Stock Up on Peanut Butter!

Prices on peanut butter have already risen, and will continue to rise.  But, good news to some of you, Fresh Market has Sunland Peanut Butter on sale for $.99, per 16 oz. container.  Time to stock up.  If all the peanut butter is gone, ask if you can get a rain check.  Hopefully you can.

A note about Sunland Peanut Butter.  It tastes a little different than you may be used to.  I love it!  (And so does the rest of my family.)  It's made from Valencia peanuts and palm oil, instead of the typical hydrogenated soybean oil.  Palm oil is a healthy fat, soybean oil is not.  

When Tornadoes Hit--Staying Gluten Free in an Emergency

I receive a weekly gluten free online newsletter.  With permission, I share last Friday's (April 29, 2011) newsletter.  Although she is speaking specifically of gluten free foods, it all applies to everyone, regardless of what we typically eat.

 

Staying Gluten Free in an Emergency

 

Yesterday my husband and I drove through the community of Phil Campbell Alabama.  An enormous tornado whipped through that town Wednesday afternoon and miles and miles of homes were completely destroyed.  We didn't even realize that we were getting close to the town as we drove because all of the physical landmarks were completely gone.  Homeowners stood by the road looking at a landscape of debris trying to figure out what to do next. And unfortunately, the same sort of scene could be found throughout Alabama yesterday.

 

Our house did not sustain any damage - a tornado went by in the air early Wednesday morning while we were asleep and a tree fell to within feet of our home.  As I saw the destruction yesterday and read more coverage online, I began to think about whether our pantry reserves are large enough and whether we were prepared to obtain and cook gluten free food during an extended emergency period.  Unfortunately, the answers were "No" and "No".

 

Here are a few lessons learned from our experience.

 

Lesson #1:  Having cash on hand is essential.  We use debit cards or online banking for 99% of our transactions.  However, when the power is out debit cards and online banking are useless.  And unless your bank has a generator you won't be able to get cash from the bank or ATM.  We ate breakfast at Waffle House on Wednesday morning (beware cross-contact from the grill) and they let us leave a check until we were able to get cash from an ATM and come back and pay our bill.

 

Lesson #2:  Food preservation requires planning.  I was pleased that we were able to salvage most of the food in our refrigerator and freezer. We have one large cooler and I packed it full with frozen fruits and vegetables and the refrigerator perishables.  There was enough frozen food that we didn't need (or have room for) ice, but everything kept cool for two days. 

 

In the past we've stored lots of food in an upright freezer. I'm not longer a fan of this because there is the potential to lose so much food in a power outage.  Unless a generator is available, I think canned food storage is the way to go for food stores that cannot be consumed within 48 hours.

 

Lesson #3: Heat is required to cook. We ended up leaving Birmingham and going to my parent's farmhouse because they have a gas stove.  We knew that the power might be out there, but at least we'd be able to cook easily.  (Little did we know that the tornado devastation near the farmhouse was much worse than what we had at home). 

If that hadn't been available, then we would have needed to cook on the grill. I've done some grill cooking in pots, but not much. It's something that I plan to practice.Perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a gas campstove available for emergencies. If none of these are an option, then I think it would be good to keep produce on hand that keeps well.  We ate a good bit of salad and fresh fruit while the power was out.

 

Lesson #4: A stash of GF convenience foods will keep you sane.  I don't keep a lot of GF processed foods on hand. We're not eating a lot of grain-based foods right now, and when we do I generally make it by hand.  That being said, I was very grateful for my Mom's stash of GF food that she keeps at the farm.  It was so helpful to be able to whip up a batch of GF pancakes for the kids on Thursday morning (Thank you, Betty Crocker and Mom).  

 

John and I talk a good bit about gluten free food stashes in our ebook, The Gluten Free Survival Guide.  After the past two days, I think we need to restock the food stash in the Yukon.  Cheetos, nuts, juice boxes, and bottled water go a long way towards keeping everyone happy if you need to drive out of a disaster area. (On that note, I'm also thinking that I'd like to keep more gas in the Yukon)

 

Lesson #5: Be prepared for the long-haul Between my pantry and the food Mom had left at the farm, I was able to cook very good meals without doing any shopping for two days. However, if we had been without power for a longer period, then we would have been having some very strange meals and run out of food pretty quickly.  Some communities in Alabama will not have power for at least a week (the main transmission lines in many areas of the state were destroyed).  Ice storms in the winter can knock out the power for two - three weeks. 

 

Based on my experience this week I can count on frozen food for 2 days refrigerator food for 2 - 3 days, fresh produce for 2 - 5 days, and canned food indefinitely.

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

I've sent this recipe out before, but it's such a good one.  Only 4 ingredients, and it's stuff that you usually have around the house. As long as you have a gas stove (or can figure out how to bake over a grill), then this cookies will go a long way towards cheering you up.

 

1 c. sugar
1 c. peanut butter
1 large egg

1/4 - 1/2 c. chocolate chips

 

Mix sugar, peanut butter and egg together until thoroughly combined. Stir in chocolate chips and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough onto a baking sheet. If you put plenty of space between them then they are less likely to run together.Bake at 350 for approximately 15 minutes (but it may take more).  The will be slightly browned, but still soft when they are done.  Let them cool for a few minutes before removing them from the bakings sheet and they will harden up a bit. 

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Hopefully we'll be back to a somewhat normal schedule next week. We are having a huge yard sale this weekend to sell all of the stuff that we won't be taking with us when we move. It's been amazing to see how much stuff we've put into the garage and haven't missed at all.  However, due to the two days that were lost due to power outages, John and I have a ton of work to do tonight to get everything ready.

Granola Bars

When I posted about granola, one of my readers told me that she uses milk instead of water, and less brown sugar. I like the idea of more nutrition, and less sugar, so I tried it. I thought it tasted good with milk and yogurt, but not sweet enough for just a snack. Here's the revised recipe:

Granola

14 cups oats
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 T dry milk powder
3/4 cups brown sugar
1 cup water
1 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
1 Tbs. vanilla

Mix oats, salt, cinnamon, and powdered milk together in a very large bowl (or 2 large bowls). Add remaining ingredients, and mix until combined. Spread on 2 cookie sheets. Put in oven set at 325 for 30 minutes. Turn off oven. Remove cookie sheets from oven and stir. Put baking sheets back in oven. The oven should be off, but still hot. Allow to sit in oven for 2-3 hours. If oven cools down, you may turn it back on to heat the oven, then turn it back off again.


How I really liked it, though, was in granola bars. I may even try this again using even less brown sugar than the recipe above. I got this recipe from USU Extensions. It would be really good with dried fruit, nuts, or M&M's stirred in with the granola.

Peanut Butter Granola Bars

1/2 cup corn syrup
2/3 cup peanut butter
3 cups granola

Lightly grease a 9x9 pan. Heat corn syrup in a large pan. Boil 1 minute. Add peanut butter, stirring until smooth. Add granola and mix, off of heat. Pat into pan. Cool then cut into bars.