If you are not used to eating “survival foods”, they can be a real shock to your system if you rapidly switch to a diet that consists of only food storage items. Times of emergency are challenging enough, it’s not good to add the additional stress of a complete diet change into the mix. This is especially important for small children who won’t necessarily understand what’s going on. So hopefully your food storage doesn’t look like this – unopened, stashed in the basement, hiding from your kitchen.

Once you decide to start incorporating food storage into your everyday cooking, you should do so gradually or your family may get sick. Wheat and beans are high in fiber and if introduced too quickly can give your body a fiber overload and cause you to not feel so well when you eat those foods. Here are some ways you can add these foods to your diet slowly so your family has time to get used to them.

1. Start cooking from scratch and add little bits at a time and gradually increase it. This can work well for making bread. Start with only 1/4 of the flour being whole wheat flour. Work your way up to 100% whole wheat over the course of a few months.

2. Use food storage foods 1-2 times per week. Gradually increase this number over a few months. This works well for foods like beans. You can use dried beans in a few meals a week without your family getting tired of them or having adverse reactions.

3. Try your food storage items in desserts. This is a tip from Crystal over at Everyday Food Storage. By introducing them in desserts you can build up your family’s tolerance for new foods.

If you have a wheat allergy, please make sure to review our post about Alternatives to Wheat for Food Storage, and if you don’t have a wheat grinder, view our post called 7 Ways to Use Wheat Without a Grinder. Between those two posts there should be some tricks for everyone to be able to start incorporating their wheat and other foods into their diet on a regular basis.

Buttermilk Biscuit Recipe:

Ingredients:

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup buttermilk (1/2 T. vinegar + 1/2 c. milk* and let sit for about 1 min.)

*You may also substitute this for powdered milk

Directions:

Combine all dry ingredients. Cut in butter. Stir in the buttermilk until the dough is moist. Knead 6-8 times on a floured surface. Pat out to about 1 inch in thickness. Cut with a biscuit cutter or glass rim. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake at 375 F for 17-18 minutes or until lightly browned.

Recipe adapted from one found on allrecipes.com

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

To enter, simply add our NEW button to your blog to help us spread the word about Food Storage. You don’t even have to write a post about us – well unless you want to…

Email us at info@foodstoragemadeeasy.net with your blog address so we can see the button, and we’ll put you in the mix to be a lucky winner. If your blog is private, send us the link and we’ll just trust you. If you don’t have a blog email us and we’ll give you another way to enter. Entries are due November 19!

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The first resource is our recently added 5 part series on “Why People Build a Food Storage”.  So many people have stumbled upon our site wondering what this is all about.  So feel free to pass along this link to people who are new to Food Storage.

The second resources is our “7 Day Challenge Report” pdf that we recently published with all our, and our readers findings on living 7 days of emergencies. We learned so much from each other and this pdf has incredible tips and findings anyone can benefit from.

Good Luck Everyone! Remember if you don’t win you’ll still have time to take advantage of the $30 rebate. It’s great timing with the Holidays around the corner to start asking for Christmas presents early…

At first I made this recipe with store bought tortillas, canned beans, and canned cream of chicken/mushroom soup – but I promised myself bit by bit I would make it using all the “advanced” techniques. Now that I have had a lot more experience using my food storage, I make it the real way and it tastes so much better – I wont make it any other way.

So here’s to sharing it with you and to giving you a special cooking challenge.

Ingredients:
1 can of black beans (*see below)
1 lg onion (*see below)
1 can of cream of chicken (*see below)
1 can of cream of mushroom (*see below)
¾ cup of milk (*see below)
1 (4oz) can diced green chilies
1 (8 oz) can mild enchilada sauce
1 pkg soft tortillas (*see below)
½ lb cheddar cheese, grated
½ lb monterrey jack cheese, grated

Directions:
Wash and cook beans. Mix next 6 ingredients with beans (Optional: add 3 chicken breasts shredded). Place tortillas in greased 9 by 13 inch pan. Top with half the bean mixture and half the cheese. Repeat the layers. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Cool slightly and cut in squares.

Try each of these techniques one at a time or all at once. They are things that used to scare me and now I love doing them this way in all my recipes.

1 can of black beans with 1 1/2 cups of cooked beans from your food storage. Need to know how to cook them? Check out Crystals post on pressure cooking dry beans here.

Onion with dehydrated onion. These are not only a time saver, but are great to store to have added flavoring in your food storage.

1 can of cream of chicken, 1 can of cream of mushroom, and the milk with the bean flour cream soup recipe found here.

Store bought tortillas, with homemade tortillas made from scratch using recipe found here.

Again if you’re new – don’t get overwhelmed by these “weird” techniques – try them one at a time and one day you’ll be amazed at how much you have learned!

The recipe I’ll be sharing calls for whole wheat tortillas, so if you’re up for the challenge of trying it out when I share it, get a head start by trying these!

Ingredients:
4 cups of whole wheat flour (fine)
¼ tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 cup of warm water (may need a little more – I usually do!)
¼ cup cooking oil

Jodi always mocks me for not being the “recipe” type, or having “clear” instructions when cooking (I’m one of those, a little bit of this and a little bit of that types…), so just to show I can be specific…

Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients together to make a nice pliable dough.
2. Knead 1 minute and let rest 5 minutes.
3. Roll the dough out so you can easily make equal pieces
4. Cut the dough into 18 equal pieces (I halved the recipe here)
5. Form into 18 balls
6. Roll thin (spray pam to help if there are sticking or dryness problems)
7. Fry on both sides, they cook quickly (no need to grease the frying pan at all)
8. Eat! It doesn’t take long to cook.

TRICKS:

I use a little hand roller that helps a lot and since I use tortillas mostly in recipes where they don’t have to look perfect, I don’t feel so bad when they don’t turn out in perfect circles… (Although I’m sure I could trace some lid from a bowl and cut around if I really cared)

My sister uses this kind of tortilla press and she says they are much faster and easier to make. I think one day I’ll get one. It’s only $13 on amazon, so to all my family members reading this… ahem ahem.  But for now, my handy roller works fine.


At a cooking class I was at once this lady had an electric press and cooker .  The thing was amazing! You threw a ball of dough in there and closed the lid, and voila! A perfect tortilla.  For people who love kitchen appliances (and have the room to store them) this could be something to check out!

Hope you like these!

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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 Safely Gathered In 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.

5. 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.

6. 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

Do you have any other ways you use wheat without a wheat grinder? Share them in the comments below!

   

All you have to do to get the rebate is purchase a Wonder Junior Basic or Deluxe of WonderMill Electric Mill from our Wheat Grinder product page anytime between September 1, 2009 and November 25, 2009. Once your order has been shipped we will send you the $30 rebate form from the WonderMill. Make sure to follow the directions carefully and submit your form by December 15, 2009.
 

At Food Storage Made Easy we always sell the electric grain mills and the hand grain mills at the lowest price available, so when you add the $30 rebate from WonderMill onto that (and our current free shipping promotion) this is the rock bottom lowest you will ever be able to get a WonderMill wheat grinder!

p.s. Make SURE to watch the blog later today (Wednesday) for one more BIG announcement and the HUGE list of prizes still to be given out. Don’t forget to check out the Day 7 Winners just posted!

At Food Storage Made Easy we always sell the electric mills and the hand mills at the lowest price available, so when you add the $20 rebate from WonderMill onto that (and our current free shipping promotion) this is the rock bottom lowest you will ever be able to get a WonderMill hand grinder.

All you have to do to get the rebate is purchase a Wonder Junior Basic or Deluxe from our Wheat Grinder product page anytime between June 15, 2009 and August 15, 2009. Once your order has been received we will send you the $20 rebate form from the WonderMill. Make sure to follow the directions carefully.

We are so glad to be Authorized Dealers for this great company. The Wonder Junior hand mills will be PERFECT additions to your food storage if you are planning to participate in the Seven Day Challenge. Who knows, you may be without power for part of it

Red vs. White

Red wheat tends to have a stronger wheat flavor and produces a heavier denser bread than white wheat. Red wheats are typically the hard varieties and whites are typically soft. However if you prefer the flavor of one over the other you can find soft red and hard white. Experiment with different varieties in your recipes to find out what works best for you and your family.

Hard vs. Soft

Hard varieties of wheat are the most common and versatile. Hard wheat has a higher gluten (protein) than soft wheat. It is better for making breads, pastas, pancakes, etc. Soft varieties have lower protein and nutrients but are better for pastries and other items where a light fine flour is required.

Spring vs. Winter

Wheat is categorized by which season it is harvested in (either winter or spring). Winter wheat has a tiny bit less protein than spring wheat. Winter averages about 12% protein while spring wheat is closer to 14%. The winter wheat is a little harder than spring as well. Red winter wheat tends to be better for baking than red spring wheat. There isn’t much difference between winter and spring varieties of white wheats.

Our preferred variety of wheat to use is hard white (either winter or spring, whatever you can find). We don’t do much pastry cooking so the hard white has been great in everything we have tried to make. Our families don’t object to any of the meals or foods where we have replaced store-bought white flour with whole wheat hard white wheat flour. To view some of the success we’ve had with using our wheat visit our Wheat Recipes category page.

Let’s Talk About Wheat!

Hi. We are farmers and grow hard white wheat so you can enjoy wholesome wheat straight from the farm. You can find us at HiStakes-Spelt.com. We would like to show you why you would want to use more whole wheat in your food storage and in your everyday diet.

Differences to Consider When Choosing Whole Wheat: If you need advice and are wondering what kind of wheat to choose to make your bread and other pastries, I’ll tell you my preferences. If I had to choose only one type of wheat to store and eat regularly, I would choose hard white wheat. (For those who can tolerate the gluten.) It makes a lighter texture, lighter colored, sweeter bread that other wheats make. Mostly, it is just really good. (How do you like that description?) Breads made with hard red wheat produce a fuller, heartier, almost-heavier flavor, and the bread will have a slightly darker color. However, both make good bread – it is just a matter of taste which you prefer. Actually, my favorite bread uses a combination of hard white wheat, hard red wheat, and spelt (more to come in another post on spelt).

Hard White Wheat (spring and winter varieties) are most often used for breads as well as specialty noodles. Our hard white wheat protein levels are at about 13 (which is standard) and will make a light, sweet, wonderful whole wheat bread. (Especially if you make your own fresh flour from your own grain mill, like the WonderMill.)

Remember, don’t confuse “whole grain white wheat” with store-bought “white flour”! Whole “white” wheat is slightly lighter in color than “red” wheat, both have good nutritional value and are very close in actual color. Store-bought “white flour” has had all the nutrients removed from it adding no nutritional value to the products you use it in. Whole grain white flour and store-bought white flour are not even close to the same thing!

Do you know about Oxidation? In whole-grain foods, the plant’s cellular walls protect their nutrients from oxidation. As soon as grain is ground, the process of oxidation begins to occur thus exposing the cell’s contents to oxygen in the air. Whole grain flour that is several days (or more) old, has been exposed to oxygen that significantly reduces its nutritional value. You get full nutrition from whole grain foods if you mill them when you need them, right in your kitchen. Modern high-speed grain mills make it fast and easy to enjoy the freshest, best tasting and most nutritious food imaginable!

Our grain is thoroughly cleaned and tested by baking bread with it – which is really the ultimate test. Our natural whole grain wheat makes bread and other baked goods that taste wonderful and are packed with natural nutrition! (And we use our own product. That says something!)

Our wheat and spelt are thoroughly cleaned to ensure you receive a pure product and also to protect your grain mill from any foreign objects. (Grain that isn’t sufficiently cleaned may contain small stones that will damage or destroy a grain mill… not to mention that you don’t want such things in your food!)

You should store your grain in air tight containers in a dark, dry and cool place. It is recommended to use an oxygen absorber in your airtight container to keep your grain fresher until ready for use. (Rumor has it that oxygen absorber packets can damage the possibility of sprouting grain, not true. In fact, the grain stored with oxygen packets sprouted faster and better than the grain that was stored naturally.)

At HiStakes-Spelt we don’t just offer wheat and spelt, we also offer many quality bread baking ingredients so you can make successful, delicious bread that your family will love. We are also happy to answer any bread baking questions you may have. We also blog about our food storage adventures at Food Storage Plus and would love to have you come by and say hello!

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Thanks Jamie for being such a great resource for us to learn more from. We hope everyone will get to know you better