MRE Thoughts

JW wants to add some MRE's to our food storage. I honestly have no idea where to look, who sells the best tasting for the best [rice. I am a novice here!! Any thoughts?

Where has Maggie been?

Hello everyone! It's Maggie! I've been MIA for quite a while, so some of you may not even know who I am! I took a bit of a break but I'm hoping to be back on a more semi-permanent basis again. I'm grateful Gracie and Lila have helped the blog grow so much in my absence!

For those of you who do remember me, I had another child and have been enjoying my time as a new mom, and sadly this blog (and most of my survivalist tendencies) have taken a back seat. I've also blown through just about all my stored and saved food and supplies, and realized how ill-prepared for anything I am at the moment.

Although I'm now in a postage stamp size apartment, I'm hoping to start slowly but surely rebuilding our stock; be it food, supplies or money. I hope you will bear with me.

-Maggie

Canning chili rocks!

If you prep you should can or at least know how to. You probably can the usuals of veggies and jams. Peaches and green beans. Did you know some of your favorite things can be canned too? I can chili, spaghetti sauce, and even tortilla soup often. I make huge batches every time I cook these family favorites and jar the majority of it. It can take a little extra time but it is so worth it in the food storage and for nights when I don't want to fuss. You would be surprised at what you can put in a jar!

Gardening, bees and other stuff by Gracie

I went outside to check on my garden today. I have potatoes, radishes and swiss chard above the ground. Now if the weather cooperates, I will get the rest of it planted this week. This is the first sucessful (knocking on wood and crossing every finger) garden I have ever planted on my own. Sure, I have a few flowers here and there but nothing that I can eat and feed my family with. I am pretty stoked.

My bees arrive in a few weeks and I am almost ready for them. I have the deep super and the base and top all assembled. I just need to paint it all, get it leveled out in the garden, install a water source and re-read my instructions a few more times. I am beyond excited for my new hobby.

The food storage is coming along nicely. I am wanting to jump aboard this couponing train and learn to do my shopping for a lot less than I do now. Maybe I can use my savings to put fuel in my car. That is a gripe for another day I guess. In the meantime I will just stay home as much as possible and only go to town when I have to.

Getting geared up for the summer!

Ok so I know I have been pretty absent (ok, totally absent for quite some time, but who's getting technical here?), but there has simply been nothing to blog about for a very long time. But now I have spring fever and I am ready to get ready. What am I doing to get ready, you may ask?
Well, for starters, I have got my garden planned out. Now I just have to wait untill the wnow melts to put that plan into action.
My chickens are getting ready too so I have to get the coop ready for them. This morning I braved the wind and cold in order to clean out the nesting boxes. Much to the annoyance of the hen who was waiting to lay in said boxes. I left all of the hay on the floor because it serves as an insulator and it is still just too cold to take it out yet. So I have one hen laying already and hopefully now that the boxes are cleaned out, the rest will follow suit.
Back to the garden. This year we are planing a new venture that will make my garden produce a thousand times more! Ok, maybe not a THOUSAND times but it will certainly make this year much better. We are going to be beekeepers! Yup, for real. I ordered my bees yesterday and with the next paycheck I am ordering my starter kit which includes my hive. I know this sounds like I am putting the cart before the horse, buying bees before I have a home for them but there is a reason. The bees will not arrive untill May but the hive will be here shortly. I have a neighbor with 20+ fruit trees and tons of flowers. I have a list of flowers that are favorites of bees that I plan on planting this year as well.
I am also working on getting back into the food storage game. Working on toiletries at the moment. A local grocery store has toothpaste and tooth brushes on sale for 98 cents so we got a few to put in the bucket.
I will keep everyone updates on my progress and hopefully this year will be a much more productive year than last year.

Lame

I didn't do anything I had planned this summer. I wanted to plant a garden..it snowed untill mid June. It is already freezing in August. That is a SHORT growing season. A garden wasn't going to happen.
I wanted to really get out there with my books of edible and medicinal plants that grow naturally in my area. Again, with the weather, most of them never really came up this year. Plus it was too cold to do much.
We went on a diet and most of the stuff in our food storage were things we were not alowed to eat. Food storage got ignored and never expanded on.
This summer has just flat out been lame.

Eating Pantry Staples

My goal this last month of so, has been to eat as much as I can out of my pantry and food storage. I've been stockpiling things on a regular basis, but I've also been forgetting to rotate anything out. One solution for this (although not the best solution granted) is to stop buying groceries for awhile.

Obviously, I have to buy some things, like fresh veggies and dairy here and there, and meat at least once a week. But so far I've been able to pull some decent meals together without having to seriously put myself out on a limb.

Since I'm only feeding 1.5 people, a little can stretch a long way. A pan of cornmeal can be a side at one meal, and be used for a Tex-Mex style casserole the next. We can eat a pound of spaghetti for 3 days straight. And instead of worrying about having to buy expensive fresh red meat every few days, I can supplement it easily with frozen Jimmy Dean Sausage and my leftover Venison from last hunting season.

I'll try to keep you as updated, although I've been pretty bad about keeping up with the blog! Sorry about that!

Shelf reliance

I finally gave up on building one and just bought it. I LOVE this shelf! It freed up sooo much space in my pantry. I rearranged my whole laundry room while my kids were with the parents and got everything put back together. It is so easy to look at this thing and see how many cans I need of what so I can keep everything stocked. It was an all day project to set up though. It's not that its hard, its just that I was doing it by myself (wanted to surprise hubby) and I had to rearrange the shelves a few times to make it fit what I needed. Seriously, this thing is GREAT!

Quote of the Day

"I probably bought too much stuff, but it's all shelf stable so I can just throw it in the food storage"

-Me to Ryan the 3L, and a great example of when you know you've taken prepping into your everyday life without thinking about it.

Food Storage Cooking: Part 1

Wednesday night, I didn't feel well and was in no mood to cook. Or do anything other then lay on my couch and watch sappy romantic comedies under the thickest quilt I could find. Alas, we have to eat. I really was craving French Dip Sandwiches, but that had several roadblocks. The Boy had lost his shoes somewhere so I couldn't really take him to the butcher (I mean, I could have but it was about 45 degrees out and he kept taking his socks off and I refuse to be that mom). I have a roast in the freezer, but it's BIG and there was no way it would de-thaw even part way before the weekend. I had plenty of onions, and I've been dying to try out french onion soup, but as I said before I had no motivation.

So with my first choice out the window I finally decided on making Taco Soup. I usually make this soup with at least a pound of ground beef, but seeing as I had none and the butcher was a no-fly zone I was pretty much SOL on that part. Luckily during Lent I had fooled about with this as veggie recipe so I had a decent idea of what I wanted to do.

I didn't have time to mess around with any of my dried beans, so I wandered out to the food storage and stole a mess of things I had canned. This recipe is great because you can leave out what you don't like/don't want/don't have and it generally doesn't muss things up too much. I grabbed black beans, chili beans, red beans, whole kernel corn, kidney beans, and pinto beans. I grabbed my 5 qt dutch oven and popped open the cans and dumped them (liquid included!) into the pot**. I realized at this point I was out of taco seasoning (wth?) because I've been meaning to make my own dry taco seasoning so I hadn't purchased any pre-made packs (lack of supplies is my best motivator). I did however have a pack of fajita seasoning, so I went ahead and added that. (**If you are adding ground beef to this recipe, cook the meat in the pot and add seasoning as directed before adding beans and simmering)

I let this simmer for about 30 mins, then mixed up some Krustez Honey Corn Bread Mix (my favorite) and put that in the oven according to directions (30 mins at 400). When that had about 5 mins left I checked on the soup and found that it didn't have quite the 'stew' consistency I like. This was easily solved by adding a dab of corn starch to the mix, and I pulled the corn bread out of the oven to cool.

To serve I simply cut a good chunk of the corn bread and placed it in a bowl and topped with the Taco (or I guess Fajita) Soup and a pinch of shredded cheese. This is my personal preference way to serve it, but because it makes it a bit more hearty with the cornbread. The way I originally had this was with crushed up corn chips and a bit of cheese and sour cream. Both ways are excellent, easy and cheap. And the leftovers refrigerate or freeze great, and even taste better then next time around.

Homemade Spice Mixes

When I was going through my preps I realized that if SHTF a lot of my cooking would go to hell in a hand basket. Why? Well I'm lazy (I can't believe I have to say that again) and so in some of my recipes I use those stupid little 4 oz packages of pre-mixed spices. Now, I'm not entirely inept so I'm sure I could work around it. But it wouldn't be the same. But really coughing up a buck and some change for insane amounts of little teeny packages isn't realistic or reasonable.

So I ran and found comfort online. I managed to find recipes for many of the things I already use; Montreal Steak Seasoning, Taco Seasoning, Italian Dressing Mix, and Dry Rub for Barbecue. All of these mixes can be easy stored if kept sealed and dry, for at least 6 months if not longer. Some require refrigeration, but it wouldn't be hard to throw a quart can of it on the condiment rack and call it a day.

I'm sure I can get most, if not all, of these spices in bulk, and I am willing to bet dollars to donuts that it'll be a heap cheaper to do it this way also. I mean for $1.00+ for 4 oz of mixed spices, it's hard to get more expensive.

Prepping the Preps: Part 2

I finally finished up with organizing my cabinets, and separating Shelf Stuff vs Preps. I am honestly amazed at just how much canned food I have, and more then that how much canned food I have that I know I've had since early in my marriage, so almost 6 years. Anything I could identify as over 2 years old I herded together and took into my local food bank. Frankly, the fact that I haven't eaten it in the last 5 years tells me chances are I'm not eating it in the next 5.

I'm not a super picky eater, but well... okay, I'm a picky eater. There I said it. So, it's silly for me to have things in my pantry that I KNOW I wouldn't even feed to the dog. I don't eat sauerkraut. I don't like sauerkraut. I don't need a gallon mason jar of it.

One thing I did do in the cleaning crusade was to make a list of every thing that went into my preps storage. I'm going to edit the list a bit (so it doesn't read Crm chkn Sp lrg) and place one copy on the inside of my cupboard door, and probably another in the storage itself. That way instead of buying more (insert canned veggie here) I can snag some out of the food storage, mark the list, and replenish that every other week. Using what I have stored, and saving myself some in the process as I can stock up a bit more on things I need should they be on sale.

Cooking with food storage

So at our "Survivor" night at church, we learned that you can substitute beans for oil in any baking recipe. You use black beans in chocolate recipes, pinto beans in chocolate chip cookies, white beans for white or yellow cake mixes. Just match the color of the beans to the color of the baked goods you are making. If the SHTF, cooking oil is going to be scarce as it doesn't store well. I bought a case of canned butter that has a 15 yr shelf life, but it is kind of expensive to use in baking. We will save that for special occasions where butter will make the difference in a dish. Beans are a staple in any food storage so they would be plentiful. Who says you can't eat yummy things with food storage? You cannot taste the difference in the cakes or cookies AT ALL. These cookies turned out "cake like" ie: puffy. If you like your cookies more like, well, cookies; use half beans and half oil. Same goes for brownies. Experiment and have fun.

Outplan, Outprepare, Outsurvive

So Tuesday at church we ladies had a Survivor night. It was all about how to be prepared in case of emergency. We all sat down at tables and started talking when all of a sudden the lights go out and we hear the emergency broadcast system screaching. A voice came on saying "This is only a test. If this were a real emergency, you would have to rely on the skills you already posess to survive." (Hokey, I know, but we are mormons, thats just part of our DNA.) So everyone immediatly turned on the flashlights that were sitting on the table.

Our first challenge was to find our "tribe", identified by different colored armbands, in the dark. We then had a first aid quiz. Things sure have changed since I took a first aid course. (Did you know that the only scientifically based cure for hiccups was to breathe into a paper bag?) We then had to list as many things as we could to put into a 72 hour kit. Then all three tribes had to race to put up a tent. Ours of course had no poles. The next challenge was a taste test. A member of our tribe had to try and tell the difference between dried eggs and fresh eggs. Everyone got that right but was surprised how difficult it was. They then had to tell the difference between freeze dried lasagne and store bought. That was no one was really able to tell the difference. Then the one that blew us all away. The taster had to tell the difference between baked goods that were baked with oil and the ones that had beans substituted for the oil. SERIOUSLY!? BEANS!? I kid you not, NO ONE could tell the difference. You use the same ratio between oil and beans (ie 1 c or oil = 1 c of beans). Use black beans for chocolate cake or brownies, pinto beans for chocolate chip cookies and white beans for white or yellow cake mix. Just match the color of the beans as closely as possible to the color of the goodies you are baking. You can also substitute applesauce or bananas for oil. Very cool.

We then found out that we can use a canner that the church has. For $1 per can we can use the supply of cans, lids and oxygen pouches. Then all we have to do is buy the stuff we want to put in the cans. It was soooo easy!

Prepping the Preps

So today I caught a bit of a cleaning/baking/prepping bug. The house is clean, my Wifey bread is on it's second rise, and my cupboards are bare. Seriously, I'm guessing I have a least $150 worth of boxed food type items on my kitchen counter. Probably more.

I found a lot of the usual suspects: Pasta Roni, Mac & Cheese, microwave popcorn. I also found some things that sort of befuddle me. 2 types of Jello my son is allergic too, 6 boxes of potatoes au gratin, and about 85 various seasoning packs. Not to mention several bags of Shrimp flavored Top Ramen. Not only do I not eat Ramen, I don't like seafood.

Since the 2 weeks worth of groceries I bought in case of the flu that dare not speak its name (thanks Hermit) are still sitting in the corner of my dining room, I think it's time to weed through it all and banish some to my newly cleaned out preps area in my garage shelving. I just don't need 4 boxes of white cheese shells in my pantry.

Wish me luck, and I'll update you tomorrow.

food storage for $5 revisited

So I went shopping today for essentials for 2 weeks just in case this swine flu thing gets out of hand. I revisited my $5 a week food storage list and realized it was way off on some things. I know my family will certainly go through more than 5 lbs of peanut butter in a year. I actually have 21 lbs of peanut butter on hand already. I also have 3 growing boys. The list is still a good tool to help you see what things you might need, just adjust the amounts for your family. I have also copied this list into a word document so I can check off what I already have and focus more on the things I still need.

I swear I'm not that paranoid. Really.

I'm getting more and more concerned about the Swine Flu. Not necessarily getting my family or I getting it, but more the panic side. When this stuff spreads further and people are scared to go to the grocery store, work, or school is when things are going to get tricky.

My mom is a nurse, and she's concerned but not hugely. When the Avian flu came out in Asia a few years ago, her old work had the option for nurses to personally purchase face masks at the wholesale cost. She bought a ton of them for the whole family including various child sizes for the Boy (who was just a baby at the time). I called her yesterday because one of the outbreaks in California is near some of our family. Her advice for me now was just to be careful. Don't go places I don't have to, avoid large groups like sporting events or malls. Watch the Boy for any flu symptoms and track them if he starts to develop any (our family doesn't really get fevers, so doctors tend to say "well, you have no fever" when we're about to die we're so sick).

She and I also agreed that should either the Boy or I get symptoms instead of rushing him into the Army Medical Center (which was my Plan A previously) that I would call the doctors office. Because as she pointed out, we could just have the flu. It wouldn't help for us to not have it, and then unknowingly expose ourselves to someone who does.

I went a step or two further because well, I'm getting *cough cough* a little more paranoid. I went to the store this morning and stocked up on enough groceries and non-perishables to last at least 2 weeks without having to go to the store, even assuming we don't have power. I don't have as much water as I'd like, but I'm going to get some tonight at Wally-World. It's plain cheaper, and I'm going to go pretty late at night to our 24 hr one so I can avoid as much exposure as possible. My mom also suggested if I do stock up, to be sure and get medications just like for any other flu, so I'm buying some large bottles of (generic) Tylenol and things like that. I'm also stocking up on essentials like antibacterial gel (instead of soap), toiletries, soap things like that. I can fairly effective quarantine myself off from contact if need be, but I want to have at least 2 weeks if not more of vital supplies.

My mom basically told me I'm over-reacting. And maybe I am. But frankly it's a good reason to fluff up my food storage and rotate some out. If something happens, I'm more prepared them most. If nothing happens, I have 2 more weeks of food storage supplies.

My Personal Food Storage Battle

The more things I'm doing on my own (in a self-reliance manner) when it comes to cooking, canning, and eating seasonally, the more issues I'm having with my pantry. Every time I buy something new, be it bread flour, regular flour, huge amounts of sugar, salt, etc. the more space I'm having to find. And frankly it's space I don't really have.

I'm lucky in a couple ways. My current living situation has an attached garage, and due to some previous tenants (not sure which ones to thank, but the thanks is there) there is an abundance of shelving that is perfect for storage. And must of it is off the ground which seriously cuts down on potential bad things from creepy crawlers and furred invaders.

I'm unlucky in that seeing as that place I live is older, but not old enough to be of the "make everything yourself days" I don't have a ton of inside the house storage space. I would honestly kill someone (or at least do physical harm) for a walk-in pantry. I like my food where I can see it. And lately since I know I'm going to need large amounts of the basics (see above list of recent purchases) I need to consolidate my wares.

So not only do I need useful small storage, but I need large storage containers that I can have be not only airtight, but also accessible. I want to be able to rotate my storage through my kitchen,a and I'm really only feeding two people so having huge containers of food just isn't justifiable.

Gracie posted about food storage before and since I'm lucky enough to have her as my own personal guru, I've gotten quite a bit of help. But I've moved from the "what might I need" to "what should I get", and Gracie sadly can't just pick a few things and I buy them. I've been cruising a couple sites, and most of them seem to like the Snapware line of products. I've found some for a good price on Amazon.com that I like a lot. As a single mom, I can't go blow a couple of hundred bucks on stuff. I'm going to have to buy in bits and pieces.

Anyone have any recommendations for brands they use and like, or any to stay away from?

storage solutions

We want to have more food storage, we really do. Problem is, where do we put it? I have a pantry full of food, but I have three growing boys who keep raiding it. I have one small cupboard that is full of food storage but we really dont have anywhere near enough. I think I am going to have to start putting some of the cans under the bed. Any solutions to my storage dilemma was totally welcome.
I love, love, love the shelf reliance system, I just don't have any place to put it. This is the coolest thing, it rotates the cans just like at the grocery store. I think we are going to have to clear out a place in the garage and install one. They even have stratch and dent sales! How cool is that? I know I can get my hands on plans to build something similar, I just have to ask the right people. More on this as I find info.

Food storage

So, I am Mormon and therefore have heard about food storage all my life. I am not nearly as prepared as I would like to be. I had always had a hard time trying to decide what I needed and how much. Money was also always an issue. One day at church we were given a list of things to put in our food storage, how much, and a weekly list of things to buy. You are supposed to be able to do all of this for $5 a week. I have since decided that list was created quite some time ago as NOTHING I have bought in these quantities have been $5. Still a very good start and not really expensive, just more than the $5 it states. When you are done, you should have a two year supply for two people. For anyone as clueless as I am, here it is:

Food Storage for $5.00 a Week
Week 1: 6 1 lbs. salt
Week 2: 5 cans cream of chicken soup
Week 3: 20 lbs. of sugar
Week 4: 8 cans tomato soup
Week 5: 50 lbs. wheat
Week 6: 6lbs. macaroni
Week 7: 20 lbs. sugar
Week 8: 8 cans tuna
Week 9: 6lbs. yeast
Week 10: 50 lbs.wheat
Week 11: 8 cans tomato soup
Week 12: 20 lbs. sugar
Week 13: 10 lbs. powdered milk
Week 14: 7 boxes macaroni and cheese
Week 15: 50 lbs. wheat
Week 16: 5 cans cream of chicken soup
Week 17: 1 bottle 500 multi-vitamins
Week 18: 10 lbs. powdered milk
Week 19: 5 cans cream mushroom soup
Week 20: 50 lbs. wheat
Week 21: 8 cans tomato soup
Week 22: 20 lbs. sugar
Week 23: 8 cans tuna
Week 24: 6 lbs. shortening
Week 25: 50 lbs. wheat
Week 26: 51 lbs. honey
Week 27: 10 lbs. powdered milk
Week 28: 20 lbs. sugar
Week 29:5 lbs. peanut butter
Week 30: 50 lbs. wheat
Week 31: 7 boxes macaroni and cheese
Week 32: 10 lbs. powdered milk
Week 33: 1 bottle 500 aspirin
Week 34: 5 cans cream of chicken soup
Week 35: 50 lbs. wheat
Week 36: 7 boxes macaroni and cheese
Week 37: 6lbs. salt
Week 38: 20 lbs. sugar
Week 39: 8 cans tomato soup
Week 40: 50 lbs. wheat
Week 41: 5 cans cream chicken soup
Week 42: 20 lbs. sugar
Week 43: 1 bottle 500 multi-vitamins
Week 44: 8 cans tuna
Week 45: 50 lbs. wheat
Week 46: 6lbs. macaroni
Week 47: 20 lbs. sugar
Week 48: 5 cans cream mushroom soup
Week 49: 5 lbs. honey
Week 50: 20 lbs. sugar
Week 51: 8 tomato soup
Week 52: 5 lbs. wheat

Some weeks you will have leftover change. Save the change each week in a kitty to be used for the weeks you may exceed $5.00 (like wheat or milk). You will end up with: 500 pounds of wheat 180 pounds of sugar 40 pounds of powdered milk 12 pounds of salt 10 pounds of honey 5 pounds peanut butter 45 cans of tomato soup 15 cans of cream of mushroom soup 15 cans of cream of chicken soup 24 cans of tuna 21 boxes of macaroni and cheese 500 aspirin 1000 multi-vitamins 6 pounds of yeast 6 pounds of shortening 12 pounds of macaroni This should be enough to sustain two people for one year. For every two people in your family add $5.00 more and double or triple the amount of the item you are buying that week.