Cooking With Your Stored Food – Mexican Casserole
Many (most all) preppers have extra food stored in their home. I would say that if you are buying freeze-dried size 10 cans, you may have never eaten some of your stored food. The reason that I say this is because many of you may have things like, TVP, powdered butter and eggs, and other freeze-dried foods in your food storage. Practice using them in recipes now!
I can speak from first hand experience that working with some of these takes some experimenting and practice. My thinking is that’s it’s better to experiment now than after a catastrophe happens. This way when you try a recipe you will know what ‘works’ and what doesn’t. Practicing may also help you realize that you need to add additional ingredients to your food storage. Or perhaps you will really like one particular ingredient and ‘now’ you will have the chance to order more. Doing this will also help you to keep your rotation of foods fresh.
Several years ago we purchased our flour mill, and posted an article How To Use The NutriMill Flour Mill. Now, it wasn’t learning how to work with the mill that was the problem. Learning how to use the mill took all of five minutes. What I’m glad I started doing now, and not waiting until a catastrophe happens, is learning how to cook with all of the grains I milled (note that even if and after TSHTF, we have solar energy to power the mill – but a hand grain mill is also an excellent choice).
Let me tell you that cooking with all of these whole grains is a technique all its own. So, practice now! In fact, just learning about all of the different types of wheat berries was a day of reading all on its own. Having said all this, I thought I’d share a nice, ‘use your food storage’, recipe for Mexican Casserole.
Lauren’s Easy Mexican Casserole
1 cup of chicken TVP (from your food storage)
1 envelope taco seasoning (from your food storage)
3/4 cup water
1 can re-fried beans (from your food storage)
1/2 cup salsa (from your food storage)
1 can corn (from your food storage)
6 6-inch flour tortillas (you can make these from scratch!) Let me know if you’d like the recipe.
shredded taco or cheddar cheese (or powdered cheese sauce – just add water)
In a large skillet, add the water, chicken TVP and taco seasoning. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer for about 5 minutes.
In a microwaveable bowl, combine the re-fried beans and salsa. Microwave for a minute or so until they are easily spreadable.
In a greased, 8 inch round casserole dish, place a flour tortilla. Layer with your beans and salsa, TVP, and corn. Then sprinkle with some cheese. Repeat layers. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 – 45 minutes. Let stand for a few minutes, then serve with tomatoes, lettuce and avocado!
Now let’s say you have no power.
You can still boil the TVP, taco seasoning and the water on your camp stove or whatever you are using for cooking.
If your microwave is out due to power loss, then, in a pan combine the re-fried beans and salsa. Simmer for a minute or so until they are easily spreadable.
Also, the nice thing about this recipe is that the foods are already cooked. So, if your oven isn’t working, not to worry. The casserole dish really just needs to be ‘heated’, not ‘cooked’, for flavor and palatable blending of the ingredients. You can also do this by putting the covered casserole dish on your camp stove on low heat for a time until the cheese melts and there is some bubbling happening with the beans and salsa. Even better, place it in your solar oven if you have one!
The thing is, start experimenting with recipes that use your food storage, and at the same time imagine how you would put it together without electricity or refrigeration – which may reveal to you other additional food substitutes or supplies that you may need.
Enjoy!
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