Emergency Preparedness #1 - Chicken Rice Mix

I have been researching disaster planning, emergency preparedness, and food storage for a few years now. There's no denying we are seeing more extreme weather events and natural disasters, worldwide economic instability, rogue violence and half-baked governments. So the idea of hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst - especially since I have children, appeals to me. And  with food storage, if you never need it, just eat it! 
With that said, I thought it would be fun to post some projects from time to time in this increasingly popular category. I hope you enjoy them and find them useful for your family.

Today's project is Chicken Rice Mix. It is easy and inexpensive to make, and has a long shelf life. Here's what you'll need to make yours:

To make 12 batches:

• 12 cups uncooked basmati rice (6 pounds)
• 1 cup dry chicken bouillon granules
• 2/3 cup dried minced onions
• 4 teaspoons garlic powder
• 4 teaspoons of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 2 teaspoons of white pepper
• 6 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
• 2 tablespoons dried marjoram leaves
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano leaves
• Rigid, air-tight container

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly and store in an air-tight container in a cool, dry place, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.

To use:

Combine 1 1/3 cups of the chicken rice mix with 2 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cover pan, reduce heat to low, and cook 15 to 25 minutes until rice is tender and water is absorbed.

A few thoughts on this project...

I cooked this rice on a gas stove in 15 minutes. So keep an eye on it to avoid burning. You can adjust the spices and seasonings in this recipe to suit your family's taste. I think it is a bit salty, so I cut back the salt. Also, I store it in a cool, dry place instead of the freezer. After the wicked Derecho that stormed through our area last summer and knocked out our electric for almost a week, I put less faith in my freezer and do more canning and drying. You can cut this recipe in half, double it, triple it, whatever works best for your family and your available storage space. The chicken rice mix is a great emergency preparedness, disaster planning, food storage recipe because it stores well, tastes great, and only requires boiling water - which you can do easily inside or outside without utilities. You can add canned beans, meat, or veggies - fresh or dried, to up the caloric and nutritional value. 

*This recipe was adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks, The Everything Meals For A Month Cookbook by Linda Larson. 

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There are about 196 countries in the world, and my goal is to take the whole world on a creative journey one project at a time. So I want to offer many thanks to all my readers in 85 different countries so far... 

The United States, Israel, Canada, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Malaysia, Italy, the Bahamas, the Philippines, Sweden, Egypt, Columbia, the Netherlands, Spain, the Sudan, Turkey, Mexico, Moldova, Denmark, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, the Czech Republic, the Ukraine, South Africa, India, Taiwan, Panama, Serbia, Latvia, Argentina, United Arab Emirates, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 

New Zealand, Japan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Chile, 

Romania, Hungary, Portugal, Indonesia, Guernsey, South Korea, Pakistan, Greece, 

Hong Kong, Poland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Ireland, Belgium, Venezuela, Sri Lanka, Macedonia, 

Trinidad & Tobago, Peru, Ghana, Estonia, Dominica, Nepal, Norway, Slovakia, Croatia, Algeria, 

Finland, Mongolia, Myanmar [Burma], Lesotho, Qatar, Armenia, El Salvador, 

Mauritius, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Saint Lucia, Aruba, and Brunei!

Many Blessings,

Jana : )

Making Barbie Doll Clothes

I never gave much thought to Barbie doll clothes until my daughter started showing an interest in Barbie. Then I got real interested, real quick because I found Barbie's sense of fashion inappropriate for my little girl. I wanted her to play with a doll whose clothes looked great, but also reflected modesty and self respect. It was then that I knew I was going to have to learn to make my daughter's Barbie doll clothes.
Shortly after that revelation, the nice folks at Workman Publishing asked me if I'd like to review a book they thought would be a good fit for my blog. I happily agreed and soon received my copy of The Fashion Designer's Handbook & Fashion Kit!

This kit is geared toward young designers (but would be fun for anyone), it includes 33 projects, and just about everything you'll need to make them -  including an adorable little dress form. 

I chose three projects to work on: 

The E-Z T-Shirt

The Cozy Lounge Pants

The Backpack

I will feature the Cozy Lounge Pants for the step by step tutorial, but you'll get to see pictures of all three completed. I loved making these projects, and highly recommend this book for anyone interested in making their own Barbie doll clothes. It was fun and fairly easy to follow. If you had no sewing experience you might need someone to bounce a few questions off of, but for the most part, the instructions are pretty clear. There are some no-sew projects, but none of the projects require a sewing machine (though you could pump these doll clothes out like a factory if you did use a sewing machine). The kit includes some fabric, but you can recycle fabrics from old clothing, or head to a fabric store and pick out your own.

So here we go, you'll need:

• Pattern from book
• 2 six inch by 8 inch pieces of flannel, cotton, T-shirt, sweatshirt or velour fabric
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Needle, and pins
• Thread
• Fifteen inch piece of string or 1/8 ribbon for drawstring.

First I traced the pattern onto paper, then cut it out.

*Right side of fabric is the pretty side of fabric that will show when your project is completed. The wrong side of fabric is the unfinished side that will not show when your project is completed.*

Next I folded (and pressed) the fabric, right sides together and pinned the pattern to the fabric along the fold.

I carefully cut around the pattern, removed the pins and then repeated the process so I would have two identical pieces - one for each leg. Then I unfolded the fabric.

With right sides of the fabric together, I placed the two pieces one on top of the other.

Then I pinned the front and back crotch seams just like they were marked on the pattern.

*All hand stitching for this project is done using a straight stitch.*

Next I began sewing from the front crotch toward the waist leaving a 1/8 inch seam allowance on the edge. I sewed within a 1/4 inch of the top of the front waist, leaving room for the drawstring opening. I'll finish the whole drawstring thing at the end. And no giggling at my hand stitching - it may not be pretty, but it works : )

Keeping the right sides of the fabric still together, I re-positioned the pants so the crotch seams are right on top of each other. They look like pants now! Then I pinned the raw edges of each pant leg together.

Still using a 1/8 inch seam allowance, I started sewing from the bottom inside of one pant leg up and around the crotch and down the other pant leg. Sort of like an upside down "U."

Drawstring time. At the waist, I made the drawstring casing by folding down the top edge of the waist about 1/2 inch toward the wrong side of the fabric. I folded it down over the piece of drawstring, then I pinned it in place.

Then I sewed along the raw edge of the casing without sewing the drawstring itself! 

At last it was time to turn the pants right side out and try them on our doll! Very exciting. My daughter couldn't wait to dress her Barbie doll in the new clothes Mommy made for her. We even put them on Ken just for fun : )

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There are about 196 countries in the world, and my goal is to take the whole world on a creative journey one project at a time. So I want to offer many thanks to all my readers in 82 different countries so far... 

The United States, Israel, Canada, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Malaysia, Italy, the Bahamas, the Philippines, Sweden, Egypt, Columbia, the Netherlands, Spain, the Sudan, Turkey, Mexico, Moldova, Denmark, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, the Czech Republic, the Ukraine, South Africa, India, Taiwan, Panama, Serbia, Latvia, Argentina, United Arab Emirates, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 

New Zealand, Japan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Chile, 

Romania, Hungary, Portugal, Indonesia, Guernsey, South Korea, Pakistan, Greece, 

Hong Kong, Poland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Ireland, Belgium, Venezuela, Sri Lanka, Macedonia, 

Trinidad & Tobago, Peru, Ghana, Estonia, Dominica, Nepal, Norway, Slovakia, Croatia, Algeria, 

Finland, Mongolia, Myanmar [Burma], Lesotho, Qatar, Armenia, El Salvador, 

Mauritius, Georgia, and Azerbaijan!

Many Blessings,

Jana : )

Homemade Laundry Soap Saves You Money!

We do a lot of laundry in our house. My husband's work gets his clothes really dirty, we have two children that can be sitting still and get dirty, and two acres of land that stick to our shoes and clothes every time we're out there - and we're out there a lot.
Being a stay-at-home mom, I am always looking for ways our family can save money. So when my friend, Josey Bozzo told me she was making her own laundry detergent, I thought I'd try it too! My friend found the original recipe on a neat blog I hope you'll visit, called Being Creative To Keep My Sanity. 
I purchased the ingredients for this laundry detergent at our local grocery store and it cost me $22.00. Since I only need to use 1 to 2 Tablespoons of detergent per load it should last me six to nine months. That is a huge savings over the expensive commercial detergents I used to use that became empty so quick I started checking them for holes!

Here's what you'll need to make your own laundry detergent:

• 3  bars Fels-Naptha soap
• 1  4 lb. 12 oz. box of Borax
• 1  55 oz. box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
• 1  4 lb. box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
• 1  3 lb. container of Oxi Clean
• cheese grater
• 5 gallon bucket
• large trash bag

*All ingredients are found in the laundry isle except for the baking soda, which you can find in the baking isle of your local grocery store.

Simply grate the three bars of Fels-Naptha soap into a trash bag lined bucket. I don't enjoy grating and usually end up grating the skin off my knuckles, so my Mom was kind enough to do this for me. I use a dedicated cheese grater for this project. 

Now, one by one, add the other ingredients into the trash bag lined bucket.

Tie off your trash bag, remove from bucket and gently roll it around to mix the ingredients. Untie and pour into a container with a lid.

There is some dust that kicks up while adding and mixing the powders. So you may want to wear eye protection, and/or a dust mask. This recipe couldn't be any easier to make and it makes A LOT of laundry detergent!

Just a note, I have seen smaller amounts of this homemade laundry detergent sell on etsy.com for $5.00 to $25.00.

Visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MyCreativeMommy and click the "Like" box to become a fan and receive regular updates!

Follow us on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/mycreativemommy

There are about 196 countries in the world, and my goal is to take the whole world on a creative journey one project at a time. So I want to offer many thanks to all my readers in 78 different countries so far... 

The United States, Israel, Canada, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Malaysia, Italy, the Bahamas, the Philippines, Sweden, Egypt, Columbia, the Netherlands, Spain, the Sudan, Turkey, Mexico, Moldova, Denmark, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, the Czech Republic, the Ukraine, South Africa, India, Taiwan, Panama, Serbia, Latvia, Argentina, United Arab Emirates, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 

New Zealand, Japan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Chile, 

Romania, Hungary, Portugal, Indonesia, Guernsey, South Korea, Pakistan, Greece, 

Hong Kong, Poland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Ireland, Belgium, Venezuela, Sri Lanka, Macedonia, 

Trinidad & Tobago, Peru, Ghana, Estonia, Dominica, Nepal, Norway, Slovakia, Croatia, Algeria, 

Finland, Mongolia, Myanmar [Burma], Lesotho, Qatar, and Armenia!

Many Blessings,

Jana : )