Chili Mix

Chili con carne (often known simply as chili) is a spicy stew.  The name of the dish derives from the Spanish chile con carne, “chili pepper with meat”. Traditional versions are made, minimally, from chili peppers, garlic, onions and cumin along with chopped or ground beef. Beans and tomatoes are frequently included.
Variations, both geographic and personal, may involve different types of meat as well as a variety of other ingredients.
In a survival situation, chili is a great choice for using up some of the less-choice cuts of meat. The dish can help stretch limited supplies of meat to feed more people.
To read the recipe, click here.

Zucchini Gratin

Here is a suggestion for using up some of the tail-end vegetables from the garden! Click here to read this zucchini recipe!

Heralthy Spinach Pasta

Use fresh produce when available to save storage foods!

One way to stretch your storage food and prepper dollars is by taking advantage of the fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season. Right now, many gardens are producing a lot of  fresh veggies that can be substituted for the dried or dehydrated.

This recipe from “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes” takes full advantage of any fresh vegetables you might have. Substitute all or some of the fresh for the storage food and create a tasty meal.

To read the recipe, click here!

Garlic Asparagus With Pasta and Lemon Cream Sauce

Combine storage food with seasonally-available produce!

It's a good idea to practice with and use your storage food whenever possible to become a good cook with the foods.

But this recipe from “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes" pushed beyond “tasty” into  “gourmet”!

Since there are a lot of fresh vegetables around right now, you can obviously substitute fresh veggies for the dehydrated or freeze dried selections.

Try this recipe and you’ll realize the potential for how good storage food can taste!

Marionberry or Raspberry Breakfast Bars

Freeze dried fruit can also make a tasty breakfast bar!

These breakfast bars, from “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes,” can easily double as energy bars for a quick snack on a hike or any kind of outing.  Just make the night before, place in plastic sandwich bags, and eat one whenever you find your energy dropping!
The freeze dried fruits could also be substituted with fresh berries if such were available. In fact, this would make a great outing: Go pick some wild blueberries or raspberries, or whatever is in season, and include them in a batch of breakfast bars! (Or, you try some of the dried fruit blend on special this week!)
Click here to read the recipe!

Mushroom Barley Soup

Dehydrated mushrooms

There are many storage food items that are handy to have around the kitchen, even if there is no emergency!
Dehydrated mushroom slices are one of those products. If you’re making a quick spaghetti sauce, want to add some veggies to a stew, or need one more topping on a pizza, a handful of mushroom can provide a tasty addition!
 To read the recipe for a tasty mushroom barley soup, click here

Chicken Fajitas

Chicken fajitas are tasty and quick to make!

This week’s survival recipe features Dried Chicken Dices.

These  chicken dices can be substituted in virtually any dish that uses fresh chicken. The chicken dices are great in Chicken Noodle soup, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Fajitas, Casseroles, Chicken Pot Pies, just to name a few.

To read the recipe for a storage food chicken fajita recipe, click here!

Rice and Raisins Breakfast

Start the day right!

Everybody knows breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

But it is also the easiest to skip!

Breakfast recipes that are easy to prepare, tasty and nutritious are important during survival or emergency situations. They’re equally important when you’re getting ready for a busy day under normal circumstances!

This recipe from “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes,” by Jan LeBaron, combines common storage food items to make a quick, hot cereal that will stay with you all morning!

Basic Red Enchilada Sauce

Enchiladas can be comfort food!

During an emergency, you can’t guarantee exactly what form of protein you might need to convert into a familiar flavor! You could use pre-cooked and canned chicken if you do not have the fresh ones. Or, you could use virtually any small game animal.
See the recipe here

Soup/Gravy Mix From Storage Staples

A good soup or gravy recipe mix can do a lot to stave off diet monotony!

When the big earthquake hits the Oregon coast, or there is a quake along the New Madrid Fault, or the water keeps rising and shuts off the roads you’ll still have to keep eating. That’s why we’re preppers, and why we prepare for emergencies and disasters!
And while you may be feeling pretty good that you have a stock of rice, beans and other staples, there must be provisions to make different-tasting meals. Otherwise, at some point, diet monotony will set in. Being able to introduce different, familiar tastes into the equation, while using what is on hand, will be important!
Here is an easy recipe to make gravy or a soup base, using storage foods.

Sloppy Joe mix

The familiar Sloppy Joe flavor can disguise unfamiliar ground meat.

The real value of a Sloppy Joe mix like this is how it can transform tough,  tasteless, (or bad-tasting) meat of dubious origin into a familiar flavor.
Imagine that the only meat available after the Sewage Hits The Fan is from a tough bull or rank-smelling boar. Or suppose all you could come up with was meat from some old, gamy-tasting, tough big game animal. Or what about if the only meat came from something exotic, such as possum, horse, mule, armadillo, raccoon or snake?
This mix can transform such meat into a familiar flavor! Click here for the recipe!

Popped Wheat

Make great, tasty whole wheat snack!

Suppose you have a lot of wheat berries stored for whatever disaster might happen. At some point, you might be wondering: What are some of the options for using this resource?

This is a great recipe to use whole wheat. It stores very well, and and this makes a fun snack. It is also great sprinkled on salads or as a topping for baked potatoes.

And perhaps best of all, this simple recipe can be cooked over a campfire in a cast iron skillet or Dutch oven. Click on this link to read the recipe

Hummas With a Kick

Whenever I get a question about off-grid or survival cooking, one of my most-trusted sources is Karla Moore, of Gilbert, Iowa. In addition to owning and operating “Heart of Iowa Soapworks,” Karla is also a farm wife, avid Dutch oven and off-grid cooking expert and a long-time prepper. She cans the produce from her garden, dries many of her own herbs and loves cooking for her extended family. Karla and her husband, Warren, have made many off-grid modifications to their farmhouse to help them get through the Iowa winters!
Subsequently, I value Karla’s opinion on Jan LaBaron’s latest cookbook “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes: Converting Stored Foods Into Usable Meals.” She got the cookbook with no instructions, other than to try it. See what recipe Karla chose

Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake

I can hear the groans and complaints from the hardcore preppers and survivalists already: “A CAKE? That’s supposed to be a SURVIVAL RECIPE?”
Yep. It is. And here’s why.

Cowboy Spaghetti

Survival food is sustenance that can be made easily during a survival or emergency situation with simple, long-term storage food items, cooked outdoors, using off-the-grid methods.
But if it doesn't taste good, or you cook the same recipe day after day, food monotony may set in, and that can be dangerous! 
This week' s recipe "Cowboy Spaghetti" comes from Jan LaBaron's latest cookbook: “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes: Converting Stored Foods Into Usable Meals.”
In this recipe, Jan shows you how to make a simple spaghetti dish in one pot. This can all be done over a campfire, or by using lighted charcoal. It is also a good meal to prepare using a propane or turkey cooker outside.
To listen to Jan's interview on the Feb. 18, 2011 SurvivalCommonSense.com Radio show click here.

Refried Beans: A Tasty Way to Use Pinto Beans

Refried Beans: One of the staples of long term storage are beans. Here's a quick recipe for enhancing burritos, taco salads and other tasty dishes. As a bonus - the recipe uses only long term storage products!
Click here to read the story and recipe!

Cheeseburger Patties Made from Dried Milk

A cheeseburger may be a fond memory...

Meat could be scarce and hard to come by during a long term emergency. So any recipe that approaches the taste and texture of a meat product will go over well with many survivalists!

Here is a way to make cheeseburger patties out of dried milk. And, the reports are that it is delicious! Prepper/survivalist vegetarians will like this dish, because it doesn’t have any meat in it!

Click here to read the recipe and learn how to make it!

Ham and Pineapple Pizza

This is a great pizza. If your family likes mushrooms or peppers, or even prefers sausage add it; jazz it up just the way you like! I like to have extra parmesan cheese and crushed red peppers to serve on the side.


Make Pizza Dough
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, freeze dried
1 cup diced ham, freeze dried (may also use ham t.v.p)
2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup diced pineapple, freeze dried
2 tbs tomato powder
1/2 tsp garlic granules
2 tsp spaghetti sauce mix
8 tbs water
2 tsp chives, dehydrated
4 tbs parmesan cheese powder

From "Jan's Fabulous Food Storage Recipes" by Jan LeBaron

Book Review: Jan's Fabulous Food Storage Recipes

Recipes and an off-grid setup are needed.

What happens if you have to live just off your food storage? Have you ever tried or used it?  If not, then “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes” has some recipes you need!
It’s one thing to be set up  and prepared for off-grid cooking. But what happens when  (insert appropriate apocalyptic acronym) happens and all you have  to eat is the stored staples in your pantry. Do you know how to cook those foods?
Maybe you already have a couple of standard recipes that work well. But if you have to alternate them every-other-day, it won’t be long before diet monotony sets in and you have to force yourself to eat.
And that’s why this situation is dangerous. Small children and elderly folks might just quit eating, and that can put everyone at risk.  When a person is weak from lack of sustenance, they can’t function, and that could affect the larger group. Click here to read the review!