“Meals Made Easy”
“Meals Made Easy” January 2011 Handout by Debbie Kent peaceofpreparedness.com “ Every father and mother are the family's store keepers. They should store whatever their family would like to have in the case of an emergency.” James E. Faust (General Conference, April 1986) We all live very busy lives in which figuring out what to feel our families’ plays a role. In addition, we have long term food storage that we need to figure out how to use. This is what these Food Storage Cooking Classes are all about. Learning to cook with whole grains and beans to make quick, delicious meals that your family will clamor for every night of the week. This class we will be giving you several ideas for menu planning and meals that your family can make using the basics from your food storage plus a few extra ingredients that can transform your food storage from yucky to YUMMY! We are going to learn about six different systems that can be used to reach your goal of Meals Made Easy. You can use one or a combination of all six of these methods to enhance your everyday meals and rotate your food storage. In fact with these methods your food storage can become your everyday meals. Dinnertime...Typical Timeline As I see it there are basically four stages to a woman‟s life. In stage one, she is newly married and finds time to put together beautiful three course dinners complete with candles and folded napkins. In stage two, life begins to infringe on our storybook meals. We are busy with jobs and church and then along come the babies first one and then more and now you are too tired to think or take a shower let alone make a fancy dinner. Instead of your money going to dinners it‟s going to diapers. Meals in this stage might include those lavish meals might be replaced with faster foods such as frozen meals or casseroles, macaroni and cheese with sliced hot dogs. Now enter stage three is when your toddlers have turned into teens and require a chauffeur to be taken to school, sports and jobs and then as the kids leave home you may be sick of cooking the same old things and because your income has increased and meals can slowly go from homemade salads, grilled veggies and BBQ chicken to frozen foods and take-out which not only add pounds to the figure but take bigger chunks of change from the pocketbook and lead us down the path to obesity and health problems. Stage four is when we have a Great Awakening and realize that those thickening waistlines are not good and we NEED to eat foods that are good for us: the basics: whole grains, beans and vegetables, that we can save time by cooking at home and we also realize with the economy crumbling that we can actually save money by doing this. So the question is would you like to make healthy, good tasting meals in minutes, not just for emergencies but for your busy every day, life? Menu Planning My journey with meals has included all these stages. I find myself now in Stage Four. For me it wasn‟t so much that I didn‟t like to cook, I just couldn‟t think of what to cook. Because I wasn‟t prepared when 5 o‟clock rolled around and I had no idea what to make for dinner we would just go out. The Frugal Gourmet class taught by Rocky Chandler, helped me to get back on the path to home cooking again. It reminded me about menu plans. This system is so easy, I always have something to make for dinner so no excuse to eat out, less trips to the store, and makes it much easier to buy on sale and save lots of money. Here is a sample menu and ideas for making them for your family. Remember, you want to make a menu that is going to work for YOUR family. April, May, June, July, August, September 2010 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 spaghetti and meatballs Garlic bread Peas 2 chipotle chicken and pasta salad rolls 3 Dutch oven Spare ribs rolls 4 crock pot Cream cheese chicken 5 beef stew Rolls Glazed carrots 6 Encheritos Refried beans salad 7 chili Corn chips Raw veggies and dip 8 Chicken Alfredo pizza Broccoli Bread sticks 9 grilled teriyaki chicken sandwiches Glazed carrots 10 BBQ steaks Risotto Tomato stackers 11 crock pot Tamale pie 12 oriental beef Rice Sourdough bread 13 tacos with Black beans Corn bread Corn on the cob 14 sticky rice Wheat bread Corn on the cob 15 chicken parmesan w/penne pasta Sautéed carrots, celery and onions 16 ranch fried chicken Cob salad 17 BBQ hamburgers Salad Onion rings 18 Crock pot Fajitas 19 Grilled turkey and hot pepper cheese sandwich Raw vegys and dip 20 Santa Fe chicken wraps Zucchini with mozzarella cheese 21 fish cakes Pea salad Cheesy potatoes 22 raviolis Garlic rolls Zucchini and yellow squash 23 Caesar chicken pitas Roasted mixed vegetables 24 BBQ chicken rosemary bread Steamed broccoli 25 crock pot Shredded beef Sandwiches Chili cheese tots 26 pizza subs Green beans w/ bacon and onions 27 burritos Spanish rice Tomato stackers 28 cheesy cheeseburger stir French fries zucchini 29 lasagna Garlic bread Green beans 30 chicken tetrazzini Yellow squash 1) 2) 3) 4) How Menu Planning Works Menu: You only make 2 menus for the whole year: one for warm weather months and one for cold weather months. The goal: 30 different dinners. Need ideas for this? Have each day of the week be a different theme: Mexican, crock pot, BBQ, chicken, Italian, salads, food storage night, vegetarian, soups or new recipe night. The list can go on and on. The question is what does your family like? You want variety here, different meats and different flavors. Need help, have your family make suggestions. It is a chance to not only organize your old favorites but if you are like me and getting sick of those, a chance to try some new ones. Shopping List: With your menus done you can make your shopping list. After all you now know what you will need to make meals for the next year. If you are having spaghetti once each month you will have: 12 jars of your favorite spaghetti sauce on your list, 12 lbs of spaghetti, 12 lbs meatballs, ¼ lb parmesan cheese, 12 French bread, 3 lbs butter, spices and 12 cans peas. Make a master list for everything you need. Then shop. Some may prefer to shop for a week or two at a time, others, if they have the room and funds, for six months or a year. Which ever way you choose, you will always have what you need to make your meals. Saving Money: You can now use this list to buy what you need when it is on sale and if you want, utilizing coupons for even more savings. (See Frugal Gourmet & Couponing class on the website: peaceofpreparedness.com). You will also save money on out to eat expenses; gas money for trips to the store for missing items; and can buy in bulk. With these savings you can quickly build up your 90-Day and long term food storage. Couponing Tips: a) Use newspaper ads to find the cheapest prices. b) Use store & product coupons together for twice the savings. c) Walmart will honor other store‟s ad prices (bring add with you). d) Be organized: bring add, shop during slow times. e) Online Coupons: The Krazy Coupon Lady; Coupon Mom; grocerygeek.blogspot.com Menu Planning Combined with Food Storage The above menu uses a lot of fresh and frozen food, great for when times are good, but not so helpful when you either don‟t have enough money for fresh or it is unavailable. As the economy continues to erode and world events and natural disasters continue to reduce the world food supply, the food supplies dwindle and the prices rise. We have been warned of this. It is why we store a 90 Day and year supply of food. The next six methods we are going to discuss are ways to utilize these items into your everyday menus. Too many people do not have a year supply because they don‟t think they would ever “eat that stuff”. Why Do This? By utilizing your food storage in menu planning you accomplish several things: you find out what kinds of meals you can actually make with your storage; you ensure you have all the ingredients to make those meals; there is less waste because you store exactly what you need; and you learn you can incorporate your food storage to make fast, healthy meals that can be used for emergencies and everyday. My Goal for this Year… 90 then 365 days worth of menus of breakfasts, main meals, breads and I just can’t forget the desserts, aka comfort foods. Does 365 days seem to daunting for you then start simpler: 7 breakfasts + 7 lunches + 7 dinners x 13 = 90 Days of Delicious Meals Make a list: 7 breakfast, lunches, dinners and don‟t forget the snacks. Then figure out what you will need to make those meals. Want more variety? Then expand to 14 (2x per month) or even 30 meals (once per month). Your goal is at least one fill meal per day. Some families are planning for a big brunch, a supper and then leftovers or just bread and jam for dinner. Meals Made Easy I discuss in “Use it or Lose it” about the importance of dusting off your cans or buckets of food storage and learning to use it now. The other well kept secret is that cooking with food storage can be FAST. With a little planning and practice you can make delicious meals faster than going out to eat. 90 Day and Year Supply Menu Planning One great idea for doing this is found in “I Dare You to Eat it” by Liesa Card. She uses her long term food storage as the basis for her menu planning. Instead of a crock pot day or Italian day, you would use: wheat, corn, rice, pasta, oats, potatoes and beans for the basis of your meals. What a great idea! I use my wheat for the bread accompaniment, the other five staples for the main dishes. Just five meals each and you‟ve got your 30 day menu. I have included a blank menu at the end of the handout packet to get you started. Mixes You can find mix recipes in many different books or on the internet. Mixes Can Include: Baking mix, breads, desserts, drinks, sauces, seasonings and soups. See Just Add Water handout at peaceofpreparedness.com for more information on mixes. Why Use Mixes Mixes help rotate your food storage. Save up to 90% of the cost of commercial mixes by making your own. Spend less time in the kitchen and enjoy that good old-fashioned taste. Less preservatives in your meals. Adjust mixes to fit your families special dietary needs. Great for fast dinners, camping, unexpected company, 90-day menu Important Tips Mixes can be made from regular or instant powdered milk. Sugar substitutes can be used in place of sugar, experiment with amounts. Always use Cream of Tartar if listed in recipe. Pam, or other spray, can be used to grease pans. If dehydrated products (milk, butter, shortening, etc) become hard or lumpy, just sift. Dried egg whites and dried whole egg can be used interchangeably in most recipes. Powdered shortening/butter/margarine work well in quick mixes, but DO NOT give good results in regular cake and cookie recipes. Store mixes in covered containers in dry place (Ziploc bags, jars, plastic w/ lids) optimal temperature is 40-68°. Dinner is in the Jar by Kathy Clark • Uses both long term and short term foods • Can be stored in jars or bags • Everything pre-measured • Tasty • Good variety • 30 recipe ideas for main meals Another method of meals and meal planning is to pre-assemble all the ingredients for your meal. This can be done in re-usable jars or in sealable bags. The idea is to get all the time and mess of assembling and measuring the ingredients out of the way ahead of time. It also insures you have enough of the ingredients to make the meals. The recipes, such as the Red Enchiladas pictured, bring delicious, comfort foods to your food storage program. Includes 30 main dishes, with 3 each, you have your 90 day supply, add 9 more and you have a year supply. How easy is that? It’s In the Bag by Michelle and Trent Snow This is another great idea for organizing and using your food storage. All of the meals use shelf stable foods. They are good tasting „normal” meals geared for breakfasts and main meals. They are perfect for everyday, 90-Day and Year Supply menu planning and meals. All the items for the meals are kept together in a bag, including the water. Just grab one off the shelf, throw it in a pan and in 30 less than minutes you have a delicious, hot meal. Another great benefit is how easy it is to build your storage, one bag at a time! This book contains over 100 recipes to get you started. Converting Recipes…We want to LIKE what we Eat Using family favorites or new recipes is a great way to start using your food storage. Water Product Makes • Applesauce 1 c. ½ c. 1 c. • Apple Slices 1c 1 ½ c. 1 ½ c. Many of you probably do not have a shelf of food storage cookbooks which you can pull down and find a soup recipe using dried vegetables. Well, guess what you don‟t need one! All you need to do is use some of your favorite family recipes which use fresh vegetables and convert it into using dried foods. This isn‟t difficult, but does take some time, especially when you are first starting to use DH foods in cooking. Now, not all recipes will be able to be converted. Some are so full of fresh ingredients, salads for instance, that they just wouldn‟t be the same if using dried ingredients. Included at the end of this handout is a converting chart which you can use to make the switch. If your recipe calls for one can or cup of corn, you would use ½ c. of dried corn. If you are making soup, you just need to throw it in with the cold water (adding ½ c. more) and cook. It is just that easy. Another great thing about using dried foods is that they are already washed, prepped, and cut up, allowing you to just throw them in the pot. Less fuss, less mess, less time. And just think of the time you can save if they were already pre-measured also! Customizing your Menu Now is the time to start finding those recipes that your family loves. You want to find out which are good, which are bad and which are just plain bland, BEFORE you have to eat them. If you like most of the recipe, spice it up to fit your taste. Another great benefit is that you can make and package these meals to fit your family size. If you have six people in your family and the recipe says it feeds six, but with your growing boys it only feeds three, then double the recipe. On the other hand sometimes it says it feeds four and it really will feed 8, then half it. Then make your own Family Food Storage Recipe book, that includes all the ingredients and instructions in one easy to find place. You can even get fancy and include a picture if you like. This is so much easier than having to track down the right cookbook for that favorite Chicken and Rice recipe. Other Books and Resources All the Gifts in a Jar Books The Everyday Gourmet by Shari Haag Not Your Mother‟s Food Storage by Kathy Bray and Jan Barker Emergency Food in a Nutshell by Leslie Probert and Lisa Harkness 100 Day Pantry by Jan Jackson Cooking with Food Storage Made Easy by Debbie G Harmon Dehydrate2Store.com : Lots of great info and videos about dehydrating and using DH foods. PeaceofPreparedness.com: my website full of great info and links to help you make great meals. FoodStorageMadeEasy.com: Sign-up for Shelf Stable Saturday program; lots of great info. Food saver bags: dcprocessingequioment.com It‟s in the Bag, Bags and Covers: The bags are from a company called Xpedex. They have them around the US. They are plastic gift bags. They come in assorted colors. The dimensions are 8"x5"x10" and have 3/4 inch handles. I chose these because of their size and also because of the thickness of the plastic. I like to recycle them along with most of the baggies and water bottles and the bags seemed thick enough to last a while. They have too! In fact we are on our 3rd year and they are still going strong. We have an here is SLC so I just went in and asked for a volume discount on 500. I ended up paying 18 cents a piece. The CD covers are from Office Max, $.01 each. Ideas to Storing your Meals I don‟t know if you are like me, but getting out ten different kinds of foods and then measuring them to make a meal can be a bit time consuming not to mention messy. What if you could premeasure your meals and seal them up in a bag or jar ahead of time? Then all you would have to do is open it up, add a few simple ingredients and then, TA DA you have a meal. First, start with a recipe that is mostly dried ingredients with a few additional things added. Just remember you will be packing the dry ingredients separate from the wet ones. Then you will package them for long term storage. This can be done in one of two ways: sealed up with an oxygen absorber packet in a mylar bag using an impulse sealer or iron, or in a pint or quart sized jar using a Foodsaver or Seal-a-Meal with a jar sealer attachment. Storing Dried Foods The taste and quality of all stored food is affected by HALT: humidity; air; light and temperature. The drier; less oxygen; darker and cooler it is the longer the food will taste good. Dehydrated foods should be stored in a cool, dry area. Use your imagination: under beds, in closets or in the basement, if dry. The shelf life of Freeze-Dried and Dehydrated foods is, kept cool and dry is reported by companies to be 10-25+ years. Home packaged foods may not store this long, but if properly stored should store 5+ years. After Opening a Package…How Long does it Store? After you have opened your package of dried food, you have exposed it to: air and humidity. Both of these will soften and begin to change the flavor of the foods. It is said that dehydrated and Freeze-dried foods will store 9 months to 3 years after the seal on the can has been broken. I have found that Freeze-Dried foods really need to be repackaged as they very quickly absorb moisture which changes the taste and texture of the foods. There is no need to refrigerate, simply store in a relatively cool place. Remember to reseal the opened cans with a plastic lid or better yet re-package into mason jars. This will help to maximize the storage/shelf life. Other Benefits of Meals Made Easy Saves Time • • • • Canned or bottled meats pre-cooked Pre-organized and measured Less time in the kitchen No running to the store for missing ingredients Great for: Everyday Whether you are a young mother with small children, or one with teenagers that need to be driven from piano lessons to soccer practice, or a working man or woman who works long hours or has a long commute, or maybe ill or old or just plain old tired, we all have nights when we just need a quick and easy yet good tasting meal. That is a benefit of these kind of Meals Made Easy. Brings Family Blessings Mealtime is a perfect time for family bonding and reconnecting. It also creates opportunities for teaching and learning cooking skills. With pre-assembled meals anyone in the family can easily put a meal together without having to call mom to find out where the garlic or tomato paste is. This helps build confidence and self-reliant skills. When the whole family gets together to choose and assemble meals and sees the value in them it helps to build their testimonies of food storage and self-reliance. Healthy There are many benefits of planning, assembling, cooking your meals. These include: being able to customize your own low-fat or low salt meals. It allows for creating mixes or meals built around allergy considerations. It also makes it easier to use whole grains which are higher in fiber and protein than white flour in all your baked goods. Another big reason…no preservatives. New Skills There are many new skills that can be learned and utilized in Meals Made Easy. Skills like: Grinding grains; canning fruits, vegetables, meats and whole meals; dehydrating fruits and vegetables; dry pack canning; baking, packaging and organizing. And what better way to learn or teach new skills than with family and friends. Don‟t be shy about sharing your skills with others. New Cool Tools Having the right tool for the right job makes preparing and cooking so much easier. A dehydrater or canner makes it possible to store produce from your garden, grocery store or farmer‟s market for long term usage. A meat slicer makes it fast and easy to cut uniform pieces for the dehydrator. Having a Foodsaver and jar sealer attachment, makes it easy to dry pack food in mason jars, things like: dry fruit or vegetables, chocolate chips and nuts. A grinder makes it possible to use freshly ground whole grain flour to make delicious baked goods. And a little tool that I just can‟t do without…little cookie dough scoops. I have them in small, medium and large. They are perfect for cookies, muffins and cupcakes. No fuss, no mess. Build Food Storage Reserves I know that building a year supply seems overwhelming sometimes, not just from the amount of food that would be but also because of the cost. With these methods of: mixes, Dinner is in the Jar, It‟s in the bag, etc. you can build your food storage and home storage, one can at a time, one meal at a time. By using menu planning you can turn those cans and buckets of grain, pasta, rice and beans into meals, thus adding variety to your food storage. In addition, there will be no waste because you can buy just what you need. What a great way to plan for everyday meals, 90-Day and year supply of long term food storage. Sharing Another benefit of having ingredients on hand to make complete meals or pre-assembled meals is your ability to share at a moment‟s notice. You could be asked to bring a meal in to a new family or new mother, or a family who has had a trauma. You might want to bring a meal to a family who has been sick or is caring for someone sick or you might want to help a family who is in need. We all have many opportunities where we can show charity on a day to day basis, but never is the ability to share more important than after a disaster hits. Are you in a position to share? Practice Makes Perfect Dad always said practice makes perfect and that certainly applies to cooking with food storage. Your bread may turn out like bricks or your biscuits like hockey pucks the first time you try them. Don‟t give up, learn from your mistakes and keep moving forward. I saw a video on YouTube with a lady whose goal it is to make 365 pre-packaged meals for your food storage. Great idea! What wasn‟t great is that she found some recipes, bought the ingredients to make 12 of them and packaged them all up BEFORE they had tasted them! What if you go to eat it and you hate it! Please only package things you know you really like to eat. Another way to try new things is to have a food storage night. FoodStorageMadeEasy.com just started promoting Shelf Stable Saturday. They are posting a new recipe each week to go along with this. Why not do this with our families? Try a new recipe or new technique using your food storage. Better to try and fail now, BEFORE your survival depends on it. In connection with this you can have a monthly theme, beans for instance. Let‟s just say you aren‟t very comfortable cooking beans from scratch, make that your focus for the month. Cook with them at least once a week, trying out techniques and recipes to build your skills and your recipe collection. You can also do this with a group of friends, each making something that you can all taste and even have someone give a demonstration on a technique you all want to learn. Just remember, if at first you don‟t succeed, try, try again. If you still aren‟t getting it find someone who can help you. Now What? Taste: Taste the meals you think you want to have as part of your storage. If you don‟t love it, leave it and find something you do love. Remember you may not be able to change later on. Plan: What meals do you want for: Breakfast, lunches, dinners and desserts. How many of them can you pre-package for faster and easier meal making? Gather: Recipes, ingredients and supplies to make your meals. Do: What are you waiting for the sky to fall or the rains to start? Do it now, so you can not only learn what you like, but to save time and money. It is a win-win situation. In Closing “More than ever before, we need to learn and apply the principles of economic self-reliance… Food production is just one part of the repeated emphasis that you store a provision of food which will last for at least a year…The Church has not told you what foods should be stored. This decision is left up to individual members. I bear you my testimony that President Heber J. Grant was inspired of the Lord in establishing the Church Welfare program. The First Presidency was inspired when they made the first public announcement in 1936 and declared the prime purpose of Church welfare was “to help the people help themselves” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1936, p. 3). I bear witness to that inspired counsel from 1936 to the present day that the Saints lay up a year’s supply of food. When President Spencer W. Kimball persistently admonishes the members to plant gardens and fruit trees and produce our own food, he is likewise inspired of the Lord. Be faithful, my brothers and sisters, to this counsel and you will be blessed. You are good people. I know that. But all of us need to be better than we are. Let us be in a position so we are able to not only feed ourselves through home production and storage, but others as well. May God bless us to be prepared for the days which lie ahead, which may be the most severe yet.” Ezra Taft Benson, “Prepare for the Days of Tribulation,” Ensign, Nov 1980, 32 Friends, I don’t need to remind you of the scenes taking place all around us: job loss, foreclosures, empty fields because of flooding and droughts, pandemics, terrorism and more. We have been sent not only to be our families storekeepers, to be able to provide meals for them when there is no food to be found, but also, to be in a position to help the poor and the needy. Our goal this year is to add to our stock of preparedness goods and practice using them so that we feel that peace that comes through preparedness. So the question is, “What have you done today to prepare?” Think you can’t do it, that it is too hard? The Lord is there to help you all along the way. He comes again, will you be ready? April, May, June, July, August, September 2010 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 spaghetti and meatballs Garlic bread Peas and pearl onions in butter 2 chipotle chicken and pasta salad rolls 3 Dutch oven Spare ribs rolls 10 BBQ steaks Risotto Tomato stackers 1. crock pot Cream cheese chicken 5 beef stew Rolls Glazed carrots 6 Encheritos Refried beans salad 7 chili Corn chips Raw vegys and dip 8 Chicken Alfredo pizza Broccoli Bread sticks 9 grilled teriyaki chicken sandwiches Glazed carrots 11 crock pot Tamale pie 12 oriental beef Rice Sourdough bread 13 tacos with Black beans Corn bread Corn on the cob 14 sticky rice Wheat bread Corn on the cob 15 chicken parmesan w/penne pasta Sautéed carrots, celery and onions 16 ranch fried chicken Cob salad 17 BBQ hamburgers Salad Onion rings 18 Crock pot Fajitas 19 grilled turkey and hot pepper cheese sandwich Raw vegys and dip 20 Santa Fe chicken wraps Zucchini with mozzarella cheese 21 fish cakes Pea salad Cheesy potatoes 22 raviolis Garlic rolls Zucchini and yellow squash 23 Caesar chicken pitas Roasted mixed vegetables 24 BBQ chicken rosemary bread Steamed broccoli 26 27 28 cheesy cheeseburger stir French fries zucchini 29 lasagna Garlic bread Green beans 30 chicken tetrazzini 25 crock pot Shredded beef Sandwiches Chili cheese tots pizza subs Green beans w/ bacon and onions burritos Spanish rice Tomato stackers Yellow squash Menu for________________________________ Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
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