I decided that I would buy canned, dehydrated, and freeze-dried versions of fruits and vegetables that I used most often and/or were next to impossible to grow in the Phoenix climate. Pineapple met both those criteria.

Recently, my friends at Freeze Dry Guy sent over some freeze-dried pineapple to celebrate this as a new product, and I fell in love with this versatile version of a favorite fruit. My kids love a good, juicy pineapple any day of the week, but the freshest ones aren’t always available. Freeze-dried pineapple has a light, sweet taste and a nice crunch and is ready, in its #10 can, whenever you are!

Here is what I’ve discovered I can do with this tasty, tropical fruit:

1. Add it to oatmeal cookies! Yummm! You can rehydrate it first or just add a half cup or so directly from the can.
2. Add it to Oatmeal Pecan Bars! Double yummm!
3. Rehydrate the pineapple and use it in a sweet-and-sour sauce for chicken or pork.
4. Add some pineapple to a chicken and veggie stir fry, along with some cashews!
5. Include it in a snack mix with other dried fruit, nuts, freeze-dried yogurt, and mini chocolate chips. Surprisingly, pineapple and chocolate go very well together, my friend!
6. Add to your favorite bran muffin mix.
7. Mix in a half cup or so with zucchini bread batter!
8. Rehydrate a cup or two. Drain and add to butter and brown sugar for a tart-yet-sweet topping for Pineapple Upside Down Cake (or muffins).
   

   image by DeaPeaJay

9. Mix a bit of freeze-dried pineapple in with cream cheese for a bagel topping.
10. Add a cup or two to a super simple party punch recipe: equal parts lemon-lime soda and citrus juice.
11. Mix up some pineapple cocktails for a luau!
12. Toss it into a salad, either rehydrated or not. The crunchy texture is a nice addition to a salad of greens.
13. Rehydrate half a cup or so and sprinkle it over vanilla ice cream.
14. Add it to yogurt. It tastes great with vanilla Greek yogurt.
15. Use it for a tropical tasting smoothie.
16. Use it in place of fresh or canned pineapple in any recipe with “Hawaiian” in the title!
17. Add it to any granola recipe.
18. Sprinkle it over pizza, along with some chopped ham or bacon!
19. Eat it straight out of the can for a healthy, no-sugar-added treat!

Here are the details for Freeze Dry Guy’s sale:

© 2013, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

My kids tastes have changed since then and we are eating fewer foods with gluten, more raw milk, and lots more produce, but when I first started with food storage, I bought what I could with a limited budget.

There’s a lot of judgmental people out there nowadays who loudly criticize moms like me who buy foods they deem to be “unclean”, for whatever reason. Maybe the foods contain GMO ingredients, maybe the honey isn’t local, maybe the meal contains high fructose corn syrup — it doesn’t matter to these militant moms. They’ll let you know, loud and clear, that you are a sub-standard mom and your children are in danger because you feed them fast food meals every now and then.

“What??,” they screech. “You aren’t growing your own organic foods and raising free-range chickens and then canning every last little tomato and carrot in purified water?”

“You fed that to your family for dinner last night? Ewwww! Do you know what that kind of food can do to a kid? No wonder your kids have _____”

Fill in the blank with anything from ADD to warts to allergies. Whatever the malady, you are to blame, in their eyes.

Well, I want you to know, just as loudly and just as clearly, that here on my blog and elsewhere, I have no intention of judging what you buy for your food storage or what you serve your family.

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
– Plato

Yes, there are foods that are more wholesome and, yes, we should probably all be eating and storing them, and yes, every kid who wants a pony should have one!

Being a mom is a non-stop journey of learning new things, applying the good, ignoring the bad, and praying that, somehow, our kids turn out okay in the end.

But we all do the best we can, where we are, with what we have. One thing I’ve learned in just our first week of trying to eat as gluten-free as possible is that it can be pretty darn expensive! Right now, I can afford an occasional meal of $4.99/lb. GF pasta, but 4 years ago, I sure couldn’t have

Am I a better mom now that I’m trying to serve a lot more produce and “clean” foods than I was 4 years ago when my kids were chowing down on Vienna sausages? Do I love my kids more now than I did then?

Of course not!

I don’t want any mom, or dad, to feel like they can’t prepare their families for an  uncertain future just because they can’t afford more expensive organic, non-GMO, high-fructose-corn-syrup-free, gluten-free foods (is your head spinning yet?) or because they haven’t turned their backyard into an organic garden.

It’s downright depressing to try and measure up to someone else’s measuring stick when they aren’t walking in your shoes and dealing with your set of circumstances.

Always focus on doing what you can do, and let the militant mommies out there find someone else to pick on.

That’s all I have to say.

© 2013, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

© 2013, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

I’ve tried many of the different varieties of Mountain House entrees and they’re quite good.

© 2013, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

Often survival projects end up taking more time than originally anticipated.  My recent bucket-gathering initiative is no exception though the effort has been fun and completely worthwhile.

A friend of mine who builds sub-irrigated planters (SIPs – more information to come on these soon!) recommended that I go to Waffle House to ask for some leftover “icing” buckets.  While enjoying an omelette I asked the waitress if they had any buckets – she looked at me as if I had three heads!

Fortunately the Winn-Dixie grocery store across the street had a number of food-grade icing buckets that their bakery was willing to part with.  Later I found that Walmart and Sam’s Club recycle their buckets but local managers will consider giving out a few in exchange for a donation to a charity.  Restaurants also have “pickle buckets” that can be procured if you have a friend in the industry.

Why did the project become time-consuming?  Icing is sticky!  Removing the gooey mess in the kitchen is NOT recommended (trust me.)  The best way to clean these buckets is outdoors with a scrubby sponge and a garden hose.  Once the bulk of the icing is removed, the buckets can be bleached in a large sink or tub.

Another funny story: one night I left several icing buckets on the front porch to be washed the next morning.  At 2am I heard a crash and found the neighborhood possums enjoying an icing buffet.  Probably the biggest sugar rush of that possum family’s life!

The effort is worthwhile, however, as the buckets have a number of practical applications:

-Sub-irrigated Planters (pictures available soon)

-Water Purification – Check out this awesome video of the Sawyer Point Two Bucket filter

-Food Storage – This video from our friends at Emergency Essentials is a primer for the use of mylar bags for food storage.

These are only a few uses of these practical survival tools.  How do you use buckets such as these?

© 2013, John A. Heatherly. All rights reserved.

For a fast, fun dessert, try this 1-quart Dutch oven recipe. Ingredients include:

2 cans peaches, 1 partial box of white or vanilla instant cake mix, and butter (not pictured)

Dump both cans of peaches into the Dutch Oven.

Add an even layer of cake mix over the peaches, topped with butter.

Place the lid on the Dutch oven and cook for 45 minutes with charcoal above and below the pot.  In this case, we used my Lodge Cast Iron Sportsman’s Grill as a cooking platform.

This picture of the end result makes me hungry!  We like to serve it up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Happy Birthday!

© 2013, John A. Heatherly. All rights reserved.

When we have friends over for dinner, I want to make ALL NEW recipes for multiple dishes. Before we go on a vacation, I want everyone in the family to have ALL NEW outfits! If we need to make a major purchase, I will research it to death until I’m so confused that I don’t care what we buy!

image by Suus Wansink

When I decided to create an inventory of my food pantry, I tied myself up in knots just trying to figure out how to organize it. What categories should I use? Should it be a paper/hard copy inventory or should I use Excel? (I am NOT proficient in Excel. At all.)

After much, much thought, I decided to not re-invent the wheel and I used the same categories found on Shelf Reliance for their food products. I figured that the people at Shelf Reliance must have spent a lot of time determining these categories, and if they work for Shelf Reliance, they’ll certainly work for me and my humble inventory.

I also decided to use Excel. I created a separate page for each category (see below) and then entered the name of the food, the size of the container, and how many I had on hand.

Boy, was I surprised to find out that we have 15 #10 cans of freeze-dried bananas.

See what happens when you don’t keep an ongoing inventory? You will almost certainly end up with too much of one thing and not nearly enough of another.

You might like to check out the categories used by Shelf Reliance* or another food storage company as an assist when setting up your own inventory or reorganizing what you have.

Yes, it’s  important to know what you have so you don’t repeat my banana mistake. I’m not working on making sure that I have a bigger variety of fruits and plenty of recipes that call for bananas!

By the way, I saved my Excel inventory and have it stored in Dropbox as well as a printed hard copy here at home. There are issues with saving documents in Dropbox, but I can’t tell you how many times Dropbox has saved my bacon.

Categories

• Grains
• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Meats
• Dairy
• Beans (I separated beans from meat.)
• Desserts
• Drinks
• Basics
• Entrees
• Survival supplies (candles, matches, etc.)

Am I missing any categories? What organization system are you using?

* I am an  independent consultant with Shelf Reliance and earn a percentage from any sales derived from my Shelf Reliance website.

© 2013, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

Packing these foods in canning jars and then using a vacuum sealer, such as a Food Saver, to store them long-term is super easy.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1. A vacuum sealer. I use the Food Saver just because they’re readily available in stores such as Walmart and Target as well as on Craigslist and eBay and because its accessories are also easy to find.
2. An accessory hose that connects the vacuum sealer to the jar sealer. This hose came with my Food Saver
3. A jar sealer, either wide-mouth or regular-mouth, depending on the jars I’m using.
4. Canning jars with lids (no need to use the rims)
5. Dry food

I demonstrate this simple process in this video:

Here are just a few things that can be vacuum packed using this method:

• nuts and seeds
• flaked coconut
• chocolate
• coffee beans
• shortening
• salt
• small amounts of any dry food for people storing food for just one or two persons
• bread crumbs
• grains
• dry milk
• raisins and other dried fruit

You could also vacuum pack small metal items, such as sewing needles, that might rust in a humid environment.

Just be sure to store these jars in a dark location and take precautions against breakage.

© 2013, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

© 2013, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by USDAgov

My pantry is now overflowing with #10 cans, holding everything from dehydrated carrots to Chicken Teriyaki to freeze dried raspberries. Over the years I’ve also purchased a number of small pouches of freeze-dried entrees. Both sizes make sense when it comes to stocking up and being prepared.

The ubiquitous #10 can

These large cans are popular with food storage customers because they hold roughly a gallon of food and are easier to manage and inventory than dozens of smaller cans. They are usually packed with oxygen absorbers, which helps to increase the food’s shelf life. Once sealed, they also protect food from humidity and light.

Very often I’m asked about the shelf life of a #10 can once it’s been opened. There is no one, pat answer because storage conditions affect the shelf life of every food, whether the container has been opened or not. Food should always be stored in cool temperatures (50 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal but few of us can manage that year-round). It should always be stored in a dry, dark location and be protected from rodents and insects.

Generally, though, an opened #10 can of either freeze-dried or dehydrated food will still be good for several months, although certain brands of freeze-dried chicken and meat may only be good for a few weeks.

If you’re storing food for just one or two people and are concerned about having too much food sitting in an opened #10 can, remember that food can always be re-packaged! Once the can is opened, scoop out smaller portions into containers, such as small mylar or Food Saver bags. You can also use canning jars, just be sure to use the jar attachment accessory that can be used with Food Saver vacuum packing systems. Date these smaller containers and remember to rotate through them, using the oldest containers first.

The food storage pouch

Not all food meant for long-term storage comes in #10 cans. You will also be able to purchase freeze dried meals in pouches. Usually, these pouches double as a cooking container. You only need to open the pouch, remove the oxygen absorber, and then add boiling water.

Depending on how these pouches are packed, their shelf life can range from just a year or so up to 20 years. Before plunking down a lot of money on these “just add water” meals, however, do some research. Not all companies package their food in the same manner, with the same long-term results. Mountain House is one brand that I trust when it comes to having an effective method of packaging food for the longest possible shelf life.

Another word of caution. Before stocking up on any variety of these pouch meals, make sure you actually like the taste and texture of the food! All too often customers are lured into buying enormous quantities of these meals without sampling everything. This could be disastrous if a member of the family is sensitive or allergic to one of the ingredients or the meal just doesn’t taste good! So before buying, taste the product and read the ingredients.

The bottom line

One of the most important things to remember when it comes to storing food is that everyone’s pantry will be different based on budget, preferences, family size, and space. Both the #10 can and the meal pouch are useful sizes, depending on your family’s needs.

© 2013, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.