Cooking with Food Storage: Turkey Noodle Skillet Meal

This is a meal out of The Gourmet Food Storage Handbook written by my friend Chef Tess! Turkey Noodle Skillet Meal is on page 54 of the book.  (Link to the book at the bottom of this post.) This post is my interpretation of Stephanie's recipe.

I made it a bit different from the directions in the book. I didn't use any heat source to simmer the pan. I did something different instead:

• Boiled water using my kelly kettle (You can see here how to do that.)
• Insulated the pot using a variation of the Hot Box. (You can see here how cooking with a hot box works.)

Here is the recipe as it is listed on page 54. My changes are next to each ingredient:

2 cups noodles (I used two different kinds of noodles because that is what I had leftover.)

1/2 cup freezed-dried vegetable mix (I used carrots and broccoli because that is what I had opened.)

1/3 cup cheese sauce powder (I used 1/2 cup.)

1/3 cup powdered milk 

1/4 cup powdered butter

1 cup freezed-dried turkey chunks

1/2 cup freezed-dried mushrooms (Since my husband doesn't like mushrooms, I didn't have any so this was omitted.)

1 TBS dehydrated onions

1 tsp Italian seasoning (I only glanced at this and I thought it said 1 TBS so that is what I added!)

3 1/2 cups water

Even though the recipe says it is a 'skillet' dinner, I added all the dry ingredients to a saucepan. 

Then I went outside to get the boiling water from the Kelly Kettle and added it all at once, stirred briefly and covered.

If you are not using the stove to heat the pan to boiling, this next step is critical. Immediately cover the pan with an insulating cover. I used towels. I didn't bother to go get my hot box because I was in the middle of a work project. I just used two big beach towels.

Stephanie's instructions say, once the water is boiling, turn down the heat and simmer 10 - 12 minutes. I checked mine at 12 minutes but the noodles were not ready. So, I stirred it, replaced the cover and rewrapped the pot with the towels. Total time I let mine sit was 30 minutes. It was still nice and hot when I served it.

I thought the turkey and cheese sauce tasted wonderful! However, when I make it again, I will change the vegetables to something else. My husband said he didn't care for the freezed-dried broccoli. I must agree that peas and carrots would have been a better choice. My husband still managed to eat it anyway with some parmesan cheese on top!

I think this recipe is a winner! I am going to make up some 'Meals in a Jar' with the rest of the turkey next week!