I Dare You To Eat It

Remember when I shared the amazing recipe found for Massaged Kale Salad? Oh my. That recipe has become one of our all time favorites.  In the spirit of getting fresh with our food storage, I’ve fully incorporated this recipe into our monthly rotation. Adding rice and a couple of extra vegetables to the salad makes for a totally satisfying main course. In addition to the wonderful flavor and terrific nutritional benefits, this kale salad can be fully prepared a day ahead of time. It’s the perfect choice for entertaining and has saved me many times. The mongoes do not turn the slightest bit brown and the kale keeps its curl even after marinating in the dressing overnight. The red pepper and purple onion also hold their own and stay happy. The only ingredients I added right before serving were the scoop of warm rice and a generous sprinkle of roasted pumpkin seeds. I’m sure that  a  little grilled chicken or teriyaki steak strips would taste great but we’re trying to do less of that.

The new kitchen cupboards have enough space to use these recycled orange boxes as meal bins. For this recipe you can see a three month supply of pumpkin seeds, honey, and olive oil. (Sesame oil substituted for 50% of total oil was an experiment suggested online. Interesting…but not necessarily better.)

In a very healthy way, this type of food storage helps me to USE and ROTATE as in EAT my supply of rice. Even three or four ingredients stashed in a box, or simply grouped together on the shelf, improves my ability to EFFICIENTLY prepare enjoyable meals for my family. That’s the emergency I’m dealing with on a daily basis.

Just came from a Relief Society luncheon where I served this Food Network salad. A number of friends asked if they could have the recipe so it must have been a hit:) Take time to watch the preparation video with Chef Ellie Krieger. She makes it look so easy, and it was!

After trying the recipe once exactly as Ms. Krieger suggested, the only change I suggest is to prepare your wheat berries ahead of time in the crock pot. The batch prepared on the stove was just a bit toooooo chewy. The second batch was cooked in the crock pot on low overnight, like I always do, but then I accidentally forgot to unplug the thing and they continued cooking until noon the following day…which was way way too long. Awesome breakfast cereal but no go as a salad. Third batch (forever the rookie) was cooked on low for the standard 8 hours which proved once again to be, in the immortal words of Goldilocks, JUST RIGHT.

With wheat from a long term supply and walnuts and tart dried cherries from a three month supply, food storage can even be used for entertaining!

Fresh Ingredients

2 stalks celery, diced

1 green onion, white and green part, sliced

1/2 cup finely chopped parsley leaves

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Storage Ingredients

1 1/2 cups dry wheat kernels or 3 1/4 cups cooked wheat berries

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup tart dried cherries, chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper  to taste

(I doubled this recipe so keep that in mind as you’re passing over these pictures.) Cook your wheat berries using which ever method you prefer. Jump over here for my simple crock pot instructions. I always cook a full batch of wheat and then store the leftovers in the freezer. Be sure to drain the wheat berries before using them in this recipe. Lightly toast the walnuts and chop the celery and dried cherries.

Dice the green onion and parsley. Fresh lemon juice and olive oil can be poured directly into the salad. No need to pre-mix the simple dressing.

Combine all the ingredients and season with salt and pepper. Super easy and super yummy! THIS is how I want to rotate my food storage.

Now that the dust has settled and construction is finally completed on my new and much improved kitchen, I’ve begun a total remodel of my three month supply of food storage. Still planning to use my wheat, rice, beans, pasta, and potatoes in 30 normal, everyday meals, but this time the focus is going to be on using even more fresh vegetables, beans, and whole grains, with a little less meat and creamy casseroles.

My first recipe is the New York Goodwich, with the addition of a little cooked wheat berry. Technically a diet wrap, this yummy-fists-full-o-goodness is at the top of my list because it tastes absolutely fantastic. Plus, our family purchased something like 600 pounds of wheat while living in New York, and I’m bent on using, or disguising, every last kernel:) The Goodwich is an excellent hiding place. If you haven’t ever tried serving your family something with whole cooked wheat berries, START HERE.

Fresh Ingredients

2 cups broccoli

1 cup cauliflower

1/3 cup carrot, finely grated

1/3 cup red cabbage, finely grated

1/3 cup yellow squash, finely grated (sub any squash but yellow is best)

1 large onion

3-4 cups lettuce, finely shredded (or spinach)

1 cup alfalfa sprouts

1 avocado, sliced

Storage Ingredients

1 cup precooked whole wheat berries

4 whole wheat or multi grain wraps

1/2 cup barbecue sauce

1 tablespoon oil

2-3 tablespoons mayonnaise

dill pickles, sliced thin

salt and pepper

I don’t know why the original versions of this recipe are for only 1, or maybe 2, sandwiches. Like the good people who would go to this much trouble and preparation don’t have any friends or family. Weird. I’ve pumped up the ingredient quantities so that there is at least enough for about 4 full sized wraps. The goal is to stuff a ton of veggies into each wrap and it’s totally worth all the effort.

Begin by slicing very thin the broccoli and cauliflower  tops, and steam about 5 minutes or just until softened. Grate the carrot, red cabbage, and yellow squash. Slice pickles, avocado and lettuce and set aside along with the alfalfa sprouts.

Dice onion and saute in oil on medium heat until golden. Stir in cooked wheat berries and barbecue sauce and warm through.

Combine steamed broccoli and cauliflower with the shredded carrot, purple cabbage, yellow squash and mayonnaise. (It’s not going to be pretty.) In a dry skillet, heat the wrap or tortilla until softened but not toasted. Spread center of wrap with BBQ onions and wheat combination. Add a heaping line of vegetable mixture, and please use much more than I have pictured here. Then top with pickles, lettuce, sprouts, and avocado slices. (DO NOT forget the avocado, like I did.)

Roll as tightly as you can, being careful not to break the tortilla, and then wrap at least the bottom half with plastic so that you don’t loose even one drop of goodness.

This picture DOES NOT the whole story tell. Ask anyone, the New York Goodwich is a veritable flavor explosion! Lizzie, our 16 year old kept saying, “Dang, this is gooooood” and she couldn’t believe that it was meatless…and cheese-less.

And I couldn’t believe that we were using our basic/boring food storage in a completely new way. The wheat berries are from my long-term supply. The tortilla wraps, barbeque sauce, mayonnaise, and possibly pickles are part of my three-month supply.

I don’t want to live in fear but in the event of an emergency my stash for New York Goodwiches will be used to make spicy wheat, bean, and rice wraps! It may not be as amazing as the piled high vegetable version but it will be familiar and I think that’s more than half the battle when it comes to comfort food.

Hey dear friends! Sorry to have been MIA for so many months. All sorts of excuses, but only the top three, and clearly in order of importance, include the sudden passing of a loved one, a robbery, and total remodel of our home. I’m happy to be back in the swing of things and hopefully able to share a bit, now and again. Maybe on a more regular basis. Thank you for your patience.

Today, my wonderful friend, Monique, made a house call, just to show me how to make her absolutely PERFECT salted caramel popcorn. No kidding, this is for sure the best flavored popcorn I’ve ever tasted and way more interesting than the typical variations of caramel, white chocolate, or anything cheese. Please.

From your food storage you’ll need a little of this

and one of these options.

First time I made Monique’s recipe I air popped my own good quality corn, adding plenty of butter and salt. Now that I’ve experimented a couple of times, I can definitely say that the commercially prepared salted popcorn is for sure the best way to go with this recipe. Turns out all that weird-artificiallyflavored-badforyou-saltandbutter-coating tastes incredible when paired with Monique’s PERFECT caramel. AND IT’S SO STINKIN EASY. (Bwaaaahahaaaa)

Yes,  I am really going to suggest that this, salted caramel popcorn, should be part of any viable food storage. Today’s emergency was that I wanted to take a little family home evening treat to my visiting teaching sista’s and this recipe saved me!

Fresh Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

Storage Ingredients

11 cups of popped, buttered and salted, popcorn. If you’re using microwave popcorn you should probably pop two packages per recipe.

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2  cups mini marshmallows

Carefully melt the butter on medium heat and then add the brown sugar and marshmallows.

Stir just until barely blended and quickly remove from heat.

Pour over *sifted popcorn,

and lightly toss to evenly coat as much as possible.

Preparing Monique’s caramel and mixing it with the popcorn will take about 5 minutes.

And today, that’s about all the time I had:)

*If you want to be especially thoughtful, and who doesn’t, make sure to sift out all the un-popped kernels of corn before you stir in the caramel sauce. (Sort of ruins the experience when you almost crack a tooth.) Quickest way to do this is to simply pour your microwave corn into a bowl, give it a little shake, gently stir it around a couple of times, make a wish (jk) and then spooning from the top, measure out your 10 cups. All the little duds will have dropped to the bottom. Safety first!

A couple of weeks ago I totally forgot to prepare a dessert for a dear friend’s open house. It was Sunday morning, with zero fun ingredients on hand, and exactly one hour before we needed to leave for sacrament meeting. Never mind that I still had the last minute details to pull together for my Relief Society lesson. Been there? Of course not.

BUT!

Food storage and Teresa’s terrific recipe saved the day! The first step was to get my trusty dehydrated apples softening and the oven preheating to 350 degrees.

Loosely measuring out 3 to 4 cups of apple chips, I poured in boiling water and then covered the bowl with foil to hustle the re-hydration process.

Basic dry ingredients were whisked together in one bowl with wet ingredients in another.

A softened stick of butter was quickly smooshed into the dry ingredients,

and then everything was combined, barely mixed together, and dumped into an oiled 9 x 13 cake pan.

Apples were drained and spooned on top of the batter.

Then I tossed together the streusel topping and spooned it over the apples. 45 minutes in the oven and the fruit cobbler looked like this and we bolted for the door.

This version of Teresa’s fruit cobbler tastes like warm, fluffy, pound cake with a layer of apple pie on top. When I asked Lizzie she said, “That’s intense!” and “I like it!”

FRUIT COBBLER

Fresh Ingredients

1 cup butter, divided

2 eggs

1 cup milk

Storage Ingredients

3-4 cups dehydrated apples *or substitute with 3-4 cups canned or fresh fruit

3 1/2 cups white flour, divided

2 1/2 cups sugar, divided

2 teaspoons baking powder

2/3 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Cover dehydrated apples with boiling water. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix 2 cups flour and 1 cup sugar with baking powder and salt. Cut in 1/2 cup butter. Whisk together milk, eggs, vanilla and lightly stir into the dry ingredients and butter mixture. Ignoring all the lumps, pour batter into greased 9 x 13 pan. Drain fruit and layer on top of batter. For streusel, mix remaining 1  1/2 cups of flour and 1  1/2 cups of sugar with 1/2 cup butter and cinnamon until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter and fruit. Bake 45 minutes, until cake layer tests done and top is lightly toasted.

This summer I plan to focus on salads for our Sunday family dinners. Trying to develop some healthier habits. Adding a side of fish, grilled chicken, or shredded pork will hopefully make satisfying meals, but much lighter than the standard meat and potatoes.

You can see our version of an Asian salad meal if you go here.

A few weeks ago I found another great salad recipe on Food Network. It’s called Massaged Kale Salad and even though the name is a tiny bit weird, the salad is INCREDIBLE! Read the original comments and you’ll see that this recipe is often referred to as “salad crack”. Honestly, I have no idea what they’re talking about…but…I’m pretty sure I agree:)

Because three of us can easily polish off a single recipe, I’ve learned to always double the original. In case you’re like me, and haven’t prepared kale before, I’m going to walk you through the steps.

Wash a large bunch of fresh kale and then shake or spin dry the leaves. Snap off the long stalks and discard.

Fold each leaf in half lengthwise and trim out the center rib.

Bundle leaves together and cut into 1/2″ thin slices.

Next, mix together the simple, wonderful, nummy salad dressing. Note: most of these ingredients could be found in your awesome food storage!

Honey Lemon Vinaigrette

Fresh Ingredients

1 bunch kale

1 lemon, juiced

Storage Ingredients

1/4 cup light olive oil

2 teaspoons honey

1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon course ground black pepper

Lightly whisk all dressing ingredients together and drizzle over the bowl of cleaned and chopped kale.

Toss like crazy.

Lots more than that, please.

Keep going. Remember, they called it massaged kale. Ew.

Every piece has to be covered…

Then, you just add sliced mango, or any combination of fruit, plus some nuts, if you like.

Fresh mangoes, red grapes, and glazed pecans were tonight’s combination. The glazed pecans were prepared using this recipe. Mangoes, strawberries, avocado, and toasted almonds makes another excellent variation. If you love feta or gorgonzola, by all means throw some cheese on top!

Besides the fact that this salad tastes soooo great, is loaded with healthy color and vitamins, and always gets rave reviews, THE WHOLE THING CAN BE MADE AHEAD OF TIME! Can you believe it? It’s true! Finally! A wonderful green salad that can be fully prepared and even dressed ahead of time. Like 24 hours! I could weep. At first I couldn’t believe it but after enjoying the leftovers on the second day (which incidentally has only been possible one time, because it’s that good) I found that the leaves were just as nice, and the richness of the overall flavor maybe even improved, having had more time to marinate.

So there you have it! Big thanks to Aarti at the Food Network. My family thanks you, my friends thank you, and all the guests at the last baby shower thank you.

We’ve been enjoying these yummies for years. But now, instead adding cooked whole wheat berries to our ground beef, I’m following Heather’s suggestion for combining wheat with BEANS for the taco filling. I’m also using my favorite spice blend recipe and the easiest version of the now famous Cafe Rio dressing.

Nacho Mama’s food storage!

If this sounds complicated, you should know that it really isn’t. Almost all of the prep is completed ahead of time. When we need a meatless Monday in minutes I simply microwave a small frozen Ziploc baggie of pre-cooked wheat berries. Add it to 4 cups of cooked beans–black, pinto, or kidney–cans from the grocery store or home bottled. Heat with 1-2 tablespoons of the spice mix and top with the creamy cilantro-lime dressing. Favorite fresh toppings are grated cheese, shredded red cabbage, diced tomato, and sliced avocado. So good!

I LOVE THIS RECIPE!

With only 10 minutes of preparation, we’ve got an easy food storage dinner that’s a hit with all ages. Leftovers reheat beautifully or can be enjoyed as a yummy chilled salad. Be thinking about those summer gatherings!

Fresh Ingredients

7 cups fresh broccoli, florets only

1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano

Storage Ingredients

2 cups dry macaroni

5 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup dry powdered milk

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

Bring to boil a large pot of salted water and add pasta. Cook for approximately 3-4 minutes, or about half of the normally suggested cooking time. Add broccoli florets and continue cooking until the pasta is al dente. Remove 1 cup of cooking liquid and set aside. Drain pasta and broccoli. Return the empty pot to heat and saute minced garlic in olive oil until just slightly golden. Reduce heat to low and add reserved 1 cup of cooking liquid, powdered milk, and red pepper flakes. Stir. Pour broccoli and pasta back into the pot and top with Parmesan cheese. Mix until well combine. Salt and pepper to taste.

Tonight, Lizzie was in a huge hurry to get to a babysitting job but she nevertheless took time to eat two big bowls full of this broccoli pasta. Mike and I enjoyed ours as a lightly creamy, double-whammy, side with fish. Such a refreshing, and nutritious, break from plain ol’ rice or potatoes.

Remember when I told you about the easy wheat and brown rice pilaf recipe? Thanks to my friend, Paula, we’ve discovered a new way of enjoying this food storage basic. The picture looks a little weird but believe me the salad isn’t. First time I served it to my crew the 15 yr old kept saying, “MOM! This is SOOOO good!” A married daughter has phoned three times, asking me to please get the recipe posted so that she can give it a crack.

So, to give credit where credit is due, it all began when dear Paula explained that one of her simple dinners is an Asian salad. She combines shredded green cabbage, shredded carrots, edamame, and chopped grilled chicken breasts for a dinner salad that has become a family favorite. When ready to serve, she mixes everything with a ginger salad dressing and tops it off with crunchy chow mien noodles.

My version has Paula’s shredded green cabbage, carrots,  and edamame, but then I added (because I had these on hand) some fresh cilantro, diced cucumbers, purple cabbage, pot stickers instead of grilled chicken, and the wheat and brown rice pilaf instead of chow mien noodles. Basically, anything goes. The key might be the Asian dressing. Paula told me that her family’s fav is the one from Pampered Chef. Our salad dressing recipe came from Judy, a friend I originally met when we lived in New York. Judy is a talented, brilliant, sometimes professional caterer and we think her Asian ginger dressing is MONEY!

Asian Ginger Dressing

Fresh Ingredients

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

1 teaspoon garlic, minced

2 green onions, chopped

Storage Ingredients

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 teaspoon sesame oil

To be quick about it, I measure all the ingredients straight into my blender, tossing in a large teaspoon looking whole clove of garlic with an abundant chunk of peeled fresh ginger. Buzzed for less than a minute, I transfer the dressing to a serving dish and top with the sliced green onions. Everyone builds their own salad, as they like it, and then we drizzle on the ginger glaze dressing. Oh my.

Who says that you have to sacrifice all fresh ingredients when using your food storage? I beg to differ.

I’m trying to make sure that my family is eating cooked whole wheat berries, every week. This simple recipe for an oven baked rice pilaf helps me accomplish that goal. The fact that ALL the ingredients come from my food storage, is a bonus.

Storage Ingredients

3 cups brown rice

4 2/3 cups water

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon dehydrated sliced garlic

3 chicken bouillon cubes

3 cups precooked wheat berries

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray or oil 9 x 13″ cake pan and add the brown rice. Microwave 4 2/3 cups water to almost boiling and stir in sugar, garlic, and bouillon cubes. Pour hot liquid over rice and tightly cover with two layers of tin foil. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove from oven, uncover and add desired amount of wheat berries. Keep warm until ready to serve. (For a Mexican meal, consider adding at least a half bunch of fresh chopped cilantro plus the zest and juice of 1 lime right before serving. Mmmmm)

I cook my wheat berries ahead of time and then store them in the freezer.

While the brown rice is baking, I zap one of the little baggies in the microwave to quickly thaw and warm up the wheat berries.

As soon as the rice has finished baking the wheat berries are ready to be added. I learned this trick years ago, from a Japanese woman. She told me that she added wheat to their rice, every Sunday.

If you’re wondering how to break into the wheat you’ve got stored in the basement, this might be the easiest place to start!