Wolf Den Pantry Breakfast

Try this... Tasty oatmeal with dried blueberries, raspberries, black berries (that I bought on sale and dehydrated at my cave), and a little bit of honey. Add to that a nice glass of hot chocolate milk with dried milk and dried chocolate milk powder. All of this cooked and reconstituted with water.

Simple, cheap, filling and easy to make.

Yep, just as the title says, everything is from the Wolf Den Pantry.

Achievement Unlocked: Sealing Life!

Yep, for the first time since I have bought it, I have used my vac sealer. The one that I got is a Rival that I got about a month ago. It was just under $50 and so far on it's first test run, it works like a charm! I have had some experience with vacuum sealers a while back and they work well for frozen and dried food stuffs. If you are planning to stay at home or if you have a place that you plan to stay at long term during a crisis and can store dried goods, this might be a good route to go. This one is fairly cheap and does the job so far for me, though some more tests are in order, but I am impressed by just sealing that rice! I know I will be doing more of this in the future. So far, I love it!!

Right now I am also dehydrating some frozen store bought fruit. How do you do it you might ask? Take your fruit out of the bag, break it up into small chunks and put it in the dehydrator. No blanching needed. It is simple, and heaven knows, simple for someone like me is a good thing. I never realized that the sound of a humming dehydrator can be so comforting.

Survival Food: Drink Mixes

Just thought I would do a quick little article about some things that I am currently storing as an alternative to soda pop. Need to get off that caffeine, and some of these drinks are good to carry in an emergency vehicle bag.

Teas: Yes, I drink a lot of tea. Most of the time I make a lot of my own herbal mixes for different reasons. Most are made for medicine when I am sick or just for plain enjoyment. Some though I do buy from the store and many are good and not so good. The best ones that I like are Biglows Tea and Native American Tea Company teas. Those two I find consistently taste the best. There are several downsides to this choice for drinks. 1. Many teas contain caffeine, and if you are in an area where water is scarce, you do not want to be losing more water than you take in. Caffeine makes you pee a lot. This is a good thing to keep in mind. 2. A good base of knowledge in herbs really helps, ESPECIALLY if you grow/harvest/forage/purchase in bulk whole leaf teas. It is good to know the effects and side affects of plants and how they affect you! You have to be very careful and know what you are doing. Boxed teas are for the most part ok, but if you plan to harvest wild plants, learn all that you can about them. You cannot make a mistake with something like this. I say this because some poisonous plants look a lot like safe plants out in the wild. It is a good idea to do a lot of reading from resources like Peterson's Field Guide to Edible and Medicinal Plants, get good instructional training. For me studying plants is a lot of fun, I enjoy it. But if you feel this is not the route for you, don't do it. In a survival situation, you cant afford to make mistakes.

Dry Milk: This is good for a lot of stuff, just to drink and to cook with. At $7 a box it easily is a bargain to buy than the gallon stuff if you drink or use a lot of it. There are also some individually wrapped packets that can be put in backpacks for on the go. Which I think it would be a good idea as it does contain protein. The only downside of this is it does taste like skim milk, otherwise it is not bad cold.

Gatorade Dry Mix: Yep, I drink Gatorade quite a bit. I get the big cans of it from walmart for a pretty decent price. Also it comes in individually wrapped packets for those on the go, I have seen them at places like REI. If anyone else knows where I can get those, let me know. It is good for sodium and electrolytes as well as flavoring water.

Emergen-C Packets: Good for adding vitamins to your drink, but not so good as a stand alone. It does have a lot of C in it as well as B vitamins. I do suggest adding it in with something else like juice to make it more palatable. They are a little pricey too, but still ok. This is carried by a lot of grocery, health food and drug stores.

Hot Chocolate: Again it is another option for flavoring water. You can buy them in canisters and individual packets. I just recently got some from Honeyville Farms hot chocolate with marhmallows, though I have not tried it out yet as I am still finishing off a canister of Nestle's Quick that I bought 6 years ago. The powders I find never really go bad. It works well as a nice morale booster. What better way to end the day fighting the massive zombie hoard, or living through a cold winters day than a nice cup of hot chocolate? **/joking** Kids would like this. This you can get most anywhere.

Kool-Aid and other brand mixes: This is my last choice for a drink mix, only because of several things. 1. A lot of them have Aspartame so READ LABELS. 2. Other chemicals like dyes and stuff. I am really odd when it comes to those things. If anything else though, this is still AN option for flavoring water. Many come in individual packets and whole canisters. Kool-aid even came out with a tablet form of mix like that of Alkaseltzer, just drop in the tablet. No need to add sugar and each of the tablets is individually wrapped too, so they do not take up much space. Kids love this, but I am not too keen on having this. Again, this you can get most anywhere.

That is all I have for the basics in drink mixes, if any of you out there have any suggestions, just put them in the comments area. I would like to hear your ideas and findings.

Survival Food: Honeyville Farms

Every once in a while I like to try out new companys, especially when they are recommended by others. Well about a week back The Survival Mom recommended the site Honeyville Farms as a good place to buy dried goods. So I did check out the site. To me they looked legit so I thought I would give them a chance, so I placed an order for 2 cans of their Freeze Dried Apples a week ago. I just got the small cans, not #10 size. What really pleased me is that this is one of the few businesses that does take Paypal as an ordering option. It makes things so much easier to pay for stuff online. Well, I just got my order today and tested one of the cans out. The product tastes really good! I was pretty impressed. I opened one can which I will use and the other went into my long term storage.

With good taste, good service, timely shipping as well as well packed, this is definitely worth a two paws up! Full Recommendation. If I get any other items from them, I will post about them on here.

Survival food: More Mountain House!

Yep! I taste tested some more Mountain House stuff! This time I did three different items from them. Two out of the three I liked. The two that I liked were their meals. I tried Chili Mac with Beef (shown above), which I did like as it was full of good beans, noodles and meat. Also had a pretty strong spicy flavor to my taste. I would suggest this for a good home meal, or a back packing meal. It was that good. Two paws up!

The second one was Lasagana with Beef, (unfortunately no picture). This one was pretty good, albeit slightly more bland than the chili mac. Had tomato sauce, lasagna noodles, cheese like stuff, and meat. Still though it was tasty and with the right spices I would make it better. I would have it for a vehicle bag or something for a hike. Both meals were very filling. Here a hesitant two paws up.



The third one I had was one of their desserts, their neapolitan ice cream. It was a bit of a different experience. It had a texture that felt like I was chewing on styrofoam that melted and tasted sweet in 3 different flavors. I am not sure if I would try this again, it was not bad... just not what I am used to. The jury is still out on this one, though not too enthuastic about it.

Have any of you tried other Mountain House products or other MREs? Please feel free to post your suggestions and opinions!

Survival Food: Farmers Market

Went out this past weekend, and did a little shopping off the beaten path. Around where I live there is a good size outdoor farmers market. I had heard about it before, but I thought it was like most farmers markets where they only run from spring to fall. But recently I found out the local one near me also runs a winter market. So out of curiosity, and a BAD case of cabin fever, I decided to make the trip. Getting down there was not too much trouble.

It was really nice out, being at about 32 degrees or so. (Around where I am at during this time of the year, that is nice.) Most of the vendors were selling bread, honey and meat. They had everything from chickens, beef and ham, to lamb and bison. I even found some things that I normally dont see in the local grocery chains like pork lard and bars of beeswax. When I was there I picked up 2lbs of honey for $7.50, a pound of bison meat for $6 and some summer sausage for $3. Even bought a bar of beeswax for $1. As far as the prices go, I found that they were quite comparable to slightly cheaper than the grocery stores. Granted meat is quite expensive on a budget, but this was not bad. I found a whole young chicken for just a little over $4. As for bison, in the stores it normally runs about $6.50 in one pound packages. I will definitely go back during the spring and summer months to check out the prices then on fruits and veggies. If prices are good then, I might make more trips down there.

Also, with the farmers market, you are supporting your local growers, and getting your goodies direct from the farms. In many areas that cuts down the cost (I think... let me know if this is true in other places). So that is a major plus!

Survival Food: Adventures in Dehydrating, Tropical Blender Fun (UPDATE OOPS)!

Hey guys, I am updating with just a little news. Got sick with the flu over the weekend, so there was no update. I am feeling a lot better, it was just a quick form of it, but you know it is the reason why I prep! I do get sick a lot, so there you go! Had all the food and stuff that I needed. Also noted what I needed to do better the next time it happens. That is all I am going to say on it for now.

As with the Fruit blend, it did not work out on the first attempt, it came up in fragmented pieces. No worries though, I will keep experimenting with it. I know it can be done, I might need to add in a bit more water to help things blend better, or blend it differently. I will note down what I do and tell you all.

I might also be working on some skills, like sewing and leather working. I will probably be adding that on here too. I think those skills might come in handy. I will keep you guys posted!

Keep coming back.

Survival Food: Adventures in Dehydrating, Tropical Blender Fun!

Hi guys, I am back from my weekend trip. Just spent a few day relaxing from being out and about around so many people. Got some new ideas for this place too which I might share later on hopefully. Right now though, I thought I would create another quick fruit leather experiment. I got this idea from a friend of mine. Take one can of your favorite fruit, in this case I like tropical fruit salad, and throw it in a blender, juice, fruit and all. (BUT NOT THE CAN... and no, I do not speak from experience on this one, it is just common sense! :)) Anyways, then I did like what I did with the Apple Fruit Leather . Pour it on the tray, spread it very thin, and let it dry at the regular temperature. Hopefully this will come out OK.

Will show the results later!

Survival Food: Vitamins... Overlooked?

Vitamins... Do many preppers over look this resource? Everyone thinks about food as a necessity, and yes I do heartily agree with that. But some foods can only go so far with nutritional content. Human body needs more of a regular daily nutritional upkeep more than what an MRE can do and what even regular food can do for that matter. I think that vitamin pills would be a necessary item to be added to extra storage, Bug Out Bags, Get Home Bags, and other survival kits. I would add in a good Multi vitamin, some fish oil, extra vitamin C, and other necessary supplements if used for your health.

As a side note, I have personally tested the Emergen-C powder packets that you see in the picture above. It says it has vitamin C, and the power comes in several different flavors. The two that I have are lemon lime and orange. Personally, I find them barely palatable on its own in water, but it is not bad if you mix it with other fruit flavored drinks. I tried both with just water, and also mixed with Gatorade. I am not sure if the Vitamin part works well mixed with that, or even if the powder works at all. Though mixing it with something else made the powder more drinkable. If you need the extra boost of C, that might be an option. Note though that I am not a doctor so talk with your doc about this stuff.

Well, I will not be posting much till either sunday or tuesday as I am going to be out of town for the weekend for some fun. Got to do something to break up the winter monotony!

Survival Food: Mountain House Spaghetti Taste Test.

Hey guys, I am again trying some new stuff again. I kind of like to try out new things once in a while. So, I thought I would try a freeze dried meal. I know that there are a lot of freeze dried meals out there, tons of different companies, so I went and bought one. A popular brand out there is Mountain House, and also it was the only one that Walmart actually sells, errr that I have seen at any rate. It runs about $5 for one bag of 2 servings.



Cooking it was pretty simple. Just heat 2 cups of water to boiling, put it in the bag, stir it, seal it up, and let it sit for about 9 minutes. Then stir again and eat. I thought it looked a little soupy, but then I realized that if during a "troubling situation", liquids are at a premium, so I would probably prefer it a bit a little soupy. The taste is not bad really, and it would make a nice welcome hot meal. It kind of tastes like canned Spaghetti O's.

This would be pretty good for a vehicle or emergency kit. Just make up a little cooking kit with some Sterno, a Sterno stove, stick matches, a metal cup, and some water with this, and you have a pretty good meal kit. I know there are tons of self heating MREs out there, but this is the one locally that I could get my paws on. Mountain House sells a lot of ready made meals in bags, packs, kits and #10 cans on their site, as well as local distributors. At less than $5 this is a bit of a budgetary concern, however for something to add to a vehicle kit on occasion, it would be well worth the price. If stranded, I do not want to ever be caught without food. This is the first time I am trying their products, and so far this was pretty good for a commercial MRE.

Survival Food: Adventures in Dehydrating, Apple Fruit Leather... Results!

...And about 6 hours later....

Fruit leather made from apple sauce! I was right, I had to go thinner. The recipe worked out, and it is yummy! They really taste like fruit roll ups like you get in the store. Except it is much cheaper, very simple to make, and if you make your own apple sauce, MUCH healthier. I will definatly make more. This makes really nice treats for when you are on the go. Something that is a good food to carry that does not take up much space in a lunch box or backpack. I will look into more recipes on working with this.

PERSONAL NOTE: other than what I explained earlier, it is also best to spread it pretty evenly, otherwise some parts of the leather will get done faster than others. Again, another lesson learned.

If you have kids, they might like making this.

Thanks to The Survival Mom for the recipe.

Survival Food: Adventures in Dehydrating, Apple Fruit Leather... oops..

Just a small update here... I made some leather... but I ate it, but for a good reason! I made a mistake. What I did wrong was I spread it out too thick. Took a bit too long to dry. When in doubt, go thinner and dry it longer. Otherwise, it has potential, just that the mistake was my own. That is what I am learning here, but I thought I would mention it on here. I started a new batch today, so I will post my results as soon as they get done. Also, next week I will have some new articles on survival books, skills and other items. Stay tuned!

Survival Food: Adventures in Dehydrating Part 4, Microwave Results

Well, here are the results of blanching from a microwave. There was some difference in some of the chips in colors, maybe a dark reddish color, and black of course like the first round. This might be due to different factors and could be anything from the process of blanching, to the types of potatoes. Total drying time was a bit longer than I expected at about 17 hours or so. These may not look pretty, but when you are on a VERY tight budget, or in a emergency situation, food is food. Plus these are a bit healthier than the boxed stuff, which is why I did all of this. Now, for storing them, you have several different options.

You can...

1. Leave them as they are and store them properly for later use, which I am learning to do right now.

2. Grind them till they are flaked and package them again in baggies if you are going to use them in the coming future. Or...

3. Get creative and make your own dry "instant" soups! Take other dried veggies and herbs and combining them with the potatoes. Make your own family creations! Of course if I do the same thing, then I will show you what I did.

So there you go, 10 pounds of potatoes that lost a lot of water weight. The actual amount after drying is probably all of a pound of weight. If you guys did something similar, please make a comment about it on here.

Survival Food: Adventures in Dehydrating Part 3, The Microwave!

Ok, finally got around to doing those potatoes. This time I did blanch them using the microwave, but I did them all. Reason being is that I do not have a proper steamer, and getting one is not in the budget at this time. If I can devise another way to do it, I will though, and I will put it up on here of course! But with these potatoes, I do not want them to go to waste. Waste not, want not!

Just basically what I did was clean them using a scrubber and water. Then put them in the microwave for for about 3 minutes. That kind of softened them right up. Good thing about it was it made them easier to cut up the same way I did them the first time. Took no more than about 30 minutes prep time in total and I filled up all 5 racks on the dryer. Again, set them at the recommended temp, and I am guessing at about 8 hours drying time. When they are done, I will post up the results.

Survival Food: Adventures in Dehydrating Part 2, The Results!

Here are the results of my first experiment. This is just cutting up the potatoes and putting them directly into the dehydrator. To me they have the look and feel of wood chips or dried mushrooms really. The reason why the look so odd is because of the oxidization that causes the dark grayish look to them, so NO, it is NOT MOLD! Total Drying Time: 6 hours. Yes, a lot shorter than I thought, but that is why I kept an eye on it. But there you go, first experiment done.

Next up is Blanching. Here is what my book says about blanching:

Most vegatables must be blanched, either steaming over boiling water or in the microwave oven to slow the enzyme action which will continue during drying and storage.

NOTE: Blanching softens the cell structure, allowing moisture to escape more easily and also allows the vegetables to rehydrate faster.

The steam blanching might be a bit harder for me to do since I do not have a steamer, but I might be able to rig one up. I have a metal strainer that I can use. The easiest will be the microwave, just because I have one. (DUH!) Again, I will post the processes on doing this.

Coming up... Dehydrated Microwaved Potatoes!

Survival Food: Adventures in Dehydrating Part 1

Hey guys, back with another article. Last fall I happened to spend a little bit of cash and bought myself a dehydrator (It was on sale and I got a good bargain on it). I am looking to save food as much as I can while on a budget. Finally today I am starting to get some use out of it. Best way to save money is how to save, preserve and re-use food. Well here, I am going to learn how to dehydrate food and re-use it. Then post what I am learning. So far, I am just taking the baby steps as starting easy. So for my first try, I am doing...



Potatoes! They work well dried for soups and mashed potatoes. I found a 10 pound bag of Russets at my local grocery store for cheap. Right now I just did only two racks to start with and with a some advice from a friend, got myself started. The type that I bought is a NESCO Professional Food and Jerky Dehydrator, my family has had good luck with NESCO products, so I think this one would work well. Simple to work as this has a temperature control dial, and to turn it on, all you need to do is just plug it in.

When starting it helps to read the instruction manual for the care and use of the machine. READ EVERYTHING THAT COMES WITH IT! Just wanted to say that as a disclaimer... Then what I did was washed the potatoes and cut them pretty thin, The thinner they are the faster they dry. Usually the drying time is about a day to a day and a half, or so I am told. These should be done in about a day or less. I was told that to test them just take one and break it in half. If it snaps like a potato chip, they are done. If not, or if they seem soft, then they need to dry a bit longer. At the end of the drying time, I will show you the end results. I am just doing two racks as a test because there are several different ways to prepareing the the food. One way is just cleaning and cutting them up. Another is several different ways of blanching, which I will try out too. Maybe you can learn from what I am doing.

Coming up, part 2 of my first batch of dehydrated potatoes.