Emergency Essentials is a food storage, preparedness, and camping store just a few blocks from my apartment in Orem. I've walked up there two or three times since moving in to pick up things like powdered eggs, buttermilk powder, and 200 calorie bars for my 72-hour kit. Like most stores of this type, they have some really good prices (millennium bars, customizable first aid kits), and some things that you can get cheaper elsewhere (gamma lids, buttermilk powder). I like it because the employees are helpful, it's close by, and there's a good selection.
I was watching a show on the History Channel recently during a long fight with strep throat, and was learning about how Utah got it's shape, when I saw a familiar sight; this store. The host of the show was interviewing people inside the store about why Mormons are so into food storage and preparedness. I was excited to see "my" store on TV. It's possible I get excited by dumb things.
Anyway, the store's website has a food storage analyzer. You type in how much food you have stored, and they tell you how long you can survive, and what nutrients you will be getting each day if you have to live on it. It's pretty cool, and showed me some glaring holes in my storage (yellow and orange veggies, mostly, though I need more iron, as well.) I try to do this in my head, but it doesn't work as well. You can create an account, which saves your information, so you can keep up a list of what you have in storage. It's pretty awesome.
The link: foodstorageanalyzer.com
I must note that I am getting a ten dollar gift card for posting this review. Since it relates directly to this blog, and is useful information, I don't feel bad about it. Also, you can post a review of the analyzer and get a gift card, too. Info here: http://preparednesspantry.blogspot.com/2009/10/food-storage-analyzer-gift-card.html
<center><a href="http://preparednesspantry.blogspot.com/2009/10/food-storage-analyzer-gift-card.html" target="_blank"><img alt="Gift Card Giveaway" src="http://beprepared.com/images/art/giftcardbanner40.png"/></a></center>
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Food Storage Recipe: Tamale Casserole.
I LOVE tamales. Love them. I discovered them when we moved to Ogden, and I can't get enough. Problem is, they are a. expensive and b. not that easy to make. I ran across a substitute on a food blog a few weeks ago that I thought might be acceptable. It wasn't. The leftovers languished and were tossed out. So I tweaked a few things, and it's better now. It's still not smothered tamales from Javier's in Ogden, but it's good enough to make every couple of weeks, and it's food storage friendly, which makes me happy. One of the kids ate it, and the other just at the cornbread off the top, but that's not too bad for a new meal.
The dish is a seasoned meat mixture topped with cornbread. The sauce from the meat mixes with the bottom of the cornbread, making that really good seasoned corn flavor that I love from real tamales. Overall, I like it, and I'm happy to have a new food storage recipe to add to my rotation.
Bottom layer:
1 pound ground or shredded meat. I used ground turkey, but chicken, beef, elk, or whatever is in the freezer or in a can on the shelf would work just fine. That strange TVP stuff might even work, but I haven't been brave enough to try it yet in anything. Or even buy it. Or even look at it too closely.
Onions. I used dehydrated, which I put in the pan with the meat when it was mostly cooked.
1 small can tomato sauce
2 small cans green chiles
Cumin
Red chili powder
Put meat in pan and brown it. Add the onions and brown them, then the other ingredients. Stir until cooked and seasoned.
Topping:
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup corn meal
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
dash salt
1 cup skim milk (or powdered substitute)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg or two egg whites (or powdered eggs)
Mix dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat egg with a fork. Add milk and oil. Combine wet and dry ingredients and stir until just moistened.
Put meat mixture in a square casserole dish. Spoon cornbread over the top. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.
The dish is a seasoned meat mixture topped with cornbread. The sauce from the meat mixes with the bottom of the cornbread, making that really good seasoned corn flavor that I love from real tamales. Overall, I like it, and I'm happy to have a new food storage recipe to add to my rotation.
Bottom layer:
1 pound ground or shredded meat. I used ground turkey, but chicken, beef, elk, or whatever is in the freezer or in a can on the shelf would work just fine. That strange TVP stuff might even work, but I haven't been brave enough to try it yet in anything. Or even buy it. Or even look at it too closely.
Onions. I used dehydrated, which I put in the pan with the meat when it was mostly cooked.
1 small can tomato sauce
2 small cans green chiles
Cumin
Red chili powder
Put meat in pan and brown it. Add the onions and brown them, then the other ingredients. Stir until cooked and seasoned.
Topping:
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup corn meal
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
dash salt
1 cup skim milk (or powdered substitute)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg or two egg whites (or powdered eggs)
Mix dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat egg with a fork. Add milk and oil. Combine wet and dry ingredients and stir until just moistened.
Put meat mixture in a square casserole dish. Spoon cornbread over the top. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.
Jam
There is a store here in Utah County, our new home, called Sunflower Market. Actually, it's called Sunflower Farmer's Market, but it has no resemblance to an actual farmer's market, I refuse to call it that (close rant).
This store is basically a Whole Foods clone, complete with overpriced bakery, overpriced snacks, bulk bins, and occasional good sales. Every week they do have a produce loss leader, which I take full advantage of. Last week, it was peaches for 47 cents a pound.
I made four trips for peaches, so as not to clean them out. A helpful employee told me which days they get produce deliveries, so I showed up on those days, ready to pick up another ten or fifteen pounds of peaches.
We have peach cobbler. We have bottled peaches (though not very many. I didn't remember just how much time and work those take. A whole day, and I got eight quarts). We have a lot of peach jam. This sale coincided with a sale of strawberries at another store, so we have a LOT of jam. Like, thirty pints of jam. I added it up, and I think I spent sixty dollars on all the jam, which should last us a good long time.
I love to see all the jam stored on the shelves in my new pantry. I love that I spent a lot less on it than I would have had I bought it in a store. Mostly, I just love homemade jam.
This store is basically a Whole Foods clone, complete with overpriced bakery, overpriced snacks, bulk bins, and occasional good sales. Every week they do have a produce loss leader, which I take full advantage of. Last week, it was peaches for 47 cents a pound.
I made four trips for peaches, so as not to clean them out. A helpful employee told me which days they get produce deliveries, so I showed up on those days, ready to pick up another ten or fifteen pounds of peaches.
We have peach cobbler. We have bottled peaches (though not very many. I didn't remember just how much time and work those take. A whole day, and I got eight quarts). We have a lot of peach jam. This sale coincided with a sale of strawberries at another store, so we have a LOT of jam. Like, thirty pints of jam. I added it up, and I think I spent sixty dollars on all the jam, which should last us a good long time.
I love to see all the jam stored on the shelves in my new pantry. I love that I spent a lot less on it than I would have had I bought it in a store. Mostly, I just love homemade jam.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Poor, poor neglected blog. Between the car trouble, the CNA class I just started, which occupies me four times a week, potty-training, and the rest of life in general, this blog just hasn't been updated for a while.
I did make a change to my food storage use. The homemade oatmeal packets that I made in this post
did not turn out at all. Nearly three months in, I'm giving up in defeat. They don't have the same texture as the store-bought packets, and the flavor isn't as good when you use the freeze-dried fruit, as opposed to the flavored sugar bits that come in the store-bought oatmeal. Most importantly, the girls don't like it, so they aren't eating it, so what's the point? The store bought packets were on sale for a dollar a box this week, so I bought 24 boxes. It's worth it to spend the extra few dollars each month if the kids will eat it. I still use oats to make oatmeal; I make cinnamon-raisin oatmeal in a pan on the stove, and it works out fine. I also make baked oatmeal, which the girls love.
I did make a change to my food storage use. The homemade oatmeal packets that I made in this post
did not turn out at all. Nearly three months in, I'm giving up in defeat. They don't have the same texture as the store-bought packets, and the flavor isn't as good when you use the freeze-dried fruit, as opposed to the flavored sugar bits that come in the store-bought oatmeal. Most importantly, the girls don't like it, so they aren't eating it, so what's the point? The store bought packets were on sale for a dollar a box this week, so I bought 24 boxes. It's worth it to spend the extra few dollars each month if the kids will eat it. I still use oats to make oatmeal; I make cinnamon-raisin oatmeal in a pan on the stove, and it works out fine. I also make baked oatmeal, which the girls love.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Apples, apples everywhere
There's a little produce stand here in Ogden called Carlos' Produce. It's owned by the same people who own the Sacco's stands, and it's open year-round. I've meant to go in since moving to Ogden four years ago, but didn't make the time until I was driving by a couple of weeks ago and saw the sign;
"Local apples, 49 cents/pound"
I stopped immediately, and came out a few minutes later with a bushel of Gala apples, and another ten pounds or so of red delicious and Fuji apples. I then bought a peeler and a corer/chopper, and went to work.
Kezie was my good helper; she peeled dozens of apples for me and make everything go much faster. After a night of work, we had about eight quarts of applesauce, and twenty of apple slices, all canned and lined up in the pantry.
A week later, I went back for more apples. By then, I had bought a Foley food mill with some Amazon gift cards, and hoped that would make the applesaucing process go faster. It did not. That was $30 I wish I had spent on something else. I prefer peeling and coring the apples before cooking them, rather than removing the seeds and pulp in the mill later. It's faster and it tastes better.
Kezie and I settled in for another night of apple processing, and I was hoping for another dozen quarts of applesauce, hoping it would turn out as well as the first batch. It did not. It had the weirdest texture; it tasted like apple-flavored pudding with lumps in it. Trust me, no one wanted to have to eat it. It was the same method I used before, so I have no idea what went wrong. I was not throwing out all fifteen quarts, though, so I came up with the solution; apple butter. I've wanted to make apple butter for years, ever since becoming addicted to it, served on a piece of fresh bread from the campus bread bakery, my freshman year.
Crock put apple butter recipe
In a nutshell; put applesauce in crock pot with sugar and cinnamon. Cook for a really long long time, stirring occasionally. When it's cooked down to about half the former volume, add more sauce and sugar and cook some more. Remove from slow cooker. Eat, refrigerate, or can immediately.
The result: the kids love it. The weird texture applesauce worked perfectly for apple butter. Now I have thirteen pints of applebutter in my pantry. Total cost: $22 for apples, sugar, and cinnamon. This does not count the waste of $30 for the food mill, or the $35 for the peeler and the corer/chopper, which was money well spent.
"Local apples, 49 cents/pound"
I stopped immediately, and came out a few minutes later with a bushel of Gala apples, and another ten pounds or so of red delicious and Fuji apples. I then bought a peeler and a corer/chopper, and went to work.
Kezie was my good helper; she peeled dozens of apples for me and make everything go much faster. After a night of work, we had about eight quarts of applesauce, and twenty of apple slices, all canned and lined up in the pantry.
A week later, I went back for more apples. By then, I had bought a Foley food mill with some Amazon gift cards, and hoped that would make the applesaucing process go faster. It did not. That was $30 I wish I had spent on something else. I prefer peeling and coring the apples before cooking them, rather than removing the seeds and pulp in the mill later. It's faster and it tastes better.
Kezie and I settled in for another night of apple processing, and I was hoping for another dozen quarts of applesauce, hoping it would turn out as well as the first batch. It did not. It had the weirdest texture; it tasted like apple-flavored pudding with lumps in it. Trust me, no one wanted to have to eat it. It was the same method I used before, so I have no idea what went wrong. I was not throwing out all fifteen quarts, though, so I came up with the solution; apple butter. I've wanted to make apple butter for years, ever since becoming addicted to it, served on a piece of fresh bread from the campus bread bakery, my freshman year.
Crock put apple butter recipe
In a nutshell; put applesauce in crock pot with sugar and cinnamon. Cook for a really long long time, stirring occasionally. When it's cooked down to about half the former volume, add more sauce and sugar and cook some more. Remove from slow cooker. Eat, refrigerate, or can immediately.
The result: the kids love it. The weird texture applesauce worked perfectly for apple butter. Now I have thirteen pints of applebutter in my pantry. Total cost: $22 for apples, sugar, and cinnamon. This does not count the waste of $30 for the food mill, or the $35 for the peeler and the corer/chopper, which was money well spent.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Finally, tortilla success
Managed to make edible homemade tortillas today. Also discovered a pretty good homemade enchilada sauce. If only I had discovered these things while I wasn't in the middle of a weight-loss competition.
Homemade tortillas (Food storage only!)
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 T baking soda
Whisk these together. Add
1/2 cup shortening. Mix this in with your hand or a pastry cutter. Mix very well, until the mix looks like moist crumbs. This will take a few minutes
Add about 1 cup of water. Knead until mixture forms a soft dough that isn't sticky (you may need more water). Break dough into small balls, and use a rolling pin to flatten. Cook on frying pan until browned on each side.
Enchilada sauce
1 small can tomato sauce
1/4 cup roasted red chili sauce
Cumin
Chili powder
Small can green chilies
Mix the ingredients together, and use in place of enchilada sauce.
I am tired of buying enchilada sauce, especially since my favorite brand never goes on sale. As soon as red peppers go on sale, I'm roasting them and canning this sauce.
Homemade tortillas (Food storage only!)
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 T baking soda
Whisk these together. Add
1/2 cup shortening. Mix this in with your hand or a pastry cutter. Mix very well, until the mix looks like moist crumbs. This will take a few minutes
Add about 1 cup of water. Knead until mixture forms a soft dough that isn't sticky (you may need more water). Break dough into small balls, and use a rolling pin to flatten. Cook on frying pan until browned on each side.
Enchilada sauce
1 small can tomato sauce
1/4 cup roasted red chili sauce
Cumin
Chili powder
Small can green chilies
Mix the ingredients together, and use in place of enchilada sauce.
I am tired of buying enchilada sauce, especially since my favorite brand never goes on sale. As soon as red peppers go on sale, I'm roasting them and canning this sauce.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Food Storage Meal: Chicken and Rice Soup
Chicken and Rice Soup (food storage edition)
1 onion (or dehydrated onion)
2 stalk celery (or dehydrated celery)
2 carrots (or dehydrated carrots)
1 can chicken breast
2 cups chicken bullion
3 cups water
1 1/2 cup rice
Oregano
Pepper
Salt
Cook celery, carrots, and onions in oil until soft. Add chicken and broth from bottle. Add broth or bullion, water, rice, and seasoning. Cover, cook for twenty minutes. Add more water if necessary.
1 onion (or dehydrated onion)
2 stalk celery (or dehydrated celery)
2 carrots (or dehydrated carrots)
1 can chicken breast
2 cups chicken bullion
3 cups water
1 1/2 cup rice
Oregano
Pepper
Salt
Cook celery, carrots, and onions in oil until soft. Add chicken and broth from bottle. Add broth or bullion, water, rice, and seasoning. Cover, cook for twenty minutes. Add more water if necessary.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
It's not pretty...
Chicken was only $1.39 this week, so I decided to try canning it. I've been wanted to plug the giant meat-shaped gap in my food storage. I also figured that it would be nice to have a bunch of cooked chicken around, and I just don't have a the freezer space for very much.
It's not hard to bottle: cut chicken, put chicken in jars, pressure cook. I found the instructions here:
http://lovehugsandgiggles.blogspot.com/2008/11/canning-chicken.html. (I did not use salt).
I have to add that this was made possible through the loan of a pressure cooker from Mom and Ted (thanks, guys).
I've used this chicken two days in a row, now. It's unbelieveably convenient; I plan to can the rest of the chicken that's in my freezer as soon as I have the time. It also increases my food storage possibilities, so I look forward to coming up with new storage-only meals.
Since I was canning anyway, I decided to try bottling apple slices. I had about twelve pounds because they were sixty eight cents a pound this week, and I knew I'd use them somehow. I peeled, sliced, blanched, bottled, and boiled. We'll use these for pies, or for rice and apples, or over ice cream
I love that pop the bottles make when they seal. My girls love it, too; they kept giggling every time they heard it, and would hang around while I pulled the bottles out of the water so they wouldn't miss it. In a couple of years, I think I'll have a couple of little helpers.
Additonal:
I've been doing some research, and you can can include sauce in the bottles before you cook them, to flavor the chicken. Monday will find me at the grocery store buying another box of chicken and some Italian dressing.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Amazon subscribe and save
So, this is cool.
I'd heard of Amazon.com's subscribe and save service, but the last time I looked at it (for cloth diaper detergent) it didn't have much that I was interested in. I hear their prices on diapers are amazing, but since I don't use them, I haven't looked into it.
I was cruising a bargain blog today, and a price caught my eye. Shawn takes Omeprezole (Prilosec) twice a day, which gets kind of expensive. The cheapest I can get it consistently is $19 for 42 tablets at Target, and once or twice I've found coupons for other store brands and paid $18 dollars. This means $30 a month for his medication, and leaving it out of the budget isn't an option, for a lot of reasons that I won't go into (if anyone is actually reading this, you should thank me for not explaining. Trust me.)
The Subscribe & Save price for name-brand Prilosec is $17.30, and you get $3 off your first purchase. My plan is to order three, then set up my next order for six months from now, and see if the price drops before then, so I can get it cheaper. Still, the current price is fantastic, and shipping is free.
I've been looking around the website for other deals, and found a pretty good price on toilet paper. Sun liquid dish soap is a pretty good price, about 97 cents a bottle, but I usually wait until it drops below 90 cents to stock up.
This is kind of exciting. Buying this sort of thing online means I get a great price, and I don't have to go to the store, which means I don't make impulse buys. Win!
I'd heard of Amazon.com's subscribe and save service, but the last time I looked at it (for cloth diaper detergent) it didn't have much that I was interested in. I hear their prices on diapers are amazing, but since I don't use them, I haven't looked into it.
I was cruising a bargain blog today, and a price caught my eye. Shawn takes Omeprezole (Prilosec) twice a day, which gets kind of expensive. The cheapest I can get it consistently is $19 for 42 tablets at Target, and once or twice I've found coupons for other store brands and paid $18 dollars. This means $30 a month for his medication, and leaving it out of the budget isn't an option, for a lot of reasons that I won't go into (if anyone is actually reading this, you should thank me for not explaining. Trust me.)
The Subscribe & Save price for name-brand Prilosec is $17.30, and you get $3 off your first purchase. My plan is to order three, then set up my next order for six months from now, and see if the price drops before then, so I can get it cheaper. Still, the current price is fantastic, and shipping is free.
I've been looking around the website for other deals, and found a pretty good price on toilet paper. Sun liquid dish soap is a pretty good price, about 97 cents a bottle, but I usually wait until it drops below 90 cents to stock up.
This is kind of exciting. Buying this sort of thing online means I get a great price, and I don't have to go to the store, which means I don't make impulse buys. Win!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Wheat flour
I've been waiting for wheat flour to go on sale at local grocery stores for six months, and it hasn't. It's at least $12 dollars for 25 pounds at the store, which is way too much.
I went up to the Honeyville store in Brigham City last week and bought 100 pounds of wheat flour for $27. Their store prices are so much better than their website prices.
At the Honeyville store, I also picked up some freeze-dried mushrooms, peppers, and onions. I hope that we don't get to the point that we can't buy fresh fruits and veggies, but I plan to be prepared if we do.
I went up to the Honeyville store in Brigham City last week and bought 100 pounds of wheat flour for $27. Their store prices are so much better than their website prices.
At the Honeyville store, I also picked up some freeze-dried mushrooms, peppers, and onions. I hope that we don't get to the point that we can't buy fresh fruits and veggies, but I plan to be prepared if we do.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Food storage meal: Pizza Pockets
Pizza Pockets
1 recipe white bread dough, or frozen or refrigerated dough
Pasta Sauce
Dehydrated peppers, onions, and mushrooms
Cheddar cheese (optional)
I used the same sauce that I use for pasta, but only half as much. The leftover sauce can be used for pasta, or frozen and used another day.
Spread out the bread, and fill with sauce and cheese. Fold the dough like a burrito, pinching the edges. Bake for about 15 minutes, until browned.
The cheese keeps this from being a true food storage meal. There is such a thing as freeze-dried cheese, but I haven't dared try it yet.
1 recipe white bread dough, or frozen or refrigerated dough
Pasta Sauce
Dehydrated peppers, onions, and mushrooms
Cheddar cheese (optional)
I used the same sauce that I use for pasta, but only half as much. The leftover sauce can be used for pasta, or frozen and used another day.
Spread out the bread, and fill with sauce and cheese. Fold the dough like a burrito, pinching the edges. Bake for about 15 minutes, until browned.
The cheese keeps this from being a true food storage meal. There is such a thing as freeze-dried cheese, but I haven't dared try it yet.
Food storage meal #1: Pasta
Food storage meal number 1:
Pasta with tomato and vegetable sauce
1 jar Pasta sauce (I use Prego, which I buy on sale for about $1.25 a jar)
Dehydrated mushrooms, peppers, and onions
1 pound pasta. I buy this in bags when they are less than 70 cents a pound, or in the bulk bins at Winco for 73 cents a pound
Put the sauce in a saucepan, add the dehydrated food and cook until heated. Pour over cooked pasta.
Pasta with tomato and vegetable sauce
1 jar Pasta sauce (I use Prego, which I buy on sale for about $1.25 a jar)
Dehydrated mushrooms, peppers, and onions
1 pound pasta. I buy this in bags when they are less than 70 cents a pound, or in the bulk bins at Winco for 73 cents a pound
Put the sauce in a saucepan, add the dehydrated food and cook until heated. Pour over cooked pasta.
This is before it's cooked. It looks better afterward, I promiseSprouts
A neighbor gave me a jar and some seeds for sprouting for Christmas. I used to sprout seeds, but I was using cloth over the top of the jar to drain the water, and it doesn't work very well. This one has plastic canvas over the top, and it's a wide-mouth jar. It works beautifully.
To sprout seeds:
Put seeds in jar and cover with water. Soak for 12 hours if using large seeds, and 6 hours for small seeds. Rinse. Rinse 2 or 3 times a day until the seeds sprout and sprouts grow to desired length.
Sprouts are ridiculously good for you. They have vitamins, proteins, amino acids, and minerals. I keep seeds in my food storage because they are a good source of fresh food in case we can't go the the grocery store.
I usually sprout wheat because I have a lot of it. I put sprouts in bread, which gives it a nutty texture. They also go in soup, rice dishes, bean dishes, and can be eaten plain.
To sprout seeds:
Put seeds in jar and cover with water. Soak for 12 hours if using large seeds, and 6 hours for small seeds. Rinse. Rinse 2 or 3 times a day until the seeds sprout and sprouts grow to desired length.
Sprouts are ridiculously good for you. They have vitamins, proteins, amino acids, and minerals. I keep seeds in my food storage because they are a good source of fresh food in case we can't go the the grocery store.
I usually sprout wheat because I have a lot of it. I put sprouts in bread, which gives it a nutty texture. They also go in soup, rice dishes, bean dishes, and can be eaten plain.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Granola
After months of loving oatmeal, my kids have decided that granola is now the best breakfast food ever. Granola's price is way out of our budget, but it's really easy to make. I made a visit to the bulk bins at Winco, and only got as much of the nuts and craisins as I needed, so it turned out pretty inexpensive.
Coating:
1/3 cup oil
1/4 C brown sugar
1/3 C honey (may need more)
1 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon
Granola:
4 cups oats
1 cup of chopped raw nuts and seeds (almonds, cashews, pecans, sunflower seeds)
Raisins or dried cranberries to taste
Mix dry and wet ingredients seperately, then combine. Spread onto a baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees for about twenty minutes, stirring halfway through. Store in an airtight container.
This cost me under three dollars, and the girls love it. It is good with milk, or eaten plain. I especially love it, because it requires no fresh ingredients; it can be made entirely with food storage items.
Coating:
1/3 cup oil
1/4 C brown sugar
1/3 C honey (may need more)
1 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon
Granola:
4 cups oats
1 cup of chopped raw nuts and seeds (almonds, cashews, pecans, sunflower seeds)
Raisins or dried cranberries to taste
Mix dry and wet ingredients seperately, then combine. Spread onto a baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees for about twenty minutes, stirring halfway through. Store in an airtight container.
This cost me under three dollars, and the girls love it. It is good with milk, or eaten plain. I especially love it, because it requires no fresh ingredients; it can be made entirely with food storage items.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Honeyville Giveaway
I'm shamelessly pimping a website giveaway. Because I really, really want to win.
Honeyville Farms is giving away 3 sets of freeze dried food in #10 cans. Each set has six cans, and has a variety of fruit, vegetables, or potatoes.
The website for the giveaway is http://honeyvillefarms.blogspot.com/ and the giveawy is open until Monday.
Honeyville Farms is giving away 3 sets of freeze dried food in #10 cans. Each set has six cans, and has a variety of fruit, vegetables, or potatoes.
The website for the giveaway is http://honeyvillefarms.blogspot.com/ and the giveawy is open until Monday.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The meal method
I had a "duh" moment this weekend while looking for food storage recipes.
I came across several websites written by people who have a great method for beginning your food storage. Start by naming five meals that can be cooked with storeable items, and store enough ingredients to make each meal five times.
This will give you 25 days of food storage.
When you have the first 25 days, name five more meals, and store enough to make each meal five times. Then store enough to make each meal ten times each. That would be 100 days of dinners in your food storage, which is more than three months.
Ideally, you would eventually have enough to make thirty meals twelve times each, or fifteen meals twenty four times each. If you add enough for breakfast and snacks, that's a full year of food storage.
Why did I not think of this?
I came across several websites written by people who have a great method for beginning your food storage. Start by naming five meals that can be cooked with storeable items, and store enough ingredients to make each meal five times.
This will give you 25 days of food storage.
When you have the first 25 days, name five more meals, and store enough to make each meal five times. Then store enough to make each meal ten times each. That would be 100 days of dinners in your food storage, which is more than three months.
Ideally, you would eventually have enough to make thirty meals twelve times each, or fifteen meals twenty four times each. If you add enough for breakfast and snacks, that's a full year of food storage.
Why did I not think of this?
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Homemade oatmeal packets
My kids eat oatmeal for breakfast almost every single day. When my little one wakes up, the first word out of her mouth is often, "O-meal?"
I buy the oatmeal packets when they go on sale. They are one dollar per box, or ten cents per packet. They eat three or four packets per day between the two of them, so we use three boxes per week. This means that I spend $156 dollars per year to feed my kids breakfast, plus the milk we put on the oatmeal. This isn't a lot, really, for breakfast for an entire year. I was pretty sure that I could reduce it significantly, though. Plus, those packets only go on sale every few months, and what happens if I run out before then? I don't have the room to store a full year's worth of boxes of oatmeal packets, so then I have to make it on the stove. Making oatmeal on the stove is cost-effective, but it is a lot less convenient.
During the caselot sales in September, I bought fifty pounds of quick oats. I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to do with them, but I knew I'd figure something out. I definitely wasn't prepared for how much room fifty pounds of oats takes up; I used three and a half five-gallon buckets to store them all.
I paid $18 for the oats.
Today, I went to the Honeyville Farms store in Brigham City. I paid $23.70 for cans of freeze-dried blueberries and strawberries. I then sat down to make homemade oatmeal packets.
Oatmeal packets:
1 3 pound canister of quick oats
take two cups of these oats and put them in a blender until they are powder
Add 1 cup of sugar
2 T salt
Add fruit; raisins are cheapest, but other freeze-dried fruit works well.
Shake the container until the oatmeal is mixed. Add the oat powder and shake again.
Optional add-ins: powdered coffee creamer, powdered milk, cinnamon
To use: boil 1/2 cup of water and add to 1/3 cup oatmeal mix.
I made about 100 ounces of this in two large oatmeal cylinders, one with strawberry and one with blueberry mix.
Cost: before adding fruit, a canister of this mix costs me under a dollar. After I added the fruit, the price went up to about three dollars per canister. Each canister will make approximately 32 servings. The same amount of oatmeal in packets would cost about twice that amount.
I love this method because it saves money, it leaves out the preservatives and artificial flavoring, it allows me to make exactly as much oatmeal as my girls want to eat, and it means we can choose our flavors. I've always wished I could buy the blueberries and cream oatmeal all by itself. This way, I don't have to be the first one to open the box to get my favorite flavor.
I buy the oatmeal packets when they go on sale. They are one dollar per box, or ten cents per packet. They eat three or four packets per day between the two of them, so we use three boxes per week. This means that I spend $156 dollars per year to feed my kids breakfast, plus the milk we put on the oatmeal. This isn't a lot, really, for breakfast for an entire year. I was pretty sure that I could reduce it significantly, though. Plus, those packets only go on sale every few months, and what happens if I run out before then? I don't have the room to store a full year's worth of boxes of oatmeal packets, so then I have to make it on the stove. Making oatmeal on the stove is cost-effective, but it is a lot less convenient.
During the caselot sales in September, I bought fifty pounds of quick oats. I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to do with them, but I knew I'd figure something out. I definitely wasn't prepared for how much room fifty pounds of oats takes up; I used three and a half five-gallon buckets to store them all.
I paid $18 for the oats.
Today, I went to the Honeyville Farms store in Brigham City. I paid $23.70 for cans of freeze-dried blueberries and strawberries. I then sat down to make homemade oatmeal packets.
Oatmeal packets:
1 3 pound canister of quick oats
take two cups of these oats and put them in a blender until they are powder
Add 1 cup of sugar
2 T salt
Add fruit; raisins are cheapest, but other freeze-dried fruit works well.
Shake the container until the oatmeal is mixed. Add the oat powder and shake again.
Optional add-ins: powdered coffee creamer, powdered milk, cinnamon
To use: boil 1/2 cup of water and add to 1/3 cup oatmeal mix.
I made about 100 ounces of this in two large oatmeal cylinders, one with strawberry and one with blueberry mix.
Cost: before adding fruit, a canister of this mix costs me under a dollar. After I added the fruit, the price went up to about three dollars per canister. Each canister will make approximately 32 servings. The same amount of oatmeal in packets would cost about twice that amount.
I love this method because it saves money, it leaves out the preservatives and artificial flavoring, it allows me to make exactly as much oatmeal as my girls want to eat, and it means we can choose our flavors. I've always wished I could buy the blueberries and cream oatmeal all by itself. This way, I don't have to be the first one to open the box to get my favorite flavor.
Meals for the next two weeks(ish): 12-11 to 12-23
Went to the grocery store today; first trip in ten days. I was hoping to make it fourteen days, but we ran out of cheese three days ago, and I ran out of non-cheese meal ideas.
Grocery total: $42.92. I will get at least twelve meals out of this, using what I have in my food storage already.
Four dollars of the total was on stuff that I really didn't need at all; I bought a package of treats, and a block of swiss cheese just because we like it.
Meal plan for the next twelve days (items I bought today are in bold and italicised):
Sat: Taco salad: tortillas, cheese, ground meat, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, salsa, tortilla chips, and olives, if there are any left over from another meal already
Sun: (meal with family.)
Mon:. BLT: homemade bread, bacon, lettuce, tomato, miracle whip. Fruit salad: oranges, canned pineapple, whipped topping
Tue: potato pancakes with eggs and leftover fruit salad
Wed: baked fish with sweet potatoes and salad: lettuce, tomato, oranges, orange dressing
cook an elk roast for three meals
Thurs: Empanadas (recipe TBA)
Fri: pulled elk buscuits, side of salad or fruit, whichever is left
Sat: Stroganoff: elk, mushrooms, sour cream, onion, pasta, beef bullion
Sun: baked oatmeal with bacon, or eat with family
Mon: Chicken and rice soup
Tue: chicken quesadillas: tortillas, chicken, salsa, sour cream, spanish rice
Wed: creamed tuna on bread with side dish TBA
Thurs: freezer meal
Grocery total: $42.92. I will get at least twelve meals out of this, using what I have in my food storage already.
Four dollars of the total was on stuff that I really didn't need at all; I bought a package of treats, and a block of swiss cheese just because we like it.
Meal plan for the next twelve days (items I bought today are in bold and italicised):
Sat: Taco salad: tortillas, cheese, ground meat, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, salsa, tortilla chips, and olives, if there are any left over from another meal already
Sun: (meal with family.)
Mon:. BLT: homemade bread, bacon, lettuce, tomato, miracle whip. Fruit salad: oranges, canned pineapple, whipped topping
Tue: potato pancakes with eggs and leftover fruit salad
Wed: baked fish with sweet potatoes and salad: lettuce, tomato, oranges, orange dressing
cook an elk roast for three meals
Thurs: Empanadas (recipe TBA)
Fri: pulled elk buscuits, side of salad or fruit, whichever is left
Sat: Stroganoff: elk, mushrooms, sour cream, onion, pasta, beef bullion
Sun: baked oatmeal with bacon, or eat with family
Mon: Chicken and rice soup
Tue: chicken quesadillas: tortillas, chicken, salsa, sour cream, spanish rice
Wed: creamed tuna on bread with side dish TBA
Thurs: freezer meal
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Menu 12-1
Ran to the store for milk, tortillas, sausage, and mushrooms. Revised menu for the next week or so:
Wed: elk roast and au gratin potatoes
Thurs: french dip with leftover elk and canned fruit
Fri: mashed potato soup with sausage
Sat: pasta alfredo with mushrooms and italian chicken
Mon: bean burritos
Tue: tin foil dinners
Wed: baked oatmeal and sausage
Wed: elk roast and au gratin potatoes
Thurs: french dip with leftover elk and canned fruit
Fri: mashed potato soup with sausage
Sat: pasta alfredo with mushrooms and italian chicken
Mon: bean burritos
Tue: tin foil dinners
Wed: baked oatmeal and sausage
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