Food

Community

One more tragedy

Boston bombing victim 3 lu lingziWith the tragedy of the bombing in Boston, this is just one more reminder that we need to be prepared for as many different situations as possible. First I want to say how saddened I am by the actions of whoever is responsible, this is an unspeakable tragedy to those who were injured, killed and traumatized by this bombing, to all their friends and families.…

Read More »
Community

The Lost Art of Scratch Cooking

fromscsrchFood is so important, unless you were raised on a working farm, most of us have no idea where our food comes from, during the last Great Depression many people survived because they were less than one generation out from the farm, many had gardens, chickens, a milk cow… now people live crammed into cities with postage stamp sized yards with HOA’s and city ordinances that keep them from growing anything but grass, and Heaven forbid they have more than a dog or cat…

There is a lost art, the art of cooking, specifically from scratch, given a kitchen from our grandmother’s time, how many of us would be able to whip up a meal? Without microwaves, without box mixes, without the frozen conveniences in pre-packaged plastic… Fortunately I’m not the only person who thinks this way, who wonders about these things.…

Read More »
Food

A Shock to the system

From regular contributor Corey Naughton

Like many of those who live off-grid I like to eat healthy. There comes a point when one must define what “healthy” is exactly. At the very least, we must personally define what is NOT healthy and avoid those items with the small exception of occasional indulgences (can you say “bacon”). Many will be surprised to learn that things they think are healthy are in fact not. For those of you who have not yet discovered the dangers of pesticide laden and GMO foods … This might be a wake up call. This quick story very clearly helped me add yet another “healthy” item to my list of things to avoid.…

Read More »
Community

Dry canning ground beef

dry canning ground beef

There are 3 main ways of preserving meat, freezing, drying and canning, I’m sure there are a few more ways but those are the main ways we do it. Freezing meat is probably the most common method, the problems with freezing meats are if you leave it in your freezer for too long, especially if it’s not property packaged, you will find a nasty case of freezer burn when you open the package. There is also the risk of losing what is in your freezer if there is a power outage or your freezer fails. Today we will talk about preserving one of the cheapest meats, ground beef.…

Read More »
Community

Canning other goodies

canning crackersThere are many ways of preserving foods, dehydrating, freezing and canning. Today we will discuss canning. There are many foods that can be canned, meats, vegetables, fruits and such… but did you know you can can other foods as well? How about crackers? Breads?…

Read More »
Community

My favorite recipes

Food, it’s something I really REALLY love, I love cooking and eating. As a young child, while my little sister was busy playing with her dolls and tea sets, I was in the kitchen watching my mom cook and bake. My mom was great in the kitchen, she could take a few basics and whip up a grand meal, fortunately that rubbed off on me. :)

I have a few old standbys, one is a tuna casserole, this recipe always makes me think of my mother in law, she makes a similar one and is quite the good cook herself!…

Read More »
Community

Coconut Oil: A Prepper’s Panacea

LOL, if you read many of my posts, you will notice I have a fetish for food, I also write about health and living off-grid, but food is one of my major passions. I love cooking and baking from scratch. I cook by the seat of my pants, I’m one of those who can look at a kitchen full of staples and can whip up a tasty meal. Give me the basics, flour, butter, cornmeal, leavening (yeast, baking powder, baking soda…), seasonings, some protein like chicken, beef or fish, perhaps some fresh veg and I can put together a meal fit for a king.

Today we will focus on one ingredient, coconut oil. Not too long ago, it was considered to be a “bad” oil, it was cheap and often the oil of choice for fast food restaurants for deep frying. Like many foods that have been demonized in the past, now it’s considered a healthy fat, go figure……

Read More »
Community

Prepping on a budget – part 7 – getting started

start

It’s NOT too late to start prepping! If you are still breathing, and you are reading this, it’s not too late to start prepping! Even though the main stream media is doing its utmost best to make preppers look like the bad guy, that’s not your problem, your focus needs to be on taking care of yourself and your family, the more people you are responsible for, the more you need to buckle down and get ready for whatever may be coming down the pike.

The USA is still considered a prosperous country with lots of safety nets, I’m here to tell you that we are on a very slippery slope, what is at the bottom of that slope? Well, look around at what’s going on in other countries that were once prosperous and see where they are now. With the dollar being devalued quicker and quicker, hint that means the buying power of a dollar is less and less, saving money, ie savings accounts, hiding it under your mattress and such shouldn’t be your top priority right now, unless you already have a major stock of food and other necessities put back.…

Read More »
Community

Baking without Eggs

Since I live so far from town, it’s a 40+ mile round trip to go to the nearest town that only has one grocery store, it’s 80+ miles round trip to go to the next closest town that has 2 grocery stores, and we don’t have our own chickens, yet! I sometimes find that I am short an egg or two when I want to make something that requires eggs. It’s just not worth it to drive to town just to pick up a carton of eggs. I ran across this article with lots of good info about how to substitute other things for eggs, and the good thing is these are things you probably already have in your pantry. :)…

Read More »

How to save money on food

Saving money, everyone talks about it, everyone wants to do it, but it’s hard to do. With most of us on tight budgets, it’s more important than ever to save every penny you can.

The main reason saving money seems hard to do is it usually means having to give up something that you would normally want to buy or do. My hubby and I live off-grid, we budget ourselves tightly, that includes food, but we still eat very well, the trick is to find ways of saving that doesn’t hurt so much. Here are some of the ways I save money. Let’s focus on food, something we all have to have to survive.…

Read More »
Community

Cooking freeze dried style

Lots of things are going on today, the one getting the most news coverage is the president of the US being sworn in today, I read recently that the inauguration ball was going to be scaled down in respect of the bad economy and unemployment numbers being high, then today I read that it’s going to cost over 300 million… THAT’S CUTTING BACK? So, in light of this, today I’ll write about something really important, cooking and eating! A few weeks ago, we were snowed in, fortunately we had enough provisions to get us through.…

Read More »

Eating healthier foods-making healthier choices

Staying healthy (to me) means eating more foods that are healthy than the unhealthy ones. Staying healthier means I can live a longer more fulfilling life and can stay independent, living off-grid for a longer period of time. I for one try to eat a larger balance of healthy foods vs unhealthy ones, I try to tip the scales toward the healthy ones and away from the unhealthy ones. We literally are what we eat, your body has to get everything it needs from what you consume, if you are consuming a great deal of incomplete nutrition, then your body will eventually begin to fail, you will notice more aches and pains, and you will not bounce back as quickly from colds and viruses.…

Read More »