Food storage is one area where cooking Vegetarian meals are a great choice. Regardless of whether you’re committed to being meat-free or whether you really enjoy a good steak, learning to cook Vegetarian is an important skill to have, particularly when comes to being prepared for the worst. Meat is not only expensive, but it’s also difficult to store–either you have three freezers with a year’s supply, a cabinet full of Spam, or a closet full of jerky. Being able to reduce the amount of meat your family eats will allow you to stretch your budget and eat more nutritious foods that are easier to store.

Making Vegetarian Meals Satisfying
Perhaps a non-vegetarian’s biggest complaint with Vegetarian Cooking is that they don’t feel satisfied. Here are a couple of ways to make Vegetarian meals more filling.

1. Protein. Skimp on the meat, but not the protein. Beans and nuts are great meat-free sources of protein, but whole grains are as well. I love to accompany a Vegetarian soup or stew with whole wheat biscuits or whole wheat cornbread.

2. Fat. Fat not only enhances flavor, but is also digested more slowly, causing you to feel full longer. Although fat has gotten a bad rap in past years, we are understanding now that it’s important to have healthy fats, such as those found in Olive Oil and Canola Oil. I have found that when I don’t skimp on the fat in my meals, I am satisfied longer and don’t end up coming back to the kitchen for more snacking later on.

3. Variety and Flavor. Vegetarian recipes don’t need to be bland. Vegetarians are some of the best at integrating a variety of produce and flavorings to make truly exquisite dishes. Try experimenting with various spices and flavorings to see what you can create. I recommend Sally Schneider’s book, The Improvisational Cook for understanding how to develop and coordinate flavor.

Favorite Vegetarian Recipes
Pizza Recipes
Bean Recipes
Soup Recipes
Whole Wheat Recipes

BBQ Chicken Pizza is one of the great inventions of our time, as far as I’m concerned. I tried the BBQ Chicken Pizza of most restaurants I know of that serve it and I’m convinced that the most important ingredient is the perfect BBQ sauce. Over the past few years I have experimented with various sauces and methods to cook the chicken to develop this recipe that our family loves. One thing I love about this pizza is that I can have chicken and cheese on hand in the freezer and make it any time–a perfect recipe for a 3 month supply of food.

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With the holidays fast approaching and economic gloom and doom covering the news, one great way to make both the giver and the receiver’s dollars stretch is food storage for Christmas.

Receiving a one month supply of food storage for Christmas a couple of years ago was one of the best gifts I could have received. It felt good to have at least a little food stored and to begin experimenting with it. It can be pretty overwhelming to get started, when you have no idea what you’ll need or how to use it.

We received a variety of items–about a one month supply for one person in #10 cans. 1 can Dry beans (5.5 lbs), 2 cans white rice (11 lbs), 3 cans whole wheat kernels (18 lbs), 1 can macaroni (3.4 lbs), 1 can powdered milk (4.1), 1 can sugar (6.1 lbs) 1 small bottle oil (16 oz), and 4 salt shakers.

If you’re thinking you would like to receive food storage for Christmas, now is the time to let people know! There is a good chance your mother would be happy to buy you some food storage items for Christmas, but she may not be thinking of it.

As always, turn to www.reallifefoodstorage.com for recipes and tips on how to use these items, especially dry beans, whole wheat, and powdered milk.

A lot of people cringe as soon as they hear the word beans. I imagine many of them have had bad experiences with beans that didn’t have a lot of flavor or very good flavor. I am here to tell you how to make dried beans, in all of their inexpensive and super healthy glory, also taste delicious.

How to Cook Dried Beans:
Soak beans according to package directions (usually an overnight soak or a “quick soak” – place beans in a pot of water, bring to a boil, boil for 1-2 minutes, cover and let sit for an hour).

Drain and rinse beans

Slow Cooker Method:
Cover beans with water about 1 1/2 inches above beans. Add either one small onion halved or some dried onion and a bay leaf. If desired, add salt half way through the cooking time. Cook on low until beans are soft but still firm and hold their shape – about four hours.

Stove Top Method:
Cover beans with water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and allow to simmer until they are tender but not mushy.

Delicious Bean Stew:
2 slices bacon
1 TBSP dried or onion 1/3 cup minced fresh onion
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups cooked pinto or other beans
1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth (can substitute water and 1 chicken bouillon cube)
1 TBSP Balsamic Vinegar
1 TBSP Sugar
Pepper
3 TBSP Butter
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1-2 cups milk

Cook bacon in large frying pan until crisp, remove from pan and drain all but about 1 TBSP bacon grease.

Saute onions in bacon grease until slightly browned.

Add beans, balsamic vinegar, and sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook, stirring frequently for about 20 minutes.

In a small saucepan, melt butter. Whisk in flour. Gradually add milk until it reaches the consistency of tomato sauce. Add to beans.

Adjust seasonings and pepper to taste. Simmer an additional 5 minutes.

Garnish with crumbled bacon and shredded mozzarella or other cheese and serve with whole wheat focaccia bread.

Based on Rustic Bean Stew with Bacon and Carmelized Onions from The Improvisational Cook. I love this cookbook by Sally Schneider. She teaches cooking methods that really take the flavor of dishes to a new level. She implements a lot of gourmet foods and techniques that can also be adjusted to work with normal pantry and food storage items.

TIP: Do you find that you want to cook up some dried beans, but day after day you forget until it is too late? I certainly do. Next time it happens, get your beans out right then and start soaking them. When you see them out on the counter the next morning, you’ll remember to get them cooking. Even if you don’t use them in a meal that day, they are well stored in the refrigerator or freezer and ready to go when you need them.

More Bean Recipes

By putting my bread machine to work, we had this delicious whole wheat Focaccia bread with very little effort. One great thing about this recipe is that the bread doesn’t require any oil or butter. So if you find yourself without those fats–this is a good option.

Bread:
1 cup water (70 – 80 degrees)
3 cups flour (I used 3 cups whole wheat–it was a little heavy, but good.)
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1 TBSP sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dill weed
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp active dry yeast

TOPPING:
1 TBSP Olive Oil
1/2 tsp grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp dry parsley flakes
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

In the order recommended by your manufacturer, place the first 9 ingredients in your bread machine and start the dough cycle. After 5 minutes, check the dough and add 1-2 TBSP water or flour if needed.

When cycle is completed, turn dough onto a greased baking sheet and punch down (dough will be sticky). With lightly oiled hands, pat dough into a 9-in. circle. Brush with oil; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, parsley, salt and pepper. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Slice into wedges, serve warm.

Based on Herbed Onion Focaccia Bread, Taste of Home.

This has become a staple at our house–we have pizza nearly every Friday night. I use the bread machine’s manufacturer recommended pizza dough recipe, substituting whole wheat flour for two of the three cups of flour it calls for. I also use instant yeast.
My recipe is:
1 cup warm water
1 cup all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour (made from white wheat)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 TBSP butter (no substitutions)
1 1/2 TBSP dry milk
1 1/2 tsp dry instant yeast

Another delicious whole wheat pizza crust is this one at allrecipes.com: Amazing Whole Wheat Pizza Crust. I might make it more often if I had a mixer and didn’t have to knead it.

Something I’ve done to make this incredibly quick and easy is to make little dry mixes out of all of the ingredients but the flour and water. I line up a bunch of baggies and dump the required salt, sugar, butter, yeast, and dry milk in each one. I use a twist-tie to close them, and then store all of them in a heavy duty Ziploc freezer bag. When Friday rolls around, I just pull one out and leave it on the counter for an hour or so to reach room temperature. Then all I have to do is add water, flour and the contents of the baggie to the bread machine and select the pizza dough option.

My only wish is that every day’s meals were this easy!