A Great Combination!

THRIVE Quick Oats

+

THRIVE Freeze-Dried Pears

Once, when we stayed at a Bed & Breakfast in Vermont, we were served maple-syrup poached pears. They were delicious! As I was contemplating our freeze-dried pears, I realized that I could put them in my oatmeal as it cooked in the microwave. The water and heat would rehydrate the pears and then when I added the Maine-made maple syrup (I'm a purist...), it'd be like having maple-syrup pear oatmeal, without trying to find pears that aren't too bruised, guessing whether they were really ripe or not, having to wash, peel and cut them up, etc. Like most everything I've tried with Thrive foods, this is a CONVENIENT, DELICIOUS and NUTRITIOUS combination!!! 
www.lesliegreen.shelfreliance.com

Peanut Butter Fruit Granola

I prepared this tonight and it is DELICIOUS!!! I adapted this recipe from something I clipped out of the coupon section of my newspaper. I will be making this often! Feel free to share this.

 Peanut Butter Fruit Granola by Leslie Green

Ingredients:

1/2 c creamy peanut butter

1/3 c vegetable oil

1/2 c honey

1/4 c THRIVE brown sugar

3 1/2 c THRIVE oats

1/2 c wheat germ

1/2 c mixed nuts (or sliced almonds or whatever your preference is)

1/2 c THRIVE Freeze-Dried Blueberries

1/2 c THRIVE Freeze-Dried Strawberries

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oven to 350°.

2. Microwave first 4 ingredients in a large microwaveable bowl for 1 minute or until peanut butter is melted; mix well. 

3. Add oats and wheat germ; mix well. 

4. Spray bottom of 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray; spread oat mixture on bottom of dish.

5. Bake 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring after 10 minutes.

6. Stir in the fruit and nuts and let cool. Transfer to storage container before completely cool if necessary.

7. Enjoy!

www.lesliegreen.shelfreliance.com

My Favorite Thrive Fruit!

I adore these blueberries! Put them on your cereal and let your milk rehydrate them!

My customer Anna had this to say: I just wanted to let you know that the thrive blueberries are amazing... wow! so much better than the Trader Joe's freeze-dried blueberries. and I'm just eating them out of the can... 

Sun-Dried Tomato Focaccia with Asparagus Pesto Pasta

Dinner was so amazing tonight! I followed a recipe from my Thrive cookbook for Sun-Dried Tomato Focaccia. I made it from scratch using yeast, salt, flour, etc. It also has powdered eggs rehydrated with parmesan cheese on top. YUM! The fact that it was made from scratch made me so proud!

I paired the yummy bread with a recipe that has been in my recipe book for 12 years but I had never tried it until tonight. It's asparagus pesto pasta. The pesto was made using a one-pound bunch of asparagus (with the woody ends snapped off and then steamed for a few minutes), pine nuts (I used soy nuts which I had on hand, since pine nuts are beaucoup bucks), fresh garlic, olive oil, grated parmesan cheese and some salt. Just whip it all up in the food processor and you're pretty much done! Toss it with pasta and more olive oil if you wish...My husband was skeptical that pasta could be eaten without "sauce". He was favorably impressed in the end, however, and was gaga over the bread! The bread recipe in the Thrive cookbook, the powdered eggs and other great foods can be found at www.lesliegreen.shelfreliance.com.

No More Food Waste!

Did you know that the average American wastes roughly 25% of the food they bring into their homes? We've all been there: freezer burn, mystery meat, biology experiments in the crisper...

Imagine not experiencing that waste! With Thrive foods, everything in the can is usable, first of all! If you buy broccoli by the pound in the store, you end up cutting off 1/3 of it to get to the edible parts. How many times have you bought a flat of berries only to have them spoil before you can finish them? I know celery, mushrooms and sour cream are also big offenders in our home. We love them but can't always use them up before they go bad.

Purchasing and using long-life foods insures that you have plenty of time to use them before they would expire. Most of our cans have a 25-30 year shelf life if unopened and a 1-2 year shelf life once opened. My pantry cans of blueberries and mangoes didn't last us more than a few weeks because they were so good, but in those few weeks, the fresh equivalent would have spoiled first. Note to self: we're buying #10 (larger, gallon-sized) cans next time!

An easy way to make room in your budget to start monthly shipments (which we call "the Q") of Thrive foods is to take 25% of your family's grocery budget and re-allocate it to the Q. Don't think you can spare 25%? When you're not throwing food out, you've paid for your 25% right there. Contact me to get started on the Q in January and February and I will hold a drawing for a free pouch of freeze-dried fruit!

Omelets, Beef Stroganoff and Brownies, Oh My!

Pictured Above: Freeze-Dried Sausage Crumbles

I've been experimenting and cooking today with Thrive foods and it's been a lot of fun! I started my day wondering if powdered eggs would taste good as an omelet. I heated some vegetable oil in a frying pan and threw in about a tablespoon each of freeze-dried (FD) onions, mushrooms and sausage crumbles. Once everything was hot, I poured the equivalent of 3 eggs on top and voila! An omelet! It was pretty flat and maybe didn't have the volume of 3 eggs, but it had good taste and the ingredients rehydrated quickly. I didn't actually formally rehydrate them, but rather, let them rehydrate in the pan with the oil. I *adore* the sausage crumbles! They're perfect to throw on pizzas, in eggs, in calzones, etc. They're seasoned well, fully cooked and just delish!

Tonight, I cooked a recipe out of our Thrive cookbook. For copyright reasons, I can't reproduce those recipes here, but it is available on my website for those who might be interested and would be an easy item to earn with host benefits by hosting a home party.

I tried the Beef Stroganoff recipe. Having lived in Russia, my standards are high for a Russian-inspired dish such as this and I wasn't disappointed. The recipe called for the following Thrive products: FD Roast Beef (currently on sale through the end of January for roughly $10 off a #10 can!), egg noodles, FD mushrooms, Instant Milk and Powdered Sour Cream (which is also miraculous-yum!).

This is what the FD Roast Beef looked like before rehydration. I'm glad I didn't have to chop the meat up that finely! It's all fully cooked, so no danger of cross-contamination or those pesky food-borne illnesses that can come from raw meats.

Likewise, here are the 2 cups of FD mushrooms before rehydration. Now that I've made the recipe once, I'm fairly certain I could make this again in the time it takes to boil the egg noodles. Here's the finished product:

The carrots are canned, in full disclosure. Thrive's FD carrots are much more finely chopped for cooking, soups, etc. I wondered how my boys would feel about this stroganoff. My husband doesn't care for stroganoff but will tolerate it and my step-son counts it as one of his favorite dishes. The verdict? Hubby says, "Hey, this is good, for stroganoff!" and Step-Son went back for seconds! The recipe makes 4 servings, but we were able to make 6 out of it (4 servings eaten tonight and 2 lunches made from leftovers).

For dessert, we tried Thrive's just-add-water-and-bake Brownie mix. It was super yum! No eggs or oil required!

Fantastic French Toast!!!

I thought I would try out our powdered eggs in french toast batter tonight and I must say, it turned out fantastically!!!

I rehydrated 6 tablespoons of egg powder with 12 tablespoons of water (to cover 8 pieces of bread total) and whisked it until it was smooth. I then added milk until it looked "right". I had preheated my grill and the result was smooth, delicious french toast!! There were no globby bits of egg whites hanging off the side of the bread after it soaked and the taste was perfect! This is just another super great use for the powdered eggs that Shelf Reliance carries.

A pantry-sized can of whole powdered eggs has 60 servings and sells for $8.89 (Item #22570). A #10 can (gallon sized) has 236 servings and sells for $21.59 (Item #21570).

Have you used the powdered eggs in a great recipe? Let me know!