$10 4 pack REUSABLE hand warmers review.

Very recently I was purchasing a Valentines gift for my lovely husband Zach, which you can see in the video at the end of the post February 2015 Apocabox Unwrapped, when I came across these reusable hand warmers. At this time a 4 pack is 9.99 and you can get 42 of them for $50 if you're interested. 

They work by a process called Exothermic Crystallization.  (I know, right).  I expected them to work when i bought them.  I didn't expect them to immediately heat up to 130 degrees.  It was amazing how well and how quickly they work.  

Once you are done using the hand warmers all you need to do is start water to boil.  Boil the hand warmers in water for five minutes.  Be certain that these won't get stuck to the bottom of the pan by either stirring constantly or wrapping them in a washcloth or cheesecloth.

Once they are boiled and the entire contents of the packet has reached more than 130 degrees, it will remain in a liquid state ready for the next use.  For this reason you need to make sure you boil them for five full minutes.

One final note is that if you have small children or pets who like to chew everything, like my darling pug Wasabi, then you will need to keep these where they cannot reach them, as they are NOT non toxic.

I have included a video of the super sweet reaction below I followed that with the link for the place I purchased it from, ThinkGeek.  Which also has a mighty assortment of both nerdy things and survival things.  GO CHECK IT OUT. :)




ThinkGeek - Hand Warmers

Starting Seeds using K cups, egg cartons and other UPCYCLED TRASH!!

If you are amazing enough to follow my blog then first of all THANK YOU!!! You're fantastic!  Also you'll know that over the next 22 weeks I plan to plant 25 veggies and fruits and 10 herbs. That's 35 plants in 22 weeks.  or about 6 plants a month.  I'm doing it this way because it's budget friendlier and it's less time consuming than trying to spend an entire 3 day weekend breaking your back and digging up your yard. 

If you're like me, then the environment and it's preservation means a great deal to you.  This day and age we all make trash.  People use plastics, disposable everything, paper packaging, and styrofoam convenience plates/cups.  I was offered a K cup of coffee the other day.  As I was driving home I was tired and thinking about getting the seeds ready and I was kinda wishing I had consumed a second cup when it came to me.  I can use K Cups for starting Seeds!

The plastic cups that contain the K Cup materials are the perfect size for starting seeds.  Plus when the Keurig brewer makes the coffee it places a tiny hole in the bottom of the cup which is suitable for drainage in case you over water.  I was elated and couldn't wait to try it.

You start with a used K Cup.  You Peel the foil off of the top to expose the inside.

Usually the coffee can be mixed in with the potting soil.  However be careful if you are saving up K cups for a while.  Older ones can grow mold which you DO NOT want to mix in with your potting soil.  (see photo below)

Once you get your old coffee scooped out, you will be left with a plastic cup that has a thin coffee filter like material.  There is no need to remove this.

If you flip the K cup over then you will see a small hole.  When the Keurig brewer makes the coffee it pokes a hole for the water to go through.  If you put too much water on your seed it will go through the filter and drain out of the hole in the bottom of the cup.  

Once your seed starter is completed, go ahead and write on the cup with a permanent marker what's in it.  In this case Zucchini

A simple yet effective watering tool can be purchased for $1 at most dollar stores.  A condiment bottle! keep it next to your seeds and douse with a small amount of water if the soil starts to dry.  A condiment bottle will allow you to add a few drops, or a generous squeeze of water.  This tool will also work to water seeds started using other methods.

Once completed, they sit nicely on a windowsill until they are germinated and ready to plant.

K Cups are great and all, but this blog is about prepping on a budget.  Maybe you don't have a Keurig brewer and none of your friends or family have them either.  The next way I have found to start seeds is with a simple egg crate.  You water it in the same method.

So, are you such an awesome homesteader that you have your own chicken coop and don't have the egg cartons as an option.  Use your imagination.  You can start a seed in an eggshell, a cut up paper towel insert, I'll bet you could even fold a small cube out of newspaper or magazine.  Use your imagination... and your trash bin!  :)

Happy Prepping.

Over the next 22 weeks I will be planting 25 fruits and veggies and 10 herbs in flower pots! Stay Posted to see the results. Or better yet, if you're in the southeast region...grow them with me!  The times may need to be edited for other regions.   But should be similar.

End of Feb - 
     Asparagus
Beginning of March - 
     Herb garden (basil, chives, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, and thyme)
     Cabbage
     Onions
End of March - 
     Strawberries
     Spinach
     Lettuce
     Broccoli
Beginning of April - 
     Beets
     Green onion
     Turnips
     Tomato
End of April -    
     Cucumber
     Potatoes
     Carrots
     radishes
     Cauliflower
Beginning of May - 
     Cantaloupe
     Summer Squash
     Zucchini
End of May - 
     Eggplant
     Peas
Beginning of June - 
     Pole Beas
     Add Dill to the herb garden
End of June - 
     Melon
     Sweet Peppers
Beginning of July - 
     Collards
     Watermelon 

Dehydrated "Just add water" Meal - Lentil Soup VEGAN friendly

     In my opinion, one of the most irritating things about "Meal in a Jar" recipes or dehydrated meal recipes is that they are impractical.  You think you are just going to be storing some ingredients in a jar and you just add water.  This is often NOT the case.  They call for some dry ingredients, then they also call for jars of things like oil, sauce, etc.  

     Other times part of the recipe calls for dehydrated foods (which can be prepared at home), and other ingredients are freeze dried (which requires specialized equipment, or a specialized setup at the very least).  If you're going to spend a fortune on buying freeze dried foods, why the heck wouldn't you just buy the ready made ones?  I want to give you recipes that you can reproduce,  even in a grid down situation.

     Also, dehydrated meal recipes often throw in things like a pound of bacon.  Oh yes.  It's the apocalypse and all, but let me just go catch a pig for dinner!!  For this reason, I will be working to not only provide you recipes for LEGITIMATE just add water foods that can be prepared at home with little more than a food vacuum sealer and dehydrator, but I will be showing you how to prepare the stored foods.  I may even make the foods so you can see how they look prepared.

     The first of such recipes is Just add water Lentil Soup.  This can be placed in a jar or a vacuum seal bag, whichever you prefer.

I am not going to give specific amounts for each Pint sized amount.  I am going to give you the recipe to make 4 servings

10 ounces of carrots.  I used a pack of Bolthouse Farms Matchstix 

16 ounces of celery hearts.  I used the Dole brand.

1 small bag of onions.  My bag had 8-10 mediumsmallish onions.  I used one onion out of it for my pizza sauce when I made homemade pizza from Scratch, and the rest I dehydrated for this project.

3-4 large slicing tomatoes.  Each serving has 3-4 large dehydrated slices in it.  

and 4 basil leaves

So you start by dehydrating the onions, carrots, celery, and tomato.  I have a regular round nesco dehydrator.  I wanted to make sure to get as much moisture out as possible so I let the stuff dehydrate for about 12-14 hours.  

One thing that I learned from this project is do NOT underestimate how tiny these pieces can get.  I thought I would only have to worry about the onion, but boy was I wrong. 

Most dehydrator trays have holes to allow airflow.  Mine looks like this.

I strongly recommend wrapping the trays in aluminum foil and poking many holes in the foil to allow airflow if keeping the ingredients separate matters to you.  It matters to me, so I'm kind of OCD about it.  :)

I put the onions on the bottom

followed by the carrots.

Finally I topped it off with celery and basil leaves

I already had the tomato from a previous recipe, but you do it in the same manner.  You slice it and lay it out flat.

Try and make sure your slices are about the same so they will dehydrate evenly. 

Now that everything is dehydrated, start by putting the following in the bottom of each pint mason jar (or bag if you prefer to vacuum seal them):

• 2 crushed bullion cubes.  You can do beef, chicken, or veggie.  Using veggie makes this meal vegan friendly. 

• 1/2 Tablespoon salt

• 1/4 Tablespoon pepper (or more if you like things spicy)

• 1 heaping teaspoon of garlic powder

• 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme 

• On top of that put your slices of dehydrated tomato.  If you are using a mason jar, they'll probably fit right in.  If you're vacuum packing, you may choose to cut up the tomatoes for a better fit.  Each of the four servings should have 3-4 tomato slices.

Now is the time to separate your veggies out into 4.

• Place 1/4 of all of the carrots in each jar/package

• Place 1/4 of all of the onions in each jar/package

• Place 1/4 of all of the celery in each jar/package

• Place 1/4 of all of the dried basil in each jar/package (1 leaf each) crushing as you place.

• If you are using a mason jar, fill the rest of the jar up with lentils to the rim leaving little headspace.  If you are not, then put about a cup of lentils in each bag.  I had 2 1 pound bags and had about a half of a bag left when splitting 4 ways.

• Top with 1/2 bay leaf

Label Each Bag/jar: Add 6 cups of water and cook for 1 hour on medium high.  Making sure that you keep at least about an inch of water above the solids at all times.  remove the bay leaf before serving.  

Making A thin crust whole wheat pizza - from absolute scratch.

To do this in one day was a complete undertaking. I definitely underestimated the effort this would require; however, I am very happy with the end result. 

A Pizza is essentially composed of 4 Things: the crust, the sauce, the cheese, and the toppings. I am going to go through the things I did in the order in which I did them. 

Step 1. Start the Pizza Dough.

In a large bowl Mix 3 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour with 1 pack of Fleischmann's Pizza Crust Yeast, and 1.5 tsp of non iodized salt.  Mix it up very evenly.

In a separate bowl mix up a cup and a half of tepid water, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and 1 tablespoon honey.  

Mix the liquid in with the dry ingredients gradually.  Your dough should be a bit sticky.  You can add more water if you need to.  Just do not over knead the dough, and remember to add water a small amount at a time.

Once you have a decent consistency, cover the bowl and let sit for 1 and half to 2 hours with plastic wrap.  I was out of plastic wrap and used a shopping bag.  You just need to keep the air out of it.

While the dough is rising, start the sauce!

Step 2. Start the Sauce

Chop up a medium onion very very finely.

Peel the skin from 10 roma tomatoes.  I have found the easiest way to do this is to scour an x into the end of each tomato

Bring a pot of water to boil

Once at a rolling boil, add the tomatoes.   Bring back to boil and boil for about a minute.  Until you see the skin start to shrivel and peel.

Carefully strain the tomatoes and run cold water over them.

The skin should peel off easily.

Crush up the tomatoes (being careful to remove any stems) and set aside.

Heat a small amount of olive oil in a pan and add the onion.  Cook until translucent.

While the onion is cooking, cut up 4 leaves of basil

  Add 1/2 Tablespoon of minced garlic to the onions and cook for about a minute.  Add crushed tomato and basil. Cook until it is no longer liquidy.  Maybe 20-30 minutes.  While the sauce boils down begin the cheese.

Step 3. Make the cheese

Measure out 2 Cups of water.  Stir in 3 teaspoons of citric acid.  Mix completely.

Set aside 1/2 cup of the citric acid water and mix 1/2 tsp of liquid vegetable rennet.

Put 2 gallons of milk in a very large pot, clip your cheese thermometer to the side, and heat the milk to 90 F Degrees.  Stir in the citric acid (not the rennet) gently.

Once the milk reaches 90F degrees remove from heat and add rennet.  

stir for about 30 seconds (try to stir in vertical circular motions so that the rennet gets mixed with the milk on the bottom of the pan as well. Cover the pot and let it set for 10 minutes. 

At this point, your curds should have started to harden up.  You can see in the photo below where my curds have stiffened up and I cut horizontal lines in the curds.

Cut vertical lines in the curd.

Then cut horizontal lines in the curd.

Then cut diagonal lines into the curd.

Place the pot back on to the stove and cook to 105 F degrees.  SLOWLY stir as to not break up your curds.  

remove the curds with a slotted spoon and place in a strainer with cheesecloth.

Place a bowl underneath to drain off any whey.

Heat the Whey back up to 190 F degrees.  put the strainer in the top of the whey.  Add the cheesecloth and cheese until the cheese is covered.  Cook the cheese this way for 5 or more minutes.  Use your thermometer to make sure the cheese curds internal temperature is 135 F degrees.  If you do not let the curds reach temperature they will be more the consistency of cottage cheese and your mozzarella will not stretch right.  However, if you're using it for pizza and you would prefer it to be that consistency to avoid shredding, then by all means do what you need to accomplish your goals. 

Stretch you cheese at this time.  Sprinkle with Salt and herbs.  

I didn't let mine get all the way up to temp, but pretty close.  Here is my final cheese product:

Step 4: roll out the dough

at this point your dough ball should have doubled in size.  This recipe makes 2 pizzas, so you will need to divide the dough ball into 2 separate balls.

At this point you should roll out your crusts.  I made squares, but you can do a circle.  Whatever you like. Once completed, go ahead an preheat your oven to 450 F degrees.

Once your crusts are how you want them, you can add the pizza sauce.  Try to leave a little edge on the side.

Once your pizza sauce is added, you can add your toppings.  I just made a plain mushroom pizza.  simple AND delicious.

Now your pizza is ready for the oven.

Cook on the middle or lower rack for 12-15 minutes.

Enjoy your hot, delicious, scratch made pizzas.

Bon Appetit!