Not knowing where this current challenge will take us. I thought it might be prudent to post up some simple recipes for Lockdowns or other stressful applications In high stress situations, comfort food is just that. But it could become much more. The human body is like a vehicle. It needs fuel to run. MREs and Freeze dried meals are all the rage. But if you’ve ever eaten them for an extended period of time. You know they aren’t friendly on your body. Unless you like excreting tree branches. So, I thought this would be a good time to start a thread on easy recipes. So feel free to tag along or add yours. The worst part of any situation is the not knowing. Hopefully this thread will help folks to plan a bit for that unknown. One extremely healthy and painless option is Oatmeal If you can boil water, you can make oatmeal! Add some dried or fresh fruit if it’s available and it gets even better Covid-19 Chicken & Biscuits; If you have fresh or roasted chicken great. But this entire meal can be constructed from your pantry. This is easily made from canned chicken, canned chicken broth, and/or chicken bouillon. Lard works great for the biscuits. None of these contents needs refrigeration. Prep time is minimal. Satisfaction factor is high. I’ll add recipes and photos as I sort them out, LV,
Biscuit Recipe and build; Biscuit Recipe, Hudson Bay Biscuits 2 cups Flour 2 T. powdered milk 1 t. salt 1 T. sugar 1 T. plus 1 t. baking powder ½ cup shortening ¾ cup milk Mix dry ingredients together. Cut in shortening until pea sized. Stir in milk until all dry ingredients form a ball and pull away from sides of the bowl. Do not over blend. Like this,
Part Two, Put on a floured surface. Knead 8-10 times. Do not over knead. Flatten into circle approximately 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick. Using a cookie cutter cut 7-8 biscuits. Put scraps together to form last biscuit. Again, do not over handle the dough. Bake in pre-warmed, oiled Dutch oven over medium heat (5 second rule). Time will depend on how hot your fire is. Probably 12-16 minutes. Coals on top, Check mid way to make sure the bottom isn’t burning but do not keep checking or it will impact the quality of the biscuits. If bottom is baking more quickly than the top, the biscuits can be turned midway through the bake.
Part Three, And there ya go! Bacon, Eggs, and Cheese, with home made biscuits on a sunny Saturday morning. And for dessert, home made biscuits, with home made, home canned blackberry jelly. Options: If baking for a sweet treat, increase the sugar to 2 T. They taste great with fruit and whipped cream. Also if you are doing them away from home you can substitute olive oil for the shortening and use water instead of milk (because there is already powdered milk in the mix). You can mix the whole thing in a gallon size plastic bag. This will change the consistency of the final product but they still taste good.
The above shows you can do it with wood. In case this takes us to a grid down situation. You can do this in a Dutch Oven, a gas grill or your kitchen oven. All from an unrefrigerated pantry.
Add a can of chicken to the above and you have an easy one pot meal. Add onions garlic and peppers and it gets down right good. Again, boil water simple. We usually add rhinly sliced carrots and onions to this.
Beans, man, beans are hard to beat. Fiber, protein and more My fondness for beans comes from no place strange. My dad lived off them in Korea. He used to say, he’d trade all his other rations for the beans. Add a can of Vienna Sausages or Lil’ Smokies and life is good. Again, a one pot meal.
Don’t discount the simple PB&J sandwich. PB&J is simple, healthy, and tasty. it works on any bread, the biscuits above, or even saltine crackers.
A quick, healthy and medicinal recipe. Lemon Zinger Tea, Two pieces Crystalized Ginger or regular ginger Wedge of lemon or teaspoon of Real Lemon And a Tablespoon of raw honey. Or any honey. Again another tough one.. Boil water. Add it to a cup with the LZ bag and Crystalized ginger Steep for 6 minutes and pull the bag. Then add the lemon and the honey. This stuff is amazing! Soothes the throat. Clears the sinuses, Tastes great. Good for you.
Made a pot of beans yesterday. Didn’t soak them first, just washed and put into the crock pot, let it cook all day. If you soak overnight they don’t take as long to cook. Salted liberally, also black pepper. I cut about 1/3 off a pound of bacon (the fatty end), and cut across the slices into super thin peices. No need to cook ahead, just toss it into the crock pot. Fried potatoes. Sliced into small thin slices and wash well. Melted a half a stack of butter and a little canola oil in a skillet. Put in potatoes, salted and peppered liberally. Put a lid over it and don’t touch for five minutes or so. Remove the lid continue cooking, don’t stir very often. They’re done when the reach your acceptable amount of black/crispy. Wish I’d have had an onion, would have been good in both the beans and the potatoes. Also made some Jiffy cornbread.
Spuds, beans, & cornbread! This is what I’m talking about. Taters store easily, Tons of fiber if you eat the skins, bake, boil, roast, or toss in the fire. Stupid simple. Cornbread is the same way. Nice and easy. Awesome taste and good for you. Add honey, butter, cheese or just have it plain. Good call here @OKcherokee cornbread rocks!
Honestly, my favorite way to eat it is to combine the beans, cornbread, and fried potatoes into a bowl, put a little ketchup on top and mix it all together. Yummy.
Brown Bread. https://newengland.com/today/food/new-england-made/bm-brown-bread-in-a-can/ For whatever reason, this is getting hard to find, even before Covid. I can’t speak for anyone else. But I love this stuff. How cool is bread in a can?? Try some with cream cheese for a tasty treat. Or follow the advice above. You can also make this yourself, and it’s just as good. https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/boston_brown_bread/
A easy “stroganoff” style dish. Combine 1 or 2 boxes of Rice a Roni cooked 1 pound ground or finely chopped meat cooked. Then serve. Tips: I personally like to add a little extra water in the beginning then about 5-10 minutes before the rice is full cooked mix in the meat to let it soak up some of the last of the rice seasoning Also seasoning the meat while cooking before adding to the rice takes this dish to a whole new level.
I made homemade hash browns with sausage this morning. Just shredded a couple potatoes with a cheese grater and soaked them in water while the sausage was cooking. Then drained them and dumped them in the frying pan with a little Bacon grease. I normally use coconut or peanut oil, but I started saving my bacon grease instead of feeding it to the dogs. I want to try to make a batch of soap with it.
We like to make the Zatarans Red Beans and Rice. Just use the direction on the box. Typically I will cut up a beef sausage and add in while it’s cooking, and shredded chicken is good in there also. I used to be able to find the ‘less sodium’ version, but haven’t seen it in a while. Goes well with cornbread.
For the record, in times like these. Bacon grease is worth more than gold. After frying bacon, pour the leftovers through a coffee filter to strain out the the solids. Pour the remaining grease into a small canning jar. Canned chicken fried in bacon grease, takes on a whole new meaning!
We do a similar dish fairly regularly in our house with Knorr Spanish rice. I'll fry up some sliced kielbasa or make shredded chicken or pork to mix in. Hotdog sliced up works if that's what you got. Mix it in with the rice during the cool down period, then add some hot sauce. It's damn good for being so cheap.
