Sep32009
28 Comments
Top Ten Foods for Stocking Up
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PDF- Wheat. Once ground, it’s the building block for varieties of bread, tortillas, flat bread, pizza crust and more. I’ve stocked
Love that rice! photo by Leandro H.
up on hard red wheat for hearty breads, general purpose hard white wheat, and soft white wheat for pastries.
- Rice. On its’ own, it’s a side dish. Mixed with herbs and a vegetable or two, it’s a simple main dish. It’s a great meal-stretcher when topped with, or served alongside, main dishes such as a stir fry. Note: brown rice contains oils which will become rancid after six months or so.
- Dried milk. Without electricity, fresh milk will go bad in hours. In an emergency situation, fresh will be difficult to come by unless you own a cow or a goat. Dried milk provides not only milk to drink, but milk to use as an ingredient in other dishes.
- Salt. Stock up on table salt at your local Costco. It’s inexpensive and has multiple uses.
- Beans. Buy canned beans and dry beans in different varieties. Versatile, economical and a good source of fiber.
- Tomatoes. Canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, tomato puree, etc. Watch for them on sale and then grab a few dozen cans. They’re the basis for salsas, soups, stews, and sauces.
- Other canned veggies and fruit. These will help provide important nutrients, variety to your recipes, and have a very long shelf life. If you can’t stomach canned veggies, try dehydrating your own or purchasing freeze-dried.
- Peanut butter. High in protein, yummy on warm, freshly made bread! Add some honey and you have a winner!
- Oil. Without oil, you’re pretty much stuck with boiling your meat and veggies.
- Dried pasta. Another meal stretcher and a kid-pleasing dish any day of the week. My own kids have been known to dip bow-tie pasta in ranch dressing.
- Sugar and honey. Okay, that makes eleven, but I’ve known women who were ready to kill when deprived of sugar for too long!
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(28) Readers Comments
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Thanks, PJ! There are so many great people in this community. Lots o
preparednesspro
Great list! Wheat is definitely a miracle worker since you can also sprout it as a vegetable, use it to make wheat meat… http://bit.ly/gq02h
such a versatile and amazing staple for food storage. Can't get enough!
preparednesspro
Also, if your readers keep an eye out for coupons.com, redplum.com and other great coupon sites, they can watch for sales on beans, tomatoes, peanut butter, pasta, rice, etc. Coupons are a great way to stock up faster and for less.
JayJay
Aldi's…my husband and I save $200 and go for it!!!
Veggies are limited, but at 55 cents a can, and asparagus $1.09??
I love their store.
Tammy and Parker
We will be canning about 40 pounds of chicken this weekend! Trying to get our food storage up to snuff. It's often a tad bit overwhelming.
TheSurvivalMom
Yes! It is overwhelming, but 40 pounds of chicken is an awesome step! Depending on how you prepare it later, that's at least 20+ meals! Good for you!
Lisa
Sondra
I laughed out loud with number 11. I would kill for sugar/honey too…. Great list… I am sure I have everything covered on this list… even 11.
TheSurvivalMom
I'm glad I'm not the only one whose crazy sweet tooth acts up every once in a while! Good for you for having your food storage goals met!
Lisa
Pingback: This Mom’s Survival Instincts | The Survival Mom
Hawaii Honey
Not much has been said about quinoa. It seems like it would be a great grain to store. Any comments?
TheSurvivalMom
There's a bit of information about quinoa on my site. From one of the articles, "Quinoa has the most protein of all the other grains. In fact, it is considered a complete protein since it contains all eight essential amino acids. In my opinion this is a great grain to have in your food storage because it is a complete protein. Millet, quinoa, and white rice are staples in my food storage."
MaryAnneHJ
Quinoa is an excellent choice. High in iron and easy to prepare…
JayJay
I know this sounds crazy–but those big garbage barrels with rollers from Lowe's hold lots of water and in the long run are cheaper than Lowe's 5 gallon buckets I use for my oats/rice/sugar.
JayJay
And, I am proud to say I have 8 of the 10–don't make bread, but I do need oil—put it on my list.
Tricia
Just finished canning 100lbs of fresh tuna. Best sandwich ever: home-canned tuna on home made, whole wheat bread. This has been a staple in our home since I was in 3rd grade. Now we are passing it on to our kids. Is canning chicken as easy as tuna?
kit_s
Yes, chicken, rabbit, pork, lamb; all those need to be pressure canned, just like fish, and are just as versitile. We raise all those, plus deer/elk in season, and it's simple to cube meat and stick it in a jar instead of filling yet another freezer. I like to can the chicken and rabbit on the bone, as it seems to have a good flavor, and a lot less work. We cook the bones and make broth to put on the raw-pack meat. The more flavor, it seems like the less meat is needed for a meal.
If you raise/buy a pig, you can render the extra lard and that can be canned, too. You have to specifically tell the butcher to give you back *everything* though, or they'll keep the parts they don't think people will want.
Kit
Carol Bee
I would add vinegar..it's pennies per gallon
perhaps…baking soda & cornstarch too!
bryan johnson
we have been canning since i was born i guess me and my wife are now canning veggies and jams and jellies and my favorite apple butter. We also have a small bussiness growing all types of berries but i have never canned any type of meat any information on this would be greatly appreciated a reply here on the site or anyone who reads this can send me an e-mail at dpspaintball@comcast.net would be a great help. I know the e-mail address is a little odd but me and my wife owned a paintball proshop for about 5 years lol.
Laurie
I have canned since I was little, my grama and my mom taught me. My husband only likes homemade so we have a root cellar, butcher our own animals and grow our own foods. I know that its sounds old fashioned but we have done this for many years. I also gave canning lessons this year to friends. I think this is the way to go. We have stored enough for a few years because of planning ahead (I was a girl scout)
TheSurvivalMom
I heard a few months back that canning jars were hard to find in some places because so many people are getting back into canning — more for preparedness than the novelty, I'm sure!
Michelle in ID
I just discovered that the LDS cannery in our area sells canning supplies. The jars they have right now are a thinner glass than Kerr and Ball brands, but, they are considerably cheaper and still rated for home canning. They didn't have wide mouth quart jars…they are the ones that look like mayo jars…with shoulders.
HTH someone.
)
Stacey
May I recommend Celtic sea salt over regular table salt. Sea salt has many trace minerals and is not processed as table salt is. A bit pricier but well worth the extra money
drew
ahh but you forgot vineger
Silk
Its like you read my thoughts! You appear to grasp so much about this, such as you wrote the guide in it or something. I think that you simply could do with a few percent to drive the message house a little bit, but other than that, that is great blog. A fantastic read. I will definitely be back.
gray lady
How do you preserve foods for long term? Many foods go bad — rancid. Canned goods generally have Use By dates that rarely go beyond 2014. Even home canned goods don't keep beyond 2-3 years. Do freeze dried really last 25 years?
alisha
I am new to the prepping world. I am 26 years old with lil ones. (Family of 5) please any directions on canning meats and other food items, information on how to store food, longevity of foods, websites that are helpful am also interested in how to make cider, and anything useful. Any information can be sent to smileycritter@yahoo.com
Luanne
I read your site almost daily, and follow you on FB. I aspire to BE a prepper, have made some token attempts, and really need to read your list of excuses for not prepping. I know you’ve written one.
I’ve been in an apocalyptic fiction reading phase lately, and recently read one free for Kindle, and one of the things it said was that you could live on beans and cornbread. Is that true, in your opinion? Is that meal complete in nutrition? Mostly just curious, though beans and cornmeal would be pretty easy to stock up on, it seems.
Thank you for all you do in educating us, I really need it!
thesurvivalmom
Luanne, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if that free Kindle book had been written by a man. Beans and cornbread are okay for occasional meals, but food fatigue is a real issue and there are numerous nutrients missing in that meal! By all means, store a variety of beans and learn how to use cornmeal in multiple recipes (polenta, tortillas, jonny cakes, etc.), but branch out and store wheat, peanut butter, rice, and more. Do a search here on the blog for my top 10 foods to store and other food storage articles. The key is to store ingredients that can be used to create dozens of different recipes. Trust me, you’ll be a whole lot happier than the guy eating beans and cornbread at every meal! (Also try to attend some of my webinars on food storage topics!)
Sheri
Hello, Just discovered your site last night and I’m loving it! Reading throught this particular artical and wondering why you don’t have canned tuna or chicken on the list? I’m a newbie…so lots to learn, just would have thought given the protein content and self life that it would have been on here. Thanks!