Food Storage, again

I first posted this list last year around this time but didn't do a single thing with it all year (for shame!), but I just got done printing it out and it is going on my fridge today so that I can start crossing some of these things off my list and getting my food storage together! So if you have food storage on your list of resolutions for 2009, here is a way to get started! And if you're out shopping this week, Harmon's has their case lot sale going on right now. I spent a small fortune getting stocked up on a few things this morning, so I've got at least a few of those weeks covered. :)

Food Storage on $5 a week

week 1: 6 lbs. salt
week 2: 5 cans cream of chicken soup
week 3: 20 lbs. of sugar
week 4: 8 cans of tuna
week 5: 6 lbs. macaroni
week 6: 20 lbs. of sugar
week 7: 8 cans of tuna
week 8: 6 lbs. yeast
week 9: 50 lbs. wheat
week 10: 8 cans tomato soup
week 11: 20 lbs. of sugar
week 12: 10 lbs. powdered milk
week 13: 7 boxes macaroni and cheese
week 14: 50 lbs of wheat
week 15: 5 cans cream mushroom soup
week 16: 50 lbs. wheat
week 17: 8 cans of tomato soup
week 18: 20 lbs. of sugar
week 19: 8 cans of tuna
week 20: 6 lbs. shortening
week 21: 50 lbs. wheat
week 22: 5 lbs. honey
week 23: 8 cans of tuna
week 24: 6 lbs. shortening
week 25: 50 lbs. wheat
week 26: 5 lbs. honey
week 27: 10 lbs. powdered milk
week 28: 20 lbs. sugar
week 29: 5 lbs. peanut butter
week 30: 50 lbs. wheat
week 31: 7 boxes of macaroni and cheese
week 32: 10 lbs. powdered milk
week 33: 1 bottle 500 aspirin
week 34: 5 cans cream of chicken soup
week 35: 50 lbs. wheat
week 36: 7 boxes macaroni and cheese
week 37: 6 lbs. salt
week 38: 20 lbs. sugar
week 39: 8 cans tomato soup
week 40: 50 lbs. wheat
week 41: 5 cans cream of chicken soup
week 42: 20 lbs. sugar
week 43: 1 bottle 500 multi-vitamins
week 44: 8 cans tuna
week 45: 50 lbs. wheat
week 46: 6 lbs. macaroni
week 47: 6 lbs. sugar
week 48: 5 cans cream of mushroom soup
week 49: 5 lbs. honey
week 50: 20 lbs. sugar
week 51: 8 cans tomato soup
week 52: 50 lbs. wheat

Some weeks you will have leftover change. Save the change each week in a jar to be used for the weeks you may exceed $5.00 (for example, as when purchasing wheat or milk). You will end up with:

500 pounds of wheat
180 pounds of sugar
40 pounds of powdered milk
12 pounds of salt
10 pounds of honey
5 pounds peanut butter
45 cans of tomato soup
15 cans of cream of mushroom soup
15 cans of cream of chicken soup
24 cans of tuna
21 boxes of macaroni and cheese
500 aspirin
1000 multi-vitamins
6 pounds of yeast
6 pounds of shortening
12 pounds of macaroni

This should be enough to sustain two people for one year. For every two people in your family, add $5.00 more and double or triple the amount of the item you are buying for that week.

Pudding

After dinner, Isaac opened up the fridge and declared, I want pudding! And not being one to want to deny my special guy puddin', I called my mom and got her recipe that she used to make for us as kids, especially when we were sick. It's super easy and is so yummy, so if you have sick kids, or you just like pudding, then give my mom's recipe a try!

Ingredients:
2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar (or less to taste)
1/4 corn starch
2 egg yolks

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring continually with a wire whisk until it thickens (right about the time it comes to a soft boil), about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Pour into bowls, allow to cool, then enjoy!

For variations, you can also add a tablespoon of cocoa to the mix before cooking, or any other flavoring that suits your fancy.

I gave Jarom his bowl to eat and it was still fairly warm. He asked if pudding should be cold before eating, and I said that I don't know. As kids, we never waited around long enough to get it cool and just ate it hot! So it probably does taste good cold, if you can wait that long.

And I have a confession to make, I have a bunch of heavy cream in my fridge that I need to use up, so I only used 1 1/2 cup milk, then a half cup of cream, and it tasted so yummy!!!

Sick and cute

Even though the kids don't feel well, they are still super cute!

I was finally able to capture Emilie crawling on video. Adorable.

And this is how I found Isaac sleeping this morning after he kicked us out of our own bed. (Yes, those are the same clothes he's been wearing for a few days now, but I promise, I bathed my kids this morning and put clean clothes on them both!)

Rice Crispies Treats

While the kids have been sick, I've been making a lot more comfort foods lately. Last night I tried an experiment with Rice Crispies treats and thought I would share the love in case anyone else out there has also abandoned any new years resolution to lose weight. I'm not going to post the recipe for the RCT's since they are printed on just about every package of marshmallows out there. First of all, while grocery shopping, I found some cute Christmas marshmallows in their after-Christmas sale cart and grabbed a bag for pretty cheap. Problem is it had both red and green marshmallows, and if I used them both, I would end up with BROWN RCT's, and that's not appetizing to anyone. So I seperated the colors and just used the green (and made up the difference with regular white ones from my pantry). Then as I was mixing it all up, here comes the really sinful part, I added the red ones in with the cereal, unmelted. The result?The marshmallows got really soft from the warmth of the cereal/marshmallow mixture but didn't melt, and it gave a delightful extra gooeyness that was very satisfying. You could easily do the same thing with regular miniature marshmallows and I bet it would turn out just as great.

For dinner, Isaac request my brother Jeff's Taco Soup. I had to search through his blog to find the recipe, so I hope he doesn't mind, but I'll save you the trouble and post a link to his recipe here. I didn't have any ground beef or kidney beans, so I just used some canned chicken and black beans and it still turned out really good. Gracias, Jefe!

As for the kids, they are still plugging along with their coughing and runny noses. Emilie is handling things pretty well although is still a bit on the moody side (how much of that is from being sick and how much is from being a PRINCESS, I don't know). And Isaac is handling his treatments well enough. It takes about 20 minutes for the nebulizer to deliver the entire dose of medication, and after about 15 minutes, he gets really bored, so we have to do a lot of encouraging and bribing and he's being such a trooper. I can tell that it is helping, especially in the morning. He is still acting very energetic and crazy, which is good. It's when he gets lethargic and sullen that I start to worry. I'll take an obnoxious kid any day!

Deja Vu

Here was Isaac in March:And here is Isaac tonight:Emilie has had her cold for a few days now and is doing fine, just a runny nose to contend with, but Isaac started to get the cold symptoms yesterday and I upped his inhaler meds, but he still had a rough night last night and spend too much of it coughing. This morning, he looked so exhausted, so we did some more inhalers and I was able to get an appointment for him with the doctor. After a brief consultation, she said the dreaded phrase, Let's test him for RSV. The nurse did a quick nose swab and the results came back very quickly: positive. My heart just sank and it was all I could do to keep from crying since it hasn't been that long since my little man spent a week in the hospital struggling to breathe because of RSV.

The doctor said that most likely, Emilie has RSV too (she could tell by hearing her cough), but she's such a healthy girl that it's just not affecting her as bad. Isaac is just starting his sickness and could have a rough couple of days. We got a nebulizer and will do breathing treatments with him every four hours and hope and pray that he can stay on top of this nasty virus this time around. My poor little guy! At least we can do the treatments at home this time around.

Happy New Years!

On a side note, this morning Emilie wanted to play with MY cell phone, and I guess it doesn't handle baby spittle as well as Jarom's because the screen shorted out and doesn't work any more. Lovely. So if you call my cell phone or text me, don't be offended if I don't answer/reply.

Anyway, enough about that, let's talk about food! One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is all the fun food to make and eat (and eat and eat!). Since I have two small ones, going anywhere for New Years just doesn't happen, so we've spent New Years Eve at home the last few years and have our own little party. Well, party is a relative term I suppose, but at least we have fun food to eat! Here is what our fancy shmancy meal consisted of:We had shrimp sauteed in butter with Harmon's super yummy cocktail sauce, chips-n-salsa (we tried the Kirkland signature salsa from Costco, very good!), small polish sausages cooked in BBQ sauce, spinach and artichoke dip with crackers, dill pickles, and grape juice. I let Isaac drink his juice from a champagne glass and he felt very grown up. I also got a cheese tray but totally forgot to get it out. I guess we'll munch on that tonight!Then after we ate dinner, Isaac helped me make some cupcakes. For some reason, they just did not turn out like they usually do, but they tasted fine. Isaac's favorite color these days is green, so he wanted green frosting.He also helped decorate with sprinkles. Can you tell which ones he did?I love hearing what people eat for the holidays! What did you have at your New Years party?

Just give her what she wants!

I think it's a girl thing to be able to have such a high-pitched, squealing cry that is able to tear asunder the very fibers of everyone's hearts in a 20 foot radius. Emilie is perfecting that wonderful talent. I mean really, is it so bad to let a girl have a phone?

Evidently, it is. Gosh, all she wants is the phone.