Dehydrating More veggies.

Now that the issues with my paw... I mean hand are almost over, I have gone back to doing some more prepping. I went back to the project that I started 2 months ago, draining cans of veggies and dehydrating them. Did you know that 5 cans of 14.5 oz mixed veggies dried down can fill up a half of a mason jar? This is good to know if you live in an apartment. Also you can keep the water that was in the cans and save it for later for a "vegetable stock" in the freezer or just toss it out. I prefer saving it, but this time around I had to toss it because I have no room in my freezer. I found a good butcher near me and I have been stocking up on meat *DROOL*. Anyways, that is what I started now, and I just thought I would let you guys know about it. Right now I have about 4 mason jars full of veggies. Some I dried from cans, some I dried from frozen. I like doing it that way because it is cheap and it takes less to prep.

If any of you have any projects going on, please put them in the comments section, I would like to hear it.

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 Storage: Re-useable containers!

Ok, yeah I know that I had promised you that I would have Episode 3 of Adventures in Dehydrating up, but things got a little busy here at my den the past few days. Been dealing with some personal things. Hopefully I will have something up in the next couple of days if not by tuesday of next week if I dont have things up by friday. So that is the plan.

Right now though I thought I would post something up that was a little different. As this site is about living off a survival budget and being a survivalist means being able to re-use things when needed. I again thought I would start basic. There are a lot of things that I use and re-use around here. I know that "being green" is popular, but for me it saves cash. One of the most basic things that I do re-use is containers. Both glass and plastic ware, preferably containers that once held food. I mean, you spend anywhere from $3 to $9 dollars, and most of that is for the packaging. Why not get some extra use out of them? It will save you money from buying extra storage containers. When I can I try to buy lots of food that is stored in glass. I use tomato sauce jars, jelly jars, mayo jars and salsa jars. It is fairly safe, and easy to clean. I store a lot of dry goods stuff in glass and keeps out bugs pretty well. Just make sure that it is very dried out if you wash it. Also an extra note, do not put sugar in a glass jar that has held tomato sauce, your sugar will taste and smell like tomatoes (If anyone knows how to get that out, please let me know)! That was my personal mistake. Other than that use them for what you will.

With plastic though, I try to keep the food grade plastic with numbers 1 and 2 (from what I understand they are the best, but let me know if I am wrong). I know there is some debate as to weather if some "food grade plastics" are truly safe or not, but I try to keep to the safe numbers that I can remember. I like re-using Cool Whip bowls, Ice Cream containers and butter containers. They come in handy. Mostly I use them for storing frozen foods, soups and chili. Reason being is it is easier to get the food out when brought out of the freezer.

Personally, out of the two storage containers, I perfer glass. Though it is easily breakable.

I know that Jeff Foxworthy made the joke "you might be a redneck if all your salad bowls say Cool Whip on the side." I wonder would that be the same for frozen chili?

ADDED NOTE: You can follow The Den! Just click on "Follow" at the bottom right side and follow me!

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.

Survival Gear: A Sterno Stove

Well, guys, I am back. The holidays were fun, and I hope you had a good time too. Spent the weekend with family but it was a private thing, lots of food to stuff myself. Other than that, I am just relaxing right now and writing in my blog. Time for an update.

Several weeks ago, I had been looking all over for something that I would be able to cook on if my electricity gave out, or if I got stranded in my car and wanted to boil water. Well I heard that a pretty good way was to work with Sterno and I heard about this Sterno stove that folds up for a pack (see the picture above). Well I heard it used to be sold at Kmart, but no such luck. I perfer buying local over buying online so I did try to look around the many stores in my area. I looked all over! REI, Cabelas, Gander Mountain, Walmart, Fleet Farm (they had it at one time, but sold out.) All those places and I could not find it anywhere! Walmart did carry the cans of cooking fuel, but not the stove. Lo and behold, I find it on Amazon under Single Burner Folding Stove. Listed for about $8 ($13 total with ship and handling). Got it a week later. In the picture above it comes folded flat. It is a pretty nice little set up. The cans I bought seperate at my local Walmart for about $3-4 for a 2 pack. Burns up to about 2 and a half hours time.


This is what it looks like when it is all folded together with the fuel can sitting in it. It makes for a good size stove and fairly easy to assemble with directions.


This is what it looks like with the fuel burning. Again, not bad. Had a glass jar full of water boiling in about 15-20 minutes. This would work really well if you are making soup or need hot water for an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat). This is an easy way if your electricity goes out and you cant use a stove or a microwave. Or out of your car if stranded, or if you are out for an afternoon hike and want a hot meal. Good for camping too. This folds really small and flat. Perfect for a Get Home Bag, or a Bug Out Bag.

IMPORTANT NOTE! Sterno fuel is HIGHLY FLAMMABLE! Make sure you follow the manufacturers directions.