How To Make Homemade Oatmeal Packets

What You’ll Need:

• Oatmeal {I use quick oats}
• Ziploc baggies {or other containers}
• Add-ins of your choice ~ some fun fillers include:  Brown Sugar, Raisins, Dried Fruits, Blueberry Craisins {thanks, Vanessa}, Powdered Milk {optional} ~ we add fresh milk when making ours, so I leave the powdered milk out.

What You’ll Do:

• Measure out about 1/2 cup of oatmeal for each bag,(you can also add powdered milk, so all that is needed is water), then add in some fun flavors! {see list above for ideas}

• Now, my boys are *always* hungry, and used to gobble up 2 packets of oatmeal, so I make larger bags with 1 full cup of oatmeal…

• We cook the oatmeal by adding milk {to the consistency desired}, and microwaving for 45 – 60 seconds.

• When you’re ready to cook the oatmeal, another add-in that goes great with Brown Sugar is Homemade Maple Syrup!

• There you go… you’re all done!

Thanks Frugal Girls!!!

http://thefrugalgirls.com/2010/10/homemade-oatmeal-packets.html

Using your Quick Oats

We are going to start doing a recipe a month to help you use your food storage; also so you have something you know how to make if there is an emergency.  This recipe is yummy and great for the fall season because of the pumpkin!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

·                                 Prep: 10 min. Bake: 15 min.

·                                 Yield: 48 Servings

Ingredients

·                         1 cup butter, softened

·                         3/4 cup sugar

·                         3/4 cup packed brown sugar

·                         1 egg

·                         1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·                         2 cups all-purpose flour

·                         1 cup quick-cooking oats

·                         1 teaspoon baking soda

·                         1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·                         1 cup canned pumpkin

·                         1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

·                         In a bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, oats, baking soda and cinnamon; stir into creamed mixture alternately with pumpkin. Fold in chocolate chips.

·                         Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12-13 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield: 4 dozen.

From Taste of Home Magazine

Four-Step Home Storage Approach

STEP 1: 3-Month Supply
Gradually build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet until it is sufficient for three months

STEP 2: Drinking Water
Store drinking water for circumstances in which the water supply may be polluted or disrupted.

STEP 3: Finacial Reserve
Establish a financial reserve by setting aside a little money each week, and gradually increase it to a reasonable amount

STEP 4: Longer-Term Supply
Once families have achieved the first three objectives, they are counseled to expand their efforts, as circumstances allow, into a supply of long-term basic foods such as grains, legumes, and other staples." 


“The first step is to begin. The second is to continue. It doesn’t matter how fast we get there so much as that we begin and continue according to our abilities.” Bishop H. David Burton

The Best Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

A few things that are fantastic about this recipe:

• No need to double rise this bread!
• Few ingredients, without any dough enhancers made of artificial ingredients
• Doubles as pizza dough, and cinnamon roll dough
• Uses 100% freshly ground whole wheat, but still tastes light and fluffy
• The sponging process (explained below) makes the bread a great consistency
• Cooks up great in the Sun Oven if you are needing to cook without power

Emilie’s Whole Wheat Bread

(From Deals to Meals blog, directions are modified for Julie’s methods)

7 c. whole wheat flour (grind your own with your Wondermill)
2/3 c. vital wheat gluten (buy at Honeyville with coupon code SIZZLE for 20% off until Friday)
2 1/2 T. instant yeast

5 c. hot water (120-130 F)

2 T. salt
2/3 c. oil
2/3 c. honey or 1 c. sugar (I like honey the best!)
2 1/2 T. bottled lemon juice

5 c. whole wheat flour

Mix together the first three ingredients in your mixer with a dough hook. Add water all at once and mix for 1 minute; cover and let rest for 10 minutes (this is called sponging). Add salt, oil, honey or sugar, and lemon juice and beat for 1 minute. Add last flour, 1 cup at a time, beating between each cup. Beat for about 6-10 minutes until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. This makes very soft dough.

Spray counter with pam and take dough out of the bowl. Do NOT flour your counter, this will add dryness you don’t want in the bread. You basically want your dough to feel a “little” sticky. Separate dough into bread pans, and let rise until double in size. Bake at 350 for 22-30 mins or until browned. This depends on your oven, just watch it a little and cover with foil if it looks like it’s getting brown too fast. On the Deals to Meals blog, they do a quick rise with this bread, but I find that by the time I’ve cleaned up the kitchen and gotten all my ingredients put away, the bread is ready to go in the oven anyway.

This recipe will make 6 loaves of bread. I usually half the recipe, make 2 loaves of bread and one pizza dough for dinner that night. We have pizza once a week around here because it’s YUM and it kills 2 birds with one stone.

From: Food Storage Made Easy!

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2012/07/16/best-wheat-bread-recipe-yup-we-said-best/

All about Cherries

Go to this site to learn the how to's on Bing Cherries.  (how to prepare, freeze, recipes, ect.)

http://localfoods.about.com/od/summer/tp/CherriesHub.htm

Fruit and Yogurt Smoothies

From:  foodstoragemadeeasy.net

Serving Size: 2 large glasses
Prep Time: 5 minutes (if you make a bunch of baggies ahead of time)

Ingredients (if you skip the sugar, they’re actually REALLY healthy):

• 3/4 cup of frozen strawberries
• 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup of frozen peaches or rasberries
• 1 cup of powdered milk prepared
• 5 ice cubes of fat-free strawberry yogurt (or any other kind)
• Some of sugar if you think it needs it (I try not to)

*instead of water for the liquid part of the milk, you can use juice for the flavor, and the powder to make it creamy!

Directions:

1. Pour milk into blender
2. Add fruit, blend
3. Add yogurt cubes, blend
4. Add sugar, blend
5. Eat with a spoon, or drink with a straw

Directions to prepare a bunch of smoothies for the go ahead of time:

1. Buy a 8-10 ziploc baggies
2. Buy bags of your favorite frozen fruits (I did 2 strawberry, 1 peach, 1 blueberry)
3. Divide up your fruit into the baggies
4. Divide a large container of yogurt into ice cube containers and freeze
5. Once frozen place 5 yogurt cubes into each ziploc bag
6. Put bags into the freezer and use them up as you wish, all you’ll need to add is the milk and sugar.

SO – ASK YOURSELF DO I HAVE DRY MILK IN MY FOOD STORAGE?: