Sunday, July 26, 2020

Budget Meals: Using Freeze-dried Vegetables

Hubby works from home during Coronavirus season -- which usually means no OT, sigh. So, when we found cans of freeze-dried/dehydrated food, I was thrilled.  What can be cooked with these in order to save money?  We will need to work within certain limits (3 varieties in 5 cans) which might be repetitive after a while (like Manna of the OT),  but I am certain Mrs Moses found a  multitude of ways to make-do and have interesting meals. 

How To Survive On Freeze-Dried Vegetables


Have you often wondered if you could survive on freeze-dried vegetables? Do you sometimes wonder how do they taste? What do they look like? Here’s the deal, with freeze-dried foods you can literally eat most of the vegetables right out of the can.


Get A Can Opener

Be sure and get a good can opener, friendly reminder. Yep, we need to be able to open those #10 cans. I think I have ten can openers stashed throughout my emergency preparedness stockpile. If you can cook from scratch you can cook with any of the freeze-dried vegetables.
You don’t need a special food storage cookbook because these vegetables are just vegetables with the water removed. Dehydrated foods must be cooked, but I will talk about them another day. You don’t need a special cookbook for them either.

Freeze-Dried Food

You can throw the freeze-dried vegetables in any soup base if you have rehydrated them with tepid water, you just drain them and add to your pot of soup. They cook faster than dehydrated vegetables, so therefore, we would use less power or zero power if we ate them directly from the can.
If you are using a water-based soup you can just throw the veggies into the soup without having to rehydrate them in water first. If you use a cream-based soup you will want to rehydrate them or the soup may become too thick.
Either way, they are easy to use and taste as close to fresh vegetables as you can imagine once we rehydrate them. They taste a lot better than canned vegetables, plus, the variety is endless.
Let’s be honest here, they are not exactly the same as fresh vegetables, but they taste great! Let me give you some ideas on the different ones I have and use regularly. The fabulous part about these is the fact we don’t have to wash the vegetables, cut, chop or slice them!
Plus the companies like Augason Farms, Thrive Live and Honeyville freeze-dried vegetables have a shelf life of 20-25 years unopened in optimal storage conditions. Please do not store any food storage in your hot garage. I only store my food storage in my home, and it’s a small home.
Read the full article by Food Storage Moms H E R E


pc: Costco

One of the meals I make now and then is Breakfast Burrito. You can put anything in them. Eggs 
meat and cheese. You can add veggie’s or not. I get a package of tortilla wrappers and use for breakfast or lunch or supper.
I work at a convenience store and we sell Donuts, if we have any left we box up and sell the next day for cheaper. They are just as good and you can freeze them and they will last just thaw and eat.
Also I check my local Walmart for breads and sweets they bake to much of the day before. You can get a loaf of French bread that is a day old for 70 cents ( price depend on area). You can buy a few loaves and put in the freezer. People today need to realize day old doesn’t mean old, nasty, stale items. I over heard one lady customer in my store say ” Oh day old, we don’t want those” that is a bad habit to teach your kids.
Check for Buy One and get one free offers too. On the back of our receipts from some stores are coupons for meals discounted or a free item. See if your area has those. I also use Ibotta and get money back on items I buy at the Grocery store. I get to chose what Gift cards I get in return. I usually get Walmart and get more Groceries.
I learned Budget meals from my mom and Grandma. We make Macaroni and Tomato Juice. Just cook the pasta, drain and while draining add the tomato juice to the pan, add butter, salt and pepper then add sugar to cut the acid in the tomato juice. Add the pasta back in and heat till pasta is hot again. We have made meals on that or added meat to it or as a side. I have other meals but 
don’t want to write a book in a small area. -- June K. 










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