BBQ Chicken & Scalloped Potatoes

Last night I made a wonderfully delicious dinner -- so proud of me. Not the usual Tacos. I did BBQ ribs in my Crock-Pot.and then Gluten-free, dairy-free scalloped potatoes. Basically, I used 2 good recipes for Scalloped Potato and sort of combined them and then substituted Chicken broth and Cornstarch for the Milk & flour, I even got to use my fresh thyme from my herb garden. Here is the recipe:


Scalloped Potatoes (printer friendly)

2 Tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped fine
1 Tbsp minced fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4- 1/2 tsp pepper
2 1/2 C chicken broth, divided.
1 - 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
2 1/2 lbs russet potatoes (5 med), sliced 1/8" thick

1. Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400-degrees. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add 2 C chicken broth and bring to a boil. Combine cornstarch and remaining 1/2 C chicken broth and slowly pour into sauce while stirring. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute.
2. Place 1/2 of the sliced potatoes in a casserole pan and pour 1/2 the sauce over the top. Repeat with remaining potatoes and sauce.
3. Bake in oven for 1 hour. Enjoy!

72-hour kits

So last night I actually put together 72-hour kits for my family. I put them together about 4 years ago but never updated. So one more child and much growing later, we are re-doing them and every LDS General Conference (in April & October) that will be our meals for the weekend so we don't throw out a huge garbage bag of food like we did last night.

So for Family Night we re-did them. I got all the food and we packaged it up assembly style. I had organized the food I had into a bag for each of the 3 meals for each for the 3 days. I then wrote their names on Gallon Ziploc Storage bags with a bag for each meal (B-1=breakfast first day, L-3=Lunch 2nd day, D-3= Dinner third day, etc.). I can't claim credit for the idea I got it from the "Stanford University Amatur Radio Emergency Service" which has taken down their site. You can find more info on 72-hour kits at the Red Cross, Homeland Security, FEMA, or a ton of other sites by googling "72-hour kits".

This is the second day lunch bag

For those who don't eat Gluten-free we used the following menu

Breakfast 1: Applesauce, Instant Oatmeal, Sm. Bottled Water, Juice Box
Lunch 1: Chef-Boy-R Dee Mac N Cheese, Granola Bar, Fruit Pkg, Capri Sun
Dinner 1: Canned Chili, Canned Veg, CapriSun

Breakfast 2: Applesauce, Instant Oatmeal, Sm. Bottled Water, Juice Box
Lunch 2: Granola Bar, Trail Mix, Fruit Pkg, Capri Sun
Dinner 2: Chef-Boy-R-Dee Mini Ravioli (sm micro & reg can size), Pudding, Fruit Pkg, CapriSun

Breakfast 3: Applesauce, Instant Oatmeal, Sm. Bottled Water, Juice Box
Lunch 3: Cheese N Crackers, Granola Bar, Beef Jerky (lg pkg in husband's bag), Capri Sun
Dinner 3: Soup (adults) & Chef-Boy-R-Dee Micro (kids), Pkg Fruit, CapriSun

Snacks: 2 Peanut butter & Crackers, 1 Granola Bar, 1 Oreo, 1 NutterButter, 1 Chips A-Hoy, 1 Raisins

Here is it all put together.

For my daughter, Karissa, who has Celiac Disease (basically an autoimmune disease that destroys the lining of the small intestine when a person consumes gluten -- wheat, rye, barley, and some oats-- causing them to become malnurished) has to have a gluten-free 72-hour kit. In addition to that she is allergic to dairy and peanuts. To save myself some hassle I bought one from my local (1-1/2 hours away) Gluten-Free store, Against the Grain -- love them!! They got the food and then I just had to organize it. I think that next time I will create my own, but I have their ideas now. This is what they put together:

Breakfast 1: Granola Bar, Vienna Sausages, Silk SoyMilk
Lunch 1: Starkist Chunk Tuna Pkg, Mayonnaise Pkg., Salt & Pepper, Ener-G Wheat-free Crackers (1 box to split for each lunch), Fruit Pkg., Cider Mix

Dinner 1: Chef Boy-R-Dee Rice w/Chicken & Veg, Canned Veg, Jello, Capri Sun

Breakfast 2: Granola bar, Vienna Sausages, Silk SoyMilk
Lunch 2: Crackers, Chix of Sea Pink Salmon Pkg., Mayonnaise Pkg., Salt & Pepper, Jello Pkg, Cider Mix
Dinner 2: Dinty Moore Beef Stew, Canned Veg, Kelloggs Fruit Snacks, Capri Sun

Breakfast 3: Granola Bar, Vienna Sausages, Silk SoyMilk
Lunch 3: Pkg Fish, Mayonnaise Pkg., Salt & Pepper, Crackers, Cider Mix
Dinner 3: Hormel Beans & Weiners, Canned Veg, Kelloggs Fruit Snacks, Capri Sun

Snacks:Dried Apricots, Ener-G Chocolate Chip Cookies, Ener-G Pretzels, Jam

UPDATE: I have since redone these and I made my own version that is more like the ones I made the rest of the family so we are eating similar things each meal plus my daughter is no longer dairy free so we have more choices.  You can see a printable list here.

Here is the Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Peanut-free 72-hour kit food.

Then we just put them in our backpacks. Brandon and I both have hiking backpacks and are going to keep ours in them When I find a good space that will hold it, I am going to add the sleeping bags to the stack.

Here they are all ready to go -- hopefully never to be used.