It’s my general practice to evaluate recipes before posting them here on the blog. And you know I’ve tried out some doozies to spare you. The banana peel bacon and pinto bean cake were definitely not to die for. More likely to die from. Same with the homemade rice krispies. And I know there are a few more, but my brain’s a bit addled right now.
Recipes I posted but didn’t try out were the emergency baby formulas. We didn’t have any babies at the time and I didn’t think about trying it when my granddaughter was little. As she was already struggling to gain weight, I’m not sure her parents would have allowed it anyway.
So now I’m posting two more recipes that I haven’t tried and do not plan to. They’ve been around for decades; however, there are not a lot of online sources for the recipes. Almost all the links for atmit are dead. And most of the ones for fameal are basically the same original source. When you take a look at the ingredients and preparation, you’ll understand the theoretical approach employed here. We prepare so that our families do not have to eat food like this. I can’t prepare to feed others as well as I plan to feed my family. I have neither the time, the energy (physical and cooking fuel), nor the space. However, I would like to be prepared to feed others something should the need arise. Most will be fine with beans and rice. Others may need a more specialized diet.
In the way-back machine that is my brain, I recalled reading or hearing about my church sending tons of atmit to starving Ethiopians. Because they were so debilitated, they needed highly nourishing food that was also easily digested.
Atmit
25% nonfat dried milk
20% sugar
Now you’ll see that looks like it’s a bit heavy on the vitamins and minerals. Maybe the vitamin and mineral powder had a lot of filler in it to aid even distribution? No idea. At any rate, that formula was modified in 2009 to the following:
51% oat flour
23% nonfat dried milk
25% sugar
1% vitamins and minerals
Wikipedia is currently the only source for these formulas; the links to the original webpages are dead. Nowhere is there any indication whether these quantities are by weight or by volume. Assuming they are by volume, that would be 2 cups oat flour, 1 cup dried milk, 1 cup sugar, and some vitamins, finely crushed. To prepare, add water to make a thin porridge and cook for a few minutes.
The fameal recipe has been on my to-do list for perhaps a year. It doesn’t look complicated by any means, but it doesn’t look all that enticing either. I had to accept the fact that I was never going to get around to trying it out on my family.
Fameal
The original recipe:
50% by volume of wheat meal or cornmeal
30% by volume of any bean
meal (lentils or soy are good choices)
10% by volume of cooking oil
10% by volume of sugar
Salt to taste
Multivitamin tablet ground into a powder
A small batch with concrete measurements:
1 cup wheat meal or cornmeal
2/3 cup any bean meal (lentils are smaller and easier to grind)
3 tablespoons cooking oil
3 tablespoons sugar
Salt to taste
Multivitamin tablet ground into a powder
Combine all these ingredients. Add water in a ratio of 1 part fameal to 3 parts water. Mix until smooth and then cover and cook over low heat for 8-10 minutes. For additional protein, stir in a little milk powder.
Like I said, I’m not trying these out. After I serve them to starving masses, I’ll pop on here and post their reviews. ;) If you try them out before I get around to it, post your reviews in the comments below.
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