Week 24 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

$10 Plan
Store $10 worth of Jelly
$20 Plan
Store $20 worth of Jelly

What better food to go with your rice pudding and tinned fruit!  Jelly has always been well received in my family.

Uses for Jelly:-

1. Plain - as is
2. With custard and tinned fruit
3. With rice pudding
4. As a jelly drink, either hot or cold
5. Mix tacky jelly (made with half the water) into a tin of whipped evaporated milk.
6. These jelly biscuits: http://www.food.com/recipe/jelly-crystal-biscuits-cookies-272320
7. These 'window' cookies: http://www.food.com/recipe/jelly-centered-sugar-cookies-295938
8. To coat lamingtons or in jelly cakes
9. On top of cheese cakes (YUM!!!) http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/20804/jelly+swirl+cheesecake+slice
10. In a Trifle, such as this one: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/14667/summer+berry+trifle.  I also do a Christmas one found here: http://denleydiaries.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-trifle.html

Week 23 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

$10 Challenge
Store 5 kgs rice


$20 Challenge
Store 10 kgs rice


Rice again!


We're storing rice because it is a tummy filler, just like pasta.  If you're not a big rice eater, store something you and your family will eat, like pasta or lentils.


Here is some information on rice and rice storage from Week 6 of this challenge: http://denleydiaries.blogspot.com/2011/02/week-6-of-2011-food-storage-challenge.html


There are many varieties of rice to choose from.  Vary your food storage diet by storing long grain varieties for things like fried rice or plain boiled rice to short grain Calrose rice for things like Rice Pudding. 

How did this happen so fast?

How does one dark grey bunny go from being so little...

And from being this cute... (notice those gorgeous eyes!!)...

To this?

At least he is still cuddly, even though he can be a great big sook!  And yes, his eyes are still the same colour as his fur.  Mr Storm, our beautiful Blue Havana.  An ear forward like this lets us know he is in 7th Heaven when he is getting his cheek rubbed :D

Week 22 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

$10 Plan

5 packets soup mix


$20 Plan
10 packets soup mix


This seems like a strange challenge, doesn't it!  It's all about flavour and being able to have options with the food we have already stored.  Add a packet of French Onion Soup Mix to some evaporated milk and create a pasta bake, add it to fried rice for some variation, use it as a base for your own food storage soup (tinned veggies - not always the best but when you're hungry...it's better than nothing).


There are also some really yummy things you can do with it.  When I was growing up, we had french toast, and I still make it for my little family:-

• 1/2 packet French Onion Soup Mix 
• 4 large eggs
• 8 slices bread cut into triangles
• Oil for pan frying (I use Vegetable oil)

1. Whisk eggs and soup mix together.

2. Heat oil in pan.

3. Dip bread into egg mix and pan fry until golden.

4. Drain on absorbent paper.

Note: The Soup Mix is really strong, so this ratio of eggs per half pack of soup mix works pretty well.  I have been known to get by on 5 or 6 eggs depending on how many people I'm feeding.  You also won't want to leave the bread soaking in the egg mixture unless you like soggy bread.

Other uses for French Onion Soup Mix

- Use it to add flavour to coat chicken drumsticks or chicken pieces

- Savoury Mince (add to mince and veggies)

- Casserole

- Dip (add 1/2 packet soup mix to 1 tub sour cream)

- To enhance meatballs, meatloaf or rissoles

- Potato Bake
- Sprinkle over roasted veggies


Uses for Chicken Noodle Soup Mix

- Meatball 'porcupines'
- Chicken and veggie soup
- Chicken casserole
- Pasta Bake
- Chicken and corn soup (add a tin of creamed corn and diced chicken and whatever else you like)


Remember you don't have to store this ingredient if you don't think you'll use it.  Store something that would work well with what you do have that will add flavour and help complete a meal.

Week 21 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

$10 Challenge
Store 2 kgs sugar and stock (cubes, liquid or powder)

$20 Challenge
Store 4 kgs sugar and stock (cubes, liquid or powder)

Just to clarify, we're not storing 2 kgs or 4 kgs of stock...only sugar.  You can store as much of the stock as you like.

Sugar
This is the last of the sugar we are storing for this particular challenge.  It is about to go up in price due to the floods in Qld. Just on a side note, I wrote the entire challenge out at the beginning of the year in full - it's coincidental but interesting however this has all panned out.

You are welcome to store more than what is required in this challenge if you wish.    This is a simply a minimum recommendation.

Stock
Why are we storing this?  Mainly to provide more variety to what could perhaps be a bland food storage diet.  You can add stock to rice or pasta to alter the flavour.  Add it to instant potato, to stews and soups, to lentils when you soak them, to 2 minute noodles if you have lost the flavouring sachet, even in savoury mince.

Stock cubes will last the longest of these three, and that is mainly what I store.  Can't live without the bacon ones!  Even used them in an Irish Stew we had last night with dumplings.  Mmmmm (slow cooked in the oven for 4 hours)!

If you don't want to store stock though, store another kind of seasoning - soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, herbs or spices - whatever flavouring you would mainly use and eat apart from salt.

Week 20 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

Brrr it is getting cold here, which means I can't feel my fingers when I am typing ;D - or when I'm hanging out the washing, or doing the gardening, but what do I need fingers for? *moves the heater just a little bit closer*

Wow, we're up to week 20!  Exciting stuff!!

$10 challenge
Store 2 kgs sugar and 1 packet of instant potatoes/potato flakes

$20 challenge
Store 4 kgs sugar and 2 packets of instant potatoes/potato flakes

Sugar

We have one more week after this of sugar storage and then we're done with sugar.  I consider sugar an absolute necessity for my food storage.  Making bread with yeast requires sugar, you need it for sweet baking (cakes, biscuits), even to add to a basic pasta sauce with salt to bring out the flavour of the tomatoes.

I use sugar when making hot chocolate, in rice pudding, in custard, sprinkled on top of peaches and puff pastry then baked (yum!).

Remember you can store different kinds of sugar as well.  http://www.sucrose.com/ltypes.html from the Sugar Knowledge International site (SKIL) has some useful information about sugar.

I have learned that brown sugar doesn't store as long as the white sugars because of the higher amount of liquid contained in it.  It has been stored successfully for a few years in my own pantry cupboard though, and on occasion has only required a 'thwack' on the kitchen table to loosen it.  I haven't had it go 'bad' on me yet, but I do keep rotating it and haven't stored it for more than those few years without using it up.

I use raw sugar in my Thermomix and it converts the raw sugar into icing sugar if I need that.  Quite a handy machine!

Potato Flakes/Instant Potato

Okay so I wasn't a fan of instant potato years ago when my parents stored it, but I tried some from Aldi recently and was pleasantly surprised.  Even my husband commented that he liked it much to my amazement.  He isn't fussy, but does have a high standard when it comes to food.

You may not always be able to get potatoes, or decent ones and because we are trying to vary your food storage here, it can be a useful thing to have on hand.

Use it in Shepherd's pie, with gravy and caramelised onion, with chopped cooked/canned veggies (my kids call this 'rainbow potatoes'), with tuna in tuna cakes, in bubble and squeak/hash browns, in gnocci, with bread crumbs to crumb meat or chicken, make potato bread or everlasting yeast (recipe here: http://denleydiaries.blogspot.com/2011/01/everlasting-yeast.html)

The idea of storing instant potatoes is that it is something that will fill tummies, like pasta and give you some variety in your food storage.

Of course, you don't have to store sugar or instant potatoes if you don't want to.  Store something you and your family will eat and remember to "eat what you store and store what you eat".

I am not open to negotiations, I am not a democracy!

Yup, this is what I just told my seven year old after she asked me a question. I gave my reponse (obviously not the answer she was after) so she proceeded to ask me a second time, then tried to negate her way around my answer.  I refuse to budge.  If I say "no" to a lolly, it means no.  It doesn't mean you can ask me again in five minutes, it doesn't mean you can tell me what you think I should say.  It doesn't mean that you can bring Daddy into the discussion. "No!" means no!  Don't ask me again today because my answer will not change.  You've had your lolly for the day and that is that! I am not open to negotiations, I am not a democracy.

Wonder if I can use that line on my husband?! (Tee hee hee)