Today I want to share a simple and easy dinner that is ready in 30 minutes or less using just food storage. Freeze Dried Ground Beef is interesting stuff isn't it? The
Benefits of Freeze Dried Meat are pretty amazing and the shelf life is 10-15 years if kept in a cool dry place. I cook with it a lot more than I ever thought I would just because it is so convenient and I love developing recipes that people can really use. I had a gal ask me what I do with the ground beef if I wanted to make meatballs or a meatloaf and I wanted to share my simple method for that. I've also got some great tips on
How to Use Tomato Powder to make an Instant Marinara sauce with excellent flavor and a 10-15 years shelf life! That's awesome right?! Usually a good marinara takes a long time to develop that flavor. It's especially amazing if you can a make it so delicious your family won't mind eating it any night of the week.
Chef Tess Bakeresse™ Instant Marinara
and Meatballs from Food Storage
Ingredients:
Meatballs:
2 cup Honeyville Freeze Dried ground Beef
1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1/4 cup Honeyville Freeze Dried Onions
1/2 cup Honeyville Whole Egg Powder
1 tsp Chef Tess Romantic Italian Seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
Sauce:
1/2 cup Honeyville tomato powder
1/4 cup Honeyville freeze dried onions
1/4 cup Honeyville freeze dried bell peppers
1/4 cup Honeyville freeze dried mushrooms
2T Honeyville dehydrated honey
2tsp Chef Tess Romantic Italian Seasoning
1/4 cup Ultra Gel (modified corn starch) available in Honeyville retail stores
To make the meatballs, combine the meatball dry ingredients in a quart size bowl mixing well. Add 1 1 1/3 cup hot water (not boiling but very hot). Stir the water into the beef mixture and then allow the mixture to sit 10 minutes to fully hydrate and becomes a workable mass. Mmm. Meat moosh.
Form into 18 small meatballs and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet about a half an inch apart.
Now...bake them 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees until firm to the touch.
I like to lightly tent aluminum foil over the sheet pan, as this helps the meatballs to steam and keeps them tender. Remove from the oven and serve hot or cool and place in a fridge (covered) for later use.
To prepare the instant sauce:
Combine the dry ingredients in a half gallon size pot.
Add 3 1/2 -4 cups warm water (depending on how thick you want your sauce) and stir well. Stir over low heat. Cooking the sauce is optional, by the way. If you are just wanting a fast pizza sauce or bread stick dipping medium this stuff will make you happy! I usually do the sauce heating while the meatballs bake. This is also the time I start the water boiling if I'm serving the sauce and meatballs with pasta. Usually I just hide somewhere with a steaming pot of liquid happiness and a spoon and hide. Try not to think about how weird I am. Weirdness is a gift that I will always claim...(
said as I strap on my moon-boots and rick-rac embellished pocket protector).
Stir sauce until heated through and vegetables are tender. Add the meatballs to the sauce and serve over steaming hot pasta.
You know what else? This magical marinara sauce is great for long-term food storage, unlike canned sauces. Plus you control all the ingredients! Combine the dry ingredients in a half pint jar with a tightly fitting lid and an oxygen absorber and it is good 10-15 years if kept in a cool dry place. Now that is amazing!
There you go. Make some beautiful meatballs and marinara with your food storage. It's sure to impress your mother-in-law.
Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess
13 comments:
Hello Tess, I've been enjoying your blog in my email for a while now and can't wait to try more of your recipes. Keep it up! What would be the cost of this recipe?
http://offthegridat-30.blogspot.ca/
Can you use the beef tvp instead of the freeze dried ground beef? Kindly advise. GREAT post!
Cost is right around 9$ for the meatballs and under a dollar for the sauce for 6 servings. So figure under 2$ a person for dinner.
Hi, Tess - Just wondering when your next cookbook comes out. I thought I read something about a meal in a jar / 52 Method / food storage cookbook coming out soon but perhaps I was imagining things . . . Thank you for doing all of this work so the rest of us just have to load up our jars!
One more question Tess - I apologize. I was just ordering spices and am wondering if the Wise Woman of the East mix contains Fenugreek. It is commonly used in Eastern cooking but I'm allergic to it and want to avoid it. I'm also operating on the assumption that all of your spices are free of msg. Is that accurate? Thanks!
My daughter-in-law and I are looking forward to making your jar recipes for our long term storage. I'll be halving them for pint storage. I look forward to your book on the meal jar recipes (a publication date yet?). Meanwhile, you might think about cross-referencing them for ingredients, like all recipes that use tomato powder, or all recipes that use freeze dried meats, etc. Since these items come in such huge quantities, a No. 10 can, could we just 'revacuum pack' unused quantities till our next jar-packing party?
Ingies,
The cookbook is coming out Oct/November depending on how quickly things go with the publisher. I'm so excited! The Wise Woman does not contain fenugreek. It is a sweet baking spice blend but because it uses a lot of Eastern spices we chose that name.
RV Trip USA:
I love your comment and yes! You can totally re-pack into smaller quantity jars. I do that. If you send me an e-mail chef-tess@hotmail.com I have a chart that has all the quantities cross-referenced that one of my sweet students put together. You're more than welcome to it. Best wishes always.
What a brilliant idea! I am wondering though if you could omit the cornstarch gel stuff and just add less water to get the same consistency in the sauce? or a different thickener that is shelf stable? Thanks
You can use cornstarch in place of the ultra-gel. It works as well. Or, yes, use 1 cup less water.
Thank you for bringing that to my attention. Yes it is 1 1/3 cup. Yikes. 11 would be soup.
I finally made these tonight and they worked great. The only tweak I'd make is to reduce the amount of breadcrumbs, as it was pretty pronounced in the finished product.
Thanks once again for opening up our food storage horizons!
This sauce is so great! It has become a permanent part of my long term and current pantry. We love it with tortellini and with a bit less water as pizza sauce. Like the bit of a kick from your spice blend. Purchased your e-book and the Gourmet Food Storage Handbook and am looking forward to the Meal in a Jar book next.
Thanks for all you do.
Marilyn
This sauce is so great! It has become a permanent part of my long term and current pantry. We love it with tortellini and with a bit less water as pizza sauce. Like the bit of a kick from your spice blend. Purchased your e-book and the Gourmet Food Storage Handbook and am looking forward to the Meal in a Jar book next.
Thanks for all you do.
Marilyn
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