Are You Prepared?

It is important to store dry grains for an emergency  because you get a lot of calories( energy) from them and they can help to fill your stomach. Be sure, though, that you have enough protein and plenty of vegetables with your meal also. (If you eat too many starches, then you have blood sugar problems.) 

I recently opened a can of white wheat that I had canned at our church’s cannery down in Colton a few years ago. I boiled it in a pot on the stove like rice, only I used a bit more water and cooked it longer than rice. Then I added some of it to my bean soup and it was great. There are so many things you can do with cooked wheat “berries” ( another name for the wheat kernel).  Children enjoy warm cooked wheat berries that have cinnamon and sugar or honey it in.  You can open a can of concentrated fruit juice (fruit punch is good) and pour a little on the cooked cooled, wheat berries for a special sweet treat.  I like to make fried wheat (just like fried rice), using finely chopped veggies and soy sauce to season it. 

If you have not learned how to make your own breads, muffins, pancakes, waffles, cookies, etc. with whole grains that you grind fresh in your kitchen, it is a great experience to try. The fiber and nutrients in whole grains are so beneficial to your body! The fresh taste can’t be beat! However, there are some people who cannot tolerate whole wheat and other grains.

No article about wheat would be complete without addressing the issue of celiac disease.  In the U.S. A, about 2 million people (about 1 in 23 persons)  are afflicted with this disease.

 Celiac disease is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate a protein called gluten, found in wheat, rye, and barley., and possibly oats. Gluten is found mainly in foods, but is also found in products we use every day, such as stamp and envelope adhesive, medicines, and vitamins. People who have this disease must be on a gluten free diet:

The Gluten-Free Diet

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/celiac/index.htm 

A gluten-free diet means not eating foods that contain wheat (including spelt, triticale, and kamut), rye, and barley. The foods and products made from these grains are also not allowed. In other words, a person with celiac disease should not eat most grain, pasta, cereal, and many processed foods. Despite these restrictions, people with celiac disease can eat a well balanced diet with a variety of foods, including gluten-free bread and pasta. For example, people with celiac disease can use potato, rice, soy, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, or bean flour instead of wheat flour. They can buy gluten-free bread, pasta, and other products from stores that carry organic foods, or order products from special food companies. Gluten-free products are increasingly available from regular stores.

Checking labels for “gluten free” is important since many corn and rice products are produced in factories that also manufacture wheat products. Hidden sources of gluten include additives such as modified food starch, preservatives, and stabilizers. Wheat and wheat products are often used as thickeners, stabilizers, and texture enhancers in foods.

“Plain” meat, fish, rice, fruits, and vegetables do not contain gluten, so people with celiac disease can eat as much of these foods as they like. Recommending that people with celiac disease avoid oats is controversial because some people have been able to eat oats without having symptoms. Scientists are currently studying whether people with celiac disease can tolerate oats. Until the studies are complete, people with celiac disease should follow their physician’s or dietitian’s advice about eating oats.

Celiac disease is often missed by doctors, so it is important to do research on your own if you suspect it in you or any of your family members and then insist that your doctor order tests for it.

Well, There is so much more I could say about storing food and in future posts, I will give websites and book titles that I have found very useful.  Or you could do your own searches. Try www.google.com  or , even better,  www.dogpile.com and do some research. Try www.amazon.com and look up a book called Apocalypse Chow: How to Eat Well When The Power Goes Out, and another good one…The Storm Gourmet:A Guide to Creating Extraordinary Meals Without Electricity. Read their reviews.

I  hope each of you reading my posts feels motivated to get those cupboards stocked with the foods that will keep you

and your family healthy and happy during emergencies! My wish for you is that you will feel confident and fearless because you have prepared! A new month is coming…and so…a new topic and challenge…check back soon!!!

~~Joan Hulihan

Hi!  We’ve been out of town and after traveling in snow and slush and low visibility for over 4 hours (yes, we were in Utah) and then in 20 mph traffic sporadically for hours and hours at St. George and then between Stateline and Barstow (Yes, we were coming home at the tail end of the 3 day President’s day holiday ), I was seriously in need of comfort food! We just couldn’t find any good comforting hot soup at the fast food places we happened to stop at: A Subway, and a Burger King.

 After a good night’s sleep and giving my husband a fond farewell as he drove off to work, I unpacked, did laundry, ran errands and stopped to Stater Brother’s to look around and get some Pink Lady apples and some lettuce.

I saw an open bin of pinto beans with the sign: Fresh crop. 50 cents / pound.

Now that is a great bargain, since the one pound bags of pinto beans on the soup and beans and rice aisle are 99 cents. 

Knowing my budget was about all used up, I bought one exact pound. 50 cents.

Here is the timeline of how I used these beans. 

February 20, 2007

2:45 pm   Bought 1  lb. pinto beans from Stater’s.

3:36 pm   Back in my kitchen. Dumped pinto beans into a large shallow dish and sorted them. Found 3 tiny rocks, and 8 broken or discolored beans and discarded them.

3:40 pm   Put pinto beans in my fine mesh strainer and rinsed them really well.

3:41 pm   Put pinto beans in my cooking pot and covered it so there were 3 inches of water over them and I turned the heat on high.

3:45 pm The beans are boiling hard now, I turn the heat to low and let them simmer. I have a lid on pot, but ajar. I have no other ingredients in this pot but beans and water..I just wanted to get the pure flavor this time to see if the beans are good.

 (I stir and add  cupfuls of water several times in the next 2 hours.)

5:37 pm…taste test.  They are done. It took less than 2 hours! They are soft and ready to use.  This did not take long.  They were not soaked over night.  I did not do the “Bring to boil and turn off, then let sit, covered, for 1 hour . Then resume cooking.” plan …I think this happened because they were not old beans…but this year’s harvest. I have heard that older beans take longer to cook.

They taste fine, but bland, so here is what I did…I finely chop 3 items: a half of a medium sized onion, a big carrot, and 1/4 of a red bell pepper. I add some sea salt and black pepper and cumin and chili pwder…and then some more water and a cup of medium grain  rice and I let it simmer another hour or so.

 (My husband and I had a different supper, because the soup was not really finished. When it was finished, John was too full from supper to want any. I had a big bowl of it. (First my Bean-O, of course) The rice was great in it.

February 21, 2007

8:30 am  I put some leftover soup in a pot and warm it up for breakfast.  I put about 3/4 teapoon chipotle powder (Smart and Final sells it in 8 oz. container) in about 2  1/2 cups of thick yummy soup. The smoky flavor of the chipotle raised it to another level of deliciousness. I am a happy camper!!!!! This is my comfort food!!!!! [(I am thinking that there is no fat in this soup at all...and you should have a little fat with each meal. You could stir in some mild olive oil.Or you could have a side bowl of hot buttered (real butter) popcorn (not the microwave kind, but the kind you do in a skillet or pot on your stove.)]

Post  Script:  Creative Cooking with Beans is now a new hobby of mine!  I had discovered black lentils ( they are sold at Clark’s nutrtion Center in Loma Linda) and while in Utah made a big pot of thick soup with them…adding leeks, onions, red bell pepper all chopped fine. 

One of the best things about beans is their high fiber content which is so important in our diets if we want to avoid heart disease or diabetes.  I heartily recommend you experiment and make up your own delicious soups and stews from them. They are so economical and packed with nutrients, protein, complex carbs.

My next experiment is to try to sprout the Sater Bros. pinto beans…This way, you avoid  the ” gas”  problem. (Bean-O is expensive).

Those of you with little children have the great opportunity to nurture in them a love of all thing made with beans. If you want your children to love this food…cook it deliciously. and serve it often with other things they love, like hot cheesy breadsticks…or whatever they especially like.  Make mealtimes happy, but extra special when beans are on the menu and they will associate beans with love, fun,  fine dining and a high quality life style!!!!.  

I love beans! 

My love affair with beans started one day about 12 years ago when I was a bit lonely and depressed and decided to take a walk over to my neighbor’s house to chat. I knocked on the screened door and Yolanda (my neighbor) called me to come in.  I walked in and my melancholy was replaced immediately with a feeling of delight, comfort, energy, love…it is hard to describe the feeling.  Yolanda was cooking pinto beans (from scratch) with jalapeno peppers and a ham hock in the pot . MMMmmmm.

Talk about aromatherapy!!!!

Since then, I have come to appreciate the great benefits of eating beans, as well as the many varieties of beans and the different ways they are used in other countries. And the best part: they are so inexpensive!

Bean-lovers can dine on beans from a different cuisine every day of the week: Mexican bean burritos, French white beans Provencal, Indian dal (lentils), Italian pasta e fagioli (pasta-and-bean soup), Cuban black beans and rice, Middle Eastern hummus (chickpeas), or Egyptian foole (fava beans). That doesn’t even include the American favorites: black-eyed peas, baked beans, chili, or navy bean or lentil soup. And talk about nutrients. Most beans are chock full of fiber, phytochemicals, folate, potassium, protein, magnesium, vitamin B-6, zinc, copper, and iron. They are known to prevent heart disease, diabetes, and cancer!

Beans are legumes or pulses.  They are an ancient food, having been cultivated all over the earth for thousands of years. When Daniel and his friends were in the king’s court in Babylon, they refused  the king’s meat and wine and asked that they be given the food they were used to: pulse. I imagine them eating hot steamy bowls of lentil stew or bean soup.  After 10 days they were stronger and more ruddy looking than the king’s boys who ate meat and wine.

Did you know that technically, peanuts are legumes? Peas are also from the legume family.  I made a big batch of yellow split pea soup today. One serving has 12 g of protein and 14.5 grams of fiber and a lot of other great nutrients! I eat this stuff for breakfast!!! Yum!!

You can buy beans dry, and cook your own.  If you buy them canned, there is often way too much sodium in them and it is recommended that your rinse them for a minute. 

I must admit, I have to use Bean-o if I eat a lot of beans in one meal. I have heard that if you sprout your beans before you cook them, you will not get gas. I need to try that.

I like how the people at www.walton feed.com put it:

“Unless you are willing to spend a great deal of money on preserved meats or dairy products, a food storage program not including a large quantity of legumes is simply incomplete. There are few non-animal foods that contain the amount of protein to be found in dried beans, peas, and lentils. The varieties commonly available in this country have protein contents ranging from 20%-35%. As with most non-animal proteins, they are not complete in themselves for purposes of human nutrition, but become so when they are combined with the incomplete proteins found in grains. It is for this reason that grains and legumes are so often mentioned together. In cultures all over the world, it is common to find the two served together at a meal, making a complete protein, even when those doing the serving have no scientific understanding of nutrition at all.

        The legume family, of which all beans, peas, lentils, and peanuts are a part, is one of the largest in the plant kingdom. Because of this and the many thousands of years of development and cultivation that man has given them on several continents, the variety of edible legumes available to us is huge. Both the appearance and the names of these varieties are colorful and varied. They range from “adzuki beans”, a type of soybean from the Orient, to “zipper peas”, a commonly found field-pea here in the Southern U.S. Their color can range from a clean white, to deep red, dull green to flat black with thousands of mixtures and patterns of colors.”

 My challenge to you, dear readers:  Stock up on your family’s favorite beans!  And eat something from the legume family every day!  ~~~  Remember to imagine the shelves at the grocery store empty.  Will you be prepared for that?

The best prices for canned beans (already cooked) are at Walmart, Costco and Smart and Final. Have fun shopping while the stores are well stocked!

~~I remain fearlessly yours, Joan Hulihan

  I have been too busy all week to write anything for this blog, but

  I have been thinking quite a lot lately about nutrition and how it relates to food storage.

  Don’t you think it is important to know what the average adult male body, female body. teenager, child,

  toddler, baby,  needs daily as far as food goes?  I do !!!!

  We want our food storage to meet those needs. We also want our food to be appealing and delicious and

  something our family members will eat. The old saying “Store what you eat and eat what you store”… is such good

  advice! And it is not too late to train your taste buds to enjoy more healthful foods!

  I have also been thinking about the importance of making delicious economical meals at home (as opposed to going

 out for fast food) and talking about  nutrition  with our children.

 I have lately been very aware of all the foods available at our grocery stores that are not

  healthy.  All the candy! All the soda!!  All those high sodium cans of  soup and high sodium packaged mixes like

 Hamburger Helper and Rice-A-Roni.  The bottom line is that we all need to be eating very healthy foods and storing

healthy foods!

 Did you know also that our meals should be balanced? Have some protein, have some carbs (either in the form of

grains or

cooked vegetables, or fruits) & have some healthy fats.  The Zone books by Barry Sears explains the hormonal effects

of food and how to balance our plates and train our palates.  He has a website: www.DrSears.com  that will inform

you. I am reading his books “The Anti-Inflammation Zone” and “A Week in the Zone” and I told my husband:”I don’t

needall those other health/diet  books I have in my bookcase…these 2  Zone books supercede them all !”

I take that back..there is another book that I have right here that I will not part with.  It is

called “Super Foods Rx”Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life” by Stevens Pratt, M.D. The first Super Food on the

list is….

                                                                      B  E  A  N  S  !!!!!

My next blog post will tell you more about this incredible food and why we should develop a taste for them,  eat

beans daily and have them in our food storage !!!!  Fearlessly yours, Joan Hulihan

How’s it going?  You know you can write me a response if you want…

Well, as of yesterday, we have a  2 months supply of organic vanilla soy milk(needs no refrigeration because it comes in those boxes- they are sold at Costco)and I  bought 4  1 lb canisters of Hershey’s cocoa(from Smart & Final)to make lots of hot chocolate for wamth and energy in these cold months. That is 360 Tablespoons of cocoa. You only need 1 Tbsp per cup of soy milk or whatever kind of milk you use. If you make your hot cocoa with a teaspoon of honey and 1/4 teaspooon of cinnamon, you have a delightful drink that keeps you warm and energetic for many hours.  

I feel a bit more secure now.

Soups are so comforting in this cold weather, so if you have lots of canned soups and chilis, that is good. I make my own Frijoles soup by taking a can of refried beans and adding water and some chili pwder and cumin and onion.

Storing jars of salsa or the narrow bottles of Tapatio is a good idea if you have lots of bean products’

Walmart sells cinnamon, chili powder, dried onion flakes, etc. for 50 cents each.

Chili powder is a great thing to have in you food storage…to flavor whatever cooked dish you make…it adds spiciness and warmth and it ,also, like cocoa, alleviates depression. 

I hope you are adding items to your pantry and getting your family members involved. 

I must add a warning: Be aware of the power of mice.  Our daughter and her husband, who live in Fillmore, California (Close to Oxnard, in Ventura County) recently discovered that mice have been chewing through their packages of pasta, rice, and cereals. 

What a mess!  They had to spend a lot of time cleaning out the cupboards and they had to discard the contaminated food.

One nice thing about cans: mice cannot chew through canned goods! So be aware of your cupboards and to be on the safe and secure side, store any grain foods (that are currently in plastic or cardboard packages) in plastic containers  or glass.

OK..from now until Feb. 7th, I will be nagging you (hopefully in a friendly way) to get those canned goods!

Whart a good, secure feeling you will have when you opne those cupboard doors and see them packed with the makings of delcious meals. 

                                                  ~~  Securely yours, Joan Hulihan
 

The “scenario” I want us all to imagine this month is this:

There is no food at the supermarket (because of some disaster)

or you are unable to purchase food (because you have no money and your bank account is empty.) 

You prepare for this scenario by storing food, which our prophets have been telling us to do for decades.

Hopefully this month, through this blog, I can motivate and inspire you to prepare for this scenario.

Here is your assignement for the first week of February: 

Stock up on favorite canned/ packaged goods.

(If you are just starting this whole thing, you may not have the money to get a year’s supply right now…but how about a week’s worth? A month’s worth? What if a disater happened tonight and the stores were all cleaned out of food in a few hours? You would want at least a weeks’ supply of food, right?) 

 (That way if the power goes out, you have food- since the food in your fridge will go bad in a few days.)

And if the water is being rationed because no water flows from your faucets, you have fluid in the

canned food..and it is already cooked and so you won’t have to use up your Sterno cans or propane fuel

to actually cook but just to warm up.  A warm meal is very comforting).

I know all about wheat and other grains that you can store and use to sustain life and we will cover

these topics in future weeks.

But you know and I know that in the first days or weeks of a real emergency, we will want comfort food, easy food, familiar food. 

So think about what your family would readily eat…from the canned goods/dry packaged section of

your grocery store.

  Perhaps for a Family Home Evening, you could go to the store and have each person pick out some

canned food that appeals to them. You could discuss daily nutritional needs and make sure they have

something orange, something green, something with protein, etc.

 Oh…before you go off to the store, do an inventory of your cupboards and current “food storage”. 

Yesterday I cleaned out my cupboard and re-organized it…I have a year’s supply of  Rosarita Refried

Beans,  DelMonte Corn and Ragu Spaghetti Sauce!!!! I’m almost set,but I still would like more sardines

and cannedsalmon, and some of that good Laura Schudder’s peanut butter.

 And I need to get more hot sauce (for all those beans) canned peaches, mandarin oranges and

pineapple, for sure! And we are running low on nuts and dried plums.

OK…I am motivated…I am off to the store…It’s payday!  I have money! Now what about you?

What would you like to see in your cupboards?There is no time like the present!  Good luck!  If I see

any good deals out there I will let you know. I may have more than one “post” a day on this blog topic:

There is a lot to cover! Thanks for reading! 

~Fearlessly yours, Joan Hulihan