Live Self Sufficient » Cook and Store Food

Easy substitutions for common ingredients

Kevin Quinlan — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:00:22 +0000

Cooking plays an important role in the self sufficient lifestyle. Chances are you have a large garden in your backyard that is packed with plenty of fruits and vegetables. In order to enjoy these delicious foods, you can eat them raw or use them as ingredients in your favorite recipes.

Missing ingredients are one of the most frustrating things that can happen when you are cooking. You’re half way through the recipe and you realize you don’t have a crucial ingredient. Luckily, many common ingredients can easily be substituted with something else!

Beer: If your recipe calls for beer but you don’t have any – try substituting chicken broth instead!

Breadcrumbs: If you run out of breadcrumbs there are several alternative options that you can use. Try substituting crushed butter crackers or corn flakes to complete your recipe!

Cream of Tarter: Try substituting an equal amount of lemon juice.

Evaporated Milk: Use an equal portion of half and half as a substitute for evaporated milk.

Half and Half: Add two tablespoons of butter to approximately 1 cup of whole milk.

Lemon Juice: You can use white vinegar as a substitute for lemon juice. Simply use half the required amount to complete your recipe. Do not use vinegar if the lemon serves as flavoring!

Mayonnaise: You can substitute an equal amount of either sour cream or yogurt. If you are attempting to make a sandwich with a mayonnaise substitute, you might want to reconsider!

Molasses: There are at least two alternative ingredients that can be used as a substitute for molasses – maple syrup and honey. Both ingredients should be used in equal proportions to the molasses.

Plain Yogurt: Believe it or not you can substitute an equal amount of sour cream for plain yogurt.

Extend the life of your bananas

Kevin Quinlan — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:00:13 +0000

Bananas are a delicious fruit that many of us love. For those who are enjoying the self sufficient lifestyle, this fruit is one of the few that you may not want to grow yourself. Whether the conditions aren’t right where you live, or you simply don’t want to tackle this project, you probably still want to eat this delicious fruit.

So if you are forced to purchase your bananas from your local grocer or a farmers market, it is important to really make the most of this fruit. This will at least help you save some extra money in your budget!

Once your bananas are ripe, consider storing them in your refrigerator. You may notice that the skin of your bananas take on a brown color. For some this may be a deterrent to using the refrigerator as a way to extend the life of your bananas. Although the skin does turn brown, the actual fruit inside is fine and will still taste delicious.

Many people prefer to buy their bananas while they are still green in order to maximize their lifespan. The problem with this tactic is that they might not be ripe when you want to eat one. Luckily there are also things you can do to speed up the ripening process.

One of the easiest ways to get your banana to ripen is to simply put a green banana next to a yellow one. For whatever reason, this actually encourages the green banana to ripen faster! You want to use a banana that is over ripened. The skin may have brown spots at this point!

Make your coffee beans last longer

Kevin Quinlan — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:00:14 +0000

Coffee is a luxury that many of us require to get our day started. In order to save some money in your budget, you will want to maximize the lifespan of each bag of coffee that you purchase. Surprisingly, there are a few things you can easily do to get a few extra pots out of every bag.

In order to maximize the lifespan of each bag of coffee, you will want to start with a bag of whole beans. Buying coffee that is already ground is more expensive and it goes stale at a faster rate that whole beans.

If you typically grind your coffee beans for 2 minutes, grind them for an extra minute. This will create much finer coffee. The finer coffee beans are ground, the fewer whole beans you will use in each pot of coffee.

Have you ever considered running your coffee through the grinds a second time? Try using roughly half the amount of grinds you typically would in your filter. If you run your water through the grinds a second time it will become strong and effectively makeup for the reduction in grinds.

If you really want to get creative – try allowing your used coffee grounds to dry out. This works best if you’ve only used your grinds once. You can combine the dried coffee with new fresh coffee to brew a pot of coffee. This is a useful technique if you don’t have the time to run your water through the grinds twice!

Build a better kitchen to improve your self sufficient lifestyle

Kevin Quinlan — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:43:46 +0000

When you first start thinking about building your self sufficient home, make sure to spend some time designing your kitchen. A kitchen is one of the most important elements of a functional, self sufficient home.

For many homesteaders, the kitchen really becomes the heart of the home. At first you may be wondering why the kitchen is so important. If you spend a few minutes thinking about everything you will do in your kitchen over the course of the day, you will quickly realize how important it is to make this room both comfortable and functional.

So what makes a kitchen suitable for a self sufficient lifestyle? For most homesteaders, you can plan on spending a large portion of your day cooking, eating, and even gardening in your kitchen. You will want your kitchen to be large enough to accommodate all of these activities, but you want to avoid making it too large so that it becomes cumbersome.

Many new homesteaders find that it is useful to design a kitchen that can be divided up into sections. Create a special area in your kitchen that is used specifically for your garden. Make sure this area receives sufficient sun so that your garden will flourish!

Other areas that you may consider working into the design of your kitchen are cooking and canning, baking, and eating. For each area that you designate, you want to be sure to place all items you need within reach. Baking pans should be located within an arms reach of your stove, and so on!

You may want to add other areas that will further your homesteading goals.

How to save money on groceries

Kevin Quinlan — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:23:07 +0000

We spend hundreds of dollars on groceries every month. For many of us, the money spent on groceries is one of our largest bills. This is especially true for those who have large families to feed. With the cost of groceries on the rise, finding new ways to save money on groceries is extremely important.

Sign up for the rewards card offered by your grocery store. Walk up and down the aisles and you will see plenty of sales on the items you need but you have to be a rewards card holder in order to be eligible to receive these discounts. It only takes a minute to sign up for these rewards cards and it will be worth your time to do so.

Using coupons is one of the easiest ways to save money on groceries. Unlike a rewards card, customers can use their coupons at any grocery store that accepts them (unless they are store specific coupons). Coupons are readily available in newspapers and several online sites.

Check out coupons.com. They have an option available to customers that stores coupons on grocery store rewards cards. Not all grocery stores participate in this program but several larger chains do. If you have a store in your area that participates in the program, start shopping there to save money on your groceries. All you have to do is visit the website and select the coupons you wish to use. When you head to the store to make your purchases, your savings will be deducted when your rewards card is swiped!

Self Sufficient Eating – Is it really possible in this day and age

Tina Johnson — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:32:03 +0000

When most of us think about what we eat in any given day it can range from some vegetables, some fruits, some bread and pastas and probably some kind of meat generally chicken or steak for dinner potentially eggs for breakfast. We wash this down with some milk and maybe some wine maybe even some Orange juice. Lets think about this for a second. Could you provide all of that for yourself. Maybe, maybe not of course depending on where you live. Bottom line is that you can provide most of that for yourself right now I bet.

For breakfast you had eggs, some bacon and orange juice. If you want to live self sufficient try to think about your eating and how it can be made self sufficient. Eggs. Build a chicken coup out back and get some chickens. You can spend a few dollars for chickens and have years worth of eggs for next to nothing. Orange juice. Do you live in a climate that would support oranges? If not still no worries. Buy oranges themselves not orange juice. Making your own orange juice from fresh oranges is much better for you and helps you take one more step to living self sufficiently. Now if you have room, get some pigs. Once a year have one slaughtered and have some bacon provided. Don’t have room for pigs? Go to a butcher shop and buy half a pig and have it cut up the way you want it. This will be much fresher and cheaper than buying at the grocery store.

The same concept I just applied to breakfast can be applied to any of your meals. If you want to eat self sufficiently you need to break down what you eat in any given today and think about where it comes from. Think if you could provide the entire thing yourself and if not, figure out how you can get closer to the root of anything. Keep trying to cut out the middle man and get to the source until you are able to create the source yourself.

Three fresh tomato recipes for any self sufficient person

Tina Johnson — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:15:10 +0000

So you planted your seeds in peat pods a long time ago and cared for them daily. You watched them grow and transplanted them to a bigger pot when you saw the first leaf. Months passed and you watched it get bigger and bigger until you finally saw a bloom and then you knew… tomatoes were finally coming your way.

Over time you harvested your fresh tomatoes and accumulated a large quantity of them and now you are wondering what fresh tomato recipes are out there for you to use with your hard work. Here are some of top fresh tomato recipes I have come across and hope you enjoy them:

Fresh Tomato Recipes

Tomato Salad: After working hard to create a healthy food supply for you and your family what better way to use up your tomatoes then in a salad. Check out this recipe to make a delicious tomato salad.

Stuffed Tomatoes with rice: While this is not as healthy as the salad it does put together some bacon, jalapeno pepper and cheese to make a tasty meal. Give this a try if you want to have some southern food.

Bruschetta: I love bruschetta, I think it is one of the best appetizers out there. If you are like me, then this recipe might be perfect for you. It makes a nice tasty treat on the grill in only a few minutes.

After all of that hard work of growing your tomatoes, be sure to put them to good use with one of these fresh tomato recipes.

How to make your own dough to make pizza

Kevin Quinlan — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:00:05 +0000

Pizza is a fun family food that is great for lunch or dinner, hot or cold. It does not take long to make either if you have your pizza dough prepared a head of time. Here are the basics to making your own homemade pizza dough.First, ingredients. You will need the following to get started:

1 and ¼ ounce – Active Dry Yeast
1 and ½ cup – Water
1 and ½ teaspoon – Salt
2 tablespoons – Olive oil
1 tablespoon – Sugar
You should also have flour and extra olive oil on hand

Once you have your ingredients it is time to make your own pizza dough! First thing you need to do it mix your water, sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Stirring gently to mix in all of the sugar and yeast until they are dissolved. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes and then add in your salt, olive oil and flour to the mix and again, mix gently until all of the ingredients have been dissolved.

Using your hands, work the mixture to ensure all of the ingredients are well blended and mixed. You want to be sure all of the moisture is absorbed and the end result is a solid blob of mass.

Take the dough out now and place it on a floured surface. Begin to fold it over on itself again and again to work out any air in the dough so that when it comes time to cook it rises properly. Eventually the ball will seem smoother and should seem elastic.

Apply your olive oil to the dough and put it back into the mixing bowl you used earlier. Place a cover on the bowl and let it sit for sixty to seventy five minutes. During that time the dough will rise.

Once the time is up, take the dough out and split it in half using a knife. Pat down each half to remove any air in them. At this point you are done with your own homemade pizza dough. Now it is time to add the ingredients you like and get cooking with it!

How to blanch your tomatoes to get them ready to cook

Kevin Quinlan — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:58:24 +0000

If you want to cook with your homemade tomatoes or store bought ones you will need to know how to blanch your tomatoes. The reason you need to blanch your tomatoes before you can cook with them is that the process works to take care of the removal of any chemicals applied during their growing. Blanching your tomatoes also allow just the good juicy flavor of the inside to get into whatever your preparing instead of the surface which adds little value.

To get started you will need your tomatoes, a paring knife and a knife you can use for cutting as well as a cutting board. First step is to put water in a large pot on the stove and let it start boiling. While the water is heating take your knife and begin to cut out the stems of the tomatoes. Lightly cut an X into the bottom of each tomato and place them into a blanching basket which is basically a big bowl which looks like a metal strainer. Once all of your tomatoes are in the blanching bowl, place the bowl inside the boiling water. Once your tomatoes are in the hot water, fill your sink with cold water.

Keep your eyes on the tomatoes and you should see after about sixty seconds that the skins will begin to lift off of the tomatoes. Using tongs, remove the blanching basket from the hot water. Remove the fruit from the blanching basket into the sink and leave them there to cool. Once they are all cooled down you should be able to pull at the skin of the fruit around where you made the X mark and remove the skin from all of your tomatoes.

This is all it takes to blanch your tomatoes! Now that you know how to blanch your tomatoes, you have no excuses to go get cooking!

How to make your own homemade tomato sauce

Kevin Quinlan — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:39:43 +0000

Pasta and sauce is one of the most popular dinners thanks to its quick and simple preparation time. What makes or break the meal is the quality and flavor of the sauce as everyone can make it a little different depending on personal preferences. Here is how you can make your own homemade tomato sauce and overtime start making it your own by changing the recipe and playing with the flavors you like the most.

The first thing you need to do is blanch ten tomatoes. Once they are ready, chop eight of them using your processor. Take the other two and dice them up and save off separately from the other eight. With your tomatoes ready it is time to make up your own homemade tomato sauce!

Take a large pot and heat at medium heat the following: one onion chopped, one green bell pepper chopped, four cloves of garlic, two tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of butter. After about five minutes add in your eight blended tomatoes and stir in your other two diced tomatoes, a pinch of basil and a pinch of Italian seasonings.

Bring the pot to a boil. Once boiling lower the stove to low and cover the pot. Allow your tomato sauce to simmer for about two hours to allow everything to breakdown and work out the flavors. Once your two hours are up, add in two tablespoons of tomato paste and allow your sauce to simmer two more hours and then you are done!

Making your own homemade tomato sauce allows you to create a variety of flavors that meets your specific preferences. You can store your sauce in cans making the process more reasonable as you only need to do it now and again. Congrats, you now know how to make your own homemade tomato sauce!