Class #1

These next four classes are based on how I do my 3 month food storage. I gave a brief explanation here.

Class One

Today's class I gave a big disclaimer- This is only how I learned to do it. I know there are many ways to do this and as I have said before- It is so adaptable that you can make changes that work for yo and your family. I just needed something to make it click for me and hopefully taking this class will get it to click for you. 

So we started out talking about the spiritual side of Food Storage. Yes, there is a spiritual side! 

I read the quote we have posted here on the Right side of this blog by Vaughn J. Featherstone

The key here for me is: Decide, Commit, and Keep it

Also, it was pointed out that although we may want to just go out and buy it all up and be done with it, or we are just so excited that we want to get it all bought and get going with it, we would be missing out on some important principles and building quality characteristics. All things that help us to know our Savior. As the 5 wise virgins did, let us prepare and trim our lamps that we might know Him when He calls. (Matthew 25)

Now for the FS (food storage) part. 

To make this work we have to change our mind set. Sometimes we want things too easy and too quickly. I believe this is on e of those principles we were talking about. Patience, persistence, faith. So, we have to be willing to change some behaviors to make this work. 

Also, the "organization" is not a bad word! The more we can be organized with this the easier and the better. See, there is your easy word right there! So today we talked about recipes. 

Recipes:

What is a good food storage recipe? Good Question. When gathering yours up, you want to store what your family eats. This isn't gather foods that we will eat in an emergency, but not everyday. That WILL NEVER HAPPEN. You won't eat it. So, look at all the things you make weekly that you know your family eats. 

Look at the ingredients. How many ingredients are Storage/Pantry items? 

Lets look at an example.

Tortilla Casserole

Ingredients:

1 ½ C Sour Cream


2 Cans (10 ¾ oz) Cream of Chicken Soup


1 Can (7 oz) Diced green Chilies


1 Can (10 oz) Mild enchilada sauce


3 C cooked chicken or 

3 cans chicken or turkey, drained (save the juices for broth!)


12 Corn tortillas, torn into bite size pieces (or Tortilla chips)


1 ½ C grated Cheese (Cheddar)

Everything here is a food storage item. Sour cream? dehydrated, add a little water, refrigerate and wa-la. Seriously it's good. And chicken? Canned Chicken. I think it's better in the can personally. And I don't have to touch it very much! (I have a meat thing)

And I keep shredded cheese in the freezer. There is also freeze dried cheese! 

If you would normally use lets say fresh carrots in a meal. Then buy a can of carrots for the storage. You can still use fresh when you have access to a store, but substitute storage for fresh as much as you can.

So this would be labeled and an ALL FOOD STORAGE MEAL

Now lets take another example:

Anniversary Chicken

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (I highly recommend THIN cut breasts)

1/2 cup teriyaki basting sauce

1/2 cup Ranch-style salad dressing

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

3 green onions, chopped

1/2 (3 ounce) can bacon bits

Now the hard thing about this on would be the Chicken breast. You really can't use can shredded chicken for this, or you could but it wouldn't be, well very good. BUT. I would say that if this is one of the dinners your family LOVES. then clip it as a FS recipe. WHY? because you can store veg. oil, teriyaki sauce, ranch dressing, and cheese from the freezer. 

These are things you can store. You will just be buying the fresh chicken that week. Now, when you can't go to the store and get fresh chicken- then you probably wouldn't be running to this recipe. 

SO, I suggest that you have at least 7 full proof FS recipes that you know will be on hand. 14 would be awesome. And then you can work the others in throughout the month. We will be talking about menu planning next class!

Now, if so far you are confused, e-mail me why- I can answer. 

OK, so your homework is to go through your recipes and come up with all your Solid FS ones, and ones that you can use mostly pantry items with. Type them up, print them out. Put them in a binder. I suggest on that has a clear pocket in the front (I'll tell you why later)

I even went so far as to make all FS items in bold and then write in the substitute FS item. like can carrots next to fresh carrots. 

However nutty you get with it, just make it so it works for YOU. Organize it how YOUR mind woks where it will be the easiest. 

Alright, now if you need some ideas there are a ton out there, also here on our recipe page we have tried and true recipes that we know works for us. I always like to know that so I am not wasting my time ya know?

GOOD LUCK and let me know if you have a question.