What do you say when people ask you how to get prepared? There are so many ideas floating around in the preparedness community. The two questions I ask are:
- How much water do you have stored?
- How much food do you have in your pantry?
For anyone starting in preparedness, these two areas are the starting points….the starting points!!!!
Water storage is pretty easy. You can stock up on cases of water bottles, clean out 2 litter soda bottles, get a 55 gallon drum and even get a Water Bob that can be deployed in no time!
Food storage is a little bit different. Tons of articles have been written on freeze-dried, dehydrated, MRE’s, DIY canning, mylar bags and O2 absorbers, gardening, etc… For the newbie, it can be very overwhelming and discouraging!!!!
So, where do you start? You start with something that is fool poof! What is fool-proof food storage? Stock up on canned food that you can buy at your local grocery store! This is fool-proof and will allow you to put away 2 weeks easily!
But wait…there’s more to this fool-proof food storage story!
When I was researching this article, I was prepared to come up with food recipes that only needed canned food items from the grocery store to be prepared. However, in my research, I found an older website, Y2K mind you, that has already done this for you! The cool thing is that there are recipes for main dishes, desserts, breads, soups and more that you can make with just items purchased from the grocery store!
From Emergency Kitchen:
All recipes call for what I think of as the “regular” size can. It varies a bit, but is about 14 or 15 ounces. I don’t specify the size if using this size can. I indicate if another size is called for. All times are for a regular stove, so you’ll have to adjust for your cooking surface.
I use a 12 inch cast iron skillet or a Dutch oven for just about everything.
I only use ingredients you can purchase in your grocery or warehouse store. You may have to try more than one store for some of the more weird ones, like “Just Whites.” Just Whites are powdered egg whites found in the baking section of most grocery stores (at least in my area).
The Main Dishes include:
Beef Biscuit
Chicken Spaghetti
10 Minute Italian Meal
Camp Fire Supper
Baked Bean Crown Roast
Gin’s Tuna Mac
Chicken Stew
Corned Beef and Rice
Corned Beef Hash
Easy Rice and Bean Wraps
Stir Fry Noodles and Rice
Tomato Macaroni and Cheese
Linguini with Clam Sauce (Red or White)
Ramen Casserole
Rice and Beans
Salmon Patties
Sweet and Sour Beans and Ham
Sweet and Sour Spam
Turkey and Dressing
Warning – This an older website, I mean like from the 1990’s! But the info. is great! I would read over the recipes, maybe even try a few if you’re not sure that they will work for you. You can print them out and keep them in one place. You’ll have to play with the serving sizes to see if they meet your families needs, but after that, you have a plan that is easily managed!
Choose 7 recipes, make your list of ingredients, double it and you have 2 weeks worth of food storage in dinners. Of course, you will need breakfast and lunch. But this takes the guessing away from what to do and where to start!
After you check out the recipes at Emergency Kitchen, check out some of the other articles!
Join us as we share different reasons and methods of how we preserve food to create a long-term storage plan for our families. Click on each link to be taken to a new blog with helpful information and tips.
Mom with a PREP – How to Dehydrate Ginger and Make Ginger Powder
Preparedness Mama – Make Jam Without Pectin
Mama Kautz – Dehydrating
Busy B Homemaker – Freezer Jam
Ed That Matters – Anyone Can Do It: Fool Proof Food Storage
The Apartment Prepper – Easy Marinated Mushrooms
The Homesteading Hippy – How to Use Your Pressure Canner
Montana Homesteader – Making and Preserving Cherry Pit Syrup
Are We Crazy or What – How to Dehydrate Cherries
Your Thrive Life – How I Preserve Food: Meals in a Jar
Melissa K Norris – Re-Usable Canning Tattler Lids-Do They Really Work?
Real Food Living – Preserve and Store Grains wiith Dry Ice
Cooke’s Frontier – Smoking
Homestead Dreamer – Water Bath Canning
Evergrowing Farm – How to Preserve Red Chile
Survival Sherpa – Modern Mountain Man MRE’s
The Backyard Pioneer – Fermentation
Trayer Wilderness – How We Preserve Food
Living Life in Rural Iowa – Vegetable Soup
The Organic Prepper – How to Make Jam without using added Pectin
Homesteading Mom – How I Preserve Broccoli and Goat Cheese Soup
A Matter of Preparedness – How I Preserve Using Mylar Bags
This article first appeared on Ed That Matters.
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Todd Sepulveda
I'm the owner/editor of Prepper Website, a DAILY preparedness aggregator that links to the best preparedness articles on the internet. I'm also a public school administrator and a pastor. My personal blog is Ed That Matters, where I write about preparedness and from time to time, education. Connect with me on one of my social media outlets below.
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Since I love salmon patties, I looked at that recipe. I leave the bones in for the calcium and crunch. You can easily crush them if you don’t like the crunch or have someone who examines food for inedible parts. (kids) Plus, I use all the liquid, using a half cup of crackers and a half cup of dry oatmeal. Leaving in the bones and using oats makes the salmon more nutritious. Now, since I never buy or eat saltines, I use oats. Just add 3/4 oats and mix. Let it sit for ten minutes to see if all the liquid is absorbed. Then, more oats may be necessary. But, the juice in salmon is nutritious! If a person just cannot stand the juice and bones, chickens or other animals will like them. I do take out the black skin because of the texture and blackness.
Okay, I did have an adult friend who informed me she could not eat salmon with the bones in. I told her to debone it and leave the bones for me. She gagged lots as I ate the bones. So, maybe other adults do not like the bones, even if crushed.
I like Salmon patties, but I don’t think I would want to crunch the bones. LOL. But I understand getting more nutrition from them.
Todd
My husband and I were just discussing home canning vs. dehydrated.
I stated these facts:
*no msg in cans to worry about
*dehydrated in jars takes much less space than canned in jars
*lighter to carry (12 jars canned tomatoes vs. 12 jars of dried tomatoes?)
*dehydrated in jars will last years longer than foods in cans
*much less mess and preparation to dehydrate 15 tomatoes than steam, peel, stuff jars, water bath for 45 minutes, etc.
*clean up of 4-8 trays is lots easier than clean up of canning equipment
*nutrients are better preserved using the dehydrator than canning
*used lids can be reused when sealing dehydrated foods in jars
Todd,
I suppose the fact my mother left bones in the salmon is why I love the bones left in salmon.