The Essential Food Storage Cookbook

I recently obtained a copy of The Essential Food Storage Cookbook by Tami Girsberger and Carol Peterson. Unlike Pantry Cooking, many of the recipes do call for fresh ingredients; the authors consider it a good source for helping you to rotate your food storage, not necessarily to live solely on it. Still, there are a decent amount of recipes that only use ingredients with a long shelf life and others that could easily be converted by using things like powdered eggs or milk. I have tried several of the recipes and I love it! I would want it in my collection just for its regular, everyday meal ideas. It also has a lot of great food storage tips and information. The recipes are good and easy, the kind where you already have most of the ingredients you need on hand. I am easily intimidated by recipes where I don't even know what all of the ingredients are. Here are a couple of recipes that my family really likes that can be made entirely from stored items:


Crazy Whole Wheat Muffins

[Whole wheat muffins didn't really sound good to me at all, but I tried these and was amazed. They're so soft, sweet, and moist you would think you were eating a cupcake.]

Ingredients:

-1/2 c. oil
-1 c. brown sugar
-1 c. applesauce
-1 tsp. baking soda
-1-1/2 c. whole what flour
-1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix ingredients together and pour into greased muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes (8 minutes for mini muffins).


Herb Bread

-1/2 c. milk [fine with powdered milk]
-2 tbsp. sugar
-1 tsp. salt
-1 tbsp. butter
-1 tbsp. dried minced onion
-2-1/2 tsp. yeast
-1/2 c. warm water
-2-1/4 c. whole wheat flour (or 1/2 wheat and 1/2 white flour)
-1/2 tsp. thyme
-1/2 tsp. dill [I left it out; not a dill fan]
-1 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed

In a small saucepan, heat milk over medium heat until simmering. Add sugar, salt, and butter and stir until dissolved. Add dried minced onion; remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in the warm water (about 5 minutes). Add cooled milk mixture, flour, and herbs. Stir well (dough will be very wet) until smooth.

Cover and let rise until triple in bulk (about 45 minutes). Stir down and beat for a few minutes. Turn into a greased 9x5-inch bread pan and let rest for 10 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 1 hour. Serve warm.