Motivational Monday

"Diligence is the mother of luck."
- Benjamin Franklin

I thought this was the perfect quote to start the first week of March. We make our own luck with hard work. Providence is all about working hard, being self-reliant, and having wisdom.

Wheat Grinder Winner!

This month I held a Wheat Grinder contest, and the winner is...

Sonya Bingham!

sonyabingham said...

I have been practicing the art of making homemade whole wheat bread. Now that I am getting better I would love to add this tool to my routine! Thanks for the opportunity!

If anyone has any ideas or products they would like to donate for future months' giveaways, email me! I also love to hear food storage recipes, or other Provident advice.

Food Storage Recipe

So, today's recipe isn't completely food storage friendly, and it has nothing to do with the month's theme of wheat and grains. But it's so good, I just have to share! In high school, my first job was working at a sandwich shop. I learned how to cook all kinds of good food there, including seasoned chicken.

Ingredients:

• cooking spray
• raw frozen (or thawed) chicken - you don't have to use breasts. If you want legs or to season a whole chicken (I commend you, if you're seasoning a whole chicken) you could do this the same way.
• different seasonings and herbs in your cupboard (all FSF). These are the ones I used:
• parsley
• Montreal steak seasoning
• paprika
• salt
• seasoned salt and garlic salt
• minced onion
• black pepper (or red, if you like the flavor)
• herbes de provence or Italian seasoning blend

If you want a more distinct flavor, you could also use curry, cumin, or 5 spice, or any other seasonings you like.

 Line a pan with foil. This helps you later, as you won't have to wash your pan. Spray with cooking spray, and sprinkle the pan with salt and pepper so that the bottom side of the chicken gets some seasoning.
Lay the frozen chicken on the pan, and spray with cooking spray. This way the seasonings will stick. I like to cook my chicken from frozen. I don't have to think about thawing it that way. If you thaw your chicken, just cook it for a shorter amount of time.
Sprinkle the seasonings on the chicken. It will look really pretty.
Note: It seems freaky to put 2-3 layers of salt on the chicken (reg. salt, seasoned salt, garlic salt), but it's really not as much as you may think. Careful, though! There is such thing as too much.

 Bake at 350 F until cooked through. If you don't cook chicken often, you know when it's done when you split the breast at its thickest spot, and there is no pink meat. Beef is good if there is some pink, but chicken can be really gross if it's not cooked all the way. Make sure you check.

Yum! This can be chopped and mixed with celery, apple, and mayo to make a chicken salad, or you can slice and serve on a sandwich, or with pasta! It's really versatile. You could even add to a soup, along with the pan drippings.

Furniture Revamp

There's a Provident Living activity coming up on Thursday! Maria Rowe will be showing us all the different ways to re-purpose furniture! Bring a picture of a piece of furniture you are wanting to change, and get ideas from the workshop! And if that's not enough...
There will be treats and socializing!
If you need to RSVP or need the address, just leave a comment or email me (email found in the "Contact Me" section).
It starts at 6:00 at Sister Francis's house, but you can come late or leave early as your schedule allows.

Tuesday Storage Additions

This week for our 72-hour kits, we'll add a pocket knife.

For the month of February, we are adding a variety of grains to our Long term (and short term) storage. If you find any great deals or recipes including grains, let me know! I'll post them on the blog!

Motivational Monday

"Those who structure their standard of living to allow a little surplus, control their circumstances. Those who spend a little more than they earn are controlled by their circumstances. They are in bondage”

President N. Eldon Tanner "Constancy Amid Change," Ensign, Nov. 1979, 81

Food Storage Facial Scrub!

Food storage items can be used for purposes other than eating. For example bottled vinegar or lemon juice can be great cleaning agents.
Today, though, I used an exfoliating formula that I've used before, and I realized it's all food storage! There are tons of variations.

Main ingredient: Sugar
Other ingredients you can use: olive oil, honey, water, mashed banana or avocado, essential oils (just a drop), etc.

For most people, if an ingredient is natural and can be eaten, it's safe to put on the skin. I am highly allergic to peanut butter, so I would never eat it or put it on my face. Likewise, you should use wisdom when using kitchen ingredients.

 Use a spoonful of sugar...

 ...another spoonful of oil...

... and mix together. This could be where you stop. I've made facial scrubs with just oil and sugar, and I prefer it.

 Adding honey will make it very thick.

 Seriously, it will form into a little rock.

 If you've got some bad blemishes or bruises, you could add essential oil drops (these are my go-to guys) and use anywhere on the body.

 Wet face with warm water...

 ...and gently scrub face. I told you it was a little hard ball.

Be careful when scrubbing the sugar mixture into the face. If you scrub too hard, it can hurt. A small amount of redness is expected after using any kind of scrub (because you were basically scratching the dead skin off with a sand-like mixture).

If you are really wary of putting oil on your face, you can just use your regular face wash with a little sugar! I like using this scrub once a month or so, just to get my cheeks rosy and smooth.

Food Storage Friday

Today's recipe is totally FSF (Food Storage Friendly)!
Sweet Amish White Bread

All you need is
2 cups warm water
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast
1/1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cups bread flour or all purpose flour

Dissolve the sugar into the warm water.

 Once dissolved, add the yeast.

Allow to foam up for about 10 minutes. It will look something like this.

Sorry the picture is skewed. Add the salt...

...and the oil...

...and stir.

Add the flour 1 cup at a time. It will start out really lumpy, but don't worry. As you add more flour, the lumps will work themselves out.

Knead the dough on a floured surface. Place in a well oiled bowl. Turn to coat. I sprayed a little extra PAM on mine.

Cover with damp towel and let rise for about 1 hour, until doubled in size. This is why you shouldn't preheat your oven until later, because there's a lot of rising to be done.

Again, sorry the picture is skewed. Look how much my dough rose!

So now would be a good time to preheat your oven to 350.

Ok, so your dough has risen. Punch it down and knead it a little more. This was the fun part for me. Your hands will get a little oily. Divide in half, shape into loaves, and place into well greased loaf pans.

Again, cover with damp towels and allow to rise until the loaf is 1 inch above the top of the pans.

Cook the bread for 30 minutes until golden, and remove from pans to cool. If you greased your pans really well, they will just tumble right out. 

Seriously, this bread is delicious! 

Wheat Grinder giveaway! Extension

I'm extending the cutoff day for the Wheat Grinder giveaway! You have one more week to comment on the original Wheat grinder giveaway post! I want as many people to enter as possible.

The cutoff date is now Thursday, February 24th.

Tuesday Storage Additions

This week for our 72 hour kits, we're adding a whistle.



For long-term food storage this month, add grains to your food storage! One year's worth of flour, oats, pasta, crackers, rice, corn, cornmeal, and even canned things like canned corn or hominy, etc.

How's your 3 month or long term supply coming?
Submit food storage recipes, questions, or ideas to my email, found in the "Contact Me" section of the blog.

Don't forget to enter the Wheat Grinder giveaway! It comes with 10 cups of whole raw red wheat berries! All you have to do is leave a comment on the "Wheat Grinder Giveaway" blog post. You can leave comments on other posts, but they won't count as a contest entry.

Motivational Monday

Love,
If you have it, you don't need anything else,
and if you don't have it,
it doesn't matter much
what else you have.

Food Storage Recipe

Today's Food Storage recipe is the simplest thing you will have ever done. EVER.
All you need:
1 cup wheat berries
4 cups water

Put both ingredients into a crockpot.

Set to the longest setting. My crockpot goes up to ten hours. I started this at night, and it was hot and ready when we woke up this morning.

Here's how it looks when it's done.

Then just treat it like oatmeal. Add butter, sugar, raisins, bananas, etc. My husband loved it. It's really hearty and dense, but very tasty.

I'm interested in using this with meat and veggies, instead of rice. It has a chewy texture similar to brown rice, and it's really delicious. It's super good for you, but it can be tricky to add this much wheat into your diet if you don't normally eat a lot of wheat products. It can make your digestive system very regular (if you know what I mean), so be careful.

This also stores in the fridge just fine, so make a big batch and stick it in the fridge for tomorrow morning! You could also easily double the batch, let it cook overnight, then serve a big crowd (like, on Conference weekend).

Wheat Grinder giveaway!

This month, to get everyone motivated to stock up on grains, I'm giving away a Wheat Grinder (actually a coffee grinder, but it works fine)!

I'll also throw in 10 cups of Red Wheat Berries!

When you take whole wheat berries and grind them, you have cracked wheat. 

Just so no one makes the same mistake I did: I used the grinder about a week ago to make some bread. I used cracked wheat as flour. It worked fine, but the loaves were so dense that if you threw it at someone, they'd probably get a concussion. I would recommend only substituting 1/4 to 1/3 of regular flour with the ground wheat. One slice was as filling as a whole meal, plus, it wasn't fluffy at all. 

All you have to do to win is leave a comment on this post! It's so easy! The giveaway ends on February 17th, a week from today, so hurry and comment!

Tuesday Storage Additions

This week for 72-hour kits, add a change of clothes. Make sure to include underwear and a sweatshirt. If your clothing got wet or you were unable to use your heater, you'd want quick access to warm, dry clothes.

For long-term food-storage this month, we're building our supply of wheat and grains. This includes corn, cornmeal, flour, whole wheat, oats, rice, quinoa, pasta, etc. If you are interested in purchasing any of these items from the cannery this month, let me know, and I'll arrange something.

How's your 3-month supply coming? Make sure you keep an eye out for awesome bulk deals (like 10 for $10), and share them with the sisters in the ward!

Motivational Monday

“There is no person who knows the real purpose for which this welfare program is being instituted, but hardly before sufficient preparation has been made the real purpose will be revealed and when that time comes, it will challenge every resource of the church to meet it.”

            Harold B. Lee

Food Storage Friday

Homemade Tortillas

Put the flour in your food storage to good use by rolling out your own tortillas. Some of the flour in this recipe can be substituted with wheat flour.

2 cups white flour*
1t salt
¾ t baking powder
1/3 cup shortening
¾ cups warm water

Mix flour, salt, and baking powder. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles course crumbs. Slowly stir in water and fluff with fork until dough forms. Turn out onto floured surface. Kneed dough until it is smooth (about 10 times). Cover and let rest for 15 minutes. Pinch off a small ball of dough and roll out on floured surface. Tortillas should be thin and elastic about 10 inches in diameter. Cook on stove top, in un-greased iron skillet, nonstick pan, or electric grilled. Cook on one side until just barely brown, flip once and brown other side. Keep a tooth pick near by to poke out any large air bubbles.

* or 1 1/3 cups white flour and 2/3 cups whole wheat flour


This post was given to me by Becky Comin, whose sister is part of a provident living program in her ward. There is supposed to be a video that walks you through the steps of tortilla making, but my computer won't load it. To view the video and see the blog, click here.

Get Thee to the Cannery!

Food prices are on the rise, as you can see from the new price sheet at the cannery or listen to the news.  Now might be the time to go to the cannery.  You do not need to go with a group.  Contact the cannery managers at

wel-hsc-sandiego@ldschurch.org .  If you let Sister Humiston know what day of the week and time of the day (morning 10-2 are the normal cannery hours Tuesday, Wed. & Thursday….if you want afternoon or evening or another day, Sister Spiegler in the Cardiff Ward will have to go with you…so you also have to check with her).  The machines are easy to use and quick.  You can borrow a canning machine, but they are not as quick and require a little muscle.  You will also have to make 2 trips…one down to pick up the stuff, and one back to bring the canner back.

When you go to the cannery, sometimes there are items already canned, which can save you a bit of time. Just make sure you pay it forward, and can a little extra for someone else next time.

If you are interested in doing a cannery group or a sign-up (where you can just sign up for the items you need, and only 1 or 2 people need to go get them), please comment or email me. I would love to do this, but I don't need to do it if I'm the only one. If more people are interested (or would be willing to be one of the pick-up people) let me know!

What Types of Grain Should I Get?

From Mickey Cross's Get Ready Gazette:

Your storage should include a variety of grains: wheat (whole), oats, corn (whole), rice, pasta, etc.  There are various type of wheat: Hard winter red, hard red spring and hard white spring wheat store best and are probably best in breads.  Other varieties are:  Hard red spring, soft red winter, soft white wheat, and Durum (used to make semolina flour for pasta).  The soft wheats are best for sprouting.  For long term storage, the hard wheats are the best. 

Hard Red Winter Wheat:  Largest type produced each year in the US.  Wide range of protein contents.  Good for baking.

Hard Red Spring: Highest protein content of wheats.

Hard White Spring: Milder and sweeter flavor than other wheats.  Newest class of wheat.

Amounts to store per adult per MONTH:   Wheat: 3 cans (lasts 40+ years),  white rice: 2 cans (lasts 29+ years),  oats: 1 can (lasts 29+ years), macaroni: 1 can (lasts 6-8 years).

OTHER TYPES OF GRAINS:

Rye:  Native grain of Russia & Northern Europe.  Contains less gluten (substance in grains that hold carbon dioxide that yeast makes and enables bread to rise) than wheat.  Rye bread is more dense, but moist.  Excellent as a supplementary grain to wheat.  Can be ground into flour. Two parts rye to 5 parts wheat makes a light bread.

Oats:   Oats are a versatile grain:  used as a cereal or as a supplementary grain in cookies, breads, desserts, crusts, muffins and granola.

Rice:  Whole kernel is very nutritious, especially wild rice.  Rice polishings and rice bran are sometimes removed leaving only the starch.  Rice can be ground into flour.   Rice bread has a cake-like texture.

Barley:  Native grain of Eastern Europe.  Excellent addition to soups and casseroles or as a rice substitute.  May be ground and used as a supplementary grain (1 part barley to 5 parts wheat).

Corn:  Native grain of America.  Corn is usually ground as meal, not as a flour (but it can be).

Millet:  A native grain of Africa, millet may be used in puddings, soup, bread and casseroles (whole or ground).  It’s effect and flavor on bread is similar to corn.  Add a one to five ratio of millet to flour.  Too much millet causes bread to become more dense and the top crust to peel off.

Soy:  Contains the highest protein content of any vegetable and is very versatile.  Soy has a high oil content so if you grind it, make sure it can be ground in your mill.  They can be blended into flour in a blender.

Triticale:  Strain of wheat with high protein content (usually over 16%). Bread made from this grain alone will not rise properly to make  a light loaf.  Use this grain on a 1:1 ratio with hard winter wheat to make bread.

Tuesday Storage Additions

Sorry I'm running behind on blogging this week! I locked myself out of my car and house yesterday, plus i just started school and a new job.

This week for our 72-hour kits, we're adding spare keys! How relevant to my experience yesterday! These really would have helped me out. If you can't make a spare key for your apartment, it's ok, just make sure you'll always be able to call your building manager to let you in. Luckily, I didn't get locked out when they weren't there! As far as cars, you don't even have to keep the spare keys in the kits. Just put them in a place where they can be quickly accesses in the event that you need to leave quickly. Neither my husband nor I can find our spare car keys, so we may have to call our car's manufacturer to send us keys.

For long-term storage, this month we're adding wheat and grains! I'm so excited to finally be using wheat. I was given about 25 lbs of raw red wheat berries, and just ordered myself a coffee grinder off of amazon. You can find a wheat or coffee grinder for under $50! In my next post, I'll talk more about the different kinds of grains you can add to your food storage.

How's your three-month supply coming along? One easy way to build up your three month supply is to keep your eye out for awesome deals or freebies! At the Shell gas station on Via De La Valle, if you buy a car wash, you get a free gallon jug of drinking water. Another deal we saw was a 10 for $10 at Albertson's, and we were going to get 10 gallons of water for $10! Have you seen any awesome deals lately?

Motivational Thought (a little late)

“There is a wise old saying ‘Eat it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.’  Thrift is a practice of not wasting anything.  Frugality means to practice careful economy.”   President James E. Faust.