Wheat - A Few Facts About Using it and Rotating it

A few facts about Wheat and suggestions for rotating it:
(courtesy of utahdealdiva.com)
* A 6-gallon bucket holds 45 pounds of wheat, which equates to 392 cups. (45lbs of white wheat is $12.70 and red wheat is $11.60)

* 392 cups of wheat = 588 cups of flour {1 cup wheat kernels= 1.5 cups flour} * Bread recipes often call for around 6 cups of flour for 2 loaves. Pancakes, muffins, etc. call for about 2 cups.

* If you grind 15 cups of wheat twice a month, you will have about 11 cups of wheat each week. This is enough to make a couple loaves of bread and pancakes, waffles and muffins twice.

* If you grind 15 cups of wheat twice a month, it will take you 13 months to use 1 bucket of wheat.

* If you were to purchase an entire year's supply for a family of 5 and use it as stated above, you could rotate your year's supply in 15 years- half the shelf life of the wheat! Just remember to purchase 1 bucket of wheat each year to replenish your storage!

Wheat - Why You Should Love It

Why you should love wheat:
(courtesy of everydayfoodstorage.net)
* Whole wheat contains more minerals, vitamins, and natural phytochemicals than does all purpose flour

* Whole wheat helps with stress! It contains B vitamins, which are necessary for healthy nerves. (READ: Eating whole-wheat helps you cope with stress.)

* Keeps you regular. Whole wheat foods provide more fiber than those with all purpose flour.

* Helps you LOSE weight and keep it off! The fiber in whole wheat has almost no calories keeps you fuller longer, absorbs three times its weight in waters, cuts absorption of calories, cleans out impurities, requires more chewing, takes half as much to fill you up, and takes longer to digest.

* Will save you money on doctor and dentist bills! Whole wheat reduces your risk of colon cancer and other diseases. Whole wheat flower can lower your blood pressure, your LDL cholesterol level, and your risk of adult-onset diabetes. It also cuts down on tooth decay.

Tortillas!

So, I was running low on tortillas the other day and thought I'd try to make homemade tortillas. They were so yummy! Here's the recipe from everydayfoodstorage.net
It would be really easy to make these on a camp stove if you had an emergency and way faster than baking bread. Just food for thought!

Fresh Produce for Less!

We all want to feed our families lots of fruits and vegetables, but it can be very expensive. Amber Rex told me about a local co-op where a group of people pool their money to get fresh fruits and vegetables. I did it for the first time last week and got 3 tomatoes, 3 avocados, a head of romaine lettuce, a bag of carrots, a bunch of bananas, a cantaloupe, a bag of green beans, a bunch of broccoli, a bag of grapes, a bag of cherries, a bag of peaches, and a bag of plums. The cost? $16.50. You can check it out at www.bountifulbaskets.org . I picked up all of my fruits and vegetables at the Spotted Leaf Park (in the Willow's neighborhood) at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning. Be sure to take a large bag or laundry basket to pick up your items. You have to order the produce by the preceeding Wednesday. Hope it helps your family as much as it's helped mine!

Food Storage Calculator & Inventory Spreadsheet

For those of you interested in tracking your progress, here's a calculator and inventory spreadsheet from Christine. Just download it as an Excel file and save to your computer. Click here You just need to enter the number of family members at the top of the page in yellow. Then use the number or pounds in a bucket or can for each item on the right side to enter your current inventory. You'll have a good idea of where you are now and make a plan of how to get where you want to be!

MMM... cornbread

Did you know that you can store popcorn kernals and then just grind them into corn meal? Here's one of Christine's family recipes:

Corn Bread and Honey Butter

1 c white flour
1/4 c sugar
4 tsp baking pwd
3/4 tsp salt
1 c corn meal
2 eggs
1 c milk
1/4 c shortening or oil (I use oil)

Mix dry ingredients together with fork. Beat eggs and then mix rest of wet ingredients. Combine wet and dry and mix together with fork until everything is just moistened. Bake in 9x9 pan at 425 for 20-25 minutes.
Top with Honey Butter
1/2 c softened butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
honey to taste (about 4 tbsp)

Powdered Eggs

Here are the instructions to rehydrate Morningside Farms egg powder (every company is different):

How to reconstitute powdered eggs:

2 Tbsp Egg Powder
4 Tbsp warm water

This equals one egg. Use in your recipes like you would raw whole eggs!