Week 8 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

$10 challenge

Store 2 kgs powdered milk

$20 challenge

Store 3 kgs powdered milk and 1 kg custard powder

Yes folks, we're storing powdered milk again. The reason for that is most emergency situations where you would have to use powdered milk would generally mean that you can't get fresh milk easily. Sadly we've seen that happen in flooded and storm damaged areas. Especially if you have younger mouths to feed, it's a good idea to store milk powder for the calcium benefit.

The custard powder is a way to use up some of that milk powder and to add variety to your food storage. It's great as a snack or a dessert.

You can use your milk powder for bread baking, in cakes and other baking, potato bakes, hot chocolate/coffee, rice pudding and well...there's 381 recipes with milk powder alone here: http://www.cooksunited.co.uk/rs/s0/milk+powder/recipes.html

I was given a hot chocolate mix using powdered milk that you can keep in a big screw lid jar and use as you go along, or seal in smaller foil pouches for 72 hour kits. Here it is:-

Mary's Hot Chocolate Mix

2 kg powdered milk (skim or regular - doesn't matter)

500 grams coffee whitener

810 gram tin Nesquick (or the equivalent)

Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight container.

To make up the drink: to 1/3 cup chocolate mix add 2/3 cup hot water.

Enjoy!

I have no idea who Mary is. This recipe was given to me by the wonderful lady to helped start me on my journey with my food storage. Sadly she passed away last week and I've been a bit of a stunned mullet since. I had some questions I wanted to ask her about food storage. I know she had some she wanted to ask me about music too . I'm sure we'll meet up again at some point.

Something I learned - did you know custard powder is an explosive? Apparently, all fine dusts are (sugar, flour etc). I informed my husband, who shrugged his shoulders and said yes, he knew that. My son piped up "That's cool. Mum doesn't need to use Molotov Cocktails any more, she can use custard powder". Yeah - 'cause I use Molotov Cocktails every day! (sarcasm intended).

Here's some interesting information on custard powder: http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pages/custardpowder