High Cost of Milk

Good Grief!!! Milk costs what now!!!

I cannot believe I am paying over $4 for a gallon of milk. I think it's time to buy a cow. Or...maybe there are other solutions. I have been able to find it under $4 by going to places like Dollar General and Family Dollar, you have to shop around to find the best prices but if everyone goes to the same place does the demand for more milk increase the price (economics 101)?

With cost aside, milk is a necessity in life. Milk gives us certain vitamins for healthy bones and teeth. I read an article recently that list 3 reasons all people, of any age, need to drink milk.
3 Benefits to Drinking Milk Daily

1) It reduces risk of some diseases like colon cancer, osteoporosis, as well as hypertension.
2) It builds strong bones and teeth.
3) Milk helps you sleep.

The article says even when you are lactose intolerant you can find milk product that helps you to still have the milk you need daily in your life, but I think that costs even more. :(

Now that we know some of the benefits to drinking milk, how do we get past the cost of milk? As I said earlier, shopping around is helpful, I shop around my area for the best prices for everything. Another option is one my mother did when I was a kid while living in a high inflation period. She used to buy powdered milk.

She would take a gallon of whole milk and she would pour half, or sometimes thirds, into other containers. Then she would make a few quarts of powdered milk and add to the whole milk. This gave us a 2% or 1% taste of milk. We never knew the difference but it always helped her to stretch her budget money. She was a single mom working long hours to make ends meet and this was a solution to her problem. I thought it was a brilliant idea to saving dollars and still getting the vitamins you need.

I just recently read an article that asked the question about powdered milk being bad for you. I've attached it here for you to read for yourself.
Is Powdered Milk Bad for You?

Lets look at the cost of Instant Non-fat dried milk:

Walmart Brand $7.78 for 25.6 oz
Shelf Reliance $21.19 for 3.38 lbs
Ebay (variety of product) $47.50 for 10lbs

There are a variety of places you can find the product, you have to shop for what is best for you and your family. Here are some tips that can be helpful.

Powdered Milk Storage Tips

Saving Money with Powdered Milk

The shelf life of the dry milk product varies but average is about 8-10 years.
Shelf Life of Dry Milk

If you are someone like me then you want to be prepared for times of high cost in foods, or disaster; having an option for milk on hand is comforting. We use milk in preparation of many foods daily, using powdered milk as a substitute can also save money. So drink the regular stuff and use dry milk for cooking.

I hope this information is helpful, I know it was for me in my research process. I would love to hear more about your use of powdered milk or creative ways you saved money using powdered milk.

What to Do with Rice!

When I was a young child I remember the one thing for dinner was some kind of potatoes; mashed, baked, roasted, etc. When I married into a Latin family I learned that rice was a part of the main dish. As a kid rice was a treat but as an adult rice became the main stay of our meal.

I like to bake, but I have never been a good cook, or should I say a creative cook. If you asked me how I would've served rice with a meal, it would have been as a side. But after years of eating with my in-laws I now see the wisdom in rice as a food that can be used to make a meal to feed many.

Rice can go along way to feed many mouths. I never realized how much more your meal can feed by adding rice as a main course; see some examples below.

Eggs over Rice

Rice and Beans

Beef Stew and Rice

Crock Pot Chicken over Rice

SOS over Rice

You can use your imagination and come up with much more uses for rice.

They say brown rice is better for you than white rice, I never liked the taste of brown so I really never used it but my friend, Ashley, said that you could cook the brown rice in chicken broth and it will give it a better flavor. I'll have to try it sometime.

Rice is a good items to store for food storage because it goes along way and has a long shelf life, like 20+ years, if stored properly.

Best way to store rice


Who else has some rice ideas whether its brown or white? We'd love to hear what you do to spice up rice.

Here is one way you can use rice as a non food item.I have heard of using rice in bags to make heating pads. I found this Pinterest page that had some real cute ideas to make these bags.

Fun Rice Packs

Here is more on rice bags.

Rice bags

What about crafts, I probably wouldn't waste food on crafts but you might like this idea for kids if you are trying to find an activity to entertain the kids.

U tube colored rice activity

What else can do you do with rice? Share with us!

Emergencies Happen Every Day

Emergencies do happen every day. Nobody wants these things to happen to them or others but they do, so we need to "be prepared for the worst and hope for the best". I heard that phrase somewhere, not sure who said it first.

Being prepared for what is to come is the smart thing to do. The world today sees earthquakes, tornado's  hurricanes, flood, droughts, and snowstorms. Our economy takes its ups and downs without our permission so we have to adjust to its will. Being prepared for whatever comes our way is the only way to stay sane in troubled times.

It's important to know what things to store for your family so I have included some links that might be helpful in preparing for the worst. There are lots of websites out there so do your research them and choose wisely.

Emergency Kitchen

Food Storage Tips

Seven Major Mistakes

Helpful Tips

Emergency Kit for your Car

Have you ever thought about traveling a long distance to an area you are not familiar with then your car breaks down? It has happened to people before. I remember a story about a young couple that was on their way to visit family but ran into a snow storm and was stranded for a while.

The husband felt the need to find help for them so we traveled by foot in the snow leaving his wife behind to stay in the car until he returned. To make a long story short, things worked out for them. But I don't remember if they had an emergency kit in their car or not; that would have been a good time to have one.

You never know when storms arise or even if the issue is not storm related say you are in the desert or many miles away from civilization and you break down, you need to have an emergency kit handy.

Here is a link with suggestions for what the kit would have in it but be creative and think about the path you are going and what your needs might be, then adjust your kit to fit those needs. It is always better to be safe than sorry.

Emergency Prep Car Kit

You might also want to prepare a first aid kit for your car, just in case.

Recipes for Pasta

Creating a food storage is a smart move but we have to know how to cook foods from our food storage to make it worth storing. You have to know how to use it and what your family will eat of it.

Practicing now is a good way to know what works.  So I have been searching for some recipes for this purpose. I have also found some using food storage that was purchased from companies, I added the link to one.

Three Bell Peppers

Here are a few links to some recipes for pasta.

Food Network Recipes

Pasta Recipes

25 Easy Pasta Recipes

Prepackaged Food Storage Recipes

I hope that these links are helpful.

Store More Grains

Hey, I was thinking about how much grain we are supposed to store for a year supply so I will make this challenge easy, just repeat the last months challenge.

Staple - Store 1 months supply of any kind of grain you want (rice, flour, oatmeal, etc) for 1-2 people in your family.

Non-Staple - store the other 6 months worth of bar soap

Tasty - Store more chocolate chips or something else you like to cook with.

Did you know you can make your own soap?

Make your own soap

It might be fun to try sometime. Let us know how it works for you.

Food Storage for Single People

If you are single it seems like food storage can be a wasteful thing. # 10 cans could be too hard to store food for just one person. So what other options are there? You still need to think about having food in times of shortages so what can you do?

I learned recently that one way a person can create food storage is to store food in mason jars. You can fill the jars with food items and then seal the lids with parafan wax. I found the wax at places like Wal-mart and grocery stores. You just need to melt the wax then after filling the jars with the lids on tight, turn the jar upside down into the wax. Just leave it in for a minute and let it dry on wax paper, then store it the mason jar box or on a shelf.

Using mason jars are one kind of container but you can also use plastic bottles like peanut butter jars or we have even used bird seed plastic containers. You can seal the lids with the wax as well and it stores just as long as cans. Amazing, huh?

I loved this idea and hope that it is helpful to you. It would be easy gifts for the single college student or grandparent. I also saw something recently, on Pinterest, about combining all the dry ingredients for meals in mason jars. That would probably work with storage as well, just put all the dry ingredients in the jar, seal with the wax and put a label with the name of the meal, the date it was prepared and the recipe to make it.

I love creative people who come up with these wonderful ideas, all I have to do it make it happen.

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

Dehydration of foods

Hello,

Storing food can be a problem due to storage space. Today, I would like to talk about something we can do that takes little space and that is...dehydrated foods. It's not really that hard to do and doesn't really take a lot of time to prepare the foods to do this.

Some things you can dehydrate are vegetables, fruits, herbs, and meats. Here is a link that shows how to dehydrate several different things.

How to dehydrate foods

You can use a dehydrator or you can use the oven or even the sun, if you like natural and are very patient. I think the best option is to buy an inexpensive one for around $40. To me the oven takes to long and uses a lot of electricity and drying naturally outside there is the issue with bugs, especially in Florida.

Dehydrators costs anywhere between between $40 to $300 depending on the kind you like. There are lots of links for how to make dehydrators but they looked pretty costly to me. However, in the long run, if you use it, it is probably worth the time and headache to build it.

There is always the option of buying the foods already dehydrated.   That's a good option if you don't have a lot of time. But don't do any of this unless you plan to use it. Once you dehydrate then you have to know how to rehydrate it so you can eat it.

Rehydrating foods is not too hard either. Here is a link that is helpful in using the products in food;

Rehydrating foods



Maybe next week I can find some recipes using dehydrated food. Good luck!!!

How to Can Chicken Soup

 I found a real easy way to make chicken soup and how to can it so you can save it for your food storage. I did purchase my cans of chicken noodle soup and paid $18 for a case (24 cans at $.75 each). But I really want to try this process as well. I think it will be fun and challenging plus a great feeling of success because I made something from scratch that I know what is in it. It will be a whole lot healthier.

The link below says that you make it without noodles then the noodles can be added when you want to serve this to your family. I hope you have fun with it. I think it will save you more money in the long run. Isn't that what its all about; saving money, eating healthier, and storing food for hard times?



Canned Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup Recipe

Hello,

I challenged you last week to get a case of chicken noodle soup. Maybe that would cost too much but another option would be to make your own and can it. Below are some easy recipes for homemade chicken noodle soup.

This one can be made using your food storage:

Chicken Soup for One
2 tsp chicken soup base
1 cup of small egg noodles
1/4 cup dried carrots
2 oz. chicken (1/4 cup)
2 cups water
1 tsp dried onion
1/8 tsp salt
dash of pepper

Mix all ingredients and simmer. That's an easy one.

Chicken Soup Using Dry Soup Mix
1 chicken, cooked, deboned, cubed (1-2 cans of chicken chunks may be used)
7 chicken bouillon cubes
carrots and zucchini as desired
2/3 cup of dry soup mix
salt and pepper to taste

Just follow package of dry soup mix adding ingredients above. Add chicken at the end because it has already been cooked. Simmer and enjoy.  Oh, just add noodles when its about ready, once they are soft enough its ready to eat. That one is easy too.

Personally, I like the idea of making my own because I know what is going in it. Sometimes it doesn't taste like the canned stuff but that because we are use to prepackaged stuff and not homemade.

Next week I will talked about the best techniques for canning your own soup.

New Challenge for Food Storage

Sooo, how did you do last month? Were you able to get some items for your food storage? Did my challenge help in anyway?

I did it and was so happy I did. There have been many times that we have had to pull some items from our food storage because of an extra unexpected expense taking our food money. So it was nice to be able to replenish it with some items that we would use. I stayed in my budget of $50 so now I am ready to try and add some more.

Last week I talked about water storage so this week I would like to make one of the challenges water. Try and get a 2 week supply for every member of your family, including pets. If its not possible then get what you can.

I would also like to make a couple more challenges that would be good items to store.

Staple - 2 week supply of water per person in family
Non-staple - deodorant for 3 month
Tasty food - case of chicken noodle soup

Last week I blogged about water so refer to last weeks post on how to store water.

For my family, we each have our own deodorant. I have two kids who earn their own money so they have to purchase their own personal items. That means that I only have to buy 3 for my youngest son and 3 for me to meet our 3 month supply. Deodorant does not have a shelf life but I usually rotate it out annually and replenish as if I was buying for the current month.

Chicken Noodle soup is tasty and most everyone likes it. It is easy to store and its life span is around 1-2 years but check the cans for expiration dates. You can tell if something is bad so don't eat it. Buying a case shouldn't be too costly.

These items should be easy to store and acquire. But as always get only what you can afford. Another option can be to make homemade soup and can it. The cost can be a little more affordable in the long run. Anyway, good luck on this new challenge.

Water Storage

I have to apologize for not starting the year out right. I missed blogging all last week but I do have an excuse, no brain. Every time I sat down to post on my blog my brain wouldn't function. That is because my two sweet grandsons came to see me and gave me their colds, plus we sat out in cold weather for a wedding. So with the combination of a cold and medication I was left without a brain.

I wrote and wrote but nothing made sense, a lot like my dreams, so I just gave up and decided to try again this week. So lets see how I am doing this week.

I wanted to talk about water storage because that is something we don't hear a lot about in food storage. It is on the list of items to store but for me it was never something I worked on much. So I did some research and my finding are listed below.

 You can pick up bottled water in cases and store what you need, remember that its 14 gallons for a 2 week supply as suggested by the experts. I work for Coca-Cola so I buy Dasani water and store it with my food storage, but I rotate it out because there are expiration dates on the water bottles. They are stored away from direct light, that's the rule for any see through bottle.

You can use soda bottles, milk jugs, or even glass bottles for short time storage. Sometimes the jugs leak, I bought some jugs of water for our pets, 3 to a case, and after a year one bottle started to leak. So watch out for that kind of thing, also don't forget about storing water and supplies for pets.

I store the Dasani for drinking water but then I have to think about storage for cooking and cleaning as well. I have heard that rain barrels are a good way to catch the rain and store water for purposes other than drinking. I have provided a couple of how to pages about water storage. I hope they help. But don't just do what they say , do the research to avoid health issues.

http://www.wikihow.com/Store-Water-Long-Term

http://www.offthegridnews.com/2011/02/13/water-water-everywhere-long-term-water-storage/

http://www.optimumpreparedness.com/long_term_water_storage_article.html

There are also water purification tablets that can help or even special bottles that purifies water.  And you could also invest in water purification systems. But don't go into debt for these things, start out small and build up your supply.

Recipes using Honey

There is no use saving food that you will never use so this week I want to give you a recipe that uses honey and other food storage items in it. I hope it will be a good one for you, also, I gave you links to several recipes using honey and you can find lots more recipes and uses for honey on the Internet.

Two-hour Whole Wheat Bread = 4 loaves
5 cups of warm water                              1/3 cup of potato flakes
2 Tbsp yeast                                             6 cups of whole wheat flour
1/3 cup of honey                                      1Tbsp of salt
1/3 cup of oil                                            4-5 cups of unbleached flour
2 eggs

Dissolve yeast as per package instructions. Make a sponge dough using all ingredients down to and including the salt. Use bread mixer or hand-held electric beaters. Let rise about 10 minutes. Add remaining flour gradually as needed to make a soft dough. Knead on floured board and cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double. Punch down; shape into 4 loaves; place in greased bread pans. Cover and let rise again until double.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Put hot bread on a towel to cool for soft crust.

All the items listed in the recipe above are items that can be stored in food storage. I have listed several good recipe websites. I hope you start having lots of fun with honey.

http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/honey-recipes.html

http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/side/vegetable/honey-glazed-vegetables.html

http://www.yummly.com/recipes/orange-honey-glazed-vegetables

http://www.honeyhillfarm.com/trivia.htm

Let's Get Started

Looks like I had a few more views so maybe it's working, I think I will keep these posts going after all, lol.

This week is the challenge week, my goal...to challenge you to start buying your food storage suggesting certain items. You don't have to buy what I suggest it's only to help you get started or get you thinking about other things you want to store.

If you have been watching all the struggles going on around the world, and even in our country, I'm sure you are starting to get a little nervous about what is coming our way. We have a bad economy that looks like it could get worse, natural disasters, stronger outbreaks of virus's and illnesses, etc.

Well, the scriptures tells us if we are prepared, we don't need to fear. So that is one reason why I felt like I could be helpful to those who want to be prepared, by creating this weekly post on food storage and preparedness. I do hope you can benefit from it.

I would like to challenge you to work on 3 different areas, if you can. If you can't, just work on what you can. If I suggest a 3 month supply but you can only do 1 month or even 1 week, then do that. The point is just get started and get what you can. Anything is better than nothing or depending on someone else for help.

Sometimes I get great ideas and charge into things without a plan, then I get frustrated when things don't work out. If you are like me, then a step by step plan can be very helpful. So let's take this one week at a time and see what happens.

This month, the 3 items I would like to challenge you to work on are:

1) Honey - 1 supply (basic staple)
2) Toothpaste - 6 month supply (basic non-staple)
3) Pork n Beans or Baked Beans - 1 case (tasty food)

tips for honey storage:
http://homecooking.about.com/od/foodstorage/a/honeystorage.htm

Did you know there are different kinds of honey?

http://honeyo.com/types.shtml

Cost of honey varies per dealer and variety, I get mine from the flea market. I spent $22 on 6 lbs of Wildflower Honey. That will probably be a 2-4  month supply depending on how much you use. I learned a couple of things about honey; it is 64 calories per tablespoon but when a recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar you will use 1/2 cup of honey. So you can plan how much will last you according to what you would use as a family, test it. I also learned that Wildflower honey is good for allergies. If you get annual allergies, like I do, a teaspoon can help build up resistance to what's in the air. Not use if that's true but I'm willing to try the natural over the man made, test it out.

Toothpaste is inexpensive, and we want to be sure we are still being clean and healthy during trying times, so we have to think about these things, too. Watch for sales or buy 1 get 1's then store up on as many as you can afford depending on how much your family uses a month. For my family, we use a medium tube a month and the price is around the $2 area, so to get a 6 month supply will only be $12. For me that is easy to do depending on whatever else I need to get.

Pork n Beans is something that can be stored that has flavor so I thought that might be a good direction but from what I can see it only has a 2-3 year shelf life. My thought is the tasty stuff will have shorter shelf lives, sad huh? You can shop around for those, watch for sales, and look online for food storage company options.I checked out the prices at Walmart. I found a large can of their brand beans for $1.48, comes in a case of 12 cans so I would spend around $18 for a case.

So for around $50 I have started my food storage with several items. I think that will be my budget for the month, $50. But you do what you can so can feel prepared.

I think that's it for this week, let me know how it works for you or some suggestions of good deals and tips that can be helpful to all of us. Next week will be some recipes using honey and other food storage basic items.

Basic Supply to Sustain Life

Here is my first post to help people get excited about food storage and emergency preparedness. I hope you like it, feel free to comment on the pros and cons of these posts.

Here is the plan per month;

wk 1 - Tips about food storage and financial preparedness
wk 2 - Challenge to get items for food storage
wk 3 - Recipes
wk 4 - Emergency Preparation tips

I hope those will be a good start. So every week, on Tuesdays, I will post something about food storage and preparedness according to the plan of the week.

I decided that I needed to start with the basics and give you the list of foods that are good to store and has a long shelf life. These foods will guarantee a healthy survival in times of crisis and not so costly to acquire. But remember, do not go into debt to get your food storage. If you plan carefully you can be successful in gathering what you need and staying in budget.

Basic Food Storage per person, per year -

400 lbs - Wheat/Grain = Wheat, Rice, Oats, Flour, Pasta

2.5 gallons - Oil = Vegetable Oil, Shortening, Peanut Butter, Mayonnaise, Salad Dressing (mayonnaise type only) 4 gallons = 24 lbs of oil, 1 quart mayo = 1.5 lbs of oil, 1 quart salad dressing = 1 lb of oil, and 1 lb peanut butter = .5 lb of oil

60 lbs - Beans/Legumes = Beans (dry, lima, soy), Peas (split), Lentils, Dry Soup Mix

16 lbs - Powdered Milk = Milk, Nonfat Dry, Evaporated ( 6 cans = 1lb)

60 lbs - Sugar = Sugar ; granulated, brown; Molasses, Honey, Jams, Preserves, Jellies, Corn Syrup, Fruit Drink (powdered), Flavored Gelatin

8 lbs - Salt (store in original containers)

14 gallons for 2 weeks - Water (just for drinking), more for other purposes such as cooking and cleaning

So these are the basics and will get you through tough times, which seem to be coming our way if you're not already there. It's better to be prepared before tough times hit and they always do, and you never know when that could be. As the Boy Scouts say, "Be Prepared."

It looks like a lot of stuff but the good thing is we can do this little by little and have a variety of items to choose from if we have to use it. Its never a waste of time or money to do this because if you are blessed enough to never have to use it then it can be used to help others which is what we are required to do per the scriptures. Jesus tells us several times that we are to take care of the poor and needy, this gives us the opportunity to do so, if we don't use it to sustain our own families.

It is recommended that these foods be rotated out every 2 years even though most have a 20 year shelf life, loss of vitamin and nutrients happen over time. The oil should be rotated every year.
These are just the basics, later we can talk about storing tasty stuff.

Well, that's my tips for today. Next week, I plan to start challenging you to buy your food storage, one item at a time.