Coking with Food Storage: Chicken Teriyaki

Whether you are cooking over an open fire, a propane cook stove or charcoal, this food storage recipe fits right in if there isn't any power or if you don't want to use any power.
That is because it is quick, extremely easy, and only has five ingredients!  Even better, all five of those ingredients come from a can, box, or bottle!

Chicken Teriyaki
1 to 2 lbs chicken (Commercially canned or home canned. I used home canned.) 
3 cups rice (I used minute brown rice.)
1 can of peas, drained (I don't have any home canned peas right now so I used store bought.)
2 1/2 cups chicken stock or broth (Home canned stock works well here but I don't have any right now so I used store bought.)
1/2 cup Teriyaki sauce (The recipe I have calls for 1/3 cup but we like it better with 1/2 cup.)

Heat the chicken in a skillet until thoroughly hot and the pieces are starting to brown. I added some garlic powder as well.

Add the chicken stock and peas and bring to a boil.

When boiling, add the rice and stir.

Return the broth to a boil and then reduce heat and cover. When cooking over charcoal or an open fire, reduce the heat by moving the skillet away from the heat source a bit. Simmer for 5 minutes.

When the rice is done, add the teriyaki sauce and mix well.

And it's ready from start to finish in about 15 minutes time!

Delicious!

Make Your Own Cooking Oil Without the Need for Electricity!

As I mentioned in a post a few days ago, one of my goals for last year was to eliminate the need to purchase cooking oil by growing and producing it myself. I planed to use this oil for both cooking and soapmaking. So, I enlarged my peanut bed and added more peanut seeds to the garden in anticipation of making oil when the crop was harvested. In October, I harvested a lot of peanuts! Both Virginia Jumbo (for eating) and Spanish (for the cooking oil). After the harvest, the only thing I was lacking was a way to extract the oil. Santa came to my rescue and gave me a Piteba oil press for Christmas so I could do just that!

However, the press required a bit of extra work before it was ready to use. I have been working on that for the past few weeks. The instructions with the Piteba press stated that I needed to mount it to something and then obtain a funnel before it will be ready to use.

My husband and I went to the home improvement store and got a 2" x 8" board (we had it cut down to 24" long) to mount the oil press on. The press comes with all needed hardware so you can mount it onto a table or wall. I went for the table mount. My goal was to mount it to the board and then clamp the board to the kitchen table to use it. The first thing I did was mark where the holes should be drilled.

The screws for the horizontal mount were only 1 1/2" long. So to use them, my husband had to drill larger holes in the back so we could secure them. It was either that or go get some wood screws.(The oil press came with some wood screws but they were 3" long and meant for the vertical mounting.) The holes we drilled were a bit small and I had to sand them to make the screws fit freely.

The next thing to tackle was the need for a funnel. The Piteba web site states that they don't include a funnel to keep the shipping package small and save on the cost of shipping. (The Piteba press is made in Holland and they ship them all over the world.) Knowing this, I saved one of the 2 litter soda bottles from our New Year's eve punch and cut that to make a funnel. It fit perfectly!

The Piteba oil press works with heat. The heat comes from a single flame (think tiny oil lamp) so it is still considered a cold pressed oil extractor. The instructions stated that lamp oil was needed, so I went to one of the big box stores and bought some.

Now, I was finally ready to put the press together and make oil!  First, I bolted the body of the press to the board. Here is a picture of the bolts in the press and one of underneath the board.

Then I needed to assemble the press. The instructions are somewhat lacking here - they have a lot of pictures, but the instructions were not translated well and are a bit confusing. They did reference some YouTube videos, so I went to look.  This one was the most helpful.

I assembled it just as the video instructed and here is the end result.

The next thing I had to do was chop up the nuts. The instructions said if the nuts or seeds were large it would be best to break them up into smaller pieces. I accomplished this with my wheat grinder. I have an extra set of stainless steel burrs that are used for 'wet' nuts and seeds. I set the tension for very loose because I just wanted to break up the peanuts - I didn't want the grinder to make peanut butter.

Here is the final product that went into the funnel of the oil press.

This is where I had some trouble. Most of the reviews I have read said that this oil press has a learning curve.  I must agree with this statement. You are not going to have complete success on your first try!  I had difficulty keeping the press cage cap from clogging. If I tightened the bolt, the cap would clog, when I loosen it (or removed it), I wouldn't get any oil. I fiddled with it for about 2 hours yesterday before I decided to research some more to find out what I was doing wrong.

From my research, it appears that I didn't get the flame from the oil lamp high enough and therefore the press wasn't hot enough.  I will try again in the next few weeks to finish the peanuts. (I have about 5 more cups prepared for the oil press.) Then, I think I may experiment with other nuts and seeds, such as walnuts, sunflower seeds or flax seeds.  Hopefully, by the time next year's peanut crop comes in, I will know what I am doing!

In case you are wondering, yes I did get oil! I pressed 2 1/2 cups of the chopped peanuts and this is the end result.

The picture above shows the oil running through a coffee filter. The instructions with the press state to let it sit for a few days so all the impurities can drop to the bottom and the oil will clear up. I will do that next time. However, since this was my first try at oil, I just couldn't wait. I wanted to see how it looked.  

Here is a picture of some of the oil that has drained through the coffee filter.

So overall I am pleased, I did get oil. However, I am not ready to substitute peanut oil for the canola oil in my soap recipes just yet. With a little more practice though, I anticipate my days of purchasing oil from the store will be over very soon!

AND the best part is I did it all without electricity!

What Do You Do With Your Free Time?

I have been watching quite a few YouTube videos lately to learn about some new (to me) self reliant skills and I found a video that is so cute I wanted to share.  This video was also recently posted on the Paratus Familia Blog. I hope these people got paid to do this and it isn't a hobby!

 

It is a fun video to watch!

  

New Goals for a New Year!

I am a list maker.  I have quite a few daily and weekly lists on the refrigerator to help me manage my life. One of the lists I make this time of year is a list of goals I would like to accomplish during the year.  While this list isn't posted on the refrigerator, it is written down and I review it four or five times during the year to see if I am on track to accomplish each goal.

This list usually includes things I can do or learn to do that will help me in my journey to live a frugal and self reliant life (preferably without using electricity).  Last year I had two major self reliant goals:

• Make my own vinegar (You can see how I did that here.)
• Make my own cooking oil (Santa gave me a Piteba oil press for Christmas. I am working on setting it up now. I will post about how to make your own cooking oil soon!)

This year I have three frugal and self reliant goals to accomplish. I think this may be a bit aggressive but I am going to try!

• Grow my own popping corn. We love popcorn at our house and we purchase a lot of microwave popcorn.  This is not sustainable without grocery stores and electricity. I want to grow and dry my own so I can pop it over a fire. Popping corn also makes great cornmeal when you grind it. I am not an expert on growing corn so we will see how it goes this summer. Completing this goal will mean there can be two additional items I can cross off the list of what I must purchase at the store.
• Make my own vegetable rennet. I use vegetable rennet now to make cheese but the rennet is in the form of processed tablets that I purchase. This isn't self sustaining either. I want to try to gather my own and make cheese from it. I know it is possible but I have no idea how to do it! This will require some research!
• Make soap from wood ashes. I have been making my own soap for 20 years. We don't purchase any from the store. However, all my soap is made with commercial lye purchased over the Internet. I am a novice soap maker when it comes to using wood ashes. This winter I am saving all the ashes from the fireplace to make soap next spring.

I also want to complete my journey to convert to all non-electric appliances.  To do that I need:

• A hand crank blender.(There are lots of times I would like to use my blender but I don't because it is electric. Usually I place the ingredients in a jar and shake it or beat it with a whisk or hand crank egg beaters. I would like a hand crank blender so I can have the convenience of a blender anytime I want to use it.)
• A carpet sweeper. (Currently I use a broom and/or pick up the carpet and take it outside to shake and beat it. I try to keep the vacuum cleaner use to once a month. Sometimes I make it and sometimes I don't. I believe a carpet sweeper will greatly improve this situation.)
• To fix up my treadle sewing machine. (I need a new belt, some new needles and the machine needs some general conditioning and cleaning. Yes, I can piece quilts by hand but that takes a very long time. Sometimes I enjoy doing it, and sometimes I want to complete the quilt at a faster pace. The treadle machine will greatly help here. In addition, I have some new outfits I would like to make this year and I really don't want to use the electric sewing machine. Once I fix up the treadle machine, I can save the electric sewing machine for when I need fancy stitching or have a need to replace a zipper.) 

I am very excited about completing my new goals! Since I don't know how to complete them all, I will start doing some research soon.  I will be posting periodic updates on these goals throughout the year. Follow along and we can learn how to do them together!

100 (Painless) Ways to Live Frugally

Lots of people start thinking about New Year's resolutions this time of year.  My resolutions usually include new ways to be frugal that I can integrate into my daily life.

If you haven't started on a frugal journey yet, an easy way to start is to take a brown bag lunch to work every day instead of eating at a restaurant or fast food place. There are others: make your own bread, cook dinner instead of going out, reduce phantom electric loads in your house and start a food storage program so you can buy in bulk and save money. 

These are just a few of the ways you can start a journey toward a more frugal lifestyle. I can honestly tell you we have saved quite a bit of money by living frugally. This can make the difference between paying cash for a new car or a new appliance or having to go into debt to purchase them. 

If you would like to start on your own journey toward frugal living, or if you are looking for new ideas to continue on your journey, I found something that may help.  There is a post on the blog The Parimonious Princess that talks about just that! Most of these ideas aren't new but you may find some that will help you take a step or two towards living a frugal life this coming year!

100 Painless Ways to Live Frugally

If you find a particular idea you want to incorporate into your life next year, tell us about it in the comments below!