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

March 14-20: AVAILABLE
March 21-27: AVAILABLE
March 28-April 3: AVAILABLE
April 4-10: AVAILABLE
April 11-17: Lehi–April 14th
April 18-24: AVAILABLE
April 25-May 1: AVAILABLE
May 2-8: AVAILABLE
May 9-15: SLC–May 11th
May 16-22: AVAILABLE
May 23-29: AVAILABLE

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.

Are you storing a 3 month supply of food for a potential job loss? For a potential natural disaster? For meal planning purposes? Whatever it is that you are doing this for will influence how you go about planning, so first – decide – Why Am I Doing This? Check out our complete series on “Why Food Storage?”, if you haven’t figured this one out yet.

Are you the type that thinks your 3 month plan can only have shelf stable items? Do you think fridge and freezer foods count in your 3 month plan? Do you want to make a plan based on the assumption that you can still buy produce to fill in holes in your recipes? Once you have decided which types of foods you want in your 3 month plan, you’ll be able to filter your recipes to fit that criteria. ***disclaimer*** While it’s always good to have some shelf stable recipes, we think planning strictly shelf stable meals is a hard place to start for beginners-

• Some people find that buying foods they use often in bulk fit their goals for a 3 month plan.
• Some people like to plan their meals on our printable pdf forms with good old fashioned pens and pencils. (found on our BabyStep 3 page)
• If you’re really wanting to get detailed, you can use our 3 month supply excel spreadsheet and go to town including all ingredients for all your recipes and then watch it automatically calculate how many of each item you need.(found on our BabyStep 3 page)

While the end goal is to use foods daily from your pantry, and replace them with your regular grocery shopping, to get your supply kick started you may need to budget a certain amount of money to get your supply going. Figure out what you can spare until you have a supply built up and think of it as an investment.

When you have determined WHAT you need to buy, develop a plan to purchase. For some great info on this – visit our sister site The Food Storage Shopper. She is currently revamping her site, but you can still find some information to help you while it’s under construction. You may decide buying one extra each time works for you, or you might get into coupon and sale shopping and buy things only when on sale. Whatever fits your style, having a game plan in place will surely help.

Good luck, and remember there aren’t RIGHT answers to these questions. If we have learned anything in doing this for the last 2 years its that EVERYONE has a different style, and you need to figure out what works for you!

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!

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):

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.

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!

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

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).

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!

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).

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 this post with links to each part of the “makeover” throughout the next few months so make sure to check back and see what we are up to!

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.

We got in touch with Emergency Essentials and they had us try them out, and are doing a FREE GIVEAWAY of a set for our readers. In conjunction with the giveaway, they are also offering readers free shipping on reader’s first order over $30.00. Make sure to click on the sidebar ad to get the free shipping!

To enter the giveaway you may do any of the following for up to 3 entries:
1. Sign up for Emergency Essentials email newsletter (this can be done on top center of the homepage at beprepared.com)
2. Become a fan of Emergency Essentials on facebook
3. Become a follower of Preparedness Pantry (Blog of Emergency Essentials)

Leave up to 3 comments for each of the 3 items that you did to enter, if you are already a fan or on the newsletter list simply let us know that in the comment as well. Thanks! WE’LL BE DRAWING THE WINNER IN 2 WEEKS!

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
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!

<a border=0 href=http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net mce_href=http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net target=_blank><img src=http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/fsme/images/buttonsmall.jpg mce_src=http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/buttonsmall.jpg></a><br> BabySteps for <a href=http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net>Food Storage</a> </p>

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 our photos, videos, and stories about our 7 Day Challenge experiences. Each day that you come and contribute you will earn an entry into our daily giveaway. Check out this short video we put together to help you learn how to better use our Fan Page, especially with regards to the 7 Day Challenge.
 

p.s. Leave us a comment or come chat on facebook and let us know if you are doing any last minute preparations for the challenge!

With the Seven Day Challenge approaching on a surprise day in September, I wanted to make sure to really be on top of things (especially things I know I’ll need – hint hint!)

If you haven’t signed up already, make sure you do- there are some awesome prizes we’ll be announcing Monday.

As you guys know, we’re hoping to have some awesome prizes for the Challenge. We’ve emailed a bunch of places, but thought it would be good to post this here for anyone interested in “donating”.

We already have close to 1500 participants that are eager to see if they are prepared! Our challenge is listed on the Ready.gov events calendar as an official event for Emergency Preparedness week so we should be getting some more sign-ups from that too! (Just choose your state and we should be listed on September 1st, cool huh?)

As a part of the challenge we want to have offer prizes for participants that are donated by sponsors. Some of the winners will include:

-people who follow the challenge perfectly (and “survive”)
-people who provide feedback of what they could have done differently
-people who share ideas
and lots more…

If you’re in the “industry”, or even NOT in the industry and want to have a chance to have exposure for your product, we’ll take it!

We’re going to be announcing all our prizes on August 31, so if you can get back to us by next Friday August 28, we’d greatly appreciate it. Thank you for your time. Email us at info@foodstoragemadeeasy.net.

P.S. Check back later on Monday for Jodi’s summer gardening report. She wont be bragging about this one

So, here we go…. drumroll – and the winner is: LINDA AMORI! We’ll be emailing you later today to get your information and your Wonder Junior Deluxe sent off!

Just as a reminder the Wondermill has their $20 rebate going on with the Hand Mill until TOMORROW. So unless your name is Linda Amori, make sure to hurry up and get yours before the rebate is gone! Remember we are dealers for the Wondermill and get you the lowest prices, along with free shipping* on both Wondermill Electric and Hand Grinders.

NEXT WEEK: We’ll be finishing up the last Beyond the BabySteps post for our last 2 babysteps, then moving into a couple fun and exciting things for our Seven Day Challenge you wont want to miss. We’re so excited to test out our food storage supplies for 7 days and see where we stand, coming on a surprise day in September!

p.s. Yesterday, we did a post on sprouting that didn’t go live until late late in the evening, so in case you missed it, make sure you check it out. It had some great information.

We want to remind everyone of the Wondermill Hand Grinder giveaway going on. When you sign up for the Challenge you are automatically entered, and for each friend you refer to the Seven Day Challenge, you get an EXTRA ENTRY TO WIN. So go ahead, remind all your friends. We will be announcing the winner THIS FRIDAY morning, so hurry up and spread the word!

Just as a reminder the Wondermill has their $20 rebate going on with the Hand Mill until THIS Saturday. So if you don’t win Friday, make sure to hurry up and get yours before the rebate is gone! Remember we are dealers for the Wondermill and get you the lowest prices, along with free shipping* on both Wondermill Electric and Hand Grinders.

Can’t wait to start the challenge and learn from each other,

*(within the U.S. not including Hawaii and Alaska)

We decided it would be good to revise each BabyStep as part of our Summer Crash Course. So jump in and get started … it’s not too late! This week we are covering the following steps:

BabyStep 8: Fruits and Vegetables (click here to view the full step)
BabyStep 9: Comfort Foods (click here to view the full step)
BabyStep 10: Fruits and Vegetables (click here to view the full step)

    

• Updated each page to reflect the ideas shared in comments
  - Items with an * are new to the list
• Updated the online resources of each page

Homemade Applesauce Recipe & Canning
Best Rice Krispie Squares
Cleaning Supplies Using Food Storage

Stay tuned for some advanced posts on this topic coming later this week.

When cooking rice, follow your package directions and add a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of OIL! That was it, a trick that has worked everytime!

Now for some tips we found on the internet at wikihow:

• Instead of cooking the rice in water, you can use beef stock or chicken broth.
• You may wish to tweak the “rice to water ratio” with experience – for example: for larger quantities of rice, you may find a little less or more than one and a half the amount of water results in better rice.
• One cup of dry rice grains cooked in this way is about sufficient to accompany a meal for 2 adults.
• If the rice is a major component of the dish, you might need up to 1 cup of rice per adult.
• Your base measurement doesn’t need to be a cup necessarily – the key is to add 1.5x as much water as rice, whatever the quantity.
• It works best to use the original lid of the pot you use, since it will seal best.
• When the rice first boils, it might weep a bit or even lift the lid. Keep watch and an ear out for the start of the boil.
• These times and ratios are for white rice (e.g. Jasmine, Basmati, etc). If you are cooking brown rice you will need around 2C water to 1C rice and double the time.
• Water boils at a lower temperature at altitude. If you live at a high altitude it will take longer to cook rice.

We decided it would be good to revise each BabyStep as part of our Summer Crash Course. So jump in and get started … it’s not too late! This week we are covering BabyStep 7: Baking and Misc Ingredients (click here to view the full step)

• Updated key points
• Added instructions for making brown sugar
• Added a dairy section including eggs, butter, sour cream

• Food Storage Shelf Lives
• Holiday Baking + Food Storage
• Cleaning Supplies Using Food Storage Items

p.s. Stay tuned for a more advanced post on this topic coming later this week

Today we are revealing the 8th piece of our Seven Day Challenge puzzle: NETWORK HELPS!

We wanted to remind everyone as they are getting ready for the 7 Day Challenge to use our sister sites from the Fun With Food Storage Network. Crystal shares great cooking tips and recipe ideas, while Andrea helps you figure out where to buy your food storage items.

We’re half way through the summer crash course and we hope you are gearing up for a great challenge coming this fall!

    

Don’t forget that all of this information can be found in our Emergency Preparedness Plan Workbook which contains simple checklists to help you develop your family’s emergency plan (download in excel format or pdf format).

As we have grown and expanded our food storage knowledge, we have continually added to our site. While the site has expanded with so much information, we still want to make sure that it’s still easy for beginners to navigate. Since we are about halfway through our Summer Crash Course we decided to give you a little break and announce some changes we made to our site recently to help you get the most out of our site.

You will see that the top navigation buttons have changed slightly. Here is a run-down of the new things to look for:

• The Start Here tab now contains helpful tips for how to best use our site and where to find the information you are looking for.
• The Checklists page now offers you a choice of how you would like to receive your checklists based off of what your preferred “learning style” is.
• We added an Emergency Preparedness tab as we have found that this is something people are looking for quite a bit, and we feel it is a prerequisite to getting started with your food storage. Check back on Friday as we will be adding some new sub-pages to this section which will include even more detailed information
• Tools and Products remain the same. We consistently put a lot of work into those sections so make sure to check them often.
• We added a tab for Recipes so that you can easily navigate to any of the food storage recipes we have tried and posted about.
• Links and About remain the same, although we will be revamping the links section soon to make it an even better resource for you.

Take a look around at the new sections and let us know what you think of the changes. We are trying hard to keep more experienced readers interested while still being able to help the brand new beginner. Believe us, we know how it feels to be getting started and get so overwhelmed with the abundance of information out there.

Today we are revealing the 7th piece of our Seven Day Challenge puzzle: BINDER UPDATES FOR LIFE!

For those of you who have purchased our Food Storage Made Easy DOWNLOADABLE Binder- you may have been worrying: “What happens when Jodi and Julie do updates to BabySteps, or great new posts!?!?! I want those in my binder too!”

Well we’ve been waiting for the right moment to tell you, but when you purchased a copy of of the Food Storage Made Easy Binder, you qualified to be emailed* in pdf format:

• BabySteps Pages as they are revised
• Extra special posts that we publish new since the binder was created
• Updates to any checklists or recipes we have in the original binder

The first set up updates will be emailed* to you as pdf’s after the summer crash course is finished and will include:

• All 10 BabySteps sheets REVISED!
• Shelf Life handout
• Water Evaporation Still post
• Copies of our Bucket Labels
• What To Do With Extra #10 Cans Post
• AND more!

So, if you haven’t already purchased your DOWNLOADABLE Binder, hurry up- buy it, start using it to get ready for the Seven Day Challenge, then enjoy it forever as you will always have the newest and most up to date information sent right to your email* (and we will always format them nicely to match the rest of your binder — no more ugly website printouts!)

***IMPORTANT NOTE: PLEASE PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU EMAIL US***

If you have already purchased a Food Storage Made Easy Downloadable Binder, you will be sent an email in the next few weeks with a link to sign up for the binders for life updates. By signing up for the list, you will automatically get the updates forever.

If you were given the Binder as a gift by someone who purchased multiple copies, we will not have your email address- to sign up to receive the binders for life bonus, see the “Upgrade Option” at the bottom of the Binders in Bulk page.

We decided it would be good to revise each BabyStep as part of our Summer Crash Course. So jump in and get started … it’s not too late! This week we are covering BabyStep 4: Long Term Food Storage Education (click here to view the full step)

• Updated the key points and split them into categories
• Added tutorial video for Food Storage Calculator
• Added printable pdf version of the Food Storage Calculator
• Added numerous books and websites in the resources section

Food Storage Made Easy Recipes Page
Food Storage Shelf Life
Food Storage and Money Savings
Long Term Calculator Q&A (scroll down to read more about our milk recommendations)

Stay tuned for a more advanced post on this topic coming later this week

Today we are revealing the 6th piece of our Seven Day Challenge puzzle: THE THREE MONTH PLAN SURPRISE!

For a Beyond the BabySteps concept for BabyStep 3: Three Month Food Supply, we have been asked by a number of people how we can share our 3 Month Food Supply Plans.

Over the next couple of months as you get ready for the Seven Day Challenge, we NEED YOU to work on your 3 month spreadsheet. We’re going to be developing a way for you to send us your spreadsheets and be able to share the information with each other on the web. If we all come together and share our ideas, we’ll all be more prepared! What a great way we can do our part and share and serve!

We have some of the details planned, and some YET to plan but let’s just say it’s going to be AWESOME!

Hint to make the sharing easier…while you are completing your spreadsheets, open up a word file and jot down any recipes that you are using in your spreadsheet (for meals that require recipes)… We’ll tell you how it will all work after the Seven Day Challenge… Women can only multi-task so much

We decided it would be good to revise each BabyStep as part of our Summer Crash Course. So jump in and get started … it’s not too late! This week we are covering BabyStep 3: Three Month Food Supply (click here to view the full step)

• ADDED ADDITIONAL features to the 3 month food supply spreadsheet!
• Common Foods Sheet included on spreadsheet!
• Non-Food Items Sheet included on spreadsheet!
• EXTRA tutorial video for additional features in the excel plan (includes instructions on how to update your spreadsheet if you have already completed the current one.
• Added a link to our sister site who has great tips on buying your 3 month food supply.

Food Storage and Money Savings

Stay tuned for a more advanced post on this topic coming later this week

We decided it would be good to revise each BabyStep as part of our Summer Crash Course. So jump in and get started … it’s not too late! This week we are covering BabyStep 2: Water (click here to view the full step)

• Updated key points relating to:
  • Water storage for pets
  • Storing water in multiple sizes of containers
  • Refilling your water containers annually
• Revised all of the resources to include more helpful links

Water Purification
Alternate Water Sources

Stay tuned for a more advanced post on this topic coming later this week!

Today we are revealing the 5th piece of our Seven Day Challenge puzzle: LEVELS OF PARTICIPATION!

Throughout the 7 days of the Challenge you will get an email each day that describes what has happened that day and what kinds of foods/utilities you have access to (hint: you might not always have access to your fridge food). Being that we are all at different levels of preparation and progress, we know that for some people certain aspects will be either too hard or too easy.

So don’t fret! In each email, we will be giving you beginner type scenarios, and advanced type scenarios. You will be able to choose which level of participation you feel ready for (wouldn’t that be nice in a real emergency?). We want this challenge to be fun and to be a learning experience/starting point. If we make it too intense, we’ll be in trouble! After all, we’re participating in the challenge ourselves and we still feel like beginners too!

If you haven’t signed up yet, make sure to fill out the form on our main 7 Day Challenge page.

Awhile back, Jodi made a post called From Chaos to Clarity where she organized all her long term food storage. She made these cute labels for her big buckets and since then we’ve had a lot of requests for them. Well, we finally are getting around to making them available for you to download.

We made labels for red wheat, white wheat, flour, oats, rice, pasta, black beans, red beans, sugar, milk and a blank one for the items you store that aren’t necessarily “the typical” items.

To access the pdf, simply click here or click on the image below:

Simply print out how many you need and tape them to your buckets…Hope you like them!

We decided it would be good to revise each BabyStep as part of our Summer Crash Course. So jump in and get started … it’s not too late! This week we are covering BabyStep 1: Shelves (click here to view the full step)

• Updated different shelving idea links
• Added information about storing larger items (5 gallon buckets/water containers)
• Added the #10 can post to the step
• Revised the online resources to include more shelf plan options

How To Build Your Own Can Rotating Rack
Small Spaces Storage Solutions – RESULTS
What to do with Extra #10 Food Storage Cans

Stay tuned for a more advanced post on this topic coming later this week (hint it is something we have received a LOT of requests for!)

At Food Storage Made Easy we always sell the electric mills and the hand mills at the lowest price available, so when you add the $20 rebate from WonderMill onto that (and our current free shipping promotion) this is the rock bottom lowest you will ever be able to get a WonderMill hand grinder.

All you have to do to get the rebate is purchase a Wonder Junior Basic or Deluxe from our Wheat Grinder product page anytime between June 15, 2009 and August 15, 2009. Once your order has been received we will send you the $20 rebate form from the WonderMill. Make sure to follow the directions carefully.

We are so glad to be Authorized Dealers for this great company. The Wonder Junior hand mills will be PERFECT additions to your food storage if you are planning to participate in the Seven Day Challenge. Who knows, you may be without power for part of it

Today we are revealing the 4th piece of our Seven Day Challenge puzzle: THE SUMMER CRASH COURSE!

In order to make the Seven Day Challenge easier for everyone to participate (including BEGINNERS) we are going to use the summer to do a crash course. No – you’re not in summer school but you will be cramming! hehe.

Each week for the next 10 weeks we will be focusing on revamping, adding, and simplifying all of our 10 BabySteps with either new research or things we have learned since we wrote them all last year. This is our one year anniversary month and boy have we learned a lot in the past year! The BabySteps are the BASIS for the BabySteps Checklists we send out every 2 weeks via email. The checklists help you gather your food storage over a year, while the actual BabySteps are the research and information organized on the site.

Each week expect the 2 following types of posts:

Early in the Week:
A post explaining the revisions found on each of the Babysteps including a list of the best posts on that topic.

Later in the Week:
A “Beyond the BabySteps” post with more detailed information on the BabyStep we revised earlier that week.

We wanted to include all the new participants and also give some of our long-time readers some new stuff, so be ready for some fun learning to help you get ready for the Seven Day Challenge coming this fall!

SPECIAL NOTE:
Make sure to check back often because in the midst of these posts, we’ll also be revealing more puzzles to the Seven Day Challenge!

Today we are revealing the 3rd piece of our Seven Day Challenge puzzle: A BUTTON! Plus bonus ways to help you encourage your friends to get involved. For each friend you refer to The Challenge you earn an extra entry for the WonderMill giveaway. Plus it’s so much more fun to do this with friends!

Post a link on your Facebook Wall (and update your status!)
- Link to http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/7day for the main page and sign-up form
- Don’t forget to Become a Fan of Food Storage Made Easy while you’re there.

Post the link on Twitter
- Click here for a sample Tweet

Do a blog post or send an email to your friends
- Feel free to use our samples if you like (PDF Flyer, HTML Post, Plain Text Email)

Add the 7 Day Challenge Button to your Blog
Encourage your friends to join with you (AND give you the credit)

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

<a href=http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/7day/#.html target=_blank><img src=http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/fsme/images/challengebutton.png></a><br><br>

Come back Monday to find out how we’re going to help you get ready by September (even if you are just getting started). It’s going to be so much fun and it’s our Blog Anniversary gift to you!

Today we are revealing the first puzzle piece of The Challenge which is a HUGE giveaway for helping to spread the word about The Seven Day Challenge. The WonderMill company has graciously offered to donate a Wonder Junior Deluxe hand grinder as the grand prize for our giveaway. This hand grinder is a perfect appliance to have on hand in case there is a power outage as part of The Seven Day Challenge. We will randomly select a winner from all of the entries on August 15th.

1. Sign up for the Seven Day Challenge (1 entry)
2. Tell all your friends about the Seven Day Challenge
3. For every friend that lists you in the “Referrer” box, you get 1 additional entry

Don’t forget, if you don’t want to wait for the giveaway, you can always purchase a Wonder Junior Deluxe or Basic model from our Grain Mills product page. (And make sure to take advantage of the $20 rebate currently being offered!)

What is The Seven Day Challenge

The Seven Day Challenge is a mock disaster that will last 7 Days in which we will be initiating an emergency “fire drill”. Participants will have a chance to test their level of preparedness in a simulated emergency environment. Each day during the Seven Day Challenge you will receive an email informing you which utilities and/or food items you will have access to. At the conclusion of the Seven Day Challenge participants will have means to share, discuss, and give feedback on how they could have been “better” prepared.

When will it start?

We wanted to give you the whole summer to really hash out your emergency preparedness plan and get a solid start on your food storage. So we will give notification sometime in the month of September (no we won't tell you the exact date!) that the challenge has begun. Even if you are just getting started now, you will have enough time to fully participate in our challenge. And the best part is we have TONS of exciting things we will be doing this summer to help everyone prepare for the challenge.

Will this be fun?

If you have been following our blog, you know that we HAVE to make everything fun! So we have created a 7 Day Challenge puzzle which we will be revealing one piece at a time. Each piece will contain more information about the challenge such as prizes, how the challenge will work, helpful tips, etc. So check our blog frequently and/or add us to your RSS feeds or Twitter so you can keep up with all the excitement!

Check back later this week to find out how you can sign up for the 7 Day Challenge as we reveal our first piece of the puzzle. TRUST US YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS THIS! (*hint* There just so happens to be an amazing giveaway going along with it!)

How to “reuse” your #10 cans

• Decorate them with printed paper, ribbon, and anything else to make them cute. FIll them with fun stuff (candy, lotion, soaps, etc.) and give them out as presents.
• Decorate them and then fill them with flowers for center pieces at a party.
• Use them to store all sorts of things like flour, and wheat from the big plastic buckets, trail mix, homemade crackers, gluten flour, etc.
• Have your kids decorate them and make drums out of them.
• You can use them to store buttons, sewing, pencils, crayons etc.
• Make tin can ice cream in them.
• Refalange it! (I’m not sure that’s how you spell it). There is a falanger which will take that rim off the top of the can and make it ready to seal again.
• Put your first aid kit in it, and put it in your 72 hour kit (with a lid).
• Put vitamins, hair ribbons, cooking spoons, or rolled napkins with silverware for picnics in them.
• Put contact paper on the outside to make it more decorative.
• Recycle them!
• Use it for pre-made mixes in your fridge.
• Use your #10 cans as containers for gifts –maybe an FHE kit all containing contents all about food storage.
• Use them to put nails, screws, and other small objects. They help keep things cleaner in a shop or garage.
• Use them while changing the oil in dirt bikes or the car.
• Take #10 cans and paint them to match your kitchen. Then make vinyl stickers to label the contents of each can. They are decorative as well as FUNCTIONAL! Refill out of big buckets when needed!

Thanks again to everyone who shared their ideas with us. Please feel free to leave a comment with any more ideas you might have. The more of your ideas we read, the more excited we got to try some of these out ourselves!

As a network, we have put out 10 brand new teaching helps for those who are interested in getting their families involved in food storage and emergency preparedness. Five of them are fun activities you can do with small children. The other five are family lesson plans that can be used any time or specifically for LDS family home evenings. Check out the new lessons at the links below:

Just For Kids
Family Lessons

In the next few weeks we will also be adding teaching helps to the Community Lessons section for any of you who are out spreading the word via church or community classes. Hopefully these will be valuable resources for you to use and share. Please let us know what you think if you try any of them out.

If you know about/have experience with any of the following commonly asked questions, we ask that you write us at INFO@FoodStorageMadeEasy.NET with some suggestions that we can gather and share (emails work way better then comments for this!).

Commonly Asked Questions:

1. How do I store food in humid places? What are things I need to know about etc?
2. What are some things that would be helpful for readers in the UK – eg, different kinds of foods and weights etc?
3. What are some good rotation methods to make sure you are using your oldest food first?
4. What do you do with all your extra #10 cans after you have used the food (we were accused of creating this problem for someone – that’s awesome! )

If you email us with any suggestions to these questions, it would help us a lot if you put in the SUBJECT LINE: The TOPIC you are addressing.

TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP:

Julie is going to be putting together another little add-on tutorial to the three-month supply spreadsheet. We’ve gotten a lot of questions about how to manipulate the data. IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION of your own, please email it to us soon, so we can add it in the tutorial. We have a SERIOUSLY awesome surprise/idea for 3 month food storage planning coming soon you will NOT want to miss.

Well tonight I hosted a little dinner party at my house and decided I would sneakily use tons of food storage in my dinner and dessert.  I definitely recommend it, it was fun having a little secret… hehe.

Anyways,  I made a great tortilla casserole recipe, (added black beans) and even made the tortillas from scratch using all fresh ground whole wheat! I even replaced the cream of chicken soup with BEAN FLOUR cream of chicken, my favorite!

For dessert I made my EMERGENCY, I don’t feel like baking, icing or dirtying a pan dessert with POWDERED MILK!  Everytime I have to bring a dessert to a dinner and don’t have the time or energy to pick up fresh ingredients,  I make a quick and easy pudding pie.  I always have at least one tub of cool whip in my freezer for this special dessert.

Ingredients

Powdered Milk
Water
Box of Chocolate Pudding
Graham cracker crust
Cool Whip

Prepare pudding according to package directions for pie. Pour into graham cracker crust, chill for an hour or so. Top with Cool Whip. Optional, add strawberries, crushed skor bar or any crushed cookie.

I love this dessert because it is SO easy to bring places. The graham cracker crust container has a lid with it (you don’t have to remember to get your pan when you are going home). You don’t have to dirty dishes except the pudding bowl, but you can lick that. It’s a dessert that uses POWDERED milk and no one knows it. You don’t have to turn your oven on in the hot summer, its great!

We updated the calculator to allow you to define the number of months of food you wish to store. It now not only includes # of adults and # of kids, but it also includes # of months desired.

Julie also tells you how to use, and now alter the spreadsheet. In the training tutorial, she goes through how to:

-Add foods
-Change foods
-Delete foods
-Change quantities
-How to use the cost/unit field
-General tips on the NEW spreadsheet

So if you have had a question about any of those things, go ahead and watch the tutorial.

Milk Recommendations:

Many of you have asked about why we recommend storing so much milk. There are basically two schools of thought on long term food storage. One recommends a 2300 calorie diet with 300 lbs of grains and 75 lbs of powdered milk. A more recent recommendation has been to increase the calories to 2400, raise the grains to 400 lbs, and lower powdered milk to just 16 lbs.

Either way you go will provide enough nutrition for you to sustain life. However, for families with nursing mothers or small children it is important to use the higher recommendation for milk in order to provide adequate nutrition. If you only store 16 lbs that is only enough for one cup of milk per day. Another reason we use the higher milk recommendation by default is because if you were unable to find ways to cook your food, you can actually sustain life by ONLY drinking powdered milk for quite some time. So all you would need is to add water and you could survive.

Feel free to modify the calculator to fit your family’s needs, but that is the reasoning behind our recommendation in comparison to some other calculators you might see. For more details on this topic click here.

To help you help your special someone come up with a thoughtful and fun gift for you we have put together a little handwritten note you can pass along telling them what you really want is a Food Storage Made Easy Downloadable Binder.

You can send your special someone this link, or print the note itself – whatever works. If your spouses are anything like ours, you’ll enjoy the letter. We finally decided hinting at things does not work so well. Read on…

Also to those of you have been asking, we finally have our bulk pricing for the Food Storage Made Easy Downloadable Binders. We had a lot of people ask about making multiple copies to share and we came up with a way to make it affordable to purchase additional “copies” of the Food Storage Made Easy Downloadable Binder. See the bulk orders sheet for more info.

We are members of the Fun With Food Storage Network where we teach you how to Plan, Buy, and Eat your food storage. Well, it’s the moment you have all been waiting for! The Fun With Food Storage Network Site RE-LAUNCH! The new site is a combination of feedback and great ideas we got from our readers on how to make the Fun With Food Storage Network more useful.

To celebrate the relaunch, The Network is giving away a WonderMill Grain Mill (Courtesy of WonderMill), and a few other surprises as well.

For details on how to enter the GIVEAWAY visit the new Network Blog, which is just one small part of the BRAND NEW FUN WITH FOOD STORAGE NETWORK website! Come on over and explore the new site!

In light of the current economic situation, we wanted to share with you some ideas on how having your food storage in place can help you financially in both the short term and long term.

Short Term Food Storage
Your short term food storage consists of getting a 3 month supply of foods that you eat on a day to day basis. Once you have this in place you can start to grocery shop from your food storage and only replenish those items when they go on sale and/or you have coupons. This will actually reduce your grocery budget as you will only buy things that are deeply discounted. But those few dollars a month will not mean as much to you as the food will if you have a short term emergency. For example, my husband took a pay cut for several months and we were able to spend less than HALF of our usual grocery budget for those months because we had stockpiled so much of our every day foods.

Long Term Food Storage
Your long term food storage consists of getting a year’s supply worth of life-sustaining foods that have a long shelf-life. These are items such as wheat, white rice, dried beans, powdered milk, etc. Since the shelf life is so long you can gradually purchase the items when they are on sale and work up to a year’s supply. If you get brave enough to start using your long term food storage items in your everyday cooking, you can also save some money in the short term. Homemade bread is significantly cheaper than store-bought, especially if you grind your own wheat. Making other items from scratch such as muffins, pancakes, etc. can also save you money over buying packaged items.

In times of economic trouble you can rely on your food storage for long periods of time while other people are begrudging the high prices of rice and wheat. Prices will most likely come down before you deplete your stores. Lastly, if a major disaster, economic melt-down, or other long-term emergency were to occur, you can feel confident that your family will be able to survive with basic food and water for quite some time.

YAY! The eBook is now available!!! Full details and purchasing information can be found on the Food Storage Made Easy Binder Page or you may purchase it immediately by clicking the BUY NOW button above.

We’d like to send out a huge thank-you to everyone who entered the giveaway to win a free copy of our eBook. We read each and every email and are so grateful to have readers as wonderful as you all. Now on to the winners:

GIVEAWAY WINNERS

The 7 winners randomly selected from all email entries are:

1. Cheyenne Robertson
2. Tiffany Mitton
3. Debbie Lambson
4. Melissa Karren
5. Rylee Elizabeth
6. Leila Gardunia
7. Heidi Roylance

And the 3 people who we felt were the most passionate and excited about spreading the news about our Food Storage Made Easy Binders are:

1. Tracy Schwartz who has followed the checklists from the start, has made incredible progress, has been begging us to put these all together for purchase AT ONCE, and has told as many people as she can about it.

2. Jane Benton who made up her own business cards to share the site with people and stops people in the checkout line at Walmart to share news about her food storage progress. She has even taught other people about food storage in her home.

3. Heidi Fire has extreme enthusiasm and has told everyone around her about our new binder. She sent text messages on her phone to all her contacts and can’t wait to purchase the binders as gifts for family members.

Thanks again for doing such a great job in helping to spread the word about our site and our Binder. We’ll be contacting you later today with information on how to download your free copy of the eBook!

One Final Note: A lot of people have asked if they will still receive the Free BabyStep Checklists every 2 weeks. The answer is, yes of course! The Email Reminders will always be available and will always be free. In fact, we encourage everyone to sign up (or stay signed up) for the email checklists as they are a great way for us to remind you to keep working on your next checklist. We also occasionally announce important site news and giveaways to those signed up for the Checklists so you won’t want to miss out on that.

We are no longer accepting entries into the Giveaway for the new Food Storage Made Easy Binder. Check back at 4:00 pm MST to see who the winners are and find out how you can purchase your own copy of our eBook and download it INSTANTLY!!!