Complete Meals

One of the biggest challenges to long-term food storage is MEAT!

Consider purchasing some "complete" meals which include meat.

These meals don't taste too bad. My biggest complete is their size:cost ratio. The box pictured feeds three adults although they claim 4.5 servings. The cost at our local "BIG" store is $3.00. I guess, when you figure the cost of ground beef, that's not outrageous.

The shelf-life is about one year.

Importance of Water

If you've ever had to live without water, or lived with water rationing, for any extended period of time, you know how much we take clean tap water fore-granted.
We can live for several weeks without food, but only a matter of hours, especially during the summer, without water.

Yesterday there were about 160 tornadoes that devastated some areas in the southeast United States. Tuscaloosa, Alabama was particularly effected. A town of about 83,000 persons has some areas totally destroyed, however almost the entire city is seriously effected because they are without electricity and many without water.

When an area is devastated by a natural disaster, services can be disrupted to it's citizens for an extended period of time. Treatment plants and power stations are damaged or without power or water lines broken.

We've all seen the pictures of people lined up to receive a water ration during past events. Our hearts went out to the people involved. Supermarket shelves quickly emptied of any supply available.

According to www.ready.gov we should store one-gallon per person for at least three days for emergency preparedness. This takes into account that each person requires about 1/2 gallon of water per day with these exceptions:

* Individual needs vary, depending on age, physical condition, activity, diet, and climate.
* Children, nursing mothers, and ill people need more water.
* Very hot temperatures can double the amount of water needed.
* A medical emergency might require additional water.

We keep a supply of bottled water on hand rotating it as we drive on road-trips, go to ballgames, etc.. We also store 5 gallon containers and a 55-gallon drum for cooking/ sanitary purposes.

We can now purchase water filters that can filter even river water for human consumption. Our son used one on a scouting high-adventure and was able to drink water from the river he was canoeing on.

Sometimes things happen and we lose what we store because of the disaster, but more often we are effected by the disaster without being directly impacted like the people in Tuscaloosa who are still in their homes but find themselves without electricity, water, and phone service.

Food Rotation Formula

It is extremely important to use our food storage in a timely way to avoid waste. God has blessed us with the resources to store food and we should be wise and grateful stewards.

We must use our food so that it does not spoil. If we do not use it, we can share it with others so as not to waste what we are blessed with. But if we do not use our storage we are not receiving all the blessings that we can claim.

Foods have a variety of shelf-life possibilities. It behooves us to know what that time frame is. Wheat and sugar keep at least 20 years. However Dry Milk keeps 2-3 years and instant potatoes 1-2 years. Canned products keep longer than product in cardboard or paper. Be mindful of use-by dates on purchased products. The internet is a great resource to learn the shelf-life of many commonly used products.

Below you will find the formula that I use for my stored foods. This is only a partial list and is given as an example only. Numbers of stored food are for demonstration purposes only.

# of cans stored divided-by years "storable" divided-by 12 (months in a year) = need to use per month

EXAMPLE:
138 cans wheat/ 20 years/ 12 = 1/2 can/month
70 cans rice/ 4 years/ 12 = 1.5 cans/month
40 cans bean/ 6 years/ 12 = 1/2 can/month
18 cans dried milk/ 2 year/ 12 = .75 can/month
42 cans sugar/ [5 years]*/ 12 = 3/4 can/month
71 cans oats/ 5 years/ 12 = 1.2 cans/month

Plan your menu by what foods/ amounts you need to use.

*Although sugar will store far longer than 5 years, I choose that time frame to ensure quality. It also fits my needs as far as usage.

To-Do List

1. Inventory food storage each year at a set time such as Labor Day. Adjust your storage to your increased/decreased needs (would like to store more/less, added a child, child became independent) or keep a current inventory adjusting numbers for usage.

2. Keep a list of food opened in your kitchen.

3. Store foods to use the oldest first.

4. Store other foods (canned, dehydrated, freeze-dried) which allow you to use your storage the way your family is accustomed.

5. To prevent spoilage, store foods in a cool, dry place, preferably away from sunlight. Store slightly away from walls (especially outside walls) and off the floor.

6. Label your containers well with the item stored, quantity, date canned/purchased, and best-used-by date.

7. Replace foods you use on a regular basis, possibly every 6-12 months.

Food Storage Analyzer

Have you ever wondered how long your food storage would last your family?

Now you can create an account (for free) at:
www.foodstorageanalyzer.com
and you will know! You can input what you have and it will tell you how long it will last, the nutritional information, and guide you to the types of foods that you can fill in with.

It's a great tool!

You can also use it to keep track of your inventory by using the My Pantry feature and deducting or adding each day to what you have.

I love this free and easy website!

Gentle Reminder

Over the past several days many states have experienced unusually bad wintry weather. Here in our area we experienced a blizzard.

I made my first trip to the store in anticipation last Saturday evening. I know how people get around here in anticipation of wintry weather and I wanted to beat the rush. I did, however, forget a few items so when I dropped my husband at work on Monday morning I went directly to the store. The parking lot was only half filled so I thought I had outsmarted everyone. To my dismay, the store hadn't planned for the early run on the store and didn't have enough cashiers to handle the increased shopping so I DID have to stand in a long line anyway. :-(

We do have plenty of food stored, but we do like certain fresh things: dairy, produce, and a few other comfort items. So we really do okay, but this was a good experience to experiment.

It's been five days since I went to the store before the blizzard. The roads are still not good. The kids missed four days of school. And to top it off with insult, it's snowing lightly today.

Tonight we ventured off to the store to get a couple of items, hopefully to last us another week. The shelves still were practically empty! I was amazed! The trucks haven't been able to get out and about for several days. Stock at the stores is dismal.

As I walked down the aisles I couldn't help but notice: no flour, no cake mixes, no Poptarts, no baking mixes, no cheese, no yogurt, no lettuce, and no bread. Now when I say "no", there might be a little. We picked up the last "Peaches and Cream" oatmeal. We picked up the last "Vanilla" yogurt. I need more Bisquick for Nathan's waffles and they were out. I guess he'll have to eat homemade.

What if...
What if that was it for several weeks? What if when the stock came in it was double or triple the cost? What if you had to live on what you have for a month? Or two? Or three?

What if it were also gasoline and you could only walk to the store? It's 1 1/2 miles one way to my closest store. Do you have the boots and other necessary items to get there without freezing to death? Do you have any cash? If you could only carry two bags of groceries at a time, what would you buy?

It makes you think, doesn't it?

What can you do better?

Evaporated Milk (Milnot)

Evaporated milk is a wonderful thing to store. Since the milk does not store for great lengths of time it's important to rotate it regularly. Following are some recipes to help rotate your evaporated milk.
If you would like to add some of your favorite Milnot recipes, you are welcome to add them to the comments.