Food Storage

Here is another great food storage quote:

“Many more people could ride out the storm-tossed waves in their economic lives if they had their . . . supply of food . . . and were debt-free. Today we find that many have followed this counsel in reverse: they have at least a year’s supply of debt and are food-free.”
-President Thomas S. Monson
“That Noble Gift—Love at Home,” Church News, May 12, 2001, 7.

I have had people ask, so I'm sharing some ideas of things that have worked for us and that we've learned regarding food storage. These are a couple of things that we have done that are helping:

I didn't know what to do with old #10 cans of interesting things (Blueberry Nuggets, Powdered Margarine, Chicken TVP, etc.) that I had in my garage. I came across this site (which is AWESOME! and has lots of good stuff on it). One of the best things is their recipe list. You click the #10 canned item that you have, a list of different ideas that you can make with that food item pops up, you click the item you want and the recipe pops up.
Here is the link:
http://beprepared.com/recipes.asp?ai=1&c2r=tn&name=Recipes&bhcd2=1246554824
This site gave me some great ideas! Plus, they sale lots of emergency preparedness items. The shipping rate is pretty good, although it is cheaper if you order more (anyone interested in going in together on an order?) If you are interested, go to their site and sign-up for a free catalog and they will also send you email alerts of items that go on sale.


Another thing that we did was have a food storage night with Norm's brother Jeremy and his wife Jocelyn. Jocelyn made wheat chili,

I made scones (using food storage items)



and Apple Crisp (using dehydrated apple slices - I found the recipe on the emergency preparedness site that I just listed).

I had some bananas that were getting mushy, so I also made banana bread.

It was a lot of fun and it made us try things/use things that we don't normally use. (The food and company was REALLY good too!)



One of the BEST things that I did was buy this book:


And check out this site:
http://everydayfoodstorage.net/start-here

The book and the website are from the same person and both are AWESOME (the book is available on the website)! The book has lots of information that tells you all you need to know about different common food storage items - powdered milk, powdered eggs, wheat, dried beans, etc. The book walks you through the process of incorporating these food storage items into what you are eating. It has great recipes and it also helps you modify your own recipes. We are continuing to experiment with different #10 canned ingredients, modify our own recipes, and try things that we don't normally eat.



Another thing that we did is organize our pantry a little bit better (I've shared a little bit about this before, but here are some more details.) We keep most of our food storage in the garage and we fill up these Snapware containers and keep them inside the pantry for easy access.


(shown here are the Medium Flip-Top Jumbo Cereal Keeper 23 cup on the bottom shelf, and the Medium Flip-Top 17 cup on the top shelf)

When I purchased the Snapware organizers I got several in a set at Costco. The organizers have a rubber seal that keeps them airtight, and they are big enough so that you can measure directly out of them. Unfortunately, Costco doesn't carry the organizers anymore. I didn't have all of them that I needed so I went on a major search to find more. I found about 3 different sizes (including the big cereal one) at Target, I also found some different sizes at Bed, Bath and Beyond (which is great because they usually have a coupon you can use). I found this site that carries ALL of the sizes in the pantry series.

http://www.snapware.com//maindept.asp?dept_id=14000

The price on the website is the same as the price at Target (I'm not sure about the shipping costs). I decided that I wanted the directions/nutritional information with the organizer. As we use the last of something, I tape those things to the side of the organizer.


**FYI** I learned that the contents of a #10 can fit best inside of a Slim Flip-Top 15.3 cup organizer (pictured below), or into the Medium Flip-Top 17.0 cup organizer that is on the top shelf pictured above.

The next step for us is to organize some food storage items from #10 cans into some of the Slim Flip-Top organizers. This will work better with the space that we have available and it will make it easier to access some of the things that come in the #10 cans (dehydrated apples slices, etc.)

(shown here are the Slim Flip-Top 15.3 cup organizer - on the left (holds a #10 can), and a Slim Flip-Top 11 cup organizer - on the right).

This continues to be an ongoing process! Thanks to those of you that have shared what you have done with food storage. I've taken lots of ideas from different people and worked them into what will fit for our family, maybe something that I've shared will work for your family! :)