Food Storage Made Easy » three month food storage

Blasts from the Past: The Healthy Food Storage Discovery

Julie — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:40:55 +0000

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

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

Another really great benefit to having, and USING food storage is the ability to control quantities of salts and sugar or honey in homemade foods. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a sucker for a good chocolate covered, chocolate donut on Saturday nights – but being able to stay away from preservatives, additives, and excessive amounts of sugar in homemade cooking has been a great side effect.

Lately I’ve been on a little bit of a grain kick too! Did you know that SOOOOO many products out there these days that claim to be “Whole Grain” really aren’t, or are merely sprinkled with a little bit of whole grain. It’s kind of unfortunate that these things are so misrepresented, but that’s a whole other blog post… What is exciting is trying out new grains. I have gotten to a point where I feel like I have wheat, brown rice, and oats fairly under control. Now I’m learning about and using millet, barley, quinoa and a few other grains I had never heard of. Its really fun and exciting and it’s really expanding my repertoire. I can’t wait to share more of what I learn. In fact just the other day, I asked people how they used quinoa on our facebook fan page, and got almost 30 comments with ideas, suggestions and even recipes. I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Blasts from Past: The Three Month Supply Debate

Jodi — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 05:36:46 +0000

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

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

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

Planning Your 3 Month Food Supply (BabyStep 3)

Jodi and Julie — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:39:11 +0000

FINALLY – A SOLUTION!

How do you decide what to include in your 3 Month Food Supply?
How do you determine how MUCH of each item to buy?
How do you keep track of your current inventory and what you still need to buy?
How do you make sure you are stocking up when items are ON SALE?

We couldn’t find a solution for these questions, so we created one!

We have developed a 3 Month Food Supply Worksheet that will help you outline meal plans, convert them into the number of items you need to buy AUTOMATICALLY, and then track your inventory including current prices for each product.

View our instructional video before you get started!

Let us know what you think of the 3 Month Food Supply Worksheet and how it is working for you. How is your step 3 coming along?

Because I Am a Nerd (aka Jodi’s 3 month plan)

Jodi — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:36:15 +0000

So I know Julie will mock me for this, but I like to be organized with my cooking and I stink at making up meals out of random ingredients. I also tend to be somewhat of an excel junkie … thus my 3 month plan is quite detailed. I started by jotting down in a notebook 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, 14 dinners, and a few snacks that could be made if no fresh meat/produce was available. Then I multiplied those meals out to get 12 weeks worth of food planned. I pulled out my recipe book and marked down exactly what ingredients I’d need to make those meals the specified number of times. I compiled all of that into an inventory list that I will print and update as I accumulate the items on my list. If you would like to see my spreadsheets in detail you can click on the sample image to view the excel file. I know this strategy might seem overwhelming to some of you, but for me it makes me feel empowered and confident that I will be able to utilize the items should the need arise.

Please note that since this posting we have developed a great customizable 3 month plan spreadsheet that you can use for your own plan. Go to the BabyStep 3 page for more details.