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.

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

Here’s a schedule for what we will be covering for the week. We obviously encourage taking advantage of sales, and building your food storage bit by bit, but sometimes it can be easy (and nice) to buy things all at once. Take a look at the topics and follow along as you make a game plan for your tax refund, or “extra” money. Feel free to bookmark or pin this post as we will be adding links to these topics throughout the week as we post them.

The Wonder Junior Deluxe is an incredibly powerful and fast hand grinder for a mid-range price. You can use it for powerless emergencies, for daily use, or just when you need to grind something that won’t work in an electric mill like oily nuts and seeds or cracked grains. The WonderMill Electric is the quietest, fastest, and cleanest of all the mills we tested and we have been recommending them to family, friends, and blog readers for 3 years now.

The Wonder Junior Deluxe models have been on backorder for about 6 months now. Each new shipment that comes in is sold out before it arrives. We are currently taking orders for March delivery, however … we just received a bonus shipment of 20 Wonder Junior Deluxe hand wheat grinders due to an order cancellation. A lot of people have been hoping to get one of these great mills for Christmas and now is your chance. We will sell on a first come first serve basis until all 20 have been sold. THESE ARE NOW SOLD OUT. SORRY! We are on a waiting list to get another 20 Wonder Juniors in early January, but it may be as late as March. You may continue to place orders and will be added to the waiting list to receive one as soon as more are available!

We are giving away a FREE WonderMill Electric Mill in the month of december! The first 20 people to purchase an electric mill from our site starting today, will be entered to win a FREE WONDERMILL electric mill. That is a 1 in 20 chance to get your mill FOR FREE! You can choose to either receive a second mill to give to someone else, or get a full refund on your initial purchase. These are great gift items if you are looking for a bigger gift to give someone this year. ALL 20 HAVE BEEN PURCHASED. WE WILL EMAIL THOSE 20 PURCHASERS SATURDAY AFTERNOON WITH THE WINNER OF THE FREE MILL (REFUND)

We will be updating our WONDERMILL main page with details as we sell 20 mills of each kind. Go on over there to purchase and see how many are left!

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.

Ingredients:
2 T. butter (use canned butter or shortening)
1 cup Bisquick
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup water
1 pint canned fruit

Directions:
1. Heat 16 or 21 briquettes, depending on Dutch Oven size (16 for 8″, 21 for 10″). 2. Melt butter or shortening in dutch oven. 3. Mix Bisquick, sugar, milk powder, and water in a bowl. Pour over melted butter. 4. Pour canned fruit over Bisquick mixture. 5. Cover with Dutch Oven lid. 6. Set over 5 or 7 hot charcoal briquettes. 7. Put 11 or 14 hot briquettes on the lid. 8. Let cook for 20 – 30 minutes

You may now download ALL the Shelf Stable Saturday recipes for free.
Click here for details.

Ingredients:
2 c. long-grain white rice
1 T. vegetable or canola oil
1 T. curry powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
4 c. water
1 c. lentils (red or brown)
1 tsp. honey
1 T. Balsalmic vinegar
1 tsp. salt

Directions:
In one saucepan, cook rice according to package directions. In second large saucepan, heat oil & stir in curry powder & powdered onion over medium to medium-high heat. Heat the spiced oil mixture for appx. 2 minutes while stirring. Quickly add the 4 cups of water and lentils, stir & bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the lentils are soft. Remove from heat and stir in the honey, balsalmic vinegar & salt. Serve spooned over rice. May garnish with sour cream (from powdered) or salsa (if desiring a dairy-free alternative. Also very nice served inside of homemade taco shells, or wrapped as burritos (eliminating rice).

You may now download ALL the Shelf Stable Saturday recipes for free.
Click here for details.

Remember back in January when we asked for your help to get 100 shelf stable recipes for our Shelf Stable Saturday project? Well…we reached our goal. Actually we doubled our goal! Initially we had planned to combine all the recipes in a document, and add it as another bonus to our eBook Binder, in addition to giving the document to anyone who submitted a recipe as a way of saying THANK YOU. We figured our readers would still have access to them each Saturday as we post them weekly.In the spirit of giving, and in order to end the April Surprise party with a party favor for EVERYONE, we’re making the document available to all of you! We wanted to do a giveaway where EVERYONE gets something. In fact, we’re calling this the REVERSE giveaway, where not only do you get something, but we encourage you to turn around and give it to all your friends.

HOT OFF THE PRESS (like burning hot – we just finished this bad boy)… We present to you…. THE SHELF STABLE RECIPE BOOK. As we mentioned the recipe book is from reader submitted recipes. We have some of the best readers out there! You should know- you’re one of them! The recipe book has the following categories:

• INTRODUCTION
• BREADS & MUFFINS
• BREAKFAST FOODS
• SOUPS,CHILIES & STEWS
• MAIN COURSES
• SIDES, SALADS & SNACKS
• COOKIES
• CAKES
• DESSERTS
• MISCELLANEOUS
• APPENDIX: POWERLESS COOKING
• APPENDIX: COOKING FUELS
• APPENDIX: STORING WATER

(Please note: We made the recipes 4 to a page in order to save paper for you if you print it out.  In case you find the font to be too small by doing this, we also made a FULL PAGE VERSION. It’s 172 pages but you can print it front and back or just use it on the computer. Enjoy!)

In case you’re just joining the party now and missed the first 2 surprises, make sure you check them out. We still NEED YOUR HELP with Surprise #2, so please check that out. We had so much fun with this party, and now we’re both off to take a nap!

It wouldn’t be a proper party without a CAKE right? In honor of our party this month here is a great shelf stable cake recipe for your enjoyment Don’t forget to check back on Monday for SURPRISE #2, it’s a good one!

Dry Ingredients
3 cup sifted flour ( I sift after measurement)
2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder

Wet Ingredients:
2 tsp white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla
¾ cup canola oil
2 cup water

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. 2. Put all dry ingredients into a large bowl and sift together 3. Mix all the wet into one bowl then add to dry ingredients. This is a really wet batter and there may be a few lumps. 4. Pour into a 13 x 9 ungreased pan. 5. Bake for approximately 40 minutes at 350deg. (Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees and increase cook time to 45 minutes for a glass pan).

Frosting:
1. Set aside 1 cup chocolate chips and 2 handfuls of marshmallows 2. In a sauce pan add: 3. 1 cup sugar 4. ¼ cup butter 5. ¼ cup milk 6. Stir occasionally on a medium heat until it comes to a boil. Do not boil. Remove from burner. Stir in 1 cup chocolate chips and 2 handful’s of marshmallows until melted into frosting. Frost cake