We had almost 600 people enter to win the free WonderMill. We took the list and assigned each person a number in a file then and used a random generator to pick the winner.

REMEMBER: If you didn’t win, you can still get your WonderMill at the lowest price, with free shipping and a $30 rebate until November 25th!

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One of the main reasons we kept procrastinating on starting our food storage was because we had no idea how we would actually use it once we had it. Both of us had watched several family members build large collections of food that were never touched. Some people think that it is ok to just learn some recipes to make with your food storage so you can cook in a crisis, but we have been learning some interesting facts about how that is not a great approach.

If you are not used to eating “survival foods”, they can be a real shock to your system if you rapidly switch to a diet that consists of only food storage items. Times of emergency are challenging enough, it’s not good to add the additional stress of a complete diet change into the mix. This is especially important for small children who won’t necessarily understand what’s going on. So hopefully your food storage doesn’t look like this – unopened, stashed in the basement, hiding from your kitchen.

Once you decide to start incorporating food storage into your everyday cooking, you should do so gradually or your family may get sick. Wheat and beans are high in fiber and if introduced too quickly can give your body a fiber overload and cause you to not feel so well when you eat those foods. Here are some ways you can add these foods to your diet slowly so your family has time to get used to them.

1. Start cooking from scratch and add little bits at a time and gradually increase it. This can work well for making bread. Start with only 1/4 of the flour being whole wheat flour. Work your way up to 100% whole wheat over the course of a few months.

2. Use food storage foods 1-2 times per week. Gradually increase this number over a few months. This works well for foods like beans. You can use dried beans in a few meals a week without your family getting tired of them or having adverse reactions.

3. Try your food storage items in desserts. This is a tip from Crystal over at Everyday Food Storage. By introducing them in desserts you can build up your family’s tolerance for new foods.

If you have a wheat allergy, please make sure to review our post about Alternatives to Wheat for Food Storage, and if you don’t have a wheat grinder, view our post called 7 Ways to Use Wheat Without a Grinder. Between those two posts there should be some tricks for everyone to be able to start incorporating their wheat and other foods into their diet on a regular basis.

Filed under: General, Grains, Wheat | Comments
 

We finally downloaded the pictures we took from our Studio 5 television appearance and we just had to share with you since we had so much fun there. We were so excited about having the chance to talk about food storage and how easy it is to get started!

After this television appearance, one of the things we realized we need to cover a little more in depth is how to start incorporating food storage into your diet gradually. We are going to do a very informative post about this later this week so make sure to check back. And in case you missed the Studio 5 showing, here it is again!

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If you are anything like me, you probably don’t remember to get your rolls ready 4 hours in advance for proper rising. Or you may get home from work at 5 and need a quick side dish to go with your dinner. Well I have found that simple homemade biscuits are just fabulous for a quick dinner and taste better than any store-bought tubes. Here is a recipe I’ve been using that my family really loves.

Buttermilk Biscuit Recipe:

Ingredients:

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup buttermilk (1/2 T. vinegar + 1/2 c. milk* and let sit for about 1 min.)

*You may also substitute this for powdered milk

Directions:

Combine all dry ingredients. Cut in butter. Stir in the buttermilk until the dough is moist. Knead 6-8 times on a floured surface. Pat out to about 1 inch in thickness. Cut with a biscuit cutter or glass rim. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake at 375 F for 17-18 minutes or until lightly browned.

Recipe adapted from one found on allrecipes.com

For other food storage recipes check out:

Our Food Storage Recipes Page
Our sister site EverydayFoodStorage.NET
I Can’t Believe It’s Food Storage book
Country Beans book

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Filed under: Powdered Milk Recipes, Wheat, Wheat Recipes, White Flour Recipes | Comments
 

In BabyStep 9: Comfort Foods we list spare condiments as one of the items to store. As we have explored the reasons why people do food storage we found that everyday emergencies were the ones that seem to occur the most. Condiments are definitely something to store to prevent an “emergency”. Have you ever run out of ketchup the day of a barbecue and not had time to run to the store? Don’t you hate it when you run out of soy sauce and have to buy a bottle for FULL price? With food storage this will never happen again!

So here’s what to do. Compile a list of the condiments your family uses and then watch for them to go on sale and pick up a few bottles. Keep a little inventory list of what you have and mark off when you use one up so you can remember to replace it next time it’s on sale. Here is a list of ideas to get you started:

ketchup
mustard
relish
mayonnaise
peanut butter
barbecue sauce
soy sauce
worcestershire sauce
teriyaki sauce
olive oil
vinegar
horseradish
cranberry sauce
applesauce
hot sauce/chili sauce
taco seasoning

If you have any others to add to the list please feel free to leave them in the comments below and we’ll update the list to reflect them. Have fun with your condiments!

Filed under: Comfort Foods | Comments
 

In case you haven’t heard, the WonderMill is doing a rebate on both their Electric and Manual Mills until November 25th! Remember as dealers we offer the lowest prices available and free shipping (for all states except Hawaii and Alaska). So take advantage of this additional offer by CLICKING HERE!

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Now as if that isn’t GREAT ENOUGH, WonderMill has offered to do ANOTHER FREE Giveaway of an Electric Mill for Food Storage Made Easy Readers. The winner will be announced November 20th, so that everyone else still has time to buy theirs and get the rebate before Nov 25th.

To enter, simply add our NEW button to your blog to help us spread the word about Food Storage. You don’t even have to write a post about us – well unless you want to…

Email us at info@foodstoragemadeeasy.net with your blog address so we can see the button, and we’ll put you in the mix to be a lucky winner. If your blog is private, send us the link and we’ll just trust you. If you don’t have a blog email us and we’ll give you another way to enter. Entries are due November 19!

To add the button just add an html widget to your layout and paste this html code inside of it. Make sure you give the widget a title…

<div align=center><a href=http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net target=_blank><img src=http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/fsme/images/newbutton.jpg border=0></a><br><b><a href=http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net target=_blank>Food Storage</a> Made Easy</b></p></div>

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Since you’ll be spreading the word about Food Storage, we wanted to provide you with 2 great resources we’re glad we have put together over the past few weeks. These resources will help people understand the importance and benefits of Food Storage.

The first resource is our recently added 5 part series on “Why People Build a Food Storage”.  So many people have stumbled upon our site wondering what this is all about.  So feel free to pass along this link to people who are new to Food Storage.

The second resources is our “7 Day Challenge Report” pdf that we recently published with all our, and our readers findings on living 7 days of emergencies. We learned so much from each other and this pdf has incredible tips and findings anyone can benefit from.

Good Luck Everyone! Remember if you don’t win you’ll still have time to take advantage of the $30 rebate. It’s great timing with the Holidays around the corner to start asking for Christmas presents early…

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Filed under: Giveaways, Recommended Products, Wheat | Comments
 

As stated in the introduction post to our “WHY DO PEOPLE BUILD A FOOD STORAGE?” series, we have found there are 5 main reasons people store food:

1. Natural Disasters
2. Economic Crisis
3. Health Benefits
4. Everyday Emergency
5. Religious Reasons

Today we will be talking about the fifth reason, Religious Reasons, and encourage you to visit our Facebook Discussion on this topic. We learn so much more from each others real life experiences and opinions, so come on over and join the conversation. (You don’t need to be a member of facebook to read the discussions).

If you start researching “Food Storage”, you probably know that it is a very common practice among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to have a food storage. Leaders of the Mormon faith have long counseled members to be prepare for uncertainties. Because of this, many members have or “try to” have food storage programs in place. Some examples of leader’s counsel include the following:

“Many more people could ride out the storm-tossed waves in their economic lives if they had their . . . supply of food . . . and were debt-free. Today we find that many have followed this counsel in reverse: they have at least a year’s supply of debt and are food-free.”

President Thomas S. Monson, “That Noble Gift—Love at Home,” Church News, May 12, 2001, 7.

“Everyone who owns a home recognizes the need for fire insurance. We hope and pray that there will never be a fire. Nevertheless, we pay for insurance to cover such a catastrophe, should it occur. We ought to do the same with reference to family welfare.”

President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008), “To Men of the Priesthood,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2002, 58.

For more information on the LDS teachings and recommendations on food storage, here is a pdf you can download and read. Also, click here to read a Mormon woman’s perspective on why LDS women do food storage.

Whether it be religious based, self-reliance based, or just plain preparedness based, we agree that having a food storage is wise and great counsel.

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Filed under: General, Getting Started | Comments
 

In our series featuring Why People Do Food Storage we touched briefly on allergies as one of the “health benefits” of doing food storage. (Please note: Our final article in that series will be posted later this week!) We wanted to go into a little more detail about that since we get quite a few readers asking us what to do if they have wheat allergies since wheat is one of the items we are supposed to store the most of according to traditional food storage calculators. We have two basic recommendations or suggestions for you:

1. Store extra of the other grains

According to food storage calculators, one adult should store 300 lbs of grains for a one year supply of food. Of this 300, half of it is supposed to be wheat. If you have a wheat allergy, obviously this is not going to apply to you. You may choose to store a lot more alternative grains which include oats, gluten-free quinoa, millet, amaranth, rice, or cornmeal. You can start to collect food storage recipes that use these grains instead of focusing on the traditional items like breads, etc.

2. Learn how to make substitutions

A lot of recipes that call for wheat flour can be modified for wheat allergies. For example, cream of chicken soup or any white sauce base recipe can be made using bean flour. You can make gluten-free bread using other flours such as rice flour, millet flour, oat flour, etc. If you own a wheat grinder then these types of substitutions are SO easy to make and you can store the bulk grains in your food storage, just like you would store wheat! For a great summary of different types of gluten-free flours check out this post on the Gluten Free Mommy blog.

We need your help!

We would love to compile some even more in depth resources for people who suffer from Celiac Disease or others who need to follow a gluten-free diet. If you have good food storage recipes or other tips on how to do gluten-free food storage please email them to info@foodstoragemadeeasy.net. We will be incorporating all of your feedback into a helpful handout that will hopefully benefit a lot of people who are trying to live gluten-free AND work on food storage!

Filed under: Beyond the Babysteps, Grains | Comments
 

So this is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE “food storage” recipe! I learned it at a class I went to about a year ago and couldn’t believe how delicious it was. What I love about it is how many “advanced” food storage concepts it has that I have tackled slowly.

At first I made this recipe with store bought tortillas, canned beans, and canned cream of chicken/mushroom soup – but I promised myself bit by bit I would make it using all the “advanced” techniques. Now that I have had a lot more experience using my food storage, I make it the real way and it tastes so much better – I wont make it any other way.

So here’s to sharing it with you and to giving you a special cooking challenge.

Ingredients:
1 can of black beans (*see below)
1 lg onion (*see below)
1 can of cream of chicken (*see below)
1 can of cream of mushroom (*see below)
¾ cup of milk (*see below)
1 (4oz) can diced green chilies
1 (8 oz) can mild enchilada sauce
1 pkg soft tortillas (*see below)
½ lb cheddar cheese, grated
½ lb monterrey jack cheese, grated

Directions:
Wash and cook beans. Mix next 6 ingredients with beans (Optional: add 3 chicken breasts shredded). Place tortillas in greased 9 by 13 inch pan. Top with half the bean mixture and half the cheese. Repeat the layers. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Cool slightly and cut in squares.

Try each of these techniques one at a time or all at once. They are things that used to scare me and now I love doing them this way in all my recipes.

1 can of black beans with 1 1/2 cups of cooked beans from your food storage. Need to know how to cook them? Check out Crystals post on pressure cooking dry beans here.

Onion with dehydrated onion. These are not only a time saver, but are great to store to have added flavoring in your food storage.

1 can of cream of chicken, 1 can of cream of mushroom, and the milk with the bean flour cream soup recipe found here.

Store bought tortillas, with homemade tortillas made from scratch using recipe found here.

Again if you’re new – don’t get overwhelmed by these “weird” techniques – try them one at a time and one day you’ll be amazed at how much you have learned!

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Filed under: Bean Recipes, Beyond the Babysteps, General, Julie's Progress, Recipes, Wheat, Wheat Recipes | Comments