100-Day Pantry -- A Book Review

"The purpose of this book is to help you prepare your pantry so that you can eat from it for one hundred days."

The first sentence of this book totally grabbed my attention. An organized approach to having long-term food storage...I was sold!  Is it sad that organization makes me happy? Anyway, I was excited to read this book and try out all the recipes.  The concept of having a pantry full of shelf stable foods and being able to feed my family for at least 100 days, and also having a system that works of rotating through the food, is always intriguing to me, see organizing really does make me happy :)  Click HERE to visit Jan's website 100daypantry.com.

Sorry for the unflattering photo. I was rushing.

 I met Jan Jackson, the author of 100-Day Pantry, at the Self-Reliance Expo a few years ago and after talking with her I had to buy her book.  There are over 125 recipes using only ingredients that are stored in your pantry.  Making a pantry meal once or twice a week is how I rotate my food storage, and Jan's book has a similar concept.  This is a great book to have in your food storage cookbook collection because there are always times when you need to use up pantry items and need a quick recipe.  Think of the case lot sales that we have here in Utah, you could stock up on a few cases of food and this cookbook goes right along with it.  It would also be great book to have in an emergency if you didn't happen have your everyday recipes organized before the disaster. (gasp!)  You could pull out 100-Day Pantry and probably have most of the ingredients on hand to make a meal for your family.  The recipes are easy to follow and the ingredients are quite typical of what most of us have on our pantry shelves.  

Jan graciously allowed me to share on of my family's favorite recipes from her book..... Basil Tomato Soup!

This recipe is really as easy as grabbing a few pantry staples, opening them and heating them up. Don't forget to have a few good manual can openers in your storage!!

Pantry staples at my house include chicken broth, tomato soup, canned tomatoes, spices, pastas, and Parmesan cheese. (The cheese can be purchased in smaller containers and stored on the shelf before opening them.  I  know that my local Dollar Store carries the smaller size Parmesan Cheese containers.) This recipe would also make a great Meal In A Bag meal.  Because I had all the ingredients in my food storage, I would be able whip this meal up once a month and I would be rotating through my food storage regularly. 

The best part of this recipe is that all you literally have to do is open the cans and start pouring them into a large pot.

Everything cooks in one pot for about 12-15 minutes and dinner is ready!

I wanted to show you the actual recipe from Jan's book because I love how she organizes (surprised?) her ingredients.  They are categorized so you know which pantry items are coming from which part of your storage.  Jan also has a section in her book on how to organize all these pantry items. She lists several ways that might work with this system of pantry cooking.  There is also a section in the back that is set up for vacation cooking. Who wants to lug all their spices on a vacation?  But with a few pantry staples you can cook food in your vacation condo/house and save money. It's all planned out for you and even has a shopping list!

I think that this book is a great resource for anyone with food storage in their home.  There are soups, pasta dishes, chicken and beef recipes, vegetarian recipes, and even dessert included in this book!  It's a great way to rotate through those cans in your storage, but also while eating food that tastes good!!  100-Day Pantry is available on Jan's website and also on Amazon for around $11.00.

 (I was NOT compensated for this review. I only post books, gadgets, recipes, etc that I use myself and that I feel may help my readers in their food storage adventure)