Saturday, March 31, 2012

GLUTEN FREE PACKAGE SALE

Hello friends! I am happy to announce that Shelf Reliance is having a sale on their Gluten Free Package. All of the items in this package are #10 cans, and have been certified by the GFCO to be gluten free at a rate of 10ppm or less. And we're not just talking grains here. Freeze-dried fruits and veggies, powdered milk, cheese blend, proteins, egg powder... lots of fantastic stuff to have a balanced gluten free home store. The details and contents of the package can be found below. The sale price will be valid through April 15th. Let me know if you have any questions or when you're ready to place your order.


Gluten Free Package
Catalog ID: 25432
Regular Price: $1684.34
Sale Price: $1396.49

Contains:
12 White Rice
6 Millet
6 Cornmeal
6 Rice Flour
4 Quinoa
6 Amaranth
1 Sweet Corn (FD)
1 Broccoli (FD)
4 Carrot Dices
2 Chopped Onions
2 Split Green Peas
1 Potato Dices (FD)
3 Green Peas (FD)
6 Potato Chunks
6 Tomato Powder
2 Bananas (FD)
2 Strawberries (FD)
2 Raspberries (FD)
6 Apple Slices
1 Pineapple Chunks (FD)
1 Blueberries (FD)
1 Blackberries (FD)
6 Powdered Milk
4 Cheese Blend
4 Chocolate Drink Mix
6 Whole Egg Powder
1 Black Beans
6 Pinto Beans
3 Lentils
2 Lima Beans
3 Chicken TVP
3 Bacon TVP
5 Taco TVP
2 White Sugar

Monday, March 19, 2012

Pina Colada Bites


I served these bad boys at a party recently, and my friend popped one in her mouth, expecting a normal macaroon (which she's had before and loves). But tasting that this was not your ordinary macaroon, her eyes got big, she turned to me and exclaimed, "What did you DO?"

Not much really. It is seriously so easy to make these awesome cookies. Just take 1/2 cup THRIVE FD Pineapple powder/small pieces. Any dry foods tend to have some breakage (think potato chips, cereal, etc. You always have crumbs at the bottom of the bag) and FD fruits and veggies are no exception. But you don't have to throw away those crumbs with THRIVE. Throw them into soups, smoothies, oatmeal, or in this case, cookies.

So with your 1/2 cup of powder and crumbs, drizzle just enough cold water onto it to make a paste like you see below.  (Do 1 tsp at a time)




 Once you have your paste, add 2 cups of THRIVE Macaroon mix. Just be careful who you stand next to when you open the can. I swear that stuff is an olfactory aphrodisiac. Then add 1/4 cup hot water. Stir, and drop onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  This recipe will make about 2 dozen bite sized cookies.

Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes, (longer if you do larger cookies). When the edges just barely start to caramelize and turn brown, that's when you know they're down. Let cool, eat and enjoy!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Cheesy Quinoa Bites (easily gluten free)

As a reminder, the meat and cheese sale is ending in about 12 hours (10am MST Thursday March 8th). these are some incredible deals, and you don't want to miss out on them. So call me at 714-683-7562 to place your order. I'm up early with my boys (7am) so don't put off the call until the last minute.

In honor of the cheese on sale, and quinoa being on sale with the March specials, I am posting my recipe for Cheesy Quinoa bites. I must first start by giving credit where credit is due - this recipe is an adaptation of the one you'll find on the blog  "So Very Blessed".  I saw the recipe on Pinterest, and I had been wanting to try a quinoa recipe for a while. Here's the finished result:



I'm going to give a disclaimer here. I experimented with gluten free baking, cooking with quinoa, and cooking in my Sun Oven, all at the same time with this recipe. Because I'm not an expert at any of those things (yet!) my attempt at this recipe didn't turn out as well as it could have, but I could still taste the potential. Everyone liked it and wanted the recipe, so it worked out in the end. But what I'm going to give you is the ideal recipe to set you up for success, (the recipe I will be following in the future), instead of what I actually did.

The main problem I had with mine is that they didn't set in the middle. They stayed too mushy. Three factors contributed to this:

  1. I started with cooked quinoa that was too gummy. Next time I need to use quinoa with less moisture in it. Too see a picture of my plain cooked quinoa that was too gummy, as well as instructions on how to cook quinoa, see my quinoa post. 
  2. I cooked in the Sun Oven, which requires less liquid than a normal oven and keeps your food more moist. Moist food is great... unless you are starting with too much moisture to begin with like I was. So the first time you try this recipe, use your normal oven, or else you'll have to add additional cooking time like I did. 
  3. The original recipe calls for all-purpose flour. I wanted to keep it gluten free, and so I swapped Rice flour for all-purpose flour. But because gluten is a binding agent, and rice flour is gluten free, the flour didn't bind the ingredients, and so the bites stayed mushy instead of firming up like they were supposed to. If you do want to keep it gluten free, mix some corn starch into your rice flour to help with the binding. 

Even with all those set backs, I just had to take the bites out of the tins, flip them onto some parchment paper to bake the other sides, and cook them for additional time (a few extra 15 minutes installments in my Sun Oven). 
This allowed the edges to harden up more and not be mushy. And my hubby and guests said they were still good enough to want the recipe. So here is the improved recipe for you to try, just keep in mind my stumbling blocks so you don't repeat my mistakes! 





CHEESY QUINOA BITES
1/4 cup THRIVE Carrots
1/4 cup THRIVE FD Onions
1 cup cooked THRIVE Quinoa (not too mushy)
1/2 cup THRIVE FD Cheddar Cheese, reconstituted
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp seasoning salt
1 tsp dried parsley (substitute 1 Tbsp fresh Parsley or fresh cilantro, if desired)
1 Tbsp finely chopped green onion
1 tsp minced garlic
1/8 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp THRIVE Egg powder
1 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
¼ cup water


Combine ¼ c carrots and ¼ c fd onions with 1 cup water in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until carrots are tender. Drain excess water, (should be very little) and pour the reconstituted veggies (should have expanded to about 1 cup) into a mixing bowl.
Add 1 cup cooked quinoa and ½ cup cheddar cheese (reconstituted).

In a smaller mixing bowl, combine the seasonings, herbs, flour, egg powder and water. Once combined, add to quinoa mixture and stir well until everything is combined. 


Spray a mini muffin tin, fill with quinoa mixture, then bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Edges should be slightly "crusted" and the middle of the bite should be firmed up. They taste great as is, or dipped in your choice of dressing. 

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Important Sale Updates!

*IMPORTANT UPDATE (3/6/12): Due to the overwhelming response to the sale on the meat and cheese packs, Shelf Reliance currently has these packages on back order and will be ending the sale early to ensure that all back-ordered items can be filled and shipped in a timely manner. To ensure that you can get in on this awesome deal, we must place your order by Thursday March 8th at 10am MST. So contact me right away and add some quality freeze dried protein to your food storage. 


Also, the March Specials are now effective, and the link has been updated under "Links to Help You Thrive". You can also click here to see the March Specials. Items on sale this month include Yogurt Bites, Apple Sauce, Bacon TVP, Cheese Blend, Melon Berry Drink Mix, Green Peas, Split Green Peas, Potato Beans, Whole Strawberries, Turkey Dices, and Quinoa!  In honor of Quinoa being on sale, and the Cheese package on sale, I promise to post my Cheesy Quinoa Bites recipe tomorrow. Just wanted to make sure you got the sale updates right away.