Food Shortages --- Out of Eggs ??

    Times are really crazy in different places of our country. Some people are making it just fine. Other folks that used to be ok are not so any more. The folks that were poor and not doing good in the first place are STILL not any better off. Actually they are used to tough living conditions and may be able to better deal with the current situations we are all in now. But I promise you, the poor folks are even worse off than before.
    Now I am going to say a word here many people have heard and totally pick up their skirts and stomp off in their army boots high tailing it the other way when they hear it. Are you ready now?  V-E-G-A-N  Now hold up! Meat eaters don't just shut this off and delete! Some people choose to eat veggies and all. Others like meat eaters only eat veggies covered in cheese and all hail the perfect veggie Mac and Cheese! I know.
   Meat eaters we are talking about a emergency situation here! We have seen some grocery shortages and high prices on what is left we can get a hold of. That is what the silly veggie peas are for. When we can't get to the store or don't have our own chickens or money just isn't there any more.... this is one of the things you do to get those pancakes and other baked goods to turn out decent. I have tried the all vegan recipes without any eggs at all and I know I am picky but I GOT to have me some eggs to bake with!
   I will be honest with you I have not tried chickpeas / aquafaba yet. It's on my list of skills to learn. I have tried a few egg replacers in some baked goods made out of powdered stuff and I just haven't mastered that yet.
Here is one of the best charts I have seen on the subject
https://www.egglesscooking.com/egg-substitutes/
   So if our world keeps going upside down and I don't have eggs handy or a way to get the eggs to my house / stove I hope to have some alternatives to fill in. Soooo..... give it a try folks! Chick peas don't even need a refrigerator like eggs!
Chickpea's are used to make aquafaba .
The chickpea or chick pea its different types are variously known as gram or Bengal gram, garbanzo or garbanzo bean, Egyptian pea. The chickpea itself is very nutritious and and good thing to learn how to cook different recipes with.
What is aquafaba for? https://www.americastestkitchen.com/guides/vegan/what-is-aquafaba
 Aquafaba, is a replacement for eggs in many recipes and it’s (basically) free! We’re talking about the liquid in a can of chickpeas. Not talking about the liquid in a can of any other beans. Stick to the liquid from canned chickpeas—it works best.)
    The starchy liquid is a great binder directly from the can,( I know not everyone thinks cans are a good thing.)  but what really makes it magical is that it whips and creates a foam( Like egg whites). Aquafaba is able to trap air, giving items structure at the same time it delivers a fluffy crumb and lift. For cakes, cookies, brownies baked goods in general.
As it does with egg whites, adding a stabilizing ingredient improved the structure of whipped aquafaba. In sweet recipes, we usually used sugar.
    This website has some nice instructions to make your magic egg replacer. DO NOT toss the chick peas they are good nutrition use them alone or with other ingredients in you meal. 
Homemade aquafaba – vegan egg replacer https://www.lazycatkitchen.com/homemade-aquafaba-vegan-egg-replacer/
Ingredients
    2 cups of dry chickpeas
    8 cups of water
Directions
Completely cover dry chickpeas in water soak for about 8 hours or overnight.
Discard soaking water and rinse the chickpeas.
Place into a pot, with a lid and cover with 8 cups of water.
*** Do not add any salt or baking soda. ***
Bring to the boil. Be careful they don't boil over if the heat is too high .
Skim the foam that has come to the top and discard.
After they come to a boil, simmer on low with a lid on until tender.
It takes about 60-75 minutes.
When tender, turn heat off and leave chickpeas to cool down in its cooking water
(this infuses cooking water with more protein, giving aquafaba its properties of an egg white).
Remove chickpeas from cooking water with a slotted spoon.
Make sure spoon is clean with no grease residue on it to inhibit aquafaba’s foaming properties – this is especially important if you intend to whip your aquafaba into a meringue. **** NOTES ****
Depending on the intended application of your aquafaba, you may want to reduce the liquid a little to make it more potent. This is especially necessary for when you intent to use it as a binder, in vegan meatballs for example. Please remember also that the more reduced liquid the more intense chickpea flavor will be so when you intent to use it for desserts, like meringues or chocolate mousse, you do not need to reduce as much or at all.
To reduce aquafaba, return remaining cooking water to the stove. Set the heat to low-medium and reduce aquafaba (without a lid) for about 30-45 minutes until some of the water evaporates and you are left with thick yellow liquid.
Let the reduced liquid come to room temperature and then transfer to a clean container and store in the fridge – once chilled aquafaba will turn gelatinous and resemble an egg white. If you are not in a rush to use your aquafaba, pop cooked chickpeas back into the container with aquafaba and store them together overnight – this will make aquafaba even more gelatinous.
Store in an air-tight container for 3-4 days.

Vegan Focaccia Bread – Bread Art

Don't let the Vegan word scare you.... it is still typical bread just no meat or eggs
Vegan just attracts more attention for the folks that like to eat that way. 

Vegan Focaccia Bread – Bread Art
 

https://thehiddenveggies.com/vegan-focaccia/

I have never eaten Focaccia Bread
It looks really easy. The Art part looks fun but not like it will do me any good in this house. Veggies just will not fly in front of my husband unless it's off the table and out the door. LOL In other words he is just no fun when it comes to playing with food sometimes.

                                             

                              

    Go to the link above and take a look. She has everything spelled out plain as day and easier than most breads.
Lots of good ideas as to what veggies you may want to use.
    I would really like to try this recipe just because it sounds so cool and easy! Although in my lazy cooking rut of cooking the same old things it is hard for me to make me do it. I am a dessert freak so I like to give those a try before anything else. I think I have everyone filled up on desserts though ( I just made 2 honey pecan pies, 16 M&M Giant Chocolate chip cookies, Fudgy Brownies and a Peach Chiffon Pie) so I may just kick myself out of the rut and do it.
   Maybe I can put half of the bread in art form the other half in husband plain Jane boring form???
Will send you a picture if I do..........

Love
Ranchmama

How much do you eat ?

How much do you eat ?
What if.......... Lets do that.
Break it down into meals.
Breakfast
Lunch
Supper
My ...   Breakfast, Lunch , Supper , Snacks

        Here it is a Sunday and you turn on the tv you hear anything and everything about 'The Virus" . Yes it's unknown. Yes it's scary, especially if you listen to the tv or read your emails.
    The unknown is hard to deal with. Even if your healthy you just don't know. Now it seems like they have switched gears and talking about anyone over 50 yo and/ or has a health issue or 3. Ahhhh.... I think that's me and how many other millions of folks out there?
     All we can all do is the best you can be prepared for. Not just getting sick but if things close down because everyone at work or school is sick there is going to be a lot of folks missing a pay check. So stock up now while you have a paycheck coming in . Most businesses now days are not a high profit area and can't take the economic hit of folks not getting out and around doing normal business. I'm griping about the tv and email with all the bad news and look what I'm talking about! Shame on me!
   Well that's ok. The best way to avoid hard times is to think ahead and plan the best we can. Sure it isn't in our normal comfort zone but that is the reason we want to think ahead and have back up plans ! The more we can get ahead of any problem the better we all feel and less stressed out. We have all been sick before. We have gone without a couple of pay checks also. We just haven't had so many restrictions on us at the same time if folks decide to stay out of the hot virus zone. ( the public and crowds) I know there are folks with families that there grocery shelves at home mainly have snacks. It would be hard to put a meal together. For whatever reason they may eat breakfast and lunch out of the house and at supper time someone brings in enough from the store just for one meal or bring in take out for supper needing only snacky stuff around the house most of the time.
    I asked hubby what I need to stock up on to eat if we can't leave the house for a few weeks. What does he want to eat? His response was.... Oh God! I don't have a clue!  ( he normally just gets what I ask him to at the store. He doesn't think about how I am putting it together to feed us around here. LOL ) We used to have 700 lbs of beef in the freezer and no problem just get some meat out and fix something. Now I can't eat beef or pork and it's a real game changer when you have to buy it all the time.
     What if.......... Lets do that. What if we need to stay home and feed the family. If you are a family of 2 or 16 it's still the same problems just on a larger or smaller scale. If you eat your meals out normally you need to switch gears and change that habit to eating at home. You may not have a choice. So how do you know how much to get or do to feed everyone? There are all kinds of charts online for long term food storage to give you a idea how much a adult or child eats in a year. That doesn't say how much your own family eats. Don't forget the people on special diets for health reasons like allergies or weight loss. Is it normal food? Keto, vegan, diabetic, gluten free? Do you have older parents to think about feeding?
Take your weekly grocery needs and multiply that by 4 to have enough for 1 month (just in case).
Break it down into meals.
Breakfast --- what does your family normally eat and drink for breakfast ? Look at each person even if they eat out.
How many drinks? Soda's, Fruit juice, milks, bottled water. Don't forget the almighty COFFEE !
How many bowls of cereal ??? Don't forget the milk and sugar. How many boxes of cereal you eat a week?
Any hot cereals ? Oatmeal, grits, mush ? ( how many cups to fix?)
Biscuits and Gravy
Do you eat a breakfast meat? Bacon, sausage, some kind of beef? How many slices or patties ?
How about bread? Toast, bagels, biscuits, muffins ?
Do you just eat a sweet roll or doughnut?
Lunch - How many of you eat lunch at work or school? Drinks ??
   Micky D's ? Wendy's, Sonic ? Hamburgers? Hot Dogs ? French Fries ? Chicken nuggets ??
   How many are eating lunch at home? What will they eat at home?
   Sandwiches ---
   Hot Dogs--
   Pizza --
   Soup --
   Salads --
   Left overs ??
Supper --- If you normally bring in something what is that?
Pizza?
Hamburgers?
Stop at the store for some meat, mac and cheese, fried taters ?
Maybe you have left overs from last night.
    Take a look at each meal and each person. Get a piece of paper and just look at the last week or 2 what it seems like everyone ate like. If your looking at just 1 or 2 people it doesn't seem all that bad. If you looking at a family of 4 or more and WOW! That's a lot of chow everyone is eating ! You may not be used to even shopping for every meal at one time.
   I was thinking.... what do Hubby and I eat like, not as much as when we were much younger.  We are older, I am on a almost vegan diet due to allergies. For one week it is common for us to eat about this much. You will notice we are way light on veggies around here. Hubby just don't do veggies much. LOL This all changes with the seasons depending on appetite and moods. Most of my baking is done for fun and perfecting recipes to share with family and friends but it can be a lot of baking.
Breakfast 35 eggs,
28 bacon strips or sausage links / patties ( for hubby only)
28 slices of bread or 14 biscuits with gravy
14 cups of juice or maybe 1/2 of that is bottled water.
Pancakes / with margarine, syrup (1/2 cup? of each on top)
Waffles ( home made) 4 total with margarine and syrup (1/2 cup ? of each on top)
Lunch --- (possibilities here)
left over pizza maybe,
 turkey or chicken sandwiches with chips.
   (that's 10 slices of bread, 5 slices of cheese, 1/4 c. of mayo)
Drinks are bottled water, tea for him, soda maybe for each ,
  Say 2 servings of each for a guesstimate for lunches a week.
Supper --
Drinks are bottled water for me tea for him. That's 7 bottles and 7 glasses for him.
1 - Frozen pizza with extra 1/2 bag mozzarella cheese once a week.
Chicken nuggets fried at home 2 times a week (36 nuggets total)
2 Baked potatoes loaded with cheese, butter, meat enough to make a meal.
Spaghetti ( 1/2 pkg ) and meat sauce ( 1 jar and 1lb turkey meat) / 4 slices of garlic toast for 2
Instant mashed potatoes ( 2 cups) , chicken breast flattened (2 ), breaded and fried, garlic toast (4)
Rice ( 3 cups) with black bean chili on top ( homemade about 2 cups with enough for another meal or 2)
Black bean chili with crackers
Snacks -- During the week that can be homemade cookies, cupcakes, store bought cookies, doughnuts, cake slices, chip and dip,candy mainly for hubby.

Ok I'm hungry now after thinking about all this food. LOL

Love
Ranchmama
 

Cooking Without

      Ya know I have been cussing having to learn how to cook without animal products to be able to breathe decent. Then I got to thinking about it today.
Really any prepper or just regular folks needs to learn how to cook without eggs, butter and milk. Sure right now we have available substitutes for that and can use something like coconut , soy or almond milk but a lot of things you can just use water if you have the right recipe.
    If you have a good supply of dried eggs, milk and shortening or butter stocked up having alternates recipes that doesn't use so much will help your supplies last longer.
    It isn't easy changing something like this if you have been eating and cooking otherwise for 60 years but even though there is a learning curve it's good for the brain to tackle new things! Believe me it is much easier now while we have access and not being stressed in other survival things ( like the earthquakes going on now) to learn than when and if things hit the fan.
   Right now I am learning simple things.... since I am the dessert lady .....
   Here I thought I would finally get to establish some standard recipes to use like the perfect cake cookie or pie and now I have to complicate things with having to do the vegan thing!
   I have always wanted and usually use the "REAL THING" like real butter instead of margarine or shortening and now I have to go the other direction!I had some blondies yesterday I made using the traditional recipe to see what the real thing was supposed to taste like before trying it the vegan way since I have never had blondies before. Welll...... all it had in there was real butter and eggs. I can usually eat eggs without a problem so it must have been the butter. Then this morning I had butter with my waffles..... W-e-l-l-l-l ..... that wasn't smart. Just a tiny bit of milk even like a sip to check the milk carton after the use by date and I get all clogged up and can't breathe to good. Ridiculous! All from a silly tick years ago !
  I'm Trying to look at the good parts.... as long as you try to keep the recipes using normal ingredients instead of some kind of tutti fruitii or soy something or other it may even be cheaper. I used to go through eggs like crazy but it sure has slowed down now that I try not to cook with them. I mean like eggs seem to go 3 times as long in the fridge than they used to, now milk I actually have to watch or it goes bad. I thought eating something real like real butter or milk is so much better than some kind of make believe food with dyes and emulsifiers etc. people use. I guess make believe food is better for me now days.... oh well .... at least we can still have some good desserts!
Love
Ranchmama
(Still playing with her foods)