Corndog Muffin Recipe:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. cornmeal (about 1 c. fresh ground popcorn)
2 1/2 c. flour (about 2 c. fresh ground wheat)
1/2 c. white sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs (can use powdered eggs)
2 c. milk (can use powdered milk)
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
6 hot dogs cut in thirds

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Beat eggs and milk in a separate bowl. Add to dry mix and add cheese just until moistened. Spoon mixture into muffin tins until 2/3 full. Add 1 hot dog chunk to each muffin. Bake for 14-18 minutes or until golden brown.
 
 

I cut my hotdogs into smaller chunks and it wasn’t as good that way. I also think next time I might try it with my buttermilk cornbread recipe and just stick the hotdogs and cheese into that batter. I LOVE that cornbread recipe better than any other. The kids LOVED this recipe and it is very filling so we had tons of leftovers.

For other food storage recipes check out:

Our Food Storage Recipes Page
Our sister site EverydayFoodStorage.NET
I Can’t Believe It’s Food Storage book
Country Beans book

You can grab a copy of our binder ebook to help you get a start on some recipes. But like I said, there are a LOT of other resources online such as our sister site http://everydayfoodstorage.net that may have recipes that you are using on a regular basis. So get on the computer and get printing!

Ok we gotta stop giving hints or this is going to be too easy

So you can use me as an example, just because I wasn’t able to do what I had hoped I could do, I was still able to have somewhat of a success with my garden, and I will have more than NOTHING. You just can’t give up. If everything feels overwhelming take BabySteps and do it at your own pace. As long as you are progressing you are achieving success! I won’t have lots of tomatoes and cucumbers to can this year, but I am still planning to buy some peaches and apples so at least I can get a little of my canning itch to be satisfied

How is your garden coming along this year? Share your successes and failures in the comments below! And don’t be ashamed, at least your garden can’t look worse than MINE!

p.s. If you can’t get ANY sort of garden this year, all is not lost. You can still achieve success by getting some fresh veggies from friends or family, or even buying it from the corner stands or a farmer’s market. Julie has a story and recipe to share about that that she will be posting soon as well!

Chow Mein Casserole

Ingredients:
1 lb hamburger, browned with 1/2 an onion chopped
(can replace with 2 cans of chicken chunks and throw in some onion flakes)
1/2 c. brown rice (white rice is great too)
2 cans cream of chicken soup (try the low-fat bean flour variety!)
1 ½ c. hot water (if using homemade cream of chicken, skip the water)
1/8 c. soy sauce
¼ tsp. ground pepper
½ can chow mein noodles (about 3 oz)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º. Mix all ingredients together (except chow mein noodles). Bake in serving bowl covered with foil for 45 minutes. Take off cover. Pour 3 oz. (1/2 can) of chow mein noodles over top. Cook uncovered for 15 more minutes. Let set for 5-10 minutes after cooking.

As we have grown and expanded our food storage knowledge, we have continually added to our site. While the site has expanded with so much information, we still want to make sure that it’s still easy for beginners to navigate. Since we are about halfway through our Summer Crash Course we decided to give you a little break and announce some changes we made to our site recently to help you get the most out of our site.

You will see that the top navigation buttons have changed slightly. Here is a run-down of the new things to look for:

• The Start Here tab now contains helpful tips for how to best use our site and where to find the information you are looking for.
• The Checklists page now offers you a choice of how you would like to receive your checklists based off of what your preferred “learning style” is.
• We added an Emergency Preparedness tab as we have found that this is something people are looking for quite a bit, and we feel it is a prerequisite to getting started with your food storage. Check back on Friday as we will be adding some new sub-pages to this section which will include even more detailed information
• Tools and Products remain the same. We consistently put a lot of work into those sections so make sure to check them often.
• We added a tab for Recipes so that you can easily navigate to any of the food storage recipes we have tried and posted about.
• Links and About remain the same, although we will be revamping the links section soon to make it an even better resource for you.

Take a look around at the new sections and let us know what you think of the changes. We are trying hard to keep more experienced readers interested while still being able to help the brand new beginner. Believe us, we know how it feels to be getting started and get so overwhelmed with the abundance of information out there.

Homemade Rice-A-Roni Recipe

from The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczy

Ingredients:
2 c. rice
1 c. angel hair, vermicelli or spaghettini pasta, broken into very small pieces
¼ c. parsley
6 Tbsp. chicken bullion powder
2 tsp. onion powder
½ tsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp. thyme

Directions:
Combine all ingredients and mix well. To prepare: Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a skillet. Add 1 c. of the mix and stir. Add 2 ¼ c. water. Bring to a boil. Reduce to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

For other ideas for homemade mixes check out the AWESOME Make-A-Mix book.

Well on the way home I had quite an adventure. We were traveling in our minivan which has over 150,000 miles on it but we had just had it checked out and were feeling confident that it would make the trip. On the way home on Friday things were running just fine and then all of a sudden the van completely overheated and started shaking until we stopped running it and let it cool down. We were about 20 miles from the nearest town and 60 miles from a major city in an area that had zero cell phone service and with our two little kids in tow. NOT a fun experience.

We stopped and ate at the town while we let the van cool down. Then we headed out again hoping to get to the city and pray that some kind of mechanic or auto parts store might HAPPEN to be open on Fourth of July weekend. We were able to get some new hoses which we thought were the problem but then on our way out of town it overheated again. Each time we tried to let it rest and cool down it ended up sucking the battery down to the point we would need a jump start to get going again. We were hot, miserable, and tired … just wanting to get HOME.

We finally gave up on fixing the car around 2 pm on Saturday after spending the night in Helena, Montana and ended up renting a u-haul to tow the van home. The only problem was it only had three seats so our kids had to share the middle seat and squish into the front of the u-haul cab with us and no car seats … EEEK. We made it home around midnight at the end of July 4th and missed all of the festivities. It was kind of sad but at least we made it home safely.

Emergency Preparedness Lessons Learned

What we were glad we had:

• Treats, drinks, and entertainment for the kids
• A spare jug of coolant and bottles of water to help us limp into town
• A map of Montana so we would know how far the next town was (we normally don’t carry maps with us but we had already gotten lost on this trip once so we happened to grab one)
• A small tool box my husband insisted we bring
• Cell phones and iPhone when we got to Helena (helped find the auto parts store and arrange the u-haul when we needed it)

What we wished we had:

• Jumper cables (we ended up buying another set after the 3rd jump we needed, and this is maddening because we have about 5 sets at home we had just forgotten to stick in)
• The repair manual for our van
• Spare cell phone chargers (my car charger stopped working)
• Printed directions/maps for the whole trip instead of depending on an iPhone that did not get service a lot of the time
• Hand fans to use when we couldn’t run our air conditioner
• Stuck with the caravan plan we had originally intended
• Taken the larger highway route instead of the “backroads” shortcut

Does anyone else have any advice for what could make a breakdown less traumatic? I’m SURE this has happened to more people than just my family!

Rice Pudding Recipe

Ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten (can use powdered eggs)
½ c. sugar
¼ tsp. salt
2 c. milk (can use powdered milk)
1 ¼ c. cooked white rice, cooled (leftovers work great)
½ c. raisins (optional but oh so delicious!)
Cinnamon and Nutmeg to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325o F. Mix all the ingredients together and pour into a greased 1 qt. bowl. Set the bowl in a shallow pan. Pour hot water into the pan about 1 inch deep. Put pan into the oven and bake for 1 ½ hours.

How to Make Your Own Plant Pots – Video

How to Make Your Own Plant Pots – Instructions

1. Take a single full sheet of black and white newspaper (color paper can have chemicals that may leach into your soil so it’s best to avoid it).
2. Fold the paper on its seam. Fold in half one more time. If your paper is larger in size you may have to fold it once more. Make a good crease on folds.
3. Take a glass and place it on its edge halfway onto the newspaper. Wrap the newspaper tightly around the glass and then shove all the edges down inside the glass.
4. Pull the newspaper off of the glass. Take the inside edges that you had previously folded into the glass and unfold them a bit to make the base of the pot. Press them down hard (you can use the base of your glass to really get it sealed down in there.
5. Transplant (or plant) your seeding into the newspaper pot with some good potting soil and place it in a tray and put it into direct sunlight. I use a little indoor greenhouse I found online.
6. When ready to move the plants into your garden simply remove the newspaper and place the plant in your garden.

p.s. The author of our sister site EverydayFoodStorage.NET just announced an awesome giveaway for her new book “I Can’t Believe It’s Food Storage”. Who doesn’t like more free stuff? We are so excited for her new book and think it’s a great companion to our Food Storage Made Easy Binders as she can give you even more ways to use your food storage once you start actually going through our BabySteps.
CHECK OUT HER GIVEAWAY TODAY!!!

So what side dish is a necessity with chili? Cornbread of course! I have always purchased boxes of Jiffy cornbread mixes in the past. But when I got my WonderMill Grain Mill I decided to take a crack at grinding up some popcorn to make fresh ground cornmeal for homemade cornbread. Oh boy, I will NEVER go back to boxed cornbread again. Now that I have you salivating over my family dinner tonight … I have to go ahead and share the recipes with you

Marilyn’s Real Chili Bean Recipe:

Ingredients:

Directions: Soak beans overnight. Drain and cover with fresh water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours. Drain and add to crock-pot. Sauté the chopped onion and garlic in oil until limp. Stir in all seasonings. Add tomatoes and sauce and simmer for 20 minutes. Brown beef in small fry pan. Drain and add to crock-pot. Add chili sauce and 5 cups of hot water to crock-pot. Simmer in crock-pot at least 7 hours.

Better Than Jiffy Cornbread Recipe:

Grind: ½ cup of popcorn kernels to make ¾ cup cornmeal
Combine: ¾ c. cornmeal, 1 ¼ c. flour (I used whole wheat), ¼ c. sugar, 2 tsp. baking powder, ½ tsp. salt
Add: 1 c. milk, ¼ c. veg. oil, 1 large egg, beaten; stir until dry ingredients are moist
Bake: At 400 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean