My Aunt Margie helped me can meat one year, but for the life of me I can't remember how. It was great though, when we had company I could have dinner for the whole crew in less than 15 minutes. I just used to dump the meat, liquid and all in a pot, thicken it with flour and that would be meat and gravey over mashed potatoes and a veggie. I had no way of knowing any other way to use it, but no one complained about it.
My canned chicken, made great chicken and bisquits, chicken pot pies and chicken salad sandwiches.
Nikki, it would be sweet of you to share how to can meats, although I'm sure I can find out on my own.

Liz, canning meat is a breeze! :-) And right now you can get great prices! For chicken breasts... all I do is fill the jar with the raw meat (no broth, no salt, no fillers, no nuthin'). Process for 1 hour 15 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. You'll see that the chicken will make it's own broth. Same goes for cuts of beef. Go ahead and buy the cheap stuff... it will be tender as anything when you open your bottle! :-) I de-bone all of my meat and trim the fat. If you want to do ground beef I suggest browning it first. I did add a tomato sauce to my ground beef because all of my recipes call for some sort of tomato base and that was one less can I had to worry about. :-) I hope this helps but if you have any questions let me know. I'm happy to help. :-) ~ Nikki (I don't know why I have two different identities on here LOL :-)

I'd love to see more recipes using canned meats. It's so easy to can them (easier than fruits and veggies in my opinion). I have a whole pantry stocked up with meats and need more ideas to fill my menus. :) Thanks for all you do. I love your site!!

A good recipe using split peas is Alton Brown's Split Pea Burgers http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/... They are delicious. We fed them to a friend's 6 and 3 year old and told them they were just burgers. They scarfed them down.

Sprouts: When I have sprouts in the house our family enjoys them in egg foo yong. This is not exactly a recipie, quantities of each ingredient are forgiving and dependent on individual taste. I have never tried powdered eggs, and they would probably work.

2 eggs per person, beaten in a mixing bowl
1 oz. milk per person (any form as liquid)
1/3 cup sprouts and/or peas per person
salt/peper/soy sauce to taste
1 tsp. butter or margarin

Add the milk, salt, peper, soy sauce to the eggs and beat. Put the butter in a frying pan and melt on medium heat. Pour in the egg mixture and stir the sprouts/peas into the top.

Turn to finish (about the same as an easy over egg)

I just made the peanut butter criss cross cookies in the churches cook book. I used white bean puree in stead of shortening and I used whole wheat flour instead of regular flour. They are a little more crisp but really good.

I will 2nd the hillbillyhousewife site. I have also used a bunch of her recipes and my family has loved them. We especially love making our own rice mixes. Tons cheaper than buying them in the store--and all from using home food storage! Check it out!

I have been using some of the lentil, rice and other recipes from this site. www.hillbillyhousewife.com. It's been fun learning to use this staples that typically are not in traditional cook books. Hope this resource helps.