Well this week I wanted to share a silly reason why I am so grateful to have my food storage. On Saturday I had to bring “funeral potatoes” to a funeral for someone in my church. For those who don’t know, this is just a creamy potato casserole with a crumbly topping, my family likes to call them Ritzy Potatoes. My “pregnant brain” completely spaced this fact until about 45 minutes before the potatoes were supposed to be at the church. This was not enough time to boil potatoes and cook the dish. I started to panic when I realized, duh, I have some freeze-dried potato dices in my food storage. Might as well try them out now!

It took about 1/2 of a #10 can to make one batch of funeral potatoes, so they definitely aren’t a cost-effective way to eat potatoes on a regular basis, especially compared to my “free” garden potatoes I’ve been eating the last few months. But they sure saved me in an “emergency”!

Shelf Stable Ritzy Potatoes

So here is the funny part of this story. My husband was so sad when they brought back the empty casserole dish because he had been salivating over the smell of them all afternoon. So the next day I planned to make another batch for our family but realized I had used the last of our sour cream the day before. So I did what any good food storage blogger would do and decided to do an experiment and try the recipe with ALL SHELF STABLE INGREDIENTS. It actually turned out fantastic! And as we were eating it my husband kept giggling to himself thinking how funny it was that in an emergency we could have something so delicious and NORMAL to eat. So here is the shelf stable version of the recipe for you. Try it out, it will not disappoint.

Ingredients
4 cups freeze-dried potato dices
1/3 cup dehydrated onion flakes
2 cans cream of chicken soup (or 20 ounces bean flour cream of chicken)
1 cup sour cream powder, hydrated
3/4 c. freeze-dried cheddar cheese
1/2 c. powdered butter, hydrated
2 tubes ritz crackers crushed

Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Soak your potato dices and dehydrated onions in warm water. In a separate bowl, soak your freeze-dried cheddar cheese. While they are soaking, mix up your sour cream powder with water. My can said 1/2 cup of water per 1 cup of powder, it made a thin sour cream which is good for this recipe. Stir in your cream of chicken soup. (I don’t store much cream of chicken any more as I prefer to make my own. So I made a double-batch of bean flour cream of chicken and then measured 20 ounces of it into the bowl with the sour cream). Drain your potatoes and pour them into a 9×13 casserole dish. Drain the rehydrated cheese and add it to the cream mixture. Pour the cream mixture over top of the potatoes and stir together well. In a small bowl mix up your powdered butter. My can said to do 1/2 cup butter powder and 1/2 cup water. This made a REALLY watery butter. Add the crushed ritz and mix well. It will be quite goopy but it still works (I would probably just use regular butter for this since I store a ton of it in the freezer but I was going for all shelf stable here). Using your hand, crumble the ritz mixture over the top of the potatoes. Cover the dish with tinfoil and bake for 30-40 minutes or until hot all the way through. You can remove the foil for the least 5 minutes to get the topping a little more brown and crumbly.

Summary

Now a lot of these ingredients are NOT cheaper than buying fresh. We do not encourage you to make it a habit of replacing all of your foods with powdered or freeze-dried versions. But we DO encourage you to buy some, try it, learn how to use it, figure out the recipes it works in, and then store it! You will appreciate being able to make a lot of your “normal” family recipes in troublesome times.

If you are looking for places to buy some of these more uncommon storage items, check out the different companies on our Useful Links page.

We had something else planned to blog about today, but we just heard about some AMAZING Shelf Reliance sales and wanted to let you all know about them so you can take advantage of them over the holiday weekend. The sale ends July 5th or until supplies last. Not only are their products on sale, but their consultant starter kits are as well. We’re also adding our own special JULY BONUS for anyone who wants to become a Shelf Reliance Consultant on our team as well.

Shelf Reliance is putting tons of their products on sale for 30% off until July 5th.

To see a list of all the products on sale, click here. Once you click on the actual product, you’ll see an even greater discount since you’ll be shopping through our store.

We’ve really enjoyed being Shelf Reliance consultants because of the high quality products they offer, and the great business opportunity too. Who doesn’t love earning FREE food storage and a little extra income too!? If becoming a consultant is something that has interested you, we thought you’d like to know about the sale they are having on their consultant kits this weekend. We’ve never seen them discounted before! Each kit contains sample foods, recipes, and everything you’ll need to get started right away (Some of them even contain shelves at amazing discounts).

We want to make joining Shelf Reliance as a consultant an easy decision for you. If you sign up any time in the month of July, we will GIVE you $159 of free product after you host your first party to help you get your business started. (You don’t have to actually host the party in July to qualify). Since the basic consultant kit is $159 until July 5th, that’s like getting started for FREE! (After July 5th we will still be offering the bonus, however, the kits will go back to the regular $199 price)

Email us at fsmethrive@gmail.com if you have additional questions or need help signing up!

Why do you have two food storage calculators?

In BabyStep 3 we have a 3 month supply spreadsheet which allows you to enter in specific meals/snack items to get an exact amount of food to store for exactly 3 months worth of meals that your family normally eats. This is a great way to get started if you are worried about starting to build a food storage full of weird things like wheat, dried beans, and powdered milk that your family never eats.

In BabyStep 4 we have a long term food storage calculator which allows you to just put in the number of people in your family and it automatically fills in the spreadsheet with the recommended amounts to store for whatever period of time you selected (i.e. a one year supply). These are the more traditional food storage items which are considered “life-sustaining” but you don’t necessarily plan specific meals around.

How did you come up with the numbers for the long term food storage calculator?

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 (this was the original recommendation given to members of the LDS church back in 1978). 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 (this is based off of a research study done in 1979).

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. (For more details on this topic click here.)

How do I add additional items to the calculator?

If you are wanting to track non-food items, make sure to look at our 3 month supply calculator as there is a tab at the bottom that has a place for you to input those items. If you want to track things like fruits/vegetables and canned meats in detail, you can either add them in as items in your 3 month supply worksheet, or go with a more comprehensive solution (see below).

Do you have any recommendations for healthier food options?

YES! Check out our Healthy Food Storage page for a great calculator suggestion that you can add in to your own spreadsheet.

Can’t you make it EASIER???

While we have put together instructional videos to help make it easy, we understand that there are some limitations with using excel calculators. Shelf Reliance has an AWESOME free food storage calculator tool that is web-based (easy to use, very comprehensive and you don’t need excel). You can actually set up an entire plan and then purchase it all at whatever monthly budget you choose (they call this the “Q”). Or you also can just purchase everything all at once if you are feeling anxious about getting your supply and you can afford it. If you don’t want to purchase their Thrive Foods you can simply calculate what you need, and email yourself a report to print off.

The reason we think this calculator is so cool is because there are SOOO many ways to customize it. You put in your family with their ages, you input the number of calories per day you want, and you can select exactly what types of foods you want to include. There are some general recommendations that it will give you with a wide variety of Thrive foods listed, but then you can tweak it and subtract or add whatever you want to give you the report you are looking for.

We wanted to give our readers a little incentive to try out the Thrive Calculator and monthly Q program so we put together a fun little bonus in June, but we will extend it into July since we are posting about it so late in the month. Click here to find out the details and learn more about Shelf Reliance’s monthly Q program. (Make sure to scroll down to the bottom of the post to find out about the free gift!) Don’t forget if you order through our Shelf Reliance links you get discounts off of retail prices.

Today is the fun day where we show you all our tricks on where to find your long term food storage items for the cheapest prices. While these things occasionally do go on sale (and we try to warn you when they do), we have found where things are generally the cheapest so that you can feel good about buying your bulk foods at any time.

Option 1: Home Storage Centers

If you live in North America near an LDS Home Storage Center (or cannery), this is generally the least expensive place to purchase your bulk grains and powdered milk. Some common grocery store items can be found here at reasonable prices but by using coupon and sale shopping you can get things like sugar and spaghetti at really great prices at your local grocery store.
Click here to look for a Home Storage Center in your area.

While a few items may be available already packaged in #10 cans, for the most part you buy your foods in bulk bags at the cannery. Many times you are allowed to can them into #10 cans yourself, but the rules vary at different canneries. You will need to calculate in the cost of buckets or cans when you are comparing prices. Here are the current price lists for you to look at.
U.S. Price List | Canada Price List

A few limited items are available online from the cannery. Wheat, rice, pinto beans, and oats can be purchased in #10 cans at good prices with free shipping.
Click here for more information.

Please make sure to call your local cannery to find out their policies before you just show up. Each one seems to have different rules regarding needing an appointment, allowing non-members to purchase products, etc.

Option 2: Grocery Stores / Wholesale Clubs

In general, the grocery store is better for your shorter term, three month supply type of foods as well as your non-food items. However, occasionally there will be some great deals on bulk items. If your only choice is to go to a local grocery store you do the best you can. Often times baking ingredients can be purchased in bulk at your local wholesale clubs such as Costco or Sams Club at great prices. Here are some other ideas of stores to check for food storage items:

• WinCo (excellent bulk grain and legume sections)
• Organic or Health Food Stores (carry the more uncommon grains and flours and can often help you order in bulk)
• Ethnic Grocery Stores (they will often carry things not found in regular stores)
• Farmers Markets (great for stocking up on fruits and vegetables that you take home and preserve yourself for long term storage)

If you live in the western United States we HIGHLY recommend subscribing to the Deals to Meals service as it tells you exactly what is on sale in your local grocery stores each week and specifically mentions when it is a great food storage item to stock up on.

Option 3: Online Stores

You can get anything and everything for your food storage online. Since shipping can be a big price factor, it is usually best to order in large quantities to take advantage of shipping price breaks. We’ve included the general shipping policies for each website so you can easily do price comparisons at a glance.

US Shoppers:
- Shelf Reliance – $15.99 shipping on orders over $190 (Price discounts if you sign up for Thrive Q)
– Emergency Essentials – $12.00 shipping on orders over $120
– Honeyville Grain – $4.49 flat rate shipping
– Walton Feed – shipping varies based on weight
– Augason Farms – $11.99 shipping on orders over $100

Canadian Shoppers:
– Briden Solutions
– In Case Of

UK Shoppers:
– http://emergencyfoodstorage.co.uk/

Please note that we are not well experienced with where to purchase foods outside of the U.S. and Canada. If you have any tips you would like to share with other readers, please leave them in the comments!

Today we’re going to talk about Assessing your Long Term Food Storage- and how to make a GAME PLAN from there. There are really only 2 things you need to know when you’re assessing and making a game plan. Remember, you may wish to consider your 3-month supply foods as part of your “year supply” so you would only need 9 months of traditional long term food storage.

Method 1: Food Storage Calculator

The Long Term Food Storage we’re talking about – is the basic survival foods. Grains, Legumes, Baking Supplies, Fats, and Dairy. There are a lot of calculators that generally give the same basic recommendations of what to store- and how much to store. Our excel calculator will tell you what you need to store based on how many people, and how many months you tell it you want to store for.

Know What You Need

Use our calculator to determine how much food you need to store depending on your families needs and goals for long term food storage.

Excel Spreadsheet

Tutorial Video

The Food Storage Calculator is also available in printable pdf format

Know What You Have

Once you have inputed how many members in your family, and how many months, use the spreadsheet to input what you already have in your storage – then watch as the numbers automatically are calculated and you’re given your own customized shopping list of what to buy.

Method 2: Food Storage Software

We were recently invited to test out a new Food Storage Planning software and we think it may be a good solution for those who like to track their storage in great detail or who may have unique circumstances where a standard calculator doesn’t meet their needs. Food Storage Planner is fully customizable for specific needs, gender, and age, such as diapers, allergies, toiletries, and so forth. You can read more about all of the features on their website.

Know What You Need

You can plan for any time period from 1 week to 1000 years. This software automatically gives recommendations for many many items but has the flexibility to choose the items you want to track and make substitutions as necessary. Go through and input your customizations to get your personalized plan for your family. Since we are talking about Long Term Food Storage this week I would stick with just those food items for now.

Know What You Have

The software will let you input what you already have and also helps to track expiration dates. You can then sort your shopping list by whatever way makes sense for you to stay organized. Print out your list and reports so you can have them right in front of you and THEN it’s shopping time!

DISCOUNT

The owners of Food Storage Planner were kind enough to offer a discount to Food Storage Made Easy readers. If you order their software either on disc or in download form simply enter FSMADEEASY as a coupon code and you will get $13.00 off. You enter the coupon code at the END of the checkout process.

Now that you have your plan, and know what you need, tomorrow we will cover Part 2: Buying Long Term Food Storage.

In the story, the people were forced to eat all sorts of food like squirrels, rabbits etc. They made soups with grass and dandelions. They used up, and wasted a lot of the freezer foods in the first few days. Two big concerns were how to have enough to last through the winter, and how to save enough for spring planting, etc.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

• How would you cook your food?
• How would you make your food stores last longer if the situation lasted for a very long time?
• How would you create, or replenish your food stores with new food?
• Do you have gardening seeds, do you know how to garden, can, preserve, dehydrate etc?
• How would you catch and prepare small animals?
• Do you have necessary ingredients to actually make something with your long term storage items
• Do you have a healthy balance of proteins, fats, and carbs in your storage/
• WOULD YOU SHARE YOUR FOOD?

DISCUSS

We encourage everyone who participates to do so in a very respectful manner. As we read the novel, we soon became very aware that the discussions around this book could become very political, and personal. Such topics have a tendency to bring out strong opinions. Please share your opinions in a kind, and mature way. We reserve the right to, and will delete any comments that may be considered offensive or encourage illegal or unethical activities.

Click the links below to “subscribe by email” or “subscribe by rss” to help you easily follow the conversation and discussion after you make your posts.

Your family and friends are starting to figure out that you have a great food storage. Your mother-in-law (or friend, or grandma, or fill-in-the-blank) just called you this morning and asked if she could come by later today and check out your preps. She is interested to learn how much you have, and how you rotate it all. She even hints that she might want to purchase some food for you for a gift.

Once you organize, tidy, and inventory your food storage you are DONE the challenge and can celebrate however you choose, whether it be with a dunford donut (Julie) or a big gulp (Jodi). You may just want to go out and get cracking on your “To-Buy” list now that you have determined what preps and food you still need.

Today’s Tasks:

• Organize your kitchen pantry and any food storage areas in your home
• Evaluate where your appliances are in your home to make cooking with food storage easier
• Move some of your long term food storage up to your kitchen area to encourage you to use it more
• Check your water supplies, refill any empty containers
• Inventory your long term food storage items (you may use our calculator)
• Inventory your three month supply items (you may use our worksheet)
• Look at your Disaster Kits, do you need to swap clothes out? Rotate food? Do what you can now and make a list of anything you may need to buy

Today’s Limitations:

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants … UNTIL YOU ARE FINISHED!

Advanced Tasks:

• Make cute labels for your buckets, shelves, etc. (label tutorial | bucket labels)
• Make a complete list of what you still need to buy (long term AND three month supply) so that your guest can purchase some of it for you for a gift.
• Review all of your week’s report cards and compile them into one list of future things to do/buy

Make sure your fill out today’s Report Card to see how well you did, to keep track of areas you can improve, to remember things you need to do, and things you need to buy. Use the data to make a game plan to take you to the next level of preparedness, whatever that may be.

Due to job loss and the slow economy, a family that you are close friends with was just evicted from their home. You offer to let them stay with you overnight. You must feed and provide shelter to a family of 6 on short notice. When they arrive, you also discover that they are vegetarians. Assume that they arrive shortly after breakfast.

Today’s Tasks:

• Cook lunch for your family plus two adults and four kids
• For a fun friday night twist (and to take their minds off their situation) play restaurant for dinner. Be creative how you want to do this (make some family members waiters, make menus, set the table nicely, have appetizers, whatever you want)
• Provide sleeping arrangements for two adults and four children in your home
• The family did not bring any hygiene items, provide them with toothbrushes, shampoo, soap, etc.
• Evaluate your tp, paper towel, laundry detergent, and dish detergent stores … do you have enough to last with this many extra people for a few days?
• Go over your own budget and/or financial situation (with your spouse if applicable) and think about how you can avoid having a situation like this occur in your own family (budget, financial reserve, minimize debt, etc.)

Today’s Limitations:

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants.
• None of the meals can include any meat.
• You ran out of milk and eggs due to the extra guests. No using them for cooking!

Advanced Tasks:

• One of the children is a baby, make a batch of homemade baby food.
• The family needs $100 in gas money to travel to a relatives’ house where they will stay long term, do you have that much cash in your home that you can give them?

(Please note: Either freeze the extra food for later, give it to a family in need, or actually invite a family over for the day.)

REMEMBER, TOMORROW’S CHALLENGE WILL BE DIFFERENT.
How long would you have lasted under these conditions?
 

Make sure your fill out today’s Report Card to see how well you did, to keep track of areas you can improve, to remember things you need to do, and things you need to buy. Use the data to make a game plan to take you to the next level of preparedness, whatever that may be.

You just discovered that you have some kind of allergy to an unknown preservative. Since you aren’t able to isolate what it is exactly, you now need to avoid ALL preservatives and start cooking all of your food from scratch. This includes making a loaf of bread. Remember, no going to the store. **A little rule of thumb: you have to know where the ingredient comes from, and be able to pronounce the ingredients on any canned item you use (meaning a can of tomatoes is ok, but not a can of spaghetti sauce)**

Today’s Tasks:

• Cook breakfast from scratch
• Cook lunch from scratch
• Cook dinner from scratch
• Bake a loaf of homemade bread
• Print out some of your favorite recipes to use in case the internet is down during an emergency

Today’s Limitations:

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants.
• Do not use ANY pre-packaged or convenience-type foods. No mixes, boxed cereals, canned soups or sauces etc. If you can’t pronounce all the ingredients and say where it came from, it’s probalby a NO go.
• Do not buy or borrow ingredients. Use only what you have stored.

Advanced Tasks:

• Make a delicious dessert from scratch.
• Plan an entire week worth of meals you could make out of your current food supplies.
• Do some research on the health benefits of eating less preservatives.

REMEMBER, TOMORROW’S CHALLENGE WILL BE DIFFERENT.
How long would you have lasted under these conditions?
 

Make sure your fill out today’s Report Card to see how well you did, to keep track of areas you can improve, to remember things you need to do, and things you need to buy. Use the data to make a game plan to take you to the next level of preparedness, whatever that may be.

It’s been awhile since we have shared with you what’s going on with the Extreme Food Storage Makeover for Grandma Lori. Since Grandma Lori bought her Wondermill, Jasmine has been wanting in on the experimenting (Jasmine is Grandma Lori’s daughter and she’s the one who showed us how to make multi-grain waffles with their Wondermill). With the 7 Day Challenge coming up, you better believe one of the tasks throughout the week will be to make a loaf of bread, so pay close attention!

There are a lot of great bread recipes we could choose from to get Jasmine going on her bread making. The one we had Jasmine try first comes from Deals to Meals. You do this thing called “sponging” to the dough, and it makes an incredible dough that makes bread awesome! For the full recipe go here. Check out the recipe, and while you’re there, read Friday’s post. They are letting everyone try their service FREE this week only! After you try and like it, make sure you tell them we sent you.

Another great bread recipe is from Crystal at Everyday Food Storage. This is the recipe Julie used to get her first successful loaf of bread when she first started making bread. Crystal also shares some great bread making tips in case you need some extra help or practice on her Bread Q and A post.

Next up we’re going to show Grandma Lori and Jasmine how to make something else fabulous USING their food storage. We still haven’t decided what it is yet. Maybe we’ll let THEM choose.