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!

Mexican Tamale Casserole from Shelf Reliance

Tonight, I made dinner from the Thrive Foods cookbook. The ingredients I used are shown above. Cornmeal, vegetable oil, diced tomatoes, enchilada sauce and Mexican cheese were all things I had in my pantry. Then I used freeze-dried corn and onions and powdered milk, eggs and taco-flavored textured vegetable protein (TVP).

The benefit of having these foods (those shown in the THRIVE cans above) is that they have a long shelf-life. Unopened, most can last for 25 years. Once opened, they usually have a 2-year shelf life. Eggs are an exception and have a shorter shelf-life of 5 years and 6 months. The amazing thing about these powdered eggs is that a pantry can (the size you see in the photo) has the equivalent of 60 eggs and a #10 can has the equivalent of 236 eggs. Imagine not running out of eggs when you're baking because you always have a can on hand! And there's no risk of salmonella!

Here's the casserole as it came out of the oven.

And here, it's ready to eat! I added a dollop of sour cream (also available as a powdered item in a long-life can) and some chopped scallions and parsley! We loved it and it made enough for at least 6 servings! It's also very filling and completely vegetarian!

For more information on these products or how to start your home store, go to www.lesliegreen.shelfreliance.com. My contact information is available on that page.