{"id":347,"date":"2016-11-13T19:44:14","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T02:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/?p=347"},"modified":"2016-11-17T20:34:53","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T03:34:53","slug":"pantry-friendly-meals-i-do-not-think-this-means-what-you-think-it-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/?p=347","title":{"rendered":"Pantry Friendly Meals, I do not think this means what you think it means."},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh the internet.\u00c2\u00a0 Such a wealth of information, and sometimes, oh so useless.\u00c2\u00a0 Seeking out good recipes using long term pantry stores is a veritable minefield of annoyances.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s amazing what some people consider a “pantry meal”.\u00c2\u00a0 I do a search for some variation of “pantry friendly meals” or “disaster meals” or “emergency food recipes”, and it’s just an overload of mostly unhelpful information.\u00c2\u00a0 Lots of pages without actual recipes, many pages of recipes that you can make with food bank boxes (and most of them have a staple set for each client that includes some fresh foods), and a whole lot of nonsense.<\/p>\n

Result 1 of my search.\u00c2\u00a0 7 days of fast, pantry friendly meals.\u00c2\u00a0 The grocery list follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fresh Produce<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Pears \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Apples \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Salad greens\/lettuce \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Avocados \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Grapefruit \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Limes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Tomatoes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Carrots \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Celery \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Cucumbers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Onions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Garlic<\/p>\n

Fridge<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Parmesan \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Cheddar cheese \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Blue cheese \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Fontina cheese \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Turkey bacon \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Ham or prosciutto \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Eggs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Mayo \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Hummus \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Butter<\/p>\n

Freezer<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Peas \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Spinach<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

Pantry\/Staples<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Marinated artichokes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Sun-dried tomatoes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Olive oil \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Vinegar \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Balsamic salad dressing \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Tomato soup\/squash soup \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Canned\/jarred salsa \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Walnuts \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Raisins \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Black beans \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Dried pasta \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Canned tuna<\/p>\n

Spices<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Curry powder \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Dried oregano \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Kosher salt and pepper (to taste)<\/p>\n

Breads<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Whole wheat tortilla \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Whole wheat bread \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Whole wheat pita<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

As many fresh, frozen, and refrigerated products as anything you would store or could make from your stores.\u00c2\u00a0 Next search, first hit, a whole blog on Pantry Friendly Cooking.\u00c2\u00a0 First recipe calls for mac and cheese with fresh cheese using a pressure cooker.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Next recipe is a little better, if not so practical.\u00c2\u00a0 Personalized chocolate Easter eggs.\u00c2\u00a0 You of course need the mold, and tubed frosting, and 3\/4 cup butter (canned butter is so expensive, and I am not sure butter powder would work in candies), but at least all the ingredients are from the pantry.\u00c2\u00a0 The next recipe I see again calls for a pressure cooker, and includes a head of garlic, 3 bell peppers, a couple onions, chicken breast (raw), fresh asparagus, fresh shrimp, mussels, and lemons.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it happens to use rice, canned tomatoes and canned chickpeas, its pantry friendly?<\/p>\n

Clearly, my definition of a pantry meal is a little different.\u00c2\u00a0 And its not just these two sites.\u00c2\u00a0 9 out of 10 that I have looked at are like this.\u00c2\u00a0 The 10th either is selling a book with actual LTS recipes, or is a list of foods to have on hand without actual giving recipes other than maybe “oatmeal for breakfast, tuna with crackers for lunch, rice and beans for dinner”.<\/p>\n

So I picked up a few second hand books.\u00c2\u00a0 Apocalypse Chow<\/a> (be warned, the Robertsons have published at least 3 different disaster meal cookbooks, and there are many repeats between them), Simple Recipes\u00c2\u00a0using Food Storage<\/a>, and\u00c2\u00a0100-Day Pantry<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 I read some others via Kindle Unlimited.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I’m not linking those; they were almost all universally bad.\u00c2\u00a0 Poorly edited, clearly not self created recipes, but regurgitating things they found online.\u00c2\u00a0 People looking to make a few bucks, not credible cookbook authors.\u00c2\u00a0 Oddly, almost all of them have high reviews.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll find 1 or 2 low reviews, usually with\u00c2\u00a0the same complaints I voice.\u00c2\u00a0 They must be creating false accounts, or getting family and friends to buoy the reviews.\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t account for it otherwise!\u00c2\u00a0 The one exception for me was “Dinner is in the Jar<\/a>“.\u00c2\u00a0 This book provided an excellent walk through on how to make mason jar meals using a vacuum sealer, from long term storage foods, along with add-ons (most of which are also available as pantry staples, like ground beef, or cooked cubed chicken).\u00c2\u00a0 The author also provides a method for making these meals using mylar bags instead of mason jars.<\/p>\n

At any rate, those 4 I linked do provide what I would consider “Pantry Meals”.\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t say they universally appeal to me.\u00c2\u00a0 I am not a fan of processed foods.\u00c2\u00a0 For a short term disaster, I suppose that is one thing, but I can not see feeding my family endless days of canned soups, spaghetti-os, chiles, et all.\u00c2\u00a0 And I am not buying cream of mushroom\/chicken\/celery soup.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t care how ubiquitous it is in easy pantry meals.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s repulsive.\u00c2\u00a0 I want to be able to cook mostly as I do now – meals made from whole foods, not pre-processed items.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, this will be more expensive but well, it is what it is.<\/p>\n

At any rate, I have been collecting recipes that will work for my family from these sources, although they come in different degrees of pantry-usingness.\u00c2\u00a0 I have been labeling them as “Pantry Friendly”, which is almost all long term storage items, but might include 1-2 things that you would have on hand during a short term emergency, or if you had a root cellar (such as garlic), and LTS Recipes, which are those that can be made entirely from pantry stores, including freeze dried or dehydrated items.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Many of the recipes that I use now can be converted as well; I just have to figure out how to use dehydrated garlic and onion and such in place of the fresh versions.<\/p>\n

LTS Asian Chicken Soup<\/p>\n

1 (10- to 15-oz.) can chicken
\nI (15-oz.) can carrots
\n1 (15-oz.) can bean sprouts
\n1 (6-oz.) can mushrooms
\n1 (14-oz.) can chicken broth
\n2 oz. fine noodles (3 oz. Ramen noodles are okay)
\n1 T. onion flakes
\n1 tsp. garlic flakes
\n\u00c2\u00bd tsp. ground ginger
\n3-4 T. soy sauce
\nscant 1\/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar<\/p>\n

Do not drain the vegetables. Combine all ingredients and simmer until noodles are soft. Ramen noodles are not labeled for two years\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 storage, so rotate them more often.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh the internet.\u00c2\u00a0 Such a wealth of information, and sometimes, oh so useless.\u00c2\u00a0 Seeking out good recipes using long term pantry stores is a veritable minefield of annoyances.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s amazing what some people consider a “pantry meal”.\u00c2\u00a0 I do a search for some variation of “pantry friendly meals” or “disaster meals” or “emergency food recipes”, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[12,38],"class_list":["post-347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-storage","tag-food","tag-recipe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions\/349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}