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.

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.

Mom Advice Experiment- Who Bread:White vs Wheat

Bread 1: Bread Flour

Bread 2: All-purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour

So, I decided to give the Mom Advise Notebook Experiments a try. Amy has a notebook where she list all kinds of great ideas she finds online. Many of them are projects that I really want to do. I've looked through her past notebooks and have booked marked lots of things to try. So, I'll be back for the weekly experiments. I really like how Amy makes them look like an experiment when she post them, so hopefully she won't mind if I do mine the same. I got a bread machine with our income tax refund this year and I love it. Although I still have a lot to learn! This is the first recipe we tried and really love, Low-Fat Bread Machine Italian Bread . I was really excited to try a different one.

Experiment: Can I make Who (pronounced hooo, like an owl) bread and will my kids and husband will still like it if I substitute 1 cup of whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the bread flour?

Experiment taken from: Notebook Entry 02.14.07

Materials needed: Here's the recipe that I used from SouleMama.

WHO Bread
(makes 1.5 lb loaf, set to 'basic' with medium crust)
1 1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons butter @ room temperature
1 tsp salt
3 cups of flour (we do 2 cups unbleached white, 1 cup whole wheat pastry)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or, one package)
Add ingredients to pan in order listed according to bread machine instructions. Makes 1.5 lb loaf, set to medium crust and basic.



Results:
Part 1: The first loaf we made was with just the bread flour. This bread rose quite a bit in my machine and looked more like a 2 lb loaf. I was worried that my lid would come off of the top of my machine, but it did not. I thought maybe I did something wrong, but I followed the instructions exactly! So, I thought? After rereading the recipe, it called for plain flour and not the bread flour, which is probably what made it rise more. My kids ate the bread fine and said they liked it okay. I liked it.

Part 2: The second loaf I made was the one that I substituted 1 cup of whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the white flour. Now why would I want to do this? Well, first it is healthier for my kids and second since being on Weight Watchers, I noticed that using the whole wheat flour lowered my points sometimes and after running the recipe through the recipe builder (you have to be an e-tools subscriber to get this service) on the Weight Watchers Website, I found that it did indeed lower it by one point. If it tasted just as good, that was the one I wanted to use. The bread rose more like it was suppose too since I used the all-purpose flour. (I did not have any unbleached white.) The top fell, but the results were that my bread's crust was crispier and the bread really did taste better to me than the first one I tried. But how did my kids like it? Well, my oldest one said it's okay. I asked him what he did not like about it and he said it taste like wheat. The others are 4 years old and 2 years old and basically they will eat warm bread with butter on it.


Conclusion: Well, I guess my kids will eat the bread with the wheat in it, although they seem to like the white flour bread better. My dh and my 9 year old refuse to eat wheat bread. I don't have any other answers as to how to get them to eat healthier and to eat wheat. Personally, I liked the second one and if I make this bread again, that will be the one I choose. This however is not my first pick for my favorite bread.
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For more experiments go here.

Whole Wheat Cookies

Whole Wheat Cookies
Lots of times people are scared to stored long term food storage items, like wheat, because they are not used to cooking with it. I really think if you are going to store it, you need to know how to use it and every now and then, make some of the recipes so your family can get used to them. I started with cookies because I knew my kids would be more likely to eat them. I also like to make my own cookies. Not only are they cheaper to make, they are also so much better! Guess what? My family loved them! So, here are a couple recipes you can make and try out on your family with some of your food storage items. They only thing I had to buy was the butter.
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The Whole Wheat Tollhouse Cookie
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup old fashioned rolled oatmeal
1 cup chocolate chips
½ cup nuts, chopped (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or cover with parchment paper (I used nonstick cooking spray.) In a large bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Cream the butter with the brown sugar until light in color, about 4 minutes. Beat in the egg until incorporated. Stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and blend well. Stir in the oats, chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, or until brown. Cool on a wire rack.
From Bob’s Red Mill Baking Book, a recipe from 1937.
Note: I used margarine instead of butter and omitted the nuts just to make these cookies more affordable.
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Easy Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup peanut butter
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup honey
½ cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1¼ cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking flour
½ cup old fashioned oatmeal
In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, butter, honey, brown sugar, and egg until smooth. Combine the whole wheat flour and baking powder; stir into the batter until blended. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour. Roll into small balls, and place on a greased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly using a fork. Bake for 13-15 minutes in a preheated 350 degree F oven, or until cookies are slightly toasted at the edges.
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Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles
1 cup shortening, butter, or margarine
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 ¾ cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp cream of tarter
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Combine together 1 ½ cups sugar and shortening. Add eggs and beat well. Combine flour, cream of tarter, salt, and soda. Add to sugar mixture and mix well. Roll into approximately 1 inch balls. Combine 2 Tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. Roll dough balls in cinnamon /sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Slightly flatten. Bake 400 degrees F for 8-10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on rack. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
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Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Bars
½ cup butter or margarine
1 cup oil
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups quick oats
1 cup nuts (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips
Cream together margarine, oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add nuts and chocolate chips. Place in a 9x13 inch cake pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Making Pancake Syrup From Food Storage

The other day I ran out of pancake syrup. I had all of the ingredients on hand to whip this up. Everyone of these items can be found in my food storage. I just refilled the old pancake syrup container. Easy!

Homemade Maple Syrup
4 cups white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 cups water
2 teaspoons maple flavoring (or vanilla)
Mix the water and sugars in a pot and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the flavoring. Cool and pour into container. You do not need to refrigerate the syrup.

Recipes Using Powdered Milk

It is really hard for me to buy powdered milk because I just don't think I will ever use it. Now with these recipes, I can feel a little easier about buying it and storing it.

Evaporated Milk
To make evaporated milk, mix 1 C water with 2/3 C powdered milk.

Sweetened Condensed Milk
To make sweetened condensed milk, mix
½ C very hot water
1 C powdered milk
1 C sugar
1 T butter
Bring to a boil and stir to dissolve sugar & powdered milk.

Truffles
For a decadent treat, make sweetened condensed milk (above) and stir in a 12 oz. bag of chocolate chips. Chill, then shape into balls (a melon baller works nicely).

Chocolate Milk (1/2 gallon):
Mix together
8 C water
2½ C powdered milk
1/8 C cocoa
1/4 to ½ C sugar
pinch of salt (optional)
a few drops of vanilla (optional)
I like to mix this in a half-gallon jug, which is small enough for kids to handle. If you want, you can mix together just the dry ingredients and use as hot chocolate mix (about 1/3 C mix to 1 C water).

Purple Cow
Mix reconstituted powdered milk and grape juice half and half. A good way to give kids grape juice, since when it's mixed with the milk, it doesn't stain like regular grape juice does.

Peanut Butter Balls (from the TightWad Gazette)
Mix together
½ C honey
½ C peanut butter
1 C powdered milk
Form into balls (a melon baller works well).

Home-made Yogurt
One of the very best ways to use powdered milk is to make yogurt. This is fast, easy, and inexpensive. (It takes 5-10 minutes to start a batch of yogurt. A pint of plain yogurt runs about $1.39; a pint of homemade yogurt costs about 30 cents). There are lots of ways to make yogurt. Here is one basic method (makes one quart). You'll need some plain yogurt with active cultures for the "starter;" a thermometer; and a way to incubate the yogurt.
Mix together 4 C water and 2 C powdered milk.
Heat in the microwave about 2 minutes. Take out and let sit until the temperature reaches about 120 degrees. Mix in 1 heaping T of plain yogurt (mix thoroughly). Pour into a container and cover. Now let the yogurt incubate until it sets up. You can use a commercial yogurt maker; a heating pad set to low, with a large pot inverted over top your yogurt; or even the pilot light on an oven. The important thing is to keep the yogurt at a constant temperature of 100-120 degrees for from 4-8 hrs.
When you use the yogurt, reserve a little to start the next batch.
Note: You can freeze yogurt starter. Just spoon into ice-cube trays, then store the yogurt ice-cubes in the freezer. Thaw 1 cube (don't microwave) for a batch of yogurt, and use as usual.