Multiple Choices in Grains

I first want to apologize that I did not post anything last week. My heart just wasn't in it and when my heart isn't in it I don't write very well so I just didn't do it. A friend passed away last week so there was a funeral to attend plus I am the Compassionate Service Leader in our ward so I had to make arrangements for meals for the family and the funeral dinner for the family. Also, someone else had a baby so I made arrangements for meals for them. It was a busy week.

But I did post on Sunday and now this one and I hope all will be well enough that there will be one for Thursday, lol.  Anyway, I will give the challenge this week and some recipes so I can make up for last week.

My Sunday Blog Post


One of the staple foods we can store is grains. When I first heard this I thought about grains like the ones are fed to livestock. That wasn't a very pretty picture. But then after researching what grains are for humans, I realized we have many choices of grains that we can store.

Grains can be things like wheat, oats, and barley etc. Those are very healthy choices and can sustain life for a long while. Its inexpensive, at this time, and can feed many. Some other choices of grains can be pastas. Now that made me happy because I love pasta. Do you know how many choices of pasta there are? Me either, but when I go to the grocery store I see so many choices, this can make your meals less boring.

Storing pasta is easy, too, even spaghetti. We took long uncooked spaghetti and broke it in half then placed it in the #10 cans with the strands standing up. You can lay the can on its side to fill it. Once it is full you will probably see that there is some room on top of the spaghetti so you can break some more to put on top of that. Sorry, but I don't remember how many pounds can be stored in the can.

But you can put any kind of pasta in the cans and they have a 20 year shelf life. Pasta is filling and can feed many people. Elbows are a good choice of pasta to store. Think of all the meals you can create using elbows. I could eat pasta every day for the rest of my life.

Rice is another grain that is easy and inexpensive to store. Rice can also feed many people and be filling. There are many things you can do with rice to make fun, not so bland, meals. It also has a 20 shelf life. I think 5 pounds of rice fit in each #10 can for storage.

Another grain is flour. So many things can be made from flour to sustain life; bread, biscuits, gravy are just a few examples. Flour can also go along way and is inexpensive to store. I guess I am seeing that grains are a good choice in items to store first. We are told to store 

Make sure you always leave about a 1/4 inch head room in the cans of all foods stored. Also, don't forget to place an oxygen packet on top before sealing it. Maybe next week we can talk about ways to store food if you do not have access to canning sealers.

I hope this information is helpful. Remember to store only the things your family will eat or you will be wasting your time and money or you could use it to barter with people if times get tough enough.

Here is your challenge this week:

Staple - 1 month of grains of your choice for 1-2 people in your family

Non-Staple - 6 month supply of soap, this is an easy one because you can buy packages of bars of soap for under $4

Tasty - Chocolate Chips, I will leave it up to you to decide how much you want to store on those according to how often you bake cookies. They are also good in pancakes and cupcakes.

Suggested Year Supply of Food

Here are a couple of website with good recipes for grains.

Pasta recipes

Rice recipes

Recipes using Flour

Recipes for Chocolate Chips