MENU IDEAS FROM STORED FOODS
GENERAL IDEAS: Initially, you’ll want a few very simple meals that require no real cooking. Those could be pre-packaged meals or something from a can that you could quickly “heat & eat”. In the winter, it is important to have warm drinks and soups. Children need foods that are familiar to them. After the first 3 days, it is time to start working your plan to use more of your long-term storage foods along with your regular pantry items. Listed below, you will find some practical, nutritious ideas for using foods straight from long-term storage. A fuel source will be required for cooking most of them, but that could be a propane or charcoal grill. The specific recipes for all of these menus (and more) are provided in:
Cooking for Real: A DIY Guide to Using Stored and Seasonal Foods.
Muesli with Dried Fruit and Yogurt
Oatmeal with Cinnamon and Raisins
Brown Rice Cereal with Raisins & Brown Sugar
Ziploc Omelets & Biscuits on a stick (over campfire)
Cornmeal Mush with Dried Fruit Compote
Black Bean Soup Sprouted Lentil Soup
Burritos with Refried Beans Black Bean Salad
Southwest Pasta Salad Bulgur Mexicana
Cheesy Potato Soup Beans & Rice
Vegetable Soup with Crackers Creamy Rotini with Chicken
Canned or dried fruit Seasonal Fresh Vegetable
Chicken & Noodles Egg Fried Rice with Vegetables
What’s the best strategy to storing food? What do you really need?
Did you know you need more calories and even better nutrition when you’re body is stressed out by a disaster? We completely believe that you can store nutritious foods to get you through any crisis period. Whereas most food calculators out there will cover the staples, the majority we’ve seen don’t lead you to the fruits, vegetables, and digestible proteins you should get. Our below chart helps you grasp what it takes to healthily feed yourself for a year using all food-storage-capable foodstuffs.
| Food Storage Category | Minimum Requirements |
| Wheat, Grains, Cereals, Meal | 250 lbs/person/year |
| Rice | 100 lbs/person/year |
| Pasta | 25 lbs/person/year |
| Beans | 75 lbs/person/year |
| Fruit | 25 lbs/person/year |
| Vegetables | 65 lbs/person/year |
| Dairy | 60 lbs/person/year |
| Meats & Proteins & Nuts | No minimum required |
| Sweetners | 60 lbs/person/year |
| Butters & Oils | 25 lbs/person/year |
| Comfort Food | No minimum required |
| Cooking Essentials | Varies by item |
| Water for Cooking | 700 gallons/year |
Caring for more than yourself? Multiply the amounts needed by each person to figure what kind of storage you need to build.
BIG TIP: It’s better to acquire a variety of foods for a shorter period of time, say 3 months, than to have a giant supply of the same thing for a year. Cruise through our blog and website to learn easy ways to build up your food reserves.
12 Week Strategy to a Year’s Worth of Food
NOTE: This is one way to approach food storage. It’s helpful explanation but not an exhaustive. You can ALWAYS start small by building up non-perishables from the grocery store. Think about buying double every time you make a trip to the store for canned and packaged items.
Week 1: Pre-food step, concentrate on storing up a starter amount of 50 gallons of water. The easiest is to buy the one, two-and-a-half, or three gallon containers offered at most grocery stores. (Camping stores often have 5 gallon ones). A more forward thinking approach is to buy a water barrel and prepare your water for up to 5 years in storage.
Week 2: Grab your food Really Ready Approved Food Storage Staples List (shop.preparetheway.com) and concentrate on buying a quarter of what you’ll need in the first staple block, grains. TIP: When buying grains it’s best to buy in bulk, at one time, so your dollar goes further. Storing these properly is a MUST else you’ll waste your money.
Week 3: Concentrate on buying quarter of what you’ll need in the second through fourth block of staples, including rice, pasta, and beans. (See Really Ready Approved Food Storage Staples List.)
Week 4: Focus on buying ¼ of the total amount specified in the fruits and vegetables section of the food storage pyramid.
Week 5: Move to collecting a quarter of your year’s supply in the proteins and sweeteners section of your shopping list.
Week 6: Work on gathering a fourth of what you need in the dairy section including butters and oils. Then work to get a small amount of comfort foods at this time, more like a month’s supply.
Week 7: This week create your shelving system, organize your foods and create an inventory. This will make sure you’re staring at how long certain foods will last, given what they are, what you’ve stored them in, and where you’ve put them. Also go back to your fruits and vegetables section and purchase the next quarter of your yearly installment. You should be at half your year’s supply here.
Buy 50 gallons of water again. Also purchase all of your baking essentials section. The spices are critical to avoid food fatigue!
Now return to the head of your list and buy the next 2 installments of grains. You should now be at ¾ of your year’s supply. This week also locate a grinder (buy one or schedule an appointment to use a friend’s). Practice grinding your whole grains into flour.
Week 8: Buy your next 2 installments of pastas, rice, and beans. It will cheer you to know that ¾’s of a year is secure in your home. Remember that 1 serving of legumes to 3 servings of grains often creates a whole protein.
Week 9: Finish supply the last quarter of your fruits and vegetables. If you have budget to spare, complete your dairy section too.
Week 10: This week you’re focusing on completing your dairy needs for the year, gathering the remainder ¾ of your meat and proteins for the year, and securing all the sweeteners you’ll need.
Week 11: Revisit how you’ve stored things and re-calculate your inventory. Also finish buying your butters and oils and the fun stuff—comfort food!
Week 12: Congratulations! You’ve acquired a year’s worth of well-balanced supplies for your family and stored them properly. Now it’s time to focus on working at least 1 meal a week into your diet from your stored foods. You should have no worries finding things you like to eat, however, you may need to develop some new skills sets. Check out our cookbook (online in March @ shop.prepareheway.com) to help you love eating what you’ve stored!
Emergency preparedness is a vast subject and unnerving to many.
Who has the time to cut through the loads of information and just help you get ready? Whether it’s an ice storm that hits (note Arkansas had one that knocked out region-wide power for 3 weeks in 2000) or a bigger disruption (like 9/11), do you know what to do? The below quiz will help you administer a reality check.
10 Question Emergency Preparedness Pop Quiz: (Yes/No)
1.I know how to find emergency water.
2.I have back up water prepared already.
3.I know I can last 3 weeks if grocery stores closed down.
4.I know how to prolong my food supply for months or years.
5.While the whole city goes dark, I’m confident my freezer and lights will work.
6.I have worked out an evacuation route, and my family knows it to.
7.I know what to do if cell phones don’t work anymore in my region.
8.I have a secure home from weather or people-related threats.
9.I know exactly what to do in a city-wide threat (be it weather or otherwise).
10.I’ve looked at my emergency kit in the past month and have it seasonalized.
If you answered “Yes!” to the majority of the above, you’re on your way to living a lifestyle of preparedness. If you got stuck on any one, you qualify to get out of the dark quickly!
Either way, join us at our upcoming Really Ready Weekend 2011. We help the novice get started and the expert to expand to satisfying levels. Prepare The Way LLC exists to help school you and to help you climb to an acceptable level of safety before any catastrophe hits. We do not want to sell you gear, we want to empower your know-how so you will be a part of the solution in trying times.
Join the journey of lifestyle readiness with us.