Monday, October 10, 2011

What's for Dinner, October Week 2, Cooking with Food Storage

This week I am doing something a little bit different with our dinner menu.  I'm planning it all using shelf-stable food storage.  Not the stuff from the fridge or freezer, but only things from the pantry and that I have stored for longer term.  One reason I'm doing this is to rotate and use up some beans, rice, and polenta that I have open already.  Another reason is to see what variety I can come up with!

We're trying not to eat a lot of refined carbs, so that really restricts the recipes.  I gave up and am making a pasta and chicken casserole on Wednesday.  And I'm already cheating because we have some fresh trout to cook so I'm making that Monday.  But other than the trout, everything else is from our food storage!  I'm also going to try to make breakfasts and lunches that are mostly shelf-stable.  This morning breakfast was oatmeal, lunches had a sandwich, granola bar, chips, and a piece of fruit, and Brian also took a cup of soup.

Monday
Fresh Caught Trout
Potatoes (may use dried, not sure yet...)
3 Bean Salad made from canned kidney beans, green beans, garbanzo beans and peas, oil and vinegar
Basic Peanut Butter Balls for Family Home Evening Treat

Tuesday
Pinto Beans using The Cowboy's Wife's Cowboy Husband's recipe
Homemade Tortillas
Home-canned Salsa (recipe below, and can be used fresh or refrigerated in a small batch if you're not out of tomatoes.  Our tomato season was late here, and there are still some on the vine.  We eat TONS of salsa!)
   






















Chunky Homemade Salsa  
(recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Americas All*time Favorite Canning and Preserving Recipes)
7 pounds tomatoes (about 20)
10 Anaheim chili peppers
3 jalapeno peppers
2 cups coarsely chopped onion
1/2 cup snipped fresh cilantro
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup vinegar
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

1. Wash tomatoes. remove peels.  Coarsely chop tomatoes and measure 14 cups.  Place in a large colander and let drain 30 minutes.  Place drained tomatoes in an 8-quart Dutch oven.  Bring to boiling.  Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 45-50 minutes or until thickened to desire consistency, stirring frequently.

2. Seed and chop the Anaheim peppers and measure 3 cups.  (Be careful and wear gloves when doing this.  Don't touch your eyes or nose, either!)  Seed and chop jalapenos and measure 1/3 cup.  Add the chili peppers, onion, cilantro, garlic, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper to tomatoes.  Return mixture to boiling and then remove from heat.

3. If canning, ladle salsa into hot, clean pint canning jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Wipe jar rims and adjust lids.  Process in a boiling water canner for 35 minutes.  Remove jars from canner and cool on racks.  Makes 4 pints, or 112 one-tablespoon servings.  (or in our family, 28 four-tablespoon servings.)

Wednesday
Tarragon Chicken Casserole
2 cans low fat cream of chicken soup, undiluted
2 cups reconstituted powdered milk
4 teaspoons tarragon
Pepper to taste
1 13oz box bowtie pasta, cooked
2 10oz cans chicken, drained
1 14 oz can peas, drained
paprika
parmesan cheese

Mix soups and milk together.  Add tarragon and pepper.  Mix pasta with chicken and peas.  Pour soup mixture over pasta mixture.  Mix well.  Place in casserole dish.  Sprinkle paprika and parmesan over top.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until heated through.


Thursday
Caribbean Black Beans and Rice
2¾ cups water
1 cup uncooked long grain rice
1 can (15 ounces) diced tomatoes, drained
1¾ cup soaked and cooked dry black beans or 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, drained and rinsed
½-1 can (4 ounce) diced green chiles
¼ cup dried onions
¼ cup dried green peppers (or ½ cup diced fresh peppers)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1½ teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt
¼-½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 bay leaf

In a pot, heat water while adding all ingredients. Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered, 20 minutes. Remove bay leaf and serve. Serves 4-5.

— Recipe from "Emergency Food Storage in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition" by Leslie Probert and Lisa Harkness

Friday
Baked Polenta  made with parmesan cheese
Bread Sticks with parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning
Fruit Salad from home-canned fruits

Saturday
Tortilla Chips

Chicken and Corn Soup
6 cups water
4 teaspoons chicken bouillon
½ cup dried carrots*
1 tablespoon dried onions
1 tablespoon dried celery (or one stalk fresh celery, diced)
½ teaspoon dried minced garlic
1 can (15 ounces) corn, undrained
2 tablespoon parsley
1 cup uncooked pasta, any shape
1 can (10-12 ounces) chicken chunks undrained and broken up
½ teaspoon sugar (if no sugar in canned corn)
pepper to taste
In a pot, heat water while adding all ingredients except last four. Simmer, covered 15 minutes. Add pasta and simmer 10 minutes more. Stir in chicken. Heat through. Season to taste and serve. Serves 4-5.

— Recipe from "Emergency Food Storage in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition" by Leslie Probert and Lisa Harkness

I'm linking here:



2 comments:

Julie said...

These look like some great recipes. How clever to do a week cooking with specifically food storage.

Pattie @ Olla-Podrida said...

I really do like this idea. We need to have a "clean out the freezer week." Thanks for the salsa recipe, it looks delicious and, really, can you ever have too much salsa? I don't think so.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...