Homemade Greek Yogurt

I have discovered Greek Yogurt, specifically Greek Gods Honey Yogurt. In case you haven't heard of this... greek yogurt is the creamiest, thickest yogurt - it's almost like cream cheese or thickened sour cream.

Actually, we get the plain greek yogurt for lactose-intolerant Hubby to use as sour cream - it doesn't cause the problems because of the process milk goes through to become yogurt.


There's no way I could possibly describe the process better than this site: http://bean-sprouts.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-to-make-greek-yogurt.html so please check them out. Very detailed information about how to make your own cow's milk yogurt, and then taking it a step further to make it into greek yogurt.


I wonder if we can use our recipe for making soy milk yogurt and turn it into soy milk greek yogurt? hmmm... will have to experiment sometime!

Avian/Bird Flu FOOD Prep

Last week I wrote an article about basic preparedness for the possibility of a bird flu pandemic. Today's will give more info on what foods to store.

Fruits/Veggies: If you don't grow any yourself, that's ok. We buy a lot of dehydrated foods from http://www.justtomatoes.com/. My VHTS loves the dried blueberries, blackberries, mango, peas and soybeans. My favorite are the bananas, strawberries, raspberries and cherries, and Hubby likes the tropical mixture that has pineapple and kiwi. They also have pomegranate, cranberries, peaches, carrots, green onions, tomatoes, corn and much more. The prices are pretty reasonable, especially if you get the larger sizes. We also get a good supply of dried onion, garlic, spinach, parsley and soup veggies from our local health food store, Vitamin Cottage. Gather what you can, and either process by canning, freezing or dehydrating. Have a good supply of foods that your family will actually eat. Remember quick-cooking grains like rice, oatmeal and millet (preserving fuel), and plenty of protein like dehydrated eggs, peanut butter, jerky, nuts and seeds. Be sure to include in your diet (for their anti-viral properties): Onion, Garlic, Shiitake Mushrooms, Green Tea, Cranberries, Turmeric Spice, Red Wine.

Supplements: Stock up on: grape seed extract, grapefruit seed extract, fish oil, ginger, cranberry concentrate, (odorless) garlic oil, high quality multi-vitamin, 1,000 mg vitamin C, 25 mg zinc, and 50 mg selenium. We also are stocking up on echinacea, golden seal, mullein and feverfew. Get lots of ibuprofen and acetaminophen (different classes of drugs so if each says to take one or two every 4 hours, then take 2 ibu and 2 hours later take 2 acet then 2 hours later take another 2 ibu and so on.) We've also heard conflicting reports about colloidal silver - you decide.

Store water: can't emphasize that enough. Usually it's recommended to have one gallon per person per day for drinking, cooking, and cleaning (body and other). I've tried to get by on 2 liters (a re-filled soda bottle) and sometimes do ok.

Cleanliness: You MUST keep yourself clean to help your immune system. And face it.... you do NOT want to use your bottled drinking water for cleaning. It's certainly understandable. So we store (and use regularly just to be in the habit) baby wipes (sometimes). We buy a big box at a time at Wal-Mart of the cheapest unscented baby wipes we can find. It takes no time at all to swipe one over a growing 12-yr-old boy's face, buzzed-haircut-head, hands, underarms and, er, other places.

Storage: When we get a large container of dried pomegranate seeds from http://www.justtomatoes.com/, we divide them up into small snack-size baggies, seal, and store all in a mason jar. When we finish one, we open the jar, pull out a snack baggie, and close the jar back tightly. One baggie lasts a while. ... ... ... ... ... Store tomato paste instead of tomato sauce (less space). Use a lot of peanut butter? Get the dehydrated peanut butter powder and use some of your water stores to rehydrate (check out http://www.beprepared.com/). Not enough storage room? Look under your bed: you can fit quite a few cans under there. Or your linen or broom closet. In the spare bedroom/bathroom. Or fill up a long-lasting great-sealing trash can with super-sealed stuffs and bury it in your backyard (make a map!). Make a list of what you actually use on a regular basis, acquire your stock (a little at a time is fine) and start writing out recipes. Forgot to add salt to your list? Get some. Forgot you need a little cumin for your favorite rice dish? Pick up some on your next grocery trip. Now is the time to experiment and make sure you have the things stored you need to provide nutritious meals for your family members (and pets) in case you are forced to live off of what you store. (Note: this is the essence of why people come to this website: to have enough food stored in case of blizzards, power outages, economic disasters, or pandemics. Your comments as to what you are preparing are appreciated!)

What can YOU think of?

Using Stored Foods in Regular Meals, and Rotating

You have started your Survival Binder right? The one where you have your inventory checks, favorite stored-food-recipes, basic first aid, location of certain documents, etc.?

Here's something you can do when your family has a free afternoon. (I can hear the chuckles now!) Sit down around the dinner table and ask the family to tell you their favorite recipes that you make from stored foods. If you haven't prepared any recipes from ONLY stored foods, get cooking. Let everyone in the family choose a favorite recipe for a dinner meal. Turkey chili. Fried corn-loaves and black bean soup. So on.

Should be the main course, fruit, veggie and grain. Maybe even include dessert!

All ingredients for those meals need to be stored foods, cans of fruits/veggies/meats, boxes of pudding mix with powdered milk, etc. Make sure it's well balanced, nutritious, and can be slightly altered for changing tastes.

Your goal is to come up with 7 different dinners, and then 14 different dinners. That will give you 14 days, each with a different dinner.

Then...
-write down what ingredients you need to make each meal
-shop for the ingredients to make each meal
-bag up the ingredients to make that meal and label (a "dinner bag")
-include the recipe with each bag, if necessary
-label the bag with the Dinner Day #

Do this for each of the 14 days. Pack up another 14 days. And another. That's a month and a half of not needing to plan dinner. Each time you use a "dinner bag", write a reminder to purchase those ingredients the next time you go to the grocery. Then do that, repackage it with the recipe again, and do it all over.

This will let each person in the family have their favorite dinner on a regular basis, while making the planning and preparing very easy for the chief cook!

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Should you really be ambitious, you can do the same thing for breakfast! Grits and powdered eggs with a can of fruit cocktail? Packets of instant oatmeal with dried strawberries and bananas?

You get the drift.

MRE's versus Home Cooked Meals

Some people are stocking up on MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) which is fine for some people. They are nutritious, last a long time, and very portable. Plus, they are absolutely ready to eat without worrying about cooking. However, I have high blood pressure so I couldn't handle the sodium content of most of them.

There's also the freeze-dried meals from places like Mountain House that are tasty and somewhat nutritious. We love the ice cream bars but just aren't the same thing.

Why stock up MRE's, freeze-dried meals or other no-cook items?

Some in your stockpile is ok. There may be days you don't feel good and just don't want to cook. Or you don't have power. Or you're on the move.

But consider cooking: it takes planning (time), preparing (time), heating (time) then serving and enjoying. If you are confined with very little to do, you may appreciate cooking

How & Why We Have Stored Foods Recipes

During any type of confined situation (blizzard, pandemic flu, etc.), having a stash of recipes for stored foods is essential. Have you started a binder, and printed out recipes from here? Have you noted in that binder what foods you need to store and how close you are to that goal? Remember to note the location of these foods too (bin under bed, box behind laundry machine, etc).

I've been thinking a lot about these recipes for stored foods that I've been posting. Basically I take an interesting recipe, and modify it to suit my pantry, my family's diets and taste buds. But I'm thinking I've neglected to explain something.

In 2004, I was homeless. My son and I "lived" in a small popup camper. Son had his bedding, suitcase of clothing, a small box of books and a couple of toys on his side. I had my stuff on my side. We had a fold-up table that we did his schoolwork at, where we ate, where he colored, etc. We had a little room underneath for towels and toiletries, etc. We hooked up some extension cords to the family who generously allowed our camper to park in their front yard for about 2 months. With that electricity, I ran a small refrigerator/cooler that we found at Wal-Mart for about $100 (another friend gave us this cash to do this). The fridge could hold a couple of yogurts, a small mayo, a quart of soymilk, and a few lunchables. Except for those few things, we had no room to store food. We often went to the food bank for whatever they had: usually lots of bread, some rotten fruit, and sometimes milk or yogurt that was on the edge of expired.

I vowed to never be hungry again, and as soon as I could get into a better situation, I did. I bought 4 cans instead of 2. Or an extra measure of powdered milk. I stockpiled, but not for the reasons I do today.

Now, in this last year or so, my new hubby and I and Son have been through some major financial and medical situations recently. Instead of increasing our stores, we've had to dip into them. Severely.

I tell you this to help you understand where we are coming from. Where I'm coming from!

Now... on to using our stored foods to feed our families:

Even if you are on a limited budget, and can't afford anything extra but one food item a week... we hope you're stocking up on lots of whole grains, cans of veggies and fruits, legumes (beans, peas, lentils, peanuts), cooking and baking supplies, and, of course, meat.

As legumes are very cheap and extremely easy to store, you'll grow to depend on beans to be on your plate at least once a day. Your canned meat may be a special treat to have only a couple of times a week. Your staples will be grains and legumes, so I'm working to provide more grain and legume/bean recipes. They will be cheap, have only a few ingredients, filling, and easy to prepare.

Hey - it will help my family too! We have beans and grains stacked around our ears but we've used every tissue in the house in the past five days! (We're all sick.)

Stay tuned - we're working on those new grain and bean recipes!


p.s. if you could help spread the word about our blog, we'd appreciate it.

The Basics about Freeze-Dried and Dehydrated Foods

A reader recently wrote this comment:

As I am very new to this and have had a hard time wrapping my brain over freeze-dried and dehydrated foods. I understand I need to add water to "revive" them. If I buy a #10 can of Freeze-dried ground beef (servings 24 1/2 cups) how long will the food be good? Right now we are two people but we could quickly become 8. But I don't want to he to eat ground beef every meal. All information about freeze-dried or dehydrated food would be appreciated. February 18, 2009 5:45 PM

Our info is towards the bottom but first, here's the specifics from what we've researched on the internet for people new to using dried foods:

Freeze-Dried Food:
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeze-dried_food: Freeze-drying (also known as lyophilization or cryodesiccation) is a dehydration process typically used to preserve a perishable material or make the material more convenient for transport. Freeze-drying works by freezing the material and then reducing the surrounding pressure and adding enough heat to allow the frozen water in the material to sublime directly from the solid phase to gas.

The freeze-drying process: There are three stages in the complete freeze-drying process: freezing, primary drying, and secondary drying.

(1) Freezing
The freezing process consists of freezing the material. In a lab, this is often done by placing the material in a freeze-drying flask and rotating the flask in a bath, called a shell freezer, which is cooled by mechanical refrigeration, dry ice and methanol, or liquid nitrogen. On a larger-scale, freezing is usually done using a freeze-drying machine. In this step, it is important to cool the material below its eutectic point, the lowest temperature at which the solid and liquid phases of the material can coexist. This ensures that sublimation rather than melting will occur in the following steps. Larger crystals are easier to freeze-dry. To produce larger crystals, the product should be frozen slowly or can be cycled up and down in temperature. This cycling process is called annealing. However, in the case of food, or objects with formerly-living cells, large ice crystals will break the cell walls (discovered by Clarence Birdseye). Usually, the freezing temperatures are between −50 °C and −80 °C. The freezing phase is the most critical in the whole freeze-drying process, because the product can be spoiled if badly done.

Amorphous (glassy) materials do not have an eutectic point, but do have a critical point, below which the product must be maintained to prevent melt-back or collapse during primary and secondary drying.
Large objects take a few months to freeze-dry.

(2) Primary drying
During the primary drying phase, the pressure is lowered (to the range of a few millibars), and enough heat is supplied to the material for the water to sublimate. The amount of heat necessary can be calculated using the sublimating molecules’ latent heat of sublimation. In this initial drying phase, about 95% of the water in the material is sublimated. This phase may be slow (can be several days in the industry), because, if too much heat is added, the material’s structure could be altered.

In this phase, pressure is controlled through the application of partial vacuum. The vacuum speeds sublimation, making it useful as a deliberate drying process. Furthermore, a cold condenser chamber and/or condenser plates provide a surface(s) for the water vapour to re-solidify on. This condenser plays no role in keeping the material frozen; rather, it prevents water vapor from reaching the vacuum pump, which could degrade the pump's performance. Condenser temperatures are typically below −50 °C (−60 °F).

It is important to note that, in this range of pressure, the heat is brought mainly by conduction or radiation; the convection effect can be considered as insignificant.

(3) Secondary drying
The secondary drying phase aims to remove unfrozen water molecules, since the ice was removed in the primary drying phase. This part of the freeze-drying process is governed by the material’s adsorption isotherms. In this phase, the temperature is raised higher than in the primary drying phase, and can even be above 0 °C, to break any physico-chemical interactions that have formed between the water molecules and the frozen material. Usually the pressure is also lowered in this stage to encourage desorption (typically in the range of microbars, or fractions of a pascal). However, there are products that benefit from increased pressure as well.

After the freeze-drying process is complete, the vacuum is usually broken with an inert gas, such as nitrogen, before the material is sealed.

At the end of the operation, the final residual water content in the product is around 1% to 4%, which is extremely low.

Properties of freeze-dried products
If a freeze-dried substance is sealed to prevent the reabsorption of moisture, the substance may be stored at room temperature without refrigeration, and be protected against spoilage for many years. Preservation is possible because the greatly reduced water content inhibits the action of microorganisms and enzymes that would normally spoil or degrade the substance.

Freeze-drying also causes less damage to the substance than other dehydration methods using higher temperatures. Freeze-drying does not usually cause shrinkage or toughening of the material being dried. In addition, flavours and smells generally remain unchanged, making the process popular for preserving food. However, water is not the only chemical capable of sublimation, and the loss of other volatile compounds such as acetic acid (vinegar) and alcohols can yield undesirable results.

Freeze-dried products can be rehydrated (reconstituted) much more quickly and easily because the process leaves microscopic pores. The pores are created by the ice crystals that sublimate, leaving gaps or pores in their place. This is especially important when it comes to pharmaceutical uses. Lyophilization can also be used to increase the shelf life of some pharmaceuticals for many years.

Dehydrated Food:
Link from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehydrated_food - Drying is a method of food preservation that works by removing water from the food, which prevents the growth of microorganisms and decay. Drying food using the sun and wind to prevent spoilage has been known since ancient times. Water is usually removed by evaporation (air drying, sun drying, smoking or wind drying) but, in the case of freeze-drying, food is first frozen and then water is removed by sublimation.

Bacteria and micro-organisms within the food and from the air need the water in the food to grow. Drying effectively prevents them from surviving in the food. It also creates a hard outer-layer, helping to stop micro-organisms from entering the food

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Okay... that's the technical definitions and information about freeze-dried and dehydrated food. Practical applications?

Can I freeze-dry food at home?
First, it would be very difficult for you to freeze-dry your own food. Dehydrating is more than satisfactory, cost efficient, space-efficient, and lasts a while. But if you really have the bug... I found this link: http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/food-preservation4.htm with this information:

An Experiment in Freeze-Drying:
You probably don't have a good vacuum chamber at home, but you almost certainly have a refrigerator. If you don't mind waiting a week, you can experiment with freeze-drying at home using your freezer.

For this experiment you will need a tray, preferably one that is perforated. If you have something like a cake-cooling rack or a metal mesh tray, that is perfect. You can use a cookie sheet or a plate if that is all that you have, but the experiment will take longer.

Now you will need something to freeze-dry. Three good candidates are apples, potatoes and carrots (apples have the advantage that they taste okay in their freeze-dried state). With a knife, cut your apple, potato and/or carrot as thin as you can (try all three if you have them). Cut them paper-thin if you can do it -- the thinner you cut, the less time the experiment will take. Then arrange your slices on your rack or tray and put them in the freezer. You want to do this fairly quickly or else your potato and/or apple slices will discolor.
In half an hour, look in on your experiment. The slices should be frozen solid.

Over the next week, look in on your slices. What will happen is that the water in the slices will sublimate away. That is, the water in the slices will convert straight from solid water to water vapor, never going through the liquid state (this is the same thing that mothballs do, going straight from a solid to a gaseous state). After a week or so (depending on how cold your freezer is and how thick the slices are), your slices will be completely dry. To test apple or potato slices for complete drying, take one slice out and let it thaw. It will turn black almost immediately if it is not completely dry.

When all of the slices are completely dry, what you have is freeze-dried apples, potatoes and carrots. You can "reconstitute" them by putting the slices in a cup or bowl and adding a little boiling water (or add cold water and microwave). You can eat the apples in their dried state or you can reconstitute them. What you will notice is that the reconstituted vegetables look and taste pretty much like the original! That is why freeze-drying is a popular preservation technique.

Note:
Most of the "dried" food you get from suppliers are freeze-dried. It's a faster process on the commercial level.

Using Dried Foods:
The basic principles of using freeze-dried food and dehydrated foods are the same. Once you open a can or jar of freeze-dried or dehydrated food, you need to treat like any other food exposed to "regular" air. You need to reseal the un-used portions either in the same container, or put in a separate container you can seal (like with a sealing machine). Or refrigerate the unused portion. The key to making it last in it's dried state is keeping moisture out of the food. Moisture promotes the growth of bacteria, therefore, the lack of moisture means it will be edible and not poisonous for a great while.

Recently we opened some dehydrated peas that we bought 2 or more years prior. They were just as crispy as a new container. Most suppliers will put a time limit on how long their products will be good for, unopened and opened. Be sure to make a note of product recommendations. Don't come to us because you open a container, let it sit out, get wet, and then gets filled with bacteria that makes it inedible. Keep containers closed!

What about the big #10 cans of Freeze-Dried Meat?
One can should last you a while. When we open one that size, we use what we need, then seal the rest as smaller portions (about 4 servings per - we are a family of 3 and one eats enough for 2!) in smaller containers with moisture absorbers. We seal these tightly, mark when it was opened and what the original product label was, and keep track to make sure these are used up before opening another of the same item.

You don't need to exclusively use dried chicken dices until it's gone then start on the dried ground beef or sausage. Just be sure to keep adequately sealed and tracked.

How Do I Rehydrate:
Most people prefer to "rehydrate" (add water back in) the food before using. It will depend on how much moisture was taken out as to how much water or other liquid and time you'll need to rehydrate.

You should be using these products now anyway, so experiment! Take some freeze-dried (usually cooked) chicken dices and time them against rehydrating raisins or onion dices. Make notes in your "stored foods cookbook" so you won't have to keep experimenting everytime you want to cook with them.

Use water, stock, apple juice, etc. to rehydrate. Pour off the extra or use in your recipe.

You could also rehydrate as you cook. For instance, if you are making spaghetti sauce, add the freeze-dried ground beef to the sauce with just a bit more water. The meat will absorb the sauce, making the meat even more tastier and the sauce a little thicker.

Same with adding onions and garlic to your sauce. When I make spaghetti sauce, I start off with a little olive oil, dried onions, dried garlic, then add the spaghetti sauce. When it looks like the onions and garlic have rehydrated, I'll add a bit more water.

You're worked with pasta, right? It's basically the same thing, except you don't need to boil your fruit and veggies, unless you want to lose many of the nutrients to the boiling liquid.

Is Rehydrating Necessary before Using?:
No. Not necessarily. My Very Hungry Tween Son (VHTS) loves eating dried/freeze-dried mango, blueberries, blackberries and peas just as-is. I personally love eating dried banana chips or strawberry slices. Of course, one must drink plenty of water or other liquids because as it digests, it will rehydrate a bit inside of you, which could cause constipation.

How to Dehydrate:
Dehydrating is an excellent way to preserve your harvest, or even what you get on special at the farmers market or at the super grocery store. We talk about dehydrating in this blog from time to time. We try to give specific information for specific food items.

End:
I hope this answered your questions about freeze-dried food and dehydrated food. Please feel free to ask more questions.

Storing, Grinding, and Using Wheat Berries

To almost anyone's food-storage program, it's vitally important to store wheat berries. Flour goes rancid quickly, so you'll need the berries to grind into flour as you need it.

What is a wheat berry?
A wheat berry is the fruit of the grass we know as wheat. The berry is the entire wheat kernel, without the hull, which contains the bran, germ, and endosperm. Wheat berry or wheatberry, as it is also known, have a tan to reddish brown color and are available as either a hard or soft processed grain.

Basics:
Wheat (berries) stores longer than flour. Once ground the flour will start the clock on becoming rancid, and losing vitamins to oxidation. Whereas, wheat berries have been found to last, when properly stored, for years and years and years, even decades. Some have even been found in ancient Egyptian tombs!

Equipment:
You could just use a mortar and pestle to grind the wheat berries into flour, but that's gonna get tedious and old real fast. Get a grinder (mill). We have a hand grinder because I've been trying to get equipment that doesn't need electricity, but there are many electric grinders available. Trust me, you'll need something, even a food processor, to grind the wheat berries. I've heard of some people using even a coffee grinder, or one of those twist-top small grinders.

Talk to your friends and find out what they use and what they recommend. There are so many grinders and processors that it's going to be a big choice. One you'll have to live with. Many of these are expensive, so be sure to check craigslist or freecycle groups or garage sales and so forth.

Type of Wheat Berries:
Wheat is classified according to hardness, color, and best use. In the United States, the five most important classes of of wheat are: (1) hard red winter, for bread; (2) hard red spring, for bread and rolls; (3) soft red winter, for cake and pastries (it has a finer texture); (4) white, for bread, breakfast foods, and pastries; and (5) durum (to make pasta) products.

How to Store Wheat Berries:

• If you buy them in bulk, keep in original sealed containers if they come from a reputable supplier.
• Or you could store in paper bags in new metal garbage cans with tight-sealing lids.
• Must be kept in a cool dry area, in a container where rodents and other critters and bugs can't get to.

Uses for Wheat Berries:

• You can plant wheat berries to grow more wheat. You can't plant flour to grow more flour or wheat.
• Besides grinding into flour, you can cook the cracked wheat (bulgur), make frumenty, and other cracked or whole-wheat dishes.
• Cook wheat berries like rice and serve with a little gravy on it, or add it to casseroles.
• Add wheat berries to chili to give it more substance, more body.
• Cook wheat berries, re-dry them in the oven, and then crack them for cracked-wheat cereal (also known as bulgur) or top a salad.
• Grind the wheat berries into flour for bread, pizza, pasta... really anything that calls for flour.

Hope this helps you figure out what to do with your huge stores of wheat berries! If you have a favorite way to grind the berries into flour, please feel free to leave the info as a comment to this posting. Thanks.

Self-Sufficiency - Fruit

Food Self-Sufficiency
This is something that has interested me for years. Is it possible to grow everything we need to eat a healthy and varied meals?

Here's the problem: We are products of modern days. A time when we could get in the car and drive 5 minutes to a fast food joint or convenience store. When we have freezers stocked with pre-made dinners, toaster waffles, and logs of ground beef. When our pantry is stocked with tin cans purchased, and not home-canned. When a quick meal means grabbing carbs and meat with little thought to fresh veggies and fruit. When dessert is cake or something sweet, instead of fresh fruit and homemade cheese.

What would happen if the economy got so bad that we couldn't afford to go to McDonald's or order delivery from Pizza Hut? Or Peak Oil happened so drastically that we ran out of gas? We're actually pretty close to being there.

So how do make the transition to homegrown anything and everything?

I've discovered cold turkey doesn't work for me. When I have a migraine, I just don't feel like thinking about what's in the pantry or refrigerator. I'm sure I'm not alone.

As you may know, this was our first year in a house and our first year as gardeners. We grew soy beans, corn, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, tomatoes and tomatoes and tomatoes, and a few other things. We planted fruit trees and berry bushes. We learned so much and put away a lot but honestly, I don't think we could survive on what we successfully grew this year. But next year, in our new house.....

Fruit:
Fresh fruit has essential vitamins and minerals needed for strong bones and blood cells, antioxidants, and fiber. Absolutely required for good health, yet we don't eat much as a USA nation.

I read somewhere that fruit should be eaten at times when you don't eat vegetables, so that they don't compete for digestion. Whether that's true or not, because of the sugar content of most fruits, I usually serve fruit during lunch, and veggies during dinner. Fruit is also a good snack in between meals, especially when served with a protein like cheese or nuts/seeds.

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Here's a list of fruits with Nutritional Values, from: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art49478.asp - not complete by any means. I mean, where's the avocado and tomato? (Concerns are in parenthesis, but if you grow them yourselves and/or limit usage, you should be ok.)

Apples - flavonoids, fiber, C (pesticides, wax coating)
Apricots - carotenoids, A, C, fiber (preservatives)
Bananas - B6, C, potassium (glycemic)
Blackberries - flavonoids, fiber, C, K, manganese
Blueberries - flavonoids, C, manganese, fiber
Cantaloupe - carotenoids, C, A, potassium
Cherries - flavonoids (pesticides)
Cranberries - flavonoids, fiber, C, manganese
Dates- (glycemic)
Dried fruit - (glycemic, preservatives)
Figs - (preservatives)
Fruit juices - (glycemic)
Grapefruit - carotenoids in pink, flavonoids, C
Grapes - flavonoids, manganese (pesticides)
Guava - carotenoids, fiber, C
Kiwifruit - C, fiber (glycemic)
Lemons - flavonoids, C (wax coating)
Limes - flavonoids, C (wax coating)
Mangoes - carotenoids, A, C (glycemic)
Nectarines - carotenoids, C (glycemic, pesticides)
Oranges - carotenoids, flavonoids, C, fiber (glycemic)
Papayas - carotenoids, C, folate, potassium
Peaches - carotenoids, C (pesticides)
Pears - flavonoids (pesticides)
Persimmons - C (glycemic)
Pineapple - C, manganese (glycemic)
Plums - carotenoids, C
Raspberries - flavonoids, fiber, manganese, C
Raisins - (glycemic, pesticides, preservatives)
Strawberries - carotenoids, flavonoids, C, fiber (pesticides)
Tangerines - carotenoids, A, C (glycemic)
Watermelon - carotenoids, C, A, B6 (glycemic)

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Here are some suggestions for quick fruit-meals that we can do 100% ourselves:
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Chunks of cheddar cheese
Bunches of grapes
Applesauce
Cornbread
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Scrambled eggs
Freshly baked bread
Strawberries, Raspberries, Blueberries
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Cucumber & tomato salad
Walnut muffins
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Cranberry-orange muffins
Baked Chicken
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Soybean flour crackers spread with peanut butter
fruit salad
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On-the-go "snack meal":
Sunflower Seeds, Pecans
Dried peaches and dried mango
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Wow ... that's just what I came up with in a few moments, by looking at my list of plants and animals (cows, chickens). Some, like the orange tree, will need to be a solarium, while the strawberries could be grown indoors on a windowsill or in a corner with a grow-light for year-round consumption.

Your fruit-meal suggestions?