Make sure to add your recipes and food posts to the link-up at the bottom!

There are a lot of things I buy because of convenience, but while becoming more aware of the things in our food and trying to save money, I’ve become very interested in things that I can make myself. Here are a few of the things I’ve found that I never even thought to make myself:

Cream of “Something” Soup

Filed under: DIY, food, Food Friday, Recipes by Rachel
1 Comment »

Make sure to add your recipes and food posts to the link-up at the bottom!

I’m still thinking in backpack mode as we’re planning our trip. So, this week I have another DIY recipe that would be great for backpacking, camping, hiking or even just a snack to take to work!

Making your own granola/trail-mix can not only save you money, but it also allows you to control exactly what goes into it. And it’s easy!

Download the pdf recipe card (5×3 recipe card)

Ingredients:
2 T honey
2 T coconut oil (optional)
1 cup oats
1 T chia seeds
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1/8 cup cranberries
1/8 cup goji berries (or cranberries)
1/3 cup raw sunflower seeds

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a small saucepan, melt coconut oil and honey on low, just long enough to make it a smooth liquid. Remove from heat and stir in oats, chia seeds and any other small add-in.

Spread granola mixture in a jelly-roll pan, and bake for 5 minutes. Allow to cool.

Break up granola into bite size pieces and put in a quart-size ziplock bag. Add the almonds, berries, sunflower seeds and any additional add-in. Shake well to incorporate.

Also participating in:

Filed under: camping, DIY, food, Food Friday, organic by Rachel
1 Comment »

Make sure to add your recipes and food posts to the link-up at the bottom!

We’re planning a short weekend trip for our birthdays this year. As long as the weather cooperates, we’ll be heading to Assateague Island sometime in late March for a backcountry camping trip with a couple friends. We stayed on the Island one night for our vacation last year, and it was such a great camping spot, that I really wanted to go back. This time, we’ll be staying two nights, which means we have to carry double the food, and since we’ll be hiking in, we need it to be as light as possible.

The problem, however, lies in the cost of backpacking food. A little pouch of dried camp food runs about $5-$10 for just 1 or 2 servings. That adds up with 4 people over a few days. So, after a little research on the world wide web, I decided to try drying my own food. Of course, dried fruits and even veggies are easily found at the grocery, but as it turns out, once it’s cooked, pretty much anything is safe to dehydrate. You can make complete dishes and put them right in the dehydrator, or you can dehydrate the ingredients separately and just mix up small amounts at a time.

I started out with some very lean ground beef. It’s the fat in foods, that makes it go bad. Start with lean, and drain off as much grease as possible. You can also “rinse” it by pouring a little water over it while it’s cooking to help drain off the excess grease. I also read that ground beef sometimes becomes chewy when rehydrated, but if you mix some bread crumbs into the raw meat before you cook it, it rehydrates better. (Backpacking Chef – Dehydrating Meat)

I dehydrated 1/2 lb. ground beef by itself. It dried very quickly. With the other half-pound, I made a sauce and cooked some pasta and dried the finished food. The mistake I made with it was trying to use wax paper to cover the dehydrator trays because I only had one fruit leather tray. Take my advice, and don’t try it. The wax paper didn’t want to let go of the dried food. I also tried aluminum foil, which worked OK, but took longer to dehydrate and plastic wrap which worked very well, but heating plastic wrap up in the dehydrator doesn’t sound like a healthy idea to me. So, I think the best thing is to get the fine mesh or fruit leather trays that were made for dehydrating.

I also made a second batch of pasta that should be plenty to feed 4.

Download the pdf recipe card (cut and fold to make 5×3 recipe card)

Ingredients:
1 lb. elbow macaroni
1 lb. extra-lean ground beef
1/2 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
1/4 cup flour
1 pkt. taco seasoning
2 cups milk
2 cups frozen spinach
3 mushrooms, chopped (I used the regular, white, buttons)
2 cups shredded quesadilla cheese
1-1/2 T DRIED onion (OR 1/2 FRESH onion, diced)

Cook noodles per package instruction. Drain and set aside.

Thoroughly mix together bread crumbs and beef. Don’t be afraid to use your hands, and make sure you get the bread crumbs mixed throughout the meat. In a large skillet, brown the meat mixture until cooked through.

Reduce heat and stir in flour and taco seasoning just until the meat is coated. Add the milk and bring to a light boil, stirring constantly. Add the spinach, mushrooms, cheese and FRESH onion, and continue to cook until the sauce thickens.

Once the mixture becomes a gravy consistency, remove from heat and fold in pasta.* Allow to cool slightly before filling dehydrator trays with thin layers. Dehydrate on high 6 hours or overnight, breaking up or turning occasionally, if possible. (Not necessary, but it will help it to dry faster.) Once it is mostly dry, break into pieces and reduce heat to low for 2 hours to finish drying and cool down. Once it is completely dry, break up the rest of the way and add DRIED onion. Store in a tightly sealed container in the freezer for optimum shelf life. (Or use vacuum sealer, if you have one.)

*I opted to dehydrate my pasta separately, mainly because until I get another fruit leather tray, I have limited dehydrator space, and the pasta, by itself, will sit on the regular trays. I also placed it on higher trays in the dehydrator because it will dry much quicker.

Some other foods to try:
Sausage Gravy for biscuits
Fresh Fruits for trail mixes, granola or oatmeal
Tomato Sauce for pasta or rice dishes
Veggies for soup

Safety Disclaimer: Please practice safe food handling and common sense. I do not claim to be an authority on dehydrating food, this is merely what worked for me.

Also participating in:

Filed under: camping, DIY, food, Food Friday, Recipes, travel by Rachel
Comments Off

Here’s what I made – Make sure to add your recipes and food posts to the link-up at the bottom!

Flatbread (We had it with Broccoli soup – Yum!)
Adapted from Heather Homemade 

You have no idea how easy this was! I don’t know why I hadn’t tried this already. No yeast, to rising time, quick and simple. It is thin – almost like a cracker – and perfect for soups!

Ingredients:
1-3/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 – 1/2 tsp. salt (You may want to use less if you’re adding sea salt to the top.)
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup olive oil
grated Parmesan
thyme (I used dried)
sea salt
garlic powder
honey (I totally forgot to add this, but it was still yummy!)

Preheat oven to 450F.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add the water and oil, and gently stir with a wooden spoon. It’s going to look super-sticky, but don’t add any more flour. Knead the dough with the spoon until it all comes together in a ball.

Split the dough in half. On an ungreased pizza stone or cookie sheet (I tried them both), roll out one half of the dough into a very thin circle, about 1/8-inch thick.

Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with grated cheese, herbs, salt or whatever your heart desires. Then, place the flatbread back in the oven and bake for another 3-6 minutes or until it starts to get golden and crispy. Remove from oven and cut into sections. Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Also participating in:

Filed under: food, Food Friday, Recipes by Rachel
Comments Off

Here’s what I made – Make sure to add your recipes and food posts to the link-up at the bottom!

Smoothies

This was my first attempt at making healthy smoothies at home. I started with a good assortment of fruits to choose from, some fresh spinach and just went with it. I made two different batches.

(Batch 1)
2 handfuls baby spinach
1 banana, peeled and sliced
12 strawberries
2 handfuls blueberries
1 apple, peeled, cored and sliced
1 kiwi, peeled and sliced
1 cup water

(Batch 2)
10 strawberries
2 handfuls misc. berries
2 handfuls baby spinach
2 stalks celery
1 banana, peeled and sliced
1 cup water
1 apple, peeled, cored and sliced

I didn’t like this one as much. It didn’t taste terrible, but I didn’t like how much I could taste the celery. I did find that adding just one apple dramatically reduced the celery taste, so I think you could even it out.

I ended up putting some juice in mine when I was done to thin it out a little bit, but I didn’t want to water the taste down. Unfortunately the juice I had on hand was not 100% juice and had some sugar added, so it wasn’t quite as healthy.

I should also say that I used my blender. Nothing special about it. Using a food processor or a dedicated smoothie maker might have broken it down even more, but I was quite pleased with the results. And I didn’t have to buy another appliance!

Here are some other add-ins that I’ve come across:

Oatmeal – Blend it up and add some fiber
Yogurt – I’m actually going to try this when I make my freezer smoothies
Chia Seeds
Cocao Nibs – I actually haven’t tried these at all yet, but super healthy chocolate – yum!

I have plans to make up some bags with smoothie ingredients to go into the freezer. I’ll let you know how that goes next week.

Also participating in:

Filed under: food, Food Friday, Recipes by Rachel
Comments Off