Nine Easy Recipes To Use Your Food Storage Every Day
Today I have been digging out some old easy recipes to use with your food storage. Sometimes we need a few new recipes that we can use by grabbing something out of the pantry. I have declared myself a stay-at-home mom because I love eating at home. It’s awesome to grow a lot of my food in my backyard garden so I don’t have to go to the store to get tomatoes, lettuce, or spinach.
Some of these easy recipes I used when feeding my daughters over 30 years ago. I have to tell you, my mouth is watering over these gems. My recipes have to be easy and not complicated or I won’t make them. You may know by now I love storing freeze-dried meats because they have a shelf life of about 15-25 years at optimum temperatures. Here’s the deal, most manufacturers state the products must be stored at 65-70 degrees, well that’s not going to happen with the price of my electricity bills here.
This is how I see it in my situation, they may last 10-15 years and that works for me. I do buy a lot of canned chicken, roast beef, and tuna. They typically have a shelf life of 1-2 years. Every manufacturer is different. I realize that tuna gets mushy after 2 years. I store more canned chicken than anything else. So let’s get started with some old standbys you may want to try for your family. These are my favorite easy recipes!
Easy Recipes Using Food Storage:
Linda’s Rigatoni
- 1 pound ground beef fried or equal amount of reconstituted freeze-dried hamburger
- 1 chopped fresh onion or equal amount of freeze-dried onions
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup to 1 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 8-6- ounce cans of tomato paste
- 8-6- ounce cans of water
- 3 ounces of parmesan cheese
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Put all of the ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
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Serve over cooked Rigatoni noodles.
Linda’s Chicken Salad
- 2 cups cooked diced chicken or 2 cans 12.5-ounces of canned chicken drained or equal amount reconstituted freeze-dried chicken.
- 3/4 cup chopped apples or equal amount of rehydrated freeze-dried apples chopped
- 3/4 cup chopped/diced celery
- 1-8- ounce can pineapple chunks drained
- 1 cup freeze dried grapes do not reconstitute
- 3/4 cup Miracle Whip or Mayonnaise
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Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and stir until thoroughly mixed together. Serve on a bed of lettuce.
Summer Zucchini Casserole
- 4 medium zucchinis or equal amount of reconstituted freeze-dried zucchini
- Cook about 15 minutes or until tender.
- 1/2 cup chopped onions or equal amount of freeze-dried onions
- 4 tablespoons butter save 2 tablespoons for topping
- 2-1/2 cups Stove Top Dressing save 1 cup for topping
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1/2 cup sour cream or equal amount of reconstituted dehydrated sour cream
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Saute the onions in the butter. Stir in the 1-1/2 cups dressing, soup, and sour cream. Pour the ingredients into a 9 by 13 inch greased pan. Saute the remaining 1 cup dressing in 2 T. butter. Sprinkle the topping on top of the casserole. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Serves 6-8.
Poppy Seed Chicken
- 2 cups cooked diced chicken or equal amount of reconstituted freeze-dried chicken
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1-1/2 cups sour cream or reconstituted dehydrated sour cream
- 1-8- ounce box Ritz crackers crushed
- 1 cube butter melted
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
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Combine the chicken, cream of chicken soup with the sour cream. Mix the crushed crackers with the melted butter and poppy seeds. Combine 1/2 of the cracker mix with the chicken mix. Grease a 9 by13-inch casserole dish. Scoop the ingredients into the pan and top with the remaining cracker mix. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until warmed thoroughly. Serves 4-6 people
Chicken Enchiladas
- 1-12.5- ounce can chicken or 2 cups of cooked chicken
- 2 cans cream of chicken soup
- 1-4- ounce can green chilies
- 4 green onions chopped
- 3/4 pound grated cheddar cheese (save 1 cup grated cheese for the topping)
- 12 corn tortillas cut into bite size pieces (spray with vegetable oil instead of frying them)
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Mix all of the ingredients in a large bowl except the tortillas. Grease a 9 by 13-inch pan and alternate layers of the chicken mixture and the tortillas. The last layer will be the chicken mixture and top it off with one cup of reserved cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Serves 6-8 people.
Mexican Casserole
- 1 pound hamburger cooked or equal amount reconstituted freeze-dried hamburger
- 1 chopped onion or equal amount of reconstituted freeze-dried chopped onions
- 1 pound grated cheese or equal amount of reconstituted freeze-dried cheddar cheese
- 1 bag of Fritos
- 2-16 ounce cans of chili with beans
- 1 small can of chopped or sliced olives
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Grease a 9 by 13-inch pan. Alternate layers with chili, Fritos, cheese, hamburger, onions, and olives. The last layer should end with the chili and top with the remaining cheese. Bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes or until the cheese melts. Serves 6- 8 people.
Chicken Rice Casserole
- 2 cups cooked chicken diced or 3-12.5-ounce cans of canned chicken or equal amount of reconstituted freeze-dried chicken
- 3 -4 cups cooked rice
- 1/2 cup chopped onion or equal amount of freeze-dried onion
- 1 cup celery or equal amount of freeze-dried celery
- 1 can of sliced chestnuts
- 2 cans of cream of chicken soup
- 1 cup mayonnaise sounds weird, huh?
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 cups sliced almonds one cup for the top
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Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and scoop the ingredients into a greased 9 by 13-inch pan. Do not cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Sprinkle the last cup of almonds on the top of the casserole the last 5 minutes of baking. Serves 6-8 people. The mayonnaise sounds weird but I must say this is truly one of my all time favorite casseroles.
My Daughter’s Enchiladas
- 3-4 chicken breasts cooked and shredded or equal amount of reconstituted freeze-dried chicken
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1-8 ounce cream cheese softened
- 1 can of diced green chilies
- 3 cups grated cheddar cheese or equal amount of reconstituted cheddar cheese save one cup for the top of the casserole
- 12 flour tortillas-cut into bite-size pieces
- Combine the following and cover the casserole with this mixture:
- 1 can “Old El Paso” enchilada sauce
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
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Sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup of cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes covered with foil. Serves 6-8 people.
My Sister’s Meatless Lasagna
- 1 large jar spaghetti sauce or 6 cups of spaghetti sauce
- 1-8 ounce pkg. lasagna noodles uncooked
- 1 pound ricotta cheese or cottage cheese
- 1 pound mozzarella cheese or equal amount of reconstituted freeze-dried mozzarella
- 1 cup parmesan cheese
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Grease a 9 by 13-inch pan. Layer the sauce, lasagna noodle, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Repeat the layers twice. The last layer will be lasagna noodles and sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until the cheese melts.
I hope you enjoy some of my easy recipes and if you have some easy recipes I will add them to this list. Here’s to saving money using food storage and staying out of restaurants and grocery stores. I know we are all trying not to use processed food, but sometimes my budget doesn’t warrant fresh meat, and I am okay with that. Life is good because I can cook at home and enjoy every minute of it.
One thing to consider, take half the cooked entree and put it in the freezer to heat and eat later. My husband and I certainly couldn’t eat one 9 x 13 pan of any of these meals, unless we had guests. We often will save part of the food in the fridge to eat it as a leftover, or we’ll freeze it and eat it at some future date.
My favorite lasagna pan
Copyright pictures:
Zucchini: AdobeStock_69886713 by Melima
Poppy Seed Chicken: AdobeStock_63645513 by Ginauf
Mexican Casserole: AdobeStock_37128292 by MSPhotographic
Meatless Lasagna: AdobeStock_66463062 by Bill
That lasagna has my name written allllll over it! Yum!
Hi Amanda, I love lasagna too! Thanks so much for stopping by and for Retweeting my stuff. I am going to add you to my Tweet Deck. I am in the middle of writing a book so I have not been really active as much as I would like to on social media. Linda
Most of those recipes I plan on making. It is just the 2 of us so I will make them and freeze in individual portions. Always enjoy reading whatever you write about and it seems to be something I need to know. Thank you Linda
Hi Melba, you are always so kind with your words, I thank you from the bottom of my heart! Mark and I do the same thing, we make and freeze portions for two. Saves time and money! Linda