Chocolate Powdered Milks Review and Taste Test

Remember when we tasted the powdered milks?  Yeah, it seems like a long time ago.  Well, we also tasted two kinds of chocolate powdered milks--Honeyville and Morning Moos.  These are not like Nestle Quick or Ovaltine that you add to milk.  They are drinks (actually milk substitutes) that you add straight to water to get a chocolate milk.  Here they are all mixed up in the fridge--Honeyville is "R" and Morning Moos is "S":

The first was Honeyville Chocolate Milk Alternative.  Available from and donated by Honeyville Grain.  $12.99/can.  3 cups/gallon.  Approximately $3.39/gal.

We used the same rating scale for the chocolate milks as we did for the regular milks.  Taste was rated on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the lowest and 5 being great tasting.  There was also room for comments.  We mixed both chocolate milks into a small amount of warm water, then added cold water to make the total volume we were mixing.  Honeyville' Chocolate Milk Alternative scored an average of 3.93 with a range of 2-5.  The most common score given was 5.  If you are expecting Ovaltine (which I personally prefer over Quick) or the heavenly chocolate milk from the BYU creamery, this isn't it.  Yes, we had children who didn't like this chocolate milk--I'm guessing they were expecting it to taste like the chocolate milk they have at home.  Overall though, it had a very good chocolate flavor.  It was a little "thinner" than regular chocolate milk and needed re-mixed after sitting overnight.  Some thought the flavor was too strong and/or it was too sweet.  You could use less mix to dilute the flavor, but it would also dilute the creaminess of the drink.  One gal who works at the local restaurant said it reminded her of the chocolate ice cream mix for the soft serve machine before it's frozen.

The second chocolate milk mix was Morning Moos Chocolate Drink, available from and donated by Augason Farms.  $11.82/can, 3 cups/gallon, approximately $3.09/gallon.

The Morning Moos chocolate drink was a little lighter in color when it was mixed up than the Honeyville drink.  It looked a little more like regular chocolate milk.  The flavor was good, but the texture still wasn't like chocolate milk.  It scored an average of 3.43 on the taste score, with a range of 1-5 and the most common score split between 3 and 5.  This variety also needed re-mixing after sitting, and some of the kids didn't like it either, although mine had no problem drinking either of the chocolate milks.  We had some comments that it was very good and some that it was too sweet. 

It was also interesting to note that the Honeyville can said it would make 15 quarts and the Morning Moos can said it would make 20 quarts, but they both mixed 3 cups to a gallon and both cans had 5 lbs of powder in them.  I estimated you could get a little over 15 quarts (not quite 4 gallons) out of each can by using the recommended 3 cups of mix per gallon.

We actually found the way we liked either of these chocolate milk drinks best at our house was to mix half chocolate drink and half milk together.  Even a powdered milk worked.  It dulled the sweetness a little bit and added "milk" flavor and texture to it.  Mixed half and half like that made it taste more like drinking the chocolate milks that are mixed into milk.

Overall, either of these drinks would be recommended and nice to have for a little treat in your food storage that also provides a good amount of vitamin A, vitamin D, and calcium.  Thanks again to Honeyville Grain and Augason Farms for helping out with this experiment!

Got Seeds in the Dirt

Finally the snow has melted and the garden dirt is workable, so yesterday I planted some of the cold crop seeds out there. I put in two varieties of peas. One of them strictly from the seeds I collected last year.  We'll see how they do.  I'm actually relatively confident they'll be fine because as I was digging in the dirt, I found quite a few pea seeds that hadn't been collected last fall and had spent the winter under the snow.  A couple of them were actually in the dirt and looked like this:

That's a good sign.  In fact, I almost planted the peas in a different location than last year, but when I saw the number of "volunteer" plants I was going to get, I realized that it didn't matter whether I put pea seeds there or not, peas were going to grow there. Quite a few other old peas were on top of the dirt and looked like they had tried to sprout under the snow then dried out when the snow was gone.  Like this:

I also put in carrots, spinach, and radishes.  I let a couple of radishes go to seed last year and planted some of my own radish seeds.  We had a freeze hit before I think the seeds were quite done last fall--you can see the difference in my seeds on the right and the radish seeds from Hometown Seeds on the left.  Yeah, a bunch of mine look a little green.  I planted them in a different section than the Hometown Seeds radishes and I'll see how well they do.  By the way, I've been really impressed with the survival seeds packet from Hometown Seeds.  They were not skimpy in the amount of seeds they sent.

It was sure a nice day to go dig in the dirt and get some spring garden going. :)

The Beginnings of the Garden--Onions are Sprouting

I put a bunch of seeds in peat pots last week and the onions are up already. It's always amazing to watch plants grow. We've had some warmer weather lately which has melted all the snow off the garden and left me with a bunch of mud. We'll get cold weather plants in as soon as I can work in the dirt out there. Looking forward to growing some fun things in the garden this year.

Attention Utahns! It's Precinct Caucus Night!

Be glad you didn't call me yesterday.  And I'm not just saying that because I have an obnoxious headcold that has taken my voice so you couldn't have heard me much anyway.  You can ask my mom or my sweet husband, I didn't have much good to say about the state of the nation and took the opportunity to tell them about it which I'm sure was mildly amusing considering how little my voice worked.  However, there is no going back, only forward, so on my usually un-political blog, here's a political plug.  If you live in Utah, PLEASE attend your precinct caucus meeting tonight--Tuesday March 23rd at 7:00 pm.

Let me restate that.  If you live in Utah, You WILL drop everything and attend your precinct caucus tonight.  Get a baby sitter if you must.  It's okay to take the kids with you if you have to--I've done it before--bring them a coloring book or something.  I'm skipping Young Women's--it's my civic duty.  If you've never been to a caucus, here's the skinny: Caucuses are generally harmless meetings held one night every two years where you and the people from your neighborhood vote for delegates to represent you at the county and state conventions.  The state delegates vote at the state convention for who will be on the ballot in November for US senator, governor, etc.  The county delegates will vote for the county/area positions like county commissioners and sheriff.  So make sure you know who from your party you want on the ballot this fall and go and vote for a delegate that thinks like you do.  The best way to get a delegate that thinks like you is to be the delegate, but only get yourself nominated for delegate if you are willing to follow through with your responsibilities and if you'll vote for the same people I'm voting for! ;)  If you want to know who I'm supporting for US senator and Utah 2nd District Congressional Representative, check the following websites or feel free to email me.

Senate: Mike Lee first, or Tim Bridgewater, but NOT Bob Bennett
2nd Congressional District: Morgan Philpot

If you're a registered Utah Republican or willing to register Republican, look up your caucus location here.  If you're not registered Republican, you're on your own. ;)  Now, get to your caucus meeting tonight!  I promise it won't hurt you.

P.S. Okay, here's the Utah Democrat page for information on their caucus locations. Any other party affiliation and you'll have to google it yourself.  Really it's not hard.

The Knitted Fish Dish Rag

I knitted this.  Even I'm amazed.  It's so cute it's a shame to wash the table off with it, but we do anyway.

Here's the pattern, because I know you want one of your own, and it would only take me about three months to get it made for you, and besides, you know the saying, "give a mom a fish dishrag and she has one fish dishrag, give her the pattern and make her learn to knit her own and she'll have all the fish dishrags she wants."  Or something like that.

Kids Prep Minute: Teach History--We Live in a Republic, not a Democracy

What?  You thought America was a Democracy?  So do a lot of people.  But it's not, at least that's not the way it was founded.  It is a Republic.  Pay attention to the Pledge of Allegiance next time you hear it: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands . . ."

Now you're telling me you didn't know there was a difference between a Democracy and a Republic?  Well, watch this video and share it with your kids.  Okay, share the video with the older kids.  The Anarchy scene is not exactly G-Rated, so you could probably just share the concepts with the younger kids.



Knowing a little about how our government is supposed to work never hurt anyone.  In fact, it might help the future of our nation if the next generation understands our history.  And I'm guessing your kids won't get this education in school.  I know I didn't.

Seeds!

Hooray for Spring!  Friday is the official first day of spring even if there is still snow on the ground.  I've been collecting seeds to plant in the garden this year.  I got some I collected from last year's garden I want to try out, some from Hometown Seeds, some fun varieties from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds, and a couple packets from the regular old store.  These are the Baker Creek seeds that arrived yesterday.

It's too bad the garden still looks like this:

Yep, you can almost see the planting beds.  Almost.  Since starting my own seeds last year really wasn't that hard, I'll be getting the starter plants going in the little peat pots here in the next couple of days.  Maybe sooner if my kids get their way.  We're starting the tomatoes, peppers and chichiquelite huckleberry.  Never tried that one, but I'm always up for trying something different so we're going to give it a shot.  Planting now will give the plants about two extra weeks indoors than they had last year to maybe get them a bit bigger before heading outside.  Last freeze can come here as late as Mother's Day, so not much else can get planted before that.  Any fun plans for your garden this year?

Water Filter Winner (finally)

Yes, I know I'm a week late on this, but Congratulations to Becky bhkgak@ who was selected as the winner of the Katadyn water filter from Emergency Essentials.  Happy clean water!  And thanks again to Emergency Essentials for sponsoring this giveaway for us!

Butane Curling Iron

For those of you who have never heard of a propane curling iron like I mentioned in my last post, I guess they don't exist.  It's butane.  Silly me.  Here's one similar to mine: Conair ThermaCELL Cordless Curling Iron 

They're pretty inexpensive.  Totally unnecessary piece of survival gear, except it may boost your spirits some which is never a bad thing. :)

Church in the Dark--Sunday's Inconvenience

Saturday we got more snow.  Seriously.  I'm all snowed out this year.  I don't know if it was the snow or because of daylight saving time or maybe that it was the morning after closing night of the community theater play or maybe none of the above were to blame, but when sweet husband's phone alarm went off Sunday morning and I looked at my clock, nothing looked back at me.  The power was out.  On a Sunday morning.  I know what you're thinking--a day off!  But this was no ordinary Sunday.  For my LDS readers, this was Stake Conference Sunday.  For everyone else, twice a year a group of 4-5 LDS congregations near each other meets together and hears from the area leadership.  Yesterday was that day, and we were expecting the stake leadership to go through some changes.  It also means there are extra meetings.  Hubby had to be to the 7-9 am meeting and I had to be at the 9:15-10:15 meeting, then the whole family at the 11:00 meeting.  He looked down the road and there were street lights on, so he thought maybe the church had power, so he showered in the dark and got himself to his meeting.  Well, the church didn't have power.  It was dark.  They lit up the pulpit with battery powered lanterns as well as they could and people used flashlights to read the music.  It was also cold.  No reason to take your coat off when you got there.

Meanwhile, I was back home, getting out of bed and getting ready.  Thankfully, it wasn't dark anymore.  I laughed at our situation.  Generally when I've thought of an "emergency" I wasn't thinking I'd be trying to look nice and go to church.  I washed my hair real quick, knowing I wouldn't have a blow dryer and then set to work heating water for hot cocoa and getting some oatmeal cooked for the kids.  Our stove is gas, so it still works when the power is out, we just have to use a match to get it lit.  That saved me having to go out to the shed and get the camp stove.  By the time I was dressed and ready to go, my hair had partly dried, so I was able to use the propane curling iron (I've been corrected by my mom--it's butane, not propane) on some of it.  It's not the best, but works in a pinch.

The "emergency" was minor--more inconvenient than life stopping.  I'd just never considered being too concerned about how I looked in any kind of emergency. :)
After his meeting, sweet husband came home and picked me up and took me to my meeting.  The power was still out, so we held that meeting in the dark also.  Church in the dark is quite a memorable experience.  I sat next to a friend of mine (our scout leader) and shared my flashlight.  Yeah, you know the scout motto, "be prepared".  He laughed and reminded me that this is the second time I've saved him with my flashlight--the first time his car battery had died at night and he didn't have jumper cables or a light and I had both, so we got him fixed up and back on the road.  And he's the scout leader.  Hilarious.

Anyway, after that meeting there was a little break before the general meeting started, so I sat down and saved a space for my family.  This is usually quite a large meeting.  We actually still had quite a good group considering the circumstances, although I heard of at least one who couldn't get out of their garage because the automatic doors wouldn't open.  Others likely assumed the meeting was canceled for the power outage or just chose to stay home.  The ushers used flashlights to show people to their seats.  Families had to find each other in the dark.  Interesting.  My family showed up with flashlights, headlamps, etc. plus blankets for the kids and a friend caught them on their way in and told them where I was sitting.

Then, just as the meeting was going to start, the power came back on and we could all see again.  Not that any of us ladies that got ready for church without power wanted to be seen much, but I really don't think people were judging. ;)

Hang in There

I'll be back to regular posting next week. I've got the family in the community theater play and the show opens tonight, so we've been a bit crazy with rehearsals this week.  I'll get the winner of the water filter giveaway notified in the next few days also.  I should have my brain back after this weekend. :)  More later.

New Advertiser and Fire Starter Winner

Just a quick post today to let you know we do have a winner in the Fire Starter giveaway that ended last week.  Yeah, that's how things are going around here lately.  Anyway, the winner is Chris G.!  Congratulations and many happy fires!  Thanks again to campingsurvival.com for sponsoring the giveaway.

We've got one more day on the Katadyn water filter giveaway from Emergency Essentials, so make sure you sign up for that if you haven't already.

Also I'm thrilled to announce that I have a new advertiser: Our Happy Homestead over on the left sidebar.  They carry survival, food prep, and kitchen gear, so head on over and check them out to see if they've got anything you need.  I bet they do. :)

The Great Powdered Milk Taste Test and Review

Sorry for the trouble, but this post has moved to our new blog address.  Click here to go straight to the Great Powdered Milk Taste Test and Review.  Thanks!

Kids Prep Minute: Shoot Something

Okay, I really have a lot of posts planned, but they are requiring that I actually have some time to put in on them, and I just don't have that kind of time right now, so I'm putting up another Kids Prep Minute Post instead, because they're a bit quicker.  Yes, I know the fire starter giveaway ended last night and you're all dying to know if you won.  I'll get a winner notified in the next day or so, okay?  Now, on with your regularly scheduled post. :)

Another way to help get your kids involved in preparedness is to take them shooting. Children can and should be taught about firearms at a young age. How young depends on you and your children. You know your children best and whether they are old enough or mature enough to handle a firearm. All of our children (our youngest is 5) understand gun safety rules and how to behave at a range—not because we’ve talked about it even though we have, but because they’ve been around it. We’ve had BB gun shooting contests in the back yard, taken them with us hunting upland game and deer, and had them shoot at an organized range.

Always supervise children with any firearm, and always practice the rules of safe shooting yourself as you are the example they will follow. And I know you wouldn’t do this, but don’t just take your sons shooting. My girls shoot as well as my boy and have just as much fun doing it. Remember your family is your team and you want every member as capable as possible with the skills and tools they will need. As a side note here, some children are not interested in shooting. This could be for a variety of reasons. Don’t rush them, but do continue to invite them and provide opportunities to be around firearms in a safe environment.