Homemade Chicken-Raspberry-Noodles-Jam

The title might be confusing but I'm just trying to efficiently mesh 2 recent THRIVE meal experiences. The post will be crystal clear!

Yes I'm making homemade egg noodles. It's an old family recipe I learned from my cousin when we were roomates at BYU back back back in the day.

It calls for one egg per person, flour and salt to taste. Very precise, I know. Through the years I've come to modify it a bit.

This time out I used all THRIVE ingredients. After all, if it's supposed to be able to feed my family in times of need/lazinessconvenience, I must use them in our favorite recipes. So out came the THRIVE FD (that means freeze dried for those new to my blog) chopped chicken. I love this stuff! It's already cooked, skinned, boned and chopped and rehydrates in about 10 min! Quick stuff! I used my THRIVE carrots, onions, celery and boullion which of course were added to the water in the pot. Next I rehydrated about 6 eggs. That's 1 TBS. of whole egg powder to 2 TBS. of water. Mix and you have liquid eggs ready to go! Then I added about 1 tsp. salt and flour until it was pasta like consistency.

Then they were rolled out very thin like in the first picture. Dust well with flour if you try this. Then roll up the pasta the short way. By that I mean you've rolled it in a sorta rectangular/oval type shape. Once it's rolled up, using a pizza cutter, slice through in about 1" sized pieces, unroll and add them too the boiling broth.

It turned out just as yummy and disappeared just as fast as if I had done it the way I learned in college and spent the WHOLE FREAKIN' DAY preparing this meal!! (There is no picture of the final product. It was fast Sunday and that large kettle of chicken and noodles was gone like the wind) So what about the raspberry jam mix thingie? I got some YUMMY fresh raspberries at the local farmer's market Wednesday. I had every intention of saving those fresh little sweeties for jam. But I saw then I noticed the ever shrinking bowl that no one claimed responsibility for. Anyway, I smashed up the 4 containers of berries. I needed 6 smashed up cups.

As you can or can't see here but trust me it's the truth, I am exactly 1 cup SHORT. I searched the freezer for some sign of frozen berry stuff. I did find some freezer burned strawberries which I took out and began to thaw. THEN I remembered that I had the bits, pieces and powders at the bottom of a large can of THRIVE freeze dried raspberries. Brilliant!

I pour the remnants into a measuring cup and added water just to rehydrate to a thick mush state.

As you can now see, my 5 cups of smashed raspberries now comes to 6 cups and I'm off to make my jam....Well I'm back and guess what? It's delicious and it's all sealed up just fine in my jelly glasses and put away in the pantry. So whenever you get in a pinch in the kitchen, remember your THRIVE products. They really can save the day even if it's not during a natural disaster!

Q. What's the Number One Question I Am Asked About Food Storage?

A. WHERE DO I START?

Every party I have given in the last 16 months I have gotten this question. Do you think I have one universal answer to it? Do ya, well do ya? No. I don't. I always say to start with the 'basics' (whatever that means because it's very subjective, fudge brownies being a basic necessity to me). But NOW, haleluia, I have the universal right one single answer! 3 months on 'Smart Start' for the Q is THE place to begin... and here is why:

The THRIVE Smart Start Pack consists of three packages. Each package includes either 16 or 17 pantry cans of THRIVE foods and four pouches of THRIVE Express. The first package also includes the THRIVE Smart Start pack recipe booklet (with 26 recipes, 3 monthly meal planners, and 3 monthly shopping cards) and the THRIVE Smart Start flyer. We ship one package per month for a total of three packages over three months.

The Thrive Smart Start Pack is a combination of our new entrees with other pantry-size thrive foods in combinations to make recipes. There are 3 packs that you put in your Q one month at a time. Each month you will receive a "Smart Pack" with recipes for that pack.

Contents of Each Month
Month 1 Smart Start Pack
17 Thrive pantry cans
Cornmeal
Salt
White flour (3)
White sugar
Instant Milk (3)
Baking Power
FD Pineapple Chunks
Fudge Brownie Mix
Shortening Powder
FD Colby Cheese
Chopped onions
FD Strawberries
FD Banana Slices
Simply Peach Drink mix
Entree - Creamy Beef and Noodles
Entree- Hearty Chili with Beans
Entree- Pasta Carbonara
Entree - Baked Potato Cheese Soup
5 Recipes: Cornbread (made 2x), caramel sauce, cheese bread, strawberry banana smoothie, strawberry puree

Month 2 Smart Start Pack
Taco TVP
Potato Chunks
Sour Cream Powder
FD Cheddar Cheese
Kidney Beans
Pinto Beans
Tomato Powder
Macaroon Cookie Mix
Mixed Bell Peppers
FD Sweet Corn
FD Tomato Dices
Chicken Bouillon
Instant White Rice
White Sugar
Apple Slices
Melon Berry Burst Drink mix
Entree - Southwestern Style Chicken and Rice
Entree - Wild Rice Pilaf
Entree- Garden Fresh Vegetable Pasta
Entree - Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
5 Recipes - Tacos, Easy Spanish rice, sour cream and cheese potatoes, sweet corn and bean salsa, taco soup (made 2x)

Month 3 Smart Start Pack
Elbow MAcaroni (2)
Cheese Blend
Butter Powder
White Flour (3)
Baking Soda
FD Apricots
Brown Sugar (2)
Whole Egg Powder
FD Blackberries
Quick Oats
FD Mangoes
Fudge Brownies Mix
Mango Passion Drink mix
Entree - Loaded Scalloped Potatoes
Entree- Creamy Garden Vegetable Chowder
Entree- Chili Lime Chicken Rice
Entree - Broccoli Cheese Soup
14 Recipes - Almond apricot thumbprint cookies, lemon blackberry crisps, chocolate chip cookies, taco salad, Zesty southwestern mac and cheese, apricot cobbler, oatmeal cake, apple spiced breakfast oatmeal, The Chef's rice and beans, macaroni and cheese, cheese blend sauce, strawberry/pineapple/banana compote, mango tango smoothie, cornmeal cookies.

More questions answered right here:
How much does the Smart Start pack cost?

The price for the THRIVE Smart Start Pack is $149.99 for each of the three monthly Q shipments.

Is it cheaper to purchase the THRIVE Smart Start pack than to buy each of the products individually?

Yes. In addition to the convenience of having a pack with preselected THRIVE products needed to cook great-tasting and healthy meals, you receive a 5% discount with the THRIVE Smart Start pack compared to purchasing these products individually.

And here's a little introduction to our new THRIVE Express meals products!



***Okay. So if you have actually read this post all the way to the bottom, leave me a comment and you will be in the running for a free gift from me! (It's the least I can do for you, for reading this novel) The winner will be chosen next Wednesday! Yay!

Quick and Easy Custard Pie

Well, it's about time I posted something new here. I was browsing through Facebook today when I noticed a new recipe in "Just a Pinch". So I clicked over and took a look. Now I probably wouldn't have looked twice but it was early in the day and I hadn't eaten. The picture looked yummy and so I quickly jotted it down. Let me tell you, it is SUPER easy! The recipe calls for traditional ingredients but I got a great idea to substitute some Thrive foods where I could. This is the recipe:

Super Easy Custard Pie
Get our your blender
Put in- 4 eggs (I used Thrive whole egg powder reconstituted)
3/4 C. sugar (you could use your Thrive sugar)
2 C. milk (I used reconstituted Thrive Instant milk)
pinch of salt
1/4 C. melted butter (I used real butter)
2 t. vanilla
1/2 C. flour (you could use your Thrive white or wheat flour)

Mix all these ingredients in the blender for about 30 seconds or so ( I told you it was easy!)
Pour into a greased 9" pie plate (hint: put the pie plate in the oven first and then pour the custard mix into it. It splashes out easily when you try to walk with it or move your oven racks with the full pie plate on it)(I learned this the hard way today!) Sprinkle liberally with Nutmeg.
Bake this for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

The mixture separates and makes it's own crust on the bottom. Now it's not like a crunchy crust so don't be expecting that. It's more gooey than crisp although the next time I might just put it on the bottom rack and see how it turns out. You can see how mine turned out below.

Here's a closer look:

I think if I had been surviving on my food storage staples of whole wheat, beans, oats, powdered milk and rice for a while, a nice little custard dish like this one would be greatly appreciated! Next time I'm going to add COCONUT! Perhaps I will use my coconut macaroon mix with it...