Food Storage Made Easy » Pasta Recipes

Food Storage Recipes: Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

Jodi -- Food Storage Made Easy — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:00:29 +0000

I have posted about these two food storage recipes in the past, but in light of the WonderMill Rebate going on I decided to share them again since using fresh ground bean flour is one of our FAVORITE ways to eat healthy and save on fat and calories. I’ve always loved my mom’s homemade macaroni and cheese and using the advice of Crystal from http://everydayfoodstorage.net I have learned how to tweak this recipe to use different food storage items in two different versions:

Homemade Mac ‘N’ Cheese (w/ grains and powdered milk)

Ingredients:
1 lb macaroni noodles (BabyStep 5 : Grains)
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour (BabyStep 5 : Grains)
1 c. milk (or 1 c. water, 3 T. powdered milk)
1 tsp. seasoned salt
cheese cubes (optional)
ham cubes (optional)

Directions:
Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Melt butter in large saucepan. Whisk in the flour until smooth. Slowly stir in milk until well mixed in. Add seasoned salt. Let cook for a little while until it starts to thicken. Add in the macaroni noodles. Add in a little more milk if it seems too thick. Can add more seasoned salt according to your family’s tastes. Add ham and cheese cubes right before serving.

Homemade Mac ‘N’ Cheese (w/ legumes and powdered milk)

Ingredients:
3 c. of macaroni noodles
5 T. of lima or other white bean flour (BabyStep 6 : Legumes)
1 c. of water
3/4 c. milk (or 3/4 c. water 2 T. powdered milk)
2 tsp. seasoned salt
cheese cubes (optional)
ham cubes (optional)

Directions:
Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Grind 1/4 c. of white beans in your wheat grinder to make about 5 T. of bean flour. Put 1 c. of water in large saucepan. Slowly whisk in ground bean flour. Continue to whisk frequently until starts to thicken and bubble. Slowly stir in milk until it’s a nice thickish liquid consistency. Add seasoned salt (the bean version tends to need more than the flour/butter version). Add in the macaroni noodles. Add in a little more milk if it seems too thick. Add ham and cheese cubes right before serving.

Confession time … While the bean flour version is still good (and my kids snarfed it up just like usual), I could actually tell a difference in this recipe. I prefer the fattening version, surprise surprise. hehe. But the bean flour version is a very good substitute and can save a TON of calories and fat!

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

Food Storage Recipes: Homemade Rice-A-Roni

Jodi -- Food Storage Made Easy — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 07:04:25 +0000

If you are anything like me, you may have wondered how come rice and pasta are some of the cheapest foods, and yet those little boxes of Rice-A-Roni or Pasta-Roni are so darn expensive. Now occasionally you may be able to use some creative couponing to get these boxed foods at drop-dead prices, but when your supplies run low, this cheap and easy alternative may be just the trick. As a side benefit, if you store your bulk items like rice and pasta properly, your shelf life on this will be much longer than a box of Rice-A-Roni.

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.

Recipe: Mexican Casserole – Food Storage Style

Julie - Food Storage Made Easy — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:42:31 +0000

This recipe is a family favorite of my husbands- they call it Cowboy Delight. He asked me to make it one day, but I had no Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. A few weeks ago, I had bought some powdered cheese blend in a #10 can to give a try one day and had forgotten about it. Well – I figured this would definitely be a good recipe to try the cheese in since it was mixed with so many other things. It turned out fabulously.

Cowboy Delight – Mexican Casserole

Ingredients:
1 family size package Kraft macaroni and cheese
(I used 3 C macaroni, 1/2 C powdered cheese, 6 tsp butter, 6 tsp of powdered milk)
½ lb. lean hamburger (or turkey), browned
½ onion, chopped (can use dehydrated onion flakes)
1 can chili with beans
1 can tomato soup
1 T. chili powder
1 can corn
cheddar cheese, cubed (optional)
fritos (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º. Cook kraft dinner according to directions in large pot. Meanwhile, brown hamburger with onion. Add to kraft dinner with remaining ingredients. Heat through. Pour into casserole dish and top with fritos. Cover and bake 30 minutes

My husband actually said he thought the noodles done this way was a little yummier. I also didn’t have a can of chili with beans- so I just put in a can of red beans and chili seasoning instead. It worked out just fine. Oh and also, the butter in the macaroni and cheese can be substituted with 1/4 C of butter powder – I just skip the butter altogether, but once I gave Jodi mac and cheese without butter and she spit it out- so in case you wanted to know- you can use powdered butter in mac and cheese too. This meal could also be made without meat and cheese for a “completely” shelf stable ingredients meal.