Well, I've actually been on a roll with making new recipes with food storage items lately (well, two is a roll for me... :) In my defense, I do continue to use most recipes once I try them, like rice and beans and making bread, it's just new ones that I don't do as often as I should...
Anyway, on Friday, I used the recipe for Spam Fried Rice found over at Preparedness Pro. My kind of recipe--few ingredients, among them Spam, which my children love--and additional instructions on how to use it with canned chicken, or make it with "non-food-storage"ingredients. Plus (this is beginning to sound like one of those "call now and we'll also include" deals in the sales commercials :) there are pointers on how to make it with less fuel, which could be crucial in an emergency situation.
Oh, yeah, and it's also pretty tasty, even if it's not all smooth-sailing (oh, yeah, things can get interesting around here even with recipes marked EZ... :)
--I used chicken-flavored Rice-A-Roni instead of fried rice flavor because, well, that's what I had. It was good, and maybe one of these times I will find the rice-flavored variety for, well, variety.
--The most likely reason that I had the chicken-flavored variety for this recipe was because of the "20% more" banner across the top of the boxes. Who can resist the siren call of "more" when it comes to food storage? However, when you read the original recipe it calls for a 6.2 oz box of the Rice-a-Roni, and apparently 20% more is 6.9 oz. (If not, just be kind, because this is not a math blog...) Fortunately, somewhere in mid-cooking, I thought, more rice means I need more water to cook it with, and checked, and indeed more water was needed. Having run into insufficient water/rice ratios previously, most notably with at least one of my rice and bean recipes chronicled elsewhere in this blog, I realized the edibility factor would be compromised without swift action and was able to react quickly by adding more water. See, experience does come in handy sometimes....and better to have that experience before you're in a tense situation with limited food supplies.
--I did buy canned peas for this particular recipe, and it was helpful, though rather annoying, to find that at least one of my children would meticulously pick out everything but the peas in an attempt to avoid them. This affects future preparation because I can always serve peas separately at another time, but for this particular recipe I will probably use green beans or corn since it is only necessary to warm the added vegetable at the end. There is always the argument that if people are hungry enough they'll eat what is in front of them and be grateful for it, and unfortunately it may eventually come down to a situation like that in a food-storage only situation. But if you know ahead of time, you may be able to avoid something like that as long as possible-- after all, added stress of disliked food + emergency situations=even more unhappiness.
Oh, and if you check out the recipe link above, you'll also be able to check out a second recipe for "Mexi-Cincy Chili" which I have not tried. And if you act now, all of this valuable information can be yours for free. Thanks Preparedness Pro!
And a big thank-you as well to HSJacobus at Jacobus Family Blogspot for her "Friday's Food Fancy" archives. I finally picked up some cornmeal and was planning to make some cornbread, and the recipe on the back of the box looked pretty simple. Simple is good. Simple plus use of food storage items to improve your rotation is better. Having really specific instructions so that you can use those food storage items to double the recipe and have enough for another day tucked away in your freezer is priceless. (Yeah, still going with commercial themes here... :)
You can find all these things in the cornbread recipe found here. I used evaporated milk, which I need to do more of pretty soon because the cans I was looking at expire in a few months. I've said before that I don't really like the fact that when I use my storage the shelves get empty, but if I let the items expire before I use them, the result will be the same---no/not enough food to eat in an emergency situation. What's on your shelf that needs to be used? Come on, I can't be the only one that has some expiration dates coming up.... :)
3 comments:
Bahahaha - have you been sneaking into my pantry and checking for expiry dates???
i am in the same boat as you - evaporated milk is gonna expire in a few months...
hmmm - got any good recipes that can use up a ton of evaporated milk?
(i am sure that you have already posted some but i just found this blog and plan to start reading it from the beginning starting this evening)
So cool! Thanks for the feedback on the Spam Fried Rice recipe! That's awesome. We had a preparedness party a little while ago and debuted both the Spam Fried Rice and Mexi-Cincy Chili. Both were a big hit! Today we tackled vegetables in an emergency and recipes with veggies that were altered to accomodate alternatives. http://tinyurl.com/c5lqdz. Let us know if you make any!
Kymber--No, I haven't seen your dates, but if you are in the same boat, thanks for making me feel better. :)
I have been thinking about using evaporated/powdered milk my next cooking focus, and if I'm successful, I'll definitely be sharing the recipes--thanks very much for your comment!
Preparedness Pro--Thank you very much for the recipe and all the very helpful information you provide on your site. The post on vegetables is also excellent, and I hope others take time to check out the entire site. Of course, there is always the chance that they may never come back here, but if they get more prepared as a result, it's all good... :) Thanks for your comment!
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