Lemon Chicken Picatta and Asparagus Rice

Let me just tell you that my 6 year old couldn't stop telling me how good the chicken was. I too enjoyed the zest that the lemon added to the chicken. I hope you enjoy this great recipe.
Here is a break down of the cost.
Chicken $5
Asparagus $3*
Rice $1.50*
Whisk Bliss $1.62
Chicken Bouillon $.07*
Cheese $2.50
Flour $.50*
Butter$ .50*
Lemon $.33
Oil $.20*
 That comes out to about $15.22  for a family of 6!! That's a little over $2.53 a serving.
*These are just estimates because I don't use the whole product.
Just imagine how much you just saved by staying home and not going out to eat!
 If you go to Olive Garden. Let's say each plate costs about $11 per person. You spend $66 on the meal for 6 people. That doesn't include tax or a tip. Just on the food alone you saved $50.78!!!!


Cheesy Asparagus Rice
2c. long-grain rice
3 1/2 c. water
1 T. butter
4 c. water
1 c. Shirley J's Whisk Bliss Original or Gluten Free
1 c. fresh asparagus, chopped
16 oz. processed American cheese

Directions:
In a small saucepan, combine water and Whisk Bliss. Bring to a slow boil, simmer for 3-4 minutes, and add asparagus and cheese. Stir until cheese is melted, and remove from heat. In a stockpot, combine rice, water, and butter and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and cover for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add asparagus mixture. Cover and let stand for five more minutes. Stir gently and serve.

Lemon Chicken Picatta
6 4 oz chicken breasts
1c. flour
1 t. Shirley J Chicken Bouillon
3 T. olive oil
6 T. butter
1/4c. lemon juice
3/4c. water
fresh parsley
lemon zest

Directions: Cover chicken breasts with plastic and pound, using a meat mallet, to about 1/4 inch thick cutlets. Coat each breast with flour, shaking off excess. Combine oil and four tablespoons of butter and, over medium-low heat, and in a heavy skillet, fry each piece until it is browned and cooked throughout. Remove chicken from oil, and set on a paper towel to drain. Add lemon juice, water, and Chicken Bouillon to the pan drippings. Stir and scrape until all is combined into sauce. Simmer for five minutes and add remaining butter. Serve sauce over the chicken. Garnish with fresh parsley and lemon zest.

When the SHTF

I found this post on Pinterest yesterday and thought I would share some if the great items they came up with to barter with. I will also add some of my own ideas.

1. Alcohol
2. Cigarettes
3. Bullets
4. Soap
5. MREs
6. Silver Coin
7. Detergent
8. Matches & Lighters
9. Sugar
10. Toilet Paper
11. Water Filters/Water Purifiers
12. Bleach
13. Batteries
14. Candles
15. Water Bottles

You can find their reasoning on their website.


Here are some of the items I would add to the list:

1. Baby Formula- I am sure there are tons of mothers out there who would give anything to be able to feed their baby, especially if they are unable to breastfeed. Also, under extreme stress a mother's milk supply can dry up and if that happens there is no other way to feed that little guy or gal.
2. Diapers- This would be one less stress that you would have to deal with. I wouldn't want to have to learn how to wash, clean and diaper a baby using cloth. I know there are people out there who do cloth diapering, good for you. However, there are tons of people who don't. Plus, I have had people come up to me at the mall and ask to buy a diaper off of me because they left theirs at home. Yep! For one diaper they were willing to give me $5!
3. Pain Killers-  (Advil, Tylenol, etc.) How many times do we ask for an Advil when we are at work or at someone's house. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to get something in return for the 3 Advils that we give someone?
4. Toothbrushes- That is a little luxury that I would like to have. Plus, my church does hygiene packs for natural disasters and we always pack 2 toothbrushes, soap, small towel, comb, and toothpaste.
5. Small towels- So that you can give yourself a quick bath or wash that sweat baby.

What are some items that you would like to have if you needed to trade?

Where to Store and How to Store

 Now that you have a list of things you want to start storing, where and how do you store these items.
Well....you can store in a closet, under the bed, the top of your closet, an end table, in your pantry, and the list can go on.
 Above I have separated my food storage into 3 months. I have one month in boxes. Another month is on the 2nd shelf and the third month is on the bottom shelf. This is how I have sorted and organized my food storage. This just makes sense to me. I can see what I have for each month and I can see what I need for each month.

 My husband and I were doing brainstorming about our situation. Do we stay if there is an emergency or do we leave? If we leave we will be taking our 72 hour kit, but we don't want to leave all of our food storage. We put good money and time into it. We want to be able to quickly take some of it with us.
 So, we devised a plan on how to do that. We broke up our food storage into weeks. I got my diaper boxes together and put a weeks worth of our food storage in the box. Now as you see below I have a larger box full of items. That is my baking box. If I have time I will be carrying out that heavy sucker to the car. I labeled it. I labeled all of the boxes so that I would know what was in them. I also labeled them according to importance. I have one labeled Week 1 A and Week 1 B. I want the A box if I have to grab anything out quickly. If I happen to have more time, I will come back for box B and so on.
 This method is more money, but I figured it would be worth buying a smaller relish bottle so I can have my tuna with relish, instead of just plain.
 If you decide to do this, make sure you are rotating that food. Putting them in boxes does make it harder to get to so that it is rotated.

  I also have gotten creative on how to store flour, sugar, and many other needed cooking products. My husband goes through a lot of protein. So, I take off the label and write on the container what is in it and the expiration date. Now looking back I should have put it on a label because I will be rotating out the flour.
 In order to keep the bugs out of your food storage you will want to put the flour in the freezer for a little while, I did 24 hours. Then put a bay leaf in the container.
 Another way that I saw, on Pinterest, was putting your food storage in 2 liter bottles. That is another cheap way to put flour into a container. Just make sure you clean out the bottle well and put a bay leaf in the container, one in the bottom and one at the top.
 You can also do the glass mason jars, if you have them. I also have # 10 cans full of food. However, I can't always get to a cannery to do that. I also have air tight containers, like the one below.  So, there isn't just one right way to do it.

I hope this gives you some ideas on how you too can find solutions to your problems.

Food Storage Part 2

Let’s start with water. Everyone needs water to survive. What will happen if for some reason your area’s water supply gets contaminated or the water line breaks?

 You need to store 2 weeks of water for each person. If you have animals, please consider them in your planning.  Again, you will want 2 liters of water per person per day.  Also, you will want cleaning water. You have to clean the dishes or do your laundry.  I clean my house with vinegar and so when the bottle is all empty I fill the vinegar bottle up with water from the tap. Also, all of your laundry detergent bottles can be refilled with water. Just make sure you label everything. You will need to dump your water at least once a year.

Along with water you will want to start learning how to garden, if you don’t already know how. I knew nothing about gardening until I started reading and going to events where they talked about how to garden. Again, I was overwhelmed because I lived in a desert with poor soil.  All of the gardening books that I found were focusing on areas to the east of me. I did find one and started reading. So…educate yourself and start. It doesn’t have to be a big garden. If you have no space you can do container gardening.

I found this idea from here.

With gardening you will also need seeds. Buy Non Hybrid seeds.  Why? It has better nutritional value and you can use the seeds from the produce.

 If there happens to be some sort of crisis at your place.  It could be food shortage or maybe a job loss. You will want the basics to be covered for your family.

3 Month Supply

You will want a 3 month supply on foods that you normally eat and that are easy to make because it will take you about 3 months to convert over to using wheat, beans, rice, and other basics (that our great grandparents did).  Plus, sometimes it’s just nice to have a quick meal to eat.

Start by making a one week menu for your family. List out all of the ingredients that you will need. I made sure that mine were shelf stable, meaning that they can stay in the pantry for months at a time.

Here is an idea of what my week's worth of food looks like.
Breakfast: Cereal, Pancakes, Waffles, Biscuits and Gravy, Oatmeal, and Muffins.
Lunch: Tuna, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Mac & Cheese, Grilled Cheese, Sloppy Joes, Burritos and Hawaiian Chicken.
Dinner: Tacos, Alfredo, Spaghetti, Gumbo, Meat loaf, Taco Soup, and Potato and Cheese Soup.

Buy that week worth of food. Once you have a week, work on getting up to a month of food.

 Then list out another week worth of meals, with different dinners and/or lunches. List all of the ingredients and buy all of those to have another month worth.

Then start over with another weekly menu and purchase it all for a 3^rd month worth of food.

I read somewhere that you should list all the ingredients out and then when there is a sale at the grocery store you should buy all that you need. I tried that and my ingredients didn’t go on sale very often and I felt it was more important to have the food than to save 50 cents. 

I also read that your family can live on soups and breads. Think about it. What do you use to make soups? You use broths, beans, rice, vegetables, and a little bit of meat. You need vegetables, protein, and grains. Soups can help you achieve that. All of the ingredients are shelf stable too. Plus there are endless varieties of soups.

Another great thing is that beans can help you raise the protein value of your meal. You can grind them up and then put them in your soups.

There are different ways of doing this. I read about one lady putting all of the ingredients in a zip lock with the recipe. I also saw mason jar meals.  I even bought some just add water entrees. Whatever makes it easier for you to do food storage, do it. There isn’t one right way to go.

Here are some websites that have helped me:

http://www.provident-living-today.com/

www.providentliving.org

www.foodstoragemadeeasy.com              

Here is a great book that I read that also helped me:

Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook by Peggy Layton

 

Emergency Preparedness #1

Thinking about emergencies gets me all worked up and stressed out. I have had the feeling that I needed to get all of my emergency supplies in order for years. But every time I thought about it I got so overwhelmed I just quit.

 I finally buckled down the last few years and got some education and ideas. My ideas are no where near the way to do it. Every family has their needs and what works best for them. The following information is what works for my family.

1.  Get your 72 hour kit together.

 Why? Well, that is how long it typically takes for the Red Cross to get into the area and get set up.

What is a 72 hour kit? It is a kit that has all the basic necessities that you and/or your family will need for 72 hours. You can buy a premade kit anywhere. The prices range from $50 up to a couple hundred dollars.  When I first got married I bought a basic kit at Walmart. It had a poncho, rope, first aid kit, a compass, whistle, and some other items. I added to that kit and I still have that kit.

To hold your kit  you can use anything to hold it all. Some ideas are fanny packs, back packs, suit cases, rolling trash cans, wagons, and many more.

This is an example of what we have put all of our needs in. Sorry about the picture, it was starting to fall over.

You will need water. However, water is heavy. I have a few bottles of water, a water filter, and purification tablets. If you live in an area that has lots of rainfall you don’t have to worry so much about finding water. I, however, lived in Las Vegas. Yeah, you guessed it!  I was worried about finding water.  So, I had more bottled water in my pack.  You need about 4 liters of water per person per day.

You will also need food. I put all of my food, for one day, in a zip lock baggie. That way I knew that I had enough food for each person. You will want some sort of protein, snacks, grains, fruits, dairy, comfort items. In my packs I  buy items that my family loves to eat, but we don’t have them very often. That way they think they are having treats. My packs have jerky, trail mix, granola bars, tuna, crackers, gum, fruit snacks, apple sauce packets, pop tarts, milk, Capri Suns, and cereal bars. I also bought a few of Mountain House freeze dried food. It lasts about 5 years and it’s a full meal for 2 people. I didn’t buy a whole lot of them because I would have to heat them up and I just didn’t want to build a fire or what not to make a meal, especially if I was in emergency mode.

This is how I pack one day's worth of food.

Because I have young kids, I also packed some sort of fun item for them. My boy has a couple of cars and stuff to color. My girl has a doll. My baby has a soft blanket and some baby toys. I also packed a sling for me to carry him with. And the ever needed pacifier. Yep! I NEED to have one of those.

Also, I read somewhere that you should put a picture of your family, with phone numbers on the back. Just so that if somehow, heaven forbid, that you get separated from your child there is a way they can identify the parents and contact someone.

Each of my older kids have at least one days worth of food. Again, if we get separated then at least they have something to eat.

This is my boy's pack.

If you have any women in your home you will want feminine hygiene.

This is my girl's pack. She decided she wanted this pack. I don't care as long as she is happy.

Eye glasses or contacts? You want solution and maybe an extra pair of glasses. I packed my old, out of date prescription glasses.

Babies, you want diapers! I packed disposables, cloth diapers and wipes. You might also want to consider formula, even if you nurse, and a bottle. Many times when you are expecting a baby you are sent a sample of some formula so I just put that in my pack.

Everyone in my house gets an extra pair of clothes and underwear. You want to think about what kind of climate you live in to determine the kind of clothing that you want in your kit. When I was in Girl Scouts they always told us, "If you go to bed with clean underwear and socks, you will stay warm." Everyone in my family has at least 2 days of clean underwear.

There are wool blankets and emergency blankets. I also have a large plastic container to hold water. I have flash lights, pocket knives, extra money, ponchos, first aid kit, glow sticks, matches, large trash bags, sewing kit, sun screen, lip gloss, latex gloves, toilet paper, extra medication, Advil or other pain reliever, and a mess kit.

This is no where near all of the stuff in my pack, but I am sure it will give you an idea of what you can put in yours.

Just know that you should start small and each year you check your kit buy a little more. Don’t think: “Oh, I need all of this stuff!” You don’t need to go out and pay hundreds of dollars all at once.  Plus, your needs will change as your family changes.

Always remember that you need to check your kit about every 6 months. I check mine in October and April.  You need different clothing during each time of the year.

Don't forget the animals! If you have animals you need to consider their needs too.

Some people believe in getting some sort of protection (gun, knife, etc.) to have in your pack.

My dad once told me to buy a bottle of alcohol and cigarettes. We don't smoke or drink so I was pretty surprised by this council. Well...addicts will trade ANYTHING to get it. If you need water or something, I am sure an alcoholic would trade you for it.

I hope this helps you get some good ideas on how to start your 72 hour kit.