If you missed my latest appearance on Studio 5- click HERE to watch the video of how to make these delicious shakes using none other than powdered milk! (your favorite food storage item and mine!

Peanut Butter Moo’d:-makes two 8-ounce cups

Banana-Pineapple Freeze

© 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

Yeah! Back to School Week has started! Each day I’ll be covering basic cooking information about basic long term food storage items. You’ll want to pay attention because there may be a quiz with prizes at the end of the week. **HINT HINT…WINK WINK** I decided to start with Powdered Milk because I feel this is the least understood food storage item and definitely, I think, the least liked food storage item. Watch the videos below along with the points of interest. Hopefully this will open your eyes on the subject and give you some great ideas so you can start using you food storage today!

Powdered Milk Basics 

How do I cook with Powdered Milk?

It can be hard to determine how much dry powdered milk you’ll need to cook with it in smaller amounts. That’s why I created the Powdered Milk Conversion chart that helps make it REALLY easy to cook with your powdered milk. Simply add the dry powdered milk to your dry ingredients and the necessary water to the wet ingredients.

Helpful Recipes for Using Powdered Milk:

• Sweetened Condensed Milk: Yes, you can make sweetened condensed milk from your powdered milk, this recipe also has a how-to video!
• Evaporated Milk: Amazing, right? You can also make evaporated milk.
• Magic Mix: A Magic Mix that allows you to make white sauces VERY easily. Learn how to make it into a delicious mac ‘n cheese or my FAVORITE pudding!
• Condensed Soups from Magic Mix: Learn how to make your own condensed soups from magic mix.
• Making DELICIOUS drinkable Powdered Milk: Think powdered milk is gross? Well try these tips!

More Resources for Powdered Milk:

• Powdered Milk Conversion Chart- Print out my conversion chart for using regular non-instant powdered milk (if you are using instant you’ll just need to double the amount of dry powdered milk on the chart) to use powdered milk in your cooking. There are four to a page so make sure you share them with your friends!
• Powdered MIlk Handout-A useful handout to use for yourself, friends, or classes about powdered milk.
• The 7 Day Challenge- See what it would be like to have to use powdered milk in a disaster…with fun rewards with my sister site The FoodStorageMadeEasy.NET
• Buying Powdered Milk- For more information on buying powdered milk, visit my sister site The Food Storage Shopper.NET

BONUS VIDEO: How to Mix Powdered Milk

© 2009 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

Wow!! After all of these recipes your family will definitely be in the fiesta mood. Ole!! We’re covering every meal of the day along with a fun drink to make! Make sure to check them all out and try one out with your family.

Hola! Get your family in the fiesta mood by starting their day off with a breakfast burrito made from your dehydrated eggs. If you haven’t had your family try scrambled dehydrated eggs, this is a perfect time! There are lots of other flavors in the burrito if you’re scared they won’t like the eggs. Personally, I just did cheese, eggs, and salsa but another great combo to try is cheese, eggs, breakfast sausage, and a fruit salsa. Remember when converting multiple eggs that there are 16 tablespoons in a cup. I also use powdered milk as a 1/4 of the liquid called for to rehydrate the eggs since scrambled eggs are supposed to fluffy. The other thing I realized this morning when I made these is that you will probably want to do a couple extra eggs then you would normally with real eggs. The rehydrated eggs don’t make as much.

For lunch, who can forget bean burritos made from dehydrated refried beans. For more info on this, check out my previous post “Think outside the bun”

Or…very delicious shredded beef tacos made from your canned beef in your 3 month supply. For more info on that, check out this entry.

For dinner try Enchilada Casserole…it’s for those of you short on time but LOVE enchiladas! It tastes just like the real thing and is so delicious and EASY that I don’t even make real enchiladas anymore! The other great thing is that a lot of the ingredients come from your 3 month supply..including canned chicken!! Make one of your sides the dehydrated refried beans and you’ve got it made!! For tips on rehydrating your beans, click here.

Tortilla Casserole

1 ½ C Sour Cream
2 Cans (10 ¾ oz) Cream of Chicken Soup
1 Can (7 oz) Diced green Chiles
1 Can (10 oz) Mild enchilada sauce
3 C cooked chicken or 3 cans chicken or turkey, drained (save the juices for broth!)
12 Corn tortillas, torn into bite size pieces (or Tortilla chips)
1 ½ C grated Cheese (Cheddar)

Save 1/2 C. of grated cheese and mix all other ingredients in a bowl. Pour mixture into 9×13 pan and top with remaining cheese. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. This casserole can be made ahead and put in the fridge. (Allow for extra baking time if you do this.)

And finally, a fun drink to make using your rice.

Horchata

1 cup uncooked white long-grain rice

5 cups water1/2 cup milk (1 1/2 T. powdered milk + 1/2 Water)

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2/3 cup white sugar

DIRECTIONS: Pour the rice and water into the bowl of a blender; blend until the rice just begins to break up, about 1 minute. Let rice and water stand at room temperature for a minimum of 3 hours. Strain the rice water into a pitcher and discard the rice. Stir the milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and sugar into the rice water. Chill and stir before serving over ice.

Make sure and check back Wednesday for my Mother’s day Giveaway!  YES!!!!

© 2009 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

How much Milk can you make from a #10 can of powdered milk?

Okay, I’ve had a lot of people asking me about how much milk you can make from one #10 can of powdered milk. The answer is a little over 5 1/2 gallons which makes it about $2.36 a gallon. While you’re figuring out how much money that will save you, let me also mention that when you buy powdered milk the price is then fixed and you don’t have to worry about the prices going up from one week to the next! The best part of food storage is living off of last year’s income. For example: I bought powdered milk last year before it doubled (gulp!) in price at about $6.50 a can so I’m paying $1.15 a gallon for my milk. See why food storage is so awesome?! Food storage can do the same for you! Let me say again, that food storage is NOT just for a huge natural calamity! Food storage lets you get through a time of inflation with out an emergency on your food budget.

What is the difference between Powdered Milk and a Milk Alternative?

A good way to describe this is to think about the difference between Orange Juice and Tang (or for those of you who have been with this blog for awhile…the difference between whole wheat flour and all purpose flour . A milk alternitive is a milk drink but not milk. They make it from a by product of milk called whey and fortified (which only means they add back in) a couple of vitamins and minerals. Since it is made from whey (which is a by product of making cheese) it has far less protein than regular milk and it’s the protein in the milk that makes it a great food storage item. The current price of this “milk drink” is $12.02 while the cannery is selling powdered milk for $13.30 so for a dollar more you get real milk…not a bad deal. I’m checking into if you can cook with it but my guess is that since it doesn’t have the same properties of milk that you can’t. Also, check out the difference in ingredients:

Powdered Milk
Nonfat Dry Milk, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D3

Milk Alternative
Made from sweet dairy whey, non-fat dry milk solids, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following:canola oil and/or soya oil), corn syrup solids, sodium caseinate, dipotassium phosphate, propylene glycol monostearate, mono and diglycerides, lecithin, carrageenan, Vitamin A, Vitamin D.

WHAT??? Partially Hydrogenated Oil…does anyone else watch Dr. Oz on Oprah that is the worst kind of oil for you not to mention they throw in Corn Syrup…another Dr. Oz no-no.

So to sum up, personally I don’t think a milk alternative is worth it.

Is it true that you can make Sweetened Condensed Milk and Evaporated Milk out of Powdered Milk?

YES!!! Plus, you can make buttermilk, white sauces and so much more…check back to find out how.

© 2008 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

Yes, you read that correctly. It is possible to have delicious powdered milk and here’s how…

Here are the items you will need to start mixing your powdered milk. Personally, I use a Sterilite 1 gallon jug that you can get at Wal-mart for a couple of dollars. It has an easy pour spout and has measurement lines for your water. Best of all it fits well in my fridge door.

Fill your jug with half of the water you will need. If you are making a gallon of milk then add 3 C. non-instant powdered milk. Mix with a wire wisk.

The milk should look like this. It will be thicker, but don’t worry we’ll add the rest of the water later.

There are two tricks you can do to make your powdered milk taste fantastic! The first is to add 1 1/2 t. sugar.

The other is to add 1 t. of vanilla (which is about a cap ful).
See which one/both of the tricks your family likes best.

Then add in the rest of the water and mix again. Your milk will be a little frothy and because of that you may not be able to fit all of the water in the jug. Make sure to add a little more water to it before serving. (I’ve found that adding just a little more water than is called for also helps a great deal.)

This is a MUST!!! You HAVE TO, HAVE TO, HAVE TO serve the powdered milk chilled. There is nothing worse than WARM powdered milk.

I taught my mom these tricks and now they drink powdered milk too. In fact, she had my niece over once and served her some milk from the jug and she didn’t even bat an eyelash that anything may be different. So again I say, DON’T warn your family. Just see what they do.

If you’re worried that your family isn’t ready to go straight powdered milk, don’t worry! Mine wasn’t either. We began by mixing the powdered milk half and half with whole milk which creates 2% milk. Then we mixed it half and half with 2% milk and got skim milk. Now we just drink powdered milk. It’s great! I never have to worry about how much to buy, if we’re running out, or the rising cost of milk. Even if you never go straight powdered milk, mixing your powdered milk with store bought milk is a great way to extend the expensive milk and save you MONEY!

© 2008 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

This wonderful recipe was given to me by my amazing cousin. She was thrilled to find out how easy it was to use her food storage and that her family actually drank it-powdered milk and all!

Food Storage Horchata

Print

Recipe type: Drink

Prep time: 3 hours

Total time: 3 hours

This classic Mexican drink is perfect for food storage!

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked white long-grain rice
• 5 cups water
• 1/2 cup milk (1 1/2 T. dry non-instant powdered milk or 3 T. instant dry powdered milk+ 1/2 Water)
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup white sugar

Instructions

1. Pour the rice and water into the bowl of a blender; blend until the rice just begins to break up, about 1 minute.
2. Let rice and water stand at room temperature for a minimum of 3 hours.
3. Strain the rice water into a pitcher and discard the rice.
4. Stir the milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and sugar into the rice water.
5. Chill and stir before serving over ice.

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© 2008 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.