One of the great things about the Parade of Giveaways is that you get to learn more about all of these great companies and products and see how they can help you build your food storage. The BEST part about the Parade of Giveways, is that entering giveaways has never been easier, and is open for the whole month. So don’t be afraid to sign up for your favorite ones (or ALL of them!)
 

Here is a list of some of the great products (and we have a couple more coming, so check back):

• Shelf Reliance’s most popular Food Rotation System
• 3-Day Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials
• Chef’s Banquet Freeze Dried Fruit Variety from Ready Project
• 2 FREE 1 Year Memberships to Deals to Meals
• Quality spices from All About Food Storage
• “I Can’t Believe it’s Food Storage” by Crystal Godfrey
• Augason Farms Breakfast Pack
• “Gardening for Beginners” from My Square Foot Garden
• The new 16″ deep Shelf Organizer from Can Organizer
• Golden Flaxseed from HiStakes-Spelt
• Food Storage Made Easy Binders on CD
• JUST ADDED: WONDERMILL JR DELUXE HAND GRINDER

1. CREATING A PLANNING TEAM/CONTINUITY OF AUTHORITYParticipants will discuss the importance of creating a planning team and who should be included. Creating a chain of command with continuity of authority maintains leadership during any type of operational interruption.

2. COMMUNICATION
Maintaining reliable communication with employees, key personnel, customers, vendors and first responders can minimize confusion during any type of event. Options and solutions for a communication plan will be discussed.

3. RISKS AND HAZARDS
Learn how to recognize the risks and hazards that are the most probably for your facility and location. How should you plan against specific types of interruptions?

4. INTERNAL/EXTERNAL RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES
Each business or organization has internal and external resources that can be utilized for emergency response and recovery. Participants will learn to identify what capabilities are currently available and how to develop others.

5. VULNERABILITY ASSESMENTS
What types of emergences within your facility or community are most likely to occur? This point will cover a vulnerability assessment tool to determine probabilities, estimate impact and assess resources using a numbering system to identify certain types of interruptions.

6. ESSENTIAL BUSINESS FUNCTIONS
Your bottom line could depend on how quickly you are able to resume normal business operations – but what needs to be operating first? Planners will learn how to focus on a company’s most essential business functions to retain the “what, who and how” of business resumption.

7. HUMAN RESOURCES
The human resources within your organization are likely your most valuable assets. Discover the skills and specialized training that cannot always be replaced with outside resources.

8. WORKPLACE EVACUATION AND SHELTERING IN PLACE
Training employees in a simple evacuation or fire drill plan prepares them to respond without confusion during an actual emergency event. Assigning responsibility to assist customers, clients, or patients out of the facility increases exit efficiency. Where should they go? What should they take/ How long should they plan to stay away? Or is it safer to shelter in place?

9. WORKPLACE EMERGENCY SUPPLY ITEMS
Emergencies are unpredictable and could happen during working hours. Is your workplace prepared with necessary supplies to sustain occupants for 8-12 hours if necessary? Receive a practical emergency supply list for workplace environments.

10. INSURANCE COVERAGE/REVIEWS
Would your insurance claim benefit be enough to keep you in business? Identify alternate types of insurance to cover possible gaps.

11. VITAL RECORDS
Could you provide vital documents or records upon request to an insurance provider, banker, or tax accountant? Recognize types of records that are vital to the survival of a business or organization.

12. DATA PROTECT/STORE/RECOVER
A major cause of business interruption is significant data loss. Human error, power failure, a facility fire –all could be the cause. What should an organization do to protect, store and recover vital records and safeguard their cyber system? (Check out computer back up with MozyPro Options)

Awhile back we did a fun post on 72 hour kits for the office. If you don’t have one already, you should check it out and get going on it!

p.s. Share what you know about your company’s emergency preparedness plans in the comments below. If you don’t know them, find out!

The 7 DAY CHALLENGE is quickly approaching… When is it you ask?

Remember, on a SURPRISE day in September, we will email you (if you are signed up for the challenge – sign up here) and announce the challenge has begun. At that point, you will not be allowed to spend ANY money for 7 days, or go to any kind of store (for those of you who think you can use gift cards -you can’t). Each day we will present you with a different kind of challenge or emergency to deal with USING ONLY WHAT YOU HAVE ON HAND!

• You WILL need a 72 hour kit/Eprep Plan. That’s not a maybe, its a FOR SURE
• You will want your recipes printed (you may not be able to jump on the internet for a recipe)
• Make sure you have water stored
• Make sure you have a way to cook without power
• Inventory your storage and fill in the gaps of things you have forgotten to replace recently
• Make sure you are a fan of Food Storage Made Easy on Facebook -SO much discussion and learning goes on over there, especially during the challenge
• We will MAKE you use your long term storage – it’s not just for collecting dust you know. Do you have a Wondermill? They are on sale for one more week! Get one here.

A great way to make sure you are prepared for real life, AND the challenge, is to use the checklists and over 100 pages of information found in our Food Storage Made Easy Binder. The Binder is a downloadable file, so you can purchase it today, and get started RIGHT AWAY! Quit worrying about HOW to build your food storage, and just get started- we’ve done the hard work for you.

• The more you participate in the challenge, the more you learn, actually doing it really helps you learn
• You’ll have to modify some of the scenarios for your own family depending on diet, work schedules, marital status, kid status etc… We’ll try to be generic, but just relax and adapt
• Don’t skip out on work, or neglect important things just because you are doing the challenge -we can’t write “doctor’s notes” and excuse you from stuff
• Buying gas is up to you for the 7 days – if some of these things happened in real life, you wouldn’t be going to work at the same time using up gas etc…

Happy preparing! We’re so excited to SURPRISE you!

Emergency Preparedness, and Food Storage companies are sponsoring the giveaways on this index. Each sponsor is featuring their own product giveaway on their own sites. Visit each of the sponsors to enter. Don’t worry – we have rules for the sponsors to ensure entering will be EASY!

Check out the great products, sponsors, and giveaways for the entire month of September. Winners will be selected by each individual sponsor, and contacted by each individual sponsor. This is just an INDEX of all the giveaways (we’re not in charge of, or responsible for each individual giveaway).

While this “diet” is very healthy, it can also be a bit of a pain to prepare the foods. But I’m going to show you a few tricks I’ve learned to make it easier to follow, and super easy to stick with even on busy days when you aren’t at home to cook the food. And the bonus part is, it uses lots of food storage, yay!

Whole Grains

I have started keeping a bucket of wheat, rice, and oatmeal upstairs because I’m going through them so quickly. I make two loaves of whole wheat bread (click here for my favorite recipe) every few days and my family has started snarfing it up. I should be grateful that they love the healthy food but then I have to keep making it more often. At least it’s really cheap since I grind my own wheat! I’ve also started cooking up big batches of brown rice in my pressure cooker and storing it in 1 cup baggies in the fridge. This has been an awesome way to always have a healthy side dish on hand.

Fruits and Veggies

I have been using my favorite service Deals to Meals to find the best deals on produce and stock up. If the foods look like they may go bad soon I just stick them in the freezer. Usually I can make the freezer foods last until stuff goes on sale again. Sweet! (To see how easy it is to use deals to meals for product, check out this post)

Chicken

I am choosing to avoid red meat and cheesy/pasta dishes for now, but I still make some of our normal family favorites for dinner. So I have started cooking up large batches of chicken in the pressure cooker and keeping it in 4 ounce baggies in the fridge. It’s so easy for me to pull out a baggie and stick it on a salad for a healthy dinner, while my family can still enjoy a good spaghetti dinner. I like to consider frozen meat as part of my three month supply so preparing this in bulk is great for that.

Pressure Cooking

Here is my confession, until a few weeks ago I was AFRAID to use my pressure cooker. Seriously! But I could never make my brown rice turn out very yummy so I decided to give it a whirl. Well I am officially in love. The rice turns out perfect and chewy and delicious every time. And the chicken … oh the chicken. Tender, moist, and cooks in such a short time. After eating plain chicken on a george foreman for a few weeks the pressure cooker chicken in marinades are divine.

How to Use a Pressure Cooker for Rice and Chicken

The Finished Product

I accidentally had to eat some of the chicken after working so hard to prepare it all

Garlic Lemon Chicken Recipe

2 lbs thawed chicken
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup lemon juice
6 cloves garlic
2 tsp. thyme

Mix all the marinade ingredients up and pour in a gallon ziplock bag along with the chicken. Marinate for 15-20 minutes and then cook in the pressure cooker according to your cooker’s directions.

Our Favorite Pressure Cooker

Cuisinart CPC-600 1000-Watt 6-Quart Electric Pressure Cooker, Brushed Stainless and Matte Black
Reduce time spent in the kitchen preparing meals with the help of this 6-quart electric pressure cooker–it cuts cooking times up to 70-percent when compared to traditional stovetop cooking methods. The unit traps steam inside, which builds up pressure to create hotter temperatures, and its tight seal locks in heat, moisture, and flavor, as well as vitamins and minerals for exceptionally healthy, great-tasting meals like soup, chili, and other one-dish entrees. For safety, the cooker must be fully locked for pressure to build, and it will remain locked until the pressure inside drops to zero. It is so easy to use and we LOVE it! [Learn More]

Remember that building a Food Storage is a PROCESS, so don’t get overwhelmed, celebrate your successes, and make goals to keep moving forward. Last year we learned a lot, and know that even REAL experts learned too. Wherever you may be, there is something you can improve on. If you plan on participating in the challenge here are some ideas to help you educate yourself, and get ready.

• IDEA #1 Go through the BabySteps and see where you may have holes in your preparedness plan and Food Storage.
• IDEA #2 Make sure you’re signed up for the Checklists, as they help you keep on track all year round. Along with bi-weekly reminders, you get a monthly Newsletter with tips, ideas, and great deals we find.
• IDEA #3 Get the Food Storage Made Easy Downloadable Binder. This 100+ page pdf helps you get organized with all 26 checklists, and all the best site posts, info, recipes and more.
• IDEA #4 Familiarize yourself with our Facebook Page. A ton of discussion, learning, and sharing goes on over there during the challenge. So come on over and get to know everyone and get used to how the page works before the challenge starts.

We’re so excited (well not REALLY), to do this again! We can’t wait to learn from each other like we did last year, and meet more of you on facebook – as that is where we do a lot of chatting about the days as we do the challenge.

This week, we’re extending the Extreme Food Storage Makeover to Grandma Lori’s daughter Jasmine! She is Jodi’s little sister, and Julie’s sister-in-law. Jasmine has always been into cooking. She has made her own little recipe book and everything. When she kept hearing her big sisters talk about how whole grains are healthier, she wanted to learn about it… Since the Wondermills are on sale for the summer, Grandma Lori took advantage and bought one so now we get to share some fun recipes with the family.

If you’re new to this project, visit our Grandma Lori Makeover Page for the full scoop, and see the journey as it has progressed so far.

Watch the video as Julie shows Jasmine how to grind wheat, and other grains to make Jasmines regular waffle recipe, a delicious multi-grain version. Jasmine might even have a future on the Food Network – who knows? Oh and please excuse the guest appearance from SPIDERMAN himself. Yes it’s last years Halloween outfit he has worn daily since -luckily he didn’t shoot webs into our food.

Here is the Recipe Jasmine used. The ingredients in the brackets are halved, so she can make small batches for herself and her friends.

Waffles
1 ¾ c. flour (1/2 cup + 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp.)
1 tbsp. baking powder (1/2 tbsp.)
½ tsp. salt (1/4 tsp.)
2 c. milk (1 cup)
1/3 c. oil (2 ½ tbsp.) -replace with unsweetened applesauce for low-fat option
2 eggs ( 1 egg)
Mix all ingredients with electric mixer. Pour batter into waffle maker and cook until done.

Stay tuned as we keep showing our family some fun recipes using their food storage!

1. Go through your recipe books, favorite recipes websites, etc. and write down all the meals you are planning for (I looked for easy easy meals or meals that would be good frozen either as whole meals or in components to put a quick meal together. I also used several of the meals from the Deals To Meals weekly meal plan since those items were all on sale that week)
2. Make a grocery list of all the ingredients you will need to purchase.
3. Log in to Deals To Meals and add everything to your “cart” that is on sale that is also on your shopping list. (View Julie’s video tutorial to see how EASY it is to do!)
4. Print out your Deals To Meals shopping cart list and your entire shopping list.

1. Go to Wal-Mart or any other store that does “price-matching”. Grab all of the items from the Deals To Meals list and go to the checkout.
2. Show the cashier your printout from Deals to Meals and you should be able to get ALL of the low prices without even having the actual store ads. (Please note: Check your Walmart for their policie but so far it has worked for 5 different ones that Julie and I have tried).
3. For the rest of your “non-sale” items, you can either purchase them at Wal-Mart too, or go to your favorite discount grocery store. (I have found that Winco is generally cheaper than Wal-Mart so I do the rest of my shopping there).

Just to give you an example of how much money you can save … I was stocking up on freezer meals so I bought ten pounds of ground beef. I like to buy the 93% lean variety but it is normally $3.47 per pound at my Wal-Mart. Well I found on Deals To Meals that it was on sale at a store I NEVER go to for only $1.99 per pound. I saved $15.00 JUST on the hamburger alone! This service is worth every penny. And if you use their weekly meal plans you save even more because then virtually ALL of the items you are buying will be on sale. So cool.

When we first heard of Deals to Meals, they were only in Utah, but now they are in 12 states! We hope they become national, because they are awesome. Even if you don’t live in one of the 12 states, the meal plans can be used wherever you live – so go and check them out FOR A FREE TRIAL, and don’t forget to tell them we sent you –

p.s. We became affiliates for Deals to Meals because we love their service so much and are way excited about promoting it!

A few weeks ago, I tried Quinoa for the first time, it’s a grain that is high in protein and super yummy! I ate it plain and decided to ask on our Facebook page, how you guys, our readers ate it. The response was awesome… We got 29 responses with ideas, links to recipes, tips on places to buy it cheaper and more. Here is just a little screen shot of some of the responses:

Seriously – if you’re not on our facebook page you should be. We have great discussions, get questions answered, and do facebook only giveaways (merely because it’s SO easy to do there, and all you have to do to enter is hit a “like” button).

Anyways, back to grains. I’m sure I don’t have to mention eating WHOLE grains is so GOOD for you! Check out this little display we bring to classes we teach. We got it from Pleasant Hill Grain. It shows how many of the GOOD parts of wheat are EXTRACTED when turning whole wheat flour to white flour. The process essentially removes all that is good…. sob.

So on my journey to learn about more grains this summer (more then just wheat, rice and oats), I decided to invite you along and make a fun little game of it. I have purchased a bunch of grains already that I have been grinding in my WonderMill (Click here to buy – They are on sale for the summer!). I have used all types of grains, barley, millet, sweet brown rice in pancakes, breads and pizza dough. It’s been really fun.

So here’s the game. Here are 10 pictures of different grains. Just for kicks – if you want, send us an email, leave a comment, or even jot down on a piece of paper your guesses as to WHAT each one of them are. I’ll post the answers in a couple weeks after you have had a chance to guess. After that… Ready, Set, Go – I’ll be telling you how I’m “throwing” them into my recipes

This list was put out by BeReadyUtah.gov but we have included our own links and comments in italics along with it.

Plan for the types of disasters that can happen in the area where you live. You may need to plan for a snowstorm instead of a hurricane.
 
There is no need to purchase preparedness items for disasters that are very unlikely to happen in your area. Check this post to find out the common disasters that occur in your area as a starting point.
 

Create your own personalized list. You may not need everything include in “ready made” kits and there may be additional items you need based on your personal situation. For example, if you have pets, you may need special items. Don’t forget to have supplies in your car and at work.
 
Another special circumstance is if you have small children or babies. You will need to plan differently. Check out our ideas on disaster kits for toddlers/babies.
 

Budget emergency preparedness items as a “normal” expense. Even $20.00 a month can go a long way to helping you be ready. Buy one preparedness item each time you go to the grocery store.
 
You may find that you working on your food storage can actually end up SAVING you money. Read our post about food storage and money savings to see how!
 

Save by shopping sales. Make use of coupons and shop at stores with used goods. Don’t replace your ready kit items annually, just replace and cycle through those items that have a shelf life (e.g. batteries, food). You may want to test the radio and flashlight every September to make sure they are in good working order.
 
Use a service like Deals to Meals to help you save money on your groceries so you can buy even more food storage!
 

Store water in safe containers. You don’t have to buy more expensive bottled water, but make sure any containers you use for water storage are safe and disinfected.
 
One of the most cost-effective storage containers (besides “free” juice and pop bottles) are the water storage boxes. Read our review about the ones from Emergency Essentials.
 

Request preparedness items as gifts. We all receive gifts we don’t need or use. What if your friends and family members gave you gifts that could save your life? Don’t forget to protect them by sending preparedness gifts their way too.
 
Julie’s mom gave her and her sisters the ultimate food storage gift a few years ago … WONDERMILLS for them all! Check out the picture of the happy threesome
 

Think ahead. You are more likely to save money if you can take your time with focused and strategic shopping. It’s when everyone is at the store right before the storm hits that prices are going to be higher. Use a list to avoid duplicating items when you are stressed or panicked.
 
Our Emergency Preparedness Plan can get you started with a basic list of items you may want to include in your emergency prepping.
 

Review your insurance policy annually and make necessary changes. When a disaster strikes, you want to know that your coverage will help you get back on your feet. Renters need policies too, in order to cover personal property.
 
Recently Julie was offered earthquake insurance in addition to her regular homeowner’s policy. She asked if it was worth it on our facebook page and discovered that it was actually a fantastic deal and she bought it right away. Find out what limitations or additions your policy has or you might want to include.
 

Update contact records. Have an accurate phone list of emergency contact numbers. If you are prepared, you may be able to help friends and neighbors who need assistance. By sharing preparedness supplies, you can help each other.
 
This is great to include in your emergency binder and also to print out and stick on your fridge.
 

Trade one night out to fund your 72-hour kit. Taking a family of four to the movies can cost upwards of $80-$100. Just one night of sacrifice could fund a 72-hour ready kit.
 
This can apply to many things. If you are already on a tight budget you are probably not spending that much on entertainment. But there is always something you can trade or cut in your budget to add a little to your preps. Even if you have to do it gradually.
 

p.s. If you have any more ideas that have worked for your family please share them in the comments. If we get enough ideas we will add them to this list and make a follow-up post with a hand-out!

I learned so much! It brought back memories of when I first started food storage. I was a little overwhelmed, but this time I know through BabySteps I can slowly implement the things that I choose. So here’s a little disclaimer, this is not necessarily for everyone right now! I’m on a personal journey of trying to change some of the foods I eat. By doing this- I have to think about food storage a little differently. Since some of you asked to hear about what I learned I’m sharing this…

The speaker was Yvonne Salcido, who was from the School of Natural Healing. When she started speaking I felt excited as she seemed vibrant, and looked healthy. She started by giving some of her basic guidelines for eating. It’s amazing the more you learn about nutrition, the more some of this stuff keeps repeating itself. Anyways, here they were:

-Eat Foods in Wholesome State
-Study Nutrition and Herbs
-Avoid toxic habit forming habits
-Fresh is Best
-Staff of Life (wheat, soaked and sprouted)
-Eat in the Season thereof

After she talked about that, she gave us a little TREASURE! This is something I’ve been searching for and developing in my mind lately. When this slide came up, I did a little shout for joy! THE WORK HAS BEEN DONE. She gave a little calculator of what to store for “optimally healthy” food storage. I asked her if I could share it, and she said yes, so here it is….

300 lbs Organic Wheat
155 lbs Other Grains
50 lbs Nuts
50 lbs Seeds
75 lbs Organic Beans
60 lbs Raw Honey
20 lbs Oil (coconut oil, olive oil, wheat germ oil)
10 lbs Salt (real salt)
60 lbs Sprout Mix
5 lbs Seed Sprout mix
Garden Seeds (non hybrid)
Spices

Then she talked more about sprouts. The University of Utah did a study to find out the highest vitamin per storage space kinds of food you can store. The answer was…. SPROUTS. They came up with a mixture (that I couldn’t write down fast enough) but I’ll do a little digging and try to find it. I have a mix called Pro-Vita mix I got at a store called Kitchen Kneads, and I think it might be the same thing.

Next up was a topic we have never covered and I think we need to talk a little bit more about. Yvonne suggested we store herbs for medicinal purposes and then went through a bunch of different kinds of herbs you can store that help with different ailments etc. The first one she talked about was cayenne, which is good for circulation, and can stop bleeding etc. She then talked about a lot more that I wrote down, and couldn’t take notes fast enough on. I was really interested, but must admit I felt like I could have used about 10 hours of info on that stuff instead of 20 mins. I’m going to learn more about it, but in the mean time, know that its out there and start learning about it, if you feel ready and think its a good fit (Like I mentioned before these are just my notes- I don’t know much about this yet, you need to do your due diligence, research, and speak with your doctors about medications, and potential interactions with herbs).

So anyways, those are the notes I took. I know some of you readers were there because I recognized some of you from facebook . If I missed anything feel free to comment or shoot us an email. We’re all in this together!

• See how Julie is CONSTANTLY re-organizing her food storage [View Post]
• Jodi and Julie “argue” over how to plan a three month supply [View Post]
• Julie discovers that food storage is NOT only for desserts! [View Post]
• Jodi shares her adventures with canning, sprouting, and more. [View Post]
• Julie shares the BEST food storage recipe ever. [View Post]
• Jodi divulges two amazing cornmeal recipes. [View Post]

SURPRISE GIVEAWAY

We are so excited we have ALMOST hit another milestone in our blogging journey as we are approaching having 5000 “fans” on our facebook page. We are going to be announcing a FACEBOOK ONLY giveaway as soon as we hit the magic number of 5000 fans so if you aren’t already a fan make sure you go to our page and click the “like” button. You MUST be a fan in order to get the notification about the giveaway and find out how to enter (it will be easy we promise!)

UPDATE: We already hit 5000 fans so make sure to check out the Facebook Note for details!

Being a facebook fan gives you more of a day-to-day look into what we are doing to learn more about food storage and using it in our daily lives. We also announce special sales and events, ask and answer lots of questions, link to other great food storage information sources, and post our latest blog posts so you can read them right on facebook and never miss a post again. It’s been a great way to get to know our readers better and to learn from all of you as well. Hope to see you over there!

HERB CLASS SALE

Julie attended a “healthy food storage” class over the weekend (her class notes are coming later this week) and had to share this great offer with you (before it’s too late). One of the suggestions for people that are into more whole, natural types of foods and herbs was to make sure to store herbs for medicinal purposes. Dr. Christopher’s School Of Natural Healing was giving a special for conference attendees only, that they said we could pass on to our blog readers. They do a Family Herbalist course that is normally $500 but if you go to this link by TUESDAY (tomorrow), you can get the conference special of $100. If this is something you’re interested in learning more about, click here.

When we first made our Food Storage Calculator, we promised ourselves we wouldn’t store any of the recommended foods unless we knew how we were going to use them. Since I didn’t have a wheat grinder (or even knew what wheat looked like yet) I decided to tackle cornmeal as my first “grain”. I remembered I had some in my cupboard so it seemed like a good item to start with.

Problem – My cornmeal was 3 years past expiration so I had to go buy a new canister before I could even get started. That goes to show you just HOW little I actually used it.

Confession – The first two recipes I tried were really delicious. My kids absolutely LOVED them and I thought they were great and not too hard to cook. However, several months later when I finally bought my WonderMill I made a discovery. You can grind popcorn (yes regular popcorn) into fresh ground cornmeal and OH MY GOODNESS it made all of my cornmeal recipes sooooo much better!

Give these recipes a try either with store-bought cornmeal or fresh ground popcorn and I promise you you will decide to add one or the other into your food storage:

Corn Pancakes
Buttermilk Cornbread

   

Now that I have some good cornmeal recipes on hand I think it will be really helpful if I am living off of my food storage because I can mix it up and not just eat ONLY wheat meals and breads every single day.

My favorite recipe I’ve made since venturing into cooking with Food Storage is an Enchilada Pie recipe. I told you all about it back in my cooking challenge post.

Since then, I’ve added another twist on the recipe. I realized I was out of enchilada sauce MID RECIPE a few weeks ago. I had gotten far enough that there was no turning back, but I DID not want to run to the store. Does that EVER happen to any of you? I somehow got confused about how much enchilada sauce I had stored (My husband forgets to tell me we’re down to 2 or 3 left when I get him to get one out of the basement for me).

Anyways, I found this recipe on allrecipes, and to my amazement it turned out great, and used ingredients I always have on hand. Now I wont need to bother buying Enchilada Sauce.

Ten Minute Enchilada Sauce
(anything with the title “ten minutes” in it, is my kind of thing)

Ingredients

1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons self-rising flour (I used regular)
1/4 cup New Mexico or California chili powder
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion salt
salt to taste

Directions
Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in flour and chili powder, reduce heat to medium, and cook until lightly brown, stirring constantly to prevent burning flour.
Gradually stir in tomato sauce, water, cumin, garlic powder, and onion salt into the flour and chili powder until smooth, and continue cooking over medium heat approximately 10 minutes, or until thickened slightly. Season to taste with salt.

So go ahead, give yourself a challenge! Try this out with the NEW twist!

If you have been following along with our Extreme Food Storage Makeover you will have already been introduced to my mom, Grandma Lori. I remember growing up we used to eat homemade strawberry jam and bottled peaches and my mom would make alfalfa sprouts on the kitchen counter. As I got older my mom kind of stopped doing those things and when I got married I was so busy I didn’t give it a second thought.

When we started our blog people started to ask us about some of the “food storage swear words” like gardening, canning, dehydrating, and sprouting and we realized we knew nothing about them. I asked my mom why she never taught me how to can and she said “When you can buy canned tomatoes at the grocery store for $0.50 why would you waste the time to can them yourself?” Because I wanted to LEARN HOW, Mom!

I decided it would be good to learn some of these self-reliance skills even if I don’t ever “HAVE” to rely on them. Plus there truly are some legitimate benefits to processing your own foods such as the health factors, you CAN save money, and a lot of it tastes so much better home grown and processed then store-bought. Not to mention it is really fun and satisfying to know you did it yourself. I am still a beginner to much of this stuff, but here are some of the fun projects I’ve attempted so far:
 

	COMING THIS SUMMER! As part of a series I’m going to be doing on self-reliance

I had never tried any of these things before I started blogging about them, so if you have been scared to try, believe me, if I can do it so can you!

As we have been discussing some of the things Jodi and I have learned over the last 2 years of blogging about food storage, my favorite thing has been somewhat of an unexpected thing. I know I’ve been harping on this a lot lately, but it really excites me that food storage can be healthy. I really had no idea how many hidden treasures of knowledge I would gain on this journey.

When we first started, I told Jodi there was no way I would even store beans because they were to hard to soak, cook, and use. I said I would stick to tuna for protein and call it good. Who knew I would be the biggest fan of all things beans just 2 years later. I love using them to make a way healthy cream of chicken soup, to put in all sorts of recipes, and to eat as a healthy side.

Throughout the last two years we have really discovered that there is definitely not a one-style-fits-all approach to food storage. When this first became apparent to us was in our second month of running the blog when we were researching how we were going to get started on our three month supply.

Julie posted her approach first which was to just purchase extras of the foods she normally buys. I left a comment on that post about how the foods she eats are weird and I wouldn’t know what to cook with them. Well a lot of people liked her style AND her foods so I got embarrassed to post my approach later on that week. I made my own little excel spreadsheet with all of my meals planned out and I thought everyone would make fun of me for being SOOOO detail-oriented. Well according to the comments on that page a lot of people liked my approach too!
 

   

By now most of our readers know that Julie is the “excel queen”, so when she realized there were a group of people who really liked my initial 3 month plan she decided to be a wonderful sister-in-law and make me a fancy, auto-calculating version that we ended up posting on the blog. Our deluxe 3 Month Food Supply Excel Worksheet is now one of our most popular and helpful tools and it is fantastic even if you don’t feel the need to plan for specific meals. Check out how lovely my new 3 month plan is using our awesome spreadsheet. To fill out your own blank sheet, and watch some tutorial videos on how to do it, go to the Three Month BabyStep Page. Thanks Julie!

Is it just me or does it seem like it’s impossible to be FULLY on top of things around the house. One day you get your pantry all organized and think to yourself, this will NEVER be unorganized again – this time is different. Then, a few months later it’s a disaster.

Something I’ve learned through building your food storage is that it is a never ending process and you’ll always be learning, changing, and RE-organizing.

I’m just reminding myself -”Organizing is a never ending job”…but at least I’m having fun doing it.

It seems like just yesterday that we came up with this crazy idea to blog about food storage when we had absolutely ZERO food storage and had no clue where to even start. In fact according to our very first blog post, we originally wanted to call this blog “Food Storage For Dummies … and We’re the Dummies”. hehe.

We have come a long way since we started two years ago and we wanted to celebrate this anniversary with you by taking you on a humorous journey of our successes and failures. So let’s get started!

We didn’t fully understand blogs, the blogging community, or blogging software in the beginning. We were both web designers but didn’t catch the blogging vision yet. Needless to say, our first site design left much to be desired

We have to admit that we have a lot more fun with the blog now that it is PINK! (Sorry to our men readers, it’s just the truth)

Check back every day this week as we walk you through some of our hidden archives to highlight what we have learned about food storage over the past two years. There will be some funny stuff you do NOT want to miss!

	January 2009 - We launched our free BabyStep Checklists to make it even EASIER to accomplish our Ten BabySteps. We were so excited to give people tangible lists to follow as they gathered their food storage including what to learn, what to buy, and how to use it.
	Spring 2009 – We started a facebook fan page. We had no idea at the time how much fun it would be. We all get to know each other through status updates, fan pictures, and success stories. One of the biggest perks of the fan page is all our reader experts out there who help answer questions. We learn so much on the fan page through sharing and great discussion.
	April 2009 – As people began completing the individual checklists, we got numerous requests from people wanting to get all the checklists at once so they could move ahead faster or make substitutions depending on what was on sale. We launched our Food Storage Made Easy eBook Binder which includes all the checklists, and the majority of our site content in one printable file.
	September 2009 – The Seven Day Challenge was a mock emergency that we put together in September of 2009 in honor of it being Emergency Preparedness Month. Our readers all participated with us as we went through seven days of different emergency situations and we shared feedback and learning along the way. We’re excited to do it all again this year!
	June 2010 -One of our favorite additions is our Newsletter program that we JUST started this month! We now offer recipes, food storage news/events, blog features, tips, and information about giveaways to people who are in our checklists email lists (whether you’re done, or still in the middle of them). Just in case you only want the newsletter and not the checklists, you can sign up for that here.

We’re so excited for the posts this week. They will be fun for you to go down memory lane, or if you’re a new reader to get to know us better (just don’t laugh at us – we were REALLY just beginners when we started this).

For those of you who have followed our blog for long you would know I LOVED couponing, I DID couponing, couponing SAVED me a lot of money – UNTIL:

• I had another baby last winter
• Albertsons closed down (my primary store to coupon at)
• Red Plum (one of the coupon booklets) stopped coming in the newspapers
• I feared my neighbors got irritated at my piled up newspapers on my driveway
• I got super busy with life, blogging, life, etc

So for the last 8 months, I haven’t couponed. Each time I went to the store – I cringed because I knew I was wasting money. If couponing is still working for you, more power to you – keep doing it – and I applaud you. For anyone out there who needs an easier way -that you’ll actually do- without training, I have to tell you what I’ve been doing lately. I’ve been using a site called Deals to Meals, it’s so easy, I’ll tell you how I do it in 3 minutes.

In case you don’t like watching videos, or your computer is slow, here’s the summary of how I use Deals to Meals:

• I sign in and pick my state
• I choose the best deals from all 12 grocery stores in Utah
• The items are added into a grocery list
• I print the grocery list and bring that one paper to Walmart
• I price match and get the best prices from all 12 stores at one store
• DID I MENTION I ONLY GO TO ONE STORE!
• I pat myself on the back because I save a lot of money with virtually no work!
• I even sent my husband with the list once… and it WORKED?1?!?

*Check your Walmart for their policies -it’s worked for me at 3 different Walmarts

Like I mention on the video, there are a ton more services that Deals to Meals offers, like making meal plans based on sale items, and letting you know which food storage foods are on sale that week. Jodi will share with you how she uses them (after she recovers from having her baby any day now! I can’t wait to meet my darling little nephew…) After trying the service for just TWO WEEKS we both were so impressed we knew we had to share it with you all. Here’s how it works:

When we first heard of Deals to Meals, they were only in Utah, but now they are in 12 states! We hope they become national, because they are awesome. Even if you don’t live in one of the 12 states, the meal plans can be used wherever you live – so go and check them out FOR A FREE TRIAL, and don’t forget to tell them we sent you –

p.s. We became affiliates for Deals to Meals because we love their service so much and are way excited about promoting it!

Want to know a secret? – I’m a counter snob! There has never been an appliance worthy of living on my counter – until NOW. Too bad I don’t own it yet. My mom got a BOSCH mixer for her birthday last December and because she’s trying to sell her house right now, she is crazy busy and hasn’t found time to use it. SO I STOLE IT. Ummm – BORROWED it. After making close to 20 loaves of bread in 2 weeks just because it’s SO EASY I’ve decided I can’t live without it (I gave a lot of the loaves away okay). This machine practically makes the bread for you.

The Deals To Meals Blog is doing a giveaway on one of these precious things! Details on entering can be found on their blog. Oh and while you are there, make sure you check out her recipes. I have a few family favorites I found on this blog – the best one being Beach Street Lemon Chicken Linguini.

Deals To Meals is a service that compares the prices of all of the major grocery stores to Costco and Walmart and tell you where the best deals are. With those deals they give you recipes and meal plans to use those foods. They are now in 12 states and Jodi and I have tried their service recently and have found it to be SO easy, and worth it. Lately we have gotten too busy to coupon like we used to.

Give them a try and let them know we referred you. In a couple weeks we’ll show you how each of us use their site to save a lot of money and TIME! You’d be surprised how differently Jodi and I use the same service.

Remember our “Why Food Storage?” series we did awhile back. Lately I have been learning a LOT about two of the reasons for Food Storage that would surprise you. It’s not the natural disasters, economic, or even every day reasons. What I’m learning about more lately is the health benefits and religious reasons but it’s shocking to me how intertwined they actually are!

In our series we mentioned that the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints counsels it’s members to build a food storage. On our facebook discussion page, we were thrilled to hear from readers who are not members of the LDS church who likewise have been encouraged by their faith to be more prepared.

For those unfamiliar with the LDS faith the church also counsels it’s members to live by a “Word of Wisdom”. A lot of people know the Word of Wisdom to be abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes and other harmful substances. What a lot of people don’t know however is it also has nutrition guidelines. The doctrine states to eat fruits in their season, eat meat sparingly, and that grain is the staff of life. Whether members or not, these are some great guidelines.

In an attempt to eat more aligned with these guidelines I have been learning so much about healthy eating and I’m so excited to share them with you – but one thing at a time – first up is this cookbook.

“A World Of Wisdom” by Amy Cox Jones is a cookbook full of recipes organized seasonally! She goes through each season, Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring (and has a year round section) and gives you recipes for meals that use foods that are in season. Not only is this cost effective, but it also is good for you – did you know that a lot of foods provide you with certain nutrients that are needed for that time of year. She also gives you tips on how to start eating healthier.

What I liked most about this cook book is that I actually know what the ingredients are! Often times healthy cookbooks have all these ingredients that intimidate me. She also uses wheat berries in some of the recipes – which is great for people without grinders. Oh and there is a section on basics with milks, sauces, and dressings that are healthy and easy to make! Here is a recipe Amy told me was one of her family favorites (it’s “healthy” for a dessert at least):

1/2 cup of honey
1/2 cup of almond butter
1/2 cup of peanut butter
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1/2 cup grain sweetened chocolate chips
3 1/2 cup whole grain cereal (like crispy brown rice, puffed wheat etc)

Combine honey and nut butters in a large pan and heat on low until melted. Add vanilla. Separately combine cereal and chocolate chips. Pour cereal mixture into honey mixture and stir well to coat. Pack tightly into a 7 x 11 pan, cool and cut into squares. You may have to adjust cereal measurement to get the bar consistency just right.

To learn more about the book and to order, go to the website or order directly from Amazon.com.

While I have loved going through Amy’s book, and her site… I am even more excited about an LDS Holistic Living conference she is organizing. I mentioned on our Facebook how excited I was about this conference because one of the classes is a HEALTHY FOOD STORAGE CLASS! Let’s be honest, I know how to make tons of cakes, and cookies with my storage, but there is still a lot to learn about some of the healthier sides of food storage. Other classes include: homeopathic 72 hour kit, the hows and whys of backyard egg production, essential oils, vaccination, understanding herbal meds, cold is the cure, pain relief w/out meds.

I will be there and think you should be too! The website for the conference is here. The early bird registration expired yesterday, but she’s going to let OUR READERS still in for the early bird price (which is $47 instead of $60). To get this price, after you click submit on the registration page – there is a link that says “click here if you have a coupon” – It will ask for a password. The password is: nogreenjellohere (no spaces). Once you’ve put the password in, you’ll get to the payment page.

p.s. I have made a goal to keep learning about all this healthy stuff, and will continue to share it- if people don’t find it too boring. Let us know what you would like to know more about.

*We are not affiliated with the conference – or the cookbook – I just am that excited about all the new stuff I’m learning! (We do make a tiny commission if you purchase the book through our Amazon link though)

My sister Andrea not only just had a BIRTHDAY, but she also just had a BABY (a cute one). Well since I live a couple hours from my sister, I couldn’t just drop over a meal to help with the adjustment. Instead, I did something kinda fun, kinda food storage dorky”ish” but hey – what else would you expect.

Andrea has been talking about how she really wanted to make the Ezekiel Bread I posted about a few weeks ago because it’s so yummy, easy, and healthy. Andrea has a Wondermill but didn’t have all the different kinds of grains and legumes the recipe calls for (it’s not just a typical recipe). This is us… when we got our Wondermills for Christmas a couple years ago – thanks mom! (Andrea is on the right, Michele is on the left, Nicole is not shown – there I didn’t leave any blood related sisters out- )

With a new baby, we all know how getting to a store can be… So I made her mixes with all the grains and legumes pre-measured. All she has to do is throw a mix in the grinder – then to that flour: add wet ingredients, yeast, and pour into bread pans. Of course I made labels to put on the little baggies – If I had to do it again, I would have gotten larger size labels and been able to do cuter, bigger fonts… but hey – we work with what we have sometimes.

She’s already made her first 3 loaves (each recipe makes that much) and told me her bread is better then my bread…. how rude!

Anyways, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREA! Hope you poured lots and lots of sugary jam on that bread- since it IS your Birthday and all..

If you’re following Grandma Lori’s Extreme Food Storage Makeover, you know that last time we left off with a “to be continued” after Julie made Lori her full shopping list based on her recipes she wanted to use in her three month food supply. The post was titled “We have a Plan”

Well last week Julie was running out of ideas for Mother’s Day presents so she called up Grandma Lori and said, lets get this shopping trip done! (Because once the shopping was done, she could do the real present – which is organizing the whole food storage room) Grandma Lori wanted to go ahead and buy all the food up front, then replace through normal use, and sale shopping…. So it made for a big shopping trip to say the least.

Surprisingly however, the shop wasn’t NEARLY as painful as we thought it would be. We took the excel file that had calculated exactly everything she needed and used it as our shopping guide. Before we went to the store, we took inventory of what she already and then we were actually in and out of the store fairly quickly.

So for Mother’s Day, Julie and her husband went to Grandma Lori’s and transformed that room into a BEAUTIFUL site with great shelves(donated from Can Organizers), some reorganizing, and CUTE LABELS – that you all are going to ask her to do a tutorial on how to make them….! Stay tuned because those pictures and video are coming later this week!

 
Our class was for people who were “Getting Started”. We were happy that was our topic because we by no means feel like experts. We’re just sharing what we do with our Food Storage in our own experience. We thought since everyone couldn’t be there, we would share our slideshow notes with you… We really ought to make each one of these slides its own post, but for now you’ll have to just enjoy the cliff notes version.

So here goes it – this was our

	This is where we introduced ourselves and told people how we got started.
	For this slide, we made a little disclaimer – while we live and sleep food storage, we’re not total experts – but what we are good at, is helping people get started and excited about their food storage.
	Here we talked about all the SCARY food storage words that paralyzed us when we first got started.
	We weren’t afraid to show where we were 2 years ago, so the audience could see we really have come a LONG way.
	This is where we started talking about the common stumbling blocks. The first stumbling block is having NO IDEA where to start. Our checklists solve that problem.
	The NO SPACE excuse is so OLD! We solved this a long time ago with the help or our readers in our “Small Storage Spaces Solutions” post and handout
	No Time? No problem. Use food storage as a time-saver and cook things ahead of time like pizza pockets and pre-made smoothie mixes
	No Money- No problem. Jodi shared a lot of her lessons learned about how people with small budgets can use food storage to SAVE money.
	Now we get into the “Strategies” – Sometimes you just have to snap and get something done. Pick a day each month to work on things.
	Recommit… If you fall off the Food Storage train, remember you can always come back on and work little by little.
	If at first you don’t succeed- try try again. Like Julie tried again and again to finally fall in love with beans.
	Ever think getting things done with kids around is too hard- plan on things taking an extra 15-20 minutes and involve them. You’ll make great memories and teach great lessons.
	Like Jodi and Julie, get a friend to try all the new and exciting things in the world of Food Storage. Messing up is so much more fun when you have someone to laugh with.
	Make a plan, and use our ebook binder to help you stay organized!

We really had so much fun and met some cool companies and vendors at the fair. We’ll be reviewing some of Peggy Layton’s books, along with Emergency Food in a Nutshell by Leslie Probert and Lisa Harkness. We felt so excited and honored to meet these Food Storage experts.

We also met companies who have all sorts of different types of foods we want to learn more about. We also saw some cool solar ovens/ battery packs we’ll be researching.

Jodi also will probably dedicate an entire post to the lady selling honey of all sorts of varieties and flavors, while Julie tells you how much she drooled over some awesome storage containers – but alas this post is TOO LONG!

See you soon,

We had a lot of great conversations and met a lot of fun people, here are just a few of the things that stood out.

• “I don’t need Food Storage, I have a whole box of snickers” (quote)
• Running into an old friend from where Julie lived 5 years ago who shared a recipe with Julie that she’ll share soon on the blog
• “You mean YOU are the real Jodi and Julie” (quote)
• Meeting one of our readers who told us she has her Food Storage Made Easy Binder FULL of all sorts of resources she has compiled over the last year, and that a 1 inch binder was just not big enough
• Seeing the shock on people’s face when we showed them what a Wondermill can do, and giving away a Wondermill to a lucky winner
• Watching people avoid direct eye contact with us, as the whole topic of Food Storage mainly just freaked them OUT
• Having YOU our readers come say hi… It was way more fun talking to YOU then talking to people who couldn’t figure out why the Food Storage booth had to be so PINK.

We also got to sit next to some GREAT women Bloggers. We had no idea we would make new friends while we were there too. You should totally check out some of our new friends:

• Kara, from Creations by Kara – who makes these totally cute bows that we bought for Jodi’s daughter and Julie’s niece.
• Kim and Kris- the most adorable twins from the DIY Dish who do webisodes teaching you how to do great stuff – one of which is a lamp recovering tutorial that Julie is so going to do – when she “finishes” her bedroom.
• Elisa – a girl after Julie’s own heart (we talked about PIZZA)… she is from Mormon Mommy Blogs (where we contribute monthly) and the Casual Blogger Conference which Julie is hoping to attend (if her husband will agree to take the boys ONE more weekend).
• Vanessa and Camille from Sassy Scoops.  We regretted not going to one of their girls nights outs now that we know they are so fun!

Being busy mommy bloggers we don’t get “out” much and thought it was so fun to meet some of our fellow bloggers in REAL LIFE!

Missed us at the Expo? Well we’re going to be presenters at a Food Storage Fair this Saturday in Ogden… We’re speaking at 9am and 1pm, hope to see you THERE!

WHAT: Food Storage Fair
WHEN: 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Shepherd Student Union Building, Weber State University, 3848 Harrison Blvd., Ogden
ADMISSION: $5, bring a friend and he/she gets in for half-price; preregistration requested, (801) 399-8207

Utah Valley Women’s Expo

When: April 23rd & 24th, 2010, 11 am to 8 pm (both days)
Where: McKay Events Center, UVU, Orem, Utah
Tickets: Normally $5 but for our readers = FREE

Click on the ticket to print a full-sized version to bring to the show. Tell your friends too!

WonderMill Giveaway

If you don’t have a wheat grinder yet, make sure to stop by our booth and enter to win a FREE Wonder Junior Deluxe hand grinder. We will also have a few electric mills available for sale there if you want to buy one without the hassle and expense of shipping. (If you can’t attend, we’re keeping our shipping FREE for everyone this whole month too!)

LIMITED TO THE EXPO: Food Storage Made Easy Binders ON CD

This is something new and exciting we are doing just for the show. We wanted to make our eBook Binders available for sale to people who visit our booth, so we have made it into a Digital Binder on a disc. The cd contains all of our excel worksheets and the full eBook binder file. We will be selling the digital binders for a special discount of only $12 at the show. You will definitely want to come by and grab one (or more!) at such a great price.

FOR EVERYONE: eBook Binder SALE

For those of you who don’t live in Utah County or who aren’t able to attend the show, we didn’t want to leave you out! We are going to make our eBook binders available on our site for the SAME $5 discount during the days of the Expo. So for FRIDAY AND SATURDAY ONLY you can get the binder download for just $12. WOO HOO!

p.s. If you live in the Ogden area, stay tuned for more information about a special event we will be attending up in your area NEXT WEEK!

We actually started our blog before we really knew what the whole blogging world was all about, so we didn’t discover the beauty of RSS feeds for quite some time. We thought we would share with you a quick lesson on RSS feeds and how to use them so that you don’t have to go through the hassle of manually checking in to see if we have posted anything new.

We asked our tech-savvy cousin Sam to help explain what RSS is and how to use it in a quick tutorial video. You may be seeing more of Sam in the future as we will be picking his brain for a future series on doing “Food Storage on a Budget”. His personal finance blog is a great resource for helping you get your finances in order.

RSS Feeds Made Easy

Now that you have the knowledge, we encourage you to go out and subscribe today! Don’t forget to add all your other favorite food storage blogs to your google reader too. It’s a great way to stay informed on all the latest food storage news around the web. Check out our Useful Links page for some of our favorites.

Well we had a great “Food Storage Fools Day” where we actually did some things we have been putting off FoReVeR! We were so glad our readers joined us and got some great emails, facebook discussions, pictures and feedback about what you all did. Wasn’t it so much more fun to do it together? We were just glad to have the accountability to actually DO stuff.

Although Julie was tending her nephew, had unexpected dinner plans come up, and was kinda feeling lazy on April 1st, she was THRILLED to have this day to FORCE her to get some things done! These are the things she accomplished.

-Purchased propane fuel and charcoal for the Volcano II stove she has. This is her current “electricity free” cooking plan, but it wouldn’t have worked well without fuel!
-Got some new foods for her 72 hour kits that required no cooking. Some of the things she added were beef jerky, raisins, granola bars, crackers with canned chicken, and new candy.
-Took all the disaster kits supplies out of the big awkward bin that is hard to carry and moved it into two bags.
-Packed bigger clothes for her toddler in the bags, and actually put clothes for the baby in the bag.

Jodi has been feeling behind with her gardening. Even though the weather was awful this week she was still able to get a great start on some of her gardening tasks that she has been putting off for several weeks now. Here’s what she got done:

- Printed and put together her new gardening binder
- Planned out and typed up her garden plans for this year.
- Sorted through all her seeds and made a list of what she still needs to purchase
- Planted a TON of seeds in her jiffy pellets using the planting schedule from her gardening binder
- Made a plan for getting the outside gardens ready for planting some seeds directly outdoors, hopefully to be done this following week!
- NOW I finally feel ready to start gardening this year, yay!

For those of you who submitted your pictures and results we entered you into a giveaway for our Food Storage Made Easy Binders! And the winners are…

Stephanie W
Alisa D
Sondra M

Email us at info@foodstoragemadeeasy.net and we’ll get you the download!

Here are a few of the pictures we got from all of you! Good job guys, you inspired us with your emails, hard work, and diligence!

Today, Julie commits to:
-packing some supplies for her new baby in her 72 hour kits – at this rate he’ll be a toddler before she does it!
-getting fuel for her volcano cooker (her current option for powerless cooking)
-put her disasters kit into backpacks, not a big awkward bin

Today, Jodi commits to:
-Actually start her seeds (last week’s gardening post got her motivated)
-Fill her new water boxes – like with WATER – not just good intentions

So initially we were going to just tell you to do something, have you post it in the comments and call it good BUT OF COURSE…

So a lot of you already committed to something in last week’s post or on Facebook. If you haven’t already, hurry up and pick something.

Once you have COMPLETED something you’ve been putting off, email us the details WITH a picture at info@foodstoragemadeeasy.net. You can also put your pictures on the Facebook fan page. Submissions must be received by FRIDAY NIGHT.

Monday we are going to post a bunch of pictures of our own and of your progress and randomly pick 3 LUCKY WINNERS TO GET OUR FOOD STORAGE MADE EASY EBOOK FREE- (You have to ACTUALLY do something, and submit a picture via email to qualify – info@foodstoragemadeeasy.net)

How to Grow Easter Grass With Wheat – Instructions

Step 1: Soak a heaping cup of wheat kernels in a bowl of water overnight.

The wheat should have teeny tiny sprouts. Aren’t they cute?

Step 2: Line your Easter basket(s) with saran wrap.

Step 3: Fill the basket with soil

Step 4: Soak the soil with water, get it nice and wet

The kids think this part is really fun

Step 5: Spoon a thick layer of wheat onto of the soil. Mist with a little more water.

Doesn’t that look so nice?

Step 6: Wrap the basket(s) in plastic or a ziplock bag. Try to make it airtight.

Look how cute our baskets (and kids) are before the plastic.

Step 7: Set in a warm place and leave the plastic on until most of the seeds have started to sprout grass. Remove plastic and mist daily if it looks dry.

Step 8: Enjoy a nice thick blanket of REAL Easter grass in a few weeks!

Don’t forget to try to have at least one accident along the way. It makes life exciting

HAVE FUN and HAPPY EASTER!!!

Last week we posted the “Questions to Ask Yourself” when planning your 3 month supply. Julie got together with Grandma Lori and asked her those questions so they could formulate a plan. Watch the video to see what Grandma Lori’s answers were, and then read on to see her very own custom plan.

Grandma Lori mostly wants a 3 month supply of foods she eats regularly using meats she can store in a freezer. She also wants to get the foods all at once and then from there use and rotate. Like we’ve said before each persons plan, budget, and preferences will dictate a personal game plan.

1. Lori gave Julie a list of 12 of her most common dinner recipes (in the video Lori thought it would be a good idea to use the forms, but since Julie was feeling generous, she told Lori she would take Lori’s recipes and fill out the excel form for her).
2. Lori listed breakfast, lunch, and snack ideas to buy a lot of, but isn’t going to plan each day like she wants to for dinners.
3. Julie is going to compile the master list of ingredients to shop for based on the recipes and what Lori already has on hand.
4. Julie, Lori and Jodi will make a fun trip to the stores and get the foods.
5. Julie, Lori and Jodi are going to be build the shelves that CanOrganizers are going to donate for Grandma Lori’s pantry.
6. STOCK the pantry!
7. Lori will use and replace the foods. YAY!

Stay tuned as we complete and document action items #3-#7.

]]> http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/03/15/grandma-loris-3-month-food-supply-game-plan/feed/ 8 http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/03/11/food-storage-classes/ http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/03/11/food-storage-classes/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:04:21 +0000 Jodi -- Food Storage Made Easy http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/?p=4065 Ever since we started this blog we have been asked if we would be willing to come and teach classes. In the beginning we didn’t feel qualified, and in recent times we have been so busy with families, jobs, and blogging, that we could not fit it into our schedules. However, for the next few months we have an uncommon lull in our schedules so we are going to take advantage of it and get out and TEACH!

How to Submit a Request

1. Plan an event you would like to have us attend
Church groups, emergency preparedness fairs, office sac lunch seminars, etc.
2. Select your topic
General food storage overview, 3 month supply planning, using long term food storage, wheat/wheat grinders, water storage, etc.
3. Select 2 potential weeks from our schedule of availability (see below)
We will teach one class per week, we can be flexible with what day it is on)
4. Please EMAIL US your request including the day and times you are hoping for
We will schedule your event and confirm with you based on our availability

Schedule of Availability

SORRY – ALL DATES ARE NOW TAKEN!
We will be at Utah Valley Spring Women’s Expo on April 23th & 24th if you want to come learn and see us. We’ll have more details and possibly tickets to giveway soon!

April 4-10: taken – April 7
April 11-17: Lehi–April 14
April 18-24: Murray– April 22, Utah Valley Women’s Expo–April 23-24
April 25-May 1: Lehi–April 29, Weber State University Food Storage Fair–May 1
May 2-8: Spanish Fork–May 4th
May 9-15: SLC–May 11th
May 16-22: Provo — May 18th
May 23-29: West Valley — May 27th

Limitations:

• Event must be located in Utah County or Salt Lake County
• Event must be held in a public location (i.e. church, library, etc.)
• We prefer events to be held during weekdays
• We ask that a minimum of 15 people be committed to any event we come to

We are so excited to have the chance to meet some of our readers in person!

p.s. PLEASE don’t leave requests in the comments. In order to schedule an event you MUST email us at info@foodstoragemadeeasy.net so that we can keep track of all requests more easily.

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]]> http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/03/11/food-storage-classes/feed/ 13 http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/02/28/food-storage-wake-up-call/ http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/02/28/food-storage-wake-up-call/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:36:35 +0000 Julie - Food Storage Made Easy http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/?p=4012 With the recent earthquakes, I have been thinking about my food storage and preparedness plan and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I am guilty of a little procrastination over here! It seems like anytime Jodi and I do progress updates, they turn into confessionals, but bit by bit we make improvements and feel much more prepared then when we started our blog!

Anyways, as my little picture story will show, I hadn’t put my food away since I bought it… ahem ahem over a month ago. I finally got around to it this weekend and I also got around to building (or having my husband build) these awesome cardboard rotating racks from Can Organizer. Check Them Out!(I like the shorter ones for my size shelves, but they have different options) My son shoots hockey pucks in our basement and is CONSTANTLY tipping over my neatly organized cans and it drives me crazy! I am just getting started on turning the tipsy stacks into perfectly sound racks and I love it already!

I’m also happy to report that while I was watching the news this weekend, I realized I actually do have a few things going for me! They were saying that the people should evacuate because of the tsumami threats and to take only important documents and GO! In our emergency plan we suggest this and even have a whole plan for creating an emergency binder. I was happy to know in case I needed to evacuate, I would have all my important stuff together – all ready for me to go!

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]]> http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/02/28/food-storage-wake-up-call/feed/ 5 http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/02/22/giveaway-winner-announced-your-feedback/ http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/02/22/giveaway-winner-announced-your-feedback/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:32:08 +0000 Jodi -- Food Storage Made Easy http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/?p=3982

Last week we had a giveaway for a Trekker 2 Disaster Kit from Emergency Essentials. A 3 day supply for 2 people, retail value $99.95 on sale this month for $84.99. The lucky winner is the person with the username (we’ll email you to get your address):

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We were so thrilled with the feedback we got on what topics you guys would like to learn more about, that we compiled it all into a spreadsheet (yes we love spreadsheets) to help us better analyze and categorize it. We wanted to share a summary of the results so you can get a sneak preview of some of the (much-requested) topics we will be covering on our blog in the future. (Don’t forget to use the search box at the top left to see some of these topics that we have already covered!)

1. Water Storage (for large families, in small spaces, filters, water sources, purification)
2. Alternative Cooking Methods (solar ovens, rocket stoves, dutch oven cooking)
3. 72 Hour Kits (people still have a LOT of questions about the best way to do these)
4. Emergency Preparedness for Special Situations (small children, pets, allergies, etc.)
5. Self Reliance (canning, dehydrating, gardening)
6. Rotation and Organization (tracking inventory, cooking with food storage, etc.)
7. Proper Storage of Long Term Food Storage
8. Alternate Heat Sources
9. Preparation for Specific Disaster Situation
10. First Aid Information

As you can see, that’s just a “small” list of items that you’d like us to tackle. Wish us luck! We are still learning ourselves but we will happily share what we learn with all of you as we learn it.

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]]> http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/02/22/giveaway-winner-announced-your-feedback/feed/ 5 http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/02/18/food-storage-and-fondant/ http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/02/18/food-storage-and-fondant/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:15:16 +0000 Julie - Food Storage Made Easy http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/?p=3944 Ok so this is TOTALLY stretching it – but when a sister gets married you have no time for coming up with new posts – so you’ll have to use your imagination.

IMAGINE – you have to make a wedding cake and you only have food storage items as ingredients – well YOU CAN! Last summer I forced myself to try fondant icing after wasting hours upon hours watching the cake decorating shows thinking it looked so totally cool.

Well it turns out I found this great recipe with really great instructions and it uses SHELF STABLE (that’s how I am making this post relevant) ingredients. The only 3 ingredients are marshmallows, powdered sugar, and shortening.

So I tried a little for fun cake and then my sister got engaged and she thought I should make her wedding cake -my very first wedding cake -. HELLO SCARY! Well it actually turned out and I had a blast doing it.

No one warned me how sad I would be when the bride and groom took the knife to my very first wedding cake masterpiece and RUINED IT!

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]]> http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/02/18/food-storage-and-fondant/feed/ 23 http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/02/08/valentines-day-and-food-storage/ http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/02/08/valentines-day-and-food-storage/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:01:20 +0000 Jodi and Julie http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/?p=3827 We made this post last year- but figured it’s still appropriate since it’s almost Valentines Day again and a lot of our readers have never seen this… If you made this last year remember to restock any foods (if your spouse hasn’t already sneaked them and ate them already). If you haven’t seen this before, then here you go….

Are you having a hard time deciding what to get your “special someone” for Valentines Day? Well worry no more. We have made it easy for you – and what’s better then the gift of preparedness? Send your loved one to work with a special 72 Hour Kit for the Office. We even made a contents list and cute little tag for you to attach to the container you gather the contents in.

For the tag – that reads “Because I always want you to be safe” and contents list, click here. As always, you may customize this list to meet your specific needs and don’t worry if you can’t get all the items at once. Put a few of the items in, and keep giving them extra “parts” as special surprises through out the year.

IN THE KIT (buy trial size if you can)
- food (protein bars, granola bars, beef jerky, candy, fruit roll ups)
- toothbrush/toothpaste
- washcloth/facewash/bodywash
- shampoo/conditioner
- razor/shaving cream/deodorant
- change of socks/underwear
- kleenex/wet wipes
- hand sanitizer
- travel-size first aid kit including small bottle of Tylenol
- work gloves
- rain poncho
- space blanket
- small flashlight with spare batteries
- a whistle (to draw the attention of rescue workers)
- carbon-filtering dust mask (for smoke, dust, debris, etc.)
- small novel
- small radio with spare batteries
- cash (small bills for vending machines)
- contents list

WITH THE KIT
- crow bar
- water

To print the tag and contents list, click here, or click on either of the images. Good luck and Happy Valentines Day!

p.s. If you want to give your husband a hint on something to get for YOU, you can always send him the link to our Food Storage Made Easy Binders

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]]> http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/02/08/valentines-day-and-food-storage/feed/ 7 http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/01/25/common-substitutes-measurements-and-yields/ http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/01/25/common-substitutes-measurements-and-yields/#comments Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:40:13 +0000 Jodi and Julie http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/?p=3731 We recently posted about some info that one of our great readers (Nola) shared with us in a document she put together that had TONS of common substitutions, measurements and yields. We were going to break it up into multiple posts, but then realized it would be hard for you all to use it that way – so we made it into a pdf you can all download!

Print it out and put it in your Food Storage Made Easy Ebook Binder (we’ll be including this handout in our next free binder email updates – just in case you were wondering).

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]]> http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/01/25/common-substitutes-measurements-and-yields/feed/ 13 http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/01/07/jodi-and-julies-food-storage-new-years-resolutions/ http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/01/07/jodi-and-julies-food-storage-new-years-resolutions/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:36:22 +0000 Julie - Food Storage Made Easy http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/?p=3639 If you’ve been following us for awhile, you know at the beginning of  last year we had some New Years Resolutions. Well it’s a new year, and it’s time for new resolutions. We both have a big goal to help Jodi’s mom get her food storage in order, as well as some of our own resolutions.

My sweet mom (Grandma Lori) donated her food dehydrator to me when we first started to learn about food storage. However, I haven’t been ambitious enough to use it yet. We have had some great tips and resources sent in by readers and I am determined to put some of it into action.

When first getting started in food storage, all of the disaster/emergency prep stuff really overwhelmed me. Now that I have food more under control, I feel ready to step up and start to become better prepared for specific types of natural disasters. Our Seven Day Challenge really made me think and my goal is to get more prepared this year.

I love our three month supply worksheet. I have long wished I had something that specific for my long term food storage. I want to be able to plan meals for my year supply and know I have the right ingredients to make the meals I will be cooking. This is a huge goal for me this year which will take a lot of work but I know it will be worth it!

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I want to start sprouting regularly and really use it in more in my regular cooking.  I must confess, it still totally scares me.  The good news is, there’s a chapter dedicated solely to sprouting in James Talmage Stevens book – Making the Best of Basics … and he sent us both a copy for being on his radio show last month.  With his help, I plan to MASTER sprouting once and for all!

I have never been one for following recipes – HOWEVER since I have started using my food storage, I’ll go ahead and admit, I need and use recipes. My current management system of those recipes is pretty pathetic, so I’m gonna beat Jodi on this one and figure out a way to put them all in the same place (and not bring my laptop into the kitchen as I cook anymore!)

I want to learn more about cooking without power. This is a topic I have never ventured into really because …. of fear …. but I’m gonna figure that one out this year too (well at least partially).

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Stay with us as we venture into new challenges this year and see if we manage to keep at least SOME of our resolutions.  Let us know what some of your resolutions are in comments or head over to our Facebook Discussion and share with everyone. (Remember, you don’t have to have a facebook account to view the discussion)

]]> http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/01/07/jodi-and-julies-food-storage-new-years-resolutions/feed/ 20 http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/01/04/extreme-makeover-food-storage-edition/ http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/01/04/extreme-makeover-food-storage-edition/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:50:33 +0000 Jodi -- Food Storage Made Easy http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/?p=3621

For months now Jodi’s mom has hinted that she would like us to help her get her food storage organized, under control, and finished! So for Christmas we decided to give her an “Extreme Makeover” – food storage style. We’re going to be documenting the process for you so you can come along for the journey. So let’s get started:

Based on our initial conversations with Jodi’s mom, we have come up with the following game plan to help her achieve her Food Storage Extreme Makeover:

• Fill out Family Emergency Plan
• Purchase/Compile Disaster Kits and Car Kits
• Increase water storage
• 3 month supply plan
• Purchase 3 month supply foods
• Work on alternative cooking methods for long term storage

We will be updating the Extreme Makeover Index Page with all the posts we do – so make sure you check it out.

p.s. In case you are speculating … YES Jodi is pregnant

Later today: Extreme Makeover – Food Storage Edition
We are putting the finishing touches on our new series and we hope you are going to just LOVE it. Since it involves some coordination (and some cameos from Jodi’s mom) it won’t be posted until later this evening. So make sure to check back and find out what it’s all about!

Later this week: Food Storage New Year’s Resolutions
We have been plotting and planning and finally came up with some resolutions that we are really excited about. We will be sharing them later this week but in the meantime, we’d love to hear what YOUR resolutions are. Head over to our Facebook Discussion and share with everyone. (Remember, you don’t have to have a facebook account to view the discussion)

Later this month: BabyStep Checklists Revised
After having gone through a full year of our BabySteps Checklists we have a few ideas on how to make them better, along with some different recipes to include as well. If you have purchased a Food Storage Made Easy Binder you will be receiving the updated lists as part of your free updates for life!

Later this year: Exciting new topics!
While we want to continue to make things simple and easy for beginners, we also enjoy sharing what we learn as we are progressing in our own knowledge and experience. Some of the things we are going to delve more into this year include proper storage methods, powerless cooking, dehydration, advanced canning, and more! So continue to follow along with us if these are topics that sound interesting to you. And we also have some more giveaways and neat new products to share with you as well!

We hope you all have a fabulous 2010 and are ready to make this the year you “get it done”. We will be right here to help you along the way and share your successes (and failures). Don’t forget to check back to make sure you don’t miss a single thing!

We will be taking the holidays off from blogging to spend time with our families. Make sure to come back and visit after the New Year. We have some AMAZING things planned and can’t wait to share them with you!

p.s. Don’t forget the Electric WonderMill sale ends December 31st so get your orders in by then to take advantage of the $20 price break!

AND THE WINNER IS: Tammy

There was no last name in the comment but we will be emailing you to get your address to receive your prize. Congratulations!

If you want to get your own water storage kits or anything else from Emergency Essentials, make sure to CLICK HERE to get free shipping on your first order over $30! This is a special deal they are giving just for Food Storage Made Easy readers. We love hooking you guys up with great deals Julie is loving her boxes and Jodi ordered a set of her own as well.

Here’s another look at how the Water Storage Boxes worked for us:

If you’ve been following us for awhile, you know at the beginning of the year we had some New Years Resolutions. Well now is the time we TELL ALL about how we did. We’re excited about how this year went, and can’t wait to share our goals for 2010 in a few weeks!

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• I want to save up enough money to buy a wheat grinder so I don’t have to borrow Julie’s any more


Yay! This one was easy for me! When I wrote my resolutions last year my husband was out of a job so a wheat grinder purchase seemed far off. However, he was able to become employed in January and we got a little bit of money for Christmas and we decided that a wheat grinder would be a good investment since we used our food storage so much when he was out of work. The electric mills are on sale this month, so if you have extra Christmas money this year, now is a great time to get your own!



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• I want to plan my summer garden specifically with canning in mind


This one SHOULD have been an A+ as I started with a great plan and the best of intentions, but I had some setbacks along the way. You can read about my failures on my “lessons learned from gardening” post. However, I WAS still able to can some delicious applesauce and strawberry jam this year. Yay!


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• I want to create a recipe binder full of meals that use my long term food storage items and cook from it frequently


While I haven’t completed my recipe binder yet, I HAVE accumulated a TON of recipes and I use my food storage almost every day. I am still constantly pulling my laptop into the kitchen to follow recipes so I definitely still have room for improvement here. Next year it will be complete … I SWEAR!

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• I want to cook more with dry beans and quit being so afraid of the soaking concept


I have to admit, I put this goal as a way to FORCE me to get into beans. I was SO scared of them. I can’t believe how much I have learned this year about them. I learned to use them to make hummus, cream of chicken soup, and to replace my canned beans.


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• I want to plan dinners ahead of time to use more of my long term foods


I have done pretty well on this goal, but have to be honest there is room for improvement. I use my long term food storage ALL the time in my meals now, but I admit, I don’t meal plan that much. I have a bunch of recipes I love and use often, but I think I’m giving up on the dream of being a meal planner – it’s just not my style.


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• I want to find a way to help people who hate excel do an effective 3 month food supply plan even though the current excel file ROCKS! But I know, I know you don’t all love excel


I was able to make a pdf for people to make their 3 month plan, and I think it’s worked out well… What I’d really love to do now is make a cooler simpler online way, but I’m not that tech savvy so… sorry about that!

Stay tuned as we unveil next years goals in the next couple of weeks. We’re gonna have some fun ones, and Julie is giving herself another one to FORCE her into something she’s scared of.

In our quest to find a solution, Jodi came across Water Kits from Emergency Essentials while she was at an Emergency Preparedness Fair put on by her church. Here is a run down of the product taken from the website:

Basic 25 Gallon Boxed Water Kit

When the emergency requires you to evacuate, this kit possibly is, besides your family, the most important item to take with you. After filling, each box weighs approximately 40 lbs. The kit includes five heavy-duty (stackable up to three high to save space) each with its own metalized five-gallon water storage bag with pour spout. In an emergency, the heavy-duty boxes can be converted to portable toilets, making the kit even more useful.

This set stores 25 gallons of water for $35! When we shopped around for our plastic jugs we couldn’t beat that price! We especially like that you can store 3 high and save SPACE. We mentioned these as a great gift idea in our 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS! Check that out if you haven’t already!

Here is a little journey of us putting them together.

You can download a copy of the show at: http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/James-Talmage-Stevens. Our feature was aired on December 2, 2009.

To order your own copy of James Talmage Steven’s best-selling Family Preparedness Guide, please click here.

p.s. Leave us a comment and let us know if you’d like to hear more of this type of thing from us in the future.

Our Christmas present to our readers this year, is a 12 Days of Food Storage Christmas with a TWIST – it wont be 12 days, it will be 12 hours…

Rather then drag it out for 12 days, and to allow you the TIME to get going on this – we will be posting all 12 “days” TODAY! Every hour, we’ll post another one of the 12 “days”. Each post will have gift ideas you can use for family, friends, or people you know that are in need. We thought it would be a good idea to help you, help others with their Food Storage this year.

• An option that’s FREE or under $1
• An option that costs $5-15
• A more expensive option…

We also have this pdf for you to print out that has tags for each day, name tags, and images you can print, and attach to the gifts.

So here is the list of the DAYS- each link will start working as we post the “days” each hour.

Day 1: Emergency Preparedness
Day 2: Shelves
Day 3: Water
Day 4: 3 Month Supply
Day 5:Long Term Education
Day 6: Grains
Day 7: Legumes
Day 8: Baking Goods
Day 9: Fruits and Vegetables
Day 10: Comfort Foods
Day 11: Non-Food Items
Day 12: Checklists

Merry Christmas, and thanks for making this year so fun for us!

Once you have complete the first 11 days for a friend, or family member, it’s time for them to keep the journey going themselves. To help them do that, we have our BabyStep Checklists:

Free Email Checklists

Have the person you are giving to sign up for our free email checklists. You could even sign up for them with their email address and print out the first checklist for their gift. The checklists last for one year, and are sent every 2 weeks. After following the 26 checklists they will have a full food storage.

Food Storage Made Easy Binder Ebook

Compiled into an ebook is all of our 26 checklists, along with all our BabyStep information posts, and recipe index. It’s over 100 pages and is a great gift to help someone really get going. You can email the eBook to your friend or burn it to a disc and wrap it up with the Day 12 Tags attached.

Assemble Food Storage Made Easy Binder Ebook for them

An even greater gift would be the eBook assembled into a Food Storage Made Easy Binder. You buy the eBook, print it out, and assemble it into a binder with the Day 12 Tags attached. Instructions on how to do so are included with the eBook.

To help you with this one, until MIDNIGHT MST TONIGHT, we are selling the eBook for $5 off! You can only purchase it at the discounted price at this link.

Back to the 12 Days List

Although Food Storage (and Christmas for that matter) are a lot about food, we can’t forget the non-food items that are important and necessary to store! Remember to share some of these ideas and cuten them up with ribbons and the Day 11 Tags:

Tube of Toothpaste

Do we need to explain much here?

Package of Toilet Paper

Again, enough said

Assortment of Paper Products or Cleaning Supplies

Put together a gift basket, full of items from our non-foods list. These kinds of things are really nice for people on a tight budget because they aren’t things you think of as life-sustaining, but you would NOT want to be without them in an emergency.

Back to the 12 Days List

NOW THIS feels like Christmas. We had plenty ideas for this part of the 12 days of Christmas. Feel free to use some of these, or choose your own. Comfort foods are definitely things people need in time of any type of crisis:

Candy Bar or Pudding Mix

Even just a candy bar or 2 in your storage for just in case scenarios are great. Pick up the person’s favorite one and surprise them with a little treat to have in time of need (and tell them they can’t eat it right away, they have to store it Tie a cute ribbon around the candy bar and add the Day 10 Tags and you’re all set.

Big Baskets of Goodies (that would store well)

Take a look at our list of common comfort foods and pick some to compile in a gift basket with the Day 10 Tags attached. Trust us- these are things people want in times of stress!

Extra Set of Common Spices

A great thing to store one extra of is all your spices. Spices can be pricey, so it’s not something people tend to buy extra of on a regular basis. Surprise someone with an extra spice set and don’t forget the Day 10 Tags!

Back to the 12 Days List

While not critical for sustaining life, fruits and vegetables are a welcome addition to any food storage program for the health benefits, variety, and to help you save money on your day to day grocery shopping. Include the Day 9 Tags to complete today’s gift ideas:

Gardening Seeds

Gardening is a great way to become more self reliant. Try giving a few packs of gardening seeds to help motivate people to get going on gardening. If you know the person doesn’t have a lot of space, pick herbs, or things you can grow on kitchen counters.

Canning Supplies

A fun way to start using foods you garden, or buy in season for great prices is by canning them. A lot of people don’t have what you need to start canning and don’t think of buying it for themselves. A small canning kit is a great idea to get started.

Food Dehydrator

Another way to preserve fruits and veggies is through dehydrating. Again, if you’re feeling generous a great idea is a food dehydrator. You might want to be sure this is something the person is open/ready to get going on. You wouldn’t want to intimidate them too much

Back to the 12 Days List

Extra Container of Salt

Salt is one of those things that you run out of, and don’t necessarily think of storing. Find or buy a container of salt and make it cute with ribbons, or put it in a gift bag, and remind them Food Storage isn’t just grains and legumes.

A #10 Can of Powdered Milk

Powdered Milk can be one of those things that are hard to find, or hard to remember to use. Give someone a nice #10 can, or box and challenge them to try it out the next time they are cooking with milk.

A #10 Can of Powdered Eggs

Another item that is hard to find, and can be pricey if you don’t live where they sell it locally is powdered eggs. Try giving someone a #10 can of powdered eggs to help them try out a new thing they may not have thought of.

Back to the 12 Days List

Next up on our list is Legumes! Legumes can be very intimidating to a lot of people so this is a great one to help people realize they aren’t so bad. Here are some ideas to help people use, and understand legumes a little better:

12 Bean Soup

Purchase a 1 lb bag of 12 bean soup mix from the grocery store. Tie a ribbon around it and include the Day 7 Tags. If you want to be really ambitious you can include this 12 Bean Soup Recipe on a cute recipe card too. It’s delicious!

Sprouting Kit

Ever tried sprouting? Well if you know someone who wants to get into the real good stuff, give them this sprouting kit. Sprouting is a great way to use some of your food storage, and it’s super healthy and nutritious! Add your Day 7 Tags and it’s the perfect food storage gift.

Pressure Cooker

Here’s another one of those – if you’re feeling REALLY generous gifts. This pressure cooker is a DREAM come true for cooking dry beans. No pre-soaking, waiting hours, and worrying about your beans turning out ever again! Don’t forget your Day 7 Tags.

Back to the 12 Days List

Now we’re on to the real nuts and bolts of Food Storage. Help someone out this holiday season by showing them how to actually USE their Food Storage. Day 6 is going to start the actual food items with GRAINS. Make sure to add your Day 6 Tags to whichever gift option you choose.

Blender Wheat Pancake Mix

If you haven’t seen Crystal’s Blender Wheat Pancake mix gift idea, you’re gonna love it! Check it out here. It wont cost you much, but will surely impress and motivate someone to use their food storage.

Wheat and Handout

Get some of those cute decorative plastic food baggies and fill it with your favorite grain. Maybe wheat, pasta, rice – whatever you wish. If you fill it with Wheat for someone who doesn’t have a wheat grinder, make sure you print out this post for them. It has A BUNCH of ideas on how to use wheat without a wheat grinder.

WonderMill

If you’re feeling REALLY, and we mean REALLY generous – give the gift of a WonderMill! For the month of December Wondermill has their electric mills on sale for $239.95. We’re dealers and offer free shipping – so now is the perfect time for a gift you know they will love!

Back to the 12 Days List

A lot of people have a hard time storing all the “Food Storage” type foods because they have no idea how much to store, or how to use it. Use these great ideas to help people get going and don’t forget to add the cute Day 5 Tags:

Print-Out of Long Term Needs

Here is a handout that includes instructions and a food storage calculator that you can print out, tie a ribbon around, and give to someone. This will help them determine quantities of foods to purchase based on their family size.

Favorite Food Storage Recipe Delivered

Since it IS Christmas, try baking one of your favorite food storage recipes and bring it over to a friend. Who doesn’t love treats?! Tell them (after they have tried it) that you used Food Storage and they can too!

Any Number of Food Storage Books

To really help someone learn about Food Storage, give them one of these great books:
The Family Preparedness Handbook
I Can’t Believe It’s Food Storage
Country Beans
Marlene’s Magic with Food Storage
Food Storage 101

Back to the 12 Days List

It’s recommended before getting heavily into storing “long term foods” such as grains and legumes, to start with a 3 month supply of foods you typically eat. Ideally you’ll start gradually using your grains and legumes in foods you typically eat, but before getting overwhelmed with that … start with your typical foods:

Planning Sheets

Print out these worksheets to help someone get started on their 3 Month Plan. There is an Instruction Sheet, a Menu Plan Sheet and an Inventory Sheet. You will need to print the Menu Plan Sheet multiple times depending on how many different meals you want to plan. There is also a video tutorial to go along with these printable forms found here. Put the printed worksheets in sheet protects or roll them up and tie a ribbon around them. Don’t forget to attach the Day 4 tag!

2-3 Cans of Common Foods

Buy a few cans of common foods, tie a bow around them and add the Day 4 tag. This gift will help someone get started on storing extra food by giving them a few ideas of things to store.

A Basket of Canned Goods

If you’re feeling really generous, get a cute basket, and fill it with tons of common foods. Tell the person, they have to use this in their Food Storage as a way to get a great jump start. Don’t forget to add the Day 4 tag as a finishing touch.

Back to the 12 Days List

Water is the most necessary item to have stored! You can last without food for much longer then you can last without water. Make sure you stress the importance of water storage as you help people get started. Whichever option you choose, don’t forget to add your Day 3 Tag!

Water in Juice/Pop Jugs

Did you know you can store water in Pop or Juice bottles. This a great little token to give someone to help them get started. Put a ribbon around it to make it cute. Make sure you don’t use empty milk jugs – the plastic in milk jugs will deteriorate.

Water Filter

While we DEFINITELY recommend STORING water, we have found that it’s a good idea to have a way to clean water in case you run out, or to get extra for dishes or other things. Check out these inexpensive water bottle filters as a possible gift idea.

Water Containers

A great gift idea is these water containers from Emergency Essentials. Stay tuned on these! Next week we are going to be doing a review and GIVEAWAY on them. We’re so excited to test them out! TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY ENDING DEC 21 GO HERE.

Back to the 12 Days List

Once you are ready to make the Food Storage Plunge, it really feels great to know you have a well organized PLACE to put all that food. We recommend starting with 1 to 2 shelves and then moving on from there. You don’t need an entire room custom built to get going! Check out these ideas:

Small Spaces Solutions Handout

Do you know someone who complains about starting a Food Storage due to lack of space. Well help them out by giving them this AMAZING handout. Compiled from reader suggestions, is a list of amazing ideas on where to store food in small spaces. Print out the handout and put it in sheet protects or roll it up and tie a ribbon around it. Don’t forget to attach the Day 2 tag!

Cardboard Shelf

Have you seen those great little rotating shelf racks that you put your food in and the oldest rolls to the front. Check out this rotating rack Jodi’s husband made out of cardboard. Make one for only the cost of cardboard and glue! For an extra bonus, include some canned goods with the shelf. Attach the Day 2 tag and you’re all set.

Large Shelves

Try a nice heavy duty shelf or 2 to really help someone get started. You can find these at hardware stores, walmart, or even online. You can choose which shelf would work best by thinking about how much space the person may or may not have.

BONUS: You can also include these cute labels as a bonus! And don’t forget your Day 2 tag.

Back to the 12 Days List

The best way to start a Food Storage, is with Emergency Preparedness. In fact, it’s one of the most popular reasons why people decide to get going on a Food Storage in the first place. Help someone start out their journey right- with some of the following ideas:

Emergency Preparedness Plan

Print out our Emergency Preparedness plan that has detailed checklists to help a family make their family plan, build a disasters kit – including a 72 hour kit, and put together an evacuations list and car kit. Roll up the pages, tie it up with a cute ribbon and attach the Day 1 tag.

Car Kit or 72 Hour Kit

Make, or purchase a pre-made Car Kit, or 72 Hour Kit. These can be found at stores, or online. Consider even just putting together a little first aid kit for someone’s car. Don’t forget to attach the Day 1 tag to your kit!

Subscription to Mozy

One thing people rarely think about with Emergency Preparedness is computer back-up. With all the pictures, work, and data on our computers, the last thing we would want in case of a fire or earthquake is to loose all that precious stuff! Consider purchasing a monthly, or one-year subscription to our favorite online back up. See why we love it here! Print out the receipt, roll it up, and tie a ribbon around it and attach your Day 1 tag. Anyone would be thrilled to receive this on their doorstep!

Back to the 12 Days List

SALE ITEM: Food Storage Made Easy eBook Binders

For 2 DAYS ONLY (until 12:00 midnight MST Tuesday night) you can purchase one of our Binder eBooks at a $5 discount! If you don’t like waiting for your next BabySteps Checklist to come out, now is your chance to grab the entire set plus all of the additional material that comes with them. Sale has now ENDED!

SALE ITEM: Emergency Essentials Deals and Giveaways

To celebrate the Holiday Season, Emergency Essentials is offering 10 Days of Holiday Deals and Giveaways – starting today! Each weekday from today through December 11th they will offer great pricing on one of their emergency preparedness products, as well as have a drawing to give one of the featured products away. Visit their blog for more details.

SALE ITEM: WonderMill Electric Mill

From now until December 31st, WonderMill is running a sale on the Electric Grain Mills. Instead of the regular price of $259.95 it is now available for only $239.95. You can also take advantage of our free shipping promotion to get your mill at rock bottom prices.

SALE ITEM: 72 Hour Kit from The Ready Project

Save 30% off of a 2 person 72 hour kit from The Ready Project. Regular price is $64.95 but sale price is $44.95 plus free shipping! You may purchase your kit at The Ready Project’s website.

SALE ITEM: Mozy Online Backup

Save $15 on a 1-year MozyHome subscription and $30 on a 2-year MozyHome subscription with promo code MOZY. Hurry, offer ends Monday, November 30, 2009. Click here to purchase your online backup subscription TODAY!

AND DON’T FORGET:

Coming tomorrow is our 12 Days Of Food Storage Christmas. We will be celebrating all day, with a post each hour!

AND ONE MORE THING:

Wednesday we are going to be on the James Talmage Stevens Radio Talk Show Online. Come listen at the following at link at 6:00 PM MST.

James Talmage Stevens is an expert in Family Preparedness and author of The Family Preparedness Handbook. We are honored to be able to be his guests.

Growing up as a kid in Canada I always ate “Habitant Pea Soup”. It was warm and delicious on a cold winters day. When I moved to the States I could never find my favorite soup and lived for 10 years without it! While in a class about legumes I stumbled upon Rita Bingham’s Country Beans book and found this recipe.

It tasted just like my favorite childhood soup, was EASY, and or course, used food storage. Here’s the recipe:

Pea Soup:

Ingredients:
2½ T of dried peas (green or yellow) ground to make 3 T pea flour
1 ½ c. cold water
2 t chicken bouillon

Directions:
Mix ½ c cold water and 3 T pea flour in a bowl, set aside. Bring 1 cup and 2 t of chicken bouillon to a boil. Add in pea mixture. Bring back to a boil. Soup will thicken. You can add shredded carrots, veggies, or onion powder.

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

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!

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.

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!

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!

<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>

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…

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.

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 (see updated post how to make from scratch)
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!

The recipe I’ll be sharing calls for whole wheat tortillas, so if you’re up for the challenge of trying it out when I share it, get a head start by trying these!

Ingredients:
4 cups of whole wheat flour (fine)
¼ tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 cup of warm water (may need a little more – I usually do!)
¼ cup cooking oil

Jodi always mocks me for not being the “recipe” type, or having “clear” instructions when cooking (I’m one of those, a little bit of this and a little bit of that types…), so just to show I can be specific…

Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients together to make a nice pliable dough.
2. Knead 1 minute and let rest 5 minutes.
3. Roll the dough out so you can easily make equal pieces
4. Cut the dough into 18 equal pieces (I halved the recipe here)
5. Form into 18 balls
6. Roll thin (spray pam to help if there are sticking or dryness problems)
7. Fry on both sides, they cook quickly (no need to grease the frying pan at all)
8. Eat! It doesn’t take long to cook.

TRICKS:

I use a little hand roller that helps a lot and since I use tortillas mostly in recipes where they don’t have to look perfect, I don’t feel so bad when they don’t turn out in perfect circles… (Although I’m sure I could trace some lid from a bowl and cut around if I really cared)

My sister uses this kind of tortilla press and she says they are much faster and easier to make. I think one day I’ll get one. It’s only $13 on amazon, so to all my family members reading this… ahem ahem.  But for now, my handy roller works fine.


At a cooking class I was at once this lady had an electric press and cooker .  The thing was amazing! You threw a ball of dough in there and closed the lid, and voila! A perfect tortilla.  For people who love kitchen appliances (and have the room to store them) this could be something to check out!

Hope you like these!

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

Today we will be talking about the fourth reason, Everyday Emergency, 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).

While you would never think of STARTING to do food storage to prepare for “everyday emergencies”, it sure is a nice side benefit once you have some food storage accumulated. Here are a few every emergencies that we have found food storage to help with immensely:

Recipe Ingredients: Right in the middle of cooking dinner, you run out of one of your necessary ingredients. Instead of having to run to the store for that spice, egg, soup can, etc. … you run down to your basement instead.

Dinner Emergency: Do you ever have one of “those days” where all of a sudden it’s 6:00 and you have a hungry family and hadn’t planned anything for dinner? Food storage can help! Look into your three month supply foods and you’ll always have something quick and easy on hand from Mac N Cheese, to Spaghetti, Hamburger Helper or beyond.

Party Foods: If you get invited somewhere, it’s common to be asked to “bring something”. If your food storage is stocked up, you will always have some kind of item on hand to bring (even desserts!) This will help you from blowing your budget to go get ingredients to make something special to bring.

Convenience: Sometimes having that extra 5 minutes of time in dinner preparation can feel like it’s preventing an emergency Using dehydrated veggies can save tons of time on chopping and are just great for soups, stews, casseroles, etc.

Safety: Using powered eggs can prevent a salmonella “emergency”. Use them in your cookies and other batters and you can eat the dough, lick the beaters, etc. and know that you are safe. You also don’t have to be careful about washing your hands after cracking eggs into recipes. Who knew food storage could be so useful?

What other everyday emergencies have you run into that were helped by having food storage on hand? Let us know in the comments below!

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

Today we will be talking about the third reason, Health Benefits, 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).

Here’s a confession – when we first started the blog, Julie was always a little bit sad that when it came time to start using and talking about the Long Term Food Storage Foods, she’d have to pretend to like it all.  She was under the impression that all Long Term Foods were for was making cookies and cakes – ya bread too, but mostly desserts.  While desserts are delicious,  you can’t live on them alone and they have a negative effect on fitting into some of your clothes… ahem… haha

Well now, she openly admits and is happy she was completely WRONG! Food Storage can be as healthy (or not) as you want it to be.  So don’t be so afraid of those Long Term Food Storage Items anymore – here are just a few ways they can have Health Benefits:

Grains- It’s recommended by the USDA that half of our daily grain intake consists of WHOLE grains. Storing grains such as wheat is one of the most effective ways of getting whole grains in your diet.  Here’s an example of how much better for you whole grains can be. When whole wheat is processed into refined white flour, the following nutrients are lost:
o Half of the beneficial unsaturated fatty acids
o Virtually all of the vitamin E
o Fifty percent of the calcium
o Seventy percent of the phosphorus
o Eighty percent of the iron
o Ninety eight percent of the magnesium
o Fifty to 80 percent of the B vitamins

We like to use our WonderMill wheat grinders to make pizza, pancakes, bread, and all sorts of things with our whole wheat.

Legumes- Legumes are the magical fruit. You can learn more about their health benefits in our post we did about them.   They are low calorie,  low fat, high in protein, high in fiber etc.  While they are a little more intimidating to get started with, once you start using them and learning more about them you’ll find how versatile they can be! You can use mashed beans to replace the fat in recipes, ground dried beans to make bean flour for a very low-fat white sauce, or even sprout legumes to provide a healthy vegetable options. Sprouting a seed enhances its already high nutritional value (i.e. Oats when sprouted contain 600% more vitamin C).

Misc Baking Ingredients- The beauty of these long term food storage items is portion control! When you buy baked goods or processed foods you have no way of controlling how much sugar, preservatives, or salt go in your foods. When you’re making your foods from scratch you can control how much, or how little fits your families tastes and lifestyle.

Allergies or Other Dietary Restrictions- If you or a family member has food allergies or other dietary restrictions, food storage is even more important for you.  You have complete control over what goes into your cooking.  By making it from scratch you are saving lots of money over specialized foods from the grocery store.  And also, in case of a food shortage, you will already have foods on hand that are ok for your family to eat.

If you have ever clicked on our Links Page you may have noticed it was sort of pathetic. We always had big dreams of making it into a very useful, one-stop-shop for all your food storage and emergency preparedness needs. However, it was always one of those projects that got pushed to the wayside for other more pressing projects. Well this weekend we finally snapped and decided to make the page into what we always wanted it to be. We hope you find it helpful in your search for food storage information.

We personally visited every site/blog, wrote the descriptions, and gave them our stamp of approval. We tried to limit the list to sites that are still being updated on a regular basis, and sites that are in line with our own philosophies on food storage and emergency preparedness. If we missed your site, please feel free to fill out the form on our Links Page and we will review it as soon as we can.

p.s. Make sure to check back later today for the post on Health Benefits of Food Storage. We have some amazing information to share with you!

For all the new readers that are just finding our site we wanted to give you a little recap of over 50 of our favorite posts we’ve done over the last year and half since we started our blog. For all our current readers, hope you enjoy this blast from the past!

TOP POSTS/TOOLS OF ALL TIME

Small Spaces Storage Solutions
Food Storage Made Easy Binders
How to Build Your Own Can Rotating Rack
Emergency Preparedness Plan
Our Favorite Wheat Grinder
How to Grind Wheat VIDEO
Three Month Supply Spreadsheet
Three Month Supply Videos: Basic Tutorial | Advanced Tutorial
Long Term Food Storage Calculator
Long Term Food Storage Tutorial Video

GREAT POSTS FROM THE PAST

Our Beginnings: Julie’s 1st Month | Jodi’s 1st Month – June 2008
How to Make a 72 Hour Kit – June 2008
72 hour kit outtakes VIDEO (HILARIOUS!) – October 2008
Interview with Crystal from Everyday Food Storage VIDEO – October 2008
Homemade Applesauce Recipe and Canning – November 2008
Cheap Holiday Baking – November 2008
What’s a Tweet? – November 2008
Top 10 Christmas WishList Items – December 2008
How to Create an Emergency Binder – January 2009
Julie’s love affair with Mozy – January 2009
Water Purification – January 2009
Alternate Water Sources – February 2009
Valentine’s Gift Idea – 72 Hour Kit for the Office – February 2009
How to Grow Sprouts – February 2009
Food Storage Myths Debunked – March 2009
All About Wheat Grinders – March 2009
Let’s Talk About Wheat – March 2009
Beans, the Magical Fruit! – March 2009
72 Hour / Disaster Kits for Babies & Toddlers – March 2009
Make Your Own Newspaper Plant Pots – April 2009
Cleaning Supplies Using Food Storage Items – April 2009
Food Storage and Money Savings – April 2009
How to Make a Coffee Can Heater – April 2009
Food Storage Shelf Life – April 2009
Emergency Chemical Toilet – May 2009
Types of Wheat – May 2009
More 72 Hour Kit Food Ideas – May 2009
Let’s Talk About Barley – May 2009
What to do With Spare #10 Cans – June 2009
Food Storage Labels – June 2009
Water Evaporation Still – June 2009
Let’s Talk About Oats – July 2009
Let’s Talk About Beans – July 2009
How to Cook Rice (Without a Rice Cooker) – August 2009
Let’s Talk About Powdered Eggs – August 2009
SPROUTING – August 2009
Non-Food Items Inventory List – August 2009
Seven Day Challenge Summary – September 2009
Food Storage Substitutions – September 2009

OUR FAVORITE RECIPES

Buttermilk Cornbread
Corn Cakes (YUMMM!)
Fruit Smoothies
Whole Wheat Bread (from start to finish)
Food Storage Pizza Tricks
BEST Rice Krispie Squares
Granola Bars
Honey Whole Wheat Bread (Jodi’s favorite!)
Lemon Bars with a Twist
Homemade Mac N Cheese

We hope you will start (or continue) to follow along with us by subscribing to our RSS Feed, Twitter, Facebook, or adding our button to your blog. We love getting to know our readers, hearing about your food storage experiences, and learning from all of YOU!

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

Today we will be talking about the second reason, Economic Crisis, 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).

While Natural Disasters is what encouraged us to START our food storage, we have to admit – the concept of an economic crisis is what KEEPS us building our food storage. We feel that the likelihood of money being tight is MUCH higher then a power or water outage type disaster. Money being tight could come as a national, local, or personal emergency. You never know what could happen and it’s such a blessing to have food stored, and a plan in place for a time when you might have to live off what you have stored.

BONUS:  Food Storage Saves Money!

Awhile back we did a post on Food Storage and Money Savings. The post talks about how your 3-month supply can save you money by buying foods only when they are on sale and stocking up. You can also save on your grocery bill by actually learning how to use and cooking with your long term food supply. Buying grains and legumes and cooking things from scratch can save you a lot of money!

Knowing what foods you can use as substitutes is a great food storage planning tool that allows you to really focus in on WHAT to store. Understanding yields can also be very helpful as you progress towards cooking more whole foods from scratch. Today we’ll be covering some common measurement conversions, and over the next few weeks we’ll move on to discuss some great substitutions and yields for common items.

 
pinch = 1/16 tsp.
dash = 6 drops or 1/8 tsp.
1/4 T. = 3/4 tsp.
3 tsp. = 1 T.
1/8 C. = 2 T. = 1 fl. oz.
1/4 C. = 4 T. = 2 fl. oz.
1/3 C. = 5 T. + 1 tsp.
1/2 C. = 8 T. = 4 fl. oz.
3/4 C. = 12 T. = 6 fl. oz.
1 C. = 16 T. = 1/2 pint = 8 fl. oz.
2 C. = 1 pint = 16 fl. oz.
4 C. = 2 pints = 1 quart = 32 oz.
16 C. = 4 quarts = 1 gallon
8 quarts = 1 peck
4 pecks = 1 bushel
1 liter = 1 quart plus 3 oz.
2 oz. = 1/8 pound
4 oz. = 1/4 pound
8 oz. = 1/2 pound
16 oz. = 1 pound

These measurements can be really helpful when doubling or tripling recipes, and is something that should be printed and inserted into your recipe box, cookbooks, or Food Storage Made Easy Binder. (*hint* we just may be including some handy handouts in our next FREE binder update). Thanks again to Nola! And we’re excited to share with you all the other great stuff she sent us!
 

“WHY DO PEOPLE BUILD A FOOD STORAGE?”

After receiving a few emails with that very question, we realized that although we do a great job helping people easily build their food storage,we’ve never really explained “Why Do People Build A Food Storage?” in a clear, concise and “easy to find” manner. HOW EMBARRASSING!

We decided to do a 5 part mini-series on reasons why people build a Food Storage.

The 5 main reasons are:

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

But… before we get into the WHY’s – let’s first answer the WHAT?

Food Storage is the concept of “storing” food for a number of “what if” situations.  After having an emergency preparedness plan in place including a 72 hour kit, the governing principles in which we have built our Food Storage, and have built our blog are the following:

WATER STORAGE:

Store drinking water for circumstances in which the water supply may be polluted or disrupted.

THREE-MONTH SUPPLY:

Build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet. Gradually increase your supply until it is sufficient for three months. These items should be rotated regularly to avoid spoilage. We consider foods stored in a freezer to count for your 3 month food supply.

LONG TERM FOOD STORAGE:

For longer-term needs, and where permitted, gradually build a supply of food that will last a long time and that you can use to stay alive, such as wheat, white rice, and beans. These items can last 30 years or more when properly packaged and stored in a cool, dry place. A portion of these items may be rotated in your three-month supply.

If you haven’t been around lately, we just barely finished the 7 DAY CHALLENGE.  Each day for 7 Days we had a mock emergency to test out how well we are prepared for the MANY reasons we all have food storage (natural disasters, economic crisis, everyday emergencies, health benefits).  We still can’t believe how much we learned ourselves and how much “fun” we had.

With a challenge like this, of COURSE we had prizes… The last round of prizes include:

• a limited time Wondermill rebate of $30 for either an electric or hand mill FOR EVERYONE (whether you participated or not)
• a chance to purchase a Food Storage Made Easy eBook Binder for $5 off for EVERYONE who does the “ASSIGNMENT” (whether you participated or not)
• TONS of prizes from our initial prize post awarded randomly to challenge participants (announced earlier today)

To help spread the word about food storage, and encourage YOU to make notes of what you learned, we’re having the assignment open to anyone.  If you participated each day, or are only now just following along, you can complete the assignment to  be sent a temporary link to purchase the Food Storage Made Easy eBook Binder at $5 off!

SO HERE IS HOW IT GOES:

On your blog, or in an email to your friends simply make a list of what you learned on each of the 7 days (separated by days).  This doesn’t need to be a fabulous essay, even bullet points will do.  If you didn’t participate on the specific days, see what you COULD have learned.  You can see what you may have learned by reading the feedback on the public facebook discussion thread for each day, and comments for each day on the individual posts (a link for each of those is provided below to make doing your homework extra easy).

Start the blog post or email by saying how you found out about the challenge and link to http://foodstoragemadeeasy.NET,  so people can come and learn themselves…then go into what you learned on each of the 7 days:

Day 1: Natural Disaster -”It’s a Flood”

• Facebook Discussion Feedback
• Comments on Daily Post Feedback

Day 2: Pandemic -”Time for Quarantine”

• Facebook Discussion Feedback
• Comments on Daily Post Feedback

Day 3: Every Day Emergency -”Dinner Guests?!?!”

• Facebook Discussion Feedback
• Comments on Daily Post Feedback

Day 4: Economic Crisis -”Money is TIGHT!”

• Facebook Discussion Feedback
• Comments on Daily Post Feedback

Day 5: Natural Disaster -”Earthquake!”

• Facebook Discussion Feeedback
• Comments on Daily Post Feedback

Day 6: Diet Disaster -”Healthy lifestyle”

• Facebook Discussion Feedback
• Comments on Daily Post Feedback

Day 7: Every Day Emergency -”Why Didn’t you Ask for this Sooner?”

• Facebook Discussion Feedback
• Comments on Daily Post Feedback

When your blog post, or email is done send us an email at info@FoodStorageMadeEasy.NET with either a link to your blog (if your blog is private, email us what you posted) or a copy of the email and then we will send you a link to purchase the Food Storage Made Easy eBook Binder at $5 off!

Hurry up – your assignment is due by October 1ST!

Let us repeat that, doing this will automatically get you a limited time link to purchase the binder at $5 off. AND you’re only going to learn by doing it.

p.s. If you want to show off that you “survived” the Seven Day Challenge feel free to add this button to your post or sidebar.

@ Food Storage Made Easy

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Or feel free to add our regular button to your blog.

BabySteps for Food Storage!

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For all individual winners, we’ll be contacting you over the next week to get you your prize. We’re just trying to recover from the challenge, so bare with us.

Prize: Food Storage Made Easy eBook Binders
WINNERS:
1. Kim Armer Watterson
2. Lisa Hovey

Company/Website: Food Storage Made Easy
Description: A comprehensive step-by-step guide to getting your emergency preparedness plan, water storage, and food storage put together in just ONE YEAR! Includes checklists, calculators, detailed information on long term food storage, and a large recipe appendix.

For a limited time, and with a small assignment, we’ll have the Food Storage Made Easy Binders available for $5 off!

Prize: TWO Annual Subscriptions to Mozy Online Backup
WINNERS:
1. Kari Brimhall
2. Danielle Mahoney

Company/Website: Mozy Unlimited Backup
Description: Mozy is a simple and safe way to back up all the important stuff on your computer. A copy of your data is stored in a secure, remote location for safekeeping, so that in the event of disaster your data is still retrievable.

Use coupon code SEPTEMBER to receive 10% off annual and biennial subscription this month. And special bonus for all MOMS, use this link to get a free t-shirt too!.

Prize: WonderMill Hand Mill
WINNER:
Linda Amori

Company/Website: The WonderMill
Description: WonderMilll Hand Mill already given away during the sign up stage of the 7 Day Challenge.

From September 1, 2009 through November 25, 2009 WonderMill is offering a $30 rebate on the hand mills AND electric mills. Click here for details.

Prize: TWENTY Dr. Kno Preparedness CD-ROMS
WINNERS:
1. Courtney Schloss
2. Whitney Kenney
3. Kathy Peterson
4. Brenda Mann
5. Amber Baer
6. Charlotte Meadows
7. Linda Sorden
8. Diana Starr
9. JoAnna Ebersole
10. Jennifer Pitzl
11. Debbie Wastart
12. Kathy Beachy
13. Michelle Niederhauser
14. Amanda Rowland
15. Amber Unfred
16. Rebekah Hamilton
17. Sheila Shepardson
18. Stephen Schaefer
19. Nicole Houghton
20. Katie Murray

Company/Website: Dr. Kno
Description: An interactive family preparedness CD-ROM that provides thorough preparedness guidelines and a life organizer software system. Manuals on the CD can be printed, or viewed on-screen for your family to use.

Prize: THREE Sets of Conversion Chart Magnets
WINNERS:
1. Rebecca Fryar
2. Barbara Pak
3. Julie Savage

Company/Website: Everyday Food Storage
Description: Crystal over at EverydayFoodStorage.Net has made her Powdered Milk Conversion chart into a slick kitchen magnet along with NEW charts for Magic Mix and Powdered Eggs! Now making your favorite recipes food storage recipes is even EASIER.

Prize: Rita Bingham Books -50 books at 50% off each
WINNERS:
FIRST 50 TO CLAIM:

1) Participants e-mail Natural Meals Publishing (order@naturalmeals.com) with their 50% off book choice(s) and contact information (along with a best time to call so they can call to get payment information)

2) Natural Meals will then contact the ones who are in the first 10 for each book and either take their order at that time, or give them the discount code so they can go directly to the website and place their order.

Company: Natural Meals Publishing
Description: Receive 50% off any of the following five books: Country Beans, Natural Meals in Minutes, The New Passport to Survival, Natural Sweets and Healthy Treats, and Food Combining Handbook. There will be 10 discounts given per book.

Prize: 30 Day Supply Bucket of Food
WINNER:
Shaunda Burns

Company: The Ready Project
Description: Affordable, long lasting gourmet food storage Starting at under $30 per month Shipped to your home monthly Easy to cook, just add water Stores for up to 15 years Compact size fits under beds and in cupboards Meets the minimum daily caloric needs recommended by the American Heart Association.

Prize: ONE Annual Membership, and SIX three-month memberships
WINNERS:
1. Sarah Hudson Hofhine (Annual)
2. Deana Marie Bushman
3. Christine Malone Scott
4. Debbie Arnell
5. Brandy Rydalch
6. Suzanne Monk Stokes
7. Michelle Chase Niederhauser

Company: Deals To Meals
Description: Deals to Meals tells you where the best deals are each week from all of the major grocery stores, help you know which items to add to your food storage and freezer each week. They also give you a weekly meal planner that is based around the best deals each week.

Prize: Customized Vinyl Labels
WINNER:
Dianne Dance Pabst

Company: Vintage Vinyl Decor
Description: Vinyl lettering to label food storage with. This lettering can be placed on your plastic buckets, other storage containers, shelving, almost anywhere. The award package would include: 2 sugar, 2 white flour, 1 wheat flour, 1 powdered milk, 1 red wheat, 1 white wheat, 1 oats, 1 white rice, + 10 your choice.. *in winners choice of red, brown or pink vinyl lettering

Prize: TEN Lifetime Memberships to Fresh Reminders
WINNERS:
1. Laura McMullin
2. Deborah Heavilin
3. Carlie Harding
4. Dara Smith
5. Laura Ann Atkin
6. Melissa Sanchez
7. Barbara Pak
8. Jana Glass
9. Dalene Hokanson
10. Susan Corinth

Company: Fresh Reminders
Description: Don’t let your hard-earned food storage go to waste because it expires! Fresh Reminders helps you keep track of all of those pesky expiration dates and will email you before your items go bad, helping you automatically rotate your food and stay safe. A free lifetime membership allows you to track an unlimited number of items, have first access to new features, and never see ads in your account.

Prize: Emergency Dynamo Lantern with Radio and 36 Hour Emergency Candle
WINNERS:
1. Tammy Thomas (Lantern with Radio)
2. Melanee Peterson (Candle)

Company: Ultimate 72 Hour Kits
Description: Incredible new bright LED dynamo lantern which never needs batteries. This product can charge a cell phone and has a USB tie which can charge an MP3 player. The energy stored is used to supply the LED Lights, FM Radio, and Siren. The candle is a must in all survival kits. It lasts for 36 hours and has an adjustable wick. The wick can be drawn up and used as a mini stove.

Prize: TWO copies of Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover
WINNERS:
1. Jocelyn Robertson
2. Lynne Tolman

Company: Getting Finances Done
Description: Learn how to get your finances under control with Dave’s Total Money Makeover and then come join me for my free program “12 Weeks to Fiscal Fitness” starting in September at my website Getting Finances Done.

Prize: Cansolidator Pantry
WINNER:
Jenni McVey

Company: Shelf Reliance
Description: Shelf Reliance is an industry leader in food storage and emergency preparedness. Their Cansolidator Pantry holds up to 40 cans and is perfect for food storage organization and rotation!

ALSO for ALL participants, use coupon code: “Challenge15” at checkout and get 15% off MSRP of any order (excluding multi-packs). Shelf Reliance always does free shipping for orders $199 or more.

Prize: A copy of Brite Music’s Safety Kids – Personal Safety digital set
WINNER:
 Amanda Arnold Hopkins

Company: Brite Music
Description: A copy of Brite Music’s Safety Kids – Personal Safety digital set. This includes the songs in MP3 format, and the activity book in .pdf format

Add discount code: 2080701 to receive 10% off your entire order, including sale items for ALL challenge participants.

Prize: 1 Week Supply of Freeze Dried Food Storage
WINNER:
Carolyn Barber

Company: Wise Company Food Storage
Description: This bucket includes – 2 meals a day – 1 breakfast and 1 entree (14 pouches of food) for a week for 4 adults OR 2 adults and 2-3 kids. Delicious and nutritious meals, just add hot water! It has a value of $120!!

IN ADDITION – they will give FREE SHIPPING on any orders placed this month by mentioning foodstoragemadeeasy.net. Contact this email tursh2000@yahoo.com to receive the free shipping incentive!

Prize: ONE case of canned cheddar cheese
WINNER:
Amber Woodcox Coyne

Company: Best Prices Storable Foods
Description: Creamy and delicious, REAL canned cheddar cheese that will store for 10-20 years or longer. A case contains 36 cans a $123 value.

Prize: SunDew Cold & Flu Defense System Kit
WINNER:
Rosa Fus

Company/Website: Soleil Life Sciences
Description: The SunDew Cold & Flu Defense System is the first product line to offer a complete solution to managing the common cold or flu. Protect with Hand Sanitizer, Support with Immune Booster, Fortify your body’s defenses under stress with First Response, and Treat symptoms and relieve discomfort with Cold & Flu Syrup.

Use coupon code: “foodstorage” to receive 25% off your order for ALL challenge participants!

Having conversions for things like powdered milk and powdered eggs on hand in your kitchen readily available is  A TREAT! Also, having cheese stored is a treat we know we would have a hard time living without!

Prize: A Set of Conversion Chart Magnets

WINNER: Rebecca Fryar (we’ll contact you soon to get you your prize)

(two more sets to come at the end)

Company/Website: Everyday Food Storage
Description: Crystal over at EverydayFoodStorage.Net has made her Powdered Milk Conversion chart into a slick kitchen magnet along with NEW charts for Magic Mix and Powdered Eggs! Now making your favorite recipes food storage recipes is even EASIER.

Prize: ONE case of canned cheddar cheese

WINNER: Amber Woodcox Coyne (we’ll contact you soon to get you your prize)

Company: Best Prices Storable Foods
Description: Creamy and delicious, REAL canned cheddar cheese that will store for 10-20 years or longer. A case contains 36 cans a $123 value.

Say Thanks to Our Sponsors, Please Visit their Sites

One of your family members calls you in a panic and says they need a treat for a party they are going to (they didn’t know about it, so don’t freak out at them!). You are stranded at home with no car, and can’t get to a store.

DEPENDING ON YOUR SCHEDULE… ONCE YOU MAKE THE TREAT YOU ARE OFFICIALLY DONE! IF YOU WANT TO GO TO A RESTAURANT TO CELEBRATE, OR EVEN JUST A STORE TO GRAB SOME STUFF YOU’RE FREE!

Sorry it’s an easy day! We’re TIRED!

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants (until your treat is made).
• You have run out of fresh butter (you can use shelf stable alternatives)
• You have run out of eggs milk (you can use powdered)
• You have run out of fresh milk (you can use powdered)
• Make a delicious dessert
• Once the dessert is ready, YOU ARE DONE!

ADVANCED “FOLKS” (for anyone who feels up to it)

• Try it with no perishables or pre-made mixes at all

Each day we will be giving a prize to someone who provided feedback to that day’s challenge.  *Click here to see who won DAY 6′S PRIZE. To provide feedback on today’s challenge, do one of the following:

Make sure to read DAY 6’s facebook discussions and comments on the post to see what we all learned from using our food storage to eat healthy. (You can read it even if you don’t use facebook!)

Learning to cook foods that are healthy not only are you getting health benefits, but allow you to use food storage items regularly.  Also- wouldn’t it be nice to have your food storage cutified! (probably not a word)

Prize: Rita Bingham Books -50 books at 50% off each

WINNER: FIRST 50 TO ORDER!

Company: Natural Meals Publishing
Description: Receive 50% off any of the following five books: Country Beans, Natural Meals in Minutes, The New Passport to Survival, Natural Sweets and Healthy Treats, and Food Combining Handbook. There will be 10 discounts given per book.

TO CLAIM:

1) Participants e-mail Natural Meals Publishing (order@naturalmeals.com) with their 50% off book choice(s) and contact information (along with a best time to call so they can call to get payment information)

2)  Natural Meals will then contact the ones who are in the first 10 for each book and either take their order at that time, or give them the discount code so they can go directly to the website and place their order.

Prize: Customized Vinyl Label

WINNER: Dianne Dance Pabst

(we’ll contact you at the end of the challenge to get you your prize)
Company: Vintage Vinyl Decor
Description: Vinyl lettering to label food storage with. This lettering can be placed on your plastic buckets, other storage containers, shelving, almost anywhere. The award package would include: 2 sugar, 2 white flour, 1 wheat flour, 1 powdered milk, 1 red wheat, 1 white wheat, 1 oats, 1 white rice, + 10 your choice.. *in winners choice of red, brown or pink vinyl lettering

Say Thanks to Our Sponsors, Please Visit their Sites

It’s time to change those unhealthy eating habits! You have been diagnosed with all sorts of health problems.

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants.
• You can’t use any pre-packaged or convenience foods
• Your breakfast has to be low sugar
• Your lunch has to be low fat (if you’re at work already, think about what you could have brought or made)
• Your dinner has to be from scratch using whole grains and/or legumes
• You have to have 3-5 servings of fruits and vegetables today

ADVANCED “FOLKS” (for anyone who feels up to it)

• You have to figure out how many calories, grams of sugar, grams of fat, and grams of fiber are in what you are making
• Your whole family has to adapt to this healthy living for the day (you can’t just make yourself a healthy sandwich and give the kids hot dogs)

REMEMBER, TOMORROW’S LIMITATIONS AND TASKS WILL BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. How long would you have lasted under these conditions?

Each day we will be giving a prize to someone who provided feedback to that day’s challenge.  *Click here to see who won the DAY 5’s PRIZE. To provide feedback on today’s challenge, do one of the following:

Make sure to read DAY 5’s facebook discussions and comments on the post to see what we all learned from having to pull cope with job loss, and water loss. (You can read it even if you don’t use facebook!)

When a natural disaster happens and computers with LOCAL external hard drives get crushed, or burned, having a safe back-up location for pictures, and files is GREAT to have (not to mention viruses and crashes).  Also, having lanterns and radios during earthquakes could come in HANDY for sure!

Prize: Annual Subscriptions to Mozy Online Backup

WINNER:Kari Brimhall (we’ll contact you at the end of the challenge to get you your prize)

(One more annual subscription to come at the end)

Company/Website: Mozy Unlimited Backup
Description: Mozy is a simple and safe way to back up all the important stuff on your computer. A copy of your data is stored in a secure, remote location for safekeeping, so that in the event of disaster your data is still retrievable.

BONUS FOR EVERYONE: Use coupon code SEPTEMBER to receive 10% off annual and biennial subscription this month. And special bonus for all MOMS, use this link to get a free t-shirt too!.

Prize: Emergency Dynamo Lantern Radio

WINNER: Tammy Thomas (we’ll contact you at the end of the challenge to get you your prize)

(36 Hour Emergency Candle still to come)

Company: Ultimate 72 Hour Kits
Description: Incredible new bright LED dynamo lantern which never needs batteries. This product can charge a cell phone and has a USB tie which can charge an MP3 player. The energy stored is used to supply the LED Lights, FM Radio, and Siren. The candle is a must in all survival kits. It lasts for 36 hours and has an adjustable wick. The wick can be drawn up and used as a mini stove.

Say Thanks to Our Sponsors, Please Visit their Sites

There has been an earthquake and you have lost some utilities

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants.
• Your water pipe broke, and you have no water access
• The power has been cut off
• It’s the 2nd day of the earthquake, your fridge food has gone bad, but the food in your freezer has managed to stay cold enough to use
• You’re driving home from checking on a family member and the road is blocked with a bunch of large rocks from the earthquake, did you have a small car shovel (this is a very highly recommended item to store in your car)
• During the earthquake a beam fell on your computer(s) and crushed it. Did you have your data backed up in a remote location?
• Keep your family entertained all day with no power

ADVANCED “FOLKS” (for anyone who feels up to it)

• If you have a generator – it got CRUSHED!
• Unfortunately all fridges and freezers in your home ALSO got crushed!

REMEMBER, TOMORROW’S LIMITATIONS AND TASKS WILL BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. How long would you have lasted under these conditions?

Each day we will be giving a prize to someone who provided feedback to that day’s challenge.  *Click here to see who won Day 4’s PRIZE. To provide feedback on today’s challenge, do one of the following:

Make sure to read DAY 4’s facebook discussions and comments on the post to see what we all learned from having to pull cope with job loss, and water loss. (You can read it even if you don’t use facebook!)

Being prepared for a financial crisis is just as important, if not MORE important then a natural disaster (the chance of you losing your job is much higher.)  Also, when money is tight, remember doing fun educational activities around the house can be just as fun as a movie night out, or spending money on other activities.

Prize: Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover Book

WINNER: Jocelyn Robertson (we’ll contact you at the end of the challenge to get you your prize)

(Another copy coming at the end!)

Company: Getting Finances Done

Description: Learn how to get your finances under control with Dave’s Total Money Makeover and then come join me for my free program “12 Weeks to Fiscal Fitness” starting in September at my website Getting Finances Done.

BONUS FOR EVERYONE: Starting mid-September Getting Finances Done will be starting a FREE series called “12 Weeks to Fiscal Fitness.” Learn the secrets of how to get control over your finances and how to reach your financial goals with detailed step-by-step instruction. Sign up today!

Prize: A copy of Brite Music’s Safety Kids – Personal Safety digital set

WINNER: Amanda Arnold Hopkins (we’ll contact you at the end of the challenge to get you your prize)

Company: Brite Music
Description: A copy of Brite Music’s Safety Kids – Personal Safety digital set. This includes the songs in MP3 format, and the activity book in .pdf format ALSO –

BONUS FOR EVERYONE: Add discount code: 2080701 to receive 10% off your entire order, including sale items for ALL challenge participants.

Say Thanks to Our Sponsors, Please Visit their Sites

Times are tough. You have no income at the time. You have lost some critical utilities and are having to cut back on certain items.  It’s also the weekend, you’ve had a rough week and want to do something fun with your family or your friends.

***IMPORTANT NOTE FOR SUNDAY’S CHALLENGE: We want you to get the full effect of Sunday’s challenge so make sure to check your email Saturday night after 8 pm MST (that means winners for today’s prizes will be chosen by 8 pm also)***

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants.
• Your water got shut off because you couldn’t pay your bill last month (remember toilets use 1 1/2-3 gallons of your stored water PER FLUSH)
• You no longer have cable, internet (except for the challenge), or cell phones due to lack of money
• You ran out of bread, need some, and can’t afford store bought -YES today is the day you have to actually try making bread
• You can’t participate in activities that are paid for
• Do a fun activity with your family, or with your friends that costs no money outside of the home

ADVANCED “FOLKS” (for anyone who feels up to it)

• You can’t afford gas for your car, and you’re on empty
• Your power gets shut off too!

REMEMBER, TOMORROW’S LIMITATIONS AND TASKS WILL BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. How long would you have lasted under these conditions?

Each day we will be giving a prize to someone who provided feedback to that day’s challenge.  *Click here to see who won Day 3’s PRIZE. To provide feedback on today’s challenge, do one of the following:

Make sure to read DAY 3’s facebook discussions and comments on the post to see what we all learned from having to pull together a last minute meal. (You can read it even if you don’t use facebook!)

Being able to cook great meals from your pantry can save you time and money on those hectic days.  Also when you’re using that food in your pantry, you want to make sure you keep track of expiration dates so you don’t waste food!

Prize: ONE Annual Membership

WINNER:Sarah Hudson Hofhine (we’ll contact you at the end of the challenge to get you your prize)

(SIX three-month memberships to come at the end)

Company: Deals To Meals
Description: Deals to Meals tells you where the best deals are each week from all of the major grocery stores, help you know which items to add to your food storage and freezer each week. They also give you a weekly meal planner that is based around the best deals each week.

Prize: A Lifetime Memberships to Fresh Reminders

WINNER:Laura McMullin (we’ll contact you at the end of the challenge to get you your prize)

(NINE more to come at the end!)

Company: Fresh Reminders
Description: Don’t let your hard-earned food storage go to waste because it expires! Fresh Reminders helps you keep track of all of those pesky expiration dates and will email you before your items go bad, helping you automatically rotate your food and stay safe. A free lifetime membership allows you to track an unlimited number of items, have first access to new features, and never see ads in your account.

Say Thanks to Our Sponsors, Please Visit their Sites

Your spouse calls and announces their boss is coming over for dinner (or your boss invites themselves over for dinner TONIGHT!).  You have no WAY to go to the store, and you have to come up with an impressive meal from what you already have in your home.

THESE LIMITATIONS AND TASKS ARE ALL NEW, THE FIRST 2 DAYS LIMITATIONS DO NOT APPLY!

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants.
• You can use whatever food you have in your house (includes fridge, freezer)
• The meal has to have an appetizer
• The main course can’t use meat because the boss is a vegetarian (your meal CAN use milk, and dairy)
• You have to have at least 2 side dishes for the dinner
• The meal has to have a dessert
• You have to get other family members to help you make the meal and or set the table “NICELY” (share your pictures on facebook)
• Your house probably should be clean (even though that’s not a “food storage” thing)
• Brainstorm what other types of “everyday” emergencies you may have, and how you could better prepare for them

ADVANCED “FOLKS” (for anyone who feels up to it)

• You only have 1 hour from when you start to finish making the meal

REMEMBER, TOMORROW’S LIMITATIONS AND TASKS WILL BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. How long would you have lasted under these conditions?

Each day we will be giving a prize to someone who provided feedback to that day’s challenge.  *Click here to see who won DAY 2′S PRIZE. To provide feedback on today’s challenge, do one of the following:

Make sure to read DAY 2’s facebook discussions and comments on the post to see what we all learned from living through a day of quarantine. (You can read it even if you don’t use facebook!)

In a situation where germs are everywhere it’s wise to always protect yourself!  Also, in cases where you can’t leave your home and may be dealing with sick family members it’s great to have some ready made meals on hand.

Prize: SunDew Cold & Flu Defense System Kit

WINNER:
Rosa Fus

We’ll contact you at the end of the Challenge to get you your prize.
Company/Website: Soleil Life Sciences
Description: The SunDew Cold & Flu Defense System is the first product line to offer a complete solution to managing the common cold or flu. Protect with Hand Sanitizer, Support with Immune Booster, Fortify your body’s defenses under stress with First Response, and Treat symptoms and relieve discomfort with Cold & Flu Syrup.

BONUS FOR EVERYONE: Use coupon code: “foodstorage” to receive 25% off your order for ALL challenge participants!

Prize: 1 Week Supply of Freeze Dried Food Storage

WINNER:
Carolyn Barber

We’ll contact you at the end of the Challenge to get you your prize.
Company: Wise Company Food Storage
Description: This bucket includes – 2 meals a day – 1 breakfast and 1 entree (14 pouches of food) for a week for 4 adults OR 2 adults and 2-3 kids. Delicious and nutritious meals, just add hot water! It has a value of $120!!

BONUS FOR EVERYONE: IN ADDITION – they will give FREE SHIPPING on any orders placed this month by mentioning foodstoragemadeeasy.net. Contact this email tursh2000@yahoo.com to receive the free shipping incentive!

Say Thanks to Our Sponsors, Please Visit their Sites

There has been an outbreak of the swine flu (or something like it) in your city, and you are ordered into quarantine in your home. (YESTERDAY’S LIMITATIONS DON’T APPLY, THESE ARE ALL NEW)

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants. Today is more of a “THINKING” day then “DOING” day
• You can’t leave your house at all (if you have a prior commitment we understand, we both have something Thursday evening we committed to months ago!)
• Some of your family members have been infected and have fevers/ stomach flus and need proper medication
• You need to provide comfort foods to infected family members to make them feel better
• You have used up ALL the toilet paper and paper towels in your bathroom and kitchen, you can only use what you have stored extra (wherever that may be)
• The family members that have not been infected will stay healthy so long as they follow proper recommendations, meaning proper hand washing and sanitizing, and even wear face masks

ADVANCED “FOLKS” (for anyone who feels up to it)

• This is the 7th day or your quarantine, so ALL your fridge food is gone
• You actually REALLY have to stay home – NO CHEATING!

REMEMBER, TOMORROW’S LIMITATIONS AND TASKS WILL BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. How long would you have lasted under these conditions, would you be able to stay in your house for an extended amount of time?

Each day we will be giving away a prize that will be drawn randomly among all of that day’s participants (along with LOTS more prizes at the end).  *Click here to see who won the DAY 1 (Wednesday) PRIZE. To provide feedback on today’s challenge, do one of the following:

Make sure to read DAY 1’s facebook discussions to see what we all learned from living through a flood and evacuation. (You can read it even if you don’t use facebook!)

In a situation where you have no power, a hungry family, and are totally stressed out, wouldn’t it be nice to have some food you can just add hot water to and eat? We’d rather boil water than bake bread Also, does your family really know what to do in a flood situation? Having what you need is one thing, knowing what to do is another BIG part!

Prize: 30 Day Supply Bucket of Food

WINNER:
Shaunda Burns (we’ll contact you at the end of the challenge)

Company: The Ready Project
Description: Affordable, long lasting gourmet food storage Starting at under $30 per month Shipped to your home monthly Easy to cook, just add water Stores for up to 15 years Compact size fits under beds and in cupboards Meets the minimum daily caloric needs recommended by the American Heart Association. Use referral code 61838 to get 5% off your first order!

Prize: Dr. Kno Preparedness CD-ROM

(19 MORE to come at the end)

WINNER:
Courtney Schloss (We’ll contact you at the end of the challenge)

Company/Website: Dr. Kno
Description: An interactive family preparedness CD-ROM that provides thorough preparedness guidelines and a life organizer software system. Manuals on the CD can be printed, or viewed on-screen for your family to use.

Say Thanks to Our Sponsors, Please Visit their Sites

There has been a flood and everyone in your city has been told to evacuate their homes for part of the day.

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants.
• You have no power for the whole day (except to fill out the questionnaire, or chat on facebook about what you are learning!)
• You have to “leave” your house within an hour for at least 5 hours (but you don’t know if your house is going to be there when you get back).
• You can only grab what is in your disasters kit and ALREADY on your grab list  when you leave.  *remember your house may be destroyed when you get back
• You have to eat the food from your 72 hour kit while you are gone
• Your family gets soaking wet during evacuation, and one of your family members cuts their toe open
• Your spouse is at work. You have to meet at your pre-determined meeting location when he or she is done work
• Once your whole family reunites you can return to your house
• When you get home, your fridge food is ruined, your basement food is flooded, and you need to make dinner with no power
• Keep your family entertained with no power (remember, after dark the lights, tv, appliances etc wont work!)

ADVANCED “FOLKS” (for anyone who feels up to it)


• You have to stay out of your house until it’s bed time
• You can only eat your 72 hour kit food the whole day
• You forgot your cell phone at home when you evacuated

REMEMBER, TOMORROW’S LIMITATIONS AND TASKS WILL BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. How long would you have lasted under these conditions?

Each day we will be giving a prize to someone who provided feedback to that day’s challenge.  *Click here to see who won the “pre-challenge” giveaway. To provide feedback on today’s challenge, do one of the following:

Pre-Challenge Giveaway

Last week we HAD a little “pre-challenge” giveaway for you.  Read more about it here. Now that the challenge has officially started, we’re announcing the pre-challenge giveaway winners…

RANDOM winners of the Food Storage Made Easy EBOOK Binders:

WINNER #1: Kim Armer Watterson for discussing on facebook

WINNER #2: Lisa Heltie for filling out questionnaire #209

Winners, we’ll contact you to get you prize emailed out to you! If you didn’t win, here’s how you can get your own.

You can grab a copy of our binder ebook to help you get a start on some recipes. But like I said, there are a LOT of other resources online such as our sister site http://everydayfoodstorage.net that may have recipes that you are using on a regular basis. So get on the computer and get printing!

Ok we gotta stop giving hints or this is going to be too easy

-MAKE SURE to get your family involved. Let them know it’s coming. Go over the family plan with them. Get them to commit to participating with you and learning along the way.  It could be a fun activity to do say…. TONIGHT!

-Print out this to do list. It’s a pdf we made for you that will act as your future “to-do list”.  Through out the week as you realize you are missing things, jot them down so that you can essentially create your own list of goals as you go.

-Have water stored. As we mentioned in our intro post (if you haven’t watched it yet, make sure you do) each day we will focus on a different reason why it’s good to have food storage. In other words it wont be a whole week of absolute mahem, but there may be a day or two you need water… ahem ahem.

Good luck, make sure you’re signed up and keep checking your emails or the blog.

For those of you who just can’t wait for some details on how it’s going to work… here is some insight

1. Each day you will receive an email telling you the basics of what type of emergency happened that day.

2. You then visit the blog for a full list of limitations and TASKS you have to do that day.

3. Through out each day, fill out the questionnaire on our blog and discuss what you learned on our facebook fan page FOR A CHANCE TO WIN THAT DAY’S PRIZE. Doing either of these things enters you to win, so don’t worry if you don’t have facebook.

4. At the end of each day – we’ll announce that day’s winners.

THEN REPEAT EACH DAY FOR 7 DAYS! ARE YOU READY?

At the VERY end we will still have LOTS of prizes for you to win as well. We’ll keep you posted on that!

We’ll see you soon and WE”RE SO EXCITED!

P.S. If you are like Jodi, and Julie’s husband and can’t seem to live without soda (they come from the same family)  make sure you have some stored! No spending money for 7 days means no big-gulps for 7 days, oh wait, did we just give another hint?

Pre-Challenge Giveaway

To kick-start us off on awarding all of our fabulous prizes, we have a little “pre-challenge” giveaway for you. Go and check out the list of over 100 prizes and sponsors of this year’s challenge.

THE WINNERS OF THIS GIVEAWAY HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED! TO SEE THE WINNERS CLICK HERE.

Prize
2 Food Storage Made Easy eBook Binders

How to Enter (one winner from each)

• Visit our Facebook Discussion page and leave a post telling us which prize(s) you want to win most and WHY
  AND/OR
• Fill out the short questionnaire below (hold the control or apple button to select more than one prize)

Today we are revealing the 10 th piece of our Seven Day Challenge puzzle: AWARDS AND PRIZES! We’re so excited and grateful to all the generous sponsors who have donated prizes to help make the challenge even more fun and rewarding. We hope you will show your support and gratitude to them, by checking out their sites and products.

And now the part you’ve been waiting for. Here is a list of all the prizes. Prizes will be given out throughout the week of the challenge — and at the end. There are going to be multiple ways to win prizes, which we’ll explain more as the challenge starts.

MAKE SURE YOU READ THROUGH THEM ALL BECAUSE A FEW OF THEM HAVE DISCOUNT CODES FOR ALL PARTICIPANTS!

Prize: Food Storage Made Easy eBook Binders

Company/Website: Food Storage Made Easy
Description: A comprehensive step-by-step guide to getting your emergency preparedness plan, water storage, and food storage put together in just ONE YEAR! Includes checklists, calculators, detailed information on long term food storage, and a large recipe appendix.

Prize: TWO Annual Subscriptions to Mozy Online Backup

Company/Website: Mozy Unlimited Backup
Description: Mozy is a simple and safe way to back up all the important stuff on your computer. A copy of your data is stored in a secure, remote location for safekeeping, so that in the event of disaster your data is still retrievable. Use coupon code SEPTEMBER to receive 10% off annual and biennial subscription this month.

Prize: WonderMill Hand Mill and REBATE

Company/Website: The WonderMill
Description: WonderMilll Hand Mill already given away during the sign up stage of the 7 Day Challenge. $30 rebate on electric OR hand mill for all readers and challenge participants!

Prize: TWENTY Dr. Kno Preparedness CD-ROMS

Company/Website: Dr. Kno
Description: An interactive family preparedness CD-ROM that provides thorough preparedness guidelines and a life organizer software system. Manuals on the CD can be printed, or viewed on-screen for your family to use.

Prize: THREE Sets of Conversion Chart Magnets

Company/Website: Everyday Food Storage
Description: Crystal over at EverydayFoodStorage.Net has made her Powdered Milk Conversion chart into a slick kitchen magnet along with NEW charts for Magic Mix and Powdered Eggs! Now making your favorite recipes food storage recipes is even EASIER.

Prize: Rita Bingham Books -50 books at 50% off each

Company: Natural Meals Publishing
Description: Receive 50% off any of the following five books: Country Beans, Natural Meals in Minutes, The New Passport to Survival, Natural Sweets and Healthy Treats, and Food Combining Handbook. There will be 10 discounts given per book – Details to follow.

Prize: 30 Day Supply Bucket of Food

Company: The Ready Project
Description: Affordable, long lasting gourmet food storage Starting at under $30 per month Shipped to your home monthly Easy to cook, just add water Stores for up to 15 years Compact size fits under beds and in cupboards Meets the minimum daily caloric needs recommended by the American Heart Association.

Prize: ONE Annual Membership, and SIX three-month memberships

Company: Deals To Meals
Description: Deals to Meals tells you where the best deals are each week from all of the major grocery stores, help you know which items to add to your food storage and freezer each week. They also give you a weekly meal planner that is based around the best deals each week.

Prize: Customized Vinyl Labels

Company: Vintage Vinyl Decor
Description: Vinyl lettering to label food storage with. This lettering can be placed on your plastic buckets, other storage containers, shelving, almost anywhere. The award package would include: 2 sugar, 2 white flour, 1 wheat flour, 1 powdered milk, 1 red wheat, 1 white wheat, 1 oats, 1 white rice, + 10 your choice.. *in winners choice of red, brown or pink vinyl lettering

Prize: TEN Lifetime Memberships to Fresh Reminders

Company: Fresh Reminders
Description: Don’t let your hard-earned food storage go to waste because it expires! Fresh Reminders helps you keep track of all of those pesky expiration dates and will email you before your items go bad, helping you automatically rotate your food and stay safe. A free lifetime membership allows you to track an unlimited number of items, have first access to new features, and never see ads in your account.

Prize: Emergency Dynamo Lantern with Radio and 36 Hour Emergency Candle

Company: Ultimate 72 Hour Kits
Description: Incredible new bright LED dynamo lantern which never needs batteries. This product can charge a cell phone and has a USB tie which can charge an MP3 player. The energy stored is used to supply the LED Lights, FM Radio, and Siren. The candle is a must in all survival kits. It lasts for 36 hours and has an adjustable wick. The wick can be drawn up and used as a mini stove.

Prize: TWO copies of Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover

Company: Getting Finances Done
Description: Learn how to get your finances under control with Dave’s Total Money Makeover and then come join me for my free program “12 Weeks to Fiscal Fitness” starting in September at my website Getting Finances Done.

Prize: Cansolidator Pantry

Company: Shelf Reliance
Description: Shelf Reliance is an industry leader in food storage and emergency preparedness. Their Cansolidator Pantry holds up to 40 cans and is perfect for food storage organization and rotation! ALSO for ALL participants, use coupon code: “Challenge15” at checkout and get 15% off MSRP of any order (excluding multi-packs). Shelf Reliance always does free shipping for orders $199 or more.

Prize: A copy of Brite Music’s Safety Kids – Personal Safety digital set

Company: Brite Music
Description: A copy of Brite Music’s Safety Kids – Personal Safety digital set. This includes the songs in MP3 format, and the activity book in .pdf format ALSO – Add discount code: 2080701 to receive 10% off your entire order, including sale items for ALL challenge participants.

Prize: 1 Week Supply of Freeze Dried Food Storage

Company: Wise Company Food Storage
Description: This bucket includes – 2 meals a day – 1 breakfast and 1 entree (14 pouches of food) for a week for 4 adults OR 2 adults and 2-3 kids. Delicious and nutritious meals, just add hot water! It has a value of $120!! IN ADDITION – they will give FREE SHIPPING on any orders placed this month by mentioning foodstoragemadeeasy.net. Contact this email tursh2000@yahoo.com to receive the free shipping incentive!

Prize: ONE case of canned cheddar cheese

Company: Best Prices Storable Foods
Description: Creamy and delicious, REAL canned cheddar cheese that will store for 10-20 years or longer. A case contains 36 cans a $123 value.

Prize: SunDew Cold & Flu Defense System Kit

Company/Website: Soleil Life Sciences
Description: The SunDew Cold & Flu Defense System is the first product line to offer a complete solution to managing the common cold or flu. Protect with Hand Sanitizer, Support with Immune Booster, Fortify your body’s defenses under stress with First Response, and Treat symptoms and relieve discomfort with Cold & Flu Syrup. Use coupon code: “foodstorage” to receive 25% off your order for ALL challenge participants!

Today we are revealing the 9th piece of our Seven Day Challenge puzzle: FACEBOOK FUN AND SUPPORT!

Can you believe it’s almost September??? We have been working hard lining up some amazing sponsors for the challenge (check back Monday for the full list). Remember this is a learning experience for us all so we are going to be giving away prizes to those who come and share what they are learning.

We have decided to utilize our Facebook Fan Page to have an easy and safe environment to share o