Food Storage Friday: Chicken Coconut Rice

My wonderful sister-in-law Jennifer, who is a whiz in the kitchen and one of the funniest people I know, sent me this recipe this week that I think will easily convert into a bag meal recipe, with a few modifications. I have it on her word that it is a delicious recipe, so I don't hesitate to share it here.

I am planning to try it, but since my meal planning for the month is already all set and I've already done all the shopping, I didn't want to make an extra trip to get these ingredients. It is going on the meal plan for next month, but if you try it before I do I'd love to hear how it goes. :)

Here's the recipe:

Chicken Coconut Rice

2 cups water

1 14oz can coconut milk


1 can water chestnuts

1 12oz can chicken breast

Resealable bag:

2 cups rice
2 tsp sugar


Resealable bag:
1/2 cup roasted peanuts

Combine all ingredients, except peanuts, in a rice cooker and press cook. OR Combine rice, sugar, water, and coconut milk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with a tight fitting lid. Boil on high heat for 15 minutes, then remove from heat and set aside for 10 minutes, then fluff. Add chicken and water chestnuts. Top with peanuts and serve. In times of plenty, top with cilantro. Also, if you can, supplement this by adding 1/2 cup frozen peas.

And here's the recipe card:

 

Note: Michelle Snow just let me know that you can store roasted peanuts in a snack bag, so you can go ahead and put them in your bag meal. Awesome! I'll correct the recipe card when I'm at my home computer.

Food Storage Friday: A Helpful Site Change

So, I thought it might be a good idea to put all the recipe cards I've created in a central place. You may have noticed a new button at the top of the blog. Right there next to "Home" and "Favorite Blogs," there's now a button for "Recipe Cards." So now you don't have to go slogging through all my posts to find a recipe card for your bag meals. They're all there. I'll keep updating it, too, as I add more recipe cards to the repertoire.

In other food-related news, this week I decided to do something a little crazy. I usually make a one-week meal plan and then go buy everything I need for those meals. One week at a time, that's how I did things. Well, after reading a lot about meal planning, trying to get some new ideas, I decided to try planning an entire month's worth of meals. I know - exciting!

Food Storage Friday: Pancakes 2.0

Well, we've had an interesting week. This is what has been going on around here:

Isaac and I had a lot of fun watching the men with the various types of saws hacking away at our trees. Hopefully we will have a lot fewer apricots and apples than last year, but at the same time a lot better. :)

I did manage to tear our eyes away from the window for a little while this morning in order to try again on the whole wheat pancakes. I really wanted to figure out what went wrong last time - and guess what? I totally figured it out. I was trying to modify the food storage recipe to a fresh foods recipe (I don't have any powdered eggs, yet) and I totally misunderestimated (yep, I said it) the amount of eggs I would need. For some reason I thought 3 tablespoons of powdered egg would be just one fresh egg. Wrong.

Food Storage Friday: Carribean Chicken over Rice

Hi friends,
I talked to Michelle about sharing recipes from her book, and here's the conclusion: I really respect this woman and all she has done and is doing, so I won't be sharing any of the copyrighted recipes, even with "tweaks". I will continue sharing my own recipes, and I'll probably share reviews of the recipes we've tried from the book from time to time (unless you'd consider that a tease?).

But the good news is that I do have permission to share her recipes that she has already made public in one form or another. :) So, today I'll be sharing the Carribean Chicken over Rice recipe.

Food Storage Friday: Recipe Reviews and a Recipe Card

So, mostly to help myself and my family stay on track with our food storage, I've decided to post about food storage every Friday! :) Yay!

James and I have decided our goal is to make and store a 3-month supply of bag meals by the end of the year. That means 5 a week for the rest of the year, which would give us 2 bag meals a day for 90 days. Of course, this 3-month supply would probably last us longer than that, seeing as each meal can feed up to 8 people and we are only 2 and a half people around here. So, each meal will have leftovers for maybe 2 more meals even. So, I'm thinking this is a good goal.

Bag Meal Recipe: Lemon Garlic Chicken

My wonderful sister-in-law Jennifer gave me a crock-pot version of this recipe a few years ago. It has been one of our family favorites ever since, it is so easy and so yummy. My husband requests it at least once a week. It is one of those foods that actually makes really great leftovers. The rice soaks up the sauce and it is so delicious. I adjusted a few things to make it bag-meal friendly, and fast!

Bag Meal Recipe: Chicken and Green Chile Soup

This recipe is actually one my brilliant mother invented one day. It is such a delicious, quick, and hearty meal. You can use all sorts of different things in it, so if anything doesn't sound like something you would eat, swap it out for something else. My mom uses great northern beans and pinto beans. I like black beans and kidney beans. And you can tweak it however you like!

Um, Where Do I Put it All?

A major obstacle with any food storage plan is where in the heck you're supposed to keep it all. It might seem like bag meals would be even more difficult to find a place for, but actually they're not. In fact that's one of the 12 benefits of bag meals listed in It's in the Bag - they take up less space. Michelle Snow (the author) says before using bag meals, her two-year supply of food storage took up 1000 square feet. After switching to bag meals, she was able to keep a supply for the same amount of time in just a 16 1/2 by 4 ft area.

image courtesy of Michelle Snow

But even that is more than a lot of us have. Well, I think one of the major mistakes we make when trying to figure out where to store it all is thinking that we have to keep it all in one place. When working with a small apartment, tiny house, or even a big house that just happens to be filled with people, you have to think a little more outside the storage room.

Putting Together a Bag Meal

I'm a bit peeved right now, seeing as I just finished a beautifully detailed and illustrated post on how to put together and use a bag meal, and somehow using a combination of ctrl+z and the back button I managed to delete it all. Argh. Well, here's hoping that this frustrating experience leads to a better post somehow.

Ok, so I thought we'd dive in to some specifics today and talk about how exactly to make and use bag meals. First off, just to reiterate, the concept behind a bag meal is that you gather everything you would need to prepare an entire meal and you store it in a bag. This means, of course that you need to find non-perishable versions of your recipe items. This is not as hard as it might sound - canned meats, canned vegetables, dehydrated vegetables, and even canned or powdered dairy products are all available.

It's All in the Bag Giveaway!

Ok, I've got some awesome news! Michelle Snow, author of It's in the Bag saw on facebook that I'm blogging about bag meals and she offered to do a giveaway! This lady is one of the kindest, most generous people I've ever met. She has such a passion for this, and a real concern that people should be prepared. Read more about her on her website.

A Little about Bag Meals

So, I've been debating whether to post about this topic or not, since I am not even close to being an expert. I have only just started my bag meal food storage, so I don't have all the answers. But I decided to go ahead and jump in there and share what I know, simply because I am excited about it, and I think more people would like to try it, too, if they knew about it.