Peanut Butter Powder

This week the kids and I did an experiment with Peanut Butter Powder.

Some months ago, I had purchased this...http://beprepared.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_FS D140_A_name_E_Peanut+Butter+Powder

I decided it was time to open it and see how we liked, what it tasted like, what in the world you did with it!

The instructions on the #10 can say: Mix 1 TBSP of Powder with 1 Tsp of water. Add a small amount of sugar for flavor. Add a drop of oil for creaminess.

First, we all tasted the powder plain, just to see (we are home educaters after all). Then we added the water, determined that wasn't even enough to get it moist and added a tiny bit more. We tasted again.The first two tastings, one while dry and one with just water, drew some interesting comments. One child said, it taste like coffee. Another said it tasted like the flavor on Honey Smacks (minus the sweetness). I personally thought it tasted like roasted unsalted peanut skins (not the nuts, just the skins). But, everyone agreed on one thing, this does not taste like peanut butter.

So, we added a little sugar, more tasting. The sugar seemed to help a lot as far as tasting okay, but still, not a peanut buttery taste. Next we added a "drop* of oil to each persons own expermental bowl. This did wonders for the consistency. Now atleast it looked like peanut butter!

The last part of our experimental tasting that day was to pull out a sleeve of saltines. Finally, success. The children all agreed that our concoction tasted just like the peanut butter that is in the crackers that you buy in individual packs. Everyone ate all of theirs and more.

I cant' imagine at this point that I would be able to eat this in exactly the same way that we do peanut butter from the jar, but I can see some uses for it in our preps. Unopened that can is shelf stable for many years. It can be edible, if not tasty, with nothing but water added.

The kids want us to try again with different types of sweeteners. I think they're on to something. I was using white table sugar. I think that next time we'll try brown sugar, powdered sugar and/or honey. It was hard to lose the graininess of the sugar and I think these others will dissolve better.

We also want to make some of the recipes that we found at the Emergency Essentials site.http://beprepared.com/recipes.asp?ai=149

I think we'll start with the one for Peanut Butter Cookies, although I don't have Shortening Powder. I also want to try our family favorite, Peanut Butter Fudge Frosting. I definitely need to keep trying because now I have an opened #10 can and it's shelf life will now be considerably shortened.

I am considering one other thing for the future. For one thing, perhaps not all Peanut Butter Powders are the same. I think I'll order some of this PB2 that I've heard so much of.http://www.bellplantation.com/

Any of you who have had experience with the Peanut Butter Powders, I'd appreciate any feed back. In the mean time, we shall continue to experiment, learn and adjust.

My Life as a Mommy and a Wife

I think I'll tell you a bit about me. I live in Alabama with my dh Henry and our seven children whom we have been blessed to make our own through the miracle of adoption. We have been married 26 years! I assure you he is the only man on earth who could live with me that long, he is amazing and the love of my life.Our children, and how they came to us, are miracles indeed.

Just briefly, they are
ds1 - 14 (joined our family at age 8)
ds2 - 13 (our first adoption and came as a 2 week old premie 5lb infant
ds3 - 9 (was 2 mos old when he arrived)
dd1 - 9 (birth sister to our other daughter, came at age7)
dd2 - 8 (came at age 6)ds4 - 5 (straight from the hospital at 2 days)
ds5 - 4 (birth brother to the girls and was 3 yrs old when he came)

I was born in Louisiana, lived primarily in Texas and Mississippi during my growing up years and then married and was imported to Alabama over 25 years ago.

Alabama has been good to us, my dh and dc were all born here. All of my family lives in Arkansas and the sensible thing to do would be to move there, but dreams aren't always sensible.

Three years ago we bought an older house on 5 acres of land and have been going about making it into a homestead.We have a pond, a creek, goats, chickens, dogs and a parrot. Recently Aslan, our Anatolian puppy joined the family.

If you know me at all, you know that I love the Lord. I'm doing my best to live a life that is pleasing and acceptable to Him. I love the Word of God and use it as the Plumb Line, as a standard for all things Spiritual.

I have conquered my fear of pressure canning! I bought a Nubian milk goat and she delivered her baby right here on our little homestead. I'm enjoying my chickens immensely, they are wonderful homestead animals.

I home educate my children in a very Eclectic manner. That basically means I'll use any method or manner I can to help my children learn how to learn. That's my goal, I know I can never teach them everything, but if I have taught them the love of learning, to read, to investigate, to grow...I have done a good thing.

We're hoping to have a big garden this year and better success with it as we try some new techniques. This is an area I'm still trying to learn and grow in. With a famly our size, we need to be gardening! Well, just thought I'd tell you a bit about me!

Convenience Redefined

I'm a busy mom, I get tired, overwhelmed and just outright pooped sometimes.

In the past, on a day like that, I'd ask dh to stop by and pick up something convenient. After all, hungry kids, a frustrated mom, lack of time, a small crisis of some manner, and etc... were the recipe for disaster. And so I excused it.

Now, while we still eat out (very occasionally), it is a planned event, not a matter of convenience. In my life, Convenience has been Redefined.

It started rather simply. I needed a well stocked pantry. I needed to have things on hand. I needed to have an extra loaf of bread in the freezer or even a gallon of milk, I needed to have the basics available to me.

Then, it went a step further. I had to increase my skills and be able to turn that flour into biscuits without a huge ordeal. I needed to be able to improvise, out of milk...no problem we have powdered. No bread, no problem, I can make a batch of flour tortillas fairly quickly. I also began to think ahead. No one wants to face seven hungry kids without some sort of plan.

I began to experiment with foods that I wanted to incorporated into our menus. I learned to try to have a big pot of some kind of soup available at practically any given time. Vegetable soup, Lentil Soup, Split Pea Soup, Potato Soup, Cabbage Soup, I could go on.

Then a huge step towards Redefining Convenience, I learned to home can. It was the meat canning that really changed my outlook. What a time saver!

Going to make chicken enchiladas? Just open a can of cooked, seasoned, tender and flavorful chicken. You could eat it right out of the jar if you wanted to.

Need a quick Spaghetti dinner, boil some noodles, open a can of your home canned ground beef, a jar of sauce...you're done!

Finally (and I'm skipping over a lot) I arrived at this newest project of mine. Learning to use dehydrated foods. I'm now amazed at how convenient these foods can make your life.

I ordered (some months ago) from Harmony House their Vegetable Pantry Stuffer http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/Vegetable...t41_p_1845.html I also ordered some things from Honeyville grains (Powdered Buttermilk, Powdered Sour Cream, etc).

The last week or so, I've finally begun to open up some of the sealed quarts and tried incorporating them. I took a day to cook only from preps. I am so TOTALLY won over. You can make a vegetable soup that is wonderful out of these dehydrated goods. I even tried the TVP beef bits in my soup which were wonderful in a soup form. I made a hominy casserole and added the powdered sour cream and the dehydrated assorted bellpeppers, wonderful. I made buttermilk biscuits with the powdered buttermilk, lovely!

This is how Convenience has been Redefined in my life. Quicker than I can run through a drive thru, faster than a speeding pizza delivery, I can have a wonderful meal, without chopping, dicing, peeling, processing, etc...

I haven't purchased a really nice dehydrator yet to do more of the dehydrating myself yet, but will one day. You do have to have a good source of water to rehydrate but that could be found in the liquid/broth/juice of your canned vegies. I can't imagine spending unplanned money on convenience food any more.

Convenience (for me) has been Redefined!

FCF (Frontiersmen Camping Fellowship)

My husband and five sons are involved in a program that is similar to Boy Scouts that is called Royal Rangers. They have an extension group called FCF (Frontiersmen Camping Fellowship). If there is such a group in your area, I highly recommend it.

This coming weekend my dh and two oldest sons will be attending the first part of their orientation into this program.

http://royalrangers.ag.org/fcf/index.cfm

I am busy collecting the required items that they must bring. I thought you might be interested in a portion of the list.


New Testament
Pencil
Sharp Pocket Knife
Matches
Poncho
Can w/lid for charring cloth
Flint & Steel
Notebook
Candle
Sleeping Bag
100% cotton patches
Ground Cloth
Warm clothes including camo pants and hiking boots
Canteen
Mess kit including utensils, cup, pan, bowl.Later, if they make it through the initiation which for one thing requires no talking for 24 hours they will begin to gather "Period Correct" clothing, equipment, weapons, tools, etc... They will be learning how to make do with what a Frontiersman would have had. I am so excited that they are learning these skills and feel they will be better prepared to face whatever life throws at them.

Popping Popcorn *PoP*PoP*PoP*

Did you know that Popcorn is a Whole Grain and has lot of nutritional and healthy benefits?

I've always been a fan of Popcorn in its many varied forms. Whether it was dripping in butter at the Theater or in a box of Cracker Jacks at the ball game...formed into a PopCorn Ball at Halloween or caramelized with brown sugar... yum yum yum!I have loved it when I wasn't counting calories and I have loved it when I was. On its own, it's nothing but good... our adding toppings are sometimes tasty tantalizing culpits of extra sugar and fat and well, you know.

I can remember when microwave popcorn was all the rage!! What an amazing thing it was !! I can't imagine how many bags I must have bought and eaten since that time, countless.Now, as the mom of seven snackers, I am even more fond of this tasty, frugal, healthful food. When you consider nutrition and costs, Popcorn wins hands down over Chips and such.Finally, I decided I was going to give up the Microwavable Bags, big decision, but we were spending too much on that convenience.

So, I started buying 1 lb bags and standing at the stove, shake, shake, shake... for the shortest of times it was a novelty, my kids were amazed. Funny, but they had never seen popcorn popped the old fashion way.

Last month I put on my prepping hat and bought a 50 lb bag of popcorn at Sam's , talk about a huge savings, it was huge. And talk about a lot of popcorn, it was a lot. But, after a while, I grew weary of standing there at the stove, shake, shake, shake and if you left your post...well, we all know what burnt popcorn smells like.

So, I went on a quest! And I have found the answer to our Popcorn Dilemna. Have you heard of a whirly pop? Here's what it looks like, they sell them all over the internet and we actually found one at our local Target store.

http://www.amazon.com/Wabash-Valley-Farms-...8568&sr=8-1

Lentils

Until a few months ago I'd never even tried lentils. I noticed at the store that they were a bit cheaper than other dried beans and trying to incorporate variety into my preps I decided to give them a try. I read all about them and they are a fascinating legume, with quite a history.

They are in the Bible in Genesis, when Esau gives up his birthright for a bowl of them. They were discovered in an Egyptian Pyramid from 2400 BC, they are considered one of the TOP Ten Healthiest Foods! We did a unit study on these little gems and were amazed by what we found. They have almost as much protein as soy beans and you don't have to presoak them! They can be stored for indefinite periods of time and they are very inexpensive. This is a top ranking prep item in my opinion.

The thing that really amazed me about these Lentils is their versatility. They are considered to be bland when unseasoned...but the beauty is, you can decide what flavor they will take. They take on the flavor of what you're seasoning them with. They can be a 'barbeque bean', a 'pate', a 'curried' dish, a 'taco soup', a 'vegetable stew', on and on they go. They are like a blank canvas that is so full of nutrition and you can decide the results with your own taste bud preferences.

Not only that, but they are among the most digestible of legumes and are proven to help with insulin levels in diabetics. :) It is considered a Super Food by nutritionist and health experts.

Here are a few links where you read more about them:

http://www.foodmuseum.com/lentil.html

http://www.pea-lentil.com/kids_page.htm

http://www.lentilfest.com/


BTW - Today I tried a Lentil Loaf (meatloaf without meat), everyone, include hubby said it was good! :)

And then I did a Barley and Lentil soup with mushrooms and Cilantro... Very yummy!

Detergent Recipes

Today I'm making another batch of Laundry Detergent. It's really simple, you control added fragrances and can save a bunch of money. I had fallen back into buying the economy stuff at the Wholesale Club again, bunch lately I'm just feeling all itchy. Plus, I've really tightened our belt when it comes to spending, so, once again, I'm grating soap and making up a batch of Homemade Laundry Detergent.

There are lots of varied recipes, some for liquid (kind of a gel) and some for dry/powder types. Here's a good site that list a whole slew of variations and tips.

http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/

I'm making the liquid/gel recipe #3 and tripling it (xl family=xl laundry)

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Then I'm going to try my hand at some more Dishwasher Detergent. This hasn't worked out so well for me in the past. We seemed to struggle with a powdery film on the dishes...and ended up hand rinsing the dishes which was the pits. So, I've come across this page that tells you what you can try to fix that problem.

http://tipnut.com/homemade-dishwasher-detergent-recipes/

I use recipe #1 and I'm going to try to use vinegar in the rinse cycle like it suggested. So, we shall see.

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This is a very simple way to save a load of money, especially if you keep those washers (clothes and dishes) whirring constantly like me!