Working on Food Storage - Part 1

This post is a long time coming. I have not worked on food storage much in the past two years. Mainly because we have been eating what we had. I am SOOO thankful for the food storage we had because we never had to go on any type of assistance for food during Mike's layoff, subsequent lower paying job (which we are thankful for!) and move to the Midwest.

I wanted to share what we have done. We are back to trying to build our food storage back up. I have gotten a ton of great information from Everything Under the Sun by Wendy DeWitt. She inspired me to have a Sun Oven and prepare and store the foods that we really eat.

I have to say that Glenn Beck's emphasis on what is happening with the economy has heightened my awareness of how short we are on time in order to be prepared.

The U.S. government is currently printing money just to survive. The Federal Reserve has held the Fed Funds Rate at 0-0.25% for nearly two years and just announced that it will be printing an additional $600 billion in new U.S. dollars by the end of June 2011. Since the beginning of September until now, just in anticipation of the Fed's upcoming quantitative easing, we have experienced the largest ever short-term increase in the history of agricultural commodity prices with corn rising by 32%, soybeans rising by 32%, orange juice rising by 12%, coffee rising by 19%, and sugar rising by 66%. These agricultural commodity price increases will begin to work their way into grocery stores nationwide in the weeks and months ahead, as food manufacturers and retailers are forced to raise their prices. - inflation.us - Nov. 10, 2010

Our financial situation, like many others, has been a bit on the shaky side. That said, I hope that Heavenly Father will continue to bless us with the ability to become debt free and have our food storage.

This will be a series of posts, so I hope you will tune in for all of the steps. (Don't get overwhelmed! it is not rocket science, but it does take some time.)

Step #1 - Menu Planning
Decide on a set of meals for one week - 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, and 7 dinners. Because I want to cook with my Sun Oven we decided the "big meal" will be lunch and dinner will be sandwiches so that we have time to cook bread and the big meal in the midday.

Here is what we planned:

Sunday

• Oatmeal
• Spaghetti
• Tuna Sandwiches

Monday

• Wheat Muffins
• Shepherd's Pie
• Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches

Tuesday

• Oatmeal
• BBQ Beans
• Tuna Sandwiches

Wednesday

• Wheat Muffins
• Chicken and Rice Dinner
• Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches

Thursday

• Oatmeal
• Posse Stew or Vegetable Soup (Alternate)
• Tuna Sandwiches

Friday

• Wheat Muffins
• Chicken Dinner
• Peanut Butter & Jelly

Saturday

• Oatmeal
• Creamy Chicken on Rice
• Tuna Sandwiches

Not a ton of variety, but it will keep us fairly healthy and from starving. I wrote out each recipe and put them in a little index card book (see pictures). I have the menu for each week separated by Breakfasts, Lunches, and Dinners, with an additional section of substitutes for eggs, how to cook wheat for extending meat, and other food storage tips including alternatives for shampoo and other hygiene needs. Each recipe has instructions for how to cook it using various methods - stove top, sun oven, crock pot, etc. That way we can use whichever method we have available.

I keep these recipes separate from my other recipes. I feel that in times of crisis I don't want to be searching around for what to make. Also, this has given my children peace of mind because they know that they can pull this out and have food to eat for 3 months. I had planned to then do a "week 2" set of recipes and enlarge our food supply to 6 months, but I never got that far. :-)

Garden Burgers

Low fat, low sodium, healthy alternative....we hear the mumbo-jumbo all the time.

Let's face it...Mike and I are getting older and need to watch what we eat. Add that some of us can't eat red meat or dairy and it makes for a lot of changes in how we eat compared to the average American family. We have been eating ground turkey for a few years now and although good, sometimes needs some extra flavoring. Here is a recipe I have come up with for a very flavorful burger! The whole family loves it...even my red-meat-craving husband.

Garden Burgers

1 lb. Ground Turkey - (Jennie O is my favorite)
1 egg
1/2 c. oats
1/4 c. chopped onion
1/4 c. chopped green pepper
1/4 c. chopped carrots
1 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 t. Mrs Dash - (Garlic and Herb is my favorite flavor for this meal)
1/4 t. pepper

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Divide into 6 equal parts. Roll each part into a ball and press into patties. Fry in a non-stick pan on one side about 4 minutes at 300 degrees (medium heat). Flip over. Fry until cooked through, about 8 minutes total.

The recipe is close to a meatloaf recipe. The egg helps to hold it all together, the oats cook up so that it mimics the meat and the vegetables add flavor while acting as a hidden source of vitamins. When cooking turkey meat, note that it does not have grease...much healthier for those watching their cholesterol and triglycerides. :-)

NOTES: I forgot to add that you can substitute any vegetables that you want, even those grown from your own garden! Some other suggestions are any other types of peppers, shredded zucchini, or celery.