Dehydrated Chicken Stock for Food Storage/Space Saver

Hey Y'all!! Okay, so I had this freezer bag FULL of chicken stock from when I boiled my chicken for my dehydrated chicken. So, that takes up SO much room in my freezer so I thought I'd give it a whirl and try to dehydrate it.

What I did was I took that stock and put it in a pot on the stove and let it reduce down to about 2tbs worth.
its really thick fyi and it makes your house smell like chicken.

I strained out all the extra chunks that were left over and laid out parchment paper onto a dehydrator tray.

My dehydrator doesn't have a temp gauge on it, so I just popped it in and let it do it's magic!

It turned out Wonderful, super concentrated, I am going to grind it into a powder and store it. I will be doing this with lots of my stock, be it beef or chicken!! Yum!!

Sourdough Starter and Bread Recipe.

Hey Y'all!!! Day after Christmas so I went out braved the stores early this morning!! Guess what.. I SCORED!!!
Went to Wal-mart and snagged another shelf to add into my pantry (my stock is just growing like a weed) YAY! 
Then I hit up Value Village and scooped up a few mason jars and this!

 A Black and Decker Vacuum Sealer!! My mason jars and food guard.. grand total of 10 dollars. Can you say a steal of deal? I'd say!! Okay, onto the point of the blog. Have you ever had homemade sourdough bread? No? Is it easy you ask? YES of course it is!! Low maintenance, and super easy! Here ya go bloggers!! 



Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active-dry yeast
2 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
You leave this lightly covered with a kitchen towel for 6 days.
Feed it every other day 1 cup flour and 1 cup warm water. (take a note pad and leave it by your starter listing days 1 - 6 day 1 being the day you put this bad boy together)
After day six transfer to a plastic container with a lid and put it in your fridge when ready to use.

Now when you use this starter, you must re feed it. So for my bread recipe I use 1 1/2 cups of my starter. So when I take it out. I add back 1 1/2 cups flour and 1 1/2 cups water and let it sit for overnight and put it back into my plastic and to the fridge again. I know it's soooooo hard!! LOL

Okay, for 1 loaf of my yummy sourdough.

2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sourdough starter
3/4 teaspoon salt

Put it in your mixer and let it mix till it no longer sticks to the sides of your bowl.

In a lightly oiled bowl cover and let rise 1 1/2 hours
after that take it back out and knead out all air pockets and form into your desired shape (I shape mine into a rectangle to fit into my loaf pan) but you can do a bread bowl or anything.

lay on a floured surface and cover lightly with a kitchen towel and let rest 1 more hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake for 1 hour

Your bread with have a dark crust and if you knock on the bottom should sound hollow. 

Enjoy y'all!!! 

Food Storage Beef Stew

One more for tonight and then I think I will be done for the evening! Trying to do some catch up since it's been a while since I've posted!

Okay, so in my last post I told you that I went hog wild with my dehydrator. I took a 5lb bag of mixed veggies and it reduced down to 1 quart size jar. Can you belive that!? Here!

The mixed veggies are on the right!! 5lbs into that!! Amazing. stored correctly they will last for years. But, today I am gonna show you how to make some delicious beef stew all from food storage!!

1. So I took about a cup and 1/2 of my dehydrated beef roast. 
2. 1 cup of my mixed veggies (corn, green beans, peas, and carrots is in it)
3. 6 beef bullion cubes (you can use store bought or homemade. I will be trying some homemade chicken bullion very soon to show y'all!)
4. 6-8 cups of water 
5. 1 1/4 cup of rice
6. 1 Tbs of garlic powder or dried minced garlic
7. salt and pepper to taste (I add extra pepper cause I love the bite pepper gives it)
8. 1/4 cup dehydrated chopped onion
9. 1/2 cup dried diced potatoes 

Throw it all into your stock pot and let it simmer on low-med so it can re-hydrate for about and hour or so and you have a delicious thick beef stew. You can do this fresh or from food storage. With it being from food storage I didn't have to prep anything, I had everything ready pre-cooked and ready to go!

Yum right?! Top it off I made a fresh loaf of Sourdough bread from my starter. Which I will be posting tomorrow. This meal has lots of flavor, just because it's food storage doesn't mean you have to lack in flavor or quality!!! Enjoy y'all!! Take out what you don't like, and add what you do!!

Dehydrated Ground Turkey

Hey y'all!!! Okay so here is a food storage helper for ya today!!

I've taken a dive into the dehydrating world and let me tell you, I'm HOOKED!
My dehydrator has given me many treats that me and kids both love. I swear my children every time I go to the kitchen and they see those giant aluminum things sitting on the counters my oldest shakes her head and just turns the other way like "momma's gone Coo Coo" hahaha But.. that is besides the point.

Today I'm gonna show you my recipe to dehydrate Ground Turkey.

So I took 1lb of Ground Turkey and about a 1/2 cup of my homemade breadcrumbs and mashed that all together.

I then cooked it till it was cooked all the way through and then laid it out on thick paper towels to absorb all the extra moisture.. I changed out my paper towels and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

Next morning I came in and divided my turkey in between 2 of my trays and let it dry for 2 hours at 145 after that I dropped the temp down to 125 for 6 more hours.

The finished product was GORGEOUS. I still have no idea exactly how long dehydrated meat will last. I have been told that if stored properly and in a cool dry place OUT of direct sunlight that it will last for at least a year. I only made a pound of this so I'm obviously going to be using it before then but I do intend on experimenting to see how long this will last us after proper storage.

Thanks for droppin by y'all!!!

Homemade Dulce De Leche

Merry Christmas y'all!! Ok, so I know it's been a while since my last post.. but tis the season!!

We sure have been busy around here prepping and getting ready for the Holiday season.

But I have a wonderful recipe today for y'all. From the lady who does 365 days of baking. YUM!

Homemade Dulce De Leche, this makes a wonderful syrup, or addition to your coffee or topping for your favorite dessert!

Homemade Dulce De Leche (original source)

• So, you take 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk and 3 clean pint size mason jars.
• Take and fill your mason jars with the sweetened condensed milk and fill your 3 jars as even as possible. Put the lids and rings on the mason jars.
• Place them in your crock pot and fill with water to just below the lids.
• Set your crock pot to low and let work for 10 hours.

I let mine sit over night and it was like MAGIC!

The milk caramelizes so gorgeously and it is DELICIOUS!! Yum Yum!!! Enjoy y'all!!