Food Storage Salads: Fruit Rice Salad

When my family was living out of our food storage (okay not totally out of our food storage I did have a small food budget) we had a problem.  It was summer, and in the summer there are a lot of potlucks.  It seemed like ever week we were going to a pot luck and were asked to bring a salad.  I hated it.  I didn't have anything to make a salad with and I did not want to spend my small food budget on it.   At the time I did not have a very good solution but now I do.  Over the next little while I am going to post some of our favorite salads that are made mostly from food storage ingredients.

Fruit Rice Salad 

1 (15 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice

1/2 cup Freeze Dried strawberries

1/4 cup Freeze Dried peaches

1 cup uncooked white rice

1/3 cup craisins or golden rains

2/3 cup flaked coconut

1 recipe THRIVE Whipped Topping, prepared **see below           

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1 pinch salt

1/4 cup slivered almonds

1.       In a saucepan bring salted water to a boil. Add rice, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer--without stirring--for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and chill until cold.

2.       In a medium bowl, mix together pineapple, strawberries, peaches.  The juice from the pineapple should cover the other fruit if not add a small amount of water.  Allow to soften 5 minutes, strain off excess juice/water.  Add a heaping cup of the cold rice, raisins and coconut. Set aside.

3.       In a separate large bowl, whip together THRIVE whipped topping, sugar, vanilla, ginger and salt until stiff. Fold in rice mixture, and stir in 1/4 cup slivered almonds.
4.  Serve immediately, if this salad is held the whipped topping looses some of its fluffiness, it is still good just not as fluffy. 

THRIVE Whipped Topping—made from THRIVE instant milk
   1 t vanilla extract
   1⁄2 c thrive powdered sugar
    1⁄2 c thrive instant milk, prepared and chilled
    1⁄2 c ice water
Combine ice water and powdered milk in bowl and beat for 10 minutes. Add powdered sugar and vanilla, continue to beat until thoroughly blended. Chill.

*This works best in a stand mixer with whip beaters. If mixture begins to fall, beat again.
 Notes:  MUST use THRIVE instant powdered milk and not the standard dry milk variety.

A Green Dinner for Saint Patricks Day

Vegetable Risotto Serves 4
1 Tbsp Olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons FD onions 
1 cup rice
4 cup water
1 Tablespoon instant chicken bouillon
1 cup Freeze Dried broccoli
1 cup Freeze Dried Peas
1/2 cup Freeze Dried Spinach
2 Tablespoons Dehydrated Carrots

1 c. chopped tomato (Roma is best)
¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese
3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp basil or parsley

In large saucepan cook the garlic in oil until tender.  Add water and bouillon and stir to dissolve.  Add rice, and freeze dried vegetables and cook covered for 15 minutes, untill rice is tender.  Stir in tomato cheese, and basil or parsley.  Serve immediately.

Variation:  I love to use Feta cheese in this instead of the shredded cheddar.

Spinach and Lemon Soup with Rice

I love Greek Food.  All of the Greek food I have ever eaten I have liked.  For a couple of years I have been looking for great Greek Lemon Rice soup.  To have a great soup you need to start with a great base.  I often use bouillon but for a really great soup you need stock.

Spinach and Lemon Soup with Rice
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 large onion
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (crush in your hand to release the flavor)
1 cup freeze dried spinach
1 1/2 cups cooked rice (I cook it in the microwave while I am getting everything else ready)
1 cup cooked chopped chicken (I like to use left over roasted chicken)
8 cups chicken or vegetable broth
4 eggs
Juice of 3 lemons
Fresh parsley, chopped (to serve)
Feta Cheese or Fresh-grated Parmesan (to serve)

Cook rice according to package directions.

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot or Dutch oven. Cook the garlic and onion over medium heat until fragrant and slightly translucent. Turn the heat to medium high and add the red pepper flakes, and spinach(dry not rehydrated). Cook for about a minute, and then add the broth.

Bring to a light simmer, then turn the heat down and simmer for about 15 minutes. Take the soup off the heat and let it cool down for a moment or two.

Whisk eggs vigorously in a largish bowl, then whisk in the lemon juice. Whisk for a couple minutes; the mixture should be thick, pale yellow, and creamy. Add a small ladleful of the soup broth to the eggs and whisk vigorously. (If you want to be really sure not to curdle the eggs, take a ladle of soup and cool it a bit before tempering the eggs.) Whisk in two more ladles of soup broth, whisking each well and letting them cool.

Add the egg mixture to the soup pot, whisking very well. Return to very low heat, stirring the whole time.

Cook carefully over low heat until the soup has thickened slightly. Add cooked rice and chicken. Serve immediately, garnished with parsley and feta cheese (or Parmesan).

Fast and Easy Breadsticks and Vegetable Risotto

Years ago my friend Ann told me she had a recipe to make homemade bread sticks in about 1/2 an hour. So when you were making something fast you can still make bread sticks. Well I thought "this I have got to try" and I have been making them ever since.

Ann's Fabulous Breadsticks
from Ann Frederickson (with my comments)

Printable Recipe

1 ½ c water
1 TBS yeast

2 Tbsp sugar
½ t salt
3-4 cups flour
2 TBSP Garlic powder with parsley
½ cup Parmesan cheese shredded (or cheddar, or both)
Melted butter

Dissolve yeast in water. Mix in the rest of the ingredients using the dough hook attachment to your mixer. Let raise in the bowl of your mixer for 10 min. Roll out on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (When I say roll out what I really mean it place the dough in the middle of the cookie sheet and with clean floured hands spread it out. These are free form bread sticks so go for even thickness, filling up most of the pan) on the pan. Let sit 10 min. Spread softened (or melted) butter over the top of the bread stick and sprinkle with garlic powder. Bake 350 for 20 min. Remove from oven and top with cheese. Return to oven until cheese is melted. Slice into bread sticks. Enjoy!

My family really loves to eat this risotto (creamy rice). Tonight when I made it my husband said "This is really good we should put it on the menu every month"  You can substitute any vegetables that you want, but we really like the freeze dried broccoli in it.

Freeze Dried Vegetable Risotto

1 Tbsp Olive oil

1 Tbsp. FD onion re-hydrated in 1 1/2 T hot water

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup rice

3 cup water(use this water to rehydrate the vegetables and to cook the rice)

1tsp instant chicken bouillon

2 cup Freeze Dried broccoli flowerets

1/4 cup dry carrots
1/2 cup Freeze Dried Spinach

¾ cup shredded cheese (I use cheddar)

3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1 tbsp basil or parsley

Rehydrate broccoli, carrots, and spinach in 3 cups hot water.  This should take about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in large saucepan cook the onion and garlic in oil until tender.  Drain the water from re-hydrating the vegetables and add to the pan. Add bouillon and stir to dissolve.  Add rice and cook covered for 15 minutes (depending on your rice).  Stir in cheese and basil/parsley.  Serve immediately.  Makes 4 main dish servings.

Brown Rice and Lentil Soup

I love soup, especially when it is cold outside. My friend Kim shared this recipe with me. She said she got it from the Salt Lake City Food Coop newsletter years ago. One thing about the recipe is that you need to make sure you have enough time, if you try to do it in a hurry you get crunchy rice and lentils. Not so tasty. One of the things that I really like about it is how healthy it is.

Brown Rice and Lentil Soup
1 medium onion chopped (1 Tbsp dry onion plus 1 1/2 T water)
1 cup chopped carrots (1 Tbsp dry carrots plus 1 1/2 T water)
1 celery stalk chopped (1 Tbsp dry celery plus 1 1/2 T water)
½ red peppers chopped up (1 Tbsp dry peppers plus 1 1/2 T water)
2 20 once can tomatoes NOT STEWED
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
2 bay leaves
2 cloves minced garlic
Pepper to taste
½ to ¾ cup *lentils rinsed
1/3 to 2/3 cup uncooked brown rice (soak rice ½ hour before you cook)

In large pot cook all vegetables until soft. Add tomatoes cook for 10 minutes
In blender process until pureed. Stir in broth and remaining ingredients except lentils and rice
Bring to a boil. Add lentils and rice. Cover and simmer 45 minutes until lentils add rice are tender.

*Lentils-What are lentils? Lentils are a legume used in many middle eastern dishes. The seeds require a cooking time of 10–30 minutes, depending on the variety and should not be eaten raw. Lentils contain high levels of proteins, including the essential amino acids isoleucine and lysine. Lentils are an inexpensive protein and are essential to those who adhere to a vegetarian diet. They can be sprouted. When buying lentils look for brighter (lentils come in brown, yellow, green, and black)colors, dull dusty lentil are old. Lentils are sold in the grocery store near the dry beans. Or from a variety of food storage companies. Lentils are a low cost way to add protein to your diet. I use these lentils from Shelf Reliance. http://www.shelfreliance.com/lentils-1.html

Ham Fried Rice and Tiny Spicy Chicken

 
Tiny Spicy Chicken–from Matt Payne
Printable Google Document
As far as I can tell this exact dish is a Cache Valley original. It is a spicy breaded chicken in a red sauce kind of like General Tso’s chicken. My family loves it.


3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast- cut into 1-11 /2 ` cubes garlic salt
2 beaten eggs
cornstarch

oil is hot when popcorn pops

SAUCE
1 -2 tsp Samball Fresh Chili paste
1 1/2 cups sugar 3/4 cup ketchup
3 tsp soy sauce dash slat
3/4 cup chicken broth
6 T brown sugar
3/4 cup white vinegar

Sprinkle chicken with garlic salt, and let sit for 1 hour in the refrigerator. After the hour, dip chicken into beaten eggs and then coat with cornstarch. Brown chicken in fryer until golden brown. Put the chicken into greased 9 x 13 pan.

Mix sauce ingredients in saucepan. Cook only until sugars are dissolved. Pour over chicken

Bake chicken @ 325 degrees for 45-50 minutes, turning the chicken every 15 minutes.

**When frying it is important that the oil is hot. To tell if it is hot add a couple of kernals of popcorn. When the popcorn pops it is ready to fry.

• When you pour the sauce over the chicken, it will be very liquidy. The sauce thickens as it cooks, making a nice coating over the chicken.

There is a Chinese restraint in Ogden called Mardarin Garden and it has wonderful Chinese food. My family always ate there when I was growing up and now I am a Chinese food snob. One of the thing I miss now that I don’t live close enough to eat there very often is the ham fried rice. Yum. Well I have finally found a recipe for ham fried rice that is just as good. 

Ham Fried Rice from “Fabulous Freezer Meals” by Jenny Ahlstrom Stanger, as you might guess from the title of this book this recipe freeze very well.
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
4 TBSP canola oil
3 ½ cups cooked rice
½ cup crumbled cooked bacon
½ cup cooked diced ham
½ cup frozen peas
3 tablespoons chopped green onion
1 teaspoon salt
1 tbsp soy sauce

Heat wok or small heavy skillet over high heat. Add 1 ½ tablespoons oil and swirl to coat. When the pan in very hot, add the eggs and scramble them. Remove from pan before they brown. They should be soft and a bit runny.

Heat skillet again and add 2 tablespoons oil. Add rice and toss to coat. Add bacon and peas. Toss the ingredients until heated through. Add soy sauce and scrambled eggs; toss to combine. Season with salt. Garnish with chopped green onions.

When rice has cooled place in sandwich size zip top bags, label and freeze.
To serve; Defrost in microwave in zip top bag (it will act as a steamer) until warmed through about 5 minutes. Serve.

Rice Bowls-Asian Style

So I had the LDS missionaries over for dinner a few night ago and served this. As thy came to the table I could tell they were thinking (yuck what are we eating) but as they were brave and tried it they both told me over and over how good it was. Give it a try.
Asian Rice Bowls


The Easy way
Cooked Rice
1 lb Ground Beef or chicken (I use the canned ground beef from the LDS cannery)
¼ cup dry Onions
¼ cup dry Carrots
¼ cup dry Celery
1-2 cups Water
1 bottle Kraft Light Asian Toasted Sesame Salad Dressing (now I know you are going to get to the grocery store and see the light and the regular and you will think if the light is good I bet the regular is amazing. Not so my friend do no yield to temptation. The regular is yucky and has more calories)
Samball hot chili paste (this comes in a small container with a chicken on the front t and a green lid. You find it in the Asian section of the grocery store. My small grocery store in Smithfield UT has it some I am sure yours does too)
Chopped green onion
Chopped peanuts
Shredded cabbage

Soften dry vegetable is water about 10 minutes. Brown ground beef, drain and rinse. Drain vegetables, add to ground beef, add enough salad dressing to coat (about ½ the bottle) add a small (and I do mean tiny maybe 1/8 a teaspoon) chili paste and stir.

Place rice in bowl, add meat mixture, top with onions, peanuts and cabbage. And a little bit more dressing. Enjoy.

*note the Samball hot chili paste is very spicy. When I make this for my family I leave it out (my kids do not like spicy) and my husband and I add it at the table. That way we all get it as spicy as we want.

The meat mixture can also be used as the filling for lettuce wraps.

Rice Bowls -Cafe Rio Style

RICE BOWLS
We love rice bowls. What is a rice bowl you ask. Well it is rice in a bowl with toppings. One of our favorite is Café Rio Rice with Sweet pork and dressing. I originally got this recipe from a friend Megan, she used it to make Sweet pork Salad as served at Café Rio. I have made it many times for salad or for burrito filling, but we really just love to eat it in bowls. So how do you eat this? In a bowl put a scoop of rice, some dressing, then meat. Top with cheese, sour cream, tomatoes and avocados.

Café Rio Rice
3 cups rice
6 cups water
4 chicken bouillon cubes
¾ tsp salt
1 TBSP butter
½ bunch cilantro chopped

Mix and cook according to direction for you rice.
Then blend the following to the cooked rice.

2 tsp garlic (minced)
1 can green chilies
2 tsp chopped onion

Café Rio Creamy dressing
½ bunch cilantro (chopped)
½ jalapeno (optional)
1 package hidden valley ranch dressing mix (make according to directions on package)
1 clove garlic (minced)
1 tsp lime juice
Blend all ingredients together. Chill then serve.
This Recipe makes a lot of dressing, if you are just cooking for a few, try using readymade “spicy ranch” from the grocery store. We really like both the Hidden valley ranch and the Wal-Mart brand.

Megan’s Shredded Pork Burritos
3 lb pork roast
1 can Coke or Pepsi
1 c ketchup
5 T brown sugar

Cook roast until tender in crock pot. Shred meat. Place remaining
ingredients in a pan. Thicken with cornstarch. Replace sauce and meat
in crock pot. Cook on low for 1 hour or more or until ready to serve. Add about ½ cup chili sauce (buy on the pickle isle) just before serving.

This makes a lot, but we love that because I freeze the left over’s (separately) and we then have something easy and super tasty for dinner when time is tight.

Fresh Vegetable Risotto

I find that often I need a healthy easy dinner that only take a few minutes to get on the table. This is one that my family really loves. I tend to use whatever vegetable I have on hand either fresh, frozen, or freeze dried. My kids especially love adding Parmesan cheese at the table.

Fresh Vegetable Risotto Serves 4 large portions
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 onion chopped (1 T freeze dried rehydrate in 1 1/2 T water)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup rice (brown)
3 cup water
1 tsp instant chicken bouillon
2 cup broccoli flowerets (or 2 cups freeze dried rehydrate in 2 cups water)
1 c. chopped tomato (Roma is best)
1 medium shredded carrot (2 T freeze dry carrot rehydrate in 1/4 cup water)
¾ cup shredded cheese
3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp basil or parsley

In large saucepan cook the onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add water and bouillon and stir to dissolve. Add rice and cook covered for 15 minutes. Stir in tomato and carrot and cook about 5 min more. Stir in cheese and basil. Serve immediately.

*when using dry veg you can rehydrate all of them in one bowl just make sure to have plenty of water. I always rehydrate in hot water as it is faster. Carrots take the longest to rehydrate about 10 minutes.

Mircowave Rice

I must admit that for a long time every time I tried to cook rice for my family I failed. Now this was really a huge issue for me. I was a home ec. teacher for crying out loud and I could not consistently make rice. Ridiculous! I asked a good friend of mine Shannon. She is an amazing woman that is an amazing cook. She told me to buy a rice cooker. Which I did, but I also found that you don’t need a rice cooker to make amazing rice. This recipe is the first that I found that I could consistently make and have good non-crunch rice every time.

Microwave Rice
Follow the directions on the package of rice for the rice to water ratio. But here is exactly what I do:

For 8 servings:
2 cups rice
4 ¼ cups water

Place in a large microwave safe bowl. (I use a very large Pyrex bowl) cover tightly with plastic wrap. Microwave for 16 minutes on high. Let rice sit in microwave for 5 minutes. Remove and fluff.

*you can add seasoning to the rice prior to cooking for example I often add some “better than bouillon”, garlic, and salt. But you can add anything that you would like.

I love cooking things that can go from cooking, to the table, to the fridge all in the same bowl.