Whole Wheat Pancakes and Buttermilk Syrup

I bought some wheat from a church cannery a while back. A friend went and brought me some back. Our cannery is not real close, so we took orders and brought back for people. So, I have been trying to make some things using my wheat. I also took our income tax money and bought a wheat grinder, that I just love! These pancakes are adapted from a Cooking Light recipe. I really liked them. We had them for dinner. My husband is not a big wheat fan, but he even liked these and the kids devoured them. I don't know why Cooking Light called them Whole Wheat pancakes because they are actually 50/50 if you look at the recipe. I really think you could add all wheat flour and make them whole wheat. I like these with Smucker's sugar free syrup, my kids love the buttermilk syrup. Don't let that name scare you, it taste like a caramel syrup. Believe me, you will not want to go back to regular syrup after trying this syrup. You can also use the Homemade Pancake Syrup, that I posted awhile back. I made a double batch of these pancakes and froze the leftovers. They freeze nicely and then you just heat them in your microwave. I also like to serve these with fruit and bacon for dinner.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups fat free buttermilk(can use 1 cup of fat free milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice as a substitute, mix milk and lemon juice and let it set for about 10 min. prior to using)

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 large egg

1 large egg white

cooking spray

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, oil, egg, and egg white. Pour wet ingredients into dry ones. Stir until combined and the dry ingredients are just barely moistened.

Heat a nonstick griddle or nonstick skillet with cooking spray over medium heat. Using a measuring cup, pour 1/2 cup batter on the hot surface. Repeat until you've finished the skillet with pancakes. (You will have 2-3 batches depending on your pan size)

Flip pancakes when their edges look lightly browned and many bubbles appear on the surfaces facing you. Continue to cook until both sides are lightly browned. Serve with butter and syrup.

Makes 12 pancakes (I measured mine (1/4 cup) and making 2 batches came out with 25 pancakes)

Cost of recipe: around $2.00, I fed 6 with this recipe.

Buttermilk Syrup (We eat this rarely, it is special at my house!)

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup fat free buttermilk

1/2 cup butter

2 tablespoons corn syrup

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons vanilla

Place first 5 ingredients in large saucepan and bring to boil. Cook for 7 minutes, stirring to prevent scorching. (Mixture will foam.) Remove from heat and add vanilla.

2010 Food Storage Goals

I look at other food storage blogs most have these great "Yearly Food Storage Goals" post. So, about a month ago, I decided to make some goals for myself. It took some time thinking about it hence the lateness of this post. I think goals are a great way to get something accomplished so I'm hoping this will help me a lot this year!

Lorie's 2010 Food Storage Goals

1. Continue to work on building my 3-month storage

2. Use my food storage more in everyday meals so I can rotate

3. Learn to make things homemade that I would usually buy at the grocery like bagels and English Muffins and other things too.

4. Start a food storage binder with things I have been saving on food storage so everything is in one place

5. Work on gardening again this year, hopefully I will have a better year.

6. Continue to store water by reusuing juice containers

Buttermilk American Sandwich Bread

I recently got a Kitchen Aid mixer and wanted to find a sandwich bread my family would eat. Bread has gotten so high at the grocery that I thought this might help my budget some. My husband refuses wheat bread so he said that was okay if he got his white bread, so I went off and found a recipe that had ingredients I kept on hand most of the time and this was what I decided to try first. I also bought a bread slicing guide which makes it quite easy to cut them into the perfect bread for sandwiches. You can also make your own buttermilk using vinegar or lemon juice, but the butter flavor is not as intense. My family really liked this bread and it held up well for sandwiches.


Buttermilk American Sandwich Bread

3 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup cold buttermilk (can use 1 cup of milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice as a substitute, mix milk and lemon juice and let it set for about 10 min. prior to using)
1/3 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
3 tablespoons honey
1 envelope instant yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)(I used Rapid Rise)
Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 200 degrees. Once the oven temperature reaches 200 degrees, maintain the heat for 10 minutes, then turn off the oven.
Mix 3 1/2 cups of the flour and the salt in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix the milk, water, butter, honey, and yeast in a 4-cup liquid measuring cup. Turn the machine to low and slowly add the liquid. When the dough comes together, increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough is smooth and satiny, stopping the machine two or three times to scrape dough from the hook, if necessary, about 10 min. (After 5 minutes of kneading, if the dough is still sticking to the sides of the bowl, add flour, 1 tablespoon at a time and up to 1/4 cup total, until the dough is no longer sticky.) Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface; knead to form a smooth, round ball, about 15 seconds.
Place dough in very lightly oiled large bowl, rubbing the dough around the bowl to coat lightly. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place it in the warmed oven until the dough doubles in size, 50 to 60 minutes.
Gently press the dough into a rectangle 1 inch thick and no longer than 9 inches. With a long side facing you, roll the dough firmly into a cylinder, pressing with your fingers to make sure the dough sticks to itself. Turn the dough seam-side up and pinch it closed. Place the dough seam-side down in a greased 9 by 5-inch loaf pan and press it gently so it touches all four sides of the pan. Cover with damp cloth; set aside in warm spot until the dough almost doubles in size 20-30 min.
Keep one oven rack at the lowest position and place the other at the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place an empty baking pan on the bottom rack. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Pour boiling water into the empty pan on the bottom rack and set the loaf onto the middle rack. Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted at an angle from the short end just above the pan rim into the center of the loaf reads 195 degrees, 40 to 50 minutes. Remove bread from the pan, transfer to wire rack, and cool to room temperature. Slice and serve.

From Recipes For Laughter

Get your Baking Supplies Stock Up at Walmart

For the last month, I have been stocking up on Walmart brand flour that has been $1.54 a bag, which I thought was really good until I found the Gold Medal brand at Walmart for $1.50 a bag. I have a ton of flour now and continue to stock up on it, while it is that price. I have not seen it that low for awhile for the 5 lb bag. Also some people have reported to me that 5lb bags of sugar are on sale at Walmart for $1.89 a bag which is the cheapest I've seen it for awhile, but that's not at all Walmart's. My Walmart is $2.24. Also, I found mini marshmallows the Kraft brand for $0.75 cents a bag and the small bag of chocolate chips for $1.80 something. They are usually almost $3.00. There were also $0.40 cents a pound turkeys, Stove Top stuffing for $0 89 cents a box and many more sales on Thanksgiving type food. Tis the season for stocking up on baking supplies at Walmart!

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.

Back to School Food Storage Basics-Powdered Milk

Today Crystal is talking about powdered milk on her Everyday Food Storage website during her Back to School series. You can see her full powdered milk 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 bought some powdered milk from an order we took up at church and it was the instant powdered milk. I think that is all I have ever used. My family never noticed when I made some and put it into my empty milk carton. But I never really knew about non-instant powdered milk, so this was a good lesson for me.

Here's what I learned today:
1. There are lots of things you can do with powdered milk besides drinking it. Like making your own sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, cream soups and just cooking with it. The benefits of doing that are that you will save money if you use the non instant kind.

2. As of August 2009, if you buy non instant powdered milk you would only spend about $1.00 for a gallon of milk made with it. If you made sweetened condensed milk you would spend about 60 cents a can where as at the grocery you would find it for $2-$3 a can. If you made evaporated milk it would cost you 25 cents a can whereas it is usually about $1.00 at the grocery. Those are some big savings!

3. There are two types of powdered milk: instant and non instant.
Instant is puffed with air and it would take 2 #10 cans to = 1 #10 can of instant. So, it is more expensive and takes more room to store. Instant also mixes better for drinks. I have found that I like instant better for drinking.
Non instant does well in baking and is cheaper and takes less room to store.

4. There are milk alternatives which are like a flavored milk drink. They add shortening, corn syrup and other stuff to it so it really is not as healthy of a drink as milk. You can use it in baking but most say you need to use less shortening because it is already in the milk alternative.

Some things I found on Crystal's site that I find helpful about powdered milk is:
1. Powdered milk conversion sheet- this will help you know how to mix the milk.
2. Powdered milk handout- this gives lots of information and recipes on using powdered milk
3. Making Powdered Milk Drinkable - This gives you some great tips on getting your family to drink powdered milk.
4. A video on mixing powdered milk- this video gives tips like using sugar or vanilla to help family members like the taste better and to make sure and serve powdered milk cold.

Some recipes I want to try using powdered milk are:
1. Sweetened Condensed Milk
2. Evaporated Milk
3. Magic Mix
4. In other recipes I already make that call for milk

What I take away from this lesson:
I need to buy some non instant powdered milk and use it in my baking to save money. I probably will still use the instant for drinking because my family seems to really like it, but I might have to try it on them too and see how they react.

Questions I still have after this lesson:
1. If you do not live near an lds cannery are your only other sources to buy it from emergency like companies and how much more expensive are they? I need to go check that out. I wonder why stores do not carry non instant milk.

Back to School Food Storage Basics

Crystal from Everyday Food Storage is hosting a Back to School week for Food Storage. She will be going over uses and info for basic long term food storage items. I started really working on my food storage last year and I have mostly been getting canned goods etc. This year my church took up an order for powdered milk and powdered eggs. We ordered from Emergency Essentials and I just love the powdered milk. So, anyways I really need to learn more about food storage so I am planning to go to the site each day to learn more. I plan to write up what I learn, more questions that I still have etc. Kind of like my school notes. lol. Come along with me and learn something new about food storage.

Using Beans in Desserts

Beans are a great thing to have in your food storage. They can be substituted for oil in your favorite cake and brownie mixes. You just have to match the color of the bean with the cake mix.
Black Bean Brownies

1 Box Betty Crocker Low Fat Fudge Brownie Mix

1 (15 oz) can Black Beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup Water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Puree the beans and water together until smooth in a blender or food processor. Stir into the brownie mix until combined. Spray a 9 X 13 pan with non-stick cooking spray. Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for 25-27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 2 inches from the side of the pan comes out clean. Cool completely and cut in to 24 pieces. Serve with whipped topping.

Food Storage Brownies

3/4 cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2/3 cup bean paste

1/2 cup boiling water

2 cups sugar

2 eggs (2 TBSP dry eggs + 1/4 cup water)

1 1/3 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Pregheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine cocoa and baking soda in mixing bowl. Blend in 1/3 cup bean puree. Add boiling water and stir until thickened. Stir in sugar, eggs, and remaining 1/3 cup bean puree until smooth. Stir in flour, salt, and vanilla. Mix until well blended. Fold in chopped nuts and chocolate chips. Pour into greased 9 X 13 pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Cool in pan on rack.

REALLY GOOD PINTO BEAN PIE
1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs, beaten (or use dry eggs)

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
1 heaping cup mashed, cooked pinto beans
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
Whipped cream, whipped topping, or scoop of ice cream
Beat until creamy the granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and
butter. Add pinto beans, blend well. Pour into unbaked pie shell and
bake at 375o for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350o and bake an
additional 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out
clean. Serve with whipped cream, whipped topping, or scoop of ice
cream.

PINTO BEAN FUDGE
1 cup cooked soft pinto beans (drained and mashed)
1/4 cup milk

1 tbsp. vanilla
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate

6 tbsp. butter or margarine
2 lbs. powdered sugar

Nuts (optional)
In large bowl stir beans and milk together, adding enough milk to
resemble mashed potatoes; stir in vanilla. Melt chocolate and butter
or margarine and stir into bean mixture. Gradually stir in powdered
sugar. Knead with hands until well blended. Spread into lightly
greased 9-inch baking dish or form into two 1-1/2 inch rolls. Chill 1-2
hours.

Got Bananas? Make Banana Bread!

Recently I was at the grocery store and they had a ton of bananas reduced and I decided I wanted to make some banana bread. I only paid $1.00 for all of those over ripe bananas. I had a Weight Watchers recipe I wanted to try and decided to also try a whole wheat banana bread while I was at it. I love banana bread and this one is low fat and made with whole wheat flour. That is good because it will keep you fuller longer. I got this recipe from Everyday Food Storage, I love that site! This was pretty good. Super easy recipe. I also made some mini loafs. So cute and I plan to freeze those to use for visiting teaching gifts.

Low-Fat Whole Wheat Banana Bread
4 T margarine (or butter), softened

¼ C applesauce

2 eggs (2 T. Dehydrated Eggs +1/4 C. Water)

2 T skim milk or water

¾ C packed light brown sugar

1 C mashed banana (2-3 medium bananas)

1 ¾ C Whole Wheat Flour

2 t baking powder

½ t baking soda

¼ t salt (optional)

¼ C coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans(optional)
Beat margarine, applesauce, eggs, milk, and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until smooth. Add banana and blend at low speed; beat at high speed 1 to 2 minutes. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; mix into batter. Mix in nuts. Pour batter into greased loaf pan, . Bake at 350º F until bread is golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (55 to 60 minutes). Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes; remove from pan and cool to room temperature.

Powdered Milk...Will They Notice?

Yesterday, my kids ran out of the 2% milk they use and since I will not be able to buy anymore for the next couple of days, I decided to mix up some powdered and pour it back in the milk carton. I had an Enrichment Activity group meeting so I left them as they were eating dinner. When I came home, I ask dh if he gave them milk and he said yes. So, they will drink powdered milk without knowing that's what it is. Now since powdered milk is nonfat, I won't be doing that all of the time, but it is cheaper and can get me through some tight spots.

Dry Powdered Milk and Mexican Chocolate Drink

We recently had an Enrichment Meeting in our branch on Cooking With Food Storage and we used dry milk in several recipes. I have been using some powdered milk in some recipes that I bought at Save-a-Lot. It really was not seeming to dissolve and actually looked like little balls. I bought some recently from Emergency Essentials when my church did a group order, but had not opened any because I was trying to get rid of the other box first. At the meeting they made a Mexican Chocolate drink. It was bought at Big Lots on clearance for $1.00. (I bought a bunch.) I was really shocked to see how well the powdered milk from Emergency Essentials dissolved so well and tasted so good in the Mexican Drink. The Mexican Chocolate Drink tasted like hot chocolate with a hint of cinnamon. I made it yesterday because I have a chest cold and my kids and dh loved it. My dh and oldest kid were shocked when I told them it was made with powdered milk. So, now I know 2 things.
1. My family will drink powdered milk.
and
2. I must buy a better brand of powder milk than I was buying.

With the savings you get from using powdered milk, I know I will be using it more in my baking and sometimes as our regular milk.

Mexican Chocolate Drink
2/3 cup powdered milk
1 quart water
1 capsule of Nestle Abuelita (Mexican Chocolate Drink Mix)
sugar to taste
Add powdered milk to water and stir until dissolved. Microwave until hot. Add 1 capsule of chocolate to blender and sugar (I used 1/4 cup) and then add milk. Pulse until chocolate is broken up and blend until chocolate blended well.

Note: A friend of mine said she got the Chocolate mix at United Grocery Outlet for 50 cents each.

Weekly Food Storage Stock Up

He are some items I have added to my food storage in the past few weeks.
1- A case of tomato soup
2- A box of Bisquick (had a coupon and it was on sale)
3- A #10 can of Whole Egg Powder (My church did a group order)
4- 2 boxes of Carnation Dry Milk (found at a store that was discontinuing them)

Edible Play Dough From Food Storage

I have been watching a lot of reruns of Jon and Kate plus 8 and I saw the Valentine's Day one where she made edible play dough and I knew I wanted to try that out with my kids. We have played with lots of other homemade play dough and the kids love it. So, I knew they would love this and we would also have a snack! I did not tell my kids that it was edible, but they figured out. Actually my 2 year old figured it out first. This lasted about an hour and half of playing with and eating. Make sure you get your kids to wash their hands before playing with the edible play dough. My kids also loved helping make it! This recipe uses 3 ingredients, all things found in my food storage.

Here's the recipe:

Jon and Kate plus 8 Edible Play Dough

Mix equal parts of powdered milk, honey, and peanut butter.

Add flour to reach play dough consistency.

Play and enjoy!

Easy Pizza Sauce

Easy Pizza Sauce
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
4 teaspoons dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
2 cups water
Combine tomato paste, garlic, parsley flakes, onion, oregano, basil and water in 2 quart saucepan. Cook over medium high heat until mixture boils. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes. Cool a little and spread on your pizza crust and proceed with remainder of your toppings.
Makes 4 servings
Calories 80 Fat 0.5 Fiber 4.5
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This was really good on the pizza. I don't know about the serving size, but I can get at least 2 pizzas out of this one batch of sauce and maybe a third one.
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Note: This pizza sauce freezes really well too.

Basic Pizza Dough

This is a new pizza dough recipe that I thought I would try. I found this recipe on Mom Advice.

Basic Pizza Dough (from"How to Cook Everything,")

1 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more as needed

2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea slat, plus extra for sprinkling

1 to 1 1/4 cups water

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon olive oil

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To make this dough in food processor: Combine the yeast, flour, and 2 teaspoons salt in the container of a food processor. Turn the machine on and add 1 cup water and the 2 tablespoons of oil through the feed tube. Process for 30 seconds, adding more water, a little at a time, until the mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticky to the touch. If it is dry, add another tablespoon or two of water and process for another 10 seconds. Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and knead by hand a few seconds to form a smooth, round dough ball. Grease a bowl with the remaining olive oil, and place the dough in it. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp cloth and let it rise in a warm draft-free area until the dough doubles in size, 1 to 2 hours. You can cut this rising time short if you are in a hurry or you can let the dough rise more slowly in the refrigerator for six to eight hours.

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To make this dough by hand: Combine half the flour with the salt and yeast and stir to blend. Add 1 cup water and the 2 tablespoons olive oil; stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add remaining flour a bit at a time; when the mixture becomes too stiff to stir with a spoon, begin kneading, adding as little flour as possible- just enough to keep the dough from being a sticky mess. Knead until smooth but still quite moist, about ten minutes. Proceed as above.

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To make this dough with a standing mixer: The machine must be fairly powerful or it will stall. Combine half the flour with the salt, yeast, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and 1 cup water; blend with the machines paddle. With the machine on slow speed, add flour a little at a time until the mix has become a sticky ball that pulls away from the sides of the bowl (switch to the dough hook if necessary). Knead for a minute by hand, adding as little flour as possible, then proceed as above.

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To make this dough with the bread machine: Add ingredients as follows- warm water, olive oil, flour, salt, and then add yeast at the top. Turn machine on and select the dough setting. When the machine beeps, you can roll out the dough onto your pizza stone/pan.

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I made this dough in my bread machine. I watched it and it seemed really wet so I added some more flour to it. It was still a little sticky when I took it out of the machine so I added some more flour. This was really good and once I took care of the stickiness, it was easy. I added a sauce, cheese and other toppings and cooked for 15 minutes at 450 degrees. Some people like to pre-bake there crust before putting on toppings and you can do that too.

Getting Prepared for a Power Outage

I enjoy reading a lot of preparedness blogs. Preparedness Pro had and article last week called, "Thirty Minutes, Do you feel lucky today?" Basically, her article stated that stores only have enough stuff on hand for 30 minutes and then it would be all gone and would you have what you needed if that was the only amount of time you had in an emergency. That article got me thinking this weekend after we had several bad storms cutting our power off for most of the weekend starting on Friday morning. Late Friday afternoon, I noticed that we did not have much oil in our oil lamp and remembered that we only had 1 oil lamp now since my kids had broken one beyond repair. I decided to go to the Dollar General Store in the small town that I live. I felt good that I was going to be prepared with the stuff I needed for the evening to survive the dark. When we got to the store though, it was closed. Pretty much everything in our little town closed down due to no power. So, I wonder do we really have even 30 minutes? The storms and the lack of my preparedness made me know I had to get the stuff to be ready if we would have another outage like that. We went to Walmart in the next county and bought a new oil lamp and 2 bottles of oil and a flashlight. We have had trouble keeping a flashlight in our house because the kids like to play with them. The new flashlight has a home and I think it will be less likely to disappear. I know we need some more oil and maybe some more flashlights and batteries. For now though, it will have to go on a list until we get some more money. So, hopefully my little story will make you think about things you need to put on your list to be better prepared if you could not get to the store at all in an emergency.

April Food Storage Buys

This is my food storage for April. I know it's not a lot, but a lot of our money was spent on dry milk. We bought in bulk with our church and got a really good deal. I also found sugar on sale for 5 lb bags for $1.99 which is the lowest price I have found. My dh picked up the water when he heard about the flu scare. He said he would feel better with some water. lol. We need to work on water storage since our city water just barely passes the test.

Using Old Blinds as Plant Markers

If you have kids and blinds, you might know that blinds don't always stay as nice as you want them too. My kids like to look out our windows and pull back the blinds and they crease and fall off. We have a huge front window and after 10 years the blind had seen its better days, so we bought a new one. My husband put it up yesterday while I was napping our youngest one and he said to me that he did not know how he was going to get rid of the old one. I remembered seeing something on the web about using old blinds as plant markers. When I started my seeds, I wrote down a chart in my gardening journal so I'd know what each plant was and I actually looked at Walmart for some but they were like $3 a bag and I decided I could find a cheaper route. Wow! Did this new blind come at the right time! Here are the instructions for making your plant markers.