Sausage and Tomato Rigatoni

It's one of our favorites. My kids love it.

HERE is that recipe.

I use an entire box or Rigatoni.

My version:


1 Box rigatoni pasta
1 lb. Italian sausage, cut into chunks
1/2 red onion, sliced
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup KRAFT Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

COOK pasta as directed on package.

MEANWHILE, brown sausage in large nonstick skillet; drain. Stir in onions and tomato paste; cover. Cook 10 min. or until onions are tender and sausage is cooked through, stirring occasionally. Stir in dressing.

TOSS sausage mixture with pasta. Sprinkle with parsley and cheese.

**Tip--cut the sausage while it's a little bit frozen. It makes it much much easier.

Capellini-Caprese

NOT A FOOD STORAGE RECIPE




It came out of the Kraft food and family magazine that I get quarterly. I've found a few recipes from there.

It's a super easy recipe. Find it HERE.
I added a little more dressing and used a pound of spaghetti instead of a 1/2 pound.

My Version:


1lb. capellini or spaghetti, uncooked
2/3 cup KRAFT Tuscan House Italian Dressing and Marinade
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups halved grape or cherry tomatoes
1 cup KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese
1/3 cup fresh basil, finely sliced

COOK pasta as directed on package.

MEANWHILE, heat dressing in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic; cook and stir 2 min. Add tomatoes; cook 5 min. or until heated through, stirring occasionally.

DRAIN pasta. Add to tomato mixture; mix lightly. Sprinkle with cheese and basil.

Spinach Alfredo Pasta

This is one of my kids favorite meals. Honestly.



Spinach Alfredo Pasta

1 Bag Bowtie Pasta
1 Jar Alfredo Sauce
1 Clove of Garlic (optional)
1/2 Bag of Chopped Spinach


Sautee Spinach and chopped or minced Garlic, until heated through



Add 3/4 jar of Alfredo Sauce (or more if you like) into Spinach



Pour over Cooked Pasta and Serve.

Hawaiian Haystacks

This is a Mormon dish. No one else eats this. It's not Hawaiian for sure. But it's still tasty.


2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts *(you can use canned chicken)
2 Cans Cream of Chicken Soup
Milk

Toppings:
Diced Green Onions
Diced Tomatoes
Pineapple Tidbits
Chow Mein Noodles.



Grill or Pan fry Chicken Breasts. Slice into bite size strips.


Pour Cream of Chicken Soup into pan, Heat through add Milk to thin.




Serve over rice and add toppings

Buys of the Week 8/26-9-1

Fry's

Cereal $1.39 (mix or match) TMS
Aquafina Water 24 pk $2.99 (m or m) TMS
Pillsbury Crescent Rolls $.88 (m or m)
Tropicana OJ in carton 1.99 (m or m)
Grapes $.67 SUPER DEAL!
Super Lean Ground Beef $1.57 # (sold in chub--I'm not a fan of chubs but that's cheap!) TMS

Fresh and Easy

Eggs. $1.25

Safeway

Cereals Buy 5 save $5 (Corn flakes, Cheeri0s, Honey Bunches etc.)
They end up being $1, or $1.50, or $2.00 TMS

Bashas

MILK $.88 1/2 gallons (Cheapest of all stores)

Buys of the Week

I've decided to list my "buys of the week". These are things I will most likely be purchasing each week from the ads. I only list things that my family eats, so I know there are other deals out there, we just don't eat those items. My friends had told me that they don't know what is a good buy. I was raised watching the ads for sales so I have a pretty good idea of what's a good deal. Oh, and I don't coupon, so that doesn't matter to me.

Many of the buys are just what we are eating, that is not involved with our Three Month Supply. But, if it is part of our Three Month Supply I will put a TMS at the end of it.

Hope this helps.

Rosted Tomato Penne with Asparagus

NOT A THREE MONTH SUPPLY RECIPE

This is actually my friend Sarah's recipe. She served it at bunko years ago and we all had to get the recipe. It's not hard, but it is somewhat time consuming. But super de-lish. I scanned in the recipe so at the bottom the parsley and olive oil is 1/4. It was kind of blurry when I pulled it up on my screen.







Before Roasting






After Roasting





Olive Oil, Parsley, Butter and Basil

Buttermilk Syrup served on Sourdough French Toast

NOT A THREE MONTH SUPPLY RECIPE

Buttermilk Syrup

1 cube Butter
1 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Buttermilk
1 t. Vanilla
1/4 t. Baking Soda

Heat to dissolve sugar, almost to boil. Pull from burner and add vanilla and baking soda. Don't cook to boiling or it will curdle.

I serve this over pancakes, waffles or french toast. I serve it over sourdough french toast. It's tasty the tangy with the sweet.

To make Sourdough french toast, just use sourdough instead of regular bread.

Russian Chicken

Russian Chicken

1 jar Russian Dressing (8 oz)
1/2 Jar Apricot Preserves
1 Lipton Onion Soup Packet
4+ Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

Mix first three ingredients in slow cooker. Add Chicken Breasts. Turn to coat. Cook on low for 1-2 hours, checking until Chicken is cooked through. Serve over Rice.

I cook this with frozen chicken breasts and it took me a little under two hours. As soon as the chicken thawed in the cooker, I took tongs and held the chicken breast, and cut them into bite sized pieces with kitchen shears. It cooked faster that way. You can eat it with the breasts left alone, or cut it up. It's our preference.



Ingredients

Mixed in the Slow Cooker
Add the Chicken


Chop it if you wish
Enjoy (broccolli not inclued:)

Me loves Pasta

NOT a three month supply recipe

My family tried this two nights ago and liked it. Even my husband did, and he is a food snob. My middle child wasn't all that keen on it, but someone needed to be sacrificed.

It came out of the Kraft food and family magazine that I get quarterly. I've found a few recipes from there.

It's a super easy recipe. Find it HERE.

or here:

Capellini Caprese


1/2 lb. capellini or spaghetti, uncooked
1/2 cup KRAFT Tuscan House Italian Dressing and Marinade
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups halved grape or cherry tomatoes
1 cup KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese
1/3 cup fresh basil, finely sliced

COOK pasta as directed on package.

MEANWHILE, heat dressing in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic; cook and stir 2 min. Add tomatoes; cook 5 min. or until heated through, stirring occasionally.

DRAIN pasta. Add to tomato mixture; mix lightly. Sprinkle with cheese and basil.

**I added a little more dressing and used a pound of spaghetti instead of a 1/2 pound.

Strawberry Scones

This is NOT on my three month supply list, but it is one of the best things I've learned to make. And it really is pretty easy.

I got the recipe HERE.

But in case they ever shut down the site, I copied the text below.

Fruit Filled Scones:
4 cups flour
4 cups cake flour
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 Tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 lb. cold butter

Choice of fruits:
2 cups blueberries + zest of 2 lemons
2 cups blackberries + zest of 2 lemons
2 cups chopped strawberries + zest of 2 oranges

1/2 - 1 quart half & half (depending how juicy the fruits are that you're using)

In a bowl, combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and then cut into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter. Add the fruits. Stir in enough half & half to just make a moist dough. It should be moistened, but not sticky. With an ice cream scoop, scoop out dough 2" apart on parchment lined baking pans. Bake in 375 degree oven for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Top with glaze.

Glaze:
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk or half & half
a bit of vanilla & almond extract

Combine until the consistency of heavy cream. Drizzle over scones while hot.

These are literally the BEST things in the world! They're not for the calorie conscious, with a POUND of butter and a quart of half &half....but they are worth every single teensy tiny calorie. This recipe makes about 2 dozen scones. And the good news is, you can make the dry mix with butter cut in, separate it into freezer bags in batches, and then add the fruit and Half & Half as needed when ready to bake. You can make as little or as many as you want! **They are best eaten fresh from the oven.**

We've also made cinnamon scones using this recipe instead of the fruit. Mix together 4T. melted butter mixed with 2 tsp. cinnamon, 2 T. sugar, and 3/4 cup brown sugar...and add this AFTER you add the liquid. *Enjoy*

Planning

One of the hardest things for me is planning the food. I am a very organized/detailed person. I have to have everything written down or put into a table on the computer so I'll understand it. I got started with Food Storage Made Easy their button is also on my blog. Anyhow, they have great ideas and got me super excited to start, but I needed an even more basic start. So I made a table in word. I made the columns and rows so it resembled a calendar with 7 columns for days of the week and rows enough that I could made a 30 day plan. On Food Storage Made Easy they have an awesome Excel Spreadsheet that helps you calculate what you need. It's awesome. GO GET IT HERE. But even before doing that I needed to have 30 days worth of meals planned. So I followed their advice, create 30 meals and repeat them 3 times. Boom 90 day meal plan. I'm picky about my food. Mostly my dinners. I rarely repeat things in a month. I know, I'm a brat. But coming up with 30 dinners all willy nilly didn't work for my organizer brain. So this is what I did:

Here is Breakfast (they can be repeated--I'm not that creative)



Here is Lunch (I'm not picky about that either)



But then there is dinner, I needed an easier way to plan, so this is what I came up with:




I took each day of the week and replaced it with a food Genre, i.e. Chicken, Beans, Hamburger, Pasta, Beef/Fish, Mexican, Other. That made it easier, so then I only needed about 4 dinners per genre. Easy Peasy. So this is what I have so far. It's my first plan, I'm going to post recipes for all this stuff, and possibly replace some things. But this is what I have stored for now.

Storage

I have had a problem with food storage from the beginning. I don't like canned vegetables, I don't want to eat all of my meat from a can, how do I get to enjoy potatoes? The list goes on. Then it hit me. It should have been clear but my view finally shifted in my head. Three month supplies are supposed to be of food we EAT. I don't EAT canned crap. Unless I can mix it with other stuff. However, I do eat frozen crap . . .I mean food. Anyhow, I usually freeze most of my meat anyway, why not just get three months worth. So we waited for our Tax Return and we set out to buy a freezer. At first we thought we'd want a smaller one, but then my oh so wise husband and also sister convinced me otherwise. GO BIG OR GO HOME. Or just go as big as you can afford and have space for. So this is what we got:



Kenmore 8.8 cu. ft. Chest from SEARS

We got it on sale for $263.99 + tax

One of the best things we ever purchased. This is why I now have a 30 day supply. It's now full of bacon, butter, chicken, hamburger, roasts, peas, corn, spinach, potatoes, fish, ham and chocolate chips.

Originally I wanted a freezer so I could make homemade wheat bread and freeze it. I no longer have room. If you want to do that you might want to upgrade.

Trader Ming's Mandarin Orange Chicken

When I'm doing food supply, I want it easy, with the least amount of ingredients. So here goes--Mandarin Orange Chicken. I get this from Trader Joe's for $4.99. Oh what your city doesn't have one? Boy that's sad. I'm sure you can find something where you live. Anyhow, I can feed my family of 6 on it, but not for long. I'm going to have to double it soon, then we'll have leftovers.


Ingredients:

Trader Joes's Mandarin Orange Chicken (from the freezer section)
Rice



Cook rice (get a frickin rice cooker--it's easy and better than that minute rice crap)
and heat chicken in pan with a bit of oil


Diggity done.


Now that's how I do food storage

Intro

Hello. I've decided to have yet ANOTHER blog. As of now I've decided to keep myself anonymous. Why? I don't know. Well I do know. I told my friend that I was going to have a blog about food storage and she said:

"When the @$%! hits the fan, they'll come to your house because they know you have food." To which I said:

" I live in a major metropolitan city, if the first person doesn't get me, the second one will"

But she planted the idea, so for now I'm anonymous. But if you figure out who I am, don't tell anybody. It will be fun. Come one, just play along.

Anyhow, as my topper says . . . I googled "Three Month Supply" and I didn't find what I was looking for. I wanted specifics. I want to know exactly what that family is eating, how often, what ingredients, and how they were storing it. In my search I did find a few good website which I will link once I get my crap together. This blog may be a bit slow going, since I really should be doing other things. Like mothering. But in the end I'll produce some valuable information. And I welcome input. If you have an idea, or have found a good resource--let me know! I want this to be beneficial to many people. Also, I'm toying with the idea of having multiple authors. So if you have your junk together and want to share what you've done--Drop me a line. But if you just have random bits you want to post, I'll just link to stuff.

Also, I'll be posting recipes and they won't all be food storage. Face it, food storage stinks. It's nice and all, but really---I'm not a big fan of canned vegetables. Who is?

So welcome, I hope I this helps somehow.