Last week, we auditioned two more potential 3 month food storage candidates.
First we tried the Black Bean Burgers from the excellent Safely Gathered In blog:
Before we proceed with the results of the audition, I want to add my standard disclaimer to this as well as any and all types of "veggie" burger. If you are expecting it to have the texture and taste of a ground beef burger, you will always, always be disappointed. If you are expecting a delicious grilled sandwich- you may be suprised that you like it in spite of the missing meat.
So- back to this recipe. It was excellent- one of the best bean burger recipies we've tried (and one of the easiest). We did almost double the amount of salsa called for in the recipe, and we added about a 1/4 or 1/2 coup of corn (about 1/3 of a can).
They cooked up nicely on the stovetop, too- crispyish on the outside and mushy (creamy?) on the inside. We served them with melted cheddar, salsa, tomatos and lettuce. Kid rating was a double-thumbs-up- Birdy ate her whole sandwich (which is the ultimate kid test).
My only issue is that I wonder about the suitibility for "shelf storage" since it relies on buns (which, technically I could make- you know, if they have a "hamburger bun" recipe for the bread machine). However, I think for the practical purposes of the 3 month supply, it gets a "pass".
On Saturday we went to the zoo. We have a new commitment to NOT eating out, so we decided it was a perfect opportunity to bust out the Chicken Salad recipe (also from Safely Gathered In) and give it a try (Pic from Safely Gathered In- not mine):
I only became a Chicken Salad sandwich fan recently, and have been pretty committed to a great recipe that my sister found on one of my favorite recipe sites, Allrecipes.com. It is awesome, but definately not food-storage friendly.
We really enjoyed this chicken salad. The canned chicken suprised us again by being really good. The craisins gave it a great shelf-stable sweetness and the toasted almonds provided the crunch. Our only complaint was that it seemed a bit dry and we had to add a good 1 1/2 extra tablespoons of mayo. The girls also thought it was great and ate up their whole sandwiches while watching the rhinos.
So now our total is up to 4 recipes and we have started shopping and collecting ingredients. I'm curious, readers, shall I continue these reviews? Are you interested? Do you care? Do you want me to just send you our final list/recipes?
Let me know in the comments!~