Notes from M.J.

Hi this is M.J. I am a staffer here at EZ Pantry, but I am also a mom. And, as mom, it seems like it falls on me to worry about what is for dinner. So, I am the first in the family to notice if we have food on hand.

I purchased my own food supply when I came on board here. I came home and put it in my closet for storage. And , it sat in my closet. And it sat…and it sat. I had this great idea when I purchased it that I would begin experimenting with it. I wanted to use it regularly to see if it really was as great as I thought it seemed to be . A few months went by and I realized that I was actually intimidated to start using it.

I was talking to my sister about it and she suggested to me that I maybe I should try just opening a few cans instead of trying to replace all my groceries for a week. That didn’t seem too hard, I thought, I could do that. So on a Saturday morning I opened the dried onions, tomato powder, cheese powder and potato dices.

I started first with the tomato powder because if you think about it, tomatoes, cheese and potatoes are common ingredients. I figured that tomato sauce or paste was in a great deal of the menu items I already prepared. I started with spaghetti sauce and was immediately sold. It mixed up so fast and my family ate it. I always shop for pre-made sauce without sugar. It is sometime hard to find a brand that is family budget friendly. So, this tomato powder was twice as big for us. It was fast and had no sugar. I also made Shepherd Pie and that worked out well. I did find that I had to add more water to the powder than the can called for to make it the consistency I wanted.

The success of these first meals made me feel brave. I tried French Onion Soup and made some bread in my bread maker. Even my husband, who is the pickiest of us all, liked it. He suggested that I use the soup as a base for a vegetable soup. I did that the next day and it went over well also.

I had a few failures and have not published those recipes. I tried to make a favorite breakfast meal at our house – Oven Pancakes – some people call them Monsters or German Pancakes. The powdered egg, which I had subsequently opened, did not rise as well. I haven’t given up, I just need to figure out how to use the powdered eggs in something that needs a little more leavening. However, I have used the powdered egg in homemade bread and other baked goods. I even made omelets one morning with them and those items all turned out well.

So, I am still experimenting. And, have become less timid. And, as the prospect of school and all our extra-curricular activities loom in front of me, my current quest has become finding food that is fast and easy that the kids will eat.

As an extra benefit, the first week I was trying new recipes I only spent half what I usually do for food. In subsequent weeks I have noticed a quarter to a half cut in my budget.

Here's what I learned...

1. Hide the cans from your kids when you first make something. If they see the can they automatically think it won't be good. One of my "best dinners ever, Mom" came by using the cheese powder - they just didn't know it! (This applies to husbands, too!)


2. Tip on reconstituting the butter powder.
I found that the butter did better in warm water blended in the blender. Otherwise, it was hard to get it to dissolve properly.

3. Tip on hydrating the vegetables.
I tried a few different ways. But, ultimately I found, with dehydrated vegetables, that if I boiled the water, removed it from the stove and poured it over the vegetables they hydrated the best.

Cheers for now,

M.J.