Food Storage Friendly Friday - Meal Idea and Tip of the Week

I am curious as to how many people take vitamins. It used to be that a One-A-Day vitamin was on everyone’s breakfast plate; I think that was back when we ate healthier, foods contained less preservatives and more nutrition. So now that we live such a rushed and hurried life with the availability of fast foods and less time for healthy cooking I wonder if we are really getting the nutrition we need.

One of the things we are advised to do is to store vitamins. Not just any vitamins, but ones that actually dissolve and are absorbed into your system and help to make you healthier. You will pay a little more for really good vitamins but your health may benefit from it, especially if you live a stressful busy life, and who doesn’t.

My tip today is to store vitamins for your family BUT ONLY if you are taking them daily and rotating them. If you stick vitamins in your storage and forget about them, you are wasting your money. They need to be rotated regularly. Old vitamins aren’t much better than no vitamins.

One option that we have found in our diets is a healthy “green drink”. It is absolutely filled with nutrition and every vitamin and mineral you can imagine. It isn’t the best tasting but the health benefits are abundant. I can’t recommend this enough if you want to get more nutrition without eating a lot of extra food. The biggest plus is that because it is in powder form, it goes immediately into your system. It is called Green Vibrance and if you are interested in this nutrition supplement, here is a link so you can check it out and see all the fabulous things that are in it. http://www.healthyprism.com/green-vibrance-economy-60.html

I’m still trying new recipes using food storage. This one is a “bean” recipe. I thought it was interesting. This recipe uses canned or cooked white beans. It makes for a moist bread and you can’t taste the beans at all. If you are looking for a way to incorporate more beans or fiber in your diet this may be it. The older I get the more interested I am in incorporating more nutrition into my diet without having to actually eat more food. This is a good way to start.

White Bean Banana Nut Bread
1 ¾ c. sifted all-purpose flour
2 t. baking powder
¼ t. baking soda
½ t. salt
1/3 c. shortening
2/3 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs, well-beaten
1 c. mashed, ripe bananas, peeled
1 t. vanilla extract
1 c. canned or cooked white beans, pureed (great northern)
½ c. chopped pecans or walnuts
Preheat oven to 350º. Puree beans and mash bananas. Sift together dry ingredients; cream shortening and sugar together. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition add vanilla and mix well. Add flour mixture alternating with bananas and beans, beating well after each addition. Stir in nuts. Pour into a greased mini loaf pans. Bake about 20-25 minutes (depending on the size of your pans) or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean and the bread is golden brown. Let cool in pans for 5 minutes then remove to a baking rack to cool completely. If using a single loaf pan bake for about 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Y: 4 small mini loafs or one large loaf
Note: To puree the beans add them to a blender with a tablespoon or two of water. Blend until smooth. Store unused beans in a zip lock freezer bag and store in the freezer.