Some Things to Think About

I know in the world today, extremes are the norm.  Extremes in preparedness are no different.  You have those who are extreme preppers, who believe in the zombie apocalypse, the end times, and all things that are extreme.  They have their bunkers, their closets full of munitions, and all thing doomsday.  I have been accused at time of being a fanatic about preparedness, but I won't go as far as saying I am an extremist.  But hey, I guess it depends on what you are comparing to.

There are those at the opposite end of the spectrum and are extreme the other way.  They don't believe

anything disastrous is ever going to happen.  Nothing will strike where they live, no natural disasters, no economic related stuff, no terrorist related stuff, no man made disasters, or anything.  I like to call these ones extremists too, because they believe all is well in zion and they don't have anything to worry about.

There are those who fall into the unprepared category on a different level, because they just go on living their lives, oblivious to what is happening in the world around them, and think that money will buy their way out of anything, or they don't see the need to prepare for anything.  These people are actually more the norm than not.  They count on the government to bail them out of disasters.  They think if they live with their blinders over their eyes, then they won't see it, and won't have to prepare for it. 

In all cases, these are extremes to some degree.  Then there are those of us, who live in the real world.  We see what is happening around us, through the entire world, and we are preparing for what will inevitably come our way, even though we don't know exactly what that might be.  We see a variety of scenarios playing out, and worst case scenario, they will all happen at the same time.  That is actually more likely.  Kind of like the ripple effect, one thing will cause another, then another, and before you know it, we have some pretty big issues on our hands.  I don't need to go into details on these things that are going to play out.  Just watch the news with open eyes, and you will see them.  Look around you at governments, economies, and life, and you will see them.  They are lining up to be a perfect storm of ginormous proportions!  Oh it is coming!

Where do you fit into the above groups of people?  Are you prepared for emergencies to evacuate your home?  I know people who have had to do this.  Are you prepared for unemployment?  Wowzers, that could happen to any of us at any time in today's economy.  Are you prepared to feed your family, if there is no food, or if the prices of food get so stinkin high we can't buy it?  Are you prepared for any medical emergencies your family may have?  I could go on and on, but sometimes I feel like I am beating this one to death.  Just get ready.

What if your water pipes break?  Or freeze?  Or the power goes out for a few days?  Or if there is a tornado and you need to get downstairs fast?  Or you should have a flashlight by your bed, but don't?  Or you forgot to charge your cell phone and now there is no power?  Or you forgot to keep your tank of gas on the top half full instead of the bottom half and now because of gas prices, there is a run on gas, or the trucks are not running so gas stations are running out of gas?  Or you kept thinking about calling a family meeting to plan a bug out location or meeting location outside your home in case of fire or emergencies, but you kept putting it off, and now your home is on fire, what is everyone going to do?  Or.....what if?

When you are falling, it is too late!

I could probably sit here and write for a couple of hours some of the scenarios that could play our in your life today, but I think I would be preaching to the choir.  The choir is already converted.  How to we get those we love to get involved, and get prepared, without sounding like those extremists?  I don't know but I am going to be working on it from my end.  I am organizing family groups, and meetings.  We need a family plan, and I mean extended plan, not just my own little fam.  What do you need?  I need, for my own motivation, a group of like minded individuals that will work with me on things.  I will need to organize that as well.  It will help me keep motivated.

What can you do today to get motivated?  Do whatever it takes my friends.  Before it is too late and we no longer have time.  When the emergency or disaster, or event is upon us, it is too late to get prepared, it is time to act.  And how can we act if we are not ready for it?

What If The Grid Was Down?

Grid down?  What does that mean anyway?  It means much more than just a power outage.  The electrical grid is such a fragile thing.  There are a number of ways it could crumble.  A snowstorm, thunderstorm, hurricane, heatwaves, extreme cold, any number of natural disasters could easily bring down large portions of the power grid.

If there were a country wide event that brought down the power grid, it could take much longer than a localized event.  Imagine the manpower, the tools, the equipment, the resources that would be needed to rebuild the grid.  It would be huge.

Worst case scenario, what if there were an emp (electro magnetic pulse) that completely fried our power grid?  Worst case scenario.....we would literally be thrown back into the ages of no power, no technology of any sort, and we would completely have to rely upon our own preparedness and survival skills.  Factories would not work, so it wouldn't be a matter of getting resources and equipment out there.  We would have to start right from scratch and get factories up and running, find the resources, build the things needed, and then we could figure out a way to get out there and rebuild the grid.  It would take years to rebuild it all.

What if....a solar flare big enough to knock it down, a terrorist attack to shut it down, cyber terrorism, or a nuclear plant explosion of some sort?  What if?

Here is a great article that talks about different ways the grid could be taken down.  The more severe drastic ways that most of us don't want to think about, but are real none the less.  Take a few minutes to review this article and ask yourself some more what if questions.

Here is another article that talks about the same thing, but actually gives a bit of advice on what we can do to prepare for such a crazy event.  Some good links to follow and check out.  Again ask yourself what you can do if such an event were to happen.

What do you as a family need to prepare for if..... or when.... the grid comes down?

Think about it, plan for it!  What would you do?

The Sun Is Setting

I started Today While The Sun Shines eight years ago, yuppers 2008, when the sun was shining and the air was warm - as Gordon B. Hinckley said in the quote on my front page.  Sure there was some craziness in the world, and it was important to be prepared for a disaster that might happen in your area, or in your family, but now......pick your disasters because any number of them could happen at any time, any where, and will happen to you if they haven't already happened.  I am not just talking natural disasters, because it seems that man made ones, are much more prevalent, at least where I live.

I chose to change the background theme of this page, from one where the sun was still shining and the air was warm and beautiful, to the current one, where the sun is setting over the ripened wheat field.  I really enjoyed listening to a talk that President Russell M. Nelson gave a couple of weeks ago, in which he clearly stated we are living in the eleventh hour.  We are living in the latter part of the latter days.  It was a great talk, if you want to go listen to it, you can here.  It is worth it for sure!  I have been feeling this for some time now, and decided to share with you, that I think the sun is going down on us.

Gordon B. Hinckley said, - as I have on the main page - There are seasons in our lives, seasons when we can prepare and work, when the sun shines and the air is warm.  Friends, I feel it that the seasons are changing and the sun won't be shining for a whole lot longer.  The time for us to get prepared and work hard is narrowing.  All one has to do is to watch the news, and look around yourself locally, and it is pretty obvious that times are rough everywhere.

So what can you do about it?  Be grateful for what you have - whether it is a job, doesn't really matter if you like it or not at this point, if it pays your bills be grateful.  If it is a healthy family and happy marriage - be grateful for it, for our family is being attacked on every side with heaps and mounds of dung.  If you have a home to live in, food on your table, be grateful for it.  This quote from President Nelson, tells us what he thinks we need to do.

I am not one who loves to preach doomsday, or be one who loves to share bad news, - I am one who loves to be prepared and wants desperately to have those around me do likewise.  Friends, I encourage each of you to start asking yourself some what if questions.  "What if....?"

What if I lose my job?  What if the dollar drops?  What if the price of oil drops even more?  What if the economy shuts down?  What if a natural disaster happens?  What if a horrible disease cuts loose?  What if I can't feed my family?  What if food trucks or tankers stop moving?  What if....?

I am going to start asking a few of these questions over the next little while, for my own benefit, as well as for yours.  It is important to have a plan in place for these what if questions.  What if you are prepared?  What if you are not prepared?  Which would you rather be to ride out the storms of the latter end of the latter days?  I want to be prepared.  I am praying for courage to get me through.  I don't know what's coming, but my gut feeling tells me it is going to be a handful of stuff we will need courage for.  We will need to know who we really are.  And we will need to be prepared.

"What if?"  Now go and do......

Why Store Wheat?

I often am asked "What can I do with wheat?  And why would I store something I will probably never use?"  My answer is.......we store it because it has so many life sustaining values, and because we have been asked to store it.

Let me tell you a story about a young Bishop who had asked his congregation to learn to eat their food storage, and he himself decided that he would live off food storage for a time.  He quickly came to realize that not having vitamins, especially vitamin C would be a problem, a hole in the storage plan.  He decided to pray about it to see how he could solve this problem using the food storage basics, and his thoughts were to use the wheat and sprout it.  It would provide enough fresh vitamins, including vitamin C that it could stave off any vitamin deficiencies.  Wheat is an amazing grain.

It is inexpensive to purchase, stores for years and years under proper conditions, can be ground, soaked, cracked, made into gluten, flour made into breads, pastas, sprouted and eaten as sprouts or wheat grass, or sprouted then dried and ground into a nutritional flour.  As you can see, the possibilities for the wheat, that is sitting in your storage area in your basement, are endless.

Here are some of the things you can do:
Grind it - make breads, doughs, pastas, crackers, gluten / wheat meat, hot cereal (rough ground), cakes, pastries, muffins, cookies, etc
Soak it - make cereal, sprouts, meat substitute for hamburger, and others, used in any meal as a substitute for meat.  It really can, I have tried it for many substitutes and it is amazing
Cook it whole - use it in chili's, soups, casseroles, and as cereal

Wheat is full of proteins, which when combined with a legume or dairy, form a complete protein.

Have I convinced you yet as to why you would store wheat?  Here is the bottom line - are you ready for it?  Here you go.....

IT WILL SUSTAIN LIFE IN A VERY DELICIOUS WAY - IF YOU LEARN WHAT TO DO WITH IT.

Let me say that again.  Wheat can and will sustain your life for a long term if need be, if you just learn what to do with it.  

If of course, you never learn what to do with it, and how to make it delicious every day in your diet, definitely you will wonder why you ever stored it.  Don't let a valuable grain such as wheat, sit in your basement on the shelves and never learn how to incorporate it into your diet.  What a shame and a waste of storage space and money.  Use it!!!

Here is a post I did a long time ago about making and using wheat gluten as a meat substitute and for other cooking.  Check it out there are a ton of recipes and gluten making tutorials. 

Here is a tutorial about how you can use sprouted wheat to make wheat burger.  It is so easy and delicious.

When using ground wheat in any bread or other baking recipe, the rule of thumb at first is to try substituting 1/3 of the white flour for whole wheat flour.  As you get more familiar with using whole ground wheat, you can adjust according to what you like.  Or google some recipes using whole wheat flour.  There are lots of them out there.

Don't let the wheat you have stored go to waste, and if you don't have any stored, get some and learn to use it.  It is one thing you will not be sad you learned how to use.

Organize Yourselves

The scriptures tell us - Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.

Today I want to chat a bit about a couple of these things and how they relate to being prepared.

First off, they tell us right up front, organize yourselves and prepare every needful thing.  A couple of keywords - Organize Yourselves, Prepare Every Needful Thing - okay well they are all key in this instance.  We, ourselves, need to get our lives organized.  

Organize definition - arrange into a structured whole; order  OR make arrangements or preparations for (an event or activity); coordinate.

 So with using that definition of organize then we should be looking at getting our lives arranged into a structured order, one that functions smoothly.  We should be making arrangements or preparations for our lives, in any forseen or unforseen events that may happen.  We should be coordinating our lives with what God would have us do for our lives.

Next part.....prepare every needful thing.  

Prepare definition - make (something) ready for use or consideration  OR lead up to by means of preparation

Needful definition -necessary; requisite  OR  needed or necessary

 Prepare every needful thing then means - we should be making every aspect of our lives ready for use, or every aspect of our lives should be being prepared for whatever it is that we should be preparing for, which is everything that is needed, or necessary.  

What are the needful things in your life?  What is it that you should be preparing for?  I suggest perhaps that you look at this from all angles to see just what it is that is necessary or needed in your life, and prepare for it, for any event, whether or not you can forsee this event happening, create a plan, get organized for it, prepare for it, then IF or WHEN it happens, you will be ready.  It won't throw your family into a whirlwind, because your will have organized and prepared every possible thing that will be needed.

I know it can seem like so much work.  Where do you even start?  Start by answering a few questions, and when you find the answers, act upon the answers.

What parts of my life need to be organized and prepared for?  Am I spiritually, emotionally, and physically ready for.......?  If not, what can I do to get prepared?  

If you are looking at possible ways to become spiritually more prepared for what lies ahead, perhaps I could suggest going to this link and watching these couple of talks.  Have a pen and paper handy, because you will want to take notes, not only on what they are saying, but what your promptings are as you listen.  

If you need to get more prepared in physical needs, such as health, food, clothing, etc, then perhaps look around at this blog a little bit more and see what you can find to help with that journey.  I have lots of information here on how you can go and do that.  Check out my 52 weeks to preparedness in the sidebar.  Check out the labels of posts a bit further down and find helpful advice on how to get more physically prepared.

Whatever areas of your life you need to work on, I urge you to just go and get it done.  Time is a precious commodity right now my friends, let's not waste what little bit of it we have left to prepare, for I am worried that soon, some preparations may be out of our hands.

Garden Seed Catalogues

https://www.richters.com/

I must confess to you - I get through the long winter by first getting through Christmas, then I think I only have two more months of cold left, I can handle it because the gardening catalogs start coming!  I know it is pretty pathetic right?  I love to browse through the garden seed catalogs page by page, reading the little
excerpts of the new seeds, circling the ones I want to order, making my lists of what I want from each catalog.

I feel like a kid all over again.  I remember each fall the Sears Christmas Catalog would come to our house, and each of us kids would go through page by page and claim what we want, circle it and point it out to mom.  We would each pick out our favorite bedroom that we would have if we could have any set.  It was kind of fun and helped us get through some long afternoons I am sure.

When we were at my sister's for Christmas Dinner this year, I must admit I was a bit jealous, because I have had a few small catalogs for garden seeds come, but she had this huge catalog that her friend bought and gifted her for Christmas.  Yes, being the nerd I am, I actually sat and read it for quite a bit of the afternoon, remarking on conversations and starting my own by some of the things that were in the catalog.

I am sure we all have these quirky things we like to do and mine is definitely garden catalogs and magazines.  One of my favorite gifts was a gardening magazine from someone.  I tell you, it keeps me going through the snow and cold.

Okay, so my point of all of this is - get your garden seeds ordered.  I know it is only mid January, but I tell you I have a feeling in my gut that tells me times are looking to be pretty rough for the coming year in more than a few ways, so get them ordered and have your supply of seeds on hand to grow your own veggies, even if you have to grow them in containers or small spots.  Get them and get prepared to grow them.

Remember if you are interested in doing any kind of seed saving, or in other words, growing stuff next year from this years seeds, make sure you order heirloom seeds, not hybrid sees.  Heirloom seeds are the only kind of seeds that will grow seed from produce.  Hybrid seeds may offer great produce or a bountiful harvest, but you can not save seeds from year to year and use them.  Every catalog will tell you which seeds are heirloom or not.

Here are a few links that will take you to some good heirloom seeds places online.

Heirloom Seeds

Heritage Harvest Seed

West Coast Seeds

And from there, I say - just google heirloom seeds, and if you can, your specific location and you will find things close to you.

Again, get your seeds!  Things are looking pretty rough out there in the world so we need to get our houses in order!  I will talk more about that next time.

Preparedness Library

Today I thought I might talk a bit about building your preparedness library.  First off, my disclaimer, I am a book fanatic!  I love books of any shape, size, genre (well almost all genres), you get the picture.

a very very small collection of a few of my books

I think it is of utmost importance that we gather any and all kinds of preparedness books we can that will help us learn and understand more.  I know you think, well I save all of my stuff on the computer, and I can always google what I need to know when the time comes.  Wrong answers!  If your power is out, you won't have a computer, and there are dozens of scenarios that could cause your power to be out, so never count on your computer to show you how to do something in case of.....  That is just a bad plan.

Your preparedness library should include many different types of books.  Of course books on being prepared, like cooking with beans, homesteading principles, food storage, emergency preparedness, and that sort of thing.  It should also include multiple recipe books, with your favorite recipes tagged in them.  It should include home canning and food preservation books.  It should include alternate cooking method books, like dutch oven cooking.  How about things like growing a garden, raising chickens, building an outhouse, etc?

Your library should include alternate health care ideas, like healing with herbs, and essential oils and first aid

alternate medicine books - I have many

ideas.  You never know when you will not have modern health care immediately available, and you will have to figure it out on your own, without the use of your computer!

Your library should include spiritual uplifting books.  Trust me when times get tough, we are going to need to have some positive uplifting spiritual books to get us through.  Heck, forget when times get tough, we need them now!

Your library should have some educational resources, especially if you have children.  For any type of an extended disaster, you will want to continue on with some sort of normalcy, which includes education for your children, or grandchildren.

In my library, I have binders full of information that I have gathered from various sites and sources, and have organized it so that in a pinch, I could find what I need.  I have even created my own books, mostly for my own information, like my dehydrated meals recipes that I can have ready and just add to boiling water to have an instant meal.   

If you don't know what you would do in a disaster situation, find a good book, read it, mark it up and add it to your library.  I firmly believe that our libraries will save our lives some day.  And though I absolutely love Google, he is often my best friend, he WILL NOT be around when the time comes to desperately need him, so use him now, download, print, organize whatever you need, and don't count on him to come to your rescue, because as much as he would like to help you, and as much as we will desperately miss him, he will not be able to help us no matter how much we beg and plead!

It is all up to us.  Create your library of resources, including good novels for some entertainment and education, and you will be set.

Inventory

Well I thought I was going to do a bit of a round up of inventory helps to get me, myself and I together, as

Here is what you will find at her site.  Click on it.

well as you, and get our inventory more up to date.  I know mine is way out of date.  Time to do the dreaded..... so then I went searching once again for the best options and spreadsheets and food storage calculators, and guess what I found????  The perfect post of someone who has already done this for me. 

I want to share it with you here.  You really should check it out.  She really does share some great tools to help with this process.  Again here is the link.  The website is prepared-housewives.com and they do have some great info. 

So without further adieu, I will let you do some browsing over on her site today.  Have fun!

English Muffins - Food Storage Recipe

One of my all time favorite go to books when it comes to cooking with food storage and making things from scratch is Marlene's Magic with Food Storage, and you can find it here on Amazon, or click on the picture and it will take you there if you are interested.

She has some really great recipes one of which I have found is this one below.  I really love an English Muffin toasted with lots of butter melted on it.  It is one of my favorite breakfast things, and her recipe makes them really nice.  It isn't even that difficult!  Give it a whirl.

English Muffins 
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp dry yeast
1/2 c warm milk, powdered milk reconstituted can be use just as well
1 cu warm water
3 tbsp sugar
1/4 c butter, softened
corn meal

Sift flour and salt together (I never sift anything, just mix it).  Combine yeast with warm milk and set aside for 5 minutes.  Mix in water and sugar.  Work in 2 cups flour mixture and let stand 1 1/2 hours. 

Beat in softened butter and remaining flour.  Place dough on a board which has been covered lightly with cornmeal.  Cover and let rise.  

Roll out dough 1/2 inch thick on the cornmeal covered board.  Cut in 4 1/2 inch circles (tuna can size).  let stand for 20 minutes.

This is what an English Muffin looks like.  Delicious

Heat a lightly oiled fry pan or hot griddle.  Place muffins in fry pan and cover with lid.  Fry for 5 - 7 minutes.  Turn and fry second side for another 5 - 7 minutes.  

Easy peasy right???  Give it a whirl.  It costs pennies to make these compared to purchasing them in the store.

Seriously if you are looking for ways to use your food storage, her book is a good one.  It is not new and exciting, but old, tried, and true.

You Are Not Alone

There is power in numbers, and when it comes to being prepared, there is great power in numbers.  It doesn't really matter what the disaster might be, when the band of prepared people gather together to help out, there is a strength and power there that cannot be found anywhere else.

Thinking of preparedness as a set of rings on a target.  Your inner most ring and strength is of course within your family circle.  This includes not only your immediate family but you extended family as well.  I remember reading a blog quite a few years ago (I wish I would have book marked it and paid more attention), and this family were very much creating their inner circle of strength.  Each adult member had their own responsibilities, for example: 

One sister was in charge of food storage orders and organization - learning anything that had to do with food storage and sharing her knowledge with the others to help them get prepared.

A brother was assigned the task of learning everything to know about heat, light, and shelter resources.  He had arranged for them to be self reliant with heat by finding great deals on wood stoves which they all installed, and then they cut a ton of wood so they had well more than a years supply of wood for their entire family.

Another brother was tasked the responsibility of learning anything he could about raising animals and sustainability with everything that went along with that.

The mother and a sister were in charge of gardening resources and so on and so forth.  Each had their responsibility - even the little children - some included communications, some sanitation, and every aspect of survival and preparedness was taken care of by one member of the family.  This member then came back to the rest of the family - they met at least once a month to do big projects or have meetings - and they would be taught by whoever learned new things.

It was a great system.  I hope to implement something like this in my own family this year.  I wish I could find this other family on the vast world wide web again, but for some reason they seemed to have disappeared off my radar.  Probably smart for them.

When we branch out of our inner family circle, we next look at our local neighborhood and / or community with it's resources and like minded people.  This would also include church members, and friends who may be like minded in their thinking and prepping.  What resources do you have there and who can you depend on?  Is there a way to meet regularly with these people and create that strength within yourselves, and the motivation, to keep moving forward and take better measures to prepare your neighborhood or community.  It will be a huge blessing when the time comes for knowledge, action, and supplies for you to not be alone in your efforts.  Trust me you are not alone, there are many others out there who feel the same, but are probably like you and want to just sit back quietly and see what happens.  Time for sitting back quietly has passed, it is time to take action and get things done.

Branching out from this second circle may lead you to various websites, online friends and neighbors, others who live a ways away, but who think as you do.  The world of preppers - as we get called - is actually pretty big, offering a wealth of information to share with each other.  There are forums, blogs, websites, you tube videos, and on and on, of resources available.  Reach out to these people and glean from them what you can, then take it back to your two inner circles, share and prepare.  YOU ARE NOT ALONE! 

I met another very nice couple the other day who think just like I do, in many aspects of preparedness.  Unfortunately they don't live in the same city as I do, but they are close enough.  We can learn from each other and help each other.  I look forward to meeting many more.  I know that I have been sitting quiet for a couple of years just watching and quietly preparing my own family.  It is now time to strengthen my inner circles of preparedness. 

What can you do to strengthen your inner circles?  Do you have a family / extended family plan and do you work together to make things happen?  Do you have an extended circle of like minded friends and neighbors who you get together with often to discuss plans and prepare?  If not, what can you do to make something like this happen.  Again I say, YOU ARE NOT ALONE, so find those others and make things happen.  Learn from each other......AND......Share your experiences with me.  I would love to hear of them.  I can be part of your extended circles and I would love it!

Using Food Storage for Cooking Vegetarian

It is easy to use the same grains and legumes - with a variety of  vegetables and spices, and make yourself hundreds of different versions of meals.  

There are two charts here, showing the basic ingredients in vegetarian cooking with food storage, and a list of different spices to offer different tastes.

Grains should equal 40 - 50% of your meal, with vegetables 30 - 50% and legumes the remaining 10 - 20%.  Eating this way will offer a complete protein always, with high vitamin and mineral content. Extras you could add to this might include cheese or dairy products, salad dressings, and other things like lettuce and fresh vegetables. 

Grains 40 - 50%	Vegetables 30 - 50%	Legumes 10 - 20%
Rice – all variations bread and bread products oatmeal, oats barley hot grain cereals quinoa bulghur pasta	Onions and garlic carrots – chopped or grated celery cabbage canned tomatoes peppers potatoes corn zucchini peas green beans etc	Lentils – red or green Beans – black, red, brown, pinto, white, garbanzo, kidney, etc split peas

Choose your grains you want to cook.  Rice is a staple in my home, at least four times a week we eat it.  Then choose your veggies, depending on what you have on hand or in the garden.  Choose your legumes, depending on what is available or ready in your fridge, freezer, or pantry.

Spices

Basic	Indian	Warming	Mediterranean	Savory	Oriental	Mexican
Salt pepper garlic ginger onion lemon juice dill	Turmeric cumin coriander bay leaf mustard seed fennel chilies	Allspice cinnamon cloves nutmeg pepper cardamom	Basil oregano marjoram thyme bay leaf mint lemon juice red wine vinegar balsamic	Rosemary sage parsley thyme pepper nutmeg marjoram basil bay leaf	Soy sauce rice or wine vinegar basil chilies sugar miso garlic black bean garlic sauce	Chilies cumin oregano garlic chipotle taco seasonings

Decide on what flavor choices you want to use for your meal.  Decide if you want soup, stir fries, casserole, crockpot, salad, or something else, and go to work making it.  I know it is hard for some people to cook if they don't have a recipe to follow, but practice will make it easier.  And remember, I always say, "Google is my best friend, and the library is my university!"  If you want to find recipes, look them up and experiment.  Soon you will be a pro at it.

Beans for Fat substitutions

Beans are so versatile, you can actually use them to replace some of the fat, to almost all of it, in your baking recipes.  My rule is I usually will replace about half of my oil or fat in any given recipe.  I have tried to replace it all, and sometimes I end up with dry - whatever - I am making.  But half beans and half butter or oil is a good bet.

Make sure your beans are cooked to soft and then puree them well in a blender.  If they are too dry, add a bit of water to your puree.

Take notice of the color of the item you are baking.  If the overall color is white, you will want to use white beans.  If you are making something chocolate, you can get away with brown or black beans pureed.  White mashed beans, however, can be used in pretty much anything, as they will blend right in and hide well.

If your recipe calls for oil, then use the equivalent of half your oil and substituted it for your pureed beans.  Same goes for butter or margarine, puree the beans or mash them well, and switch half your butter for beans.

Beans are cheaper than oils, and especially butter, it is much healthier, and it adds a great taste to your baking.  Try it!  You may even start to like it.

Be brave.....  I dare you!

Bean Flour

Bean flour can be made from most kinds of beans, except soy beans.  Soy beans have a high oil content, so do not make flour easily at home.  Garbanzo beans, black, pinto, mung, navy, lentils, are all good choices to make a flour with.  Most wheat grinders can easily grind up beans into a nice fine flour.  If you have a really  strong blender, you may be able to use it as well.  Never put soy beans through your wheat grinder.  Their oil content will gum up your grinder.

What would you ever use bean flour in?  You can substitute it for regular flour in pretty much any recipe.  It may change the color a bit, especially if you use black bean flour, and it may make for a denser loaf or cake.  My kind of standard rule of thumb, is I will only substitute about 1/3 of the flour for bean flour.  I may also add a bit of extra leavening agent, whether it is yeast, baking powder, soda, etc.

Bean flour can also be reconstituted with hot water, and used as a fat replacement in your baking.  You can easily substitute it for 1/2 of your oil content, and though your loaf may be a bit more dense, or cookies or whatever you are making, it will turn out good. 

It can also be used to thicken soups and stews, or in cream soups or casseroles to thicken the sauce.  As well, it can be reconstituted and become a delicious dip for crackers or chips.  With a variety of seasonings the possibilities are many.

It is a great way to add extra protein, iron and vitamins into your family's diet, without them even knowing it.

To make a soup base, or a cream soup, stir in about 1/3 cup of bean flour to about 2 cups hot liquid.  A little more or less depending on how thick you want it, and add it to your soup.

For a quick refried bean dip, use pinto bean flour and taco seasonings.

Bean flour is easy to make and nutritious to use.  After experimenting a little bit, you will find things your family really likes, so keep track of your recipes you try so you can come back to them often.

Bean Burgers

I really, really do love bean burgers.  I love any kind of veggie burgers.  I have experimented with many different recipes, and have found some basics I want to share with you.

Pick your bean variety you would like to use:
2 cups of black, pinto, white, lentils, chick peas, etc.  Cooked soft and mashed beans
1 cup of rice - white or brown, quinoa, or other grain
Mix and mash these well together.

Add in:
1/2 cup chopped onion - doesn't matter which kind
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tbsp ketchup, bbq sauce or other sauce
1 or 2 eggs - can substitute mashed potatoes or vegetables if you don't use eggs
1/2 cup vegetables like corn, shredded carrots, peas, etc
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup rolled oats - quick oats -  if you used regular oats, just add a bit more liquid
1/2 cup of one of these: flour, bread crumbs, crackers smashed, bean flour, oat flour, rice flour, etc
Mix all of these together well and form into patties.  Fry in oil, or on a small grill.

Variations of things you could also add:  parmesan cheese, grated cheddar cheese, taco seasoning, other seasonings, any other vegetables you might like.

It can also be fried and crumbled as a veggie hamburger mix.  Or serve your patties as you would a burger on a bun.

With all of the varieties of beans, grains, veggies and spices you can have an endless variety of veggie burgers.  Get creative and see what you come up with.

Beans - The Magical Food in so Many Ways

I did a vegetarian cooking information class today, and for those of you who attended it and want more information on cooking with beans instead of meat, I decided to repost here a more consolidated version of some of my other posts here on this site, and in one of my books.

I have been a vegetarian for pretty close to 27 years.  In that time, I have learned a few things....

Beans / legumes are way cheaper than meat - for example, let me do a little bit of math for you.
The average cost of feeding a family of 4 - 6 people, just in buying hamburger (cheap meat) is probably about $7 ish per meal.  Roast, steak, chops, chicken, etc. are all more expensive than that.  Let's say you only use $7 per meal and you only eat one meal with meat per day, that totals up to $2555 spent each year just eating one meal per day of cheaper meat, and totally not healthy.

I can purchase a 25 lb bag of beans for around $20.  I guess that I can easily get 70 meals at least, out of this bag of beans.  Because I use beans in baking and other things too, I figure I could use about 6 bags of beans per year.  Which total will come to about $120.

Difference of $2435 just because you used beans for one meal a day instead of hamburger.  Now I know it will be different for each of you and what you are used to eating.  Maybe you only want to replace meat for one or two meals a week.  Maybe you want to get rid of it all together.  It's up to you and what your family will tolerate.  But.....if you are looking for ways to save money on your groceries, this is definitely a way to make that happen.

Cooking with beans is actually quite satisfying as well.  It just takes a little bit more prep time, or being a little bit more organized in the kitchen.  There are several ways you can cook beans.

1.  Quick soak method.  Cover your beans with about three times as much water, bring them to a boil, and boil them for five minutes.  Remove them from the heat and let them stand, covered or not, as long as you need until you are ready to start cooking your meal.  I leave mine from morning until later in the day.  Drain the cooking water off and rinse them well.  Cover once again with water and bring to a boil again until they are soft and ready to use in your recipe.  Drain, rinse and use.

2.  Soak overnight method.  Cover them in 3 times as much water, soak them overnight or all day.  Drain and rinse well.  Cover with water again and bring to a boil and cook until soft.  Drain, rinse, and use in your recipe.

3.  Crockpot.  Cover with about 4 times as much water and turn on low for 4 - 6 hours until beans are tender.  Drain, rinse and use in recipe.

Once your beans are cooked, or pre soaked, either way, you can easily put some of them into containers or ziplocs and freeze them for other meals.  They will last in the fridge for several days as well to use in other meals.

I will post more on bean recipes, using bean flours, and other ways to cook with beans, here in the next several days.  I have lots to share, so keep watching.

I will share with you how to make and use bean flour, how to cook several kinds of beans at the same time, to get a variety in your meal, how to hide them in recipes like baking, and how to substitute some of the fat in your baking by using mashed beans.  Sounds delicious right?  Keep posted.

Today

It has been a whole year since I have written here on Today, and it has been a whopping 7+ years since I started Today.  I promise I haven't been slacking off on my preparations, or my service.  My knowledge has continued to grow, and I have learned much in the past seven years.

I have written several books, some for fun, and some for understanding, most of them for my own use and benefit.  Now I am working on combining some of them into one monster manual which will be titled something like "Today While The Sun Shines."   :) 

I still have a firm resolve to keep prepared, and "wow"!!! as the world turns around and around, it seems to get wilder, weirder, scarier, rougher, meaner, and all of those other "er" words that could go along with these, and yet, there are those of us who see it, and quietly, persistently, keep preparing for any or all possible events that could take place.

"Today", my wishes are to start updating this blog more often with valuable information.
"Today", I want to help you get more prepared, while I also do.
"Today", I want to do all kinds of things, like finally finish compiling my book and finish my novel,
But......
"Today" always seems to run away with me, and I don't always get to do what I want when I want, so......
"Today" I will try to do my best, and we will see what tomorrow brings.

Keep prepping, and keep positive.   There is still much good in the world, and we have to keep creating the good to combat the bad and ugly which is abounding in abundance.

We will see what tomorrow brings, when it is another "Today".

Preparedness to do list Week #4 - Evacuation lists

Evacuation Lists - I know making more lists right?   However, these are important.  Let me give you a scenario that really happened not too long ago.  Someone I know was given 15 minutes evacuation notice to get out of her home because of a wild fire that was heading her way.  She told me after the fact, that for those fifteen minutes, she ran around the home in kind of a daze not even sure where to begin or what to try and save if her house were to burn down.  She ended up leaving with her purse in hand and nothing else.

How discouraging, knowing that you had those precious fifteen minutes, but were in so much shock that you couldn't think clearly, and nothing got saved.  If you have time at all, how easy would it be to send everyone to their various rooms, and do a quick look on the back of the door to see - listed in matter of priority - the things that you should grab and go.  The thinking has already been done ahead of time, it is just a matter following through on what needs to be done.  Just going through the motions. 

I am guilty of not doing this one myself, but will do it this week.  I have had lists of what we would take in a few minutes, and we have even had practice drills through the years on how we would exit the home and what we would grab in 15 minutes.  But for some reason I have never posted the lists.  Perhaps I feel it is a bit overwhelming because we have always had so much stuff!  No longer resisting, I will get them posted this week, because it is on my to do list!

Have fun with this.  Perhaps gather your family for a family night and have a mock emergency evacuation.  Make up a scenario that is a possibility for your area, and give the family 15 minutes to gather anything they think is important to get out and meet back in the living room within the time limit.  You might be really surprised to see what they come up with and what gets left behind.  It will be a good practice run, and give you a great starting place to create your room by room evac lists. 

Don't forget to include in this drill your home floor plan.  If you have to evacuate your home, the authorities might ask you to turn off your gas and water valves and shut off all power to your home.  Do you know where to do this?  Does your family know where to do this?  Create this plan and practice it, without really shutting off some of them.  The gas, if it is turned off, will likely need to be turned back on by the city gas dudes who know what they are doing, so don't really shut it off unless it is an emergency.

Have fun, practice, so that if or when the time comes, it will be second nature for your family to just do it without thinking. 

Personal Preparedness To Do List Week #3

Personal Preparedness To Do List Week #3

Review Insurance Policies and Wills

This week our challenge is to find all of our insurance policies, and our wills, and get them organized and updated.  Part of that organizing them is to read through them and understand what is exactly being said in each of them.  This will help us be more prepared when the time comes for us to use one of them.

I was having a conversation with a couple of my kids the other day about our own will, and it has been probably about 20 years since our will was last updated.  Way too long!  I have recently reviewed the house insurance and car insurance policies, but not really thoroughly.  I need to do that.  And I need to get them all together in one place that is easy to find.  I don't know about your house, but more often than not at my house, the paper trail, turns into paper piles and it can be difficult to find things.  That would not be a good situation if we needed one of our insurance policies in a pinch, or the unspeakable, someone died, and I am pretty sure that nobody would be able to find our wills, without digging.  Ugh!  I think I should do the digging first and updating, and then organizing, rather than leave it for someone else to clean up the mess some day.

A good reason to have updated insurance policies - check out this article I wrote a while back.  It tells you what kinds of things you should have included with your insurance policies to be able to get exactly what you need out of them. 

Here is your to do list for this week.  I left one side of the list blank, because there are always thoughts that I have as I am going through things, and I need to write them down.  Leave no page unturned!

Personal Preparedness To Do List Week 2

Fall is a great time to pull out the 72 hour emergency kits, car kits, and flu kits, to make sure that all of the supplies are up to date and ready for the upcoming season of WINTER!

72 hour emergency kits need to be updated with winter clothing, proper footwear, and food that will fill a hungry tummy in the cold, like soups, hot chocolate, etc.  Proper sleep wear, sleeping bags, pajamas, etc should also be checked, as winter ones will be different than summer wear.  Medication should now include things like cold and flu options, since this season is now upon us.  Here is a checklist you can use to walk you through this process of updating and rotating your 72 hour kit this week.  It can be a fun family night project for all involved!

It is also smart this time of year to check your flu / pandemic kits if you have one, and do some updating and rotating of medicines and supplies.  Don't just assume that everything lasts forever, it doesn't!  Be prepared in your home for the flu season, with the proper medical supplies that your family might need.  Be prepared in your home for any more serious pandemic situations that could arise.  You should always ask yourself what if?.........and then go and get prepared for it.

Check your emergency car kits as well.  Make sure that you have all of the tools and supplies you might need for winter driving, if that is a problem in your area, like it is for me.  Winter driving can be deadly, especially if you are not prepared.  At least purchase a small shovel and have it in your trunk, along with a warm blanket or two, some energy or protein bars that could sustain you if you got stranded, and warm clothing in case you have to walk somewhere.  It isn't uncommon to hear the stories of someone who has gone off the road in a blizzard, and either stayed in their car and froze, or decided to walk and froze.  Be prepared for either situation because you don't know if it will happen to you.

Make fall and spring your routine to check these emergency kits or situations and make sure you are prepared for the coming seasons.  They each bring with them their various challenges, so just go do it!

Personal Preparedness To Do List Week #1

We all have to have a starting point.....even when we have been prepping for years.  Sometimes it is just good to gather your thoughts, refocus, and move ahead from where you are.  I have been really thinking on how I can do this.  I have done the 52 weeks to Preparedness for Two - a couple of times, and this time I want to change it up just a little bit.  Perhaps even simplify it somewhat.

I love to do lists.  I live by my lists and my calendar.  If it isn't written down, chances are pretty high that I won't get it done, not because I don't want to, but because my life is so busy that I won't likely remember.  If you are at all like me, or just want a simplified version of how you can move forward and get prepared, then here is the solution.

I am going through all of my old 52 weeks to preparedness, and my book Personal Preparedness Portfolio, and am creating lists.  I will post one list each week, usually somewhere between Friday and Sunday, so you can work on it for the coming week.  That way I can also watch the flyers to see what is on sale for the coming week, and perhaps incorporate that into the list as well.  You can simply print off the list, pin it to your fridge or calendar, and accomplish something little towards your Emergency Preparedness and Food Storage Program each week.

Simple enough!  I hope that in the end, you will find you have accomplished a ton of prepping, without even realizing that it has become a part of your everyday routine and life.

Good Luck!!

For the first week here, it is time to do some inventorying and planning.  You can find a food storage calculator here, and you can find the free download workbook here, that goes along with my written book that you can order here for a small price.  It is well worth the price, I feel.  Download the workbook and see if you don't think it would be nice to have the hard copy of the real book as well.  Thanks for supporting me
in this little adventure of my being an author!