Week 42 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

Same as the previous week...

$10 Challenge
Store 2 cans Four Bean Mix

$20 Challenge
Store 4 cans Four Bean Mix

More lentils.  You can mash these up and serve them over corn chips and salsa with cheese on top for a simple Nachos.  Add them to mince to bulk it up.  Add to a salad.  Mash them up, add some cheese and herbs and serve them over a baked potato.

Add them to a soup, to tortillas and toast away, to a tuna salad with pasta.  Endless possibilities, if you like the things ;D

If you store dried lentils, you will need to store extra water to soak them in overnight, and for rinsing.  The canned ones don't need soaking, and you can probably get away with not rinsing them as well.

Week 41 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

$10 Challenge
Store 2 cans Four Bean Mix

$20 Challenge
Store 4 cans Four Bean Mix

I can see the advantage of this challenge - added protein to your food storage diet, but I really dislike lentils.   I'm going to replace this with canned ham, or filled ravioli or the like. 

That's the beauty of this challenge.  You can adapt it to suit your own family, yet get some ideas on what to store as you go along.

October Challenge

The challenge for October 2011 is:-

Purchase or make extra personal items such as shampoo, deoderant, soap and stock up on 'girly items' like sanitary pads/tampons etc. 

I'm not sure if there are any products out there that the menfolk need to stock up on - I'm guessing my husband couldn't care two hoots if he wasn't able to shave for a while.  If he needs moisturiser, he runs off with mine (your secret is out, Phil!!).

Picture c/o http://www.sweetsavings808.com/ an American blog by Karissa, who writes about fantastic freebies and cool deals you can get...if you live in America (which I don't) :(

This is her awesome third post about stockpiling, and where the photo comes from: http://www.sweetsavings808.com/2011/03/living-on-less-part-3-stockpiling.html

Week 40 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

$10 Challenge
Store 2 kgs powdered milk

$20 Challenge
Store 4 kgs powdered milk

Powdered milk again.  Make sure you check the use-by date on your powdered milk.  I once purchased some that had to be used up within 2 months.  I use a tablespoon of powdered milk each time I make bread, but I didn't get to make that much bread!

Other options if you already have enough powdered milk, or if you don't wish to store it are sweetened condense milk, or evaporated milk.  I like to keep both of those in stock too, as I use them whenever I make Nigella Lawson's Flan (aka Creme Caramel).  It gets devoured quickly here, and I confess, I could eat an entire thing by myself.  Well, almost by myself.  Over two days perhaps ;D

Week 39 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

$10 Challenge
Store 5 kgs wheat

$20 Challenge
Store 10 kgs wheat

If you can't store wheat, store flour, or rice, or whatever your family eats most of. 

This wheat can be put through a grinder to make bread, or tortillas daily if needs be.  I do have some wheat stored (20 kilos, or something like that), but I tend to store more flour as I used to be allergic to wheat when I was a child. Some people can develop intolerances for whole wheat in breads.  I am not willing to risk that should I need to rely solely on my food storage.

You can sprout wheat too, and munch on that.  There is a recipe for 'Swamp Water' floating around in my food storage folder which uses ground up wheat grass.  I have tasted it.  I was very nearly sick.  I don't think I'll be making that unless my life depended on it - and I'm seriously hoping it won't come to that! ;D

Freezable Lunchbox Snacks

I love being able to stock my freezer door with some easy-to-grab snacks that I can throw in lunch boxes in the morning.

Portions of the following are easy to individually wrap, freeze and grab:-

• Muffins
• Cupcakes
• Focaccia
• Slices
• Brownies/Blondies
• Sandwiches

Today I made a chocolate brownie and parmesan herb focaccia for lunchboxes tomorrow as we were running low on freezer items.  They made for a great after school snack this afternoon, then they were sliced up, wrapped and into the freezer they went.

Usually I use make Cherry Blondies, but I didn't have enough white chocolate, and couldn't open the jar of Morella Cherries I had (doh!), so a chocolate cakey brownie it became.

Here's the recipe:-

Ingredients

100 grams butter
180 grams white chocolate
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup self-raising flour
3/4 cup plain flour
1 cup pitted cherries
Icing sugar, to dust

Prepare a slice pan - I am not into my brownies looking really pretty on the crust, so I throw baking paper in a baking dish.  Less mess.  Easy!

1. Melt butter and chocolate in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Remove from heat.  Set aside to cool for 5 mins.
2. Add sugar, eggs and flours to pan.  Stir to combine.
3. Spread into prepared slice pan.  Press cherries into mixture
4. Bake for 30 mins or until edges are firm and top golden in a 180 degree C oven.
5. Cool in pan. Dust with icing sugar.

Enjoy!

Week 38 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

$10 Plan
Replenish the Kitty Tin

$20 Plan
Replenish the Kitty Tin

If you have been doing the 'Kitty' method, where you put the $10 or $20 into a jar or tin each week, and use only that money to purchase your Food Storage, this is where you would put that money in and leave it in for this week.  There are some expensive things coming up that you need to 'save' up for, like vitamins.  In order to get ones that will actually be of benefit, you'd need to spend a bit of money on those.

And how cute is that kitty tin?