Zucchini Fest!

Do any of you have zucchinis coming out your ears like me? I have gathered a few of my favorite zucchini recipes to share with you, if you are like me and trying to think of more ways to eat your zucchini. Enjoy!

Fried Zucchini Sticks (our favorite!!) *This works great as an appetizer!
Cut zucchini into long 1/2 in. strips. Pat dry with paper towel and remove any large seeds (works better with small and thin zucchini)

Heat up a large pan with vegetable oil. Dip zucchini slices into the Tempura batter below. Put in hot oil and fry until golden brown. When golden brown, remove and place on paper towel to let grease drip off. Season with more salt and serve with a good quality ranch dressing.

Tempura Batter
¾ c. cornstarch
¼ c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
1 egg
¼ - ½ c. ice cold water

Use to coat zucchini sticks, fry and enjoy by dipping in ranch dip! (That is a family favorite!) Or use to coat any vegetable, chicken, shrimp, etc.

Southwestern Zucchini & Corn
1 lb. frozen corn (canned corn or corn off the cob also works)
1 c. cherry tomatoes
2 T. butter
1/2 onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves
4 medium zucchinis, sliced into thin rounds
1 can green chilies (or cut up red or yellow peppers)
salt and pepper (or Montreal Steak Seasoning)
1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese

Saute the zucchini, onions, and garlic in butter until zucchini is tender. Add thawed corn, can of diced chilies and cherry tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Add cheese and let melt until ready to serve.

Favorite Zucchini Cake
Margaret Taylor (Hyrum, UT)
3 large eggs
1 ½ cups sugar
2/3 cup oil (also good with 1/3 cup vegetable or fruit puree and 1/3 cup oil)
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups oats
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
¾ tsp. ground cloves
3 cups shredded zucchini

Topping:
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup chocolate chips (good with ½ milk chocolate and ½ semi-sweet)
½ cup coarsely chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans), optional

Mix eggs, sugar, oil (or oil and puree), and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and blend thoroughly. Fold in zucchini. Pour into greased and floured 9x13 pan. Mix topping ingredients and sprinkle on top of cake batter. Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Zucchini Cupcakes
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup orange juice
1 tsp. almond extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 ½ cups shredded zucchini

Caramel Frosting:
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup butter or margarine
¼ cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ½ - 2 cups confectioners’ sugar

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, oil, orange juice and extract. Combine dry ingredients; add to the egg mixture and mix well. Add zucchini and mix well. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until cupcakes test done. Cool for 10 minutes; remove to a wire rack to cool completely. For frosting, combine brown sugar, butter and milk in a saucepan; bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Cool to lukewarm. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar until the frosting reaches desired spreading consistency. Frost cupcakes. Makes 1 ½ - 2 dozen cupcakes.

Summer Chicken Chili
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 medium white onion
1 can pinto beans, drained
1 can black beans, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can corn, drained
16 oz. thick and chunky mild salsa
3 c. cooked, shredded chicken
1/2 -2 T. chili powder
14 oz. cans chicken broth8 oz. tomato sauce
1 garlic, pressed
1t. ground cumin

Sauté onion, zucchini, garlic and chicken. Add seasonings. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes after coming to a boil. Top with chips, cheese, sour cream etc.

Zucchini and Chicken Casserole
1 c. butter
¼ c. onions chopped
6 c. sliced zucchini (1/8” – ¼”)
3 Chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 c. sour cream
1 c. shredded cheese
1-8 oz. pkg. herb seasoned dressing. Pepperidge farms
½ pkg. bread crumbs

Saute onions and zucchini in butter. Add cooked and cubed chicken to the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Put zucchini and onions on top of chicken. Mix cream of chicken soup together with sour cream and pour over chicken and zucchini. Sprinkle top with breadcrumbs and cheese and bake at 350 until bubbly and golden brown.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
1 cube margarine
¾ T. soda
½ c. oil
2 ½ c. flour
1 ¾ c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs
5 T. cocoa
2 c. zucchini grated
1 T. baking powder
½ t. cinnamon
1 t. salt
½ c. buttermilk

Mix, pour in greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes. Frost with chocolate frosting.

Lemon Zucchini Cookies
1 c. margarine
2 eggs
2 c. flour (may need a little more flour if too sticky)
1 t. baking powder
¾ c. sugar
1 c. shredded zucchini or carrots
½ t. salt
1 t. vanilla
1 ½ T. lemon extract or juice

Combine ingredients together and place small ball son cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until cooked through. Don’t over bake! Cover cookies with orange or lemon frosting.

Mystery Cobbler
4 c. zucchini (approx. 3 medium), peeled and cut in half. Take out seeded part and slice thin like an apple.
1 1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. cornstarch
½ t. salt
2 t. cinnamon
¼ t. nutmeg
¼ c. lemon juice (or more)

In a bowl stir all ingredients together that make up the pie filling. Pour into unbaked pie crust. Top with upper crust. Pinch pie crust edges together and vent top crust to allow steam and juices to escape. Brush with a little milk. Bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. Let cool a bit to allow pie filling to set up. Serve with ice cream. You’ll be amazed how much it tastes like apple pie!! You can also cook this as a cobbler with a oat, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon crumble placed on top of the zucchini. That is my favorite way to make this--your friends won't know the difference!

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Wow! I love getting a good deal!

Do you want to know how to buy ALL of these groceries

THIS WEEK
for only $101.25?

*7 dozen large eggs

*18 29oz. cans peaches/pears
*28 boxes of Kellogg’s cereal

*6 lbs. bacon
*3 french bread loaves

*1 lb. carrots & 1.5 lbs. grapes
*20 Frigo string cheeses

*2 lbs. fresh peaches
*bunch of bananas

*3 lbs. tomatoes on the vine
*4 lbs. sour cream

*8 ears of corn on the cob
*5 lbs. ground beef

*4 gallons of milk


By becoming a member to My Food Storage Deals we will teach you how to ONLY buy those items on sale for ROCK BOTTOM PRICES and help you plan your meals around what is on sale! We can save you HUNDREDS of dollars by telling you which items are on sale from the FIVE major grocery stores for LESS than Costco and Walmart. When you stock up on what’s on sale, you are building up your food storage with the LOWEST POSSIBLE prices!
It will save you TIME & MONEY!

Try our service for FREE for two weeks! Sign up today with NO contracts and see how much you can save! Use the promotional code DEALS and get your membership for only $4.95 (Standard Membership) or $7.95 (Meal Planner Membership) a month! If during those two weeks you feel our service won’t work for you—that’ okay! Just email us and we will immediately cancel your service before you are ever charged. We want you to be happy and enjoy our service—that is why we GUARANTEE you will save, or your money back!!

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A Family Tradition

To many people the idea of having a 'store' in your basement is quite foreign. For me, it has been a family tradition. I was at my cute Grandpa's house the other day and he was proudly showing me his very large and VERY organized storage room. I thought it was so cute I wanted to post it for everyone to see :) He used to be a manager of a Safeway grocery store, so he takes pride in how straight each can is and his little 'grocery store' in his basement. My grandpa came to America from Italy with a single mom and through most of his life has struggled to make ends meet. No matter his economic situation though, he always felt strongly that he needed to provide for his family and follow the council from prophets to get a year supply of food. I admire him for that and so many other wonderful traits. Way to go Grandpa!! If you can do it at the age of 87, then none of us have an excuse ;)

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The LEAST expensive way to store your grains...

Many of us have several #10 cans in our food storage. These are a great way to store your grains and food storage. However, for a less expensive approach, here is what I do. I have talked about this before, but I get several emails of people not quite sure what to do.



This is what I do, but you can adapt it to whatever works for your family and the size of your food storage room. For all of my grains and legumes (wheat, flour, germade (cream of wheat), rice, pasta, cornmeal, oats, and my dried beans), I put them in large plastic totes. I have them in all sizes, colors and shapes :) You can put them in 5 gallon buckets, Rubbermaid totes (small or large), washed out laundry detergent buckets, plastic garbage cans (mine are in industrial containers we got for free from a neighbor--they look scary but they do the job :). Most containers will do as long as they are thick plastic with a lid that you can close tightly. The idea is that it is keeping your grains away from moisture, rodents, and bugs. I have stored my grains like this and have never had a problem with weavel, rodents or moisture. Basements are the best place to store your food storage because it is generally cool and has low moisture. If you don't have a basement, you can store your food under beds (it is generally cool in bedrooms because of air conditioning), in the bottom of a pantry, etc. Garages are not the best place for food because of the temerature. Grain in #10 cans would be better to store outside in a garage rather than grains in totes.

If you don't have your year supply of grains, I would suggest going to the closest LDS cannery and buying it as soon as you can. With the crops destroyed in Missouri and Iowa, the prices are only going to go up more! The prices of nearly ALL the grains the cannery stores are BY FAR less expensive than anywhere you can get them. The only ones that are lower at Costco is the rice. It is only a few dollars difference though, so you might as well get it all in one place and save you time.

If you are unsure how much of each item you need. Go to our website (http://www.myfoodstoragedeals.com/) and under the FREE DOWNLOAD tab there is a PDF download called FOOD STORAGE INVENTORY SHEET that will tell you exactly how much you need of each grain per person.

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Powdered Milk made Drinkable!

I read about this great trick on a food storage blog http://www.everydayfoodstorage.blogspot.com/ to help your powdered milk taste better. We ran out of milk yesterday and DID NOT want to go to the store to buy more--mostly because I knew I would leave the store spending more than $2.50. So..we made powdered milk, added a T. of vanilla and a little sugar and it tasted MUCH better! It was a great trick! Even my husband didn't complain :) According to the blog above she said that powdered milk from the Cannery ranges around $1.15 a gallon--that's awesome!! We might just wait a little longer to buy milk at the store.

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My favorite Taco Seasoning!

If you have never made your own Taco Seasoning, now's your chance. It is SO good and So easy! We make several pre-portioned amounts and put in Ziploc bags for easy storage. The other best part about this seasoning is that you can get almost ALL of these spices at Walmart in their .50 spice section. Spices are VERY important to have in your food storage, so stock up at a really great deal!


Taco Seasoning
4-6 tsp. instant minced onion
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cornstarch
½ tsp. crushed dried red pepper (cayenne)
½ tsp. minced garlic (OR 1/8 tsp. garlic powder)
¼ tsp. dried oregano
½ tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. pepper

Seal tightly in small Ziploc bags. Store in a cool dry place.

Once you have put together your taco seasoning, then add the following to your meat for AWESOME tacos, taco salad or burritos!!

Taco Meat
2 lbs. Lean ground beef
2 -8 ounce cans tomato sauce
1 package Taco seasoning (see above or use 2 T. premade Taco Seasoning)
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
3 Tbsp. sour cream

Brown the ground beef and drain off grease. Add tomato sauce, taco seasoning, and brown sugar. Simmer 10 minutes. Stir in sour cream. Serve immediately. YUM!!

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Breadcrumbs made EASY!

People always laugh that I make my own bread crumbs. I have to thank my mom for this funny habit! She used to always have dried bread around the house and I swore I would never do this--and of course, now I do too! Yes, breadcrumbs are only $5.99 for two tubs at Costco--but a few dollars here and there always adds up. So...this is how you can make your own bread crumbs without a lot of effort. Whenever you have an end piece to a bread loaf, a leftover hot dog bun, bread that you know you aren't going to eat..instead of tossing it out--save it! I have a container in my pantry (a washed out licorice container--that is how cheap I am :) and whenever I have bread that I am not going to use, I put in this container. You DON'T want a lid on this container because you want the bread to dry out. Once the container is filled to the top with dry bread I get out my food processor (this one was given to my mom 30 years ago for her wedding and is still kicking!). You simply put the bread in, turn it on and walla, you have breadcrumbs! Add a few of your favorite spices (garlic powder, parsley, salt, peppper, Italian Seasoning, and Garlic Spread (from Costco--I put it in pretty much everything!). Then, just keep your breadcrumbs in ANY container with a lid you would like. Having bread crumbs on hand make breading chicken a cinch! I also use my dried bread for egg casseroles and bread pudding. Yum!!

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Warehouse Stores--good deals or not?

Have you ever been to Costco or Sams Club and walked out spending $150 and wondering what in the world you have bought? There is a distinct difference in the amount of money I spend each month on groceries on the months I don't go to Costco, verses the months I do. Needless to say it is always MORE when I go there! This month I swore I would not go to Costco and so far I have only spent $50 on groceries!

So..a common question asked to me is whether or not I think people should shop and have memberships to 'warehouse' stores. I do have a Costco membership (Sams Club is not close to my house), and I feel it is worth the $100 year membership (I do the 2% back because so far it has paid for itself with the Amex. card). However, there are MANY items at Costco that are NOT a good deal and several items that you should never buy there. I have a post below that tells you which long term storage items you should be buying at Costco and adding to your year supply, that are LESS than grocery stores, the LDS Cannery and Walmart. Some of the items that are a good deal and that I buy there are: rice, spices, soy sauce, lemon juice, yeast, cheeses (feta, parmesan, mozzarella, cheddar, etc.), string cheese, raisins, craisins, nuts, butter, lettuce, apples, salt and sugar. Nearly every other item will eventually go on sale for LESS if you watch the ads. If you are a member, then the RED deals are LESS than Costco, Walmart and the LDS Canneries. When items go on sale for red/great prices, the idea is that you stock up and buy your year supply of that particular item. The reason is that most grocery items only go on sale for these red/great prices once or twice a year. If you buy your years supply of these items, then you will NOT have to buy that item at regular price and it will save you TONS of money in the long run.

An example of this is pork n' beans and ketchup. At Reams this last week pork n' beans were on sale for only .29 a can--that is as low as you will see them go! Ketchup was on sale for only .59 for a 24 oz. bottle! These two items will NOT go on sale again for this low until next summer--if at all. When items go on sale for prices like these, don't just buy one--buy 24 and you won't have to buy it again for 1-2 years! For less than $20 you can have your families 1-2 year supply of ketchup and NEVER have to buy it at full price. Fabulous! Remember, the idea of food storage is that you are creating your own grocery store in your basement. Little by little as you stock up on items that are on sale, you will eventually have all of the items you need for your families cooking and necessities in your own store in the basement. Doing this saves so much money and helps you feel peace of mind that you can feed your family in ecinomic hard times or in an emergency. Food storage is for everyone--it is awesome!!

So...there is a place for warehouse stores, just don't get caught up in all of the extras you can buy there and get sucked into buying processed and expensive items. Making items from scratch will save you SOOO much money and be better for your families health in the long run. Yes...I do have frozen pizzas in my freezer, but those are for a dinner emergency--usually when my cute husband is in charge ;)

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