Showing posts with label Slow Cooker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Slow Cooker. Show all posts

Monday, January 13, 2014

7 Great Ways to Use Wheat WITHOUT a Wheat Grinder

Another GREAT article worth putting into practice this year.

Thank You Jodi and Julie at Food Storage Made Easy

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2009/10/23/7-great-ways-to-use-wheat-without-a-wheat-grinder/
 

7 Great Ways to Use Wheat WITHOUT a Wheat Grinder!


wheat-kernel-2501. Thermos Wheat
Recipe from author Rita Bingham
Bring 1 c. of wheat kernels, 2 c. water, and 1 t. salt to a boil in a medium saucepan. Pour into a heated stainless steel or glass-lined thermos bottle. Secure cap. Place bottle on side. In the morning, pour off any additional water, add butter and honey, and serve hot.

wheat-berries12. Wheat Berries
Add some of your plain dry wheat kernels to a pot of water. Bring it to a boil and cook for a few minutes. Then let simmer for about 45 minutes. Drain the wheat berries and stick them in a Tupperware container in the fridge. These are delicious to add to yogurt or to use to replace some meat in recipes. You can also use it in place of brown rice in a lot of recipes.

poppedwheat3. Popped Wheat
Take 1 cup of your cooked wheat berries (see above) and add to a frying pan of pot with two tablespoons of oil in it. Cover with a lid and cook over a hot stove shaking the pan while it cooks. After about 4-5 minutes the kernels will be nice and toasted. Put the popped wheat on a paper towel to get the extra oil off, and sprinkle with your choice of seasonings. Try it with salt, seasoned salt, garlic, barbecue salt, onion salt, cinnamon and sugar or any combination you desire. These are delicious on salads as a topping, mixed with trail mix, or as toppings for a desserts or just as a healthy snack.

wheatgrass4. Wheat Grass
Most people have heard how healthy wheat grass is for you, but most people DON’T know that you can make your own wheat grass at home for free with just a little bit of your food storage wheat. Check out this step by step tutorial on How to Grow Wheat Grass if you want to try it yourself! It looks so easy. Then you can snip bits off and add them to your fruit smoothies, or if you have a juicer you can use them in other healthy juice drinks.

cracked-wheat5. Cracked Wheat
You can crack wheat in a blender or a coffee grinder. To do it in a blender you simply put in about 1/4-1/3 cups of wheat and pulse it until it looks like little cracked kernels. These kernels will cook much faster than regular wheat, and cook up in the same way that you cook rice on the stove or in the microwave. You can use cracked wheat to make hot cereal, add it into bread, or cook it up and use as a meat filler. For more info in cracked wheat visit this post at Everyday Food Storage.

wheat-sprouts6. Wheat Sprouts
Making wheat sprouts is a different method than making wheat grass. You can sprout wheat just like any other vegetable seeds, legumes, or other grains. Make sure to review our tutorial on how to grow sprouts. Most people like wheat sprouts to be very small, just barely sprouted. These are delicious to throw on salads or to add into your whole wheat bread for a little extra texture and flavor.

7. Blender Wheat Flour
If you are cooking a recipe for something like pancakes or waffles, you can EASILY use your whole wheat kernels, mix the whole recipe in your blender, and pour it straight from there onto a griddle or waffle-maker. Just make sure to add the liquid for your recipe into the blender, then add in your wheat kernels and blend for about 5 minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients. We blogged about trying Blender Wheat Pancakes and we also have a delicious Corn Cakes Recipe you could try in the blender too.

Please note: Don’t go trying all of these ideas all at once! If you add TOO MUCH wheat into your diet TOO FAST it can give you digestion problems, and we promise you don’t want to have that ;)

Visit foodstoragemadeeasy.net for more information about food storage.
They know what they are talking about!

Monday, December 3, 2012

Hot Chocolate


To Die For Hot Chocolate Recipe

Hot Chocolate anyone?

I was ready for a cup of hot chocolate and found that my cupboard was bare. I was determined to make it myself this year.
 There were too many distractions at the time, so we loaded our cart with a few yummy sounding flavors while at the store.
After we opened the can, we were shocked to see that it was only about 1/2 way full. Crazy marketing ploy. Large can on the outside, nothing on the inside.

So off to the Internet to see how it is done. Here are a few that might interest you. I know I am going to whip some up real soon. Those 1/2 full or 1/2 empty cans (however you see the cup) are almost empty for reals.

Homemade Flavored Hot Cocoa Mix

  • 1 1/2 cups powdered milk
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 cup dutch processed cocoa ( or use Hershey's special dark cocoa, I have also used 1/2 baking cocoa and 1/2 dutch processed, but it works best with at least 1/2 dutch processed cocoa because it gives it a richer taste.)
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
Mix all ingredients together in a food processor and mix until chips are finely chopped. Depending on the size of your food processor you may have to do a few batches. (I think this also could be done in a couple of batches in a blender.)
To serve you can do this two ways:
4 to 5 tablespoons hot chocolate mix with 1 cup hot water
Or for a creamier hot chocolate: Mix 3 to 4 tablespoons hot chocolate mix with 1 cup of milk. (This is my favorite way to drink it)

For the variations:

Homemade Butterscotch Hot Cocoa: Substitute butterscotch chips for the chocolate chips.
Homemade Mint Hot Cocoa: Substitute Andes mints for the chocolate chips
Homemade Cinnamon Hot Cocoa: Substitute cinnamon chips for the chocolate chips.
Homemade Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa: Substitute special dark chips for the chocolate chips.

http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2010/12/homemade-flavored-hot-cocoa-mix.html

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Hot Cocoa Mix
4 cups nonfat dry milk powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup non-dairy coffee creamer
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 (4 ounce) package instant chocolate fudge pudding

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. If a finer consistency is desired, you can pour the mix into a blender or food processor and run it through that. Store in an airtight container. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup (depending on your cocoa preference) of the mix to an 8 ounce mug of boiling water.

Read more at http://momadvice.com/blog/2010/12/delicious-drink-mixes-creamy-hot-cocoa-or-vanilla-chai-tea-mix#FthQsxueD1SHH05D.99

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Would you rather enjoy a LARGE crock pot full for the family or guest? Try this rich and creamy version.
Creamy Crock pot Hot Cocoa 
Ingredients:
  • 1.5 cups whipping cream
  • 1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
  • 6 cups milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 cups of milk chocolate chips

Instructions:
Stir together the whipping cream, milk, vanilla, and chocolate chips in a crock pot.
Cover and cook on low for 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until mixture is hot and chocolate chips are melted. Stir again before serving. Garnish as desired.

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Want your house to smell Festive?
Plug in a pot of this wonderful stuff.
 
Slow Cooker Caramel Apple Cider
 
Slow Cooker Caramel Apple Cider
Serves 12

Ingredients
12 cups of apple juice – I bought a gallon and had a little leftover
6 cinnamon sticks
1/2 cup of good quality jarred caramel sauce, plus more for drizzling
Whipped cream

Directions
Heat apple juice and cinnamon sticks in the slow cooker for about 4 hours on high. Let the cinnamon sticks soften and uncurl. Before serving, stir in 1/2 cup of caramel sauce and serve in heat proof cups. Top with whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel.
http://www.number-2-pencil.com/
 

Monday, January 2, 2012

The Wonders of Wheat

  WHEAT You have stored it obediently, Now What?

How much wheat should we plan to store?

400 lbs. of wheat/grain per person for a 1 year storage

Grains would consist of:
Wheat, Rice, Oats, Flour, Spaghetti, Macaroni and others.

All of the above items have a shelf life of 30 years according to the church specialist, if stored in a cool dry, dark place and packed properly. White flour, has a 10 year shelf life.

WHOLE WHEAT BERRIES

Here’s a quick, easy, and full-proof recipe for cooking whole wheat berries.
1. Measure 4 cups of raw/dry whole wheat kernels.
2. Pour the dry kernels into a large slow cooker.  Add 10 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of salt.
3. Stir.
4. Cover the slow cooker with its lid, set temperature on LOW heat and cook for 10 hours or HIGH heat for 5 hours.
5. Stir the finished 12 cups of cooked whole wheat berries and spoon into 4 Ziploc bags to be stored in the freezer for later use.
(Tutorial courtesy of Liesa Card http://www.idareyoutoeatit.com/ with her permission and blessing. Besides, it couldn't possibly be my crock pot. My crock pot ended up topless after the last chili cook off. )

Once you have wheat berries on hand you can easily add them to meals without the extra thought or work. It will help in extending your meat to go further, added to soups, salads and casseroles. Plus it will help your family get use to eating the wheat (without them even knowing it).

What if the power went out, or you just wanted a real easy way to cook grains. Then try this...

First get yourself a good thermos. Not the kind from your children's lunch pail. A really good one that holds the heat for several hours. I purchased this one at Wal Mart, and probably paid @ 20.00. Wait until you see what it can do. It's not just for hot chocolate anymore. Although I would still like to own one just for that.

Next, get 1 cup of wheat kernels. Go ahead and rise them. I forgot to do that, but there is a benefit to doing it first and I'll will save that bit advise for later.
Get your tap water really hot, or boil some on the stove, and fill up the thermos and set it aside with the lid on. Then boil another 3 cups of water.


 Now that the boiling water is ready, dump out the hot tap water from the thermos. It was in there to get the thermos ready to go. Pour your cup of wheat kernels into the thermos and pour in the boiling water from the stove. Secure the lid onto the thermos and shake it up.

Lay the thermos on it's side and leave it there to do it's thing. I did this at night before I went to bed and it was ready in the morning to eat.
Look at what cooked for me over night while I slept. Add milk and sugar, maybe some fruit or whatever you like and you are starting your day super charged.
Remember the water that sat in the thermos over night with the wheat? When you drain that off, save it. I understand that wheat water is very good for you. So drink it rather then sending it down the drain.
 I packaged 1 cup servings into two baggies and put them in the freezer for a later use. Maybe to add to ground beef for lasagna or sloppy Joe's as a meat extender. Or in some brown or white rice for a pilaf...imagine the possibilities. What an easy way to get your family use to eating this nutritional grain.
Wheat isn't the only thing you can cook like this in a thermos. Do some experiementing with it. Great for camping or back packing too.

For breakfast the other morning I had some wheat berries with milk, sugar and cinnamon. Then I added a few sprinkles of homemade granola. It was really good.
Challenge: TRY IT, please.
Stay tuned, lots more to come. You're going to Love your wheat!