I love Taco TVP. It is my number one ‘go to’ item. I use it in everything!

Tonight I made taco, nachos, and a taco salad in less time than it takes to order at the fast food restaurant!! And did so with zero added preservative, salts, or sugar! I fed my family REAL healthy food. And did it in less than 5 minutes!

5 Minute Taco Night

You Will Need:

*Thrive Taco TVP         *Lettuce              *Salsa

*Thrive onions              *Tomatoes          *Corn chips

*Thrive Peppers           *Cheese                *Tortillas

Directions:

1.Reconstitute enough TVP for your family’s needs. Remember the TVP almost doubles when reconstituted. For example, if you need 1 cup of TVP, reconstitute half a cup. I reconstitute my TVP by covering it in HOT water and letting it sit. I drain off any excess water. 2. Reconstitute onions and peppers to meet you family’s needs. Again, cover with water, let sit, and drain excess water.

3. While your other ingredients are reconstituting, warm your tortillas in the over. I warm mine at 300F for 5 min.

4. Again while other ingredients are reconstituting, chop lettuce and tomatoes.

5. I keep grated cheese in my fridge, but if you don’t, now is a great time to grate that cheese. You could also reconstitute some yummy Thrive freeze dried cheese.

6. Open your chips and salsa.

7. Serve

I serve this ‘buffet style’ and let everyone make his or her own plate. Some make Taco Salad with a salsa dress, some have tacos, some have nachos, and some have a combination of them all! It is a real crowd pleaser!

This is also GREAT served with Beans! Yummy!!

Who doesn’t love a crowd pleaser that is healthy and can be prepared in less time than it takes to order at a fast food restaurant?

What are your favorite quick recipes? Do you have a yummy taco meat or taco TVP recipe you would like to share? Comment below.

I didn’t start this post to complain about the economy. I just want to keep the food budget under control, and I want to do it without resorting to ramen noodles, so we’re going to eat less meat, more beans and learn to use lentils.

So, what are we to do? Learn from our grandmothers and great-grandmothers. These ladies fed a family and providing comforting meals on near nothing! Don’t believe me? Take a look at how little people had to eat during War Time Rationing. We need to remember back to a similarly less prosperous time, and learn from out history. We have to remember how to keep our family comfortable and be frugal.

One suggestion Kim made was to eat less meat and more beans. Beans are easy, nutritious, cheap, and have a LONG shelf life. Beans are one of those foods you want to know several recipes for.

TIPS FOR COOKING WITH BEANS

**Find a ‘workable’ recipe you enjoy. You can add and change this recipe based on what you have available.

**Always do a quick rinse on beans before cooking. Soak 1 lb beans in 6-8 cups of hot water. Bring to boil and cook 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover and let stand for 1 hour. Drain water and rinse beans.  Wash the pot too. This will save your tummy lots of discomfort later

**I like  I like to use at least 3 types of beans. For example: Red Beans, Pinto Beans, and Navy Beans. This adds color and keeps your beans “interesting”

**Beans freeze well. Just allow them to cool and before putting them in your ziplock bag. You can also freeze ‘pre-rinsed’ beans.

**Beans are best when they are cooked for a long period of time, even over night. You can cook your beans in a crockpot or on a very low setting. I start my beans the night before we are ready for them, and we eat on them all week!!

COWBOY BEAN RECIPE

• 1 cups dried pinto beans
• 1 cup dried red beans
• 1/2 cup dried Navy Beans
• 5 minced garlic cloves
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup BBQ sauce
• 1/2 cup Ketchup
• 1- 1 1/2 lb ground beef, browned
• bullion cube
• salt pork or bacon for taste
• salt to taste
• water

An interesting article from earlier this month in UK based Daily Mail. I am curious why US based news groups are not covering such an interesting and “sign of the times” type articles.

When farmers Danielle and Matt Boerson realised they could no longer afford to run their tractors, they took the bull by the horns – and ditched them for oxen.

Soaring petrol prices had become so high that the couple, who run an 80-acre farm near Madison, Wisconsin, were forced to get rid of their two tractors, hay baler, plough and rotavator.

So they took a course at the agricultural institute in traditional farming techniques.

Cheap: A pair of plough-ready oxen cost $3,000 (£1,800) – roughly the same as a second hand tractor

‘It gave me the confidence that, yes, I could do this’, Danielle told the Times. ‘It just required a lot of concentration and a firm voice.’

Read More…

From experience, I can tell you, farming eats up a LOT of fuel. I have been wondering myself lately, ‘How long will we be able to continue farming with these fuel prices?’.

Thankfully, Many farmers are choosing to look into alternate means. Such as these farmers and their oxen. Many may also turn to draft horses.

With this change in farming practices, we can expect to see a shift in the ways our food is supplied. Foods will need to be farmed on a smaller scale and more locally. This may mean more eating “in season”. This also means a great flux in prices based on supply and demand. For example, during a dryer year, their will be less of certain crops, driving up the price. And off-season crops will be near impossible to come by.

The other alternative, is to continue with larger scale farming practices using fossil fuels. With this option, as the price of fuel goes up, so will the price of foods. great amounts of fuel is uses in the production and shipping of products that are not grown locally or in-season.

In any case, now is the opportune time to be investing in food. Our world is changing. We need to be prepared. It is time to start becoming more self-reliant. What will your family do if the leading national supplier of tomatoes stopped producing nationally and only supplied on a small scale to their local areas? What if the price of tomatoes sky rocketed and you could no longer get tomato paste for all your quick recipes? What if winter brought a spike in egg prices making them hard to come by? What if milk became a luxury your family couldn’t afford? Invest in these foods now, and you will have them later.

We all have a tendency to take our food supply for granted. None of us remember a time our grandparents knew, when food was hard to come by.

Now is the time to prepare for your family. Stock up on shelf stable foods. Have emergency supplies on hand. Use coupons to allow you to stock up on necessities like toothpaste, toilet paper, and first-aid supplies. Become familiar with recipes that can be cooked using shelf stable ingredients. Start a “Home Store Binder” and include everything you need to prepare your family. Keep check list of what is in your home store, supplies you need, emergency information, survival articles, recipes, canning guides, and more in your binder for easy reference.

Become Prepared.

As my dear friend always says “If my kids have to stand in line to get food from the government, I feel like I have failed them.”

~ Go to TawnysThrivingHome.com to shop products and get the best deals on food storage and emergency preparation products.~

~Always be in the know… Sign Up for my Newsletter~

We both got incredibly sunburned. But, we also had an awesome time!

While we were donning our Thrive Aprons, I couldn’t help but think about all the super cute aprons I could make. So I started looking up vintage aprons.

In the process I found a really great article.

As most of you know, I work from home. I do some tutoring and watching kidos. One thing I struggle with, is it never quite feels like your “off work” for the day. I have often wondered how our fore-mothers handled such situations.

“Grandma always said you should be proud of your work around the house; you should be proud to take care of your home and family, and dress to show that pride. While grandma was a lady who liked to dress up, she wasn’t the June Cleaver type who wore pearls while scrubbing out the oven or baking cookies (even at holiday time). But she still believed in being properly & attractively dressed for housework.

Like any job, you’ll find that work clothes — a uniform, if you will — helps while cleaning & cooking. Being properly clad makes one feel dedicated to, prepared for, & protected from the job. Looking & feeling nice makes any job more enjoyable too. Not only that, being able to change out of those work clothes helps one leave the job — even if they don’t leave the work site when they are done with their shift (as if it’s ever really done!)

One of the staples grandma recommended, naturally, was the apron.”

This lovely article suggest the apron was the “uniform” of the homemaker. When you were done with work for the day, you removed your “uniform”. I had an *Ahh-Haa!* moment! What a simple and interesting concept. One I plan to put into action!!

Just a FYI, I’ll be posting the recipes for some the yummy goodies I made for the benefit over at Tawny’s Thriving Home.

Go over to Bargain Hunting Mom’s Blog to see all the latest deals & Steals!! While you are there, Check out her post on Wal Mart’s New Price Match Policy! Lots Of Saving Ahead!!

Don’t forget to match your coupons for freebie at CouponMom.com

And, A new Month Means a New Deal from Shelf Reliance!

**Time to stock up on the Bargains!**

With the recent Tornadoes, Wildfires, and other disaster occurring around the country, many are asking the question “How Can We Help?”.

One of the greatest needs during a disaster is Food.

And food banks QUICKLY become depleted or the foods they have expire. The VERY BEST thing you can donate when it comes to food is SHELF STABLE foods.

Most Thrive foods have a 25 year shelf life, making them incredibly shelf stable.

Food is one of our comforts. During a hard period, little makes us feel as well as a good home cooked meal. Thrive foods taste great and are easy to prepare.

Keeping a home store, enables you to have shelf stable foods on hand to donate to local food banks or causes. You can also purchase Thrive products directly from my website and have them sent to the families or organizations in need.

During a time of need the second most common need is Money.

Thrive donates 5% of the profit from Thrive foods to their Charity: Thriving nations.

Thrive products are very economical, allowing many families to donate both food and money. Also, by maintaining a home store, you can make tangible donations with out cutting into your budget. This also allows for more giving of financial funds when possible.

Also, for many causes, if you contact me ahead of time, I happy to donate a portion of my profits of the supplies purchased from my website for donation, to your cause. This allows you to make a tangible donation of shelf stable foods that are both tasty and nutritious, and know that the purchase of the products will generate funds to be donated to the cause.

Others Ways To Help

How many times have you heard of a young mother on bed rest, or a family who lost a loved one and wanted to help? Many times you’d like to provide the family with a tasty and comforting meal. However, you don’t have the meat, produce, or time to prepare the meal. And you certainly can’t tap into your budget for another trip to the grocery store. With a Well stocked Home Store, you have healthy, nutritious, easy to prepare foods on stock and on hand at all times. So cooking an extra meal or two is no problem at all.

A Home Store and Thrive Foods Allow for many ministry opportunities!

You Might could say its

“Less Martha, and More Mary”

~ Go to TawnysThrivingHome.com to shop products and get the best deals on food storage and emergency preparation products.~

~Always be in the know… Sign Up for my Newsletter~

I’m writing from a friend’s computer, at another friend’s home.  My home is gone.  But, God saved my family from a violent tornado that ripped our house from off the top of us as we clung to each other, with three other families, in our basement.

I beg you for your prayers for our community.  It is totally devastated.  Our homes are literally flat, trees are uprooted everywhere–it is unrecognizable.  (We live on the same property as my parents and their home is gone too.)  But much worse, some of our close friends (the Lee Family) were all trapped under their collapsed house; our guys pulled them from the wreckage but their father was killed.  Three others were injured and unable to get to a hospital for hours (Med Flight finally arrived).  Sherry is left to try to make impossible decisions without a husband while trying to comfort her thirteen children too.

Read More and Find out how to help.

Wild Fire… The words make you think of forest fire…

But a lack of rain, and dry windy conditions have created the second disaster in the area recently from Wild Fires.

This time the fires are getting MUCH MUCH to close to home. Lots are being evacuated.

We were all discussing packing up a few things and getting ready just in case we need to evacuate. We were trying to decide what we needed to take, and where we would go.

The last few days we have talked to those who DID have to evacuate. Many were having to buy necessities like clothing and food.

I realised, WE NEED A 72 Hour EMERGENCY KIT!

I know the kit is recommended. Both FEMA and the Red Cross recommend you keep emergency supplies on hand. And Both recommend having 72 hours worth of basic supplies ready to go in case of emergency or evacuation. I know we need emergency supplies. We face power outages and the like rather frequently, but Evacuation?!? I always think of that as something that only happens in areas that flood or have earthquakes or hurricanes…

I had never thought of evacuation as a problem we might face. I had never though that we NEED a kit ready at all times for each member of our family. Evacuation is a real threat that we all need to be prepared for, No matter where we live.

We needed something we could “grab & go” with food, water, & the basics.

 But as the fires move closer and closer, and more and more of our friends begin to evacuate, I realise…

WE ALL NEED TO BE PREPARED… 

An emergency can happen at anytime & any place!

Since you do not know where you will be when an emergency occurs, prepare supplies for home, work, and vehicles.

Home	Work	Car
Your disaster supplies kit should contain essential food, water, and supplies for at least three days.Keep this kit in a desig­nated place and have it ready in case you have to leave your home quickly. Make sure all family members know where the kit is kept.

Additionally, you may want to consider having supplies for sheltering for up to two weeks.This kit should be in one container, and ready to “grab and go” in case you are evacuated from your workplace.Make sure you have food and water in the kit. Also, be sure to have com­fortable walking shoes at your workplace in case an evacuation requires walking long distances.In case you are strand­ed, keep a kit of emer­gency supplies in your car.This kit should contain food, water, first aid supplies, flares, jumper cables, and seasonal supplies.

Here we are praying for rain. Praying for the fire fighters. Praying for those who have been affected and lost everything in these fires. We are trying to come together as a community and support one another… And we are asking everyone to please pray for our area and an end to these devastating fires…

Our family, and many others are trying to prepares incase we are forced to evacuate, in case of emergency…. This reality is a sobering truth as to why we all need to be prepared for the emergencies we hope and pray will never happen…

The View From My front yard today at Sun Set….

Fire Map… The Circles show where the fires are.. The yellow part is the town closest to our home

Important links:

*Emergency Kit Essentials

*Fema recommended “evacuation ready” supplies

* Emergency Planner

*Purchase “pre-assembles” 72-Hour Kit

* Ready.gov – More info on being prepared

Your making dinner. Everything is going perfect. You mix your dry ingredients in your bowl for your families favorite Corn Bread. You open the fridge to find… YOUR OUT OF MILK AGAIN! How will you finish dinner? What will the wee ones drink to give them a full tummy before bed? You NEED milk!!

You or your darling husband make a mad dash to the store for the precious commodity. You can run up to the local connivence store, where the milk is not as fresh & almost a dollar more expensive. Or you can go the 10 miles to the local grocery store for your usual brand.

You loose precious time with your family && husband. Dinner is delayed making everyone cranky, especially the youngest members of your family.

You spend extra cash, not allowed in your carefully planned grocery budget.
You spend about $6.00 on extra gas (15 mpg at $3.50/gal about 20 miles round trip to the grocery store). While in the store every delicious candy bar and sweet treat catches your eye. After all, your hungry, it’s just before dinner time. You pick up a soda at $1.50 and a candy bar for $1.00. You’ve already tacked on $8.50 to that $3.75 gal of milk!! That is quite a bit of money wasted!!

COST OF ‘MILK RUN’
Fuel. $6.00
Extras. $2.50
+ Milk. $3.75
———————————
$12.25 for 1 gal of milk
+priceless time with your family

What if there were another option? What if you could have delicious flavorful milk waiting for you anytime you needed it?! What if this milk was in expensive and has at 25 year shelf life??

Welcome to THRIVE && the benefits of creating and maintaining a ‘home store’. All the food your family loves right there in your home’ waiting for you!!

Thrive Instant milk #10 can makes over 5 gallons of milk at $19.95 (about $3.89 a gallon) and has a shelf life of 25 years! (And by hosting a party you can get this and other products at a great discount!!) Just purchasing one can gives you security that you will never have to make an expensive milk run again!! With sky rocketing fuel cost, the cost of foods, especially milk, will also keep going up and up. Why not allocate some of your grocery budget toward stocking up on Thrive milk? This gives the the insurance and security of knowing no matter how expensive milk gets, you have delicious healthy milk available for your family which you purchased for a lower cost.

Food Storage && a Home Store is a win win option for you and your family!!

Visit my online store to purchase THRIVE today.

I have been busy discovering new things and making new friends!!

You may recall my desperate attempts at finding powdered eggs while attempting the WWII Ration diet. My search for powdered eggs quickly launched me into several “survivalist” & “preppers” websites. At the time, I didn’t think much of it. But after further research, being prepared and food storage was an avenue I had been looking for without even knowing!! After all, I am a BIG fan of homesteading, self sufficiency, going off grid, ect. I wanted some security and convenience to our food. I want a modern-day Victory Garden, Yes, and a small flock of poultry, a calf, and a few goats. But in unpredictable Texas weather, you need a food & survival “insurance policy”. Some of my friends thought I was crazy. Others thought it Typical Tawny.

One BIG selling point to our home is the large walk in pantry. I adore it. As you know I always love buying in bulk. I love to walk into a well-organized fully stocked pantry. It is like having the grocery store right next to your kitchen. I like to plan & prepare meals, I despise last minute trips to the grocery store!! Without a well planned list, my grocery budget is attacked and seems to never recover.

For about a week after my “once-a-month” grocery trips, we would eat all the yummy fresh produce I had purchased. We wanted to gobble it all up, because, it spoils, after all. Then for 3 weeks we were back to canned goods, frozen foods, and whatever was left in my pantry.

This system just wasnt working. We needed to find a way to 1. Keep the pantry stocked. & 2. Make the fresh produce last longer.

Then like magic THRIVE!!

Well, not magic. But you get the picture. A friend of mine recommended the blog of one of her friends. She said this blogger was very crazy & like minded to me. And, My neighbor!! So, I clicked link to her blog, and WOW! I knew this neighbor would quickly become my friend. We just had too much in common!!

She was a consultant for a new company called Shelf Reliance/Thrive. It was the thing I had been looking for!!! A food rotation system. A Q to help you create a “Home Store”. Best of all: Freeze Dried Produce!!!

Finally! A way to meet my needs!! And a way to feed my family healthy, fresh, produce! With out all the waste!! Produce that would last all month (and then some!!)!

Then I got worried. What if this freeze dried stuff taste terrible??? Today, while visiting with my new friend, I had a chance to try and taste many of the products. I even brought some fruit and eggs home for the Mr to try! I must say, terrible this food is NOT!! I am absolutely addicted to the yummy raspberries! The tasty pineapples!! The flavorful Strawberries!! And the yogurt bites! SO TASTY! And best of all: A tasty, easy, healthy snack!! I can not say enough about how excited I am about these products!!

If you have never tried freeze dried foods, or have been less than happy with them, PLEASE try these products. They will have you hooked!

I’m so excited, I just had to share!!