The Brisbane Welfare Coop is a fantastic was to get bulk grains, nuts, eatable seeds and all those things that we have been learning about the last few months. Membership for this Co-op is $10 and you must organise that with your order. Talk to Sally or Malcolm in our ward for this, others feel free to contact us about joining or see the home page which has all the information that you need to join.

You just head to the homepage and click on 'preview Order'. Now anyone can do this, you don't need to be a member but you must be a member to order and due to our State Laws we can not take third party orders. You must only order for yourself.



Now the exciting news in this order is that the Whisper Mills are the cheapest I have ever seen!! For me this was the best, oh I know I have use that word loosely because we all know I'm addicted to a lot of my kitchen appliances, but with a grain mill the sky is the limit for what you can use your grains, seeds etc for.

For the May 2011 - Grains, Sugar offer, will close on Sun, 22 May 2011 and the Apr 2011 - Herbs Spices Vinegar etc offer, will also close on Sun, 22 May 2011. So you need to order and pay for that by that date.

The steel drums are available through the co-op as well. For those of you wanting to order the plastic containers through people in Plastic click here for a direct link to their price list.


Those of you who haven't been able to attend the Simple Living Classes, we are planning a bulk order together of these containers. I use the 4.5lt & 2.5lt, so look through the catalog and email or phone me with that order so we can get that in. Note that the steel drums sold at People in Plastics are NOT food grade, but all the containers are unless stated otherwise.

We have the Heat Sealer available in the Ward or at my place if that's more convenient ready for you to store and USE! Remember any questions contact me.

3 Month Food Storage Supply

This video is worth watching to help you understand where we're heading with the Welfare course we have begun in the ward. A little long at 9 minutes but worth watching.

Ribollita - soup

This is a slow cooker recipe - and is great the next day too.

Ribollita
2 tins drained and rinsed cannelini beans - or about two and a half cups of previously cooked cannelini beans
400 g tin chopped tomatoes
1 clove garlic crushed - out of a jar is fine
1 diced carrot
1 celery stalk diced
1/4 head of cabbage thinly sliced
300 g potatoes diced - skin on is fine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 litre chicken stock
200g or so of crusty bread torn into chunks
50 g grated Parmesan

Puree half the cannelini beans with all of the tomatoes in the food processor.

Put the puree in the slow cooker with everything else except the bread, Parmesan, and the reserved whole beans.  Cook on high for 4 hours - add the rest of the ingredients (including the bread).

Heat till the beans are hot and the cheese has melted.

This will serve 6.

Red Lentil Pasta Sauce

This is the pasta sauce that Donna made in the Simple Living class in March - Donna made it in a pressure cooker - I make it in a slow cooker so that is the way it's written here.  But talk to Donna for how to adapt to a pressure cooker.

Red Lentil Pasta Sauce
1 cup red lentils
1 onion - chopped
2 teasp minced garlic
1/2 cup tomato paste
4 large tomatoes chopped
1 tablespoon rosemary - or more
2 tablespoons chopped basil - or more
grated rind of 1 lemon
4 cups stock - chicken or veg - or even just water

Put all the ingredients into a pre heated slow cooker and cook on low for 4 -5 hours or high for 2 -3  hours.

I usually use around 750 gm of pasta for this and we always have leftovers.
We sometimes add green olives, sun dried tomatoes, grated cheese or feta cheese.

Skillet Rice

This is easy and cheap and really is delicious.  It's from a Mennonite cookbook called Extending the Table - which is a great book with lots of recipes using various cheap and store-able ingredients.

Skillet Rice.

In a large heavy based pan, heat:
2 tab oil (or a bit less)
Add:
1 cup uncooked rice
Fry 1-2 minutes, stirring gently.
Add:
1 small onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, mince (out of a jar is fine)
1/2 cup water
1/2 teasp salt
Cook, stirring constantly, until water is absorbed.
Add:
1 cup boiling water or chicken stock
2 medium chopped capsicums
1 can corn drained
Cover and simmer about 20 minutes without stirring till liquid is absorbed - remove from heat  Then serve as is - or with sour cream and grated cheese - or put in in a casserole dish and spread a thin layer of sour cream over the top, cover with grated cheese and grill for a few minutes.

For our family I usually make one and a half quantities - and have a little bit left over.

Wacky Cake

This cake is fantastic - and you already have everything you need sitting on your shelf (most likely). It came from this blog - which is a really interesting read with lots of welfare style hints. But I'll reproduce the recipe here.

Wacky Cake

3 cups flour

2 tsp bi-carb

6 tblspn cocoa (that's an American tablespoon - so 15ml)

2 cups sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

2 tblspn white vinegar

1/2 cup plus 2 tblspn oil (vege oil is fine and not as strongly flavoured as olive oil)

2 cups tepid water

Here's the easy part:

Sift and mix dry ingredients (of course I didn't sift - I never do - just mix with a whisk and it seems fine).

Make three wells in the dry ingredients - use your cup measure if it fits.

Put vanilla into one well, vinegar into another, and oil into the last.

Then pour the water over the lot and mix with a whisk till there are no lumps - this only takes a moment.

Pour into a greased baking tin - quite a big one - and bake at around 350 degrees Fahrenheit which is 175 degrees Celsius - the original recipe said half an hour but mine took almost an hour. Take it out when a skewer comes out clean.

I iced with cream cheese icing - but anything would work - whipped cream would be good too - or just a dusting of icing sugar for that matter.

So far I have only made it with white flour but I think it would work with wholemeal so I'll try that soon.

So easy and really delicious. I would have taken a photo but it's pretty much decimated here.

BROWN SUGAR

You are not going to believe how easy it to make your own brown sugar. I'm always in need of it, but we won't go into why...needless to say there is a sweet tooth involved.

THIS IS IT

To 1 cup white sugar, add 2 Tablespoons molasses. Stir together until evenly mixed with a fork. After trying it, vary it by using using the dark molasses or the light molasses. Just like in the shop dark or light.

THATS IT!! Can you believe it. Brown sugar is so hard to store for long periods of time but white sugar isn't & neither is mollasses. So now i have no excuse when the kids want chocolate self saucing pudding. Oh that's right I'm not going into that now was I.