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Astronaut Space Food: Freeze Dried Ice Cream: Thrive Product Highlight

2011-10-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

Many people hear "freeze dried ice cream" and automatically think "astronaut space food." Yes, astronauts eat freeze dried foods: including ice cream. Freeze dried ice cream = astronaut ice cream.

But a big misconception about "astronaut space food" is that it is sub-par or not so tasty. This isn't true: it is simply different. Tasty in a different way.

When Shelf Reliance announced back in Feb 2011 that they would be carrying freeze dried ice cream, I had so many questions:

What does it taste like?
Do you have to hydrate it and then freeze it?
If so, how do you hydrate it?
How could you eat it if you didn't have a freezer?
Is it cold?

I had no clue what to expect. So, I ordered some right away to try. It was totally different than I'd imagined.

If you try to hydrate freeze dried ice cream, it simply turns into a big mess of melted ice cream. Why? Because you can't hydrate it with frozen water, just liquid water.

If you try to freeze it after hydrating it, it taste just like ice cream that melted and was put back in the freezer.

So, how to eat it? I asked the same thing!

It is just like a cookie: a very dry cookie. Not a chewy cookie. Think the chocolate part of an oreo type cookie for texture (but even drier). Tastes just like an ice cream flavored crumbly, brittle cookie. Dip it in milk! It is a great treat.

Shelf Reliance offers three types of ice cream:

I keep a few cans as quick comfort food if we were to need it. And, yes, I do believe comfort food would feel like a need if I were dealing with my own emotions and my 4 young kid's emotions following a serious disaster. I would want to do anything and everything I could to quickly comfort them and make things feel as normal as possible. This is a comfort food that tastes great, requires no cooking, prep, or cleanup and has shelf life of 25 years. The neapolitan bits are probably my favorite. Love them.

I am an independent consultant for Shelf Reliance; a company with a mission to empower others to become self reliant, prosperous and charitable. You can learn more about Shelf Reliance, becoming a Shelf Reliance consultant ,buying their products, or earning free products, on my Shelf Reliance Consultant website.

Freeze Dried Cheese: How to Hydrate it part II

2011-10-11T20:23:00.000-07:00

Freeze Dried Cheese has been a challange for me. The first time I hydrated it, I used warm water...

It Melted. Duh. Should have know that.

I've continued to have challenges:

A few weeks ago, I was with a group of Shelf Reliance consultants in Hawaii. We were preparing for a very large show where we planned to demonstrate how to cook with THRIVE food. We were expecting 75-150 people and had four different "taste testing" stations planned: Pizza, Tacos, Breakfast and Smoothies. I was in charge of the pizza station. So I went to work hydrating my mozzarella freeze dried cheese using the method I outlined earlier. I found out that my earlier tips really only work well for a small batch of cheese: not 10+ cups!

Putting 10 cups of sopping wet cheese into a strainer in hot humid Hawaii just turned it into a big old wet cheese ball. I so wish I'd taken a picture: it was hilarious. It was just to heavy and didn't drain at all. Luckily, I didn't waste the cheese: we used it in the breakfast casserole that we pre-made. It was just going to be melted there anyway.

But I still needed shredded cheese for people to add to their pizzas in a few hours. What to do?.....

I spread 3-4 cups of freeze dried cheese out on a piece of tin foil like this:

and then I sprayed it with a spray bottle. I let it soak up all that water and then I sprayed it again. I repeated the process 8-10 times over about 15-20 minutes turning the cheese a bit each time. Eventually it was completely hydrated and just a bit too wet. So, I added about 3/4 cup cornstarch to a large ziploc and then added the cheese bit by bit, shaking it around to coat. It worked beautifully! The cheese looked and tasted just like fresh shredded cheese you buy at the store. No one knew the difference.

Anyone else had experience hydrating freeze dried cheese?

I am an independent consultant for Shelf Reliance; a company with a mission to empower others to become self reliant, prosperous and charitable. You can learn more about Shelf Reliance, becoming a Shelf Reliance consultant ,buying their products, or earning free products, on my Shelf Reliance Consultant website.

THRIVE foods tip: hydrate with a spray bottle

2011-08-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: horriblecherry

THRIVE foods work great when being used in a soup or casserole or baked good: simply add a little extra water and throw them in: no chopping or cutting required!

But what about when you want to use them separate from a soup or casserole; somewhere they won't be covered in water? Like, on top of pizza or on a salad? You soak them in water to hydrate them, right? Problem: they always end up dripping wet. And who wants to eat dripping wet cheese or pineapple?

My upline, Chad and Rachel Mano, gave me a great suggestion a while back: hydrate them with a spray bottle instead and use just the amount of water needed to hydrate them instead of soaking them.

Now, I'll admit, this method does take a bit of time, but it also helps your product turn out much more like fresh!

Start with a bowl of whatever you want to hydrate.
Spray it with a bit of water and let it all soak in for a few minutes.
The product will become a bit sticky.
Stir it around a bit.
Add a bit more water and repeat until you get the texture you want.

I am an independent consultant for Shelf Reliance; a company with a mission to empower others to become self reliant, prosperous and charitable. You can learn more about Shelf Reliance, buying their products, earning free products, or selling their products on my Shelf Reliance website.

THRIVE Sour Cream Tips

2011-05-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

I get a lot of questions about THRIVE sour cream:

Does it taste just like fresh?
Is it as good as the THRIVE instant milk?
What recipes have you used it in?
How do I mix it?

Taste
Well, here are my thoughts: No, it doesn't taste just like fresh sour cream like the THRIVE instant milk tastes just like real milk. It does have a slightly different taste to it. However, it is good. I have eaten it as a topping on my tacos, nachos, quesadillas etc.

Use
However, my favorite places to use it are in recipes. Recipes like this banana bread or this Stroganoff or these lava brownies. It also works well in fruit and veggie dips.

Tips
I don't like the recipe on the can. If you want a cup of sour cream, I suggest doing the following:

Add one cup THRIVE sour cream powder to a bowl
Add 2 T. HOT water as whisk until smooth.
Continue to add HOT water 2 Tablespoons at a time until you've reached a consistency that is just slightly more runny than you'd like. (I usually end up adding about 8-10 Tablespoons water).
Chill for at least 1 hour (it will thicken as it chills)

Ricotta Cheese from THRIVE Instant Milk

2011-04-26T21:53:00.000-07:00

So, I need ricotta cheese for dinner tonight; we were having lasagna. I realized late in the day that I had forgotten to get any at the store. So, I quickly "googled" homemade ricotta. I found a bunch of recipes, but the one thing they all had in common was milk, vinegar and salt. I figured I had all those ingredients so I'd give it a try. I decided to use the THRIVE instant milk to see if this would be something I could make from the items in my home grocery store. Here is what I did:

8 cups water
1 1/2 c. THRIVE Instant milk
3 T. white vinegar
1/2 tsp salt

Place water, milk and salt in large pot on medium high heat. Allow milk to heat up slowly. Stir occasionally. Once you see steam start to form above the surface, stir constantly until it boils. Remove from heat, add the vinegar and stir gently for one minute. Curds will begin forming . Cover and allow it to sit undisturbed for at least 30 minutes (some recipes suggested 2+ hrs, I didn't have that much time, so I just did 30 minutes).

Ladle the ricotta into a fine mesh colander (you can also line the colander with cheese cloth, I didn't have any so I skipped this step). Place the colander (with the ricotta in it) in a larger pan so it can drain. Let it drain for for 10+ minutes (depending on how wet / dry you want your cheese).

I then used it in our lasagna tonight and it was great! I don't think I'll ever buy it at the store again: too expensive! Plus, this was fat free!

If you are interested in purchasing THRIVE Instant milk at a discount, you may do so directly on my Shelf Reliance Website.

NO COUPON CODE NEEDED!

As an independent consultant, Shelf Reliance has authorized me to sell their products at the lowest available price: lower than through Shelf Reliance directly or any other retailer!

Hydrating THRIVE freeze dried yogurt

2011-04-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

I found it a bit difficult to figure out just how to rehydrate this yogurt. Hopefully, the following tips will help:

Add 1/4 cup hot water to 1 cup of the dry yogurt bits. Mix. Let sit for 1-2 minutes then mix again. Let sit for another 1-2 minutes and mix again. Chill.

It works best to add warm water and then chill. However, it can be done with cold water. It will just take longer for the bits to completely hydrate.

1 cup dry bits = about 1/4 cup hydrated yogurt.

If you are interested in purchasing THRIVE yogurt at a discounted price (9%-11% off retail), you may do so directly on my Shelf Reliance Website. NO COUPON CODE NEEDED!

THRIVE Instant Milk vs Powdered Milk

2011-03-30T06:57:00.000-07:00

Shelf Reliance sells two different types of milk. I often get questions about what the differences are. One thing to note is that most people think the powdered milk is much less expensive. This is because it costs less per #10 can. However, a #10 can of Instant Milk makes 5 Gallons. A #10 can of Powdered Milk only makes 3.5 gallons. The powdered milk is actually only about $0.05 less per gallon. Use the chart below to see the other differences:

If you are interested in purchasing instant or powdered milk at a discounted price (5%-40% off retail), you may do so directly on my Shelf Reliance Website. NO COUPON CODE NEEDED!

Hydrating THRIVE Cheese

2011-02-14T19:08:00.000-08:00

I am in LOVE with THRIVE freeze dried cheese. Dairy happens to be my favorite food group and I can't get enough cheese. It is a huge part of my diet. Months ago, I was very happy to find out that Shelf Reliance had freeze dried cheese. However, I was skeptical as to just how good it would taste. My first experience was with the cheddar cheese at a THRIVE party. I tried it strait out of the can: it tasted like cheeze-its! It was good, but it wasn't going to satisfy my need for cheese strait out of the can.

I needed to see what it tasted like hydrated. I decided to try it on pizza. So, I got out my mozzarella, added some hot water, and waited for it to hydrate.

Problem: hot water melts cheese!

I tried again: this time with cold water. It hydrated fine, but then was sopping wet. So, I strained it and let it sit on a paper towel for a while. IT TURNED OUT AWESOME! It tasted just like fresh cheese. I was sold. I immediately ordered a few more cans. Real cheese that lasts 20 years!? Unheard of!

So, after all my trial and error, here are my tips for getting it to re-hydrate perfectly:

Spread the cheese you want to hydrate on a shallow plate or pan. Add just enough COLD water to cover. Let it sit for 3-5 minutes.
Stir it up a bit (you may need to add a little more water) and let it sit for another 3-5 minutes.
Pour into a strainer and let it drain, but don't squeeze / smash it.
Once it has drained completely, spread it over a paper towel and let it sit for 15-20 minutes until almost dry.
Add 1 T. cornstarch to a plastic bag.
Add cheese to bag, shake it up a bit and place in refrigerator until ready to use.

Now, when do you need to re-hydrate the cheese first?

If you are using it in a recipe that doesn't surround the cheese in water. For example:

Grilled Cheese
Pizza
On top of Enchiladas
In Tacos

When do you not need to hydrate the cheese first?

If you are using it in a recipe that does surround the cheese in liquid (just remember to add a little extra liquid or your recipe may turn out a bit dry) For example:

Inside enchiladas with a bunch of sauce
In a soup
In a casserole that is completely mixed up (cheese is not used as a topping)