Basic Food Storage: Cracked Wheat

Wheat is perhaps the most versatile of the whole grains, at least in the Western world.  But some people are reluctant to store wheat because they haven't yet acquired a wheat grinder.  And you always wonder if you're really going to use it.  So here are some ways to use wheat that do not require a wheat grinder.  A coffee grinder is necessary, but that's not as significant of an expense, especially if you pick one up at a garage sale.

So the first thing to do (after cleaning the coffee out of the coffee grinder) is to put about one-third of a cup of wheat in the coffee grinder.  Let it whirl for a few seconds.

Now you have cracked wheat.

So how do you use it?

• Bread.  Probably the most common way to use it is in bread, about 1/4 cup cracked wheat boiled for 10 minutes in 2/3 cup water.  Let cool before adding to bread recipes.  
• Cereal.  Cracked wheat cereal is also (somewhat) popular.  Boil 1 cup of cracked wheat in 3 cups of water for 15 minutes.  Add milk, bananas, chopped nuts, and brown sugar to taste.
• Hamburger extender.  Boiled cracked wheat can even be used as a hamburger extender, such as in taco meat or meatballs.  This works better with children than with highly suspicious husbands.  Start with smaller amounts and gradually increase.  It also works better in highly seasoned hamburger than plain.  
• "Nuts".  Cooked cracked wheat patted dry looks like chopped nuts on Jell-O salads.

Strawberry Jell-O Salad with Cracked Wheat

1/4 cup cracked wheat
1 small pkg. strawberry Jell-O
1 cup boiling water
1 cup whipped cream or Cool Whip
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups mashed fresh strawberries, or equivalent--frozen, dehydrated or freeze-dried and reconstituted

Boil cracked wheat in 1 cup water for 15 minutes, remove from heat, and drain excess water.  Pour cracked wheat on paper towel to remove excess water.  Set aside.

In a 9x9 pan, dissolve Jell-O in boiling water, stirring until completely dissolved.  Cool until thickened, and then stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Refrigerate until firm or overnight. Serve with a spoonful of whipped cream sprinkled with cooked cracked wheat as your mock nuts.

Links to related posts:
Wheat  
Sprouted wheat   

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com 
28 may 2021

Dietary Deficiencies and Consequences--Carbohydrate

Actually, a lack of carbohydrate in the diet is extremely rare, even among the impoverished. This condition should be non-existent among any who call themselves preppers, because carbohydrate sources are the least expensive foods. Grains store for twenty to thirty or more years, even without oxygen absorbers.   Fruit and vegetable carbohydrate sources grow rather easily in gardens.
Carbohydrates are the high octane fuel that the central nervous system wants for optimal performance. Carbohydrates, like protein, have four calories per gram.  However, unlike protein, carbohydrates are needed to digest fat completely. In the absence of carbohydrates, fat breakdown is incomplete, and the waste product is ketones. This causes a condition called ketosis, which can cause nausea among other things. Carbohydrates play a valuable role in sparing protein and preventing ketosis.  Furthermore, a low carbohydrate diet may make people fatigued, irritable, and lethargic.

What carbohydrate does is to protect protein so that it is available for building tissue. When carbohydrate intake is insufficient, protein gets broken down and used in its place, and nowhere near as efficiently. Why is this? Because protein can serve as a source of carbohydrate if carbohydrate intake is too low.

Carbohydrates should comprise 50% of the diet for most people. The best healthy carbohydrate sources are whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.  Whole grains (and enriched white rice) are the staff of life.  They're so cheap right now (though the prices are rising) and so easily produced by farmers, and so very difficult to grow ourselves in the quantities needed by a family to sustain themselves, that we should not skimp on storage space for these items.  Remember, 400 pounds per person per year is the minimum recommended amount for surviving.  Add another 50-100 pounds if you want to be satisfied, and not hungry.

Of course, really good sources of carbohydrate are most fruits and many vegetables.  Vegetables and berries are fairly easy to grow, but trees take time to start producing.  Less healthy sources of carbohydrate are sugars like sugar (granulated, brown, powdered), honey, molasses, corn syrup, maple syrup, Jell-O, drink mix, and hot chocolate mix.  They add variety to the diet and aren't generally too expensive.  They're simple to stockpile now, and with the exception of honey and maple syrup, a whole lot more difficult to produce later.  The minimum amount of sugar to store per person per year is sixty pounds, and again, that's for someone who will be alive, but always hungry.

Related posts:
Dietary Deficiency--Fat 
Dietary Imbalance--Fiber
Dietary Deficiency--Protein 

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com  

5 march 2023