The End

Let's just be honest, this blog isn't going anywhere. The only thing I like less than cooking is blogging about cooking. Due to a change in my employment, I'm going to be eating my food storage regularly for the foreseeable future. (It will be supplemented by fresh food from Trader Joe's, courtesy of a gift card I got for my birthday.) But in the midst of all of this, I'm not going to find time to write about it.

I'll leave the blog here as a record of the recipes I did try, but I don't see myself continuing with this project. Thanks for reading!

Week 6 - Fettucine Alfredo

I'm now all caught up on blogging!

I love fettuccine alfredo, but it's so unhealthy. So when I found a recipe for a low fat alfredo sauce, I was really excited.

Here's the recipe:
1 cup vegetable broth
2 cups fat free milk
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp. flour (I added a little more to thicken it faster)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese (I added a little more)

Heat the broth, milk, and spices. Add the flour and cook on medium until thick. Remove from heat and add cheese. Serve over noodles.

It was awesome. Really easy to make, and it tasted as good as the real thing. The broth gave it kind of an odd color, so next time I might try using all milk instead. This recipe makes enough to cover a 1 lb box of pasta. I served it with garlic bread and homemade soda.

Week 5 - Fried Rice

I'm still behind on my blogging, but Week 5's entry is fried rice. It's an oldie but a goodie.

Week 4 - Lemon-lime Soda

After my successful root beer endeavor, I decided to try my hand at a sprite substitute. I used this recipe. It was pretty good, but I think next time I'll cut back on the lemon juice. It was a bit strong.

Now if only I could find a decent Dr. Pepper substitute. (or a source of caffeine free Dr. Pepper in 2 liter bottles. I've seen it in the cans, but soda cans are BPA-lined.)

Week 3 - Root Beer

This post is a little late, but here it is. I really made it in week 3; I just didn't blog it until now.

I made homemade root beer, and it's super easy.

1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. root beer concentrate
1 liter carbonated water

Boil water. Stir in sugar until dissolved. Add concentrate; stir until well mixed.

Refrigerate until ready to serve. (It takes several hours to cool.) Gently mix the syrup with the water.

I have a soda stream machine, which is basically a water carbonater. (They sell soda syrups to go with the soda makers, but I don't like the flavor and I'm not really interested in all the artificial chemicals.) So I just took some regular water (purified by reverse osmosis to be fluoride-free, but you could use tap water instead) and carbonated it. If you don't have a soda machine, then seltzer water or club soda from the store works, too. Then I added the syrup. It tasted just like Trader Joe's fancy root beer in the glass bottles.

Week 2 - Lentil and Grain Soup

One of my neighbors gave me a jar of homemade soup mix for Christmas. The jar had lentils, split peas, rice, and (I think) barley, plus some spices. Then it was just add water, carrots, celery, garlic, and chicken. Since I'm a vegetarian, I left out the chicken.

I made this for lunch today. I didn't have any celery, so I used celery salt instead. I tossed in a handful of dried carrots, sprinkled in some garlic powder, and left it to cook. In a little over an hour, I had a hearty, filling soup. It tastes like it's missing something, but I'm not sure what. It's really good, though. I'll have to ask for the recipe. Next time, I think I'll cook it in vegetable broth instead of water; that might give it a richer flavor.

It made a huge pot. Even after eating a generous bowl, I still had enough to fill two quart-sized mason jars and a little extra. I stuck one jar in the freezer and the other one in the fridge. I'll be eating the refrigerated one for lunch tomorrow. (And probably the next several days. Three cheers for a cooking vacation!)

Week 1 - Applesauce

I'm a day late blogging this, but I did make it during the first week of the year, so it still counts.

My sister bought some apples a few months ago and stuck them in the fridge, intending to use them to make apple crisp. (It's kind of like apple cobbler, but without the nasty soggy bread texture. I hate cobbler. But that's neither here nor there.) Then she forgot about them. Then she got into a car accident and has been staying with our parents for the past three weeks. (She's fine, but she has no car, so it's more convenient for her to stay there.)

So, since the apples were getting to the end of their useful life, I decided to use them yesterday. I cut them up, threw them in the crock pot with some orange juice, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Two hours later, I had applesauce. Delicious.

New Year, New Beginning

Last year's resolution to cook primarily from food storage and blog about it failed miserably. So, I'm paring down the project for this year. I'm going to cook at least one food storage meal per week and blog about it. That way, at the end of the year, I'll have 52 tried and true recipes. (Assuming no repeats, but I'm guessing there will be repeats.)

Happy 2012, everyone!

Blessings from the Pasta Fairy

Whenever my sister finds a random box of whatever (pasta-roni, ramen, au gratin potatoes, rice, mac and cheese, etc.) in the back of the cupboard that she has forgotten about, she declares it a blessing from the pasta fairy. A lot of what food storage is all about is planning so that the pasta fairy's blessings are scheduled and controlled instead of serendipitous.

The pasta fairy has blessed me richly this week. I've been too tired to do any real cooking, so I've raided the boxes in the back of the cupboard. I've had red beans and rice, top ramen, soup, and fruit. All without having to go to the store or make something from scratch.

Making stuff from scratch is great, but it's not always feasible, especially given the time constraints of modern society. So, here's to the pasta fairy!

Day 225 - Hash Browns

I'm back! I survived the bar exam and I'm out of excuses for neglecting this blog. I re-did my budget yesterday, and I realized that I really need to get back into using my pantry bounty instead of rushing off to takeout or the deli counter at the grocery store all the time. So, it's back to cooking.

My mom had 6 huge bags of freeze dried shredded potatoes. She decided to share the wealth, so I ended up with one of the bags. The potatoes have been sitting in my cupboard for a while, and yesterday, I decided to see if I could turn them into hash browns. It worked!

First, I reconstituted the potatoes by boiling them for 15 minutes. (If you use fresh or frozen potatoes, you can skip this step.) Then I put them in a strainer and pressed out the water. This is important in order to make the potatoes crispy. Then I heated up some oil in a frying pan. I thought I might have added too much, so I poured some out. I put the potatoes in, added some salt and pepper, and started to fry them up. It turns out that I shouldn't have poured the oil out because I had to add some more. I fried the potatoes until they were crispy, and then I flipped them over and repeated the process. Delicious! I served them with some cheesy scrambled eggs and had a tasty diner-style breakfast for dinner.