50 Hour DIY Candles

This is not about food storage but has to do with preparedness.  Does that count?    http://teotwawkiblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/diy-survival-candles.html   for survival candles and other interesting articles.

Simply Prepared

This is a good website for preparedness stuff...

http://www.simplyprepared.com/ 

Everyday Food Storage

Does anyone still check this? I don't. I am posting this mainly so I can come back later and look at it. You know, later, as in when I have time for doing things I'm interested in. See you in 20 years, give or take a year.

http://everydayfoodstorage.net/

Everything Under the Sun

My mom came across this food storage blog the other day and passed it along to me. It's got way more information than I know what to do with. But thought you might be able to put some of it to good use.

Quicker-to-Make 100% Whole Wheat Bread

Amy W was asking me for a wheat bread recipe. It's not really mine. This recipe came from a good friend of my mom's...but she is an awesome cook and it's a pretty good recipe, I've tried it. It makes about 2 loaves, so you can half it, but I love homemade bread, so unfortunately, I practically end up eating one all by myself. But then you still have one left over.


3 cups hot tap water (hot to touch, not hot enough to burn)
1/3 c. oil
1/3 c. honey
1 Tbs. dough enhancer
1 Tbs. instant yeast
1 Tbs. salt
1 Tbs. vital wheat gluten
6-8 c. freshly ground whole wheat flour

Pour warm water in mixing bowl. Add approximately 3c. flour on top of liquid. Then add dough enhancer, oil, honey, yeast, and gluten. Mix well. Add approximately 3+ additional cups flour and salt. Knead , continuing to ad flour 1/4 c. at a time until the dough pulls away cleanly from the sides of the bowl. Knead for another 5 minutes.Oil or grease hands and counter. Divide dough into equal portions and shape into loaves. Put into well-greased pans. Let rise till double in size. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or till golden brown on top. Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack. Brush top of loaves with butter or water for a shiny appearance. Dough can be used for pizza crust or cinnamon rolls.

Wheat Pancakes

Growing up I remember that my dad loathed anything wheat...he still does. I assumed I did too, until I started buying my own food and realized I loved the flavor. Now, my kids won't even touch a white bread sandwich--and even I have a hard time swallowing it down.

I love to use Montana Farms Prairie Gold Wheat--it has a mild wheat flavor and is light in color. I buy it from the Bosch store in Orem in 50lb bags. It used to be a good price...but as you know, wheat prices have increased.

We have these pancakes every week, and we never get tired of them. We've become pancake snobs and won't eat anything else. I of course recommend homemade syrup as well--I hate that thick store bought junk.

Hope you enjoy!


Wheat Pancakes—the best you’ll ever have!

Mix together:

1 ¼ Cup Wheat Flour
3 Tbls Brown Sugar
3 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
3 Tbls oil
2 eggs
1 Cup milk (more or less depending on desired consisitency)

Mix with a wire whisk and cook on a hot griddle.

Food Storage Muffins

These muffins can be made from exactly what the prophet says we should have in food storage (minus the baking soda, but it is a good one to have on hand in any case). One word of caution: If you are not accustomed to mixing grains or eating whole grains regularly, be cautious...mixed whole grains have a detox effect. The first time I made these for Josh, we ate too much and were both detoxing for a couple days (sore throat, general sick feeling, etc.). My hypothesis is that when most people are forced to use food storage, they'll be sick for awhile because their bodies are not used to the nutritional overload. Imagine...in many cases people will be eating better on food storage than they are now!

Also, one more note, if you enjoy sweeter muffins, you can alter the sugar source to brown sugar or double the honey. As is, these are really plain bran type muffins, but I love them. It took me 3 tries to get them to pass my taste test. Feel free to play with the recipe:

Food Storage Muffins

4 cups grain mix flour*
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil**
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 to 2 cups water

-add the wet things to the dry ones, all at once
-stir just until moist
-fill muffin cups to just overflowing
-bake 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees


*In my reading, and personal experience, our bodies experience a powerful effect by mixing different grains for flour. You can use strictly whole wheat, however, there is a synergistic effect on the body when the grains are mixed (wheat is for man, and all grain is for the body...see D&C 89). If you have a grinder, it is super fast and easy to make mixed grain flour (today we added lentils...but barley, millet, oats, rice, rye, wheat, quinoa, bean flour, buckwheat, etc will all work. Any combination is good, although some taste much better than others.) If you are interested in knowing more about this, there is a wonderful little booklet you can purchase with quite a few recipes that can be easily used with basic food storage materials. It's called Cookies for Dinner http://www.grainmix.com/. I got this muffin recipe from that book! It is $5 + $2 shipping. If you are serious about having good nutrition when the hard times hit, I highly recommend this small investment as part of your plan. One more thing, if you do store whole grains, they can easily be sprouted for salads, etc. They are nutrient dense, and ensure that you have living foods when we can't get fresh fruits and vegetables!

**As often as I can, I use coconut oil instead of other oils (it's kind of pricey, but worth its weight in gold). It has a high nutritional value and is able to maintain much of its value when used in high temperature cooking. It is one of the only resources of which I'm aware that contains lauric acid. The only other substance I know containing lauric acid is breast milk. Lauric acid helps form the glial cells in the brain, which help us transition quickly between thoughts. Albert Einstein (who was actually breastfed until he was 7 years old!!!) had substantial amounts of glial cells. In regards to coconut oil, I use coconut oil on my baby's bum each diaper change because it has anti-infective properties. It really does work in preventing and helping diaper rash! I've heard that in tropical climates many women use it as an age defense lotion on their skin...but I can't prove that one. Okay, one more...it makes an awesome lubricant, if you know what I mean.

Here's where I get my oil (several cities in the US have private sellers who buy in bulk and then pass on part of the discount): http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/virgin_coconut_oil.htm?s=gad&gclid=CO394LajypQCFQL8iAodW1mPlA

Also, most grocery stores carry some form of coconut oil in the nutritional foods section, however it has been processed and lost some of it's value but it still works.


Muffin variations:

Banana Muffins: 3 bananas, 1/2 cup walnuts

Raisin Muffins: 1/2 cups raisins, 1/2 cup walnuts, 1/2 tsp cinnamon or 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Gingerbread Muffins: replace honey with 1 cup molasses, add 1 1/2 tsp ginger, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cloves. It's yummy served with whipped cream.

Apple Muffins: 4 finely chopped apples, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice


I'll send some more recipes along as I can...I hope that some of this research is useful to someone!