Pressure Canning: soups and green beans

I almost named this post "I GOT THE POWER". Read on and you'll see why.

I shared a few days ago that I was going to have a friend show me how to pressure can my green beans. I did and we canned 7 quarts. By the time we finished my green beans and she showed me all her canned goods in the basement, I knew I HAD to have a presure canner. It took me less than 3 minutes to convince Dave that we could no longer survive without this and alot longer to convince him that it was worth the $125 .

Well we now have a new item in our kitchen. I have canned 40 pints (I can do 20 at a time) of various delish goods that are ready to open and eat, heat if desired. I love that I can make MY favorite soups, calico beans, ready to use legumes, etc, etc for my time, the cost of the food, and less than 10 cents for a jar lid. 2 lb's of dry legumes makes 7 pint jars. This is the equivalent of 7 grocery store size canned goods, the cost of a good organic brand of beans.... I don't have to calculate to realize our family budget benefits as I am "well paid" for my time. I also really like that the canned goods are not in aluminum, which is thought to leak into foods and have ill effects.

If I would have had this baby AND prepared soups like what I have now when I had to be on campus... wow! I now have the power to make any thing I want, with MY ingredients and MY dietary preferences to have on hand and ready to eat when I want to, to save on MY budget cause I can get them at a fraction of the cost of the grocery store prices. I sound incredibly self centered here, but to allieviate my conscious I promise that if any of you become my dinner guests I will most generously share! This is why I almost named my post, "I got the power!" Shannon said a few days ago, "a whole lot of jarring going on".... yes in deedee!

I have multiple jars of calico beans, white chili, navy beans, black beans, my lentil stew, and sweet potatoes. These things cannot be canned without a pressure canner.

I also picked my first three cukes from the garden. With these I made a small jar of refrigerator bread and butter pickles, when I get more cukes I will do more and actually process them in for storage. I also get to control the sugar and salt in my canned goods, something that would not be possible with store bought goods as easily. All of my sweet pickles are made with stevia.

To end this post I will share a picture of my carob zucchini bread based on Bryanna's Tender Banana Bread. I used 1/4 C (note this change from the original post) carob powder sub for 1/4 of the whole wheat pastry flour and next time I will leave out one banana and add 1 1/2 C of shredded zucchini. I like the fact that the top of this bread cracked like one of those powered sugar coated cholate cookies I have seen. (the bread in the picture was actually a bit gooey c'ause I added a little to much zucchini, but I made 4 other variations of the bread today also, so it was not disappointing AND the "gooey" centered carob bread when chilled and sliced is like a slab of fudge and really satisfies a chocolate craving!).

This Bryanna recipe was posted on VegSource several years ago. I have made many variations of this bread since i have had it including pumkin and apple variations. We love it. I sub the sugar for 1/2 tsp stevia and it is a nice high rising bead. I have recently read that you can effectively sub zucchini 1: 1 for banana in a recipe, I didn't I added zucchini but I may try this sub next time I make it (if my plant keeps producing like it has been).

BRYANNA'S TENDER NO-FAT BANANA BREAD 1 loaf.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Blend in blender:
8 oz. medium-firm regular tofu OR silken tofu
1/4 c. water (I used fat free soy milk here)
3/4 c. sugar (whichever you like)(I used turbinado here)
2 ripe bananas
2 tsp. vanilla
zest of 1 organic orange (orange part only, peel with veg. peeler)
In a bowl, mix:
2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. EACH salt and baking soda
OPT.: 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
Add 3/4 c. chopped pitted dates or other dried fruit.
Stir in the blended mixture and mix BRIEFLY just like muffins (too much stirring
will make it tough). Pour into a greased 9x5" loaf pan or 2 fruitcake loaf pans.
Bake 1 hour (or 45 minutes for small loaves). Cool a few minutes, then turn out
on racks to cool.