Monday, March 11, 2013

Preparedness Accomplishments and Goals



Last week’s preparedness accomplishments

  • Made granola with the kids.  I love cooking simple things with my kids.  I ended up making it just with the little ones so they did a lot of dumping of ingredients and I did everything else. 
  • This week I figured out what I need from the Case Lot sale, and decided to wait for a different stores case lot sale.  Most of the grocery stores  in my area have case lot sales this time of year and they offer slightly different products.  After inventorying what I needed I found that I need to wait a couple of weeks for those items to go on sale at another store. 
 
  • Purchased a Volcano Stove for my husband.  It has been on his emergency prep wish list for a while and so this week we got it.  He is already excited to try it out.  He told me I should try canning on it.  I’m pretty skeptical about that but if it works I’ll let you know. 
  • Made stir fry with the sprouts I grew last week.  My 8 year old told “Me that we were wasting seeds because those seeds could have grown into plants and grown more seeds but they can’t now because we ate them.”
 
  • Made banana bread from food storage (plus my fresh bananas and minus the chocolate chips)
This week’s preparedness goals

  • Put away my recent purchases.  Over the past week or two we have added a bunch to our food storage and our preparedness supplies.  They all got brought into the house and piled in the basement.  This week I need to put everything away. 
  •  Make muffin mixes.  I love these Mix and Match Muffins, and we are out of muffin mixes so it is time.
  • Make a list of easy to make food storage meals.  I recently ran across a list of 100 dinner ideas and I want to make one of easy food storage meals.  That way when you are wondering what to make it is easy to come up with an idea.
  • Try to make something edible with Quinoa.  I know that everyone loves it but my family has really struggled with it.  I’m hoping that the new Shelf Reliance Organic Quinoa is going to be amazing. 
  • Try a new recipe.  I have one for Slow Cooker Tomato Basil Soup that I’m hoping will convent to 100% food storage easily.  I’ll share the recipe if it turns out to be delicious.


What did you do to be better prepared this week?  



Thursday, March 7, 2013

Soup in a Mug—the easiest food storage meal ever




My family loves to eat soup.  A while back I heard of the idea of making soup in a mug, with food storage ingredients.  So I gave it a try and my kids loved it.  There is almost  no prep work and you can be eating dinner in about 10 minutes.  Everyone gets to design their own soup so there is no complaining about ingredients (like onions) that are offensive.   Since that first time we have made this meal often and it is always a hit.  
How to make Soup in a Mug

What you need
  • Large mug for each person.  I used large clear glass mugs but you can use whatever you have.  My mugs hold 16 ounces or 1 cup. 
  • Hot Water-about a cup per person.  We have an electric tea kettle and I fill it up and turn it on, then once the mugs have the dry ingredients in them it is easy to pour water over the top. 
  • A variety of Freeze Dried Veggies and Meats and bouillon, you can really use whatever Freeze dried items you have on hand.  Here is my family’s favorite:
* If you choose to use the instant beans, instant rice or egg noodles be sure to wait the full 10 minutes for them to soften and cook.  My kids are pretty impatient so I usually don’t have them add those ingredients to theirs. 

How to assemble Soup in a Mug
  • Choose a mug
  • Add your ingredients, you are aiming to have the mug 1/3 to ½ full of Freeze dried ingredients.
  • Put a scoop (about 2 Tablespoons) of starch in your cup
  •  Put a scoop of protein in your cup
  • Put 2-3 scoops of veggies in your cup
  • Put 1-2 tsp. of seasonings in your cup
  • Cover with BOILING hot water
  • Wait 7-10 minutes.
  • Enjoy.





Monday, March 4, 2013

Prepardness Accomplishments and Goals







Preparedness and food storage are ongoing part of life at my house.  It is always helpful to me to see what other people doing and how they are getting their families better prepared.   I hope that in sharing what we are doing you are encouraged to do something to get your family better prepared. 

Last Week’s Preparedness Accomplishments

  •   Made pizza using 100% food storage
  • Purchased hamburger on sale $1.89 / pound and used my hamburger press to form hamburger patties. (My husband did this part, raw meat and this pregnant lady is not a good combination).   Froze them for future use.
  • Starter some sprouts to use in salads next week.  I’m sprouting alfalfa for the salads and mung beans for stir fry.
  •  Made brownies for a movie night treat from DIY brownie mix. 
 
  •  Researched water filter options and decided on purchasing the Sawyer point 2 bucket filter, we already have an Aqua pail, which I love, and some small purification options, but I wanted to have another option that could filter an enormous amount of water.  The Sawyer point 2 buck filter states it can filter a million gallons.  That is a lot of water. 
 
  •  Made garden plans for the spring.  If the snow ever melts we will get working outside.  The last week of February is traditionally the time you can start planning peas around here.  We still have about two feet of snow so it look like the peas are going to have to wait a while. We are planning on about moving our strawberries and asparagus into garden boxes. Hopefully this will keep the weeds down and help the plants thrive.  
  •  Looked into chicken coop plans.  My kids have wanted chickens for years and I think this is the year we are going to get a few. 
  •  Figured out my Q order for March.   The Q is a monthly food storage program, where you set a budget and then purchase items you want to add to your food storage each month.  We have been doing it for about 3 years now and I LOVE it.  It makes building my food storage so easy. 


This Week’s Preparedness Goals:


  • Make granola with the kids.  We are out and it was on my list last week to make but it didn’t get done.  I’ve been slowly teaching my kids to cook and I think that they can do granola with minimal assistance.  
 

  •  Make freezer blackberry cinnamon rolls.  On Sunday mornings I like to have a nice breakfast for my family but we have an early church time, too early for me to get a nice breakfast on the table and everyone ready for church.  If I make some things in advance that can just be put in the oven it is much more likely we can be on time for church. 
 
  • Figure out what we need to buy at the Case Lot sale to restock, and get it ordered.  (Did you know that most places will happily assemble your case lot order for you?  It is a wonderful thing to not have to lug all those cases into your cart.  Check with your local store to make sure. 
  •  Get our fruit trees ordered.  This year we will be planting two possibly three new fruit trees and we need to order them soon in order to plant them in the spring.  We would like to buy larger trees so that they produce sooner, but we are having a hard time finding them.    Right now we are looking at another apricot, another peach, and possibly a cherry. 


What did you do to be better prepared this week?