One thing I have seen stated over and over, I will repeat here. Store foods you are going to eat. It doesn't do anyone any good to store 500 lbs. of pinto beans if no one will eat them. Store what you will eat. If you are doing it right, you are rotating your stored foods to keep it fresh. So it must be foods you will cook. If your family will only eat McDonald's cheeseburgers, you have a problem. One thing you can do in this case is to start your family off slowly. Introduce a new dish every week or so.
So what do you store? And how do you cook it? Beans are a great food, store for a long time and are not that hard to cook. They can also be ground up to make a flour that is great to thicken soups and gravies, white beans being the best for this. Pinto Beans are relatively cheap but they don't make the best tasting soup in my opinion. They do however make great refried beans and Chili. I love Great Northern beans, which are a white bean. I will put a pot of them on a low fire all day long and cook them until they fall apart and loose their bean shape. At that point they become a thick creamy soup like split pea soup. Which by the way is another wonderful soup. Both of them can be jazzed up by adding some spam, a much under appreciated food item.
A can of spam will last indefinitely as long as the can isn't damaged. The same with other canned food such as Chile con Carne, Beef Stew, Chicken ala King, etc. Another item that is a personal favorite, is Hormel's Dried Beef. It comes in a jar and is extremely salty to preserve it. Rinse it and dump the water, then I like to slice it into strips, saute it in a little butter (or any oil will do) and make a cream sauce. This is the infamous "Shit on a shingle" when served over toast, I personally like it over mashed potatoes. It's surprisingly tasty in spite of it's slang name.
So there is a start to your meal. Just add some canned vegetables and you have an easy meal. The biggest issue with canned foods in my opinion, is the sodium content. But now days thanks to consumer awareness, a lot of products come in a low sodium version.
If you have the time and the inclination, canning foods yourself is wonderful. If you have a vegetable garden even better. You can pick the produce at the peak of ripeness, free of pesticides and can it to get the most nutrients. Another way to preserve your produce is dehydration. Making Fruit leather is a wonderful way to use that excess fruit. Dried Vegetables are great in a pot of soup. Just throw them in at the beginning of the cooking time.
Don't forget your flavor enhancers, you can dry all sorts of herbs, garlic and onions. I like to throw a handful of parsley in my soups, it adds some color and is very healthy. Parsley is a great source for vitamin B12, chlorophyll, calcium, more vitamin C than citrus fruits, and just about all other known nutrients. Parsley is a multi-vitamin in every bite!
If you have stored flour (or wheat and have a grinder to make flour which is the best way to store it), you will be wanting to make, breads, biscuits, etc. Look up your favorite recipe's and see what you need to store. In my opinion simple is better. The less ingredients you need to make something the better off you will be in the long run. Also look up old time recipes for tips. Run out of yeast, make sour dough instead. Sour dough takes longer initially, but once started and kept up it will last indefinitley and taste yummy!
Don't want to go through all the hours it takes to make homemade bread (without a bread machine), then make fry bread. Basically just take the bread dough, flatten it out and fry it in a little lard, bacon grease, vegetable oil, etc. Spread some butter on while it's still warm and enjoy! For a breakfast idea, sprinkle cinnamon sugar on after the butter. It's also a good way to get a bread item into your diet if you don't have access to an oven.
A great idea is to make your own bisquick type of baking mix at home. After it's made it will store about 3 months, so make sure you rotate it out regularly. This recipe is simple and easy and comes from Hillbilly Housewife.
Biscuit Mix
•10 1/2 cups flour
•1/4 cup baking powder
•1 1/2 tablespoons salt
•1/2 cup sugar
•2 cups shortening
•1 cup buttermilk powder
•1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
In a large bowl, mix all ingredients with an electric mixer until particles are small and uniform in size. Store on a shelf in a tightly-covered container. Makes 13 cups mix. Storage life is approximately 3 months. Use it anywhere else you see Bisquick or Biscuit Mix called for. This gives your baking goods (like biscuits, pancakes and waffles) a richer flavor.
Root vegetables (such as beets, carrots, potatoes, etc.), if stored properly, can last throughout the winter months. Also winter squash and pumpkins are good storers and give a welcome additon to your canned foods. Just remember to keep them cool and dry. Summer squash's (such as zucchini and yellow crookneck) do not store well this way and will need to be canned.
Because salad greens like lettuce, spinach, etc. cannot really be stored (though spinach can be canned to use as a vegetable of course), a way to add fresh greens to your diet is to grow sprouts. You will be amazed at the variety of sprouts you can grow. A great site to get you started growing sprouts is The Sprout People.
So whatever your family likes to eat, there is a way to store it (or a fair alternative). Just set up a system to make it easy to rotate out your stored foods to keep them as fresh as you can. And if you have a disaster of any kind, you and your family will enjoy the bounty that your good sense prompted you to store!
Easy Beans: Fast and Delicious Bean, Pea, and Lentil Recipes, Second Edition
SPROUTING SEED SAMPLER (9 Types - 100grams each) Brand: Sprout Master
Sprouting Seed Super Sampler- Organic- 2.5 Lbs of 10 Different Delicious Sprout Seeds: Alfalfa, Mung Bean, Broccoli, Green Lentil, Clover, Buckwheat, Radish, Bean Salad & More
So there is a start to your meal. Just add some canned vegetables and you have an easy meal. The biggest issue with canned foods in my opinion, is the sodium content. But now days thanks to consumer awareness, a lot of products come in a low sodium version.
If you have the time and the inclination, canning foods yourself is wonderful. If you have a vegetable garden even better. You can pick the produce at the peak of ripeness, free of pesticides and can it to get the most nutrients. Another way to preserve your produce is dehydration. Making Fruit leather is a wonderful way to use that excess fruit. Dried Vegetables are great in a pot of soup. Just throw them in at the beginning of the cooking time.
Don't forget your flavor enhancers, you can dry all sorts of herbs, garlic and onions. I like to throw a handful of parsley in my soups, it adds some color and is very healthy. Parsley is a great source for vitamin B12, chlorophyll, calcium, more vitamin C than citrus fruits, and just about all other known nutrients. Parsley is a multi-vitamin in every bite!
If you have stored flour (or wheat and have a grinder to make flour which is the best way to store it), you will be wanting to make, breads, biscuits, etc. Look up your favorite recipe's and see what you need to store. In my opinion simple is better. The less ingredients you need to make something the better off you will be in the long run. Also look up old time recipes for tips. Run out of yeast, make sour dough instead. Sour dough takes longer initially, but once started and kept up it will last indefinitley and taste yummy!
Don't want to go through all the hours it takes to make homemade bread (without a bread machine), then make fry bread. Basically just take the bread dough, flatten it out and fry it in a little lard, bacon grease, vegetable oil, etc. Spread some butter on while it's still warm and enjoy! For a breakfast idea, sprinkle cinnamon sugar on after the butter. It's also a good way to get a bread item into your diet if you don't have access to an oven.
A great idea is to make your own bisquick type of baking mix at home. After it's made it will store about 3 months, so make sure you rotate it out regularly. This recipe is simple and easy and comes from Hillbilly Housewife.
Biscuit Mix
•10 1/2 cups flour
•1/4 cup baking powder
•1 1/2 tablespoons salt
•1/2 cup sugar
•2 cups shortening
•1 cup buttermilk powder
•1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
In a large bowl, mix all ingredients with an electric mixer until particles are small and uniform in size. Store on a shelf in a tightly-covered container. Makes 13 cups mix. Storage life is approximately 3 months. Use it anywhere else you see Bisquick or Biscuit Mix called for. This gives your baking goods (like biscuits, pancakes and waffles) a richer flavor.
Root vegetables (such as beets, carrots, potatoes, etc.), if stored properly, can last throughout the winter months. Also winter squash and pumpkins are good storers and give a welcome additon to your canned foods. Just remember to keep them cool and dry. Summer squash's (such as zucchini and yellow crookneck) do not store well this way and will need to be canned.
Because salad greens like lettuce, spinach, etc. cannot really be stored (though spinach can be canned to use as a vegetable of course), a way to add fresh greens to your diet is to grow sprouts. You will be amazed at the variety of sprouts you can grow. A great site to get you started growing sprouts is The Sprout People.
So whatever your family likes to eat, there is a way to store it (or a fair alternative). Just set up a system to make it easy to rotate out your stored foods to keep them as fresh as you can. And if you have a disaster of any kind, you and your family will enjoy the bounty that your good sense prompted you to store!
Easy Beans: Fast and Delicious Bean, Pea, and Lentil Recipes, Second Edition
SPROUTING SEED SAMPLER (9 Types - 100grams each) Brand: Sprout Master
Sprouting Seed Super Sampler- Organic- 2.5 Lbs of 10 Different Delicious Sprout Seeds: Alfalfa, Mung Bean, Broccoli, Green Lentil, Clover, Buckwheat, Radish, Bean Salad & More
