Anyways, I found this recipe on Pinterest a few weeks ago. If you’re not already following us on Pinterest make sure you do – we post, and repost cool stuff!. It was for a healthy energy ball. The thing that really caught my attention were the words NO BAKE, and HEALTHY. Hmmm I thought, maybe I could try those one day. My kids love granola bars, I don’t love the ingredients that always come with them, or the price tag for the healthy ones. I figured it would be worth a try.

Sunday night we were feeling an itch for a treat and I didn’t want to turn on the oven. I had about half the ingredients the recipe called for (I don’t always have cocunut or ground flax seed). I read the full post on the Smashed Peas and Carrots Blog, the recipe came from and decided substitutions would work just fine. I ended up with this mixture and JUST for you, I paid special attention to my measurements so I could share it. Not that I’ll ever actually measure when I make these again!

Ingredients
2 cups old fashion oats (original recipe called for 1 cup coconut, 1 cup oats, but I substituted)
1/2 cup peanut butter (I used organic – the kind that has JUST peanuts)
1/3 raw honey (doesn’t really have to be raw)
1/2 cup of chocolate chips (I chopped them, to make them go through out more of the mixture)
1 tsp vanilla

Directions
Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. You then put the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes to cool. If you’re going powerless, you can skip this, it will just make the mixture tougher to make balls out of. That’s when you just grab a spoon and eat the mixture right out of the bowl. After the mixture is cool, roll into balls. Store in an airtight container in the fridge – if they last that long.

What I love about this recipe, is that it uses Food Storage, it has no refined sugar (outside of the chocolate chips), or butter, or baking, or REAL need for measuring. If it’s too sticky, add more dry stuff. If it’s too dry, add more honey. Substitute whatever you like. I think I’ll do raisins instead of chocolate chips next time, maybe craisins, chop some nuts… whatever you like. I think I’ll make these again for sure!

Butterbeer in Hogsmeade

Bikini Beach Babe

A Few of My Favorite Things

A “Wheatie” Plane Ride

My daughter and I sat by a really nice Grandpa on our flight to Florida. He gave his extra cookies to her, and she let him play “Temple Run” on our iPad. I had a nice chat with him, and during our conversation I discovered that he owns a little farm in Minnesota. I told him about my Backyard Chickens and asked him what he farmed. When he told me he grew wheat I actually squealed and said “I have a basement FULL of wheat!” I think I took him by surprise. lol. He was impressed that I grind my own wheat and cook with it, and he was awesome about answering my questions for the next thirty minutes or so.

Winter wheat versus spring wheat
A few years ago we did a post about the different Types of Wheat, so I was proud of myself that I could ask him what type he grew and sort of know what I was talking about. However, I discovered I was not very well-educated on spring versus winter wheat. I assumed he grew winter wheat since Minnesota is so cold, but he told me it’s the opposite. Winter wheat is germinated in the fall and then sits dormant over the winter, it resumes growing as the weather warms up and is harvest in early summer. Spring wheat is planted in April or May and harvested in August or early September. Very cold regions have too harsh of winters to be able to plant in the fall for winter wheat. This totally makes sense to me now. Also winter wheat produces more wheat per square foot, but spring wheat has a higher protein content.

Home-grown wheat
After learning about HIS wheat, I proceeded to hound this nice gentleman with questions about growing my own wheat in a small space. He told me I could grow wheat from my stored wheat kernels (as long as they will sprout you should be able to use them for crops). You can grow as much or as little as you have room for. If you have a yard that’s 20 feet by 50 feet, you could plant 6 pounds of wheat and harvest nearly 50 pounds of grain (source). You will need to learn the proper harvesting methods for home harvesting, but that information seems to be readily available online.

I told my new farmer friend that I would love to try to grow a little wheat and see how it works in my area. Then if some major long-term catastrophe occurred I would know that I could tear up my whole yard and plant lots of wheat if I had to. By the end of our flight he had asked for my address because he wants to send me a little packet of his wheat to try growing in my yard next spring. I thought it was really cute and nice of him and I’m excited to give it a whirl. I may even try doing a couple different kinds of wheat (using some of my stored wheat as well). We’ll see how ambitious I get!

Who knew you could have a food storage adventure in the middle of a Florida vacation?

Bread in a Bag: A Creative Way to Store Bread! by Pam Emick

Background: We reviewed the book Dinner is in the Jar a couple of years ago … and when we were first approached by Pam Emick the author of Bread in a Bag we knew we would love her book too since it’s a similar concept. Rather than have to pull out all the individual ingredients for your bread every time you bake it, you simply stockpile the ingredients in the correct proportions all in one mylar bag or mason jar. GENIUS idea! She offered to give us a copy of her book to review and we were very happy to do so

What I Liked: Bread in a Bag is VERY thorough. It covers everything you will need to know, do, and buy if you want to use this storage method. There are a wide variety of different types of bread recipes in the book, and each one has detailed instructions on how exactly to store it, including if you need to put things in separate baggies for measurement purposes. There are also instructions for how to make the bread if you are using your “bag”, including what liquid or fresh ingredients you would need to add. Pam includes great labels for each recipe to make it SIMPLE when you pull out a bag or jar to bake your bread.

My Favorite Part: I love the recipes that are small enough to fit in a quart jar. I don’t keep mylar bags on hand so if I want to make this philosophy a big part of my storage I will need to get some materials for that. In the book it indicates recipes that can fit in a half-gallon mylar bag and those ones seem to work well in the jars too. I made the Hawaiian Bread (VERY delicious with the hint of lemon and the orange zest added in) and while I had everything out it was very easy to just measure the ingredients into a jar at the same time I was measuring them into my mixer. Then a few days later I had a FAST easy bread mix ready to go. LOVE!

Feedback: I think this is a great concept for making white breads, however I store more wheat than white flour due to the longer shelf life. We asked Pam about storing fresh ground whole wheat in the bags and she thought it wouldn’t be a problem. However, I would be concerned about the wheat going rancid unless I kept the whole bag/jar in the freezer. I think if you used commercially bought wheat flour you would be fine if you used it within the shelf life of that wheat. For me personally, if I’m going to do a jar for a recipe calling for wheat flour, I will just stick wheat kernels in baggies into the jars and then grind them up when I pull out the jar to make the recipe. This is still a very convenient way to do it and I won’t have to be concerned about my wheat flour going bad.

Summary: Bread in a Bag introduces a new way to think about your food storage and gives you all the tools you need to make these bread kits sooo easily. Her recipes look really great (I can’t wait to try the hamburger buns!). My plan is to go through the book trying a new recipe every few weeks and each time I do it just make a couple of jars or bags at the same time. Over a few months this should give me a GREAT supply of bread kits, ready-to-bake, and using foods already in my storage. If you are struggling with keeping up on making homemade bread consistently, or just want some new recipes to try out, I would definitely recommend Bread in a Bag

We have some good friends from home visiting us this weekend. Just found out my the wife can’t eat gluten. I had a pretty good menu planned, now I feel like I’m handcuffed. We practiced this in our 7 day challenge, but this feels harder.

Now before you all get after my friend’s wife… her allergy isn’t super severe, and she didn’t want to inconvenience me, so her plan was to just work around any gluten I was going to be serving, not make a fuss and deal with the ramifications. Well her husband let the secret out, and even though she kept assuring me not to change the menu, I couldn’t help but TRY!

For the past couple of years, we have been getting the question:”How do I do food storage if I have an allergy to “insert food item here?”. We most commonly, get the question about gluten – which is why we made a day of it in our 7 day challenge last fall. See more about that here.

POSTS ON ALLERGIES AND FOOD STORAGE

• 72 Hour Kits Revisited (with a gluten free food list)
• Book Review: Country Beans (tons of gluten free recipes)
• Recipe replacements (bean flour instead of cream of chicken)
• Survive 2 Thrive Organic Food Storage (kits for purchase mostly gluten free)
• Alternatives to Wheat for food storage

While we know this isn’t all inclusive, they have been our attempt to help a little. I’ll admit I was really thrown for a loop by having my friend over for the weekend, when I had PLANNED to make pizza, cinnamon rolls, pancakes, and other gluten filled foods. I spent the full weekend really pondering how would I DEAL with this if I was all of a sudden unable to eat gluten – or some other food.

ADAPTING TO THE ALLERGY

1. To go forward living without the types of foods that contain gluten, make other choices and stock accordingly. For example, you would maybe choose to eat more rice, corn, quinoa, and a variety of other grains and make meals that these grains are typically found in. In other words, say adios to breads etc. OR
2. To go forward trying to modify recipes that typically contain gluten to allow yourself to eat foods like the foods you are used to. For example, you may find a way to make pizza dough, breads, pancakes and other pastries using substitutions that are gluten free.

I think it would be silly to try and remake a whole food storage plan, before you figured out what your new lifestyle will hold if you got diagnosed with a gluten (or any other) allergy. I know my friend told me she has just stayed away from gluten food replacements like gluten free breads, pizzas and pastas, and just stuck with other foods. I think I would do some of that, with a lot of research and hard work to come up with ways to still be able to eat breads, pizza, and pastas- because I love them so much! Maybe I would get over them a little, but I think I’d for sure try. So that’s my point, after seeing how I would adapt to the allergy, THEN I would formulate a plan based on what foods I had in my new diet.

MAKING THE PLAN

If I had decided on trying to make pizza doughs and breads gluten free, I would ADD to the calculator the ingredients needed for that. I’m still very new to the gluten free world, but I know there are ways of making flours gluten free with ingredients that do the job of gluten. Something like Xanthan Gum? Don’t judge me if that’s not the right word, I’M NEW and ADMITTEDLY not that rad at this gluten free stuff!

So if I had to break it down step by step:

1. Determine what foods you eat
2. Replace foods you can’t eat on a standard calculator
3. Add foods you need to make your new diet come together to the standard calculator

Ok, so now I can’t claim to be an expert in all this allergy stuff, but I can at least say, I’ve been really thinking about it. We’ll continue to give it more thought, and hopefully more posts in the future.

Food Storage Blackberry Pie

Pie Crust
2 cups flour
1 T. salt
3/4 cups butter flavored shortening
1 T. egg powder
3/4 cups cold water

Combine flour and salt. Cut in the shortening until the mixture is crumbly. Combine the egg powder and water. Add to the flour mix and stir until dough is formed. This makes a VERY VERY soft sticky dough. Split into two pieces. Put in refrigerator for an hour for easier rolling. Roll out half the dough on a floured surface and place into a 9″ pie crust. Put back in fridge while you prepared the filling.

Blackberry Filling
5-6 cups freeze-dried blackberries, rehydrated and drained
1 T. lemon juice
3/4 cup white sugar
3 T. corn starch
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
(Adapted from this joyofbaking.com recipe)

After the blackberries are hydrated and drained, mix with lemon juice. Combine the other ingredients in a separate bowl and then pour into the blackberries. Mix it all around and pour into the cool pie shell. Roll out the other half of the dough and cut it into 1 inch slices. Lay in a criss-cross pattern over the blackberry filling (feel free to actually weave them if you are that talented).

Mix up a tiny bit of powdered milk with about twice the amount of powder as it normally calls for. Brush over top of the crust and then sprinkle with white sugar. Cover the edges with tinfoil and bake at 425 for about 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and delicious.

Cooking Options
This could be cooked in a volcano grill if you have the tent “lid”, in a cardboard box oven, or probably even in a Sun Oven although I’m not sure how brown the crust would get. I may have to experiment with that. Check out our FREE ONLINE POWERLESS COOKING CLASS for more on these cooking options.

When you get more involved in using and preserving Food Storage, you start realizing there are a lot of appliances out there that are either necessary or certainly helpful in getting the job done!

When determining what it is you need in terms of appliances, we recommend the “test yourself” theory. What we mean by that, is test yourself by either borsrowing, or doing things the hard way before buying an appliance. Try making bread by hand before buying an expensive mixer. SURE the mixer WILL make the job easier, and oftentimes make the bread turn out better, but see if you are dedicated enough to the habit or lifestyle before buying something you may never use. We borrowed wheat grinders, canners, and dehydrators before ever getting our own, and it was great practice to allow us to see what it was we wanted. So here are a few of our favorite appliances to help us use and preserve our Food Storage.

A Few Of Our Top Picks!

	Wondermill Electric: In an extended emergency with no power, we’ll use our Wonder Jrs, but day in and day out we LOVE our Wondermill Electrics. We have become so familiar with how to use our wheat, other grains, and legumes because the electric mill is so handy, that we’d be ready to use a hand grinder and not change our diets much at all. Emergencies aside, grain mills are great appliances to have to help you cook whole foods from scratch.
	Pressure Canner One of the cheapest and healthiest ways of increasing your supplemental long term food storage is to can your own foods. High acid foods can be canned with a regular and inexpensive water bath canning. But to get into more advanced things like canning meats and certain vegetables, you need a good pressure canner. Jodi currently uses a Presto pressure canner which works well for small amounts of canning, but is also saving up for an All-American pressure canner which is a little more industrial and doesn’t have a gasket that needs replacing.
	Electric Pressure Cooker: An electric pressure cooker is great for cooking dry beans, brown rice, and a variety of other foods that usually take much longer to cook. We’re talking from dry to cooked beans in an hour or less! It’s awesome. You can also use this for cooking a variety of meals in a hurry. We both use and love the Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker.
	Food Dehydrators: Another great way to add to your food storage is by dehydrating your own foods either from your garden or bought in bulk at a farmer’s market. Foods you dehydrate yourself have less preservatives and are much cheaper than purchasing dehydrated foods. When the time is right, this can be a good investment for your long term food storage. Our favorite brand is the Excalibur Dehydrator.
	Super Blenders: Super Blenders are great to have for everyday, regular cooking, but also can help you use your Food Storage in ways you wouldn’t expect. Often times, these blenders can grind wheat or other grains into flours so you can avoid buying a wheat grinder. The more you start using your Food Storage, the more you’ll find you cook from scratch and eat healthier and these blenders sure come in handy. You can view our two favorite blenders at this link.
	Tortilla Press and Cooker: After making tortillas by hand a number of times, and testing out this press of one of our friend’s, we were sold on it! Whole wheat tortillas that are made from scratch are so much yummier and healthier than any you could buy at the store. Use your Food Storage, be healthier, and make them much faster than by hand! This tortilla cooker presses, and COOKS the tortilla at the same time.
	Bosch Mixer: If you plan to make bread, pizza, or other baked goods frequently as you practice using your food storage, a Bosch can be a dream. It really does make your doughs turn out better and it is soooo much easier than hand kneading. We’d definitely consider this a luxury item, but if you can afford it, go for it! If you are shopping online you can check out the Bosch Universal Mixer with Cookie Paddles and Metal Whip Drive from Emergency Essentials or a stand-alone Bosch Mixer from Amazon.com

There are hundreds (probably thousands) of Emergency Preparedness products available out there. Some products are critical to have, while others just make life easier. Over the past 4 years of doing this blog, we have tried lots of different things, and have become dealers for many of them. Our basic rules for becoming dealers of products are

• 1. Do we honestly like and use the product?
• 2. Can we sell it for the cheapest possible price to our readers?
• 3. Does the company do drop-shipping for us? (hey we’re still moms of young kids and running to the post office all the time isn’t always feasible).

If the answers are YES to all these questions we work to be able to sell them to you our readers for CHEAP. Below you will find a few of our hand chosen products we love for Emergency Preparedness. Tomorrow we’ll show you some of the products we love to use daily to cook with our Food Storage in our regular lives, and check back often as we’re always adding products when we like them, and can get them for you at the best prices.

When determining what it is you need, we always recommend taking care of basics first. Take care of your 72 hour kits, your water storage, basic first aid, and sanitation supplies. After you have taken care of the basics (and have either saved up money or get a nice chunk of change) add to your supplies. If you follow our blog, you know we often try to teach you cheap or free solutions to tie you over in the mean time

A Few Of Our Top Picks!

	Wondermill Jr: In an extended emergency with no power, and pounds and pounds of wheat, you’ll need a good hand grinder to make use of your wheat. The Wonder Jr is a fantastic mill that can grind all sorts of grains and by simply swapping the stone heads for the stainless steel burr heads you can make delicious peanut butter or other nut butters, grind flax or any oily or wet grains, grind herbs and spices, and even coffee or soy beans.
	Global Sun Oven: One of the things that really intimidated us about even getting started with food storage was the idea of powerless cooking. When we discovered Sun Ovens we were thrilled with the possibilities. Anything you can cook in a regular oven can be cooked in a Sun Oven and usually turns out even better! Without having to worry about storing a fuel source, Sun Ovens are the perfect tool for a long term powerless emergency.
	Volcano Grills: The Volcano Grill is a great stove that gives you all sorts of cooking options. We love them because they work with a variety of fuels, and cook with pots and pans, grills, woks, or dutch ovens. We use ours for camping, eprep, and just for fun!
	Water Bricks: Water Bricks have a unique stacking capability that allows you to store them in virtually any configuration. From small nooks and crannies to large storage rooms or even outside, these containers will fit your needs. When we first saw Water Bricks we knew they could be a GREAT option for people who are struggling with space issues, or who are looking for an easy to carry, light-weight, portable water storage solution.
	Insta-Fire: Insta Fire is a safe, simple, and versatile new fire starting product. It has water-repellant properties, a fifteen minute burn time and a thirty year shelf life. Use it to light campfires, prepare charcoal briquettes, or as a safe and reliable fuel source for cooking or heating in emergency situations. In an emergency you will most likely need to boil water, cook your food, and heat your shelter.
	Berkey Water Filters: While most good filtration systems use a ceramic filter which gets out most of the contaminants in water, you still need to purify it afterwards to get out all of the viruses. The Black Berkey Purification Elements are unique filters in that they remove viruses, harmful pathogenic bacteria, cysts and parasites as well as unhealthy chemical contaminates and impurities while leaving in the essential minerals your body needs.
	Humless Solar Generators: When just getting started with food storage, it is overwhelming to think of what to do in a true powerless emergency situation. Generators can be intimidating, loud, huge, heavy, and require the storage of fuel which is scary, limited, and expensive as well. When we discovered the Humless Solar Generators we knew they would be the perfect solution for many of our readers. The Humless Sentinel is strong enough to power virtually anything in your home from a Bosch or Wheat Grinder to a washing machine or microwave.
	Prepare My Life Planner: The Prepare My Life Planner is an organized emergency preparedness plan. Not only does it contain a step-by-step plan to help prepare your home and family for an emergency, it is also designed to store and organize your important documents. All of the pages, pockets, pouches, and folders are included. Whether it’s a natural disaster or a death in the family, every household needs a plan in order to survive, cope, and recover.

We used to consider storing Just-add-Water meals to be “cheating”. However, over the years we have come to realize that there is a time and place for this type of food storage. If you go through a short term disaster or need to grab some food and go, having a bucket or two of this kind of food will be invaluable to you. We learned this in our 7 Day Challenges over the years. Also, for people who will not rotate traditional food storage (for whatever reason), or do not know how (or want) to cook with traditional foods, this can be a great option.

If you choose to store “Just Add Water” meals there are several things to consider as you determine what you need to store.

• First, decide how many servings your family will need to store. The servings are typically 200-300 calories so I would recommend planning for 2 servings per meal per adult and one per child.
• Second, decide if you want to supplement with other foods. Throwing in some meat or having some fruits and vegetables to add can make your food storage a lot more well-rounded (view yesterdays post for more on those items).
• Third, plan for the appropriate fuel and water. If your whole storage plan revolves around adding water to your food, you better have a good water storage plan in place! You also will need to be able to boil the water or heat the meals so you need to plan a cooking source that will work for that. (More on those two topics later this week!)

Where to Buy “Just Add Water” Meals

Here are a few of the companies that we have had experience with and offer good selections at good prices. (View the “Did you know” section below to see why the prices may vary)

Meals in Pouches

WISE FOOD STORAGE
Two 10-ounce servings per pouch. Just add hot water and wait 12 minutes. 6 different flavors to choose from. These meals do not contain meat.

MOUNTAIN HOUSE
Packages sizes vary from 1-person to 4-person. Wide variety of meal options. Add boiling water and let stand 5-10 minutes. Most meals contain real meat.

Meals in Mylar Bags Inside Buckets

LINDON FARMS
19 different meals in each bucket. Packages based on 2000 calorie per day diets. Most meals must be cooked for several minutes.

WISE FOOD STORAGE
14 different meals in each bucket. Packages based on 2-3 servings per day rather than calories. Most meals only need to add boiling water and let stand.

Meals in #10 Cans

FOOD INSURANCE
Click on long term meal plans. 16 different meals. Gluten-free options. #10 cans with long shelf life. Free shipping on orders over $1000. Comes in large packages.

MOUNTAIN HOUSE
Lots and lots of varieties to choose from. Purchase in individual #10 cans to see what you like, then buy more later. Shipping capped at $12 per order.

SHELF RELIANCE THRIVE ENTREES
11 varieties to choose from. Available in individual #10 cans and cases of 6 at a discount. Available in a large 1-year entree package.

When you are price-comparing these foods, there are several reasons why the prices may vary.

• Whether or not the meals contain real freeze-dried meat can make a huge difference. Some companies include TVP rather than meat, but most often they just use meat flavorings rather than any meat or meat substitute.
• A “1-year supply” can mean different things between different companies. If they are going by servings versus calories it can appear to be a lot cheaper when really you are getting less servings for that year.
• Products that don’t need to be cooked tend to be more expensive than ones that need to be cooked. This is because of the processing required to cook them and then dehydrate them for storage versus storing dried uncooked foods. Meals may be cheaper but you’ll have to store more fuel to cook them. It’s a balance you’ll need to consider.

Stay tuned as we continue Tax Refund Week

When referring to traditional food storage, the food items typically include grains, legumes, sugars, oils, etc. These foods provide a life-sustaining diet and at the very least these should be the ones you store. These items also have a long shelf life thus they are ideal for long term food storage. We recommend including additional foods such as fruits, veggies, meats and powdered dairy products in your traditional food storage to add a variety to your diet, and to allow you more flexibility to make your regular recipes using foods you have stored.

A lot of people like to shoot for a goal of storing a one year supply of long term food storage, so buying a big chunk of that at one time when you come across some “extra” money is a great way to make a dent in it.

Long term food storage can feel daunting so we dedicated a whole babystep just to PLANNING what you are going to buy. Look at our Babystep 4 page for an excel calculator (or pdf worksheets) that can help you how much of the basics you need for your family. Then add to your worksheet whatever “extra” items you want to store. One way to figure it out is to decide how many servings of fruits, veggies, meats, etc. you would want for your family per day and then multiply that by the length of time you are planning to store for.

Where to Buy Your Traditional Food Storage

All-In-One Packages:

Some people like to just buy a “1 year supply” package and call it good. If you choose to go this route, you need to think about what you ACTUALLY want to store and then do your homework on all the packages out there. For example, a one year supply can mean anything from a One Year Supply of Basics up to a Supreme One Year Supply including fruits, veggies, meats, meals, etc.

Grains/Legumes:

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 legumes. Click here to look for a Home Storage Center in your area. You purchase the foods in bulk and either can them there or package them yourself in buckets at home. 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, member policies, etc. 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. If the cannery is not an option for you, there are multiple places online you can purchase these basic items: EMERGENCY ESSENTIALS: Buckets and #10 cans. Grains and Beans HONEYVILLE GRAINS:Bulk bags and #10 cans. Grains and Beans and Peas SHELF RELIANCE: Buckets, #10 cans, smaller pantry cans, sample mylar pouches. Grains and Beans.

Freeze Dried Fruits and Vegetables:

These are a great addition to meals and desserts, to use as a side dish, or just to snack on. You can store dehydrated or freeze-dried, or a combination of both. It’s a good idea to try smaller packages of different kinds to see what varieties and brands your family likes best. You can get these in a wide variety of package options. Here are a few options online to check out: LINDON FARMS: Mylar pouches inside a plastic bucket. (all freeze-dried)Fruitsand Vegetables WISE FOOD STORAGE: Mylar pouches inside a plastic bucket, includes dips as well (all freeze-dried). Fruits and Vegetables EMERGENCY ESSENTIALS: #10 cans or smaller MyChoice cans (freeze-dried or dehydrated). Search Fruits and search Vegetables HONEYVILLE GRAINS:Small and large cans (freeze-dried or dehydrated). Fruits and Vegetables SHELF RELIANCE: #10 cans, smaller pantry cans, sample mylar pouches (freeze-dried or dehydrated). Fruits and Vegetables. For current fruit and vegetable package sales click here

Freeze Dried Meats:

Freeze-dried meats are great for adding bulk, calories, and flavor to your meals. They allow you to easily turn any recipe into a “shelf stable” meal. You can get these in a few different packaging options. Here are a few options online to check out: WISE FOOD STORAGE: 4 serving mylar pouches inside a plastic bucket. 6 chicken and beef options seasoned in a variety of flavors. Learn more. EMERGENCY ESSENTIALS: #10 cans, cases, and packages. Search “meat” to learn more. HONEYVILLE GRAINS: #10 cans and cases. Learn more. SHELF RELIANCE: #10 cans, smaller pantry cans, sample mylar pouches. Learn more.

“Other”:
A lot of these stores offer a variety of other products you may choose to purchase to add to your traditional food storage. Make sure to check out some of the powdered dairy, cheeses, desserts, drinks etc. Tomorrow we will be focusing on “Just Add Water” meals, which is a different topic all together.

A lot of these extras we are talking about (fruits, vegetables, meats) can be items you dehydrate or can yourself. Although they wont have as long of a shelf life as freeze dried products, they can be much cheaper if you have the time to do it and a good source for cheap produce/meat. We have some informative articles about these topics in the Self Reliance section on our blog.

Stay tuned as we continue Tax Refund Week

If any of those reasons to not add to your 3 month supply bit by bit sound like you, you may chose to use your tax refund (or a big chunk of change) and buy a lot of it all at once. When we were helping Grandma Lori with your Food Storage Makeover, she did a big bulk buy for most of her 3 month items, and it worked great. Read more about that adventure here.
Our Babystep 3 teaches you all about figuring out how to make a list of everything you may need for your 3 month supply of food. You can chose to use the spreadsheets included, or the printable forms. You may be the type to know exactly what kinds of things you buy each time you shop, and if that’s you – just multiply it by 3 months, and that can be your list. Don’t get so concerned about planning it all out perfectly that you never do anything!

Making the Most of your BIG Shop

Even if you aren’t consistently couponing and/or sale shopping, there is no reason why you shouldn’t take advantage of price breaks on your “BIG SHOP”. The easiest way to do this is by using one of our FAVORITE services called Deals to Meals.

Here’s How it Works
1. Sign up for a free trial

2. Search all your local stores for each item on your three month supply shopping list
3. Select items that are flagged as good deals this week
4. Print out your list for all the stores
5. Go to Wal-Mart and price match EVERYTHING

Seriously, it just takes a few minutes and can save you A LOT of money. If you use this service even one time in a month it will more than save you the $4.95 it cost that month.

If you don’t have Deals to Meals in your area …
We love the free resources at Pinching Your Pennies. You can check out their forums for all the “screaming deals” of that week for your state. Click here to check it out!

Stores put things on sale generally around the same time each year. The best way to stock pile is to purchase things when they are on sale. For a great post on “Understanding Sale Cycles” visit Fabulously Frugal here. We found and shared this post by Fabulously Frugal on our Pinterest! Gotta love the things you find on Pinterest. If you aren’t following us on there make sure you do! Find us here http://pinterest.com/fsme/

Stay tuned as we continue Tax Refund Week