FEBRUARY IS “LET THEM EAT (FOOD STORAGE) CAKE!” MONTH!

Yeah, you heard me right.  Isn’t that so exciting?  It’s sort of reminiscent of the Great Food Storage Cookie Extravaganza (download that food storage handout if you missed it)  Why am I doing this?  Well, let’s be honest we all eat cake now and  wouldn’t you like to know how to do it healthier, for less money, and with your food storage?  Let’s be honest, if and when it all hits the fan-comfort food will still be necessary!  And, I think we’ve all been over come with boring old cake mixes.  There are GREAT cake recipes out there that will dazzle your taste buds and amaze you with their simplicity!….Enter Chocolate Molten Cake…

Have any of you eaten at Chili’s and had their chocolate molten cake?  It’s so delicious and is all the rage to make at home.  I’ve seen a lot of recipes all involving special little bundt pans for individual cakes and a lot of time and effort.  Well this recipe that I’m going to share with you was big in the 50′s and tastes JUST LIKE Chili’s Chocolate Molten Cake but you can make it in one 8×8 cake pan, use your food storage, and make it in the same amount of time it would take you to whip up a cake mix.  You may have heard it under names like Magic Cake, Pudding Cake, Hot Fudge Cake, or Surprise Cake.  Why?  Because it is really magic, it makes it’s own sauce or pudding if you will-so of course this is a great cake to serve warm with ice cream.  Honestly, my husband ate half the cake (and that is saying a lot for him!)

Food Storage Chocolate Molten Cake

1 cup all-purpose flour (1/2 C. whole wheat flour + 1/2 C. All-purpouse flour)
3/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons baking cocoa, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup 2% milk (3 T. dry non-instant powder milk or 1/3 C. instant powder milk + 1/2 C. water)
2 tablespoons canola oil (2 T. bean puree)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup packed brown sugar
1-3/4 cups hot water
Whipped cream or ice cream, optional

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in the milk, oil and vanilla until smooth.

Spread in an ungreased 9-in. square baking pan. Combine brown sugar and remaining cocoa; sprinkle over batter. Pour hot water over all; do not stir.

Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes. Serve warm. Top with whipped cream or ice cream if desired.

Crystal’s Tip: If you’re using a glass pan, decrease your cooking temperature to 325. Why? Glass bakes hotter than metal and you won’t get that burnt chocolate taste.

Help Spread the Word!

I love it when you share my tips and recipes for food storage!  Do me a quick favor, if you like what you see please share it on facebook, pinterest, or blog about it!  And make sure you link either the word “food storage” or “Everyday Food Storage” back to me.  Thanks-it makes all the hard work worth it!

© 2012, Crystal. All rights reserved.

I don’t know if anyone has ever spent what seems like a lifetime looking for a really good (dare I say…) the BEST Cranberry Orange bread…like I have but I was super excited when my cousin brought this to me for a Christmas present. She gave it out as neighborhood gifts (we live in the same neighborhood) and since then the whole neighborhood has started making it. It is so delicious, so orange, and so cranberry. I’ve even made it lower fat by adding in beans from my food storage instead of the oil and it was still oh so delicious.

FOOD STORAGE CRANBERRY ORANGE BREAD

© 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

Today’s Saturday Show Off comes from Jenny P. Her and I share a couple things in common 1) we grew up in California 2) we love food storage and 3) are refried bean snobs! Put that all together and you get an easy, low-fat way to make your own delicious refried beans! Jenny also has a fun food storage blog you can check out at www.littlebeanfoodstorage.blogspot.com you can check out for more recipes. (So many great resources for food storage!)

Jenny says “Also I made some NEARLY FAT-FREE re-fried beans with my pressure cooker that are a bit spicy but so darn tasty I only eat them instead of restaurant refried beans…and that is saying a lot considering I am pregnant and having been eat re-fried beans from Joe Bandido’s here in Springville for nearly 2 months until I starting making these beans.  I posted them on my blog and you should really give them a try if I do say so myself…darn good!  Thanks for all you do!”

Saturday Show Offs: Creamy Low-Fat Refried Beans

Print

Recipe type: Side Dish

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 4 mins

Total time: 19 mins

Serves: 12

A wonderful alternative for tasty refried beans!

Ingredients

• 1 onion, peeled and halved
• 3 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed
• 1/2-1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded & chopped (I used 1 and my kids loved it)
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic*
• 3-5 teaspoons salt
• 1 3/4 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin, optional
• 10 cups water
• 1 Tblsp. sugar
• 1 Tblsp. chili powder

Instructions

1. Place the onion, rinsed beans, jalapeno, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar and chili powder and cumin into a slow cooker. Pour in the water and stir to combine. Cook on High for 8 hours, adding more water as needed (I had started with 9 cups but then added about another 1-2 cups after 4 hours so next time I will just start with 10 cups and check on it at 4 hours).
2. Once the beans have cooked, strain them, and reserve the liquid.
3. Option 1:Mash the beans with a potato masher, adding the reserved water as needed to attain desired consistency.
4. Option 2: Stain beans and put them with the jalapeno and onions into a blender with 1-2 cups of reserved liquid and blend. Add more liquid to get the consistency you want.

Notes

Pressure Cooker Directions: When I make these in my pressure cooker I add 1 lb. beans, 8 cups water, 4 tsp. olive oil, 1 tablespoon sugar, 2 tablespoons garlic powder, 1 1/2 tsp. pepper, 1/8 tsp cumin, 1 jalapeno, 1 onion chopped in half, 2 tsp chili powder. Then once they are cooked and I can open my pressure cooker I scoop everything solid into my blender and use 1/2-1 cup of the broth they were cooking in along with 2-3 tsp. salt and blend until creamy and yummy. To make them less spicy use less/no chili powder, 1/2 jalapeno to cook with but leave it out when blending. But I like it with everything in it…that way it is so flavor I don’t even add cheese to it….most times…haha!

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© 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

Who doesn’t love a good brownie recipe that also includes food storage? I was so happy to receive this recipe for all of us to try. It has beans, wheat, and honey. Sounds great! This recipe is from Sade and she says…

“Hey Crystal,
You inspired me to try these and I’m so glad you did!! These little morsels of heaven were fantastic!! And as you said we wouldn’t be able to taste the beans at all! Thanks so much, I’ll send along the picture and the recipe in case anyone else would like to make these, they are truly food storage brownies!!”

Food Storage Pioneer Brownies: Food Storage Dessert Recipe

Print

Recipe type: Dessert

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 45 mins

This is truly a food storage brownie!

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. butter (1/4 C. black bean puree and ¼ c. oil)
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2/3 c. honey
• 2 Lg. Eggs ( I used powdered)
• 1/2 C. wheat flour
• 1/2 C. cocoa
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients and mix well. Put in 9×9 pan and bake at 350 degrees for
2. -30 min.

Notes

**Tip** Cut brownies with a plastic knife and they cut nicer…I have NO
idea why but it does work!

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SHARE WITH US!

Do you have a great idea, recipe or food storage tip you’d love to share?! Email me at efsshowoffs(at)gmail(dot)com! We’d all love to hear from you!

© 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

I’m so excited!  I have a new e-cookbook coming out this week, The Everyday Bean Cookbook. It will have 90+ recipes for breakfasts, sides & salads, dinners, and DESSERTS all with no added fats…just good ol’ beans from your food storage.  Don’t worry the recipes aren’t scary, the recipes cover pancakes, waffles, muffins, quick breads, salads, soups, chilis, cookies, brownies, cakes, etc…see that isn’t scary! To get you excited (and convinced), I’m giving a sneak peek of one of my most favorite BEAN recipes, the Low-Fat Ultimate Death by Chocolate Sandwich Cookie. (Make sure you scroll to the bottom to see how you can enter to win a FREE copy of my new e-cookbook when it is released this week!)

Low-Fat Ultimate Death by Chocolate Cookie

Print

Recipe type: Desserts

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Serves: 9

This recipe is awesome, easy, looks gourmet and NO ONE will guess you used beans instead of butter in it! If you love it, make sure you check out my NEW Everyday Beans e-Cookbook with over 90 recipes that will incorporate beans into your breakfasts, sides & salads, dinners and DESSERTS!

Ingredients

• 1 Devils Food Chocolate Cake mix (must be Devil’s food)
• 1/2 C. bean puree (you can use either black or white beans)
• 2 eggs (2 T. dry powdered eggs + 1/4 water)
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1 tub Fat-Free Cool Whip
• 1/2 pkg. dark chocolate chocolate chips, melted
• chocolate covered strawberries, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine half of the Devils Food Cake Mix with the bean puree, eggs and vanilla in electric mixer for 2 minutes or until thoroughly combined. Add in second half of cake mix and mix until combined. Drop rounded balls of cookie dough on GREASED cookie sheet. Cook 10-12 minutes or until done. Take out of oven and with a glass with a flat bottom, flatten cookies and allow to cool.
2. Mix together Cool Whip and melted chocolate to form mousse. Place mousse in between two cookies. Place a little mousse on top of cookie sandwich and place chocolate covered strawberry on top.

Notes

Make bean puree by dumping a can of beans in your blender and blending until it is the consistency of a thick smoothie.

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DON’T MISS IT-SIGN UP TO GET NOTIFIED OF THE OFFICIAL EVERYDAY BEAN E-COOKBOOK RELEASE!

Make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter to get notified as soon as this is released! Click HERE to sign up!

WANT TO WIN A FREE COPY OF MY NEW EVERYDAY BEAN E-COOKBOOK?

I thought you might! All you need to do make sure you’re signed up for my newsletters so you’re notified of the release and help spread the word about this post and amazing recipe either in an email or on your blog, facebook, or on Twitter. E-mail me at efsgiveaways(at)gmail(dot)com telling me what you’ve done and you’ll get one entry for different thing you did! There will be 5 winners so make sure you enter to win!

© 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

Were able to check out my latest appearance from Studio 5? Check out how to make your own pop tarts and your own fruit roll ups!

© 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

Mock Pecan Pie

1 1/2 C. cooked, drained PINTO beans (you can also use white beans if you don’t have pinto)
1 1/2 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. butter
3 eggs, beaten (3 T. dry egg powder + 1/3 C. water)
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 t. sea salt if desired
1/2-3/4 C. finely chopped pecans (I used more pecans…enough to generously cover the top of the pie)

Cream sugar, butter, eggs, and beans. (If you are using powdered eggs you don’t need to mix the dry egg powder with water first-just put the dry egg powder in with creaming and add the water with the vanilla, which is the next step). Add vanilla and salt. Pour into 9 inch unbaked pie shell (If you missed the Pie Crust 101 Mini Class-check it out for GREAT tips on how to make your own delicious pie crust). Sprinkle the chopped pecans over mixture. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for about 20 minutes more. Pie is done when knife inserted in center comes out clean. Serve with whipped topping or ice cream.

Make sure you check back every day this week for new posts and fun twists on classic and not so classic pies…and yeah, and DEFINITELY enter this giveaway!

© 2010 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

Okay, I hope you’re loving all the videos so far because today we’re getting into the really fun stuff and there are THREE more videos!  (If you missed the first day of this class, make sure you click HERE so you don’t miss a thing!)  You’ll be able to see for yourself how EASY it is to start cooking basic items in your pressure cooker to save you time in the kitchen! Check out the videos below to see just how easy it is to cook beans, rice, and wheat berries in a pressure cooker. Make sure if you have a different pressure cooker than I do that you reference YOUR owner’s manual for specific times and measurements for these items. I’ve also added some homework items for you (yes, I said homework! I want you to actually TRY these concepts for yourself!) they are fun recipes you can try that I like to use OR you can try your own recipe. Make sure to leave a comment with successes and questions so we all can learn from each other!

COOKING BEANS IN AN ELECTRIC PRESSURE COOKER

HOMEWORK RECIPES TO TRY:
Low-Fat Blueberry Muffins
Low-fat Pumpkin Brownies

COOKING RICE IN AN ELECTRIC PRESSURE COOKER

HOMEWORK RECIPES TO TRY:
NEW! Fried Rice
NEW! Hawaiian Meatballs and Rice

COOKING WHEAT BERRIES IN AN ELECTRIC PRESSURE COOKER

HOMEWORK RECIPES TO TRY:
Wheat Berry Salad with Apples & Cashews
Feta Wheat Berry Salad

© 2010 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

We’re moving up in the world! My good friend sent me this recipe, it was like it was meant to be! Not only have I tried a MILLION (okay, maybe a slight exaggeration) muffin recipes trying to find one that is light and fluffy but I was also in the middle of all my freeze dried berry experiments. With a couple of modifications this recipe became PERFECT for food storage….AND delicious (as in the BEST homemade muffins I’ve ever made/eaten). I even brought these to a luncheon and they were devoured-whole wheat, oats, beans, freeze dried berries and all!  p.s. I’m pushing you guys and only listing the beans for the recipe, if you haven’t tried it by now-you’re entirely missing out! If you’re still nervous, you can watch a video of how I cook my beans and store them in smaller amounts for baking by clicking HERE.  And remember, using beans in place of oil and butter doesn’t change the taste and it actually IMPROVES the texture, making it very moist, light, and fluffy!

Low-Fat Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs (1/4 c. dry egg powder + 1/2 c. water)
2 cups sour cream
1/2 c. + 2 T. bean puree
2 cups light brown sugar
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups blueberries (1-1/2 c. freeze dried blueberries, hydrated and drained)
2 tbsp. sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two 12 cup muffin tins with paper liners. (This recipe won’t work without them.) In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the sour cream until thoroughly combined. Add bean puree and brown sugar. Stir in the oats. Fold in the flour mixture and then, very gently, fold in the berries. Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full. Drop a generous pinch of sugar onto the top of each muffin.

Bake the muffins for 25 to 28 minutes, or until the edges are medium brown and the tops are firm. Cool for 5 minutes; then remove muffins (in their papers) and finish cooling them on a rack. Makes 2 dozen muffins.

© 2010 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

© 2009 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.