Emergency Food Recipe Of The Week #4: Brown Bread Sandwich

photo source: http://www.ifood.tv

Today I was working on some articles when I suddenly realized how hungry I was.

It wasn’t lunchtime yet, so I thought of getting some snack to keep my stomach from disturbing me while I work.

Habit has it that I instantly check busycooks.about.com for new emergency food recipes every time I have to cook something. And I was glad I did so after I saw a delicious sandwich recipe that worked perfectly with my need for a quick, nutritious snack.

This one is made with canned brown bread and you can use pretty much any sandwich filling you want. Feel free to experiment, combine ingredients and add your favorite spices.

Now, what’s the deal with brown bread?

Is it better than white bread? And if so, why?

I don’t know what to say about the taste. Some people like it, others don’t. I, personally, like it much better than white bread. But that’s just a personal preference. However, when it comes to health benefits, brown bread is proved to be better.

When I started writing this, I vaguely knew that white bread was chemically bleached, but I didn’t know what this process was all about. I researched and what I found was quite disturbing:

“White bread is made from wheat flour from which the bran and germ have been removed. This is where much of the nutritional bread value is. White bread is lower in zinc, fiber, thiamin, niacin, trace elements and “good” fats and oils.

White bread in many countries has to be fortified with vitamins and minerals *by law* during the bread making process. These are usually sprayed into the mix. It’s somewhat ironic that the nutrients that are removed from wheat are re-added by this means. Nature provides, we destroy, then add it back in via a man-made form.” (www.greenlivingtips.com)

Yikes! Had no idea it was that bad… Now I’m glad I’m a brown bread fan. Especially since there are so many benefits:

• You get a healthier heart — brown bread reduces the risk of high blood pressure

• You stay slim— brown bread is lower in calories, so if you want to lose some weight, a brown bread diet will help

• You get a better digestion — brown bread is high in fiber, which helps you keep digestive problems under control

• You feel “full” longer — brown bread is very nutritious, so there’s no need to rush to your fridge every couple of hours. This will be of great help during the crisis, so get lots of canned brown bread for your stockpile.

• You fight off cancer — that’s right, brown bread even prevents cancer if consumed regularly.

Now it’s recipe time! Here’s what you need:

• 3/4 cup chopped dried fruit or your favorite chopped dried fruits

• 1/4 cup chopped nuts

• 1/3 cup mayonnaise or sour cream

• 1 can prepared brown bread, cut into 1/4″ slices

Preparation is as easy as it gets: in a small bowl, you just combine all ingredients (except brown bread!) and blend. Then you put the filling between brown bread slices. That’s it. You’ve got yourself 16 yummy sandwiches.

If you’ve got some filling leftovers, cover and keep in the fridge, but not longer than 3 days.

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How To Rotate Your Food Stock For Maximum Freshness

This article is all about stock rotation strategies. Combined with a good item organization, rotation is the key to keeping your stockpile fresh and nutritious. And it’s actually very easy, once you know and adhere to the simple rotation methods people have been using for years. Here they are:

Food Rotation In Your Fridge

Rotation Strategy: Rotate your food from back to front

This is the classic rotation strategy that all supermarkets and store rooms use. This principle is called First In First Out (FIFO).

Here’s how it goes: whatever you’ve just bought you’ll place in the back of the fridge, while moving the older items up front. This way, you’ll eat all the food you store before it reaches its expiration date (and thus avoid wasting money on stuff that goes bad before you get to eat it).

You can use this strategy to rotate food in your freezer as well.

Food Rotation In Your Pantry

Rotation Strategy #1: Rotate your food from left to right

If you don’t have much storage space, this one is perfect for you. It goes very well with narrow shelves, where the classic back to front rotation system doesn’t work.

Here’s what you need to do: whenever you need something from your stock, you take the first item on the right. When you restock, you place the new item on the left and push the other ones to the right.

This is a simple and natural strategy and it guarantees you won’t make any mistakes. It’s easy to remember: just take the items on the right every time you go into the pantry.

Rotation Strategy #2: Rotate your food from back to front (FIFO)

his is pretty much the same as described above, for the refrigerated items rotation. Whenever you restock, put the fresh food in the back and push the older ones in the front.

If you find it a bit difficult to move all your items from back to front, you can easily build yourself a slanted rotation stack that allows cans to roll to the front by themselves. All you have to do is roll down the newly purchased items down the shelves and they will automatically push the older ones up front. It’s really easy and it won’t cost you any more than $85.

Rotation Strategy #3: Buy One, Store One

This strategy is extremely simple, but you should know it will take a bit longer to build your stockpile. Basically, every time you go tp the store to buy something, you get two pieces of the same item. One goes in your meal and one goes to your stock.

This way, you’ll get something like this:

Shopping spree 1: Wheat 1 + Wheat 2

Eat: Wheat 1

Store: Wheat 2

Shopping spree 2: Can 1 + Can 2

Eat: Can 1

Store: Can 2

Shopping Spree 3: Oil 1 + Oil 2

Eat: Oil 1

Store: Oil 2

Stockpile after Shopping Spree 3: Wheat + Can + Oil

When you’ve got enough stored items, you don’t need to buy 2 items of the same kind anymore. You just start eating from your stock and buy whatever needs to be replaced. Easy and affordable!

One of the keys to making these systems work is knowing the shelf life of your products. Bear in mind also that temperature, light, humidity, impacts and other factors can affect the quality and shelf life of your food stock. Think cool, dry, dark, clean… and be sure to pest-proof as appropriate: See this big free collection of natural pest control tutorials.