Basic & Expanded Food Storage

  http://www.hashworks.com/foodstorage.htm#Aug%201997:Basic%20and%20Expanded%20Food%20Storage Putting together a year's supply of food can be a daunting task! How do you do it? A step at a time:

1. Acquire and begin using basic food storage.

2. Decide what you'd like in your expanded food storage.

3. Gradually these items as they go on sale, then store, and use.

Basic Food Storage
Basic food storage should include life-sustaining food for a year. It might not be gourmet, but it would keep you alive! Basic food storage requirements for an average adult for one year are as follows.

Grains (wheat, rice, corn, etc.) 400 lbs

Nonfat dry milk 16 lbs

Sugar/honey 60 lbs

Salt 5 lbs

Fat/oil 20 lbs

Dried legumes 60 lbs

Water 2 wks supply

(Taken from Essentials of Home Production & Storage, published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.)
Expanded Food Storage
In addition to the basic food storage listed in the table above, most of us would like to have some of the things we use everyday -- meats, cheeses, vegetables, seasonings, and so on -- on hand.
Here's a simple way to gradually acquire expanded food storage:
1. Keep a list handy in the kitchen. As you cook day to day, note what you use that you'd like to keep on hand.
2. Watch the sale flyers that come with the newspaper on Sundays and Tuesdays. Note the prices for things you use all the time. When there's a good sale on an item, buy in bulk -- enough for 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year, depending on how perishable the item is and what you can afford.
Buying on sale this way, you can get almost everything at ½ to 1/3 off the usual retail price. The savings allow you to build up expanded food storage at very little extra cost.
Cookbook Review: Too Busy to Cook
Emergencies that might force us to live on wheat and beans for an extended period of time are rare. But "everyday emergencies," when life gets super busy, are common. Wouldn't we all like to have lots of pre-cooked meals on hand as everyday-emergency food storage? (How about a month of meals on hand before a wedding, new baby, or missionary homecoming? Or at the beginning of December -- no cooking during the Christmas rush!)
Too Busy to Cook explains a basic method for cooking about a month's worth of meals at a time, which you then freeze so they're at your fingertips. These are the basic steps:
1. Choose 10 entrees you'd like to serve in the next month or so.
2. Make a grocery list of all the ingredients, then shop for what you need.
2. Prepare individual ingredients all at once (cook meat, grate cheese, chop vegetables).
4. Assemble the meals and freeze.
There's a set of 10 recipes with a shopping list and detailed instructions to get you started. The book also includes another set of 10 recipes with less-detailed instructions; reference tables; ideas for cutting back on fat and eating healthier; and a recipe section with about 40 recipes.
Too Busy to Cook (9.63 at Seagull books)
Lori L. Rogers & Chriscilla M. Thornock
Published 1994, 100 pages, softback
Everyday-Emergency Meal: Super Easy Fried Chicken

1 pkg croutons

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2-3 T butter

Rinse chicken breasts. Grind croutons to fine crumbs in blender. Put in large plastic bag with 2 chicken breasts; shake to coat. Repeat til all are done. Spray large fry pan with non-stick cooking spray & melt the butter. Put the chicken in & cook for 15 minutes each side. This recipe is also good with chicken tenders, for finger food.
Food Storage Recipes: Cool Summer Salads
3-Bean Salad (Georgianne Dalzen)
Dressing:
1. In blender, mix:

• ½ - 1 C sugar 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp paprika 1 T worchestershire
• ½ tsp dry mustard 1 T onion, chopped fine

2. Then gradually add

• 1 C salad oil
• 1 C cider vinegar

3. Last, add

• ½ C toasted sesame seeds (Toast in oven 10-15 min at 300)

Serve over rice or beans. May add your choice of green beans, raisins, peanuts, bell pepper, jicima, shredded carrots, onions, garbanzo beans, kidney beans.
Aztec Salad (Georgianne Dalzen)
Dressing

• 2 T seasoned rice vinegar
• juice of one lime
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander
• ½ tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
• ½ tsp salt

Salad

• 2 cans black beans
• 2 C frozen corn
• 2 large tomatoes
• 1 large green pepper
• 1 red or yellow pepper
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 3/4 C chopped cilantro

Chicken Salad (Serves 20+)
1. Mix 2 T oil, 2 T orange juice concentrate, 2 T vinegar, and 1 tsp salt.
2. Pour above mixture over 5 C cooked, cubed chicken (6-8 breasts). Marinate overnight.
3. Next day, add 3 C cold cooked rice, 1 13-oz can pinepple tidbits, drained, 1 can mandarin oranges, 1½ C chopped celery.
4. Mix together 1 C mayonaise & 1 C Miracle Whip, then add to chicken mixture.