The truth around my house is that I’m just not that great of a cook.  I try, I really do, but I’m definitely not in the same league as Tenille and Callie!  Check out their blog here, and try out one or ten of their recipes!

© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by GoodNCrazy

If your summer garden has been yielding a glorious harvest (mine hasn’t but that’s another story), you are probably wondering how to put all that produce away to enjoy during the winter and beyond.  I just learned that Costco has some of the best prices around on pint and quart jars.  One canning expert said she stocked up big time at the Costco in her neighborhood.  Another retailer with good prices is Ace Hardware.  If you’re in need of a lot of jars, seals, and lids, it’s worth your time to comparison shop.

By the way, one of the earlier versions of the famous Ball Blue Book recommends 890 quarts of produce to feed a family of five for one year!  If your garden produced that much, you need to write your own book!

© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

The Analyzer is a free tool that will help you determine whether or not you really do have a full month’s worth of food or whatever your food storage goal is.  It’s very common to overestimate how much food we have because, typically, we’re consuming food as we purchase it and it never actually accumulates over time.

Be sure to try out the Analyzer before August 31, to be entered in this great contest.

© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by TheDeliciousLife

I’m sure that old-timer survivalists are turning up their noses at this, but think about it.  You open a can of beans, drain them, and you’ve avoided using tons of cooking energy and all that extra water for soaking and boiling.  If you live where it’s hot, you’ve also avoided heating up your kitchen.  All that has to count for something, right?

So, don’t feel at all ashamed about stocking up on black beans, garbanzos, kidney beans, navy beans, pinto beans, and any other ‘ean you can think of!  Watch for grocery store sales and clip coupons for even more savings.

I do have about a quarter ton of dried beans, but when I’m in a hurry, I appreciate just reaching for a can opener.

© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

Freeze dried and dehydrated main dishes, such as those made by Mountain House, are on many a prepper’s To Buy list.  However, for some families, the extra expense or unwanted additives place these commercially produced meals off limits.  With a little planning, you can make your own.  Here are a few tips for getting started.

image by Nina Matthews Photography

1. Although you can definitely include your own dehydrated foods, keep in mind that putting together numerous meals using the same recipe will require a lot of each ingredient.  Therefore, it might be worth spending a bit extra to purchase commercially dehydrated or freeze dried foods for this project.  DIY dehydrated foods have a shorter shelf life than do their commercially dried counterparts.  Keep that in mind.
2. Three good resources for dehydrated foods are Honeyville Farms, All-in-One Preparedness, and Harmony House.
3. The shelf life of your finished dinners will be equivalent to that of the ingredient with the shortest shelf life.  For example, a recipe containing pasta will have a shelf life of about seven or eight years, maximum, because that is the shelf life of pasta.
4. Some freeze dried vegetables are more delicate than their dehydrated counterparts.  You may want to place those veggies at the top of the mix to prevent them from being crushed over time or use the dehydrated version.
5. Dehydrated eggs, sour cream, butter and milk will have to be purchased.  Both Honeyville Farms and All-in-One Preparedness offer these ingredients.
6. IMPORTANT!  If you’re making a mix from one of your own recipes, your first batch will be experimental.  Combine the ingredients, keep a record of the amounts, and then prepare the recipe as a meal.  How much water did you add?  How long was the cooking time?  Be sure to record this information and make adjustments before preparing the remaining meals.  Make sure to have your family do a taste test!
7. It makes sense to prepare several batches of each recipe rather than just one.  Be sure to have enough of each ingredient on hand.  You may be surprised by how much is required, but keep in mind you’re preparing many future meals.
8. In addition to ingredients, you’ll need some sort of storage container.  Canning jars and mylar bags are your best bet.  Use oxygen absorbers if you plan on storing the mixes long-term.  If a camping or backpacking trip is in your future, the mixes can be kept in large zip-loc bags.
9. A Food Saver system works as long as none of the ingredients are likely to puncture the plastic bag.
10. For storage, keep in mind the five enemies of food: heat, humidity, oxygen, light, and pests.
11. Here’s a tip for organizing your mixes.  Store mixes of the same ingredient in a labeled food-grade bucket.
12. To get started with your own recipe, choose a soup or a casserole.  The ideal recipe will contain ingredients that can all be converted to a dehydrated version.  Be prepared to do a bit of tweaking.  Choosing the right recipe is the hardest part of this process.
13. Recipes that contain a lot of cheese aren’t good candidates for Dehydrated Dinners.
14. If a recipe contains an ingredient that is normally canned, such as diced tomatoes, it’s perfectly fine to omit that ingredient in your dehydrated mix and then plan on adding that canned item when it’s time to prepare the meal.  Just make a note of it, and then be sure to have enough stored in your pantry.
15. One dehydrated recipe to master is marinara sauce.  Combine tomato powder with garlic, herbs, and salt.  Taste test small amounts with a bit of water until you have a combination you love.  You can store the mix in jars or mylar bags or use it in recipes that call for prepared marinara sauce.  Emergency Essentials carries tomato powder or you can make your own by processing dehydrated tomato slices in a blender until completely powdered.
    

    image by WordRidden

16. Start searching for recipes!  Here are a few I found at AllRecipes.com that have a lot of potential as Dehydrated Dinners: Chili Bean Soup, Pasta Bean Soup, Flatlander Chili, and Homemade Pizza Supreme.
17. If you only convert five recipes to Dehydrated Dinners and prepare eight of each recipe, that’s forty dinners!
18. Dehydrated Dinners will only be one part of your food storage.  They’ll come in handy when you’re too sick to cook or the family needs a really quick meal.  Their main purpose is convenience.
19. It’s better to give than receive.  Having multiple Dehydrated Dinners will allow you to share them with others in need.
20. Jump right in!  The more practice you get in spotting suitable recipes, the easier it becomes.  Once you have a recipe your family enjoys, it’s just a matter of converting it to a dehydrated version and assembling all the ingredients.

Coming in Part 3:  Recipe conversions.  From fresh to dehydrated!

© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

Donna writes, “I was wanting to add a bit of MRE type packaged food for emergencies and travel etc.  However, when I’ve looked into some of the popular brands and looked at the ingredients, we couldn’t possibly purchase them.  It seems they all have some form of MSG as well as other ingredients we can’t eat.  Due to my own health issues, I have to stick to a strict low sodium diet.  One of my daughters has extreme food and chemical allergies.

So I’m trying to figure out if anyone has come up with any packaged MRE type foods that are actually healthy without the chemicals/gmos, etc.  Do you know of a product like this?

image at allrecipes.com

Yes!  There is someone who can make healthier packaged meals for long-term storage, and that person is you!  Creating your own dehydrated meals is fairly easy.  It starts with choosing appropriate recipes, deciding how it will be packaged and stored, and then putting together the ingredients using mostly dehydrated and freeze dried foods.

The benefits are many.

1. You know exactly what is in your recipe and what isn’t.
2. You control the cost of your dehydrated meals.  If a certain recipe contains expensive ingredients, find another.
3. You can use ingredients you dehydrate yourself.
4. Depending on space available, your meals can be packaged in either mylar bags or jars.
5. Your meals will be recipes your family already knows and enjoys.

Watch for Part 2, “Choosing a recipe that works”, coming up, but in the meantime, you can read more about this concept at Dinner is in the Jar.  The book by the same name provides numerous recipes and directions for storage.  The downside of the book is that the author doesn’t explain how she analyzed the recipes to determine how to store them.  For example, you’ll notice that sometimes two jars are called for or certain ingredients are separated from the others and stored in a zip-loc inside the jar.

My series will teach you how to analyze your own recipes and not have to rely only on recipes some other family enjoys.  Having said that, I think the book is worth owning.

This post sponsored by All-in-One Preparedness.

© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

Enter the plastic food-grade bucket.  You can purchase these new online or at food-storage stores, but if you live near a bakery, chances are they have stacks of these they will either give away for free or at a very nominal charge.  I was skeptical of this until I asked the bakery manager at my local grocery store.  His response was, “How many do you want and do you want lids to go with them?”  A short time later, I had ten like-new buckets with perfectly good lids.  I washed them out with hot soapy water, dried them, and then began filling them with wheat.

image by karpacious

I use those white buckets to organize non-edibles, such as dental supplies, soap, shampoos, and camping gear.  Just slap a label on the outside, seal with a lid, and you’re on your way to being better organized.  I know some SurvivalMoms who store a week’s worth of food in two or three buckets, thinking they’ll be ready to grab at a moment’s notice in case they ever have to evacuate.

Another very inexpensive option are cleaned out soda and juice bottles.  These may be marked with an expiration date, but that date applies to the beverage inside, not the bottle itself.  I use these bottles to store rice, oats, cornmeal and other dry goods.  You’ll need a good funnel, but other than that, these are free with the purchase of the juice or soda inside!

My grandma used to keep and re-use every food container that entered her kitchen: empty jelly jars, margarine tubs, and Kool-Whip containers.  Glass jars can be re-purposed to hold large amounts of yeast (be sure to refrigerate), dried herbs, and dehydrated veggies.  Plastic margarine and Kool-Whip containers are better used for organizing non-food items, such as first-aid and sewing supplies.  Before throwing out perfectly good containers, consider how it can be reused.  A free container is always best!

Speaking of free, my favorite price!, check with school cafeterias and restaurants for white plastic buckets, PETE containers in various sizes, and even large glass jars.  I was told by one manager, “We’re supposed to send those out to be recycled, but you can have all you want!”  Ask around, and don’t be shy!

Be aware that not all plastic containers are food-friendly.  According to The Virtual Weber Bullet, here are plastics to avoid.

• HDPE white plastic containers of unknown food grade status
• Garbage cans or pails
• Mop buckets
• Laundry detergent or kitty litter buckets
• Dry pet food buckets
• 5-gallon utility buckets from home center stores
• Household storage containers
• Garbage bags
• Any container — even if made of food grade plastic — that has been used to store non-food items like chemicals, paint, or detergent

When it comes to storing food, safety comes first, thriftiness second.  There’s no point in investing hard-earned money in food and then ending up with something tainted when you really need it.

One final budget-friendly suggestion is the mylar bag.  You know how much I love these for long-term storage, but did you know they can be cut into smaller sizes and resealed?  Using nothing but a hot clothes iron and a flat surface, you can prepare small bags for seeds, herbs, dehydrated mixes, smaller amounts of beans and rice and much more.  Be Prepared Now sells sets of small mylar bags along with oxygen absorbers, but cutting down larger bags is a simple option that gives you lots of flexibility.

There’s no doubt that prepping costs money, but it’s still possible, with a little creativity and good information, to become better prepared on pennies, or less!

© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by K Hurley

Wheat Berries are what’s for breakfast!

I love, love, love a hot bowl of wheat berries sweetened with a bit of cinnamon and brown sugar.  This hot cereal is versatile, and you’ll surely be able to create a version everyone in your family will love.  Here’s the basic recipe.

1 c. hard white wheat

2 1/2 c. water

The easiest way to prepare this hot cereal is to combine the wheat and water in a crockpot, set on low, and cook overnight or throughout the day.  To cook them on a stove-top, follow these directions from 101 Cookbooks.

To cook wheat berries: Combine 2 cups wheat berries, 6 cups water, and 2 teaspoons salt in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, covered, until plump and chewy (and a few of the berries split open), about an hour or so. The berries will stay al dente, and the only way to be sure they’re done is to taste a few. Drain and set aside.

You can mix them with yogurt, dried fruit, nuts, butter, honey, syrup, and any spices that strike your fancy.  They are so nutritious.  If you think you will meet some resistance from your family, mix in a few wheat berries with their cereal or oatmeal to get them used to a new flavor and texture.

Wheat Berries make a great salad side-dish!

image by barefoot in the orchard blog

First, prepare wheat berries using either the crock-pot or stove-top method.  You can make this recipe while the berries are still warm or after they’ve cooled.

Place 3 cups of the berries in a medium size bowl and add:

4 T. olive oil

3 T. balsamic vinegar

salt to taste (optional)

pepper to taste

1/3 c. finely sliced basil

1/4 c. chopped rehydrated tomatoes or chopped fresh tomatoes

1/4 c. celery, chopped (dehydrated or fresh)

3 T. finely chopped red onion

This is delicious as is, but you can add olives, feta, and other herbs you may have growing in your garden or in the pantry.  This salad is absolutely delicious!  You can thank me later.

For every meal, a loaf of bread

Every bread maker has his or her own favorite bread recipe.  The one I usually use lists honey and dried milk as ingredients.  Whatever your recipe calls for, be sure to stock up on enough of the ingredients so you could make at least two or three loaves of bread per week.  In a survival situation, bread will add energy and calories to your family’s daily diet.  Just be sure to know how to bake the bread using at least two different methods, not counting your kitchen oven.  This is where a Sun Oven or a Stove-Tec Rocket Stove come in handy.  A Dutch oven over a campfire is yet another way to bake bread without depending on any fuel, other than a bit of wood.

Do check out The Fresh Loaf for bread-making tutorials, a great forum, and more bread recipes than you could make in a lifetime!

Have I died and gone to heaven? image by GenBug

Mexican food lovers rejoice!

Homemade tortillas are easier to make than you might think, and for the Mexican food lover in you, that’s great news!  Olé! Here’s a simple recipe passed on to me by Suzie Brown, manager of the Honeyville Farms store in Salt Lake City.  She uses shortening, which, as you know, has a very impressive shelf life.

2 1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. vegetable shortening

1 t. salt

1 c. water

Combine all ingredients together.  Mix till smooth.  Form a small ball of dough, approximately 2″ across, and roll into a circle using a rolling pin.  As each tortilla is finished, you can either cook it in on a dry griddle or in a frying pan with some oil.

I’ll be posting a recipe soon for End of the World Enchiladas, using this very recipe for the tortillas, so brush up on your tortilla making skills and get ready!

Bottom line:  wheat is a must-have for your food storage.  Don’t be intimidated by all the wheat jargon cast about by bread-making experts and food storage snobs.  Shop around for the least expensive wheat you can find.  Get an inexpensive grinder and start experimenting.

Tip:  Some people buy their wheat from animal feed stores.  No kidding.  It’s the same wheat you’ll get from other sources but may not be as thoroughly cleaned.  When you’re ready to store it, or use it, just pour it through a sieve first to clean out any dried grass or small rocks.

© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

photo by FleurP

First, find a good source of good wheat.

To find the cheapest wheat in your part of the country, give the local LDS church or cannery a call.  They will probably know of local resources or farmers who deliver wheat to your area on a regular basis.  If you live near a large city, track down health food or “natural” food stores and tell them you’d like to buy it in bulk.  What’s their best price?  If you are fortunate enough to have a local Honeyville store in your area, I just bought 50 pounds of hard white wheat for less than $13.  For Starbucks fans, that’s just three Caramel Frappuccinos!

If your only option is to purchase wheat from an online store, see if there’s a reduced shipping charge for larger purchases.  Honeyville’s shipping is $4.99, total.  In comparison, I checked out the shipping charge for just two pounds of wheat at Bob’s Red Mill, and found it was almost double, $8.85.  Walton Feed is another source of wheat, but again, the shipping prices are quite high.  Your best bet may be to ask around and see if you can get a group of friends together to place a bulk order.

One more possibility is to contact Grandpa’s Grains to see if they are able to deliver wheat to your area.  This family-owned company is out of Idaho and make regular deliveries here in Arizona, but they want to expand to other states.  Contact them at grandpasgrainaz@gmail.com, if you would like more information about deliveries to your hometown.

Second, decide which wheat you want to buy.

Not sure which type of wheat to buy first?  Go for hard white wheat first.  It’s the most useful of all the wheat types, and don’t worry if it’s labeled, “spring”, or, “winter”.  There’s a slight difference between the gluten amounts in spring vs. winter, but for food storage purposes, wheat is wheat.  It’s all good.  Hard white wheat is what you’ll use for everything from bread to tortillas to crackers.  My suggestion is to stock up on hard white first and plan for it to be the basis of your stored wheat, 50% or so of the total.

If you love heartier, darker breads, experiment with hard red wheat.  A loaf of bread made from this wheat will look more like the store-bought “wheat” bread.  Some SurvivalMoms combine hard red and hard white when they grind their flour and find their family prefers that flavor and texture.  Buy a small amount of hard red wheat for

image by adactio

your experimenting just in case you or your family says, “ewwwww!” and you’re stuck with a hundred pounds or more of the stuff.

The third type of wheat to have in your pantry is soft white wheat.  This wheat provides the best type of flour for pastries, things like cookies, pie crust, cakes and brownies.  About 25% of my wheat is soft white.  I’m not much of a baker, and sometimes a ten-pound bag of flour can last for months in my pantry.  Your situation is probably different.  You’re probably one of those good moms who treat their families to dessert every night!  Not all of us can live up to that standard!

Third, buy a wheat grinder/mill.

This step will be the most expensive, unless you listen to me carefully.  All around the country are women and men who thought they would love nothing better than to grind their own wheat and create a picture-perfect loaf of bread for their families every day.  After a while that got old, and now they want to rid themselves of that bothersome wheat grinder.  You’ll find these grinders, or mills, on eBay, Craigslist, and even Freecycle.  If you’re just starting out on your wheat journey, buy a mill at the cheapest price you can.

As preppers, we aren’t in this “wheat thing” as a lark or a fad.  We take it seriously, but unless you have a wheat mill, there’s really no point in stocking up on wheat.  I’d like to send my kids outside with a bag of wheat and a metate or two, but really, a mill is more practical.  Buy an electric mill first but plan on buying a manual, hand mill when you can afford it.  It will be your back-up in case of a power outage.  The metate will be the back-up to your back-up.

Fourth, learn how to make inexpensive foods using wheat.

I’ll have plenty of recipe suggestions that are super-easy on your wallet.  You can read all about them tomorrow in Prepping on Pennies:  #2, Wheat’s on the menu!

© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by dyobmit

That conversation got me thinking about food storage snobbery.  Oh, I’ve seen it rear its ugly head on other forums and in other discussions.  People who stock up on buckets of wheat, MREs, and cases of freeze dried foods look down their noses at those of us who have stocked up on Campbell’s soups and Chef Boyardee.  The whole point of stocking up on extra food and supplies is to be able to care for our families in a disaster or something worse, right?  If we’re in agreement about that, then it doesn’t make any sense to tear down those who do things differently.

I recommend stocking up on regular grocery store food for about 25% or so of your total food storage.  My reasoning is that these foods are the most accessible, most affordable (especially when using coupons), and are the most familiar.  Heck, it’s taken me six months to get my kids to even try hummus.  I can’t imagine having a year’s worth of unfamiliar foods and trying to explain to them that there is no more Kraft Macaroni ‘n Cheese!  Ever!  Yes, introducing new foods to our families, and ourselves, is a vital part of establishing a well-rounded long-term pantry, but let’s face it.  It’s a whole lot easier to open a can of Progresso soup, and that’s yet another reason for not feeling guilty about stocking up on lowly grocery food.  In a situation where Mom is incapacitated or out of the picture, most any kid can easily prepare meals of ravioli, canned soup, and tuna.

What I love about the whole grocery-store-food-storage plan is that once the light dawns on someone that they really should think about preparedness, they can make a trip to the nearest Kroger’s or Food City, spend a bit of money, and leave knowing they’ve taken an important step.  If they continue stocking up and become better educated about storing food, they will soon realize the wisdom of stocking up on food with a longer shelf life and continue on their journey, but that trip to the grocery store was a darn good start.  That’s how I started.

This post sponsored by Emergency Essentials.

© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.