Post Disaster Meals - No Cooking Required!

*This is a a re-post from Oct. 2012

{While talking to a neighbor last night this post came to mind and I thought it would be a good reminder for everyone. We were discussing what we would eat in the days immediately following a disaster.  Even those of us who like to eat fresh food most of the time, the hours and days after a disaster will require a different approach to eating.  The concept of having at least three days worth of food will go right along side your 72-hour kits.}

Post Disaster Meals--No Cooking Required! 

I read a great post over at Homestead Revival and it got me thinking about the minutes, hours, and first days after a disaster.  What would I be doing?  What would my family be eating, drinking, sleeping on, etc?  Amy, from Homestead Revival, described a situation just like Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath that ensued.  I was inspired by her words and her challenge to come up with enough meals for 3 days that required NO cooking.  This is definitely a challenge!  I do  have ways to cook without power, but in the hours following a disaster I don't know if I will be able to get to my butane stove, and have the sense to even want to think about cooking a meal.  

The first meal that Amy put together was tuna, crackers, a small container of mayo, pickle relish, canned fruit, and small bags of trail mix.  She keeps this in a Rubbermaid type container and has it labeled.  Everything required for the meal would be contained in the box, even a can opener, and there is no cooking needed.  Amy then challenged her readers to come up with their own meals to add to a disaster kit.  I sat and thought what could I possibly have on hand for breakfast, lunch, and, dinner without cooking.  Here is what I came up with......

Breakfast would include:

• Cereal
• Shelf-stable milk
• bowls and spoons

 Lunch  #1 would include:

• Tuna
• Saltine crackers
• Mayo
• Pineapple (for in the sandwich or a side fruit)
• Chex Mix

Lunch #2 would include:

• Peanut butter
• Jelly
• Saltine Crackers
• Oranges

Lunch or Dinner idea:

•  Soup (different kinds for picky family eaters)
• Saltine Crackers
• Spoons & bowls
• Pears

The soup wouldn't be warm, but it is edible.  

 Dinner would include:

• Taco shells
• Black beans
• Olives
• Salsa
• Oranges
• And I forgot the utensils in this pic :)

Now I need to put all this food into a water safe container with a variety of crackers, more silverware, napkins, and utensils.  I added some peanut butter and crackers at the top of the picture for a snack.  I might just add a few pieces of Halloween candy to keep our sweet tooth happy too!

And don't forget a......

What meal ideas would work for your family??  This is only the beginning, I will have to ponder this subject some more and see what else would work for us!  This idea will supplement our 72-hour kits nicely and having it all in one bin will allow me to rotate it easier, and I know that all our food is in one place.   

Easy No Knead Artisan Bread

Say you're in a situation where you have no electricity and you want to make bread.  Well, first you'll need to manually grind your wheat, then mix it all up, knead it by hand, (have you kneaded bread for 15 minutes?....not the easiest job) let rise, and then bake the bread over the fire, in a Volcano stove, or in a Sun Oven.  This is quite labor intensive! Kneading alone would have me making flatbread a couple times a week.  Have you ever tried out your manual wheat grinder?  It takes quite a bit of energy for a small amount of wheat flour. The girls over at foodstoragemadeeasy.net shared a really cool bread recipe.  It makes a loaf of artisan style bread with no grinding of flour, no kneading, and needs no electricity to bake.  I wasn't sure I  believed their claims. So I HAD to try it out!!  

Look what the final product was!! I don't know why I was so shocked that it worked, but I was.  I couldn't believe how easy this was to make.  Here's how I did it.....

First of all I followed the recipe from foodstoragemadeeasy.net exactly as they explained it.  Click HERE to see the recipe.  

The first step takes the longest, but doesn't involve any work on your part.  Crazy, right?!  

 The night before you want your bread baked, you need to mix up the ingredients.  It takes 12-18 hours for the dough to rise.  That's the longest part of this recipe, but it just sits on the counter and does it's thing.  Here's what you do:  stir together 3 cups of white flour, 1/2 t yeast, 1 3/4 t salt, and 1 1/2 cups of cool water.  It should be a sticky clump of dough.  Stir it well and then cover with plastic wrap. 

Then let the dough sit for 12-18 hours to rise.  This picture was taken in the morning after sitting for around 12 hours.  

Once the dough has risen for 12-18 hours turn it out onto a floured surface and let rest, covered, for 30 minutes. You may have to scrape the dough out of the bowl to get it into a ball shape.  I folded the dough into itself a few times to get it to stick into a ball shape. 

 Once it's fully rested, place the dough onto a piece of parchment paper and then into a round Sun Oven pan, that was heating up in the Sun Oven.  You can see my bread baking in the Sun Oven out in my yard.  

After about two hours, I took the lid off of the pan and let the bread "brown" for about a half hour.  I did mist it with water to help it brown a little.  Bread cooked in the Sun Oven doesn't get brown like in a conventional oven.  My oven hovered around 300° the whole baking time.  When the half hour was up, I took the bread out and was a little worried.  It almost looked like it wasn't cooked, but it was, and it did have a slightly hardened crust. 

 

I sliced up the loaf for dinner and was very excited that it worked so well.  It had a definite sourdough taste to it, so be prepared for that.  It isn't a strong sourdough flavor but definitely not a typical white loaf of bread.  It is great to know that even in a stressful, emergency situation that I could make bread for dinner without having to grind flour and then knead it by hand.  Now my next goal is to make this with wheat flour!

Eton Radio and Smartphone Charger

It's amazing what you can find in your 72-hour kits when you go through them.  Remember my funny story, click HERE if you missed it. We found many outgrown items, like diapers and baby formula, and I also found an old manual cell phone charger.  After looking it over I decided that it could almost be called a vintage piece of technology :)

This manual cell phone charger was purchased about 8ish years ago when I had a basic flip phone, and smart phones were few and far between.  The adapters in this kit wouldn't even fit the newest flip phone we had in our junk drawer. And with the smartphones we now own, I needed a new cell phone charger.  

After doing a google search I decided to purchase the eton hand turbine AM/FM/Weather Alert Radio.  What sold me on it was the USB charger on the back of it. It will charge both my Android and the Apple phones in my household. Plus, I can plug it into my Goal Zero unit for charging!  It has a radio, a flashlight, headphone jack, clock & an alarm clock, and is compact enough to fit into almost any backpack, car kit, etc.  Plus it helps support the American Red Cross. 

To charge a smartphone, plug the phone charger into the USB port on the back of the unit. The power from the internal battery will dump the charge to your device.  Once the eton battery is dead it will stop charging your phone.  The hand crank can also be turned to charge the phone, but I imagine that would take forever.  

There are several ways that the internal battery can be charged.  The solar panel on top of the unit, the hand crank, and the USB port.  The first time that I charged the unit I used my Goal Zero unit and the USB port and was fully charged in about 2 hours.  But you can use the hand crank or the solar panel as well.  If the unit has a low battery, turn the hand crank for 90 seconds you will have 5-7 minutes of radio time with the volume on low, or 20 minutes of the flashlight available.  Fully charged you will be able to listen to the radio for 3-4 hours with the volume on low. Using the USB adapter it will take approximately 2 hours to charge. To fully charge the unit using the solar panel it will take 10 hours.  

I purchased my eton radio from Amazon for around $50, but there are other websites that sell them. Click HERE to view the eton website.   Technology changes so quickly these days but I am hoping that this unit will serve its purpose for a while.  So use my mistake as a reminder to check your food storage and 72-hour kits for outdated items.  I don't want anyone to have to say "if I only had taken care of this while I could" in an emergency!

When The Lights Go Out

There have been several times when the power has gone out at my house, but never longer than a few hours.  And most of those times were in the middle of the night while we were sleeping and we didn't need an alternate source of lighting.  I took note the other day of how often we used the lights in my house, and the switches are flipped without a second thought. The habit of turning on a light switch when we walk into a dark room is engrained into all of us.  We take for granted that with the flip of a switch we have light.  

What Do You Use For Light When The Power Goes Out?

I live in earthquake territory and I have a feeling that with my luck we will have an earthquake in the middle of the night and flashlights will be a prized possession.  (that is totally my own opinion and I have no idea when the earthquake will hit, but with my track record of bad things happening at the worst times, it will :)

Flashlights
It is recommended to have flashlights by every bed in your home to be used during a power outage.  With kids it may be harder to keep those flashlights by the bed, but I took a few photos of the flashlights/emergency lighting in my home.  This will show you what types we use, and also give you some ideas on what types of lighting are out there.  It is by no means the only way to have lighting in an emergency, but maybe you'll find a new gadget that will work for you.  I am always finding new gadgets to add to our flashlight collection.  

  
Under the Bed-  Keeping a flashlight under your bed, inside a pair of sturdy shoes, allows you to grab and go in a disaster.  I need to take this one step further and put my shoes and flashlight in a bag that ties to the bed post.  If there was an earthquake, objects would be falling all over the place, and hunting for my shoes and flashlight in the middle of chaos would prove difficult.  

LED flashlight

 Flashlights in the Children's Room-  Each of my children have a flashlight that hangs on their beds.  Yes, I know what you are all saying and it's true.  They play with them, and lose them, and to be honest 5 out my 5 kids didn't have a flashlight hanging on their bed when I went to take a picture today.  I had a challenge to see who could find one first so I could take a photo.  I need to stay on top of things like that and make sure they keep the flashlight within reach.  It's one more thing to have to remind the kiddos to do, but it's necessary in an emergency.

Shake flashlight

 My son keeps his shake flashlight on his window sill.  (And yes his bed is next to the window and under a large shelf,  and that is probably breaking every earthquake safety rule out there.  I'm not perfect and this proves there is always room for improvement.:)  The flashlight in his room is a shake flashlight.  I don't recommend this kind of flashlight because it takes so much physical power to light the darn thing that it's frustrating.  But my son is 9 and loves things that work and so he chose that one.  My girls have regular LED click on flashlights and also the squeeze flashlights.  Those are similar to the shake variety but you squeeze the handle until you have enough energy for the light to work.  Still not my favorite, but a little easier than the shake kind.  Also note that I don't have a picture of the squeeze flashlight, none of the kids could find theirs :)

 UV Paqlite-  
These reusable glow sticks are one of my favorite gadgets on the market.  I found these at the Self Reliance Expo last year and I was sold on the idea.  The stuff (real technical I know) in side of the tubes and the plastic case glow after being held up to a light source.  They can be used over and over again and any light source will work to give them their lighting ability.  Hold them up to a car light, the sun, indoor light, campfire, etc and they glow for a very long time. I hang mine in our central closet so they don't get played with or lost.  They aren't bright enough to use like a flashlight but in a tent or small room they would give off enough light to see what was going on.  Think of a nightlight in your kids room, that kind of illumination.  Click here to see my previous post on the UV Paqlite. And click here to visit their website and view all of their products.

 

Solar Lighting-  
I really like having a solar version of a battery operated flashlight.  I leave the one above hanging on my refrigerator to keep it ready to go.  It is also a radio.  Having batteries on hand for flashlights is a great idea, but you do need quite a few batteries for any extended power outages.  It's a great idea to have a back up plan. (Remember having a plan B for your plan B.)   Solar flashlights come in all sizes. 

I keep a small solar flashlight on my nightstand, and it's a great option when the lights go out.  Solar powered garden lights are an inexpensive, easy way to have light without power.  Group them together in a #10 can or mason jar to light a kitchen or family area at night.  Set them outside, or in front of a sunny window to soak up the sun during the day, and light your home at night.  

Solar powered garden lights

 Another option on the market are products from the Goal Zero company.  The generators charge using the power of the sun (they can also be plugged in an electrical outlet). I own a smaller unit that charges phones and has power for smaller devices like computers dvd players.

Goal Zero generator and camping light

Goal Zero also carries a variety of solar lighting.  I own the lantern accessory and I highly recommend having it to go along with a Goal Zero solar generator.  Click HERE to view all of their products.  

Battery Powered Lanterns and Oil Lamps- 

I bought these lanterns at Walmart for around $10.  I do have to store extra bulbs and batteries, but they are one more way to have light in an emergency.  The Emergency Essentials 100-hour candle is also a great resource for light and they are inexpensive. Another option that uses regular cooking oil is called the Safer Emergency Candles.  Click the link to read about I tested out the Safer Emergency Candles, READ HERE.

Candles- 

 Candles are inexpensive, easy to use, and are a great item to have on hand. They give off a great amount of light and are probably the most common item people have for lighting in an emergency.  Use caution with candles, especially around children and pets. To keep my candles from rolling all over the place I made a candle holder out of an old mason jar.  It holds a burning candle on top, set in a PVC cup,  and the extra candles and matches are stored inside. After you are done using the candle, all the supplies store neatly inside the jar.

All the items needed can be found around your house and at the hardware store. The mason jar is from my storage room, and the candles and matches were both from the dollar store. A small piece of pvc pipe is needed to hold the candle in place, but it was under one dollar at the hardware store.  I placed the matches inside a small bag, and in another bag I placed the striking strip from the match box.

You Will Need:

quart size mason jar

canning lid and ring

candles that fit in mason jar

matches and strike strip

small PVC cup (from sprinkler section of the hardware store)

E6000 glue, or other permanent bonding glue

Glue the PVC sprinkler piece (from the sprinkle section of the hardware store), onto the underside of a canning lid, this will become the candle holder, and let dry.  (When not in use the lid is turned over and the PVC piece is stored inside the jar.)  Once dry, store the candles, matches, strike strip in the mason jar.  Close the canning lid with the PVC piece inside the jar, and your emergency candle is now ready.  When you need to light a candle, flip over the mason jar lid so the PVC piece is facing upwards,  tighten the ring around it, place a candle in the PVC holder and light it.  So easy, but so useful too!!  I love that my candles aren't all over the place and I have a safer, steady holder for them. Just a note- take your candle with you to the hardware store to save a ton of time from having to drive back for a different size that fits :)

PVC sprinkler piece glued to the canning lid.

There are many options for lighting in an emergency.  Find what works for you! Having multiple sources of lighting will only make your life less complicated when you need to use them.  It doesn't necessarily have to be a natural disaster to need a flashlight.  The other day I needed to look under the stove for a my kids bouncy ball and I knew right where to find a flashlight.  (obviously not from my kids' room :)  Take stock of your flashlights and batteries and make sure you know where they are. Being organized and ready NOW will pay off when you need to use your lighting for an emergency!

Emergencies and Sanitation

After a natural disaster, or any other emergency, clean up will begin and people will try to get their lives back to normal.  But there will be one area of concern.....sanitation.   The after effects of a disaster will be more deadly then the actual event because of the sanitation situation.  Contaminated water equals disease! Be prepared with a portable toilet, cleansers, sanitizers, toilet paper, manual washing machine, soaps, towels of all sizes, and of course water!

 September is National Emergency Preparedness Month and it would be a great time to gather sanitation essentials and add them to your storage.  

Cleaning your clothes without electricity will be more time consuming, but see how we did our laundry at our house when the washer was broken.  Click HERE to read that post. 

picture from preparednessnibblesandbits.blogspot.com

Have you thought about the aftermath of no public utilities?  No working toilets?  I don't want to thing too much about that, but we do need to be ready to deal with human waste.  Portable potties, or luggable loos, are a must-have item in everyone's storage.  They are cheap and simple to put together.  Tough garbage bags, kitty litter (to absorb the waste), and a snap on toilet seat are a must in your kit!!  Click HERE to view my post on the portable potty.

One thought I have when my kids are ill is how I am going to help them feel better if there were no modern conveniences, or even modern medicine.  Many people in this day in age still die from diarrhea.  Third world countries are where this is still happening, but in a situation where our sanitation is compromised we will see an increase of people with diarrhea.  Keeping a person, especially a child, hydrated will become very necessary.  Click HERE to see how to make an electrolyte drink from items you probably already have in your storage.    

When sickness does hit, be prepared with all the essentials.  Click HERE to read my post on being prepared for the flu (or any sickness). 

AND THE MOST IMPORTANT ITEM THAT YOU NEED IN YOUR STORAGE, FOR SANITATION, AND IN GENERAL......IS WATER!!!  You will need more water when someone becomes ill and for cleaning in general after a disaster.  Stocking up on Clorox wipes and other cleaning supplies will help tremendously in a situation where there isn't indoor plumbing.  Washcloths and extra towels would also be great to have on hand.

There are many non-food essentials to have in your storage, but hand sanitizers and other cleaners are very important.  You don't want to survive a disaster to then succumb to sickness because of contaminated water.  

Prepare Today: What I'm Buying

Stocking up on preparedness supplies is an on going process.  It's a cycle of buying and using, and using and buying.  I find myself continually filling in the gaps in my storage room.  I made a trip into the big city the other day and bought a few items that I had on my shopping list.

My first stop was Honeyville Grain in Salt Lake City.  I needed a few baking staples but while I was there these two cans caught my attention.

They are sealed cans of non-hybrid seeds, on sale for $10.00!!!  I almost wish I had purchased more than just the two cans.  They are shelf-stable for about 15 years. These cans sound like an amazing idea, but don't put them on the shelf and hope you'll never need them.  Plan a garden and learn all you can now, before you have to use seeds to survive.  Seeds in your storage are also perfect for people who are on specific diets and can't live off of starches and high carbs, such as pasta and rice.  

I've always been an advocate for chocolate in my storage room.  It is one of the main food groups in my house :), but did you ever want to be able to store ice cream long-term?  

Freeze-dried chocolate chocolate chip ice cream!  Just like the astronauts!  I couldn't resist, and it is actually pretty good.  It melts in your mouth and takes just like chocolate, with chocolate chips in it.  Win, win in my book!  The #10 can cost $16.99 on sale.  

After Honeyville I headed to Walmart.  I have been looking for a flashlight and this Energizer rechargeable plug-in is perfect for blackouts.  If the power goes out the light automatically comes on.  Just leave it plugged in and it will be ready to go in time of need. And at around $8 it's a great price point. I have seen these also online. 

Towards the end of summer I like to stock up on seasonal items like pool shock and solar garden lights.  

Pool shock is an essential item to have in your storage.  A 1lb. bag of pool shock can purify 10,000 gallons of water.  It doesn't expire like bleach and has a long shelf life.  Check out my post on water purification HERE for more information.  The box above was around $13.00 at Walmart.

Outdoor solar lights are a great addition to my preparedness supplies.  These were only .97 at Walmart.  Leave them outside to soak up the sun and bring them in at night for cheap emergency lights.  I collect a few every year and add them to my storage supplies.  They are inexpensive and easy to use! 

These are the items that I added to my storage room this week. What have you done this week to fill in your storage gaps?  Remember that smalls steps lead to big things!

Back-To-Basics Water Storage 3: Bathing & Filter Options

If you missed the first two posts on storing water click HERE and HERE to review.

One of the ideas I had for conserving water in an emergency would be to use a solar shower.  Owning a solar shower used to be pricey and I didn't want to pay a lot for one but, I found something that works for me.  I have tried using a 2-liter bottle to wash my hair, and it's really difficult to angle the bottle over your own head and rinse without getting water everywhere.  Taking a shower is something I don't want to do without in an emergency, and a way to clean up when so many other things will be out of control, will be comforting to those in your family.  A few years ago I discovered an attachment that fits on a garden sprayer to create a shower.  

This was before solar showers became more mainstream and a little more afforadble, but I think it's still is a frugal way to create a shower in an emergency.  It's not heated by the sun, but it could be painted black to absorb the heat from the sun, or add heated water to the base. (that would use up fuel in an emergency)

Four years ago I paid $13.00, with shipping, for 4 shower heads.  I gave two of them to my sister and kept the other two.  I bought the sprayer in the picture for $8.00 during a sale at Ace Hardware.  I have two of these emergency showers because there are 7 people in my household.  They will conserve our water, each sprayer holds a gallon of water, when water will be at a premium.  Controlling the water flow is as easy as letting go of the handle. When the handle isn't held down the water stops flowing.  It was easy to hang it on a branch outside, but it could be used inside in a shower/tub if your house wasn't compromised by a storm or earthquake. An outside shower tent is on my preparedness wishlist.

 After filling the base with warm water, simply pump the handle a few times until you feel resistance, and press the handle down on the attachment for the water to being flowing.  I timed how long the water ran before having to pump again, and it was around 35 seconds.  Now, that doesn't sound like a long time, but in-between shampooing and conditioning you don't need the water to be flowing.  It's long enough to rinse your hair, or your body, off.  Pumping the handle isn't difficult either, a child could easily do it. It won't take a lot of effort to take a shower. 

 The original source that I purchased my shower head attachments from is no longer available, but I found another source HERE and they are still reasonably priced at $5.20.

There are also solar showers available from emergency supply stores and online.  Check them out and see what would work for you.   

  This is something that I learned from a friend.  Store baby wipes and use them as a type of sponge bath. Use your shower as a weekly cleaning and the baby wipes as a daily refresher.  You will feel clean and more like yourself.  Nothing refreshes a person like being clean!!

 How are YOU planning on bathing in an emergency??

Water Filters

My last thought on water for this week:  Have a PLAN for when your stored water runs out!

Research filters both homemade and manufactured:
 The Berkey water filter
The Survival Still
An affordable ceramic gravity fed water filter
Other Water Filter Ideas
Low-cost homemade options 

Filter Water From Natural Sources:
  Know how to filter water from streams, lakes, and rivers.  

Chilling Food Without Electricity- The Zeer Pot

I just received my Every Needful Thing monthly newsletter, from the Global Sun Oven company, and this article really caught my interest.  Chilling Food Without Electricity by using a Zeer Pot.  A Zer Pot is a grouping of terra cotta pots and wet sand stacked together, and used to keep produce chilled.  It can help produce stay fresh, and edible, for up to 20 days longer than without a fridge.

Zeer Pot from Prepare Every Needful Thing

Click HERE to read the full article on how the Zeer Pot is made and why from the Global Sun Oven newsletter....Every Needful Thing.




Click HERE to sign up to receive the newsletter.  It's free and has so much information on preparedness.

And Click HERE for even more information from 4dtraveler.net. This link has great info on how much it cost to build a zeer pot and where to buy the materials. 

My Freezer Had No Power For How Long???

A good friend of mine shared a really cool idea with me and I had never heard of it before, so I had to share.

 

The Mason Jar!  It has so many uses besides the obvious canning job.  Store water in them, seal your salad in them, keep your chocolate fresh for years, AND use it to let you know if your fridge lost power for a long enough time for your food to go bad. 

Use a quart mason jar, lid, and ring. Fill halfway with water and freeze.  Once frozen, turn upside down.  Now, if you go out of town or can't make it home during a disaster, and your power goes out check the frozen status of the water in the jar.  By the look of the frozen, or not so frozen, water in the mason jar, you'll be able to tell how long your power was out.  If you have just liquid left in the jar, don't eat the food.  If you have a frozen ice cube....probably safe to cook and eat.

A few tips on helping your frozen food stay frozen if the power goes out.

1. Keep your freezer full!  Full freezers without opening the door will stay cold for 2-4 days.
2. Don't open the door! Keep the cold air in!
3. Keep the fridge unit in a darker, cooler area of the kitchen.  Not in the sun.  I know that this isn't possible in all kitchens.  But if you are planning a new kitchen, something to think about in the planning stage.
4. Find a thick blanket and use it to cover the fridge.  It will help insulate the fridge and keep the cold air in.

Keep a thermometer in the fridge/freezer as well.  Then you can be sure what the temperature will be.  (it's like the mason jar trick with a gauge)

I found this tip to be useful if you were planning a trip out of town. Because, let's be honest, that is the only time something bad happens to your house, right?!

Sometimes You Just Have To Have a Sense of Humor

Today was one of those days where nothing seemed to go just right.  There was quite the thunderstorm going on outside as I was going about my morning routine, when I literally turned the shower on, and the power went out.  No big deal, it should come back on, yeah right, it wasn't in the cards for today.

After about a half hour I decided on plan B.  I needed to get my kindergartener off to afternoon school so we made a simple lunch, and got her already for school.  Her favorite thing to do is watch a show on her ipod while she eats.  (don't judge, she is the youngest and is used to constant noise and chatter from her siblings, and she doesn't find my conversation interesting, so she gets to watch a little something before school) Well, her ipod wasn't charged....of course....so I ran and got my Goal Zero generator.  
 

This is an example of how handy a Goal Zero is when it is fully charged!!

Yup.....it wasn't charged either. So.....she watched a video on my laptop, that was almost dead.  We made it through lunch and now it was time to leave.  

Funny thing when the power goes out....you find many things that are used on a daily basis, without a thought about electricity.  The garage door!!! (and I also learned that not one of us has a house key on our key rings.  If I hadn't been home when the power went out, I would've been locked out of the house.  We just never transferred those keys over when we moved in.)

My 5 year old found it really fun to help lift the double garage door so the car could get out.  It was a learning experience for her, and a workout for me, because she didn't know that is was possible to lift the door without power.  When we got to school there wasn't any power either.  One of the other moms said that the other 2 towns close by didn't have power as well.  That was when I figured it was going to be awhile before the power came back on.  

For 1 1/2 hours every afternoon I have free time with no children at home.  Usually I vacuum, or clean the kitchen, or run errands, and sometimes you may find me watching a show, in peace and quiet, or catching up on my social media.  But guess whose phone was almost dead? No catching up on social media today, so I swept the kitchen with a broom from the garage.  I REALLY need to purchase a broom that is a designated inside broom.  The floors needed to be cleaned and the vacuum couldn't be used, so I did it the old fashioned way.  I know, a lot of people still use a broom, but I like to vacuum my wood floors, so this was the slower, less convenient way to clean, for me.  

Since my Goal Zero unit wasn't charged I set it up in the backyard with the solar panel to charge.  The sun had come out after the heavy rain storm so I took advantage of it, for about 5 minutes.  I'm not kidding, the clouds rolled in minutes after that solar panel went up.  I didn't want the unit to get wet so I brought it back inside.  It was 2:00 by now and I figured I wasn't going to get power anytime soon so I took a shower. It felt great to be clean, but I have really short hair and it needs to be dried with a hair dryer so I don't scare little kids.  This is where pure genius comes into play.....I towel dried my hair, applied my hair stuff, and then used my round brush and a magazine to dry my hair.  I should maybe patent this idea.....I rolled each section of hair with the brush and fanned it with the magazine.  This is one time I was grateful for thin hair. It actually worked, and minus the cramp in my thumb from fanning, I was excited that I looked like I did my hair today.  I sprayed it with hairspray, and I KID YOU NOT, the power came on the second I walked out of the bathroom. It was pretty funny and I had to laugh it off.  But I really wish I had someone home to take a picture of the magazine hair dryer, it would have made this post so much more interesting.  But I guess I now have a way to do my hair without electricity.  (Maybe I should invest in some curlers of some sort.)

I immediately plugged in my cell phone and my Goal Zero unit so they are charged.  And I learned from experience, again, to have my Goal Zero unit fully charged at all times.  

Utah has been having the craziest weather lately.  Take a look at this photo.

That.right.there.is.a.tornado!!! In Utah!!!  I live in the mountains outside of Salt Lake and I couldn't believe it!  I am from Ohio and grew up with tornado safety, but this caught me off guard.  Thank goodness it never touched the ground because we were in the car and my son was outside at his football game.  Crazy!!!  So now I can add tornado safety to our family emergency preparedness plan.  

But today is now bright and sunny and we have power again.  All 5 of my children got to experience 3 1/2 hours of school with no electricity.  It was a good learning experience.  And I feel calm knowing that my county is prepared for disasters.  I attended my county's preparedness fair just last night, and they really know what they are doing.  I am working on a post so stay tuned!

Saratoga Jacks Thermal Cooker Cake Pan

Since moving 6 months ago, I haven't had many chances to shop at Honeyville Grain in Salt Lake City.  Although I have kept a running list of items that I needed, I didn't have a chance to shop until yesterday. Honeyville was having a 15% off everything sale and I was ready to shop!!  While perusing the aisles I saw two new products that got me really excited!!  They were stainless steel pans and a trivet made for the Saratoga Jacks thermal cooker.  

I have tried many times to bake in my thermal cooker with no luck. Now there is hope!! There were two pan sizes to choose from, the round cake tin, and the oval bread tin.  I chose the round cake tin because it looked like it would take up more space in the cooker and wouldn't allow as much air space as the oval shape.  That is totally my observation and I have no clue if it's true, but I went with it :)  You'll also notice the trivet that I purchased.  That allows the pan to stay up out of the water so your food won't turn out mushy. 

Cute little cake pan!!

See how it will fit into the stainless steel cooking pan!

 

I can't wait to try this out!!

If you aren't familiar with the Saratoga Jacks Thermal cooker I'll quickly go over it for you.  The idea of the cooker is to boil food for 2-4 minutes, depending on a raw meat dish, just veggies, or dehydrated foods, then closed in the thermal base the food will "cook" inside.  The thermal base is not electric, the heat retained from boiling the food will slow cook the meal.  This is great from a preparedness standpoint because it saves precious fuel in times of emergency.  I have made soups, meats, muffins, applesauce, and even kept my cold dishes chilled,etc.  Click HERE to view all my previous posts on the Saratoga Jacks Thermal Cooker.  And click HERE to visit the Saratoga Jacks website.

I must also say I was disappointed when I opened the cake tin box and realized there were no instructions included.  Thank goodness for the amazing Lisa at Honeyville.  She explained how to use the cake tin in the cooker.  Once the trivet and cake pan are in place, you only fill water up to the bottom of the tin, or else the food will not cook through and be mushy.  I would have thought I had to fill the water up the the edge of the cake tin lid, but there was nothing included with the cake pan explaining how to use it or even how full to fill the pan with food.  I am not sure how much cake batter or bread dough to use in the tin.  It'll be a trial and error kind of experiment. I think I have some more questions for Lisa!!

*Update: Amy from Saratoga Jacks contacted me and filled me in on all the cooking instructions.   
Add far as making a cake with the round cake pan.
-The round cake pan you purchased was designed to hold ONE box cake... any box of cake mix will work.
-Spray the stainless steel pot and the inside of the lid first.
-Mix the cake mix exactly as the instructions on the back of the box say... except subtract out 1/4 cup of the liquid.
-And add a tablespoon of flour.
-Pour the batter into the oiled stainless steel pan... clamp lid on. 
-I put the trivet into the thermal cooking pot... and fill with water to about one cm... above the top of the trivet. Set the cake pan on top.
-Place the lid on the cooker... and boil for 20 minutes and transfer to thermal base.
-The cake is ready in about an hour and a half. ..but as always... I have left it in for longer... and pulled it out hot and perfect hours later. 

The round pan produces a cake... similiar to the size of a wedding cake topper.
Delicious and moist!
I have done all sorts of different cakes in it.

When you bake bread...
It only needs a ten minute boil... once the dough has risen.

The oblong loaf pan... is exactly 1/2 of one loaf of bread...
So about 25% of a standard Two loaf recipe... will fill one of those oblong loaf pans.

I'll have to report back when I try out the new cake tin!