4th of July sale!

Now through July 5th Shelf Reliance is having a Let Freedom THRIVE sale.  There are 30 or more items on sale.  Click here to see a full list of items on sale.  Our consultant kits are also discounted until the 5th as well.  You will save anywhere from $40 to $180!!!  Now is a GREAT time to sign up to become a consultant and save money at the same time!

If you are interested in purchasing something before the 5th let me know.

For more info on becoming a consultant click here.  We now have 4 consultant kits!

Consultant Starter Kit $199 $159
Consultant Value Starter Kit $289 $231
Consultant Deluxe Starter Kit $579 $463
Super Deluxe Starter Kit $899 $719

To see a complete list of what is included in each of these starter kits click here. 

New Shelf Reliance Building

With the tremendous growth that Shelf Reliance has been having they have been in the process of building a new building.  It should be open ANY time if not already!  Even before this was complete we had already out grown it.  Just a few weeks ago we broke ground on ANOTHER building.  How exciting!

With this new building we will soon have an organic, dairy free and gluten free line.  Those lines should be available by the end of the year!

Its kind of fun to see before and after pics so here are a some pics of the building. 

Thanks Lisa for this pics!

Homemade Hamburger Helper

We love easy around here. And we have all been brain washed into believing those boxed ‘helper’ recipes are as easy as it gets.

With a whopping 110 Calories in the mix alone and a lengthy list of unhealthy ingredients and preservative, there must be a better way!

Making homemade hamburger helper could not be easier!! You make up a basic ‘mix’ and add noodles and meat as you see fit. You could easily layer noodles, mix and spice into mason jars to give as gifts or as a quick meal. With options such as freeze dried meats or TVP, quick ‘helper’ style meals have never been easier!!

Homemade ‘Helper’ Mix

• 1 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1 Tbs. garlic powder
• 2 Tbs. dried parsley
• 1/3 cup THRIVE Freeze Dried Onion
• 1 Tbs. THRIVE salt
• 1 2/3 cup THRIVE Powdered milk
• 3 1/2 Tbs. THRIVE beef bouillon

Mix this all up and store in a glass jar or other sealed container.

Use 1/2 cup for each pound of ground meat.

The Nutrition Info for this basic mix comes to about the following: 41 Calories, less than 1g of fat

Basic Preparation:

• 1 pound meat (Thrive Freeze Dried Beef, Thrive Beef TVP, or seasoned browned ground beef)
• 1/2 cup of  ‘helper’ mix (above)
• 1 to 2 cups noodles (elbow macaroni for example)
• 1 1/2 to 3 cups water

Stir in meat, dry mix, then add 2 cups hot water and 2 cups noodles. You can add more or less water and noodles, proportionately, depending on much you need to stretch that pound of beef. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer, cover, and cook until noodles are tender, about 20 minutes.

This Recipe is easily adaptable to what you have on hand and what you are hungry for. Looking for a cheese burger? Add Thrive Cheese Blend or Shredded Cheddar Cheese. Throw in some Bacon TVP for a bacon Cheese burger! With Thrive Freeze Dried vegetables, its easy to add corn, green beans, or other yummy veggies to your helper meal. Just dd them when you add the noodles. Looking for a comfort food: Instead of macaroni, add 2-3 cups very thinly sliced potatoes. Simmer 20-30 minutes until potatoes are tender. Uncover and simmer until liquid has evaporated.

This recipe is easily adapted to your families dietary needs. Use whole grain pasta. Or gluten Free Pasta. Season and adjust the recipe to your needs and taste.

When you do the math this recipe is an incredible money saver!! You could easily take the $2 or so it takes to buy one preboxed ‘helper’ meal and buy enough pasta to make this recipe 2-3 times! The ‘Helper’ Mix cost about $2 to make & makes about 6 servings, so this mix is going to cost you about $.30 per serving!

With this mix you are going to save time. You can easily customize it to what you have. You are going to save shelf space, all those ‘helper’ boxes take quite a bit of room. You are going to save money, preboxed foods are expensive, and you are going to save your family’s health.

Ready to start making your mix? Go to my online store to get the very best in freeze dried and shelf stable foods. Contact me about making the most of your ‘home store’, or book a ‘make a mix’ party and share this and other great mixes with your friends while earning free products!

Thanks Tawny`s Thriving Home!

The Kitchen Mill

This baby is the Kitchen Mill Wheat Grinder.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!  I use it once a month and grind up a bunch of wheat at once, then freeze the wheat in freezer bags to keep those healthy oils fresh.  For anyone who loves fresh, healthy, straight from the source food, this is a dream.  You simply pour wheat in at the top, flip the switch to how fine you want the flour and let it work its magic.  There are a lot of grinders out there that you have to clean a certain way because of the natural oils in wheat corrode the parts, but not so with this one.  If you are new to the idea of wheat flour, you might be surprised to know that white flour comes from the same grain, it is just wheat flour stripped of all of the healthy nutrients so it is a cheaper alternative for companies for use in their products.  To learn more about the differences between white and wheat flour you can visit this site.

Below is my favorite 100% Whole Wheat Bread recipe that I make in my bread machine a couple times each week.  This is perfect for all of you out there who feel like you don't know how to make bread or don't think you have the time, but would love bread with out all of the yucky preservatives.  This came from my Breadman Recipe Manual.

100% Whole Wheat Bread 1 Lb Loaf

1 Egg, room temperature plus enough water to equal  3/4 c

2 T Oil

2 TSugar

1 t Salt

2 1/4 c Whole Wheat Flour

1 T Vital Wheat Gluten

1 1/2 t Active Dry Yeast

or 1 t Bread Machine/Quick Rise Yeast

100% Whole Wheat Bread 1.5 Lb Loaf

1 Egg, room temperature plus enough water to equal  1 c

3 T Oil

3 T Sugar

1 1/2 t Salt

3 Whole Wheat Flour

1 1/2 T Vital Wheat Gluten

2 t Active Dry Yeast

or 1 1/4 Bread Machine/Quick Rise Yeast

100% Whole Wheat Bread 2 Lb Loaf

1 Egg, room temperature plus enough water to equal  1 1/3 c

1/4 c Oil

1/4 c Sugar

2 t Salt

4 c Whole Wheat Flour

2 T Vital Wheat Gluten

1 1/2 t Active Dry Yeast

or Bread Machine/Quick Rise Yeast

Note: I do the 2 lb loaf and I also add 1 t of dough enhancer.  Many people say that wheat bread turns out dense for them.  Gluten and dough enhancer are the magic that make your bread fluffy and moist.  To learn more about why these are important you can go to this independent site.

Not ready to make the plunge for an electric wheat grinder or are you looking for one that you can use in case there was an emergency and you had 0 electricity....here's an alternative, the Grain Mill Wheat Grinder.  Please note that anyone who has used a manual wheat grinder can attest to the fact that they are a lot more work.

To get this or any other product at rock bottom prices that even Costco can't beat, please visit www.JamieTemplar.shelfreliance.com.

 

Thanks Shelf Reliance Mom

Food Waste

Here is a wonderful article by Tawny`s Thriving Home.  I thought I would share it with all of you!

Today I had planned a post on snacking with Thrive foods, but as I opened up WordPress, I was greeted by a post on food waste.

“One category stood out as being accurate and useful—the dead waste. These are not spending decisions, but rather mistakes. The parking ticket, the bank fee, and yes-the food we let rot. Almost everyone in the United States does this to one extent or another. Nobody likes it, and everyone finds themselves annoyed and a little guilty and embarrassed when it happens. So why do we do it?”

The author goes on to give reasons for food waste. You can read the rest of the article here.  This really got me to thinking.  One of the major reasons I started using Thrive foods is to save money and stop food waste.  When it comes to food waste, many of us have the best of intentions. We buy fresh fruits and veggies, hoping to use them. We buy in bulk to save a bit of cash. We save all those left-overs hoping to eat them and save a bit of cash. No one WANTS to waste food. We all feel a bit of guilt about it. After all, many people are in fact starving. And all that food is wasted money!

Here is an embarrassing bit. A sneak Peek at my fridge before Shelf Reliance and Thrive.

My fridge was full of good intentions, crammed full left overs. Everything had its own Tupperware dish.

We have extended family living with us. It seems there is always either too much food or not enough. So with each meal, a little dish of leftovers is added to the over crowded fridge. We forget about the left overs and before you know it, we have mold soup adding to the problem of food waste.

We like to buy in bulk, and make as few trips to the grocery store as possible, so we use to buy a great deal of produce with the intention of eating healthier. With out fail, when I would reach into the fridge to get that “fresh” produce for a delicious recipe, it had spoiled. And we were adding to more food waste.

We all do it. We are all guilty. We all want to change it.

• Americans toss $75 Billion in food annually.
•  The average American family throws away 14%  of their food, that’s almost $600 every year in meats, fruit, vegetables and grain products.
• Americas throw away 96 billion pounds of food annually. That’s 263 million pounds a day. Eleven million pounds an hour. Three thousand pounds a second.

Food Waste is a serious problem!!

But HOW do we reduce food waste. Obviously ‘eat your left overs’ and ‘plan your shopping trips’ just isn’t enough!

The How is Shelf Stable foods that can be measured out in usable portions.

For example, With Thrive, you only use what you need. And the rest is stored in the cupboard for up to a year until you are ready to use it again. No more throwing out freezer burned fruits and meats. No more left over veggies from dinner growing mold in the fridge. Use only what you need.

Taco TVP is a BIG hit in my house. Because of the dynamic of our house hold, sometimes its hard to know just how many will be eating dinner at home on any given night. With Thrive, I can easily reconstitute just enough Taco TVP for those I know will be eating at home. If more come in, I easily reconstitute a few more serving without any food waste. (And it only takes about 5 min! I really love that!!)

Because Thrive foods are designed to be shelf stable, you can open a can of corn today, use what you need, and go back to that can a year later and use only what you need once again!

Thrive foods are convenient, easy, fresh, shelf stable, and are truly an easy way to cut back on food waste.

What could your family do with an extra $600 a year saved just by limiting food waste?

Pizza Dough

My family has become spoiled!  I make home made pizza once a week.  I know your probably thinking pizza isn't very healthy.  I have made a healthier pizza that my fam LOVES!  I make a whole wheat crust and add veggies for the toppings.  I got this recipe from my fave blog www.everydayfoodstorage.net.  Here is a video showing how to make the dough.  Krystal is making bread sticks but also talks about how to make the dough into pizza.  One thing I do different from Krystal is I don't put butter on my cookie sheet (cut calories) I spray mine with pam instead.  I also don`t let my dough rise.  I just put it in the oven right away.

2 in 1 Pizza Dough & Bread Sticks

2 1/2 C. Medium Hot Water
5 tsp. SAF Instant Yeast*
2 Tbsp. THRIVE Sugar
Let the yeast rise.


Add

3 Tbsp. Oil
1 tsp. THRIVE Salt
6 C. THRIVE Flour (I do 100% whole wheat but you can use any variation of white or wheat flour)

Note:  This recipe will make 2 cookie sheets of pizza or 1 pizza and 1 bread stick.  Or you can 1/2 the recipe and just have 1 bread stick or pizza.  Any of the THRIVE ingredients can be exchanged for other brands.

Toppings:

Cheese, olives, THRIVE mushrooms, THRIVE mixed peppers, THRIVE sausage (FD or TVP), THRIVE ground beef, THRIVE ham & FD pineapple (Hawaiian pizza).  The sky is the limit as far as toppings go.  Several THRIVE ingredients will go perfect for toppings.

Put dough directly onto a pam sprayed cookie sheet or pizza pan.  Spread with your fingers.  No need to flour your counter or dirty your rolling pin!


Before I start making my dough I take a SMALL bowl and add a few Tbs of oil and several crushed/minced garlic cloves and mix it together.  When I take my pizza dough out of the oven to top it I brush on the oil mixture.  Bake 400 deg for about 7-10 minutes (for pizza) 10-12 minutes for bread sticks or until desired browning is accomplished for bread sticks.  Baking the dough prior to topping it for the pizza keeps the dough from being soggy. 

 For pizza take out of oven and top with your fave toppings.  I top ours with cheese, mushrooms, olives, chopped peppers and sometimes broccoli.  Then put it back in the oven just to melt the cheese.

For bread sticks top them how ever you like.  We brush some butter or oil and garlic (like for the pizza) then add some cheese.   Cut into strips and enjoy!

Home Made Bread

I have been asked by several people lately for my bread recipe so I thought I would take the time and just post it here so every one can enjoy it.  It truly is the easiest and most delicious bread ever!  I got this recipe from one fave blogs every day food storage. 

I use this recipe for bread, rolls and cinnamon rolls!  For the cinnamon rolls I use 1/2 wheat flour and 1/2 white flour.  I also add a Tbs of cinnamon to the dough.

EZ Bread

4 Tbs sugar
3 tsp yeast
2 1/4 c. warm water
Let sit until yeast "grows"

Add
4 Tbs powdered milk (NOT instant)
2 tsp salt
3/4 c. potato flakes (NOT beads)
6 c. flour (1 c. wheat flour, 5 c. white flour)



Mix that together.  Then kneed for a few minutes.  Let rise until doubled.  Punch down and form into a big ball.  Cut the ball into 2 smaller balls.  Form into 2 loaves and put in a pam sprayed bread pan.  Cover and let rise.  Bake 350 deg for 18 minutes.  To watch a video on how to make this click here.  You can add whatever mixture of flour that you like.  I add 1 c. of wheat to help the bread not be so light and fluffy.  My kids wont eat wheat bread yet so this is our happy medium right now.  With out the wheat the bread is almost too light and fluffy. 

For rolls spray pam into a casserole dish.  Form rolls to desired size.  Cover and let rise.  Bake 350 deg for 20-22 minutes.  For the rolls you can use any mixture of four you like, we prefer it with 100% white flour.

For cinnamon rolls roll out dough to about 1/4" thick.  Spread butter over the dough and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.  I like to add raisins or cinnamon chips.  Roll up and cut into the sizes you want.  Put on to a pam sprayed cookie sheet and let rise.  Bake 350 deg for about 18 minutes.  I do not add icing to ours to cut out calories.  To watch a video showing how to make these by every day food storage click here.  She will give you the recipe for the icing.  

So there you have it.  My super easy, super delicious bread, rolls and cimmanon rolls recipe.  Hopefully your family will like them as much as my family.