Thursday, July 28, 2016

Ready to Make-- a 90 day Food Storage

The second type of food in a good diversified and layered food storage is a 90 day supply of Ready to Make meals.  When I say meals, I mean it.  You should have exactly enough of everything to make the meal without running to the store or borrowing food from the neighbor.

How do you go about it?

I am a huge fan of picking 7 specific dinner meals and multiplying them by 12 and voila! you have a 90 day supply of dinners.  What is awesome about this plan, is you get to pick what your family eats.  You have a gluten allergy?  No problem, you pick your menu.  You have a picky child that loves macaroni and cheese?  No problem, you pick your menu.

This is a great way to get started on the 3 month supply of food you already eat.  The most basic way is to pick 7 different meals and multiply the ingredients by 12.  If you want more variety you can do 14 menus by 6, 28 menus by 3 and so on.  Having a full 3 months of food can get you through illness, job loss, major medical expense, unexpected car or home repair. 
Choose meals that are not too hard to prepare so that either husband or wife can make in the event of an illness.  If it requires a recipe, print the recipe out and keep it handy.  I have taped recipes to containers so that my older kids can help prepare something.
Choose meals that are appealing so that you can avoid the unnecessary expense of eating out.
If your meals require meat, watch for deals and bulk sales and package your meat in “meal-sized” bags for your freezer.
Keep a clipboard or a spreadsheet with your inventory, and cross off items as you removed them from your family grocery store, then always be watching for deals to stick back up.  For example: baking supplies go on sale every fall.
Plan for 12 treats so that you have enough to make a treat a week.  If you are using food storage because of tough times, treats help to endure.
Plan for everything needed for a meal, so that you can be truly prepared.
Watch for deals—there are weekly specials so if you see that spaghetti is on sale and it is part of your 3 month supply, buy it when it is 50 cents a pound.  This is the best way to save and prepare.  DO NOT GO INTO DEBT TO GET FOOD STORAGE
If you follow the counsel to start with the three months of food you already eat and then the one year supply of life-sustaining food, you will end up with a total of 15 months’ worth of food.  That’s 450 days of security for your family—pretty awesome!

List 7 dinner meals that your family enjoys and are relatively shelf stable and list all of the items needed for the preparation
Dinner
Ingredients
Ingredients x 12=3 month supply
Example:
Spaghetti, green beans, breadsticks
1 lb spaghetti, 2 cans spaghetti sauce, 2 cans green beans, 3 ½ cups flour (1lb), 1 tbsp yeast, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp oil, garlic seasoning
*you could also have home canned tomatoes from your garden to save even more on these meals
12 lb spaghetti, 24 cans spaghetti sauce, 24 cans green beans, 42 c flour (12 lbs wheat), 12 tbsp yeast, ¼ c salt, ¾ c oil, garlic seasoning
























List 7 lunch meals that your family enjoys and are relatively shelf stable and list all of the items needed for the preparation
Lunch
Ingredients
Ingredients x 12=3 month supply
Example:
PB & J Sandwiches, canned fruit,
Pretzels
12 tbsp Peanut Butter, 6 tbsp Jelly, Bread: 3 ½ cups flour, 1 tbsp yeast, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp oil
2 cans fruit or 1 qt
3 cups pretzels
4.5 jars Peanut Butter, 2.5 pints jelly, 42 c flour (12 lbs wheat), 12 tbsp yeast, ¼ c salt, ¾ c oil
12 qt fruit
1 big box of pretzels from Sams





















List 7 breakfast meals that your family enjoys and are relatively shelf stable and list all of the items needed for the preparation
Breakfast
Ingredients
Ingredients x 12=3 month supply
Example:
Pancakes,
Syrup, Bacon
3 cups pancake mix, 1 1/3 c  syrup, 1 lb bacon
10 lb pancake mix (just add water), 1 gallon & 2 cups syrup, 12 lb bacon






















List 4 treats that your family enjoys and are relatively shelf stable and list all of the items needed for the preparation
Treat
Ingredients
Ingredients x 3=3 month supply (1 per week)
Example:
Black Bean Brownies
1 box brownie mix, 1 can black beans
3 boxes brownie mix, 3 cans black beans

















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