100 Days: Your Third Week in No-More Processed-Foods [#3/14]

Week Three of The 14-Week Plan

Okay! You have now passed 14 days of 100 days without processed food. Congratulations!

By now, you have learned how to cook with a Crock Pot and started building out your food stores. You might have decided to go with the Garden Tower and chicken coop, or not. That’s totally up to you.

This guide is created as an outline, to be customized and adapted to the financial and localized needs of our readers. Every aspect will teach you new skills in learning setup, maintenance, and improvement.

After 100 days and implementing even a few of these measures, your level of preparedness is beyond that of most American families.

In week three of 100 Days of No-More-Processed food, we will be focusing on increasing your food stores with a new veggie-based Crock Pot recipe.

Week three represents three learned recipes to integrate into your household’s weekly meals. If you’ve got some frozen meals in the freezer, and your extra ingredients & spices are stored properly, celebrate! Because you now have enough emergency food for at least three days of survival sustenance for a family of four. Not only that, but by now, you may have started noticing some physical changes…

Summary of Weeks 1 & 2

Running Total: approximately $340 in groceries and supplies — a beginner’s stock of emergency food for a family of four.

✅ Crock Pots & Glass containers

✅ At least two frozen meals: Chili & Pot Beef Hash

✅ Recipes Learned & Tried: Chili & Pot Beef Hash

✅ Spices, Oil, & Canned Goods

Optional: Garden Tower & Chicken Coup

Week Three

The elimination of processed food from one’s diet is a practical choice.

Think about it. The human digestive system was designed by nature. Whatever food we eat, should only undergo a few processes before it hits our stomach lining. For example, a freshly caught fish is cleaned, gutted, grilled, and eaten. That’s four steps.

Rice is grown, harvested, separated from husks and dried, then cooked and eaten. Six steps.

Contrarily, a Mcdonald’s Happy Meal on the other hand takes roughly six months to decompose on a kitchen dining table. Not even ever-present bacteria and fungus can break it down.

So, if that kind of processed food is going into your digestive system, isn’t it going to be harder for your body to digest than natural food that’s gone through fewer processes?

Solar Power

With your food staples set, and a surprisingly long-term setup for under $1,000 with options, you might want to start looking at your off-the-grid power options and expand your power/energy capabilities. Then, you can find a way to power your Crock Pot in any situation where you lose access to grid power.

The easiest option for off-the-grid, portable power, solar technology just keeps on getting better and better. Basic kitchen appliances like a Crock Pot are easily plugged into a power station. Connect your solar panels and you’re good to go.

Within three steps, you’ve been able to set up a solar power system that powers your home cooking.

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Your Third Crock Pot Recipe: Vegetable Soup

Your first two meals were protein-based meals that can be reheated as main meals. Now, it’s time to add some soups to your meals as a healthy way to hydrate and get your fiber. In a balanced diet without processed food, it’s best to make sure you’re getting a healthy ratio of protein, carbohydrates, fiber, and fats.

As you’re going into the following vegetable soup recipe, note that most of your vegetables are going to be interchangeable. Experiment to taste, and with every version of your soup, you learn what you and your family prefer. Recipes are meant as guidelines to modify based on what you have in your stores and cupboards. You never know, your recipe adaptation may prove to be incredibly delicious. 👨🏻‍🍳

In addition to “You Are What You Eat”, we at APS add, “Eat What You Want.”

_{If you so may choose, start paying attention to what your meals are doing to your system on their way out, you may start to feel lighter, your gut cleaner, and experience the feeling of satisfied bowel evacuation.}

Vegetable Soup Crock Pot Recipe

Vegetable Soup

A staple of a solid meal and with a soothing effect, vegetable soup is versatile, nutritious, and stores well.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 3 hours hrs

Course Soup

Cuisine American

Servings 8 bowls of soup

Equipment

• 1 Crock Pot
• 1 Chopping Board
• 1 Chef Knife
• 1 Can Opener

Ingredients

  

• 6 cup water distilled, filtered, or bottled
• 1 fresh carrot, large, diced
• 1 fresh onion, diced
• 6 cloves unpeeled garlic whole, chopped, or diced
• 1 can chicken or beef stock
• 1 can tomatoes, diced
• 1 can canellini beans interchangeable with rice
• 1/2 can celery, dehydrated
• 1 cup rice, jasmine, uncooked interchangeable with beans
• 3 pieces chicken tenderloin, diced optional, frozen or fresh
• 2 tbsp butter, real
• 1 tsp salt, refined
• 1/4 tsp black pepper, ground or cracked
• 2 tsp oregano, parsley, and thyme herb mix
• 1 dash cumin
• 1/4 tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder

Instructions

 

• Put six cups of water into your Crock Pot and turn it on, setting it to "High", a four-hour cook.

  Your goal is to be done with all food prep (all of your ingredients are in the pot) by the time the water starts steaming.
• Set up your chopping board on a towel nearby your Crock Pot with all of your ingredients around the board. Have a trash can nearby for waste.

  Dice your fresh vegetables: carrot, onion, and garlic and slide them into your Crock Pot with your chef knife and cutting board.
• Open all cans with your can opener and dump their contents into the Crock Pot carefully to avoid spillage and splash.
• If you've opted to add chicken and rice, this is the time to add your cup of rice and diced chicken tenderloin.
• Add and mix in your butter, and then each spice, herb, and powder one-by-one, stirring for even consistency.
• Turn your Crock Pot heat down to a 6-hour cook temperature, but note that your vegetable soup will be able to be enjoyed after three hours.
• Check on your Crock Pot cook periodically (hourly) to make sure it's cooking evenly.

  Stir and check for any "stickage" of ingredients on the bottom of the pot.
• Make sure your water-to-food ratios are within the type of soup you enjoy — add water to taste or ladle some out as you prefer, knowing that some liquid will steam away.

Keyword soup, vegetable, veggie

Reheating Your Crock Pot Meals

If you’ve completed your creation, and after your crock pot has cooled, now’s a good time to spoon tomorrow’s portion into your portable crock pot, and half of your (approximately 2 servings) into the appropriate stackable glass container. Place your freshly-made crock pot meal into the freezer knowing that it’ll last for about three months.

One of the main benefits of this 100-day challenge is that in the last few weeks, you’re enjoying your earlier prepped meals while remembering your early efforts. Imagine a full two months after your chili, pot roast, and veggie soup were made. You reheat them and sit down to enjoy a balanced meal with your family. Nutritious and delicious, you scoop hot spoonfuls knowing your prep time was 15 minutes or less. Just as good (or perhaps even better), the meal reminds you that this journey is a practical one that saves you time.

Spices and Wares Going into Your Food Storage

Canned Celery. At 25 years of shelf life, the Augason Farms Dehydrated Celery can is a unique prepping item. Fresh celery lasts a few days, and once prepped and frozen, only an absolute max of 100 days. This canned dehydrated celery is really perfect for soup from your stores.

Butter & Butter Powder. Your normal stick of butter is still cost-effective. Lasting up to 9 months barring any discolorations, mold, or significant changes in texture, a few sticks of butter are still great items to stock.

For longer-term storage of up to 10 years, consider butter powder and test to taste.

Beef & Chicken Stock. With a shelf-life of up to two years and 4 days after opening, beef and chicken stock are staple liquids to add to almost any recipe.

Chicken & Beef Stock Cubes. Able to enrichen any meal, stock cubes mixed with water and sauces make for richer tasting food for up to two years.

Dried Herbs. For meat, veggies, or soups, dried herbs can be added to almost anything you’re planning to make.

Cumin. Whenever you taste that savory flavor inside of chili or curry, that’s cumin you’re tasting. A tiny bit goes a long way and adding it to your barbeques, taco prep, and soups makes for a nice kick.

Chicken. Canned goods are a great way to ensure protein intake and the integrity of your long-term storage.

Rice. A 25-lbs pound of rice is 187.5 servings of rice, with each serving enough to keep a person going for a full day in a survival scenario. Stored properly, milled rice can be stored for 30+ years.

Fun fact: carbonized rice grains up to 12,000 years old have been found in China.

Garlic Salt & Powder. Whenever fresh garlic can’t be had, garlic salt & powder will provide you with not only that classic garlic flavoring, but also the rich antioxidants inherent to garlic.

More Beans. High in fiber, low in sodium & fiber, like rice, beans have been a staple for people’s meals for thousands of years.

100 Days: Your Third Week in No-More Processed-Foods

Congratulations! You have passed the first major hurdle in 100 days without processed food while building your prepper food stores at the same time.

At the end of the third week, your inventory of food items in your freezer and storage could essentially sustain a family of four in a 30-day survival scenario. Without any other additions in fresh or long-term food supplies, you could ration out all of your rice, canned goods, spices, and saved meals to last without having to go on a grocery run during a disaster.

Now that your cooking, power, and sustainable food source options are outlined, it’s time to start looking at water in week four.

“Always Be Ready” Max

[coming next week] 100 Days: Your Fourth Week in No-More Processed Foods [#4/14]