Storable Snacks - dehydrating fruit and making granola bars

This has been a wonderful summer and looks as though we are heading into a beautiful fall! Each season brings so much to offer and to look forward to. Yay, it’s exciting!! At our house, we have transitioned back into the swing of school schedules, dance and soccer practices, music lessons and earlier bed times. Our days fly by!! I’m sure you can all relate this to your own schedules. Thankfully, I have found ways for us to save time and money using local and online resources. A little digging can go a long way. :)

Each morning I make lunches for my kids to have at school. I’m one of those “mean moms” who wants her kids to have a healthy, clean lunch and balanced snack. Mean, right? These lunches also need to fit within the guidelines for food allergies we’ve been tackling. But, like I said, a little digging can go a long way in finding healthy, alternatives to replace store bought, over processed items-that although still good and convenient, I find myself saving for emergency meltdown situations.

So, luckily I was asked to theme my newsletter around healthy storable snacks. How do you like that for timing? I’m not an expert in any way, but this is what works for us and if it works for you too then that’s GREAT!!


This season we have taken advantage of fruit and vegetable harvests and enjoyed trying lots of new projects and recipes. Usually I do several batches of canned fruit, but we still have so many jars that I didn’t can this year. Instead we dehydrated LOTS of peaches and pears. Great snack to store for long term or short term storage.

We also made several batches of peach fruit leather. There are various recipes and ways to make leather. I have made fruit leather before BUT this year what I did worked better than any recipe or technique. It was easy, tasty and just plain awesome! AND according to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, fruit leather will keep up to 1 month at room temperature and up to 1 year in the freezer. (Note from Tammy Price: Without humidity in Idaho, dried fruits and leathers will last a year or more just on your pantry shelf stored in an airtight container or ziplock bag.)

Here is the recipe if you would like to try it.  YUM, YUM! 

Ingredients:

4 Large unpeeled peaches (softball size)

2T Agave

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 225°. Wash and cut peaches in half. Remove seed. Place unpeeled peaches and agave into a blender and puree until smooth. Pour mixture onto a sprayed baking sheet. Use a spoon or spatula to evenly spread with width and length of baking pan. Be sure to keep it even. Place in oven and bake for 5 hours. Cooking time will vary based on oven and thickness of leather.

After baking the leather, I cut it with a pizza slicer and wrapped them individually and stored them for lunch or snack options. With three young kids, lunches, snacks and lots of little friends over, the leather lasted 30 days in our kitchen. The shelf life is longer but we ran out!

Another great, healthy, storable snack to have on hand that you can make from home is granola bars. We loooove granola bars at our house! And now we make our own! My kids don’t ever prefer the store bought ones anymore! It’s great!! Granola bars are healthy, filling and you most likely have all the ingredients in your pantry to make some. Look online and scroll through recipes that fit your families preferences and tastes. There are SOOOO many out there! Whichever you choose, check the shelf or freezer life. It can range anywhere from a few weeks to several months.

This last spring I stumbled across a recipe. We call them Sprinkle Granola Bars. They are simple no bake, gluten free, vegan, dairy free, organic, no sugar added, no oils, no bake and no salt added. What’s in them? Just healthy yumminess!! Try it if you would like.

Ingredients :

1 C Quick Oats (Organic or gluten free if you prefer)
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Medium Extra Ripe Banana
1 Packet Truvia
4T Powdered Peanut Butter (PB2 works too) Add the Powdered Peanut butter in the powdered form (Do not add water)

Sprinkles, optional

Mix everything together.

Shape into bars.

Add sprinkles for fun color.

I add sprinkles for fun color which is why in our house they are called Sprinkle Granola Bars. But you don’t have to. :) Then I place them in the freezer to harden. After a few hours, I place them in freezer bags or containers and whala all done!

When I pack lunches for school or soccer games, I grab a few and by the time we need them they are soft and chewy! I keep several in my freezer. They last for months. We go through them quickly and it’s so nice to be able to grab a healthy snack for on the go!

I hope you have a chance to take advantage of the fall harvest. It truly is a blessing in our lives to have the resources to become more provident in our living. You can save time, money, and energy from running out to the store to buy the things you already have and that are hopefully healthier for your family in the long run.


Have a great fall season!!

Caning Spaghetti Sauce

We now have 35 quarts of home-canned spaghetti sauce from our garden. Because I chose to pressure can it instead of using a boiling water bath, I had more freedom in the recipe I used. This recipe is not safe for the water bath canning process because it is not acidic enough.

Wash and cut your tomatoes in half. Place in a large glass bowl and cook in the microwave to release much of their juice. This saves you from having to simmer your pot down for hours on the stove- a huge plus for me! When done, strain the tomatoes from the juice. Reserve the juice just in case.

Puree the tomatoes in the food processor - peels and all.

Chop other vegetables in the food processor as well.

Here's my cute little helper. She is my only one home in the mornings this year so she has become my number one "helper." Those of you with young children know that it slows you down to have such a "helper," but I know I'm teaching her important principles so I try to be patient through it all. Her favorite job is to push the buttons on the food processor. Thank goodness mine has a lock function so it won't turn on until the lid is locked in place or I would have a giant mess!

Mix everything together. Add spices to taste. It takes more basil and oregano than you think. I buy my spices in bulk at our local grocery store. Stir in tomato paste until it is as thick as you like. You can also chop fresh herbs if you have them. I ended up adding the tomato juice back in and using a little more tomato paste so I could have a larger batch.

Fill jars. Then pressure can at 12 pounds of pressure for 20 minutes.

I ended up with about 9 quarts of sauce with this recipe. If you don't want to pressure can it, you can freeze this recipes with perfect results.

Home-Canned Spaghetti Sauce

18 cups tomato puree

3 large green peppers, chopped

3 medium onions, chopped

1 large zucchini, chopped

10 carrots, chopped

1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar

3-4 cups tomato paste - enough to make it as thick as you like

Reserved tomato juice, if needed

Dried oregano, basil, garlic, salt and pepper, to taste

Wash and cut tomatoes in half. Place in a large glass bowl. Microwave for 12-15 minutes. This allows the tomatoes to release a lot of their juice. Strain the tomatoes from the juice, but reserve the juice in case it is needed later. Chop the tomatoes in a food processor. Chop peppers, onions, zucchini, and carrots in a food processor. Mix all the ingredients together. Use some of the reserved juice, if needed, depending on how much tomato paste you added. Fill jars and pressure can at 12 lbs of pressure for 20 minutes.

Ideas for Storing Grains

Grains are the foundation of a wide variety of menus and recipes that you feed your family on a daily basis and should be a staple in your long term food storage plan.

Whole wheat is usually the primary grain most associated with food storage supplies.

But to prevent your family from getting bored eating wheat in every possible recipe, try storing grains of other varieties such as oats, brown and white rice, pearled barley, amaranth (an herb often used as a grain), flaxseed, corn, popcorn, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, rye, sorghum, spelt, and triticale.

Grains are an excellent food storage product for several reasons:

They have high nutritional value and protein levels.

Most varieties can be stored for 25+ years if packaged properly and kept in a cool environment.

Why rotate grains?

The best reason is to accustom your family to eating them. A sudden change in diet which includes mostly grains will upset their digestive systems. Gather recipes that include grains such as breads, cereals, and muffins.

If you do plan on storing grains to use in your daily or weekly menus, it's best to purchase them in #10 sealed cans. But if you choose to store them in 5-6 gallon buckets, an opened bucket will not store long term. Plan to use it within 6 months to a year and keep it closed tightly in a cool dark place, such as the pantry or the basement.

Uses, Types and Storage Length of Some Common Grains

Rolled Oats:

Uses - Breakfast cereal, granola, cookies, filler in meat loafs or casseroles, thickener for soups/stews.

Types - Quick rolled oats or regular rolled oats. Quick oats cook faster but regular oats or steel cut retain flavor and nutrition better.

Storage - If unopened, optimum shelf life is up to 30 years. If opened should be used within 1 year.

Wheat:

Uses - Wheat grass (sprouting), appetizers, desserts, breakfast cereals, crackers, brownies, tortillas, breads, pancakes, muffins, cakes, snacks, in salads, to make vegetarian meat/protein, and any other baking item you would use flour for.

Types - Spring or winter, hard or soft, red or white. Hard varieties have higher gluten (protein) and are better for making breads. Soft varieties have lower protein and nutrients but are better for pastries, pastas, and breakfast cereals. Experiment with different varieties in your recipes to find out what works best for you.

Storage - If unopened, optimum shelf life is 30 years or more. If opened will last about 3 years.  You can add oxygen absorbers, bay leaves, or dry ice to help keep critters out of your wheat.

Cornmeal or corn:

Uses - Grits, cornbread/muffins, mush, johnnycake, hush puppies, breading on fried items.

Types - Steel ground or stone ground. Most common is steel ground which  has husk and germ almost all removed. It loses flavor and nutrients but has a long shelf life. This is what you will find at the grocery store. Stone ground retains more of the husk and germ but is more perishable. Cornmeal can be found in white, yellow, red, and blue varieties. Yellow and white are the most common.

Storage - If unopened, optimum shelf life is 5 years. If opened cornmeal will last about 1 year. Whole corn, either freeze-dried or dehydrated, will last as long as wheat - about 25 years.

Enriched White Rice:

Uses - Rice pudding, cereal, casseroles, side dishes.

Types - Bleached or unbleached. Both have had their bran and germ portions removed and are “enriched” by adding back some of the lost nutrients. Bleached has been chemically bleached while unbleached goes through a natural bleaching process.

Storage - If unopened, optimum shelf life is 30 years. If opened, about the same.

Brown Rice:

Uses - Brown rice can be used for any dish in which you would use white rice. The advantage to brown rice is that it has more flavor (even without adding anything to it), and it's definitely more nutritious.

The bran layer contains a small amount of oil, so brown rice has a shorter shelf-life than

white rice.

Storage - Store uncooked brown rice at room temperature up to 6 months, or refrigerate or freeze for

longer shelf life.

Pearled Barley:

Uses - Thickener in soups and stews, in sides or casseroles similar to how you would use rice.

Types - You can buy pot barley which retains more of the nutritious germ and bran, but it has a shorter shelf life. Pearled barley is recommended for long-term food storage.

Storage - If unopened, optimum shelf life is about 10-15 years. If opened, it's good for about 18 months.

Sources:  www.family-survival-planning.com and www.usarice.com

Southwest Black Bean Pasta Salad

Spring is here and summer is just around the corner! That means gardens will be growing soon. I love salads - potlucks through the summer are my favorite since there are usually so many salads to choose from. It is no surprise to my family to have a salad of some kind on the menu most nights during the summer. Many times, I let it be the main dish. 

Since we eat lots of salads, I like to have a lot of recipes to rotate through. Here is a new favorite! It will make great use of your salsa garden ingredients. I took some of our favorite homemade salsa ingredients and stirred them together with pasta then I created a dressing to compliment all the flavors. I took it to the first potluck of the season and had many requests for the recipe. I hope your family and friends enjoy it as much as mine do.

Southwest Black Bean Pasta Salad

Ingredients:
8 oz salad pasta of your choice, cooked

2–3 large tomatoes, chopped

½ cup chopped green onion

½ cup chopped green pepper

3 cups cooked black beans

1 ½ cups frozen corn, thawed

Dressing:

¼ cup lemon or lime juice

¼ cup vegetable oil

4–5 Tbsp chopped cilantro

1–2 tsp minced garlic

⅛ tsp cayenne pepper

⅛ tsp cumin

Salt to taste

Combine pasta, tomatoes, green onions, green pepper, and black beans in a large bowl.  In a small bowl, combine the dressing ingredients. Drizzle over salad and toss to combine before serving.

FAMILY HOME EVENING IDEAS FOR PROVIDENT LIVING

Preparedness, when properly pursued, is a way of life, not a sudden, spectacular program.  We should refer to all the components of personal and family preparedness, not in relation to a disaster, but in cultivating a life-style that is on a day-to-day basis its own reward.  (Spencer W. Kimball)

Family Home Evening is an ideal time to introduce and carry out provident living activities that will become life styles in your family.  Following are a few ideas for this.

Food Storage

Food storage, in addition to basic survival necessities must include things that your family likes and will eat. 

Make a couple of weeks of menus together and note what your family likes.  Be sure to include breakfast and lunch as well as dinner.  If nobody will eat oatmeal for breakfast why would you store it? (Except to make cookies). After you have looked the menus over, make a list of foods to include in your storage.  Teach your children that it wouldn’t be provident to go out and buy everything on the list all at once in the quantities that you would need for storage.  Decide on one item to purchase by the case each week to slowly build up your supply.  That evening you could go as a family to the store to buy your first case of food for your storage.  If you already have some food storage you could make the treat for that evening using items from your food storage.

Meals from Food Storage

As a family look over what you have in your food storage.  This would need to be done the night before the meal preparation.  Decide on a meal that could be made from the items on hand and then have your children help to make that meal for dinner.  Be sure that you don’t forget dessert.   You might want to discuss additions to your food storage after this activity.

Snack Mixes

Snack mixes can be expensive and often contain something in them that one (or more) of your children won’t eat.  The solution to this is to make your own snack mixes.  First look in your pantry and see what you might have on hand.  Then take the family and go to a store that has a good selection of bulk food and choose a few things that go together and that everyone likes.  Things that you might include are pretzels, goldfish crackers, m&ms, cut up dried fruit, nuts, popcorn and cereal.  Get snack sized Baggies and then divide your snack items up into different combinations and bag them.  You are set for individual treats in the car, school lunches and after-school snacks – all at a fraction of the cost of purchased mixes. (Thanks to Tammy Price for this idea.)

Alternate Cooking

Cook your meal in a Dutch Oven for Family Home Evening.  There are many recipes on the Internet for main dishes, breads and desserts.  Your children can help put the food into the Dutch Ovens but an adult will need to take care of lighting the coals and attending the food as it cooks.

Gardening in a Bag - Simple Steps

- Choose a sunny location with at least 8 hours of direct sun each day with easy access to water.
- Purchase bags of potting soil.
- Arrange bags so you can reach into the middle of each bag without stepping on the soil, about 4 feet maximum.
- The best plants to start with are leafy vegetables: leaf lettuce, spinach, arugula, or Swiss chard. Use square foot gardening planting rates.
- 1 plant per bag: tomato, pepper, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower 9 plants per bag: bush beans or spinach 12 plants per bag: arugula, leaf lettuce, parsley, Swiss chard 16 plants per square foot: kohlrabi or micro greens
- Use duct tape on the out-side, seam edges and one strip around the middle of the bag to prevent breakage.
- Make a hole in the soil by pushing the soil back just deep enough to cover the transplant or seeds. I found you do not need to remove the soil from the bag.
- Put transplant or seeds in the soil.
- Reach under the plastic and pull back the soil to cover the root ball or seeds
- If you planted seeds, cut the plastic flaps off so the sun can help germinate the seeds quicker.
- Water the plants as needed; ensure you have a good soil to seed or soil to root contact for a quick start.
- After one 1 week or when the seeds grow 2 inches high make sure there is only one plant per hole. It is sometimes difficult to see the multiple plants.
- Continue with regular water, sunlight, and weeding procedures until harvested.
- For more information, visit vegetablegardener.com.

Advantages:
Easy soil preparation – no digging, plowing, and tilling or sod removal.
Space saving – all vegetables are concen-trated with no rows.
Easy weeding – potting soil is free from weed seeds.
Low cost – It cost me about $13 to plant one bag with Swiss chard transplants in March 2013.
Minimal soil diseases and insects common to vegetables like tomatoes.

Disadvantages:
Ugly bags – try covering with mulch.
Water management is more involved with bags – regular soil has a deeper water reserve.
Bag breakage – be careful with the mower and string trimmer.
Not organic – no solution.

Thoughts about gardening:
The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there. –George Bernard Shaw
Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God– Thomas Jefferson
When the world wearies and society fails to sat-isfy, There is always the garden. — Minnie Aumonier

Fun Facts: 
- There are 57 kinds of tomatoes.
- Lettuce is a member of the daisy family.
- The largest edible fungi was 8 feet 8 inches high.
- The fastest growing tree grows 2.5 feet per month.

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

These bars have the distinct taste of bananas - perfect for breakfast in my opinion! These have less sugar than many recipes since the bananas add moisture and sweetness. The bananas also work as an egg substitute allowing these to turn out great without any eggs.

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bars work great for a make-ahead quick breakfast option or also go well as an after school snack. I hope your family enjoys them as much as mine!

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

Ingredients:

¾ cup brown sugar

¾  cup plain yogurt

¾ cup mashed bananas

2 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup dried fruit or chocolate chips

Directions:

Mix brown sugar, yogurt, mashed bananas, vanilla and oil. Add dry ingredients and mix well. If mixture looks too dry, add 1-2 Tbsp milk. (The need for milk will depend on how thick your yogurt is. My homemade yogurt is thinner than store bought so I did not need to add any milk.) Add dried fruit or chocolate chips very last. Press into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 min. or until golden brown.Cut into bars. These freeze very well. Allow the bars to cool completely before placing in freezer bags or containers.

Tips for S t r e t c h in g Our Money As We Stock Up

Make a menu and plan your grocery list from your menu.  

Always shop with a list. 

Distinguish your needs from your wants.

Eat less meat.  Implementing 2-3 meatless meals will give you more money for other items (and will be healthier).

Many meat departments will discount meat early in the morning.

When making casseroles or soups, use ½ of the meat that is suggested.

Generally, buying meat in bulk is less expensive.  Place in freezer bags and date.  Freeze.

Milk can be frozen.  When you find a good bargain on milk, buy several gallons.  To allow for expansion of the jug, use about a cup from each gallon before freezing.  If you are going on vacation and you have milk in the refrigerator that has not expired, put it in the freezer and use when you get home.

Whipping cream and buttermilk can also be frozen.

Consider using powdered milk by itself or mixing it with regular milk.

Grow your own garden.  

Consider canning your produce or dehydrating it.  

Freezing fruits and vegetables is also another way to preserve foods.  Buy, chop, freeze.

Buy cheese on sale and freeze.  I like to grate my cheese before freezing.

No need to buy canned beans.  Soak, cook dry beans and freeze in baggies.

Limit your eating out.

Watch for sales and stock up.  If you don’t take a newspaper, you can go online to the various grocery stores and look at their weekly ads.

Instead of buying frozen waffles for your children’s breakfast, make your own and freeze.

Store what you eat and eat what you store.

Grind your own wheat and make your own bread.

If you don’t make bread, stock up on bread at the day old bakery.

Don’t shop for groceries when you are hungry. If possible, leave kids home.

Eggs can be frozen.  When you see a good sale, buy several dozen.  Crack each egg into an individual ice cube tray and freeze.  When they are frozen, take them out and store in a zip lock bag in the freezer. (ice cube trays may be hard to find - check a thrift store.)

Use coupons if they work for you.

Make your own laundry detergent for pennies a load.

Rinse and reuse zip lock bags (except for bags containing meat).

Invest in a freezer and dehydrator.

Cook from scratch.

Eat food in season.

Buy in bulk when it makes sense.

Stock up when things go on sale.

Buy store brands.  Most of the time store brands/generic brands are cheaper.

Make a budget and stick to it!

Check out Pinterest for money saving tips.

When baking, cut down on the sugar.  Less sugar will also reduce  your waistline!

Don’t go into debt for food storage.  Remember, one can at a time!

FOOD (stored) FOR THOUGHT:

Believe it or not, provident living and being self reliant is much more than collecting 5gallon buckets of beans.

A great quote I recently heard is “Being provident means planning ahead so you don’t have to panic.”  We all face adversity in our lives on a daily basis.  If we live providently, we will be better prepared to deal with whatever comes our way.

So what exactly is provident living? And how do we know if we are living providently?  The church has categorized self-reliance into 6 elements of preparation. They are:

* Physical Health

* Employment & Income

* Emergency Preparedness

* Financial Management

* Production and Storage of Food and Basic needs

* Spiritual, Social and Emotional Preparation

There is detailed information on these 6 areas on providentliving.org If you haven’t visited this website, it is a must!  You can find everything on there from budgeting worksheets to determining your BMI (Body Mass Index).

Tammy Price, our Stake Provident Living Specialist, said, “Our biggest hurdle in Provident Living is to stop asking ‘do I really need to do this’ and start asking ‘how do I do this for our family’?”

Obedience is crucial, if we choose not to heed the counsel of becoming more provident, we are denying the Lord to perform miracles and magnify our efforts.

Becoming more self-reliant “looks” very different for each of us.  Let the spirit guide you as to what area you need to focus.  One family might feel inspired to get out of debt.  Another family might choose to focus on emotional health.  And another may choose to start exercising.  This is so individualized; the important thing is to prayerfully create a detailed written plan.

We are asked to involve our entire family in this process.  H. David Burton said, “Each generation must learn anew the principles of provident learning.” 

This means it doesn’t matter if your mother was really great at budgeting, or you father was perfectly prepared for emergencies.  We all must learn to do it ourselves.  We can’t stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.  Nor can we expect our children to just know how to do this.  Eventually we all must learn these principles.  As we become more provident, let us take the opportunity to teach our children these skills. 

There is a caution we must heed: Don’t do too much at once!  These 6 areas are so all encompassing, so just pick one area, and work on it.

 

Russel M Nelson said, “Be patient with your self.  Perfection comes not in this life, but in the next life.  Don’t demand things that are unreasonable, but demand of yourself improvement”.

Year after year of making little changes to improve our self-reliance, we will find we ARE living more providently each year.