Now that school has started it seems I have a little more time to organize things. So I have been putting things on my shelf in date order. Making new lists of things I want to add to my storage and deciding how to fit more into what space I have. It seems that a lot of people have made the comment to me that they really want to start their storage or add to what they already have. Please do not put it off anymore. If you are only just buying the few items a week you are doing something. I think sometimes we think we have to have it all - I promise it will come and the Lord will provide a way for those who are earnestly seeking to obey. Since I have started this there have been two times that some extra money has just fallen into our lap. I used that money to purchase food because I felt that is what the Lord intended it for. He knows our hearts and our situations - don't give up. Keep taking it a little at a time. I just want to encourage everyone to keep going and going and going. Just like that commercial for the bunny and the batteries don't run out. One week at a time, one purchase at a time and you are obeying the counsel from our prophet. You can become perfect in this.
WEEK THIRTEEN: 1 bottle of multiple vitamins
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Week Twelve
I am sorry to be late in my post this week. I had some computer problems and could not post! Boy am I glad for good neighbors and friends who are smarter than me at this computer stuff.
I heard back from Lynne Jensen and she shared this awesome recipe to use with the soup mix from the storehouse. It was so good! Thank you so much. I really appreciate the feedback. I am going to be posting more recipes that we can use with our food from the storehouse. If you have some things you have tried please share! If you don't want to leave a comment just email me @ motherofeleven@msn.com. Thanks so much for your support!
Deseret Soup Mix Soup
8-9 cups water
1-1/2 cup soup mix
1 pound hamburger
1/2 chopped onion (or dehydrated equivalent)
4-5 beef bullion cubes
optional add ins (we usually use all of them):
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 cup chopped celery
Brown hamburger and drain off fat. Add all ingredients to a large pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer 1-1/2 to 2 hours.Serves 6-8
WEEK TWELVE: 4 cans mushroom soup, 2 lbs shortening
I heard back from Lynne Jensen and she shared this awesome recipe to use with the soup mix from the storehouse. It was so good! Thank you so much. I really appreciate the feedback. I am going to be posting more recipes that we can use with our food from the storehouse. If you have some things you have tried please share! If you don't want to leave a comment just email me @ motherofeleven@msn.com. Thanks so much for your support!
Deseret Soup Mix Soup
8-9 cups water
1-1/2 cup soup mix
1 pound hamburger
1/2 chopped onion (or dehydrated equivalent)
4-5 beef bullion cubes
optional add ins (we usually use all of them):
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 cup chopped celery
Brown hamburger and drain off fat. Add all ingredients to a large pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer 1-1/2 to 2 hours.Serves 6-8
WEEK TWELVE: 4 cans mushroom soup, 2 lbs shortening
Monday, September 1, 2008
Week Eleven
I have been finding new recipes to use with our wheat. I came across this "No-knead raisin bread" that I thought looked really good. So I will share with you -
1/2 C sugar 1 pkg. dry yeast
1/3 C soft margarine 1/4 C warm water
1 tsp. salt 2 eggs, beaten
1/3 C boiling water 4-41/2 C sifted whole wheat flour
1 C seedless raisins
1 C canned milk
The topping: 1 tbsp. granulated sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon
Mix sugar, margarine, and salt in large bowl. Add boiling water and stir until margarine is melted. Add milk. Dissolve yeast in warm water and add to first mixture. Stir in eggs and raisins. Add flour, one cup at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Cover and let rise until double in bulk. Beat down batter, then beat for 2 minutes. Turn into well greased 10-inch tube pan, smoothing evenly with spoon. Let rise until double in bulk, about 45 minutes. Sprinkle top with sugar and cinnamon, and bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.
I am so excited to try this out. I was amazed at how many things you can use your wheat flour for. Cookies, cakes, breads, rolls, pie crust, seasoned flour for meats, stew, casseroles, soups, pancakes, etc. I don't know why in my mind I limited our wheat use to cracked hot cereal and bread. If anyone has recipes to share please do - I really want this to be interactive - and have not had much success with that - Thanks!
WEEK ELEVEN: 10 lbs. sugar, 1 box salt
1/2 C sugar 1 pkg. dry yeast
1/3 C soft margarine 1/4 C warm water
1 tsp. salt 2 eggs, beaten
1/3 C boiling water 4-41/2 C sifted whole wheat flour
1 C seedless raisins
1 C canned milk
The topping: 1 tbsp. granulated sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon
Mix sugar, margarine, and salt in large bowl. Add boiling water and stir until margarine is melted. Add milk. Dissolve yeast in warm water and add to first mixture. Stir in eggs and raisins. Add flour, one cup at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Cover and let rise until double in bulk. Beat down batter, then beat for 2 minutes. Turn into well greased 10-inch tube pan, smoothing evenly with spoon. Let rise until double in bulk, about 45 minutes. Sprinkle top with sugar and cinnamon, and bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.
I am so excited to try this out. I was amazed at how many things you can use your wheat flour for. Cookies, cakes, breads, rolls, pie crust, seasoned flour for meats, stew, casseroles, soups, pancakes, etc. I don't know why in my mind I limited our wheat use to cracked hot cereal and bread. If anyone has recipes to share please do - I really want this to be interactive - and have not had much success with that - Thanks!
WEEK ELEVEN: 10 lbs. sugar, 1 box salt
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Week Ten
I am so sorry to have missed last week. I have been in and out of town for the last month and I just could not get it together to post here last week. That said I hope there are a few benefiting from this. It has really helped me to get focused and organized.
I talked last week about 72 hour kits and when I was working on another project I realized I left off something important from the list. Personal hygiene items. I have saved over time the small bottles of soap and shampoo from hotels that we have been to. I usually take my own stuff so I don't use it while staying at the hotel. My mom also saved stuff for me. So now everyone has there own personal hygiene kit and the girls also some feminine products added to theirs. If we had to evacuate to a shelter I know this would really be a blessing to have. Sample size products also are the right size but the ones from the hotels are free! (Well, sort of if you don't count the cost of the room, he! he!) I will get to the larger kit but will save that for later. I have not had time to get all the information together.
School is getting ready to start and there have been great sales for the back to school stuff. I picked up extra crayons and pencils and stuff for the 72 hour kits for pennies! Storing things is so fun when there are bargains involved! I also saw that snacks and things like that are on sale right now. I picked up a few things to add to the food storage shelf that would be fun treats. Those are easily rotated because David always thinks we are in an emergency situation if we run out of treats - that said storing the basics really is the priority but when sales come along it is fun to see some treats on the shelf along with the basics.
WEEK TEN: 4 cans of tuna, 4 boxes of macaroni and cheese
I talked last week about 72 hour kits and when I was working on another project I realized I left off something important from the list. Personal hygiene items. I have saved over time the small bottles of soap and shampoo from hotels that we have been to. I usually take my own stuff so I don't use it while staying at the hotel. My mom also saved stuff for me. So now everyone has there own personal hygiene kit and the girls also some feminine products added to theirs. If we had to evacuate to a shelter I know this would really be a blessing to have. Sample size products also are the right size but the ones from the hotels are free! (Well, sort of if you don't count the cost of the room, he! he!) I will get to the larger kit but will save that for later. I have not had time to get all the information together.
School is getting ready to start and there have been great sales for the back to school stuff. I picked up extra crayons and pencils and stuff for the 72 hour kits for pennies! Storing things is so fun when there are bargains involved! I also saw that snacks and things like that are on sale right now. I picked up a few things to add to the food storage shelf that would be fun treats. Those are easily rotated because David always thinks we are in an emergency situation if we run out of treats - that said storing the basics really is the priority but when sales come along it is fun to see some treats on the shelf along with the basics.
WEEK TEN: 4 cans of tuna, 4 boxes of macaroni and cheese
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Week Nine
This week I want to talk a little about individual 72 hour kits. There are many ways to put one of these together. Our family has used 5 gallon buckets in the past and that was good and easy to store in their closets. I have been saving older backpacks that the kids don't use for school anymore and that is what I am using now. I think it is a little easier for little ones to carry and they seem to store pretty good. They are not air tight so your food needs to be in zip lock baggies. Generally speaking what you put into a kit you probably already have around the house. This is an activity that we do at a FHE. I make a game out of gathering the items and we have prizes for who finds things the fastest. Here is a basic list that I use:
1. One outfit, generally a pair of sweats and t-shirt and sweat shirt. (I have them get things that are play clothes out of their drawers. I never buy anything new for this, also I try to do this around September when they have all their new school clothes and shoes so it is easier for them to find something they don't want to wear for a while.)
2. 3 pairs of underwear, (diapers & wipes if you have a baby) 2 pairs of socks, and a pair of tennis shoes.
3. 3 bottles of water
4. A small first aid kit
5. Color book, crayons, a pad of paper, and pen. (kids will get bored while in a shelter if we have to be evacuated, so some type of thing to keep them entertained works good) If you have a baby a couple of baby toys and maybe some kind of blanket for them to snuggle with.
6. Food: this usually is granola bars, fruit snacks, instant oatmeal, individual cracker or cookie pkgs. This part of the 72 hour kit is more for snack type foods. We put together a larger kit that includes more dehydrated type things that can be put together for meals like when we go camping. Remember this is the individual kit and your kids have to carry them.
7. A small mess kit.
8. If you are on a certain kind of medication it is possible to be able to store some of that as well. Talk to your doctor and let them know what you are doing. My step dad has done this with his medication and sealed it with one of those food sealing machines.
This is a real basic kit. Next week I will go into more detail as to what to put into the larger kit. This is one that generally can be carried by mom and dad along with the individual one.
If you have any suggestions or ideas to share please do, we all could benefit from other's experiences. I have never had to use our kits for anything so if you have had to use yours and thought "I should have had this or that" please share. We do rotate the food every year during a family home evening. We eat what is in the kits for dinner and add new food. This has been interesting as we have found out what the kids absolutely did not like to eat and what they did like. This is also the time that we rotate the clothing - children grow and sometimes what I had for one child could be passed down to the next.
Week Nine: 5 lbs. of honey, 1 lb. of yeast (by the way store your yeast in the freezer - and keep in the refrigerate after it is open - you can store it quite a while this way!)
1. One outfit, generally a pair of sweats and t-shirt and sweat shirt. (I have them get things that are play clothes out of their drawers. I never buy anything new for this, also I try to do this around September when they have all their new school clothes and shoes so it is easier for them to find something they don't want to wear for a while.)
2. 3 pairs of underwear, (diapers & wipes if you have a baby) 2 pairs of socks, and a pair of tennis shoes.
3. 3 bottles of water
4. A small first aid kit
5. Color book, crayons, a pad of paper, and pen. (kids will get bored while in a shelter if we have to be evacuated, so some type of thing to keep them entertained works good) If you have a baby a couple of baby toys and maybe some kind of blanket for them to snuggle with.
6. Food: this usually is granola bars, fruit snacks, instant oatmeal, individual cracker or cookie pkgs. This part of the 72 hour kit is more for snack type foods. We put together a larger kit that includes more dehydrated type things that can be put together for meals like when we go camping. Remember this is the individual kit and your kids have to carry them.
7. A small mess kit.
8. If you are on a certain kind of medication it is possible to be able to store some of that as well. Talk to your doctor and let them know what you are doing. My step dad has done this with his medication and sealed it with one of those food sealing machines.
This is a real basic kit. Next week I will go into more detail as to what to put into the larger kit. This is one that generally can be carried by mom and dad along with the individual one.
If you have any suggestions or ideas to share please do, we all could benefit from other's experiences. I have never had to use our kits for anything so if you have had to use yours and thought "I should have had this or that" please share. We do rotate the food every year during a family home evening. We eat what is in the kits for dinner and add new food. This has been interesting as we have found out what the kids absolutely did not like to eat and what they did like. This is also the time that we rotate the clothing - children grow and sometimes what I had for one child could be passed down to the next.
Week Nine: 5 lbs. of honey, 1 lb. of yeast (by the way store your yeast in the freezer - and keep in the refrigerate after it is open - you can store it quite a while this way!)
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Week Eight
I have been on vacation and even while vacationing I have been thinking a lot about our food storage. What prompted the thinking was the fact that I was in California when they had their "little" earthquake. My immediate thought was how do you store things that you can in Southern California (glass jars would break when they fell from the shelves) Where did I put all my jam I just made and would it be safe if an earthquake hit here at home? But I did not think about that very long but asked myself these other questions. How can I make my storage grow faster? When is the next order going in for the cannery? Am I buying the right kinds of food that my family will eat? OK , so I have gone a little overboard with the fixings for taco soup. My family loves this recipe and it can be made without the meat. But I am sure they will get tired of that so I do need to move on to a new recipe:) Seriously, that is such an important aspect of food storage. You need to store what your family will eat. That takes a little planning. Sorting through recipes for meals that don't have to many perishable ingredients can be tricky. Taco soup is a perfect example of that:
TACO SOUP
1 pound of browned hamburger
28-oz. can crushed tomatoes
151/4-oz. can corn, undrained
15-oz. can black beans, undrained
151/2-oz. can red kidney beans, undrained
1 envelope dry ranch dressing
1 envelope dry taco seasoning
1 small onion, chopped
tortilla, or corn chips
shredded cheese
sour cream
1. Combine all ingredients except chips, shredded cheese, and sour cream in slow cooker.
2. Cover. Cook on low 4-6 hours.
3. Garnish individual servings with chips, cheese, and sour cream.
You can leave off the garnishings but if you have the other ingredients stored in your food storage then you can buy only those things if times are hard! Hopefully things will not be so bad that we can't get our sour cream and cheese! The secret ingredient though is the ranch dressing so don't leave that out! I would love to hear of other recipes that you can just make from a can. Campbells soup has a great recipe book that has lots of ideas!
Next week I"ll be sharing some recipes for things you can make ahead and freeze. The storage life is not as long as shelf food but it is always nice to have something in the freezer for unexpected dinners needed for a neighbor or on a night you just don't have time to think about making dinner. Plus once you start cooking like this you save lots of $$$ on your grocery bill and that extra cash can go for more food storage. See I have been thinking lots about this:)
Week Eight: 5 lbs. of powdered milk
TACO SOUP
1 pound of browned hamburger
28-oz. can crushed tomatoes
151/4-oz. can corn, undrained
15-oz. can black beans, undrained
151/2-oz. can red kidney beans, undrained
1 envelope dry ranch dressing
1 envelope dry taco seasoning
1 small onion, chopped
tortilla, or corn chips
shredded cheese
sour cream
1. Combine all ingredients except chips, shredded cheese, and sour cream in slow cooker.
2. Cover. Cook on low 4-6 hours.
3. Garnish individual servings with chips, cheese, and sour cream.
You can leave off the garnishings but if you have the other ingredients stored in your food storage then you can buy only those things if times are hard! Hopefully things will not be so bad that we can't get our sour cream and cheese! The secret ingredient though is the ranch dressing so don't leave that out! I would love to hear of other recipes that you can just make from a can. Campbells soup has a great recipe book that has lots of ideas!
Next week I"ll be sharing some recipes for things you can make ahead and freeze. The storage life is not as long as shelf food but it is always nice to have something in the freezer for unexpected dinners needed for a neighbor or on a night you just don't have time to think about making dinner. Plus once you start cooking like this you save lots of $$$ on your grocery bill and that extra cash can go for more food storage. See I have been thinking lots about this:)
Week Eight: 5 lbs. of powdered milk
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Week Seven
Sorry this is a little late. Getting caught up after trek has taken me some time. Anyway, I can't believe how well I have done in just six short weeks. My storage is really beginning to look like a food storage! This week is item is a little more costly than the $5. I know that I have talked to a couple of people and they were having a hard time finding some wheat. The cannery did not have any when they called and so they went to another cannery and purchased quite a bit and split it with people.
For myself I have my wheat already so I am going to be working on my 72 hour kits. I will have a longer post on this in a couple of weeks so I will wait to tell you all what and how to get this going.
A sister has been emailing me and giving me great advice about bread making. You will want to learn this skill as practice is what makes great bread! Storing your yeast in the freezer and then the refrigerator will extend the life of your yeast. She has been using hers for 1 1/2 to 2 years now and it is still making great bread. Personally we are still working out the balance with the white flour and the wheat flour. My goal is to get into the habit of bread making once a week and then only using our homemade bread. At $3 a loaf at the store for the good bread it only makes sense that I can save in our food budget by making my bread. I am not there yet but we are working up to it. We have been using our bread maker but that only makes one loaf at a time. By September it is my goal to a full time bread maker! A little side note: We use honey in our bread and the kids also like honey for their sandwiches. If honey sits a little while it starts to crystallize and all you have to do is heat it in a pan of warm water and it will remelt. Anyway, Taylor saw my jar of honey and thought it was bad so she threw it out. It was not very old and not much had been used. When I asked where the honey had gone - she said oh, it went bad so I threw it away. I had to laugh because one time when I was little my mom had bought some bread that still had flour looking stuff on the crust and I kept throwing out the bread and she could not figure out what was going on. I thought it was bad, it was just flour on the crust. Anyway, it was a good opportunity for me to teach her about honey and we had a good but expensive laugh!
WEEK SEVEN: 100 lbs of wheat
For myself I have my wheat already so I am going to be working on my 72 hour kits. I will have a longer post on this in a couple of weeks so I will wait to tell you all what and how to get this going.
A sister has been emailing me and giving me great advice about bread making. You will want to learn this skill as practice is what makes great bread! Storing your yeast in the freezer and then the refrigerator will extend the life of your yeast. She has been using hers for 1 1/2 to 2 years now and it is still making great bread. Personally we are still working out the balance with the white flour and the wheat flour. My goal is to get into the habit of bread making once a week and then only using our homemade bread. At $3 a loaf at the store for the good bread it only makes sense that I can save in our food budget by making my bread. I am not there yet but we are working up to it. We have been using our bread maker but that only makes one loaf at a time. By September it is my goal to a full time bread maker! A little side note: We use honey in our bread and the kids also like honey for their sandwiches. If honey sits a little while it starts to crystallize and all you have to do is heat it in a pan of warm water and it will remelt. Anyway, Taylor saw my jar of honey and thought it was bad so she threw it out. It was not very old and not much had been used. When I asked where the honey had gone - she said oh, it went bad so I threw it away. I had to laugh because one time when I was little my mom had bought some bread that still had flour looking stuff on the crust and I kept throwing out the bread and she could not figure out what was going on. I thought it was bad, it was just flour on the crust. Anyway, it was a good opportunity for me to teach her about honey and we had a good but expensive laugh!
WEEK SEVEN: 100 lbs of wheat
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