# list for the mega pantry?



## PrairieBelle22 (Nov 17, 2006)

I'm not really new to prepping because ideologically I have been on board with being prepared for the "next depression" because of the upbringing I got from my parents. Over the years I have pursued prepping knowledge such as how to do certain sustaining tasks. Until a few months ago, I did not have a place to stockpile food. I have that room now and I want to store up some emergency supplies. I have a few instant food items stored in the cellar for tornado preparedness. But that's not what I'm having a problem with.

I'm trying to stock up on the items that would be necessary for an extended term should grocery shelves empty. I am approaching this cautiously and thoughtfully, taking into consideration our tastes, nutritional needs, stock rotation, and that there will be unknown cooking conditions. I have camped out enough to know that when I get out of my kitchen and my familiarâs, there enters an element of lostness and frustration when supplies are lacking or tools donât work quite right. 

This brings me back to my approach to preparing a list of food items. Which comes first the menu plan or the supply list? I have looked at some supply lists on the internet. Iâm not sure how workable that list would be for me. Yes, I know itâs meant as a starting place, but Iâm having trouble moving forward. Perhaps I should start with a menu plan and develop my list from that angle. 

Question 1: Has anyone else proceeded this direction? If so, would you share your information?

Question 2: Does anyone know of a list of sample menu plans that take into consideration the circumstances that we are preparing for? 

I have searched the web and read everything I could find on the subject. I found lots of recipes but most of them had huge ingredient lists, lots of specialty ingredients, etc. Times will be hard and if I canât afford to buy these specialty items now, I sure wonât be buying them then. 

I thank you in advance for the information that you give on this topic. And thank you to all who have shared their knowledge and their experiences over the many years. 

Belle


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## CottageLife (Jul 20, 2009)

I would think making the menu list first would be most benificial. Make your grocery list from that, and also modify the meals if they aren't feasible for the conditions you are thinking about.
I know I've seen lists similar to what you are talking about on LDS food storage sites I just have to remember which one of the bloggers I'm thinking about. If I can find what I'm thinking of I'll post again. Sorry!


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Menu first.

Do you have the Joy of Cooking? One of the older editions would work best. I have one from early 1950s that I learned to cook from many yrs ago.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

I could tell you that you need 64 cans of Tuna on hand but if you don't like tuna........
You need to figure out what your family eats on a regular basis and stock those items.

Store what you eat and eat what you store.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

I'd suggest you write down the 10-15 main meals your family likes to eat, and work towards stocking for that. I kept a notebook in the kitchen and wrote down every single thing we ate for a month, including spices used, then multiplied it out and started stocking when I saw things on sale. It took a while but I eventually had a nice sized pantry of just the things we like to eat. At first I focused on stocking the things that were the easiest to fix, like spaghetti or pasta dishes, oatmeal, tuna, and the things we couldn't grow ourselves, like dried fruits, dried milk, canned meats, spices.

I didn't have much luck using the LDS type lists because we don't eat the same things in the same ratios. Those lists are a good place to get ideas in case you've forgotten something, but I had better luck just tracking our own meals.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

store what you eat eat what you store 

start by writing down the meals you regularly eat or meals you like to eat 

then make a list of ingredients and amounts to make those meals 

then start storing those ingredients in a quantity that matches x number of that meal 

spaghetti is a meal i know we are going to eat there are lots of things we can do to dress it up but plain and simple i can serve a pound of noodles a jar of sauce and every one will eat no one will be hungry 
i know i can serve it about every other week without my wife complaining that we eat to much spaghetti , we actually eat spaghetti noodles about once a weak just not always as spaghetti with sauce so 25 jars of sauce and 50-60 pounds of pasta , that's easy to store , as i use a jar and a pound i can replace a jar and a pound but i can store a years spaghetti very easy , just keep breaking down meals like that, not all will work some just have to many fresh ingredients needed , but if you can do 3 meals a week that can be eaten from your pantry rotation. you will be on your way soon.


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## PrairieBelle22 (Nov 17, 2006)

Cyng: I do not have a copy of Joy of Cooking, but I will keep an eye out for one. 

I'm glad to see that I'm on the right track. Thanks for the direction and encouragement.

I'm hijacking my own thread: I'm so excited today because we are headed to Tulsa to buy fall fruit trees that are now for sale. Lowe's has them for 19.95 each.

B


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## Vickie44 (Jul 27, 2010)

I started by getting two of something when I needed one, when I had backups of everything I normally used I still went to the store with the same amount of money but only bought things on sale that I normally used and stashed them. When I got to the point where I really didnt need anything then I only purchased the things on super duper sale and stashed them. At the same time I read up on prepping and thought about and added things to my menu base, then stocked up. 

Then I got a canner and made the garden bigger and started gleaning more . When I can I do at least two years worth and I eat out of the garden but I still go to the store every two weeks and get things that are at a really good price . Once I spent the entire budget on coffee ,the price was so good. I have enough of some items to last the rest of my life and some !

Good luck and dont forget to enjoy it .


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

As others have said, eat what you store and store what you eat. Grow as much as you can. Most of our food we raise, like all of our vegetables and herbs, some of the fruit (although we have some immature trees that will eventually cover more in this department, we also bought berry bushes for a faster return) We get milk and all that can be made with milk from our goats. Our chickens give us eggs and meat. I know that we can get meat from the goats too if we had to, but we have nigerian dwarf goats, so not much meat on them, so butchering them will be an as needed basis. We stock up on things like rice, wheat berries (yes, we bought a manual grain mill), sugar, salt, etc.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I did it backwards from everyone else. I decided that first I had to preserve our lives. I bought long term storage items exclusively. These items are cheap and store for so long that I knew they wouldn't be ruined over the time I needed them to be available. I bought wheat, oats, sugar, salt, milk, oils, pasta, beans, a wheat grinder, etc. Once we had one year - we moved to 2 and then 3. ( to cover additions to the family). At this point, it was time to flesh out the menu. I looked for items that could be used for several dishes - such a tuna - tuna sandwiches, tuna casseroles and creamed tuna on toast. Peanutbutter. Canned chicken. Spices. We decided we needed a year's supply of these items so I figured 10-12 menu's items for each meal x 3 times each per month x 12 months. 

Then, we added other items we enjoy- cocoa powder, popcorn, maple flavoring, etc. We can produce our own fruits and veggies so we don't list those. Then we moved to toiletries and medicines. Then household supplies - paper towels, plastic bags, canning lids, etc. 

Sustain life first, then make it better.

Now I rarely make up menus before I go shopping. I know what we have and what we're running low on. We rarely run totally out of anything so it's more of an effort to keep the items stocked than buying what we need.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I agree with Callieslamb, long term storage items first. Then flesh out your menu from there.

I bought a bunch of half gallon sized canning jars for storing some long term items in. Powdered milk and oatmeal alone will keep you fed for a while.


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## campfiregirl (Mar 1, 2011)

I started by creating a menu of 2+ weeks of meals we frequently eat that also would be easy to store without refrigeration, then made sure we had enough on hand to make all of it. Then I took that x6 to get the quantities of each needed for 3 months, then 6... but meanwhile I also looked for sales on staples like flour, sugar, salt, rolled oats, baking soda, cream of tartar, etc. to have enough for a year. Paid attention to canning supplies needed for 2 years, including sugar, salt, vinegar, lids, vitamin c, pickling salt, etc. so I knew we'd be able to preserve from the garden. We're also working on toiletries, paper supplies, etc. Although we continue to add to the pantry, we are also adding to tools & knowlege to sustain ourselves.


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## rancher1913 (Dec 5, 2008)

What everyone else said - but I started with stocking up on what I couldn't get easily or grow easily in this area. Things like cocoa, vanilla, spices... we can get wheat and sugar here (lots of sugar beets raised here). Once i had those things stocked, I went to staples that are available, but would be hard to produce - like sugar (the process is long and complicated).

Moldy


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## meanwhile (Dec 13, 2007)

Our family accidentally learned how to "prep" and have "emergency" supplies because I totally with all of my heart hate - despise - just HATE to go shopping. I grew up very poor (cash poor but we were "rich" in other areas) and shopping was sad. As an adult, I hate to go to any store and avoid it as much as I can.

Thus - even before I knew what "prepping" was, our pantry was already "prepped."

What we did was to save all the grocery store receipts and kept a list of everything we ate for several months. We counted the home canned goods, food given to us and - everything. We made a chart and saw the patterns for what we eat.

At the same time we saved every single grocery receipt or any receipt at all that was for something we bought.

Then - in the end - we knew how many cans of tuna we need in a month, or tooth paste or mustard or anything. We keep a list and every family members knows how to organize the pantry and mark the grocery list if we are reducing the supply of an item.

I always suggest people start with just the main foods they know their family eats. Stock up on what you can afford each week or month. Being very organized in the pantry and root cellar helps. Be sure every family member knows the system so that everything is careful and not wasting things. 

The toilet paper and things that will not expire are, to me, easier to handle. We just keep back up supplies that we never use. We know the amount and where they are stored and we just keep them there. 

Good luck.


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## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

I bought "The Survival Mom" book, and haven't read it all yet. She recommends making a menu list of the foods you are already eating. Then try to "survivalize" the ingred's by substituting long term storage foods, such as for spaghetti: tomato powder, dehydrated parmesan, dehydrated green pepper/mushrooms, etc. She has a very good website. www.thesurvivalmom.com with lots of info including focusing on learning a new skill every month. If you haven't been there, you really ought to check it out! If you do, go to the search box and type in Famine Menu, then scroll down to click on it. The author is Lisa Bedford, and I don't know her, but she has a wonderful site. She was on Glenn Beck's show before he left Fox News.


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## KMA1 (Dec 9, 2006)

Someone said something similar above, but what my wife did was plan a regular 2 week menu of what we liked with a balanced diet. Calculated the amounts form that and multiplied by our goal for pantry length. Example 2 weeks X 2.4= 1 month. Then she added in regular and occasional treats. Then started building up based on sales and adding a little extra to the regular grocery list.


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## PrairieBelle22 (Nov 17, 2006)

Thank you for all your recommendations. Obviously there are no absolutes in this approach and looks like about half approach in from the menu first direction and half from the storage first direction. I just have to decide now, which approach is right for me. I'm thinking that possibly a little bit of both because I definitely have to have a plan. 100 pounds of flour won't do me much good if I don't have the plan, recipes and complimentary ingredients to go with it. 

Rancher, I too have made a list of important items that is next to impossible for me to make, or have a substitute for and have started stockpiling those items.

Thank you for the tips for other resources. I will go check them out.

Belle


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## katheh (Jul 21, 2012)

In a true like end of society emergency, people will eat anything that takes the least resources to cook, and no stockpile will be big enough for more than a season.

That said, we live in a rural area of IL but too close to the city, so if something really bad happens and it is feasible, we will be leaving to stay with truly sufficient backwoods relatives. If we can. I do send preps of medicines, etc for them to stock for us. We are saving for a singlewide to put on their property (we vacation there and it would be nice to have our own place). They are much more prepared than we are. At this point our family specifically can't/won't move away from our current home. We are trying to make the youngest (8th grade) through high school.

To stave off current economics problems, we do have a large garden and stockpiles of staples, etc. I figured out about 3 years ago that scratch cooking was the only way we could afford to eat, so that stuff I need is what I stockpile. But I don't have years of stuff - I have focused on keeping a rolling maybe 6 months of supplies and am directing the rest of my resources toward learning stuff. 

If we have to hit the road, everyone in the family has bags with 2 weeks of just-add-water-type food in them. We have a bitty camp stove, straw water filters. Our cars are always full of gas (we have maybe 10 gallons of gas prep in cans in the garage), we all have good walking shoes and warm coats/clothing. We all have bikes, and I have 2 of those little kid bike trailers from when the kids were little. Currently I use that little trailer to haul my purchases home from the store, but if we had to bike away from our home, we would at least have options.

I guess it really depends on your situation/where you live. I have looked at it a million ways and can see that if something truly bad happens, we will at some point have to leave here or we will die here. There are just too many (of the wrong kind) of people in our area. We can't secure our safety.


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## praieri winds (Apr 16, 2010)

after stocking a couple cases of spam found out DH didn't like it very much as I had not fixed it before so they are right about stock what you like and eat what you stock I guess if he gets hungry enough he will eat it haha


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## goatlady (May 31, 2002)

PB2, flour really does not store well long term which is why most of us store the wheat berries, to be ground as needed for flour. Whole grains will store for years and years properly processed, as will various types of rice and dried beans of all varieties. BUT, using whole wheat to make bread at home can cause stomach upsets as there is so much more fiber in the bread, so that is 1 item that needs to be included in today's diet to avoid future GI problems at a time when you have enough problems around! Main reason for the saying" sotre what your eat and eat what you store." Many found they made some dietary changes so the prepping/food storage fit their lives better and as a result they physically were better.


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## ladybug (Aug 18, 2002)

I purchased a "Depression era" cookbook and love it! The recipes are short, and contain some basic ingredients that most would keep in the kitchen. It's called "Stories and Recipes of the Great Depression of the 1930's", it's by a lady named Rita Van Amber. It can be found on Amazon here Amazon.com: Used and New: Stories And Recipes of the Great Depression of the 1930's, Volume IV (Stories & Recipes of the Great Depression) . I have used it a good bit and the recipes have turned out very well!


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

goatlady said:


> PB2, flour really does not store well long term which is why most of us store the wheat berries, to be ground as needed for flour. Whole grains will store for years and years properly processed, as will various types of rice and dried beans of all varieties. BUT, using whole wheat to make bread at home can cause stomach upsets as there is so much more fiber in the bread, so that is 1 item that needs to be included in today's diet to avoid future GI problems at a time when you have enough problems around! Main reason for the saying" sotre what your eat and eat what you store." Many found they made some dietary changes so the prepping/food storage fit their lives better and as a result they physically were better.


White flour will store for a year or two if it's kept sealed from oxygen and moisture. So I store flour and rotate and replace it regularly. And I have sealed superpails of wheat and both an electric and manual grinder, in case I can't get flour. Whole wheat flour will go rancid in just a few months - I found that out the hard way.

Whatever staples you decide to store, be sure you know how to use them. Making bread from home-ground wheat is an art.


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## JohnP (Sep 1, 2010)

Check out Wendy DeWitt. Everything Under The Sun: Everything Under The Sun
She came up with a pretty neat system for food preps.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

I can't think of anything that I stock, that I don't eat already.

I'm of the school that says, "hunger is the best spice". I've been caught hungry with no hope of grub for several days up to a week before... and when I did find something edible, I 'et' it. I have heard about hunger fatigue... whereby old folks, young uns, and *imho* insane folks, will starve to death rather than eat the same grub every day. Won't happen here.

I don't have a lot of spam, cause I don't eat a lot of it... but when I pop a can open, it's completely devoured. I keep some in the truck, at all times, along with at least two weeks of 'comfort' canned food.

I would like to get a half ton of wheat and corn (for humans) in my stores... right now, it's lots of rice and beans, and all the fixins...

I stock up, when something is on sale... if there are no limits, I'll get a six month to years supply of that item. Buying that much at regular prices? Rare...


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## AR Transplant (Mar 20, 2004)

I am on the side of do hard core prep first then start the luxuries after that.

I changed to this way of thinking when my ds went to a camp in porta rico.
They served the same meal every day for 10 days. Rice and beans and an egg for breakfast. Rice and beans for lunch and rice and beans for dinner. They could also eat all the fruit they could knock out of a tree that they wanted.
He said it was the best rice and beans he had ever had. 

I am going with rice and beans, and lots of spices. I also cook with wheat berries. ( bread, etc.) I honestly think this is the only way to get this to work on a realistic basis.


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## Astrid (Nov 13, 2010)

Callieslamb said:


> I did it backwards from everyone else. I decided that first I had to preserve our lives. I bought long term storage items exclusively. These items are cheap and store for so long that I knew they wouldn't be ruined over the time I needed them to be available. I bought wheat, oats, sugar, salt, milk, oils, pasta, beans, a wheat grinder, etc. Once we had one year - we moved to 2 and then 3. ( to cover additions to the family). At this point, it was time to flesh out the menu. I looked for items that could be used for several dishes - such a tuna - tuna sandwiches, tuna casseroles and creamed tuna on toast. Peanutbutter. Canned chicken. Spices. We decided we needed a year's supply of these items so I figured 10-12 menu's items for each meal x 3 times each per month x 12 months.
> 
> Then, we added other items we enjoy- cocoa powder, popcorn, maple flavoring, etc. We can produce our own fruits and veggies so we don't list those. Then we moved to toiletries and medicines. Then household supplies - paper towels, plastic bags, canning lids, etc.
> 
> ...


I agree with this for several reasons: What people "like" and eat may or may not be nutritionally sound. I know of several families that eat prepackaged foods almost exclusively. They are also some of the most unhealthy people I know and they make several visits to the ER every year for ear infections and bronchitis. So many people don't realize the impact that poor diet will make on their health. Because of this, it's important to improve diet during times of plenty and store those types of foods (if it contains unpronounceable chemical names, it probably shouldn't be stored except in small quantities as fun foods). Think about what will happen to people like my acquaintances when modern medicine is no longer available and the antibiotics and emergency rooms they depend on to keep their kids healthy don't exist.


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## claytonpiano (Feb 3, 2005)

As odd as this is about to sound......even with all the menu planning and thought that goes into your stocking......you will still discover things you have forgotten. We lived off our food storage and garden for a little over a year. There were so many things that I learned.

Our story is here http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/sp...ault/362873-feeding-extended-family-year.html

The bottom line is that even though I had planned menus and stocked that way as well as purchasing long term storage items.....you just do not know where you will be or what you will need without practice. My advice to you is to stock everything you need to eat only from your pantry for several weeks. Literally live off of that food. Refuse to buy anything during that time and try to only use things you are growing.....nothing from the refrigerator or freezer.....unless you are certain you can keep the freezer going during the difficult times. If you don't try it, you really won't know how well you are prepared.

The beauty of stocking based on menus is that you have everything you need all the time. The problem of stocking based on menus is that you must be SUPER diligent to replace what you use. 

The amount of money I have saved due to our garden and food storage is amazing. Still it takes awhile to get everything set up and purchased. I still do long term storage, but I use it and rotate. 

My favorite book for actually using Food Storage is Jackie Clay's Pantry Cookbook located here.403 Forbidden This book is simple and uses just what Jackie stores from her homestead. I have yet to fix anything from it that I do not like.

My second most favorite I actually bought at Smokey Mountain National Park. It is a book of collected recipes from pre-park days and tells how to salt beans, cook possum and on and on much like a condensed Foxfire book would be. I really believe that if everything really falls apart, food storage will be great, but we must know how to survive without stores and power. Wish I was at home to give you the name of this book, but we are in FL due to DH's mom's funeral. 

As far as long term storage items....I believe that is essential as well. The issue is rotation. You must learn to cook the beans that you store as well as the wheat in the buckets. You menus need to include the things in your long term storage as well.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

I recommend Jackie Clay's Pantry cookbook too - I've used it a number of times. Backwoods Home sells all kinds of books on stocking pantries, etc.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

What I usually tell people is to keep a diary of their meals & snacks for a couple weeks, or a month. Be sure to write down EVERYTHING you use, including salt, pepper, water, etc. 

When you have that done, you'll know what to put on your pantry list. You'll know exactly how much of each item you need for a meal. Times it by 30 to store a months food, times 365 to store a years food. 

When choosing the items for storage, you can use powdered milk in place of fresh milk, powdered eggs in place of fresh, etc. 

Do you know about hamburger rocks? look up the recipe and make enough to have a good storage of them. 

Keep in mind, dehydrated foods store easier and take less space than canned foods. The only drawback is that you must be sure to have enough water for rehydration. 

The most important thing to me to is store what you use and use what you store. Rotation is extremely important or you may wake up one day to discover you have a years worth of spoiled foods on hand.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

You might want to check out the recipes in a jar thread for some storage recipes. 

Yep, I'm shamelessly promoting one of my old threads here... lol


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

I'm really impressed by the organization that folks used in order to start prepping. My approach wasn't nearly so organized. I just started buying multiples of things that our family already used. Once I'd stocked up the amount of space that I'd allotted to preps, I took the time to do an inventory with some free inventory sheets that I found on the internet.

I used a mathematical approach to figure out how many meals we had stored and then cleared some more space. Two months supply wasn't enough for a family of 4 in my estimation. I don't stock a lot of the things that others do like bulk wheat, rice and beans, but I do buy a lot of basic ingredients and shelf-stable items. When I hit a 6 month supply, we bought a deep freezer and that helped us to ramp up to another 6 month's worth. Of course, I cleared out some more space and began stocking more stuff. Money was tight then, so I started stocking up on coupon freebies that served as treats for the remaining kid at home or for the college kid in the dorm. We tried a lot of new products that way and I was able to figure out how to duplicate the taste of the processed foods that we liked.

Kudos to those of you that started out so well-organized, but I think that I might have fallen by the prepping wayside if it had seemed like too much work. As it was, I kind of enjoyed the process of storing things and then counting them up after the fact!


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## Goldie (Feb 18, 2009)

Claytonpiano, when you get a chance, would you please post the name of the cookbook from the Smokey Mtn. Park? I tried to look it up, but they offer a number of them. I can guess, but would like a recommended one. Thank you!


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## AbbeyLehman (Jan 2, 2006)

This is a very interesting blog written by a member of the LDS church about her journey using food storage: My Year Living On Food Storage: In the beginning....

I read the entire blog in about an hour and half....She truly puts her food storage to the test. I would NEVER be able to get that kind of test to fly in my house when we don't HAVE to do it! I'll bet she has all KINDS of confidence now


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

This may be something to think about, with the start of real Spring weather many of us may be without power for a few hours or a few days depending on the storms.


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## snowcap (Jul 1, 2011)

I started by looking for things I normally use when they are on sale.
I use buckets and Jars for repkg bulk dry goods. Then we use up the oldest.


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## Calico Katie (Sep 12, 2003)

I also thought it was more important to get some of the basics first. Looking at the lists, though, I knew there were some things I wouldn't bother with. I don't like lima/kidney/butter beans because they're just starchy and bland to me. I do like pinto and white beans so that's what I have. The big convenience item I stock up on is instant bread. Yup, the just add water pancake mix. Can be cooked on just about any heat source and can be used for any meal. I get the 10 pound bags of Krusteaz online from Walmart. 

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Krusteaz-Pancake-Mix-Buttermilk-Complete-10-Lb/10307488

Here's one of the LDS storage list calculators.

http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

Quick oats for breakfast....add maple syrup or brown sugar
(quick oats are cheapest at healthfood store....79c a pound....longterm #10's I buy at the LDS online store)....beyond oatmeal for breakfast....rice pudding, eggs from our chickens and fried potato from our garden or bought locally 50# for 10$ 1 gallon of mrs buterworths is $8 at walmart.com also 10# pancake mix is $8...re-can the syrup into pints....store pancake mix in quart jars

Lunch....soup/salad(in season) or stir fried rice....garden veg (fresh, frzn, canned, dehydrated mix) as cheap as Ramen soup, home canned soup when the garden is in full swing. Buy the veg combo at honeyvillegrain.com with monthly coupon.
Rice at Walmart.com 20# for $10....long term storage from LDS online store....bulk soy sauce from amazon. (I love a splash of jerk sauce in my stir fry for sweet heat)

Dinner.....meat bought on sale or grown at home or hunted...frozen and canned add potatoes/rice and canned garden veg. gravy from canning juices.

Cake mix is about the cheapest dessert I can make that lasts 2-3 days for the 5 of us...frosting is not necessary...maybe strawberry jam or the like instead.

Notice I'm not big on "bread"....


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## kully (Feb 19, 2008)

when I was young Mama used to make a white or yellow cake and put jelly between the layers. Very good for icing. I made one for my grandkids the other day and they were amazed . Sometimes the small things really count. (haha) (and I didn't have to make frosting)


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## sand flea (Sep 1, 2013)

Well, with so many posts about tracking what you eat... I do it completely opposite. I know what foods I buy at the store (and it doesn't vary much)... so it was easy to stock enough freeze-dried servings of potatos, onions, green peppers, cheese powder, eggs, tomato powder, etc. I can make lots of variations of meal with the basic ingredients... over rice, pasta, noodles, etc. I did buy cases of meat... and still need to get some canned bacon. Can't live like normal folks without bacon!!

I do have instructions for canning my own, however. Last month's Backwoods Home had the article.


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## Calico Katie (Sep 12, 2003)

Sand Flea, Bexar Prepper does great canning videos posted on Youtube. Here's a link to her video on canning bacon. 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNffeMeJTxI[/ame]


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## PrairieBelle22 (Nov 17, 2006)

I can't believe this thread has surfaced again after a hear and a half. Needless to say, a lot has changed about my plan since I asked for some help planning my "mega pantry". I did plan my stores around what we eat, but I also took a hard look at the nutrition of our diet. When I listed what we ate, I was shocked to find out how many fats and starches and how few true veggies there was. The kids weren't real thrilled about it, but many of those fatty and starchy goodies began disappearing and more dark green veggies began appearing in their place.

Another big change was the loss of my full time job and our decision for me to be self-employed. This will be my first gardening season since this big change and DH and I are real excited about a larger garden and preserving our garden bounty. Over the past two years we have planted lots of fruit trees. We just finished our green house, are well stocked for canning, but have some construction to do on our solar dryer. 

It is our hope to have a year's worth of vegetables put away by the end of the summer growing season and to also have resources in place for some fresh produce year round. 

B


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## BlueRose (Mar 7, 2013)

Another great thread that I learned alot from. Thanks


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## Becka03 (Mar 29, 2009)

Mom_of_Four said:


> I'd suggest you write down the 10-15 main meals your family likes to eat, and work towards stocking for that. I kept a notebook in the kitchen and wrote down every single thing we ate for a month, including spices used, then multiplied it out and started stocking when I saw things on sale. It took a while but I eventually had a nice sized pantry of just the things we like to eat. At first I focused on stocking the things that were the easiest to fix, like spaghetti or pasta dishes, oatmeal, tuna, and the things we couldn't grow ourselves, like dried fruits, dried milk, canned meats, spices.
> 
> I didn't have much luck using the LDS type lists because we don't eat the same things in the same ratios. Those lists are a good place to get ideas in case you've forgotten something, but I had better luck just tracking our own meals.


this is such an awesome idea


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