Using Dehydrated Foods
by Nikki Willhite
www.allthingsfrugal.com
Helping the family food budget
Buying food in bulk almost always results in savings. We use
many dehydrated or dried foods without even thinking about it.
My mother-in-law makes her own noodles. They do taste good, but
it is just not worth my time or effort. It is much easier, and not all that
expensive, to just buy them and boil them to re- hydrate them
If I get sick, my family can easily make a meal with store
bought noodles, some tuna, and a can of soup. No one here is going to make
noodles from scratch, that's for sure! I think most of us buy all our pasta
dehydrated.
Many people enjoy fruit rollups, dried apricots, raisins, beef
jerky, cocoa...and so forth. I've yet to meet anyone who dehydrates their own
grapes for their oatmeal raisin cookies!
When you consider all the food we already use in dry form, it
shouldn't be such an appalling idea to use other powdered products. It can be
very economical to us things like powdered milk and powdered eggs.
Both powdered eggs and powdered milk are great for baking. One
of the most appealing reasons to use powdered products is the convenience. As a
general rule, stored properly they last a long time, and can be bought in bulk.
It is nice to know they are always available in the pantry. If you want to bake
a cake, you don't have to worry about running out of eggs.
Many people obtain substantial savings in their food budget with
powdered milk. When our children were young, we mixed it half and half with
whole milk.
If you've been to AllThingsFrugal.com, you know that I store
food. I only store what I eat, and I rotate it. There have been times when I
could not get to the store, and having a supply of food in the house was a great
comfort. Our food supply chain is very fragile... dependent on trucks and oil,
as well as affected by strikes and the weather. How much better to have food in
our cupboards than in the store warehouses where we can't get it.
Milk and eggs are on the top of my list.
Here is some information that you can use if you
decide to buy some.
Eggs
1 Large egg= 3 1/2 Tablespoons of powdered eggs
Milk
Evaporated Milk= 1 Cup of water to 2/3 Cup Powdered
milk
Condensed Milk=½ Cup Water, 1 Cup Sugar, and 1 Cup
powdered milk.
Buttermilk= 1 Cup water, 1/3 Cup Powdered milk & 1
Tbs. vinegar or lemon juice.
Cocoa
1/2 Cup cocoa= 1 oz. baking chocolate.