How To Make Injectable Lidocaine

Disclaimer.  I am not a licensed health practitioner.  This is just another post on knowledge and understanding you might wish to acquire in advance of a disaster in case no higher care is available.  As long as our society is functioning, you should leave anything more substantial than applying a Band-Aid to the professionals.  No medication, including those available over the counter, should be taken without consulting a physician.  Information shared here is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  It is not medical advice nor a substitute for licensed medical care. 

 
Just to reiterate the disclaimer, this is a post on supplies and knowledge you want to have before you need it.  Everything about making injectable lidocaine should only be done by a licensed physician or pharmacist or under their direction and supervision.

The instructions for making injectable lidocaine when our society has totally collapsed and there is no higher medical care available were first posted online in 2013.  A few years later a physician reviewed those instructions and added his own comments.  (Addresses for those articles are provided below.  I provide addresses rather than links because sometimes a link will disappear, but with an address it may still be possible to track down the desired article.  I've had that happen quite a few times.)

Making injectable lidocaine is not at all complicated, but it is important to be careful and very precise.  It is easy to overdose a patient with lidocaine.  You want to avoid that.

Let's assume you already have scissors, a surgical clamp of some sort, and a candy thermometer or similar, as well as the lidocaine HCL, as was covered in an earlier post.  Here are the additional supplies you'll need:

• Sterile saline.  Preferably labeled as being for injection.  But that can be hard to come by for unlicensed individuals.  A grid-down, out in the wilderness hours or days away from a hospital solution is the single-use vials of sterile saline mentioned last week.  
• Scale that can accurately measure milligrams.  Digital scales start at about $20.  Non-electronic scales start around $30.  I have no experience with either yet.  A lot of reviewers on Amazon indicate that they use both scales for reloading ammunition.  If you have someone like that in your family, and they have a scale, I would love to have confirmation that their scale (with brand and model information) will accurately measure minute quantities of powder.
• A very small funnel to transfer the lidocaine HCL into the bottle of sterile saline.   

Before beginning, make sure all the instruments are sterilized--clamp, scissors, funnel.  Disinfect the scale thoroughly, especially the pan that will hold the lidocaine.  Wash and scrub your hands thoroughly and put on gloves.

To make a 1% lidocaine HCL solution:

1. Weigh 150 mg of lidocaine HCL on the scale.  
2. Cut off the top of a 15 ml sterile saline vial about halfway down the neck.
3. Insert the funnel securely into the neck of the vial.  
4. Pour the lidocaine into the funnel.  (If the powder sticks to the funnel, squeeze the vial gently to move some saline into the funnel.  Then release so that the saline drains back into the vial, taking the lidocaine with it.  You may have to repeat this procedure a few times to get all the lidocaine into the vial.) 
5. Remove the funnel.
6. Close the neck of the vial using your surgical clamp. 

To make a 2% lidocaine HCL solution:

1. Weigh 300 mg of lidocaine HCL on the scale.
2. Follow steps 2-6 above.

For both 1% and 2% lidocaine solutions:

1. Create a double boiler with a small canning jar almost filled with water placed in a pan of water over the stove.  You just need clean tap water; it doesn't need to be sterile or distilled.
2. Place the vial in the canning jar, but be especially careful not to submerge it near the openings.  Do not let any tap water enter the vial, which would contaminate the solution.
3. Heat the water past 176 degrees Fahrenheit.  (Lidocaine dissolves in water, but it doesn't melt until it reaches 176 degrees F.  Melting ensures even distribution.) 
4. Remove the vial from the jar.  Do not remove the clamp.
5. Let cool.
6. You now have a 1 or 2% solution of lidocaine HCL.
7. This solution should be used within 24 hours and discarded thereafter.

To use this solution, with the clamp still in place, clean the top of the vial with an alcohol pad.  Invert the vial, insert the needle through the top of the vial, and draw out the desired amount of lidocaine into the syringe. 

Links to related posts:
Lidocaine
Little Vials of Sterile Saline
Benadryl
Rubbing Alcohol 

For further reading: 
https://modernsurvivalonline.com/guest-post-how-to-make-injectable-lidocaine-hcl/
https://griddownmed.blog/2015/04/25/from-modern-survival-online-make-your-own-lidocaine-topical-anesthetic/
https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/fda/fdaDrugXsl.cfm?setid=C7A7D3D2-7638-4570-9EB8-A5E2BEC82B5D
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3433813/
https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/inspection-technical-guides/pyrogens-still-danger

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com

4.26.23

Using Gamma Lids for Easier Food Storage Rotation

If bucket wrenches are the best thing since sliced bread (and they are), then gamma lids are the second-best thing.  And if I had to choose between the two, I would sadly have to go with the bucket wrenches.  Bucket wrenches are cheaper and they work on all the buckets.  Gamma lids are more expensive, and you can only use them with one bucket at a time.  

But they are so worthwhile.  They are food-grade, and they make using your food storage every day so much easier.  It's just a twist to open them, not a WWF wrestling match.  At around eight dollars each, they're a little pricey, so we obviously don't get them for all the buckets.  There's one for each of the primary working food buckets--wheat, rice, quick oats, rolled oats, pinto beans, pasta, and chocolate chips.  When the bucket with the gamma lid is empty, it simply gets refilled with food from the next bucket in the rotation.  

Some people like to color-code their lids to make finding the contents easier, and if I could afford to have more lids I would surely do this.  As it is, we limit ourselves to gamma lids only for the working food buckets.  But as finances permit, we are slowly putting gamma lids on all the medical buckets.  We simply get into them too often to mess with the bucket wrenches, and I can imagine someday we'll need to get into one quite quickly.  All those lids are red.  Every little bit to make finding them easier.  (We've got over 200 buckets, and sometimes the kids like to mess with me and move them around.)

As far as color-coding goes, if you have a reason to color-code more items, you can mix and match the lids and rims to provide several more options.  I haven't come up with a reason to have that many options, but I'm not as creative as some folks.  

Gamma lids are designed to provide an airtight fit on four-, five-, or six-gallon buckets.  As such, they can be difficult to snap in place.  Honestly, I've never been able to do it myself, so I always ask my husband or son to help, and they have no problem.  I suspect if I found a rubber mallet, I'd be able to do it myself.  Some people recommend using a 2x4 and towels to cushion the lid.  For me, however, it's always easier to find my husband or son, so I've never tried the other methods.  

The gamma lids can be a little brittle.  While they are designed to be able to be stacked, they are not designed to hold a lot of weight, so anything that you place on top of them should be rather light.  You definitely don't want to let a heavy bucket land on the middle of the lid, like I have done twice now in the last ten years.  That's a sure recipe for an instant crack, and then your contents are no longer bug-proof or waterproof.  At least the lids weren't totally shattered and they still work for storing other items.  

Links to related posts:  

Bucket Wrenches  

Buckets 

Oxygen Absorbers   

Preparedness  survival  emergency  bugging out in bug pack survivalist prepper freeze dried dehydrated food storage gamma lid bucket #10 can medicine supplies supply emergencies disaster natural civil war political unrest hyperinflation inflation canning jar Mylar oxygen absorber disease
© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com 

26 november 2021
injury pneumothorax family children antibiotics alternative refrigeration solar communications salmonella pneumonia CPR medic mask gloves beans wheat rice oats corn oil coconut water purification filtration iodine pasta sugar salt iodized dry powdered milk mountain house essentials bread education home school vitamins skills chickens goats rabbits homestead redoubt American fuel wood ticks mosquitoes repellent disinfect sterilize Armageddon TEOTWAW

 

Merry Christmas! And My Gift to You Is... Brownies!!

May we all remember the glorious gift of our Heavenly Father as we celebrate the birth of His Beloved Son.  May we all strive to be a little better, a little kinder in the coming year, and reflect a little of the Savior's light to those around us.  And, God willing, may we all find ourselves still here and happy with our families next Christmas.
Now go back to your family and spend a beautiful day with them.  The goodies will still be here tomorrow.


So my gift to you wonderful readers this year is a lifetime supply of brownies!  Store all the ingredients you need, and it's the gift that will keep on giving through the end of the apocalypse!

The three recipe options below are for a small batch of brownies baked in a bread loaf pan.  Make a small batch of brownies when you need a little fix.  It will help make your supplies of these ingredients last longer.  The traditional recipe utilizes regular grid-up and happy days fresh ingredients.  Both just-add-water mixes use powdered eggs and powdered vanilla extract.  You can find the latter in upper-end grocery stores right by the vanilla extract and on Amazon.    Just-add-water mix #1 has straight coconut oil; mix #2 replaces some of the coconut oil with butter powder and water and thus the brownies are a little less oily.

Both mixes can be prepared in advance; add the water later when you're ready to bake.  However, before you make multiple mixes, make one batch to try out first.  These recipes produce fudgy brownies, not cake-like brownies.  And these are not overly sweet brownies.  Queen of the Picky Eaters and her sister and father want more sugar.  The rest of us like the semi-sweet or dark chocolate flavor of this brownie. 

Traditional recipe	Just-add-water mix #1	Just-add-water mix #2
¼ cup butter	¼ cup coconut oil	2 tablespoons coconut oil
		3 tablespoons butter powder
½ cup + 1 tablespoon sugar	½ cup + 1 tablespoon sugar	½ cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder	¼ cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder	¼ cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon salt	¼ teaspoon salt	¼ teaspoon salt
1 egg	2 tablespoons egg powder	2 tablespoons egg powder
¼ cup flour	¼ cup flour	¼ cup flour
½ teaspoon vanilla extract	½ teaspoon vanilla powder	½ teaspoon vanilla powder
	¼ cup water	1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line a bread loaf pan with parchment paper.

Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl just until combined.  

Spoon the batter into the prepared bread pan.  Bake for 23 minutes.  Let cool 5 minutes in the pan and then use the parchment paper to remove the brownies from the pan.  Let cool on a cooling rack. 


Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies
Follow the exact directions for the brownies above. 

Then combine the following:
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Drizzle, swirl, dot, whatever, the peanut butter mixture over the top of the brownie batter.  Bake the same as for the chocolate brownies above.

Merry Christmas!

Links to related posts:
Coconut Oil
Cocoa

Preparedness  survival  emergency  bugging out in bug pack survivalist prepper freeze dried dehydrated food storage gamma lid bucket #10 can medicine supplies supply emergencies disaster natural civil war political unrest hyperinflation inflation canning jar Mylar oxygen absorber disease
© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com
injury pneumothorax family children antibiotics alternative refrigeration solar communications salmonella pneumonia CPR medic mask gloves beans wheat rice oats corn oil coconut water purification filtration iodine pasta sugar salt iodized dry powdered milk mountain house essentials bread education home school vitamins skills chickens goats rabbits homestead redoubt American fuel wood ticks mosquitoes repellent disinfect sterilize Armageddon TEOTWAWKI SHTF WTSHT

Homemade Fritos

Comfort food goes a long way in a crisis.  Difficulties are just so much more manageable when you've got good food to sustain morale.  And for one of my daughters, QOTPE, that food is Fritos.

Being a good mom (at least, some days) and having been known to enjoy more than a few corn chips myself, I decided to see if there was a way to make them at home.  There are exactly three recipes online as of this writing (addresses below).  I tried two of the three.  The third one was so far off the Fritos ingredients (real Fritos do not have cayenne pepper or flax seed oil or safflower oil) that I didn't bother. 

No matter what I did--rolling thinner, salting more, sprinkling fairy dust, or just hoping really, really hard, they were nothing like real Fritos.  Now, I wouldn't call them an epic fail, because in this case, I believe an epic fail would call for barfing.  There was definitely no vomiting involved.  But there was nothing anyone would want to keep eating, either.  Sorry, Charlotte.

I have a couple of suspicions as to why DIY Fritos just don't work.

The first is that Frito-Lay company has industrial equipment for mechanically processing the grain and the chips.  We can't duplicate that at home.  Even with the edges of the chips that were rolled out so very thinly, the texture and taste just weren't there.

The second is that I also suspect that Frito-Lay has a certain variety of corn that they use for their chips.  The dent corn I have here, and which I suspect most people would be using, just doesn't have that true corn chip essence to it.  What I made here was far closer to regular tortilla chips, which would also be more easily made just by making corn tortillas and then frying those.

Just in case you want to confirm for yourself how right I am, here are the addresses for the recipes I tried, and the one I passed on:

https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/snack/chip-snack/homemade-fritos.html
https://eatup.kitchen/homemade-fritos/
https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/corn-chip-strips

Links to other recipes that just don't work:
Cream Cheese
Rice Krispies
Preparedness  survival  emergency  bugging out in bug pack survivalist prepper freeze dried dehydrated food storage gamma lid bucket #10 can medicine supplies supply emergencies disaster natural civil war political unrest hyperinflation inflation canning jar Mylar oxygen absorber disease
Preparedness  survival  emergency  bugging out in bug pack survivalist prepper freeze dried dehydrated food storage gamma lid bucket #10 can medicine supplies supply emergencies disaster natural civil war political unrest hyperinflation inflation canning jar Mylar oxygen absorber disease
injury pneumothorax family children antibiotics alternative refrigeration solar communications salmonella pneumonia CPR medic mask gloves beans wheat rice oats corn oil coconut water purification filtration iodine pasta sugar salt iodized dry powdered milk mountain house essentials bread education home school vitamins skills chickens goats rabbits homestead redoubt American fuel wood ticks mosquitoes repellent disinfect sterilize Armageddon TEOTWAWKI SHTF WTSHTF societalinjury pneumothorax family children antibiotics alternative refrigeration solar communications salmonella pneumonia CPR medic mask gloves beans wheat rice oats corn oil coconut water purification filtration iodine pasta sugar salt iodized dry powdered milk mountain house essentials bread education home school vitamins skills chickens goats rabbits homestead redoubt American fuel wood ticks mosquitoes repellent disinfect sterilize Armageddon TEOTWAWKI SHTF WTSHTF societalPreparedness  survival  emergency  bugging out in bug pack survivalist prepper freeze dried dehydrated food storage gamma lid bucket #10 can medicine supplies supply emergencies disaster natural civil war political unrest hyperinflation inflation canning jar Mylar oxygen absorber disease
© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com
injury pneumothorax family children antibiotics alternative refrigeration solar communications salmonella pneumonia CPR medic mask gloves beans wheat rice oats corn oil coconut water purification filtration iodine pasta sugar salt iodized dry powdered milk mountain house essentials bread education home school vitamins skills chickens goats rabbits homestead redoubt American fuel wood ticks mosquitoes repellent disinfect sterilize Armageddon TEOTWAWKI SHTF WTSHTF societal

Foreign Body in Nose

It is the dreaded FBIN.  Foreign body in nose.  Your otherwise adorable, brilliant toddler decided TEOTWAWKI would be a great time to see if shoving peas up her nose would keep her from having to eat them. 

This is not good.  And because you are not a physician with the cool tools of the emergency department, the options for removing the FBIN are limited.  However, if you start to panic, your child is going to stress out as well, and that will make everything worse.  Just to add more pressure, statistics show that your child is only going to allow one or two attempts at most for clearing her nose.  This has to be done right the first time.

The very first thing to do, as soon as you know you've got a problem, is to get the child to breathe through her mouth.  Sniffling may move the object farther up the nasal passage.   Depending on exactly what is up her nose and how painful it is, pain medication may be required to help calm her down.  In a situation like this, many doctors turn to an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen and in some cases would consider a sedative as well. 

Most of the time, you are going to know what is up her nose.  She was playing with beads, or Legos, candy, batteries, magnets, or pencil erasers.  Beans, seeds, bugs.  Maybe pebbles.  How you approach removing the FBIN is going to depend largely on what exactly it is.  Is it hard?  Soft?  Round?  Square?  Smaller?  Larger?  Smooth?  Rough?  Metallic?

A physician has several options in a grid-down situation where there is no ER:

• Positive pressure (child).  The child pinches the clear side of the nose closed, takes a deep breath, and exhales forcibly through the side with the foreign body.  This method is good for solid objects like beans and beads.  It is difficult for small children to perform.
• Positive pressure (parent, kissing technique, mouth-to-mouth).  While pinching the clear side of the nose closed, a parent performs mouth-to-mouth, forcefully blowing air through the child's mouth in an effort to dislodge the object.  
• Positive pressure (straw).  It's the same as the positive pressure parent technique above, but using a straw between the two mouths instead.  Quick puffs are delivered through the straw.
• Bulb syringe.  This is also primarily for removing round, smooth objects.  Make sure you have a good seal with the nostril and suck the foreign body out.  The syringe may need to be trimmed to work.  Do not risk pushing the object farther up the nasal passageway with a bulb syringe that is too long. 
• Derma-Bond, Vet-Bond (do not use super glue!).  Put a little of this glue on a small stick, like a Q-tip with the cotton removed.  Make contact with the foreign body and hold in place for at least 60 seconds before attempting to remove.
• Saline washout.  Fill a bulb syringe with 7 ml of sterile saline.  Insert the bulb syringe in the opposite nostril and advance it until you form a tight seal between the nostril and the bulb syringe.  Squeeze the bulb forcibly to eject the saline to the other side.  The saline will hopefully carry the object out the other nostril.  This method is good for friable objects like crackers.  
• Tweezers.  May work for some objects.  Don't risk pushing the object further up the nasal passage.
• A bent paper clip or a wire loop held by a hemostat.  Either of these can be used to rotate around the inside of the nostril between the object and the mucous membrane to dislodge and remove the foreign object. 

Sometimes children do things that escape our notice, and some of the foreign bodies children choose to shove up their noses don't cause immediate discomfort, or even any discomfort.  Peas and raisins are nice and soft and squishy.  Something like that is going to eventually start giving off a very foul odor.  And there will be a runny nose, but only on one side.  (Unless, of course, the objects were shoved up both nostrils.  A parent's natural reaction is to panic, thinking there's some type of infection.  However, there will be no fever.  Careful questioning may reveal that the child did indeed shove something up her nose. 

Other items you are going to want for this situation include a very good headlamp with a strong light to it and a small pair of pliers to hold the nostril open (unless, of course, you have a nasal speculum on hand).

Links to related posts:
Glues
Saline solution

For further reading: 
https://www.oatext.com/20-ways-of-removing-a-nasal-foreign-body-in-the-emergency-department.php
https://www.webmd.com/first-aid/foreign-body-nose-treatment
https://www.drugs.com/cg/nasal-foreign-body-in-children.html
https://www.healthline.com/health/foreign-body-in-the-nose#treatment

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com  

4.16.23

How To Produce Malt Vinegar from Wheat

Several years ago my brother-in-law posted the entire process of making vinegar from wheat on his blog.  It's still the only thing he has posted there.  I had hoped that he would post other articles, but I'm grateful to have this one.  All the other ones I found online had something to do with making beer and weren't a good fit for my purposes.


Anyway, making malt vinegar from wheat is not rocket science, but it does take a few months.  Fortunately, it is not labor-intensive.

Start off with the same instructions for sprouting wheat and making diastatic malt powder.  To keep you from having to refer to those posts, I've cut and pasted the pertinent information here.


To start your sprouts, in a quart-size canning jar, soak 1 1/4 cups of wheat in cool water for 6-12 hours. 


After the initial soaking, drain the wheat and rinse thoroughly.  Do not soak or let the wheat stand in water again.  For two to three days, repeat the rinse and drain cycle every six to twelve hours, with 8eight hours being ideal, but this also depends on the temperature.  The ideal temperature for sprouting is 70 degrees; warmer temperatures will necessitate more frequent rinsing.

For draining the wheat, the jar must be inverted and at an angle, ideally about 45 degrees.  A large bowl or dish drainer in the sink works well.  Putting the jar upside down will not permit draining.

After two to three days you should have sprouts with roots about the same length as the wheat berry itself.  At this point, it is time to dry the wheat sprouts.  Dehydrate the wheat berries on trays in the dehydrator or on cookie sheets in the oven at a temperature no greater than 120 degrees.  Temperatures above 125 degrees will destroy the enzymes required to produce malt vinegar.

Once the wheat is completely dry, grind it to the consistency of coarse cornmeal.  If you do not have a grain mill, a coffee grinder or blender will substitute. 

Use a flour sack towel, jelly bag, or even the front or back of a clean, but discarded t-shirt to make a bag for the ground wheat.  Place the ground wheat in the center of the bag and secure the ends of the bag with a large rubber band or string.

To make the wort (the sticky, sweet amber juice from which the vinegar will be made), begin by putting one quart of water in a medium saucepan.  Mark the depth of the water with a ruler, or spoon or other utensil, and remember where that level is.  It will be needed later.  Now add three more cups of water to the pan so that there are seven cups total in the pan.

Place the bag of ground wheat in the pan of water, and put the pan on the stove over medium heat.  With a candy thermometer attached to the side of the pan, constantly and gently stir the bag and the water until the temperature reaches exactly 160 degrees.  Immediately remove from heat and cover the pan.

Set the pan on hot pads on the counter and wrap it with towels to retain heat.  Incubate for one hour. 

After one hour, lift the wheat bag above the pan.  Set it in a strainer so that liquid in the bag can drain into the pan.  When the wheat bag is fully drained, discard the wheat.  Return the pan to the stove and bring it to a boil.  Boil for about an hour, until the wort (the liquid in the pan) is reduced in volume to just less than one quart, the level that you marked when you first added water to the pan.

The wort needs to be cooled rather quickly.  To do so, remove the pan from the heat and replace the lid.  Fill a 9x13 pan halfway with water.  Place it on the counter on hot pads and set the covered pan of wort in the cake pan.  Do not remove the lid from the saucepan of wort.

When the saucepan is lukewarm, pour the wort into a sterilized canning jar.  Sprinkle in 1/4 teaspoon of yeast.  Place a new canning lid on top, and then just barely apply the canning band.  Do not tighten it.  Gas needs to escape while at the same time preventing fresh air from entering.  If the gas cannot escape, you risk building up pressure inside the jar and breaking it.

Put the jar in a plastic bucket in a dark area of the house.  The next few days of fermentation will involve some hissing and fluid leaking from the top of the jar.  Clean it up daily to avoid attracting insects.

Within a few days the liquid will separate into four layers:

• gray goo at the top,
• white foam,
• amber liquid, and
• gray sediment at the bottom.

After at least one full week of fermentation, it is time to remove the clear liquid and initiate the second fermentation.  Without shaking the jar or otherwise disturbing the layers, remove the lid of the jar to let any remaining gas escape.


Strain the wort through a coffee filter or cheesecloth into a clean bowl, leaving the gray sediment and yeast in the bottom of the jar.  Discard the sediment and thoroughly clean the jar.  Pour the liquid back into the jar.  Then add raw, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, between 1/2 and 1 cup, to within an inch of the top of the jar.  Cover the top of the jar with a piece of plastic wrap and poke a hole through it with your finger.  Then cover the top of the jar with a layer of cheesecloth and secure with a canning ring.  Place the jar in a warm (ideally around 80 degrees), dark cabinet where it can remain undisturbed for one month, or longer if temperatures are cooler.  

The final step is aging the vinegar.  Remove the vinegar from the cabinet and strain it through a coffee filter or cheesecloth.  Wash the jar and lid thoroughly and return the vinegar to the jar.  Replace the lid, and set the vinegar in a dark cabinet to age for a few months.  The longer the aging the better the flavor and color.  If possible, a year would be nice.


Remember to always set aside some vinegar for starting your next batch.


If mold develops at any point in the process, discard the vinegar and begin again.  

Because the process depends greatly on having the right air temperatures, you may need to consider that when beginning your vinegar. 


For further reading:

https://nevadatodd.blogspot.com/2011/04/making-malt-vinegar-with-wheat-and.html#comment-form

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com 

Meals in a Jar

We never know how a disaster is going to strike, what exactly the challenges will be.  So it's a good idea to have several options for cooking and eating when you're starring in your own survival reality show, minus the cameras and catering crew.

Meals in a jar give you another option.  Making your own using freeze-dried ingredients saves a bit of money over buying the commercially prepared stuff.  You know, I like Mountain House just as much as the next girl or guy, but it is really expensive.  Even using freeze-dried ingredients makes it pretty expensive, so you might try using dehydrated instead and see if that works for you.  A bonus is that if using dehydrated, you'll be able to fit more food in the jar, which is nice if you have a larger family.  A con is that dehydrated foods take longer to rehydrate than freeze-dried.

When you assemble your meals in jars, the last item you add to each is a 300 cc (or more) oxygen absorber.  For proper sealing, be sure that you have also simmered the lids for at least five minutes.  Alternatively, you may use a vacuum-sealer.

Below are a few recipes to get you started.  More will be posted in the coming months.

Pasta with Sausage and Mushrooms
Layer in a quart jar:
1/3 cup freeze-dried mushrooms
1/3 cup freeze-dried sausage
2/3 cup freeze-dried hamburger
2/3 cup tomato powder
1/3 cup dehydrated onions
1 cup ziti or other pasta
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon sage
2/3 cup freeze-dried mozzarella cheese (in a separate baggie)


Put 4 1/2 cups of water in a medium saucepan and add jar contents, except for the cheese.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer 15-20 minutes, or until the pasta is tender and the sauce has thickened.  Put the cheese in a small bowl and spritz with water.  Let stand for five minutes.  Sprinkle the cheese on the pasta and serve.

Mexican Rice with Beef

1 1/2 cups freeze-dried hamburger

1 1/2 cups rice

1/2 cup freeze-dried chopped bell peppers

1/2 cup dehydrated minced onions

1/4 cup tomato powder

1 tablespoon ancho chile powder

1 1/2 teaspoons chicken bouillon

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

Bring 5 1/2 cups water and jar contents to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Cover and simmer over low heat for 25-30 minutes, or until tender.  Serve.

Fajita Casserole

2 cups dehydrated pinto beans

1 cup rice

1/2 cup dehydrated chopped bell peppers

1/2 cup dehydrated minced onion

1/2 cup freeze-dried cheddar or jack cheese

1/4 cup tomato powder

1 teaspoon dried minced garlic

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon cumin

 

Pour jar contents into a three-quart casserole dish with lid.  Add six cups of hot water and cover dish.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. 

Links to related posts:
Overview of Emergency Food Storage Options  
Instant Meals  
Meal Tins

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com 

Homemade Corn Flakes

About ten years ago, Honeyville Grain had a sale on dent corn. (Dent corn is not sweet corn, like the vegetable side dish. It is the hard, dry grain that cornmeal comes from.) I bought one hundred pounds of it. I guess I was planning on a lot of cornbread. I'm not quite sure right now.

Anyway, we just don't eat that much cornbread. Maybe if we start having more chili.

So while surfing online a few months back and looking for breakfast cereal recipes, I came across this one for homemade corn flakes. Ah, a way to use some of that dent corn!

I watched this Youtube and found the guy a bit entertaining. But because he's British, everything was in metric measurements. So I made the conversions and here is the modified recipe:

Homemade Corn Flakes

1 1/4 cups cornmeal

1 1/2 cups cold water

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine everything and mix until smooth. You may need to add a bit more water. You want a thin pancake batter consistency. Pour the batter onto four cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. (Do not try to substitute waxed paper or foil. I already did, and it doesn't work at all.) The batter needs to be in a very thin layer on the cookie sheets to bake up nice and crispy. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes and then remove from oven and allow to cool a bit. Then bake again at 250 degrees for 20 minutes. 

If you're really lucky, you get good corn flakes.

But there's the reality of having to get the consistency of the batter perfect, bake it perfectly, and being able to remove it perfectly from the sheet. I consistently had flakes that were too thick, so they weren't crunchy, or so thin that they shattered. To be fair, I also had some that were respectable in size. This batch will make enough for maybe four bowls of cereal. It will take at least an hour of baking if you are really efficient. It may not be a big deal when you have easy electricity, but if you're using any kind of alternative, it may be cost-prohibitive. Of course, you could use a solar oven, but then you also have to have the pan perfectly level. And if your sun oven is small, it's going to require a full day of baking. 

As far as the flakes that were the right size, the flavor was pretty spot on. Unfortunately, the texture just is not. Store-bought corn flakes are light and thin and crispy. And you just can't get that thin crispiness--and maintain the right size--doing it by hand. It would be a lot more difficult in challenging conditions.

Just so you know what I'm basing this comparison on, I made the DIY stuff and tasted it fresh out of the oven after it had cooled down. It was then compared with a jar of corn flakes I came across a few months ago, and which was vacuum-sealed in a canning jar in 2009. Yep, ten years ago. I added a little bit of milk and sugar to each.

The ten-year-old stuff is the hands-down winner again.

So yeah, you can DIY the corn flakes and spend a lot of time and get a sub-par product that will be okay. Or you can save yourself a lot of time and effort and just vacuum seal some. Oh, and I didn't even use an oxygen absorber.

Links to related posts:   

Homemade Wheaties  

Homemade Grape-Nuts  

Homemade Granola   

Homemade Muesli  

Breakfast Cereal Shelf Life 

For further information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BZivlZoHdo

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