Category Archives: Recipes

Awesome 100% KAMUT Bread

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My wife is gluten sensitive so she was trying some gluten free breads and they are nasty and go bad fast. I was able to make some gluten free breads from scratch but they are not as good as real bread. One night I made up some experimental kamut bread (using whole grain kamut flour that I milled my self in the WonderMill grain mill) and she had some and it did not cause her issues like other wheat products did, spelt grain and Kamut grain still have gluten in them but they are much easier to digest than regular wheat. So I decided I needed to develop a really good kamut bread so my wife could have some real bread that is easy on her tummy.

I have used kamut grain a lot in the past but not much for breads. One problem I have had with spelt grain and Kamut grain is that the bread dough has less gluten than regular wheat so it tends to not rise as well and is prone to collapse. It can also tends to come out very dense, which is OK but not ideal.

I have found that using a narrow bread pan helps in supporting the frame of the rising bread better than the regular shape of bread pans commonly found at stores. The narrow width keeps the bread from collapsing while rising and it seems to rise better, giving you a better crumb in the finished bread. I also found that it helps in cooking the bread more evenly through to the middle if the pan is narrower.

I also like dark color bread pans better as well since they conduct heat fast and don’t take long to get hot. Do not use glass bread pans, they will fail you.

Get a good bread pan, it will make a big difference in your bread, especially whole grain breads. The bread pans I now use is the Norpro 8 inch bread pans as shown in the photo to the right. This pan is narrow, dark, a nice non-stick beveled sides, and is a great price too.

After quite a few experiments while my wife was on vacation in California I got the kamut bread close to the way I wanted it to turn out and got it nailed down over Thanksgiving vacation. My little 8 year old enjoyed eating all the experimental bread with me, especially with our homemade peach jam.

So here is the recipe for two 1 1/2 pound loves of 100% KAMUT grain bread, with no added dough enhancers or added gluten.

KAMUT Bread Recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups hot water
  • 1/3 oil (I use vegetable oil)
  • 2 tablespoons agave (honey or sugar will work too)
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 egg
  • 5 cups KAMUT flour (fresh ground in the WonderMill Grain Mill)
  • 2 teaspoons yeast (I like Saf yeast)

Directions:

Add water, shortening, sugar, and salt to the WonderMix mixer bowl.

Add 3 cups of the flour to the mixer bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top of the flour.

Add the egg on top of the flour.

Turn on the mixer and add the remaining flour (you may need a little more or a little less than 5 cups).

Mix for 5-6 minutes, just until the dough looks good.

Remove from mixer and place in a oiled container to let rise for 1 hour.

Punch down dough and form 3 loaves and place in 1 pound bread pans.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees while the dough rises in bread pans for about 30 minutes.

Put bread in the oven and reduce heat to 350 degrees.

Bake for 26 minutes.

Remove from bread pan and let cool for at least 15 minutes (1 hour for best results but we all know how hard it is to resist bread right out of the oven).

*NOTE: you can use this dough recipe for rolls if you cut the KAMUT flour down to 4 1/5 cups so it is a stickier dough, which is better for rolls.

My Kitchen Mixer
I use the WonderMix Revolution kitchen mixer for all my breads, it does an excellent job developing the dough’s gluten for a silky smooth elastic dough. For batches of dough smaller than 5 loaves I like to use the dough divider attachment, I do spray it with oil before I put it on the mixer so it works much better instead of dough sticking to it.

How to grind your own kamut flour
I use the WonderMill electric grain mill for all my grain grinding, it does the job fast and it has a top brand motor in it that will last and perform. It is so awesome to pour 5 cups of grain in the WonderMill and it is done in a minute or so, and the flour is so fine and perfect.

Pumpkin French Toast Recipe w/ Buttermilk Syrup

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Pumpkin french toast with buttermilk syrup tastes so good it is to die for, and if you eat it to often you might just do that. I love it when I make something and my picky 9 year old daughter (who is harder to feed than my autistic son at times) thinks it is the best thing she ever ate. I know it’s not healthy but hey, I got the major thumbs up from the little twerp and sometimes that is worth it.

Pumpkin French Toast recipe

You all know I am a PUMPKIN FREAK and this recipe makes a great addition to my pumpkin recipes but one thing that makes this recipe even better is using Italian bread (or even french bread) instead of loaf bread. You do not want an Italian bread with a very hard crust, you want one with a softer crust.

Italian bread just makes the flavor and texture over the top. I get a pre-sliced Italian Round bread from Fred Meyer. The other great thing about this bread is the slices are super wide so it makes a french toast slab that looks awesome and is big enough that my little ones only need one slice to fill them up. If you don’t want to be super cool well then just use plain old loaf bread blah blah blah. Why would you want a just a slice of french toast when you can have a slab of it?

You can use regular syrup with Pumpkin French Toast but buttermilk syrup (see recipe below) is going to make this dish OVER-THE-TOP, seriously SO GOOD!!!

OK, now stop reading my BLAH BLAH BLAH and start making this amazing french toast…

Pumpkin French Toast Recipe

Ingredients:
11-15 slices of bread
3 eggs
2/3 cup Pumpkin Puree
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp Vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup milk

Directions:

  1. Add eggs, pumpkin puree, sugar, and cinnamon to a mixing bowl and whip together.
  2. Add milk and vanilla and whip thoroughly.
  3. Pre-heat pancake griddle to 350 degrees (or heat pan on medium heat for stove top).
  4. Dip each side of the bread in the mixture letting it soak in a bit.
  5. Cook on griddle for 4 minutes each side.
  6. Repeat and eat.
  7. Optionally garnish it with a sprinkle of powdered sugar or some whip cream if desired.

Buttermilk Syrup Recipe

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

  1. In a large sauce pan on medium heat and add sugar, butter, buttermilk, and baking soda.
  2. Continuously stir mixture until it starts to boil and foam up to 3 times its volume (hence the larger sauce pan).
  3. Bring it to a boil for 2 minutes, continuously stirring the whole time.
  4. Remove from heat and add vanilla and stir it in.
  5. Ready to serve.

Pumpkin French Toast recipe with Buttermilk syrup

Gluten-FREE?
If eat gluten free you can still do pumpkin french toast. In fact it is one of the best ways to enjoy those blah tasting rice breads you buy at the stores, coat them with pumpkin french toast goodness and you will forget it’s gluten free.

Reheating French Toast
One great thing about french toast is that they make great leftover snacks for other days. Just put them in a toaster and the out side will come out nicely toasted and the inside will be warm and tender, way better than left over waffles and pancakes.

Make Rolled Oats & Flaked Grains

Make Rolled Oats & Flaked Grains

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Have you ever bought rolled oats from the store and they had very little taste or a bitter taste? They lack taste because they have either been over processed or sat on the shelf for way to long. They may also become slightly rancid when they have been sitting way to long. These store bought rolled oats or flaked grains are also often void of most of their nutrition.

I love fresh rolled oats and other grains. They are full of wonderful flavor and packed with whole grain nutrition, say goodbye to the blah store bought rolled oats and flaked grains by making them fresh in your kitchen.

I have been rolling my own oats and flaking grains for about 8 years now and have learned that TWO simple things that make it MUCH BETTER.

Tip #1 Prep The Grains

When I first started I just poured the grains in the grain flaker mill and got brittle flaked oats. This worked alright but it was not what I really wanted, I wanted nice whole flaked grains that held together for use in breakfast cereals, deserts, breads, and so on… I did not want crumbs of flaked grains that easily fell apart.

To overcome this I found you need to pre-soak the grains with a little bit of water first, then the result will be real flaked grains and not flaked crumbs (see photo below to see the difference). The pre-soak with very little water makes the grain just soft enough for an effective flattening process that holds together.

Here is the Steps for Prepping Your Grains:

  1. Put 2 cups of grains or oat groats (or mixture of grains) in a seal-able container.
  2. Add 2-3 teaspoons of cold water (I use 3).
  3. Seal the container and shake vigorously for 15 seconds to spread the water around to all the grains.
  4. Let sit for 1 minute or so and shake again.
  5. Let the sealed container sit overnight, at least 8 hours or more.
  6. Now the grains are ready to be flaked.

This is probably the most important part of flaking your own grains. Not many people think to do it but it makes all the difference in grain flaking. Most commercial companies steam their oats before rolling them flat for best results.

Tip #2 The Right Grain Flaker Mill

The FGM Grain Flaker (by Family Grain Mill)
I have tried many grain flakers, expensive and cheap, and have settled on the FGM (Family Grain Mill) Grain Flaker (made in Germany). What I like most about this unit is it uses a rough roller to pull the grains through but the other side is a curved shaped flat surface (see photo to the right) that helps keep the grain from getting crushed to much so your end product is better. All of the other grain flakers use two rough rollers and do not provide as good of an end product as the FGM Grain Flaker.

 

Another thing I like about the FGM Grain Flaker mill is that it can be used as a kitchen mixer attachment for many brands of kitchen mixers (some require an additional attachment part) or it can be used as a hand cranked stand alone unit. I use it both ways. It fits directly on to my WonderMix Revolution Kitchen Mixer so I can roll oats and grains with no effort or when I want to be quiet I put it on the hand crank base which turns effortless to produced flaked grains (my kids like to do it this way). This hand crank base for the Family Grain Mill products is also great for preppers / off grid minded people and they have several other attachments.

(Family Grain Mill attachments can fit many different brands of mixers and even a hand base)

How it works
Just pour the grains (preferably prepped as mentioned above) into the grain flaker’s hopper and start cranking the handle and the grains come out flatted, it is as simple as that.

Storing Freshly Flaked Grains

I have found that freshly flaked grains keep most of their flavor (and probably their nutrition) for at least a month in a sealed container at room temperature. I would not store them for more than 3 months, if used with-in 3 months you will always get a better tasting product and more nutrition than any of the store bought brands or bulk bins.

You can also put the sealed container of flaked grains in the freezer to keep them fresh and preserved for even longer.

The Grains

The nice thing about whole grains is that they stay good for years and years. I buy grains in bulk and flake them or grind them into flour when I need them. I also pressure cooker the whole grains to add to recipes for a healthy filling accent to some foods. There are many grains that are gluten-free that you can flake, grind or use whole if that is needed in your diet like my wife does.

Grains I Flake
Oat Groats (whole oats), KAMUT, and Quinoa are the main grains I flake for cereals, deserts, and for adding to breads. You can also flake wheat, spelt, buckwheat, and many other grains. Some grains are too brittle such as einkorn for flaking at home.

Mix It Up
Most people just flake one kid of grain at a time, I find it best to flake a mixture of grains together. Each grain has its own certain health benefits that are sometimes more abundant in some grains than in others, for this reason I like to mix about 3 grains together to get the health benefits from all three grains in one meal.

My favorite grain mixture is 1 cup oat groats, 1/2 cup quiona, and 1/2 cup Kamut. you simply mix all the grains together before doing your pre-soak and running them through the grain flaker mill.

What Do You Do With Flaked Grains?

You can do many things with flaked grains, here are a few ideas:

  • Overnight Oats
  • Hot Cereal
  • Add to breads
  • Add to deserts and cookies
  • Granola mix or bars
  • Use in meatloaf
  • Risotto
  • Breakfast bars or power bars
  • Add to muffins
  • Add to casseroles
  • Add to soups
  • Apple Crumble

Overnight Oats My Favorite

My favorite thing to do with flaked grains and oats is overnight oats. There are hundreds of different recipes out there for overnight oats, which is great because if you do it the same all the time it get a bit blah so try lots of them and decide on a handful you like best. There are many reasons to do it, here is a few great articles:

What do you use rolled oats and flaked grains for?
Let us know in the comments section below.

Simple French Bread with KAMUT

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French-bread-with-Kamut-square

I am a whole grain guy but there are some breads that just have to have the white bread taste, for example a whole wheat french bread is really a baguette bread not french bread. For breads like these I use a KAMUT mixed in with a quality white flour, such as King Arthur, that is un-bleached and un-abominated.

I usually only use 1/3 KAMUT flour and the rest white four for recipes that I want to taste like white flour, this ratio with KAMUT leaves it tasting like white bread. For some reason KAMUT does not have that whole grainy taste like most whole grain flours do. So it is white bread but it still has that whole grain goodness hidden in there, no one ever knows that there is whole grain in it unless I tell them. I highly recommend using KAMUT in your white breads.

Now on to the KAMUT french bread, it is so easy (as you can see in the video below). French bread is an oily dough but the WonderMix mixer did great with mixing it.

http://youtu.be/1l16dHrhdoE

Simple French Bread with KAMUT
 
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Author:
Serves: 2 loaves
Ingredients
  • 2½ cups water
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon yeast
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1½ cups KAMUT flour
  • 4⅓ cups all purpose flour
  • 1 Tablespoon Salt
Instructions
  1. Add water, sugar, yeast, and olive oil to mixer bowl.
  2. Turn the mixer on to speed 1
  3. Add KAMUT flour.
  4. Add half of the all purpose flour and salt.
  5. Add the remaining all purpose flour and let it combine.
  6. Turn the mixer up to speed 2 and let it mix for 6-7 minutes.
  7. Turn dough out and cover and let it rise for 1 hour.
  8. Cut dough in half and shape 2 french bread loaves
  9. Cover, and let rise for 1 hour.
  10. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
  11. Cut angled slits in the top of the loaf (optional).
  12. Bake for 35 minutes so that it is nicely browned on top.
  13. Let cool and enjoy

 

French-bread-with-Kamut

French-bread-with-Kamut-tall

 

quick photo is courtesy of my wife ( who runs Vanilla Tree Photography)

100% Whole Wheat Potato Bread

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whole-wheat-potato-bread

I use lots of whole grain flours, as you can tell from many of my blog posts, but I still buy white bread from time to time. When I do buy white bread it is usually potato bread, I just love the soft texture and flavor. I found a few recipes on the internet and modified them to a potato bread recipe I like that uses 100% whole wheat flour, and it is now my favorite bread.

bread-with-butterThis was also a great recipe to break in the new WonderMix kitchen mixer, which I love especially for the price. I recently learned how to make butter from heavy cream in the mixer, which tasted awesome on the home made potato whole wheat bread.

Remember that fresh milled flour (milled within the last week) is the best for flavor, commercial whole wheat flour from the store will have a slightly bitter taste to it and less flavor.

5.0 from 1 reviews
100% Whole Wheat Potato Bread (WonderMix)
 
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makes 2 large loaves (9x5 bread pans) or 3 small loaves (8x4 bread pans).
Author:
Recipe type: bread
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 1 cup instant potato flakes (loose, not packed)
  • 1½ cups milk
  • 1½ cups hot water
  • ⅓ cup oil (i like avocado oil from Costco)
  • ⅓ cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 6¾ cups whole wheat flour
  • 1½ Tablespoons yeast (or 4½ teaspoons)
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ginger
Instructions
  1. Add potato flakes, liquids, oil, sugar, eggs, 2½ cups of whole wheat flour, and yeast to the mixing bowl and mix on speed 1 until just combined.
  2. Add 1 cup flour and pour salt on top of the flour.
  3. Turn mixer on to speed 1 and slowly add the remaining flour.
  4. Continue to mix on speed 1 for 7 minutes.
  5. Let rest dough for 30 seconds before removing.
  6. Place dough into a large oiled bowl, cover and let rise for 50 minutes.
  7. Place dough on a oiled counter top and punch down the dough.
  8. Cut dough in half (or 3rds if making 3 small loaves) and form into loaves.
  9. Place into oiled bread pans, cover and let rise for 25-30 minutes.
  10. Bake at 350° for 35-37 minutes (I usually go 36 minutes) until bread top is dark brown.
  11. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for 1-2 hours.
  12. Enjoy fresh bread, this is the most important step.

 

whole-wheat-potato-bread-top

 

(main photos were taken by Vanilla Tree Photography, my wife)

Corn-Free “Corn” Bread

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Whole Grain Corn Bread, corn-free

That’s right, corn bread without the corn! Just use Kamut flour and Millet flour to get the same cornbread texture effect and taste. Bread Beckers posted a recipe for Kamut “Corn” Bread on their Facebook page yesterday and I had to try it.

My WonderMill grain mill can grind both Kamut and Millet into fresh flour and luckily I had both of them on hand today, just pour the millet into the WonderMill slowly like you would any other small grain. The end result of this recipe was superb, my new favorite cornbread, thanks Bread Beckers.

Corn-Free "Corn" Bread (100% Whole Grain)
 
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Author:
Serves: 10
Ingredients
  • 1 cup Kamut flour
  • 1 cup millet flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1½ cup buttermilk (I use powdered buttermilk and water)
  • 2 large eggs
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Add all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and whisk together.
  3. Add all the wet ingredients to the mixing bowl and whisk for 40 seconds.
  4. Pour batter into greased cake pan and bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown.
  5. Best served while still warm (leftovers heat up nice and moist in the microwave).
Notes
Recipe source: Bread Beckers Facebook page.

 

I warmed up some pumpkin turkey chili for lunch to eat with this wonderful “Corn” Bread. Another great thing about this corn bread is that it contains millet which counteracts the gas effect you get from eating beans.

Corn-Free Cornbread and Pumpkin Chili

Both Kamut and Millet whole grains can be purchased from BreadBeckers.com if you can’t find those grains locally.

corn-free-corn-bread-2

Spinach Artichoke Kamut Pizza

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Spinach Artichoke Pizza with KAMUT Crust

Pizza Dough Rolled Out

Pizza Dough Rolled Out

Half-Baked Pizza Dough Topped

Half-Baked Dough Topped

One thing that I really enjoy using for pizza dough is KAMUT flour, it adds such a great taste. I commonly use a half KAMUT half white flour combo for a light textured crust with the wonderful flavor of KAMUT.

I could probably pull off a 100% KAMUT crust but I am not a purest and I like this recipe better right now. I based my recipe off of whole wheat pizza recipe I found from Donna Miller that I have been using for about a year now. I have altered this recipe several times now but the recipe below is what I like most.

KAMUT Pizza Crust

When I buy pizza, I really like Papa John’s Spinach Alfredo Pizza with bacon, spinach is a great pizza ingredient. Recently I found this recipe for Spinach Artichoke pizza that has just become my new favorite toppings. Combine the Spinach Artichoke with homemade KAMUT pizza crust and I am loving life, and so is whoever we invite over to share it with us.

On with the recipes…

Kamut Pizza Dough
 
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Makes 2 large thick pizza crusts.
Author:
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups hot tap water
  • 4 tablespoons white sugar
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ¼ teaspoon onion powder
  • 2 cups KAMUT flour (freshly milled)
  • 2 cups all-purpose white flour
  • ½ teaspoon yeast
Instructions
  1. Start the night before and bake the next day for lunch or dinner.
  2. Add all ingredients into the mixer except for the all-purpose white flour and yeast.
  3. Mix on low for 30 seconds.
  4. Add the all-purpose what flour to mixer bowl and add yeast on top of the flour.
  5. Mix on medium speed for 3½ minutes, add a little more flour if you feel it is needed.
  6. Remove dough from mixer and place in a greased bowl that is 3 times the size of the dough.
  7. Cover bowl lightly with plastic wrap and let rise over night.
  8. The next morning, dust the counter top with some flour and dump the dough out onto the floured surface.
  9. Divide the dough in half.
  10. Form each piece into a ball by pushing the edges into the bottom center of the dough until the top is a smooth round shape.
  11. pinch the bottom together and place each dough ball into a separate zip-lock bag with some air in each bag.
  12. Placed bagged dough in the fridge for use later, at least 30 minutes.
  13. Remove dough from fridge and roll each out onto a piece of parchment paper, leaving the edge a little thicker than the rest.
  14. Place pizza stone in oven and pre-heat to 425 degrees.
  15. Let oven pre-heat for 30 minutes.
  16. Transfer parchment paper with rolled out dough into the oven (flat cookie sheet works well for this) and bake for 4 minutes, then remove from oven. Repeat this step for 2nd pizza dough.
  17. Top half-baked pizza crust with sauce, toppings and cheese.
  18. Bake for 8-12 more minutes, until bottom of crust is well browned but not burnt.

 
Spinach Artichoke Pizza Toppings
 
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This makes enough sauce for about 2 large pizzas.
Author:
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup heavy cream
  • 6 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons cream cheese
  • ¾ cup fresh-grated Parmesan cheese
  • 2 tablespoons granular Parmesan, the stuff in the can (or use more Parmesan cheese)
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 6 ounces fresh spinach leaves, chopped smaller
  • 1 can artichoke hearts, rinsed and dried and chopped into 8ths
  • Dash Italian seasoning
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • About 1½ cups mozzarella cheese to top pizza
Instructions
  1. Add butter, heavy cream, and cream cheese to a sauce pan and stir over low heat until fully melted.
  2. Add grated and granular Parmesan cheese to sauce pan.
  3. Stir together and continue to cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. Cook spinach with 2 tablespoons water over medium low heat until wilted.
  5. Drain spinach and squeeze spinach dry in a few paper towels.
  6. Add spinach to sauce and stir well.
  7. Spread sauce over pizza crust and top with mozzarella cheese and artichoke.

 

Spinach artichoke pizza topping compliments whole wheat pizza crust quite well also, or any other pizza crust you want to put it on.

artichoke-pizza-3

Chocolate Pancakes using Spelt Flour

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Chocolate Spelt Pancakes

Comfort foods can help lighten our minds of the troubles we might go through if we ever had to use our food storage to get by. One thing my wife is addicted to, and most other women, is chocolate anything. Having this in mind, I decided to work up a chocolate pancake recipe for the current WonderMill Challenge that I am participating in (which I hope to get some cash from). I found a chocolate whole wheat pancake recipe on Food+Fun=Life blog that looked delicious.

After trying her recipe, I decided to make some I made some big changes. I added an egg, used spelt flour (freshly milled at a fine setting), and used a baking powder / baking soda combination instead of 4 teaspoons baking powder. I really liked the taste and texture that I got and I think the spelt flour tastes better than whole wheat flour with chocolate, plus spelt is better for you.

These pancakes disappeared super quick and are now our family favorite, it tastes a bit like chocolate cake. We have been topping them with a vanilla sauce found at the Food+Fun=Life blog, she also has a peanut butter sauce there that I would like to try also. Here is my pancake recipe below.

5.0 from 2 reviews
Spelt Chocolate Pancakes
 
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Makes about 12 small pancakes.
Author:
Serves: 3-4
Ingredients
  • 2 cups spelt flour
  • ½ cup cocoa powder
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1½ teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1½ cups milk
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 large egg
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat electric griddle to 375 degrees..
  2. Add all dry ingredients to a mixing bowl and whisk together.
  3. Add all wet ingredients to a 2nd mixing bowl and whisk together.
  4. Add dry ingredient mix to wet ingredient mixing bowl and whisk till it just comes together.
  5. Lightly spray your hot griddle with cooking spray.
  6. Use a ¼ measuring cup to scoop the pancake batter onto the griddle.
  7. I cook my pancakes 1 minute 45 seconds on the first side and 2 minutes 15 seconds on the second side for perfect pancakes, this may vary on your griddle.

 

Chocolate-Pancakes-frosted

The photographs are courtesy of my wife, she is a great photographer.

Chocolate-Pancakes-frosted3

Whole Grain Spelt Chocolate Pancakes

Artichoke Pasta Salad

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Artichoke Pasta Salad

Artichoke is something I have fallen in love with ever since I ate at a local Greek restaurant. Ever since then I look for something with artichoke on the menu of restaurants. I recently started to look into canned artichoke in my kitchen and have been having a lot of fun, one day I plan on getting daring and use fresh artichoke. Canned artichoke keeps for about a year, a good item to store if you can rotate it into your regular recipes.

My wife used to make pasta salad from a box quite a bit, which tastes fine but it is nothing compared to this pasta salad. Needless to say, we don’t buy boxed pasta salads anymore. We make it fresh and we make enough to use for a couple days.

5.0 from 1 reviews
Artichoke Pasta Salad
 
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Author:
Ingredients
  • 3 cups uncooked bow-tie pasta (or other pasta)
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1 can water-packed artichoke hearts, rinsed, drained and chopped
  • 2 can (2-1/4 ounces) sliced ripe olives, drained
  • 3 ounces sliced pepperoni
  • 1 small onion (red or yellow), diced
  • ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
  • ½ cup chopped green pepper
  • (optional) 1 Avocado diced
  • 1 cup Italian salad dressing
Instructions
  1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the mozzarella cheese, artichokes, avocado, olives, pepperoni, onion, Parmesan cheese, green pepper, and Italian dressing.
  3. Stir until well mixed.
  4. Drain pasta and rinse under cold water until pasta is chilled.
  5. Add chilled pasta to mixing bowl and toss together.
  6. Serve right away or cover and chill in the fridge till ready. I think it tastes better when it has chilled in the fridge for 30+ minutes, it seems to marinate a bit.

 

I usually use store bought Italian dressing because it is so cheap but you can even make your own Italian dressing dry mix if you want to store it long term. I make sure I have the spices and dry herbs to make the dry mix and put the recipe in my collection if I end up needing it.

Dry pasta is also a great item to have in your food storage, if stored properly it will keep for a really long time. I buy it in regular size packages and stuff the packages into a sealed 5 gallon bucket. Pasta does not have hardly any nutritional value, like white flour, but it is great for adding variety to your meals and it is easy to cook. My favorite pasta to use is the bow-tie pasta, it seems to be the easiest pasta for my toddler to eat by herself.

I store quite a bit of shredded cheese in my freezer which will keep it good for about 6 months or so, I haven’t fully tested this yet. I buy huge bags of shredded cheese at Costco and divide it up in freezer bags for convenience.

Onions and green pepper, as well as other vegetables you could substitute into this recipe, are easy to grow in your own garden. We started our first vegetable garden at our new house this year, hope all grows well. Even though onions and green peppers are cheap to buy I think it is a good thing for any prepper to grown there own.

Artichoke Pasta Salad

Vegetable Garden Minestrone Soup

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Minestrone Soup

My parents have always had a large garden that produces quite a bit, kind-of fitting since both of their parents were involved in farming during the great depression and through out their lives. if you ask my mom’s dad about the great depression he would tell you that he didn’t even notice it because his family and those in his community ate what they grew. It was so awesome as a kid to go out in our garden and just eat food right off the vine, peas where our favorites.

Now that I have a yard big enough to have a garden so we are starting this year with our first square food garden, the soil in our yard is not that good for a garden. We are planning to add more square food gardens every year till we have quite a garden to eat from, hope that plan works out like I am hoping. The idea is to grow more of what we eat instead of relying on the grocery stores for fresh fruits and veggies. We even planted 5 fruit trees last fall that should be producing in 3-4 years.

In the thought of starting our own garden, I wanted to share an awesome minestrone soup recipe that uses vegetables that can mostly be grown in our garden, as we expand it. My in-laws shared this recipe with us. The soup is a bit of work, mostly dicing and chopping, but it is so worth it.

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Vegetable Garden Minestrone Soup
 
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Serves: 10
Ingredients
  • Olive oil
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1 large carrot, chopped
  • 3 stalks celery, chopped
  • 2-3 small zucchinis, chopped
  • 1 yellow squash, chopped
  • 1 hand full fresh green beans, chopped
  • 2 cups cauliflower, chopped in larger chunks
  • Small head of cabbage, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese (or cheese rind)
  • 2 small tomatoes, diced
  • 3 cups water
  • 2 stalks fresh basil
  • 1 can garbanzo beans
  • 1½ cups frozen super sweet white corn
Instructions
  1. Pre-chop all your vegetables before you start.
  2. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a very large stock pot and heat to medium heat.
  3. Add the following vegetables to the pot one by one stirring about 30 seconds before adding the next vegetable, add a small drizzle of olive oil with each vegetable. Add onion, carrots, celery, zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, and cauliflower.
  4. Cover and let cook for about 7 minutes.
  5. Add cabbage, salt, parmesan cheese, tomatoes, and water to the pot and stir together.
  6. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer for 30 minutes.
  7. Add basil stalks, garbanzo beans, and white corn to pot and stir together.
  8. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
  9. Remove basil stalks (and cheese rind if you used one) and remove pot from heat.
  10. Serve topped with shredded parmesan cheese and a little drizzle of olive oil.

 

I also thought this recipe would give you a break from the whole grain recipes I have been sharing. I hope you give it a try and enjoy it.

Minestrone Soup bowl

We submitted this recipe to several whole food linkups: Whole Foods Wednesday, Traditional Tuesdays, Real Food Wednesday, Tasty Traditions, Nomday Monday, Delicious Dish Tuesday, Chef’s Day Off, and Eat Make Grow,