from food storage.  Since I'm so excited about the new buckets being sold by Shelf Reliance, I couldn't resist beginning with Spelt!  You'll know why when you watch this video.  Not only did I drool, but I'm ready to get online and order some now!

Spelt is highly nutritious and is an EXCELLENT source of manganese. It is also a good source of niacin, copper, phosphorus, protein, and fiber.  It is very similar to wheat, but is in fact higher in protein than wheat and has a nutty and slightly sweeter flavor.  It is a common wheat replacement and DOES contain gluten.  Grind it as flour, toss in a salad, or cook in soups and hot cereal.

The video below highlights some of the awesome things you can make with Spelt:

Watch Chef Brad cook with Spelt on BYUtv

Spelt can be purchased in a variety of sizes from Shelf Reliance.  The largest bucket contains 42 pounds!  For information, go here.

Ingredients List

How's everyone doing on their list of ingredients for meals?  If 5 is too many, pick one.  Just do it!  Write down the ingredients to your favorite breakfast or dinner recipe.  Be sure to pick one that uses canned, dry or frozen foods.  If you're really struggling with a recipe, feel free to use mine below.

My Favorite Mexican Soup:
1 can black beans
1 can corn
1 can cooked chicken
1 can chicken broth
1 can tomato sauce
1 can tomato dices
Salt & Pepper to taste
1/2 tsp Chili Powder (or more)
dash of cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp Garlic
1/8 tsp Cumin

Combine in a pot and heat until warm (crock pot for a few hours).

Step 3 will be posted on Monday.

Short-Term Storage: Step 2

Using your list of meals, write down the ingredients for each recipe.  Do this for the entire list, or only pick a few meals out of the day. 

Here's mine.  Notice the recipes are simple and made from shelf- or frozen- food that will stay good for at least a year.  In fact, all of the recipes can even be made ahead of time and frozen.*


DINNER

• Spaghetti:  1 lb. spag. noodles, 1 can tomato sauce, 1 can diced tomatoes, 3/4 C **FD beef, 1/2 C FD broccoli, seasonings.
• Mexican Soup:  1 can chicken broth, 1 C instant black beans, 1 can tomato sauce, 1 can corn, 1-1/2 C diced FD chicken, spices.
• Minestrone Soup:  1 C instant red beans, 1/2-lb mac. noodles, 2 C potato dices, 1 C FD sausage, 1 can tomato sauce, spices.
• Penne Casserole:  3/4 pkg penne noodles, 1 can tomato sauce, 2 C mozzarella cheese, 1/2 C FD gr. beef; seasonings
• Chicken Pot Pie:  2 frozen pie crusts, 1 can cream-potato soup, 1 can mixed veggies, 1 C FD chicken, 1 can corn, seasonings.

Click here to see Step 1

*note:  when freezing pre-made meals, do not cook noodles, potatoes, or pie crust ahead of time.  They'll be soggy when thawed and re-heated.  I'll spend more time on freezer meals another day.

**FD = freeze-dried.  The benefit of this over frozen is that you don't have to cook it and it doesn't get that awful freezer burn flavor.  Plus it has a 25-yr unopened shelf-life and doesn't take up freezer space.