Storing Complete Meals

Here's a question:  Do you have cans of food in your storage that you don't use? Do you have a case of pasta sauce, but no pasta to go with it?  

The answers to these questions will matter one day when you are hungry for a spaghetti dinner but you only have pasta sauce. If you buy a case of spaghetti sauce you will need to store pasta and maybe grated Parmesan cheese and a vegetable, or fruit, to round out the meal.  Every time you purchase a food item, make sure you are storing all the other items that round out that meal. 

I don't like to have food in my pantry that will only partly make dinner.  I like to have all the ingredients on hand to make a complete meal.  I have found a system that works to have complete meals in my storage. I started out by writing down all the dinners that my family enjoys, then I listed every ingredient needed to make those meals. Now I have created a shopping list, and I know exactly what to buy, and have on hand in my pantry at all times. The list is what works in my food storage plan....I always know what ingredients I need to have in my storage.  This also works for building my 3-month supply of food. I have 5 weeks worth of dinners planned, and if I multiply each item by 3 I then have enough for 3 months worth of meals.  It keeps my meal plan organized in a way that I'll have all the ingredients on hand to make many different meals, without having to go to the store for last minute items. (click here to see my recipe binder)

My ingredient list that becomes my shopping list.

Example:

1. I have 5 weeks worth of different dinners planned out with side dishes.
2. I wrote every ingredient on a piece of paper to make each meal, including the side dishes.
3. The ingredient list now becomes my shopping list.
4. Multiplied by 3 (to equal 3 months worth) and I now have enough food to make a meal every night for 3 months!
5. I know how many cans of chicken broth I need to make those meals and also how many cases to buy at the case lot sales.  
6. COMPLETE MEALS!  I am now storing all the ingredients to make complete meals. Including the side dishes, which include muffins, quick breads, veggies, and fruits.  

It doesn't matter how many meals you have planned out.  I just happened to have 5 weeks worth of recipes that we really like to eat.  Start with one week's worth of meals it that is easier for you.  Multiply your 7 meals by 13 to have 3 months of food storage. There are roughly 13 weeks in 3 months, so if your plan only has 7 different meals in it you'll multiply by 13. Then begin shopping for those ingredients. 

 What If I Want To Eat Fresh Produce....

While we all love to have fresh produce as our first choice when cooking, you'll need to think of a back-up if those fresh items become unavailable.  For longer-term storage of fresh produce, think of dehydrated, freeze-dried, or canned items to fill in for fresh ingredients.  Give freeze-dried foods a taste.  There aren't many that I wouldn't eat.  Fresh dairy is also an area that we don't want to be without.  Freeze-dried cheese, powdered butter, canned butter, and powdered milk are also an important item to have in your storage. 

Back to complete meals....

Once you have your ingredients in your storage you can make many meals with them.  But even with careful planning like my example above there may be times that you''ll have to know how to cook something you would normally buy at the store.

Let's take a look at a breakfast example: 

If you make pancakes, french toast, or waffles, do you have the ingredients to make syrup?  Or have freeze-dried or bottled fruit as a topping?  Do you know how to make the bread to have the french toast?  Do you have all the ingredients to make bread?  

Meals need to be broken down this way. Yes, you may have bread in the freezer as part of your 3-month storage, but if you were in a situation where the grocery store wasn't an option anymore, you'll need to know how to make bread.  Think of all the items that you buy at the grocery store.  Do you know how to make a homemade version of them?  Go through your menu plan and see if there are items that you buy that could also be made at home. Even if you plan on buying them as your 3-month supply, there may be a time when that isn't an option anymore. Here are a few of the things that I know how to make at home instead of buying at the store.

• granola bars
• bread
• dry ranch dressing mix
• syrup
• granola
•  crackers
• fruit snacks 
• yogurt and cottage cheese  

Of course there are many things that you can be bottled.  Grow a garden and save more money by making your own spaghetti sauce, canned fruit, applesauce, salsa, pickles, etc.  Think of how self-reliant you could be! No more running to the store for something for dinner. It's my goal to be that way someday.  As you're shopping, and adding to your storage, always think of what you are purchasing and how you're going to eat it.  It does no good to have 50 cans of tuna, but no mayo, pickle relish, and a bread recipe with all the ingredients on hand to make it. Plain tuna from the can would get old really fast, I promise :)

Self-Reliant Saturday-- Don't Forget The Flavor In Your Food Storage!

Summer is here and that means BBQ's, picnics, and outdoor fun!  This is also the perfect time to stock up on all the foods that go along with those cook-outs.  Watch the grocery ads for ketchup, mustard, salad dressing, bbq sauce, relish, mayo, and spices.  These types of foods add flavor to your cooking.  Basic food storage will only be tolerated for so long by a hungry family.  Don't forget to stock up on the condiments and spices that add flavor to your food storage!  Paper products like plates, bowls, napkins, cups, plastic utensils, and paper towels are also on sale.  Who wants to do dishes in an emergency?!  Your challenge is to stock up now while the prices are LOW!

 And don't forget about all the camping deals out there. Take advantage of the great prices on tents, camp stoves, sleeping bags, and all the gear that goes along with camping.  Restock your 72-hour kits and car kits with camping tools, gloves, collapsible shovels, tarps, etc.  Father's Day and Fourth of July sales are the best time to purchase larger items for a great price.  Sometimes you can find great deals at the end of the summer season, but if you really need a tent and find a great price, buy it!

Sneaking Dehydrated Veggies Into Dinner

Dehydrating foods is one of my favorite ways to have food storage.  But sometimes I forget I have jars of it in my pantry.  This is just a quick tip that I used the other night for dinner. I added dehydrated spinach to my pizza sauce before spreading it on the dough.  I'm probably the last person on the planet to figure this out, but I figured I might as well share. 

I simply crumbled the dried spinach in my hand and stirred it into the sauce.  No one knew it was there!  Plus it added a subtle flavor to the pizza that I really enjoyed.  I also love sneaking all that extra nutrition from the spinach into the foods we normally eat.  It was a busy night when I made the pizza and it was a grab-n-go type meal.  A few of my kids were eating it in the car on the way to an activity.  So the pizza with the spinach was dinner and a veggie all in one!  This is just one more way that I use my food storage in everyday living.  Think of all the other dehydrated foods that could be powdered, in a food processor or blender, and then added to soups, stews, sauces, etc. You'll become known as the sneaky chef! Well, if anyone finds out that you're sneaking veggies into their dinner :)   And once you're done with the spinach, sealing up the extra spinach for use later on is so simple using a food saver.  Click here to see how that works.  Simple, easy, quick ideas that use my food storage....it's a win!

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!

Feast or Famine?

Feast or Famine?  Which are you choosing in times of distress or emergency?  I know which one I choose!  

In the LDS church we have been counseled for many, many years to have a one year supply of food and supplies on hand for rough times ahead.  But for so many, a year supply of everything we eat and use on a daily basis is pretty much impossible.  I think we often overlook the fact that the one year supply foods we are counseled to have are meant to be survival foods, foods that will keep us alive in a time of emergency.  We are not to have a year supply of every single food and non-food necessity that we use on a daily basis.  Ingredients such as wheat, oats, rice, beans, powdered milk, sugar/honey, etc. are considered long-term (25-30 years in #10 cans) supply foods. They will keep you fed but they will not fatten you up.  Think of a one year supply as survival food, not the pop tarts the kids like for breakfast. Your 3-month supply will be the normal foods that you use on a regular basis. 

What recipes could you come up with, using only the basic long-term ingredients?  It won't be fancy, but it would keep you alive!

If you read the information in the link below you'll notice that the list of foods for long-term storage come from the grain category. Remember to store the long-term grains your family will eat. But also think of alternative ways to use items that are nutritious but maybe your family doesn't care for.  If your family doesn't like cooked beans, store dried beans and grind them into a bean flour and add them into baked goods.  It will add fiber and protein to breads and other baked goods.  Take stock TODAY and see where you could add a little more.  And learn to use these ingredients, don't store them away for 30 years.  I can only beg for so long for you to get your food storage :)  


Click HERE to read through the very informative booklet put out by the Utah State University Extension services called Cooking With Food Storage Ingredients.  It's full of great information and recipes using basic long-term food storage.

Using the FoodSaver to Seal Dry Goods

Preserving and extending the life of food is important when you are planning on what food to add to your food storage .  Food is expensive and if there is a way to extend the shelf life by a couple of years, it's worth looking into.  There is a simple and relatively inexpensive way to prolong the life of food, and it's called a Foodsaver.  I'm sure a lot of you have heard of, or even use a foodsaver, but it is also a great little appliance for sealing dried foods.  I use my foodsaver and mason jars (or other food safe jars that have a metal lid, like spaghetti sauce jars) to seal up dried foods like candy, spices, chocolate chips, food from #10 cans, rice, beans, wheat, dehydrated foods...the list can go on and on. 

 

Freeze-dried cheese and cocoa powder sealed in mason jars.

The FoodSaver

 

I bought my foodsaver a few years ago on Ebay for around $50, and the tall canister I found on Amazon for about $20.  The canister is designed for sealing food inside of it, but it also works to seal mason jars. It acts like an air chamber that eliminates all air from the mason jar.  Today I am sealing candy, a must have in our food storage.  A store in my neighborhood is closing and all candy was 50% off.   I couldn't pass that deal up and ended up buying a bag to store for later chocolate cravings.  Besides cravings, it's important to have comfort foods, normal foods, in your storage.  This will give your family a sense of normalcy in an emergency.  Plus it also comes in handy when you need to make a treat last minute!!



When looking for a Foodsaver, make sure it has a port on the front of it. It is necessary to connect a hose from the base unit to the canister to suck all the air out.   I don't use my foodsaver for sealing using foodsaver bags, which most people want it for, so I bought the smallest unit I could find.

The port holds the hose that will attach to the Foodsaver canister, which sucks all of the air out of the glass jars. 


Now the fun begins.  Decide what you want to seal and put it into mason jars.  Every jar size will work.  I have sealed every size, from tiny jelly jars to half gallon jars.  And it is quite simple to do, unlike the teenage girl in the photo.  She's in a dramatic phase!  My 6 year old had no problem stuffing candy into the jars.  And don't worry about empty space in the jars, this isn't like canning, it will still seal with air pockets.

Some candy will already be in packages and filled with air.  I make a small cut in the bags to enable air to escape while sealing. Otherwise the bag will fill up with air, like a balloon, and take up too much space in the mason jar.  Yes, you could just pour the candy into the jar, but I think it stays fresher when they are in the original packaging. 

After filling the mason jar, add a lid and band.  This is really important...Don't tighten the lid too tight!!  Twist the ring on until just tightened, not any tighter.

Place the jar into the canister and attach the hose. 

On my machine there are stars on the corners and that is where you press, with both hands, to start the machine.  My 6 year old is the one using the machine in the photo.  She loves to help!

The machine does all the work for you.  It will make a loud humming noise while working but just let it do its thing.  It will almost be over when a green light goes on.  Wait for the green light to blink, then hit cancel, and take the hose off of the canister, not the machine end.

After taking off the hose, press the grey button on top of the canister and hold it down until all the air has escaped.  You'll be able to tell by sound when the air is done.  It sounds like a balloon losing air.

Your mason jar is now sealed!  Check the lid on your jar to see if it clicks when you press on it.  If it still moves up and down you will have to re-seal it. 

 Problem Solving When a Jar Doesn't Seal

•  Check the rim of the jar and make sure it is clean,  check the underside of the lid too. You don't want any food particles or dirt/dust to be on a jar or lid. 
• Always check glass jars for nicks or scratches especially along the rim of the jar.  Jars with defects shouldn't be used for food any longer. 
• Old or used lids may not seal very well.  Use new lids for best results.
• It you still can't get a seal, place a lid upside down on the original lid and try sealing again.  This usually solves the problem.
• Your ring may be screwed on too tightly.  Check how tightly you turned the ring on the lid.  Finger tight, not screwed on all the way.
• If you are sealing powdered items, such as spices, flour, baking soda, cake mixes, etc. place a muffin liner, or cut-to-fit paper towel, in the top of the jar before putting the lid and ring on.  This will create a barrier between the powdered item and the foodsaver.  You don't want fine food particles getting into your foodsaver hose.  It WILL ruin your foodsaver.  
• When using pickle jars, spaghetti sauce jars, and other food safe jars, clean them well!  If the lids aren't clean it may not seal.  I like the smaller pickle relish and jam jars for sealing extra spices in. 

It only took about 10 minutes to finish all the jars in the picture.  I take the rings off and store the jars on a shelf in my storage room.  And I have been know to hide the candy jars where they aren't easily accessible.  That helps the kids forget that we have them.  Ok, it helps ME forget we have them :)  Once on the shelf the jars should have a life of 2-5 years.  I have read varying time frames for the shelf life of sealed food in mason jars.  I always go with my own intuition and my sight, smell, and taste of something before eating it.  If it passes those tests, we eat it.  Most of the time food will lose nutrients, but won't be bad and make you sick. 

A simple and affordable way to preserve food and extend the shelf-life.  All in one little machine! Check your local thrift stores and garage sales for these amazing little contraptions.  People love to try the latest craze and the foodsaver was one of those crazes a few years ago.  I found a large canister, brand new in the original wrapping, at a second hand store for $2.  Just make sure the foodsaver unit has a port on the front and you'll be ready to start sealing!

Variety is the Spice of Food Storage

Now that Christmas is over winter could be done too in my opinion. The dark, cold days of winter can get very monotonous. I wish spring with all the vibrant colors would get here a little faster than it does. While thinking of this I also thought of food storage and how it can also become monotonous and bland.

If you were to eat from your food storage for the next month with NO trips to the store for any item, could you do it? I bet we would find some gaps in our food storage. At first we may have fresh fruit or veggies, but after 2 weeks or so they would be gone and then what? If you have canned or dried substitutes your family may not even realize you had to use them as a substitute. But most of us would be eating pretty bland food.

Some food that we use all the time is cheese, but do we have it stored for long term use. Some of the big blocks of cheese at the grocery store are vacuum sealed cheese (Tillamook is a great example) and will last months in the fridge if unopened. You can also vacuum seal your cheese after opening with a Food Saver and it will last a lot longer. Freezing shredded cheese is also a great option and cheese powder in a #10 can would work for some baking recipes. I've also read that if you wrap your cheese in aluminum foil, with no air gaps, it will last a lot longer too.

I thought of other food items that would add spice to an otherwise bland storage. We can have wheat, pasta, rice, flour, but without some added flavor we would be sick of eating it after awhile. 

Items to spice up your bland food storage: (only buy what your family uses)

-Ketchup
-Salsa 
-Spices of all kinds
-Cocoa powder (stores indefinitely)
-Chocolate chips (vacuum seal in mason jars for maximum shelf life)
-Brownie and cake mixes
-Cheese
-Eggs (powdered eggs are amazingly simple to use)
-Butter (butter powder is available)
-Drink mixes to add some variety to water
-Shortening/oil (not much baking can be done without it)
-Soy Sauce
-Candy/Chocolate (store candy in #10 cans marked as pinto beans and no one but you will know they are there, that way it will stay part of the food storage and not some late night candy raid :)

We also need to have variety in our everyday storage. Think of all the pastas that are out there. My kids will think I have made a new dinner just because there is a new pasta in the pan. Store more than just spaghetti. Sugar also has more than one form, white, brown, powdered, honey and molasses. There are many dinners that you can make starting with bullion or soup base. Don't forget to store beef, chicken, and even pork varieties. (Winco has soup base in their bulk bin area for a great price). Having just a little variety will make your storage last a lot longer with-out your family getting bored. 

A great non-food item to store would be cheesecloth. You can use it to make cheese from powdered milk and also need it to make cottage cheese. (Rennet tablets also come in handy for cottage cheese making)

One of the most important items I think to store are canned FRUITS AND VEGGIES. Your family needs to store 185lbs of EACH (on average) to have a year supply. That's a lot of produce. This summer and fall I bought fresh fruit and veggies when they were at their cheapest and we ate what we could and I dehydrated the rest. I then vacuumed sealed the dried food into mason jars and they should keep for a couple years on the shelf. I recently dried celery after having a bunch left over from Thanksgiving time and it shrunk down to nothing and I used it in soup (after reconstituting it) and it was wonderful. A dehydrator is a great investment to make and I can't believe all the things I have dried: green onions, celery, apples, white onion, cilantro, carrots, bananas, grapes (that was fun to see turn to raisins) etc. This also saves a ton of money by buying the food when they are in season and then we able to use them all winter and not having to pay high prices.

During fruit tree season ask neighbors and friends to let you have fruit that is not getting picked or is on the ground. You can cook with them, freeze them or dehydrate and save lots of money too. Canned or dried vegetables are also a must. I love to look at my canned food storage and see all the different colored labels, it means I have variety, think spring and how colorful it is. Our food storage needs to look like that as well. Here is a list of fruits and veggies to store (of course only store what you will use):

Applesauce (also great for an oil substitute in baking)
Dry fruit (raisins, coconut, apples)
Fruit cocktail
Mandarin oranges
Peaches
Pears
Pineapple 
Beets
Carrots  (dried)
Corn 
Green beans  
Green Chilies
Instant potatoes
Mixed vegetables
Mushrooms
Onions- dried minced
Peas
Pickles 
Pumpkin 
Salsa 
Spaghetti sauce
Tomato paste 
Tomato sauce 
Tomato soup 
Tomatoes 
Yams

As you can see there are many ways to store fruits and veggies. Pick a few to focus on in the next couple of weeks and add some variety to your food storage.

Here is an easy recipe using canned items.

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken
1 can black beans drained an rinsed
1 can corn drained
1 large bottle salsa
2-3 chicken breasts
Add all to a slow cooker and cook on high 2-3 hours. Shred chicken when cooked all the way through.
We eat this on tortillas with some rice.

Self-Reliant Goals for December:

Long Term Goals:
Flour 75lbs PP
Sugar 60lbs PP

3-Month Supply Goals:
Substitute a canned version
of a fresh ingredients in one of your recipes sometime this month. Even if you love to use fresh ingredients, you will need a canned version if there was no electricity or major disaster.

72-Hour Kit Goal:
Try to find the little Hotties body warmers. The packs of body warmers will definitely be needed if we encounter a disaster in the dead of winter. They even have an adhesive product to stay where you want it. Make sure that everyone in your family has gloves or mittens. Trying to find a matching pair in the dark and in a hurry could potentially be impossible :) The body warmers should also be kept in your car kits as well. Mylar blankets are a great thing to have in a car kit and 72-hour kit. Make sure to have 1 per person