Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup oil
Nuts, dates, raisins (opt)

Directions:
Mix all the dry ingredients. Then stir in the applesauce, oil, and nuts or fruits (opt). Bake in a 9×9 pan at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes. Top each piece with warm apple sauce when serving.

Special Notes:
When serving this cake do NOT leave off the dollop of warm applesauce on each piece. It balances out the sweetness of the cake and makes all the difference.

So this Thanksgiving we concocted a sneaky plan …

Two Innocent-Looking Pumpkin Cake Batters

One is made with 100% fresh ground whole wheat flour, the other is made with store-bought white flour. (Hint, white flour is on the left)

Can You Tell the Difference?

The whole wheat cake (right) was a little darker. The white flour cake (left) rose a little higher. We are thinking we could probably add a little more leavening to the recipe to get the whole wheat to rise equally.

The Finished Products!

Our beautiful cakes were a hit at our Thanksgiving party at our Aunt Irene’s house, even though we somehow ended up with about 8 different desserts there. Gotta love Thanksgiving!

The Results???

Jodi made sure to serve up a slice of the WHOLE WHEAT CAKE to her dad. He commented that the cake was really delicious. We asked him if it tasted different and he said no. He wasn’t too happy when we gleefully told him it was made with whole wheat flour. Everyone else in the family raved over it too. This is a family favorite recipe so they would have known if something was off. We both tested a small piece of each of the cakes and felt like we could MAYBE taste a slight difference but if we weren’t eating them side by side you would NEVER know. Yay!

The Pumpkin Cake Recipe

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 2/3 c. sugar
1 c. cooking oil
1 large can pumpkin
2 c. flour (whole wheat works GREAT)
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp. soda

Frosting:
6 oz. cream cheese
3/4 c. butter
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 c. powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Beat eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin. Stir in dry ingredients. Mix well. Bake for 30-35 minutes in a 9×13 ungreased pan. Mix together frosting ingredients and pour on top. EAT AND ENJOY!

p.s. Just for fun, check out the disaster that occurred at Jodi’s house during the event. Gotta love little “helpers”!

   

My favorite recipe I’ve made since venturing into cooking with Food Storage is an Enchilada Pie recipe. I told you all about it back in my cooking challenge post.

Since then, I’ve added another twist on the recipe. I realized I was out of enchilada sauce MID RECIPE a few weeks ago. I had gotten far enough that there was no turning back, but I DID not want to run to the store. Does that EVER happen to any of you? I somehow got confused about how much enchilada sauce I had stored (My husband forgets to tell me we’re down to 2 or 3 left when I get him to get one out of the basement for me).

Anyways, I found this recipe on allrecipes, and to my amazement it turned out great, and used ingredients I always have on hand. Now I wont need to bother buying Enchilada Sauce.

Ten Minute Enchilada Sauce
(anything with the title “ten minutes” in it, is my kind of thing)

Ingredients

1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons self-rising flour (I used regular)
1/4 cup New Mexico or California chili powder
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion salt
salt to taste

Directions
Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in flour and chili powder, reduce heat to medium, and cook until lightly brown, stirring constantly to prevent burning flour.
Gradually stir in tomato sauce, water, cumin, garlic powder, and onion salt into the flour and chili powder until smooth, and continue cooking over medium heat approximately 10 minutes, or until thickened slightly. Season to taste with salt.

So go ahead, give yourself a challenge! Try this out with the NEW twist!

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 (see updated post how to make from scratch)
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!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 package quick rise yeast
¾ c. milk (can also use powdered milk)
¾ c. water
2 T. honey
2 T. vegetable oil
2 c. whole wheat flour

Directions:

Combine 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, salt, and yeast in large mixing bowl. Heat milk, water, honey and oil until hot to touch. Gradually add to dry ingredients. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed of mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Add ½ cup all-purpose flour. Beat at high speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. With spoon, stir in whole wheat flour and enough additional all-purpose flour to make stiff dough. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover, let rest for 10 minutes. Spray loaf pan with vegetable pan spray. Roll dough to 12×8” rectangle. Roll up from short end to make loaf. Pinch seam and ends to seal. Place, seam side down, in prepared pan. Cover, let rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 30 minutes. Bake at 375° for 35 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from pan, cool in a wire rack.

I can’t remember where I found this recipe, but I loved it so much I added it to my recipe binder and make it all the time. It’s not identical to store-brought bread but it is yummy yummy yummy with butter and honey on it. My kids love it too!

My kids LOVE it when I make pancakes … especially for dinner! The other night we were having so much fun I snapped a few pics for you to see how food storage really can involve the whole family and be fun and delicious and healthy.

Blender Wheat Pancakes

1 Cup Milk (translation for powdered milk is 3 T. Milk and 1 C. Water)
1 Cup Wheat Kernels, whole & uncooked
2 Eggs (2 T. powdered eggs 1/4 C. Water)
2 tsp Baking Powder
1-1/2 tsp Salt
2 Tbs. Oil
2 Tbs. Honey or Sugar

Put milk and wheat kernels in blender. Blend on highest speed for 4 or 5 minutes or until batter is smooth. Add eggs, oil, baking powder, salt and honey or sugar to above batter. Blend on low. Pour out batter into pancakes from the actual blender jar (only one thing to wash!) onto a hot greased or Pam prepared griddle or large frying pan. Cook; flipping pancakes when bubbles pop and create holes.

Easy Granola Bars

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour that I ground)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup butter, softened — Better believe I substituted this with Applesauce
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease one 9×13 inch pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, flour, baking soda, vanilla, butter or margarine, honey and brown sugar. Stir in the 2 cups assorted chocolate chips, raisins, nuts etc.
3. Lightly press mixture into the prepared pan. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes then cut into bars. Let bars cool completely in pan before removing or serving.

I love making these and them putting them individually cut in a Tupperware for a quick snack option. You don’t have to substitute the butter with applesauce, I just always like to try it whenever I can…;)

Types of wheat

• Spring or winter: Winter red wheat tends to hava slightly higher protein and is a bit harder than content than spring. Winter red is better for baking bread. There is not a significant difference in hard or soft white wheat.
• Hard or soft: Hard wheat varieties have higher gluten (protein) and are better for making breads. Soft varieties have lower protein and nutrients and are better for pastries, pastas, and breakfast cereals.
• Red or white: Red wheats tend have a stronger wheat flavor than white wheats. Most red wheat varieties are hard, and most white wheat varieties are soft, but you can find soft red and hard white if you really prefer one over the other.

Storage

• If unopened, the optimum shelf life of wheat is 12 years or more. It is edible for a lot longer than that, but won’t necessarily keep the same flavor or nutrient levels.
• If opened, wheat will stay good for about 3 years.
• Once it is ground into flour, wheat loses most of its nutrients within a few days unless you store it in the freezer.
• You can add oxygen absorbers, bay leaves, or dry ice to help keep critters out of your wheat.

A lot of people are intimidated by grinding wheat, or wonder how you grind wheat. It’s actually really simple and wheat grinders are available in a wide range of prices. The main thing you need to decide is if you are planning to use your wheat stores on a regular basis and rotate through them, or if you only want to use your wheat in an emergency situation.

If you plan to use your wheat frequently it is worth investing in a quality electric grinder. We recommend the Wondermill Grain Mill as it seems to be the fastest, cleanest, most convenient of electric grinders and only $239! (In fact, we liked this mill so much that we decided to apply to become an official dealer for them … more on that next week though!) For emergency-only usage, a hand grinder will be sufficient, but make sure that you get one that can still grind into a flour fine enough for bread. The Back to Basics grinder is the cheapest one we found that would still grind flour.

For a simple demonstration on how you actually grind wheat, please view our How to Use a Wheat Grinder video on YouTube.

After searching long and hard for the BEST whole wheat bread recipe, we finally found one that was darn near perfect. It was fluffy, delicious, good for sandwiches, and even the kids would eat it! Modified slightly from the One Happy Homemaker Blog, here it is:

You can half this recipe and make one delicious large loaf

• 3 c. very warm water (but not too hot)
• 1 T. instant or quick rise yeast
• 1/3 c. vegetable or canola oil
• 1/3 c. honey
• 1 T. salt
• 6 cups whole wheat flour (hard white wheat is best)
• 1/2 c. whole oats
• 1/4 c. gluten w/ vitamin C

Combine the first 5 ingredients and mix. Add 5 cups flour, oats, and gluten flour. Mix well. Continue to add the other 1 c. flour slowly until the dough forms a ball and scrapes the excess dough off the sides of the bowl. Let mix for 5-10 minutes. While mixing, preheat your oven to 100-125 degrees.

Oil the counter surface & your hands (Use oil, NOT flour). Put your dough on the oiled surface & slice WITH A KNIFE into 2 large or 3 small even loaves. Pat down and roll into loaf shape, then put into greased bread pan.

Turn OFF your oven, cover loaves LOOSELY with saran wrap, and put in warmed oven to rise till double (about 45-60 minutes, depending on humidity in the air).
Remove loaves from oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Bake loaves for 25-30 minutes. Remove from pans immediately and place on a wire cooling rack.

I really thought the amount I ground up would last me for months and months. Truth be told I’ve already used more than half of it. I’m so excited because I REALLY never thought I could get into the whole rotating, everyday cooking thing as much as I have. Here are the ways I have been using my wheat, for real!

BREAD: So for the past few weeks I’ve made my bread – haven’t bought bread in over a month. I have tried lots of recipes for bread machine breads (Ok I’m not that awesome, I use a bread machine).

PANCAKES: Next, I have been making pancakes from our friend over at everydayfoodstorage.net She teaches how to make the famous blender pancakes. The picture is from her blog, I’m not going to claim that I can decorate food that cute. My husband LOVES these.

Side note: I just used the wheat flour since I already had it ground. I substituted the oil with applesauce, and I use 2 egg whites with one yolk only. I “try” to be “healthy”. Even with the healthy substitutions they are amazing!

PIZZA: I’ve also gotten addicted to homemade pizza. I throw ingredients into my bread machine, hit dough setting, then 90 minutes later I roll it out, top it, and bake it at 425 for about 20 mins -I like the crust crusty. AMAZING and totally healthy because I try to top it with mostly veggies, turkey pepperoni – my FAVORITE!, and just a “little” cheese. The recipe is easy even:

3 Cups of whole wheat flour (I use hard white wheat)
1 Cup of water
2 Tablespoons of Oil
2 Tablesppons of Sugar
1tsp of Salt
1 Tablespoon of Yeast

(So tonight, I actually just threw these all into a bowl, mixed it well by hand, and let it rise for an hour- worked without the bread machine).

GRANOLA BARS: Last but not least I am on a quest to find the perfect EASY granola bar recipe. I found one at allrecipes. com that had whole wheat and oats it in. I made it and liked them pretty well, but they weren’t super healthy (lots of sugars). I’m not sure if it’s totally possible to make a super healthy granola bar, so if anyone has a recipe for this PLEASE share. I’m kind of a health nut, kind of. Anyways, here are pictures of my granola bars. They were good all week, didn’t get dried out or anything.

GRINDING WHEAT IS EASY,
FOR PROOF WATCH OUR WHEAT GRINDER VIDEO