Back to School Food Storage Basics-Whole Wheat

Today Crystal is talking about whole wheat on her Everyday Food Storage website during her Back to School Week series. You can see her full whole wheat article here. Everyday I plan to list things I learned from that series on my blog to help me better understand it. I am pretty new to the food storage area so I hope these really help me! I have never really owned any whole wheat. I did go to an enrichment activity where the person showed us how to use a wheat grinder and she gave us so of the flour she had ground and I used that in a couple of recipes. Our church is planning to take an order for the LDS cannery and several people are going to go down and bring back the stuff for us and whole wheat is definitely something I want to buy. As I was looking over the order form, I was thinking to myself what's the difference between hard red and hard white wheat. I think I got my answers today.

Here's what I learned today:
1. Wheat gives you fiber, cuts down on cavities, keeps you fuller, saves you money, and keeps you regular.
2. There are two types of wheat hard red and hard white. Hard red has a nutty strong some people say bitter taste and it is harder to get your family to eat. Hard white has some things added to it that make it have a softer flavor but can still be stored for a long time.
3. You have to use hard wheat not soft because it will store for a long time.
4. Red Wheat has more protein.
5. Look for recipes that have equal brown sugar and white sugar, recipes with chocolate. recipes with strong spices like cinnamon, recipes with applesauce or other fruits and vegetable, and recipes with oats to help disguise the whole wheat.
6. Cook with whole wheat gradually and get your family used to it. You may need to use 1/2 whole wheat and half white for some recipes.

Some things I found on Crystal's website that I find helpful with whole wheat:
1. Wheat handout- this handout give information and recipes about wheat
2. Cracked Wheat video- this shows you how to crack wheat in your blender
3. How to make homemade video- shows step-by-step how to make homemade bread
4. Tips for making bread in your bread machine- gives great ideas for getting great bread from your bread machine.
5. Dough enhancer video- shows you how and why to use dough enhancers in bread making.

Some recipes I want to try using whole wheat:
1. Brown Sugar Zucchini Bread
2. Blender Wheat Pancakes
3. Wheat Thins
4. Graham Crackers
5. Whole Wheat Carrot Cake Muffins- found on another blog and copied but forgot where it was.
6. Whole Wheat Banana Bread- I made this last week the one on Crystal site, so yummy and it really is better the next day!

What I take away from this lesson:
I want to buy some hard white whole wheat and start trying it in my cooking. I also want to experiment with the dough enhancers.

Questions I still have after this lesson:
Will my family notice the difference? I made the Whole Wheat Banana Bread and my kids loved it so I think they might try some and I can't wait to do it.

Back to School Food Storage Basics-Powdered Eggs

Today Crystal is talking about powdered eggs on her Everyday Food Storage website during her Back to School Week series. You can see her full powdered egg article here. Everyday I plan to list things I learned from that series on my blog to help me better understand it. I am pretty new to the food storage area so I hope these really help me! Recently our church took a group order for whole powdered eggs. We also had an Enrichment meeting that focused on using our food storage. They made an egg casserole that I would like to try. I have not even opened my #10 can of whole powdered eggs so I was ready to learn a few things.

Here's what I learned today:

1. Powdered eggs last 5-7 years. You should keep it in a cool dry place with the lid on after opening.

2. Powdered eggs will save you money. Most #10 cans have about 226 eggs and the average price is $17.00 which makes 1 dozen 94 cents. We did a group order and with shipping and all we paid $16.00 a can so my eggs are an even better value!

3. 1 Tbsp.= medium egg and 2 Tbsp. = extra large egg

4. Benifets of using powdered eggs are no egg shells, they are pasteurized so no worry if you want to lick the batter, save you time because you do not have to wash your hands after cracking an egg, and you can half an egg if you need to half a recipe and have an odd number of eggs.

Some things I found on Crystal's site that I find helpful about powdered eggs:

1. Breakfast handout- great information and recipes that use eggs.

Some recipes I want to try uing powdered eggs:

1. Blender Wheat Pancakes

2. Whole Wheat Quick Bread

3. Low-fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

What I take away from this lesson:

I need to order some more powdered eggs to use with my regular recipes because it really saves money! I also learned how long they last. When our church ordered them someone asked that question and nobody knew the answer.

Questions I still have after this lesson:

After reading my new Emergency Essentials catalog, I noticed that there are seveal different powdered egg products like egg whites, scrambled eggs, etc that I need to look into more.