Simplest way

I will add a list of everything to put in your 72 hr kits soon. It's been a long day:)
I wanted to tell you about a great thing to put in your 72 hr kits, and in your cars. At stores such as Emergency Essentials there are 3600 calorie bars. They have several different kinds and are about $6. They also let you sample them at emergency essentials. If you were in an emergency you would be able to survive on these bars for 3 days. 3 squares a day will give you all of the calories you will need to survive. I have one of these in my car, but chose to not use them in my 72 hr kits just because I wanted to find a more variety of things for my children to eat each day that they were used to.

If you choose to not get them for your 72 hr kit(I will have more options for food on a later post) I would recommend them for your cars.

They are a bit crumbly and have a powdery texture and taste like a pecan sandy cookie.For a sample you can go to Emergency Essentials in South Jordan 968 W. South Jordan Parkway (10600 s.)

Your year supply one month at a time

Let's begin by saying I am not a professional in this area. I begin seriously last year after joining a friend's food storage program(www.myfoodstoragedeals.com). It got me excited and helped me to stress less and start simple. So that is what I am trying to pass on.
I took the information from the LDS church website, although I want to stress that this is a city wide program and not a church program. The LDS church has boundaries of neighborhoods already in place and the city thought this would be the easiest route.
It is less overwhelming for me when I look at it monthly instead of the full year
Suggested amount for 1 month for one person:

Grains: 25 lbs per person of any of the following:
-cold or hot cereal
-cornmeal
-flour
-mixes(muffin, cornbread, pancake)
-oats (quick or old fashioned)
-Rice
-wheat(grind to make wheat flour)
*For a family of 4 you could get a 25 lb bag of flour, 25 lbs of oatmeal, 25 lbs of rice, and 25 lbs of wheat- then you have a good variety. I know this seems a no-brainer but don't get things your family won't eat!

Legumes: 5 lbs per person
-Black beans
-chili beans
-kidney beans
-lentils
-pinto beans
-pork n' beans
-refried beans
*Beans are an important part of your diet. If you don't know what you would do with these, I have a lot of good recipes that I will pass on every Tuesday. They have gotten as low as .50 a can and if possible get as many as you can. I am getting low but right now they are a bit too much per can so I have been focusing on other stuff on sale.

Milk: 1.5 lbs per person
-Evaporated milk
-powdered
-sweetened condensed
*Powdered milk can come in handy when you run out and need some for a recipe or to drink. My kids can't tell the difference when I make it. In fact they think it is cool that I can make milk myself:)

Sugar: 5 lbs per person
-brown sugar
-corn syrup
-powdered syrup
-honey
-jam
-jello
-maple syrup
-molasses
-pudding
-white sugar
*Watch for good sales on all of these items and you will be able to stock up on more. I will let you know when there are great deals on Thursday.

Oils/fats:2 lbs per person
-butter
-oil
-margarine
-mayonaise
-peanut butter
-salad dressing
-shortening
*These items are essential in cooking. If you don't cook much then you could get a lot of peanut butter! I figure that if we had nothing we will at least have peanut butter and a spoon:)

Salt: 1.5 lbs a personIf you want to start simple start with the salt. It will cost you less than a dollar:) If you had the bare minimum to eat you would at least have salt to make it taste better.

Meats: 1.5 lbs per person
-canned chicken
-canned tuna
-canned turkey
-meat soups
-clams
-stew
-spam
-vienna sausages
-TVP
Fresh meat/freezer
-bacon
-beef/roast
-chicken
-pork
-sausage
-seafood
*It has helped me so much to have a supply of meat in the freezer. It makes it convenient as well as less costly. You get the meat when it is on sale then you can get more of it for other meals. Of course it is good to have canned meats as well in case the power to your freezer is out and it spoils.

Fruits: 15 lbs for ENTIRE family
-applesauce
-dry fruit
-fruit cocktail
-peaches
-pears
-pineapple
-mandarin oranges
*This is another easy place to start. 15 cans of the fruit your family enjoys most. I would get about 30, because my kids like to have a fruit with their dinner each night.

Vegetables: 15 lbs for ENTIRE family-beets
-carrots
-corn
-green beans
-green chili's
-instant potatoes
-mixed veggies
-mushrooms
-onions
-peas
-pickles
-pumpkin
-salsa
-spaghetti sauce
-tomato paste
-tomato soup
-tomatoes
-yams
*If you plant a garden this year you will save tons of money in this area. Last year I canned 35 jars of tomatoes and it cost me $2 for the lids. If you have never done this, I will post about it closer to gardening time! My family doesn't eat canned vegetables so I focus on frozen vegetables, salsa, tomato products for pasta sauce, and we love pickles.



Cooking essentials: At least one of each that you would need for cooking
-baking powder
-baking soda
-cocoa
-vanilla
-vinegar
-yeast

Auxillary foods:-Spices
-vitamins
-cake mixes
-crackers
-marshmallows
-casserole mixes
-chocolate chips
*These are just things to make your life a little more pleasant, and make your food a little tastier

Condiments:
-bbq sauce
-ketchup
-mustard
*You would be able to survive with all of these but it helps to have them on hand when you run out. I bought ketchup for $.50 a bottle last year and got a year supply. It is just one less thing I have to buy full price on grocery day.


Now you know what you need to buy, now you just wait for great deals and stock up! Maceys case lot sale is coming up and they may have some great deals. I will try to get a price comparison on later between the LDS cannery, walmart and cosco. If you have a cosco membership they have the best deals on Peanut butter, flour, brown sugar, and sugar most of the time.Sometimes case lots can beat them. Wheat and oats can't beat beat at the LDS cannery. A lot of the "cooking essentials" are the best prices at the Walmart price.

Recipe Tuesday

So once you start building up your food storage, what do you do with it? You cook! For all of you who are fans of quick, easy, and fast food are just going to have to start somewhere! It may seem extreme to have hundreds of lbs of flour in your pantry if you only use one bag of flour in a year. The storage is there for you when you don't have the option to get the stores.
1- there is a disaster in your hometown and you are unable to get to the stores for a long period of time.
2-There is a disaster somewhere else and the cost of food skyrockets to a point where you can't afford it.
3- You are faced with unemployment and your family cannot afford the groceries for the time.
Whatever the situation, you should have your own little "grocery store" in your own home.
Lets start with the basics. Even if you aren't a gourmet chef, you know how to make a peanut butter sandwich:) Do you know how to make a loaf of bread from scratch?
I am putting the most simple recipe for white bread that I have. It has simple ingredients that should be in your long term storage. We will do a wheat one later for those of you who have wheat but aren't sure how to use it in your recipes.
Many of you may have great bread recipes that you can share as well. I try to make bread of some sort each week, but that doesn't make me good at it:)

White Bread
2 Cups warm water
1 Tbsp yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
5-6 cups flour

Add yeast to the water in a large bowl. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients. Add flour one cup at a time between mixing.
Knead for 9 min and rise for 40 minutes. Place in a greased loaf pan.You can let rise again for another 30 minutes, but is not vital. Cook at 350 degrees until lightly browned. You can also roll it out thin and use it for a pizza crust.

Now once you have peanut butter, jam, flour, yeast, salt, sugar in your food storage you can live on peanut butter and jam sandwiches for months if you had to:)

How Long Can You Survive without Water???

As I review the surveys, I have noticed that many families have little or no water supply.Establishing a supply of food is essential in many ways, but water is more important than any food you may have.
A person can go without food for several weeks or more, but without water you can survive only a few days.
How much water do you need? For a 2 week supply you need 28 gallons a person- 14 for drinking and 14 for washing, per person.
You may need more if:
-you have pets
-you have a baby in need of water for formula
-you have any dehydrated foods that will need water prior to eating
-you live in extreme hot temperatures
What if a disaster struck today and you have no water supply? There is some other options.

1. Hot water heater: can hold up to 50 gallons of water. The trick is to getting it out. Opening the drain faucet at the bottom of the tank can access the water. To get the water to flow, you have to turn the faucet on somewhere else in the house to release the pressure. BUT if the source of your "emergency situation" is an earthquake your water heater could tip or break and lose all of your water. Also, in my case it is in the basement and may not be accessible in an emergency.

2.Toilet tank: I am talking about the tank in the back, not the bowl:) It can hold anywhere from 3-5 gallons of water. I personally don't want to rely on my source of water coming from the toilet, but I would use it for my pet or for cleaning. It IS clean water but still...it's the toilet.

3.Can foods: You can get liquid source from can fruits, vegetables, soups that may be on your shelf. It will sustain you but may not be the most refreshing or the most practical for washing purposes.

Anyway, there is no need for any of those options if we start now to prepare.
There are plenty of options for all budgets.

1. Milk jugs- This is the cheapest but not a long term solution. After you finish a gallon of milk, rinse it in cold water and fill it up to store. This plastic is thin and disintegrates quickly. I bought water in the gallon containers and in less than a year they collapsed and leaked all over my garage.


2. 2-liter soda pop bottles- These containers or juice containers are made of a thicker plastic and last longer. This is economic if you drink these on a regular basis and have them laying around anyway. It would take a lot of them to equal the suggested 14 gallons. I have a few of them and they have stored well for many years.




3. Single serve water bottles- These are the most convenient, although you would need quite a bit of them as well. For one person's 14 gallons you would need 5 of the 24 packs. I have these and stack them up in my garage. When summer comes they get to amazing prices to stock up on. You shouldn't pay more than $3 for a 24 pack of water. In the summer they can get to just under $2 and you could easily get your supply. Every 2 weeks I would buy 4 of them and spend less than $10.


4. 5 Gallon water jug. There are a lot of different sizes that you can get to store your water. They all range in prcie as well. These containers are square shaped which makes it convenient to stack. Although you will need quite a few for your family.You will need 5-6 per person to meet the suggested amount. These can be found at Emergency Essentials for $11 each. I am currently trying to see if they will give me a group discount.
5. Water barrels- This is a great way to store a lot of water without having tons of containers around.I keep them against my garage wall. They need to be inside in our Utah temperatures. For a family of 2 you would need one 55 gallon container for both your drinking and cleaning. Once you fill it though it can be over 400 pounds. Every year you can empty it and water your grass, and put fresh water inside. They may seem bulky but I have 3 of them in the far end of my garage and I can still park my SUV and open my trunk and have plenty of space to walk around.

A siphon hose pump is the easiest and most logical way to get it out.I bought one for $6 when Macey's has their preparedness sales. You may have seen these barrels and noticed that they range around $50 a piece. But because I am cheap I looked for another option:) I found a woman on KSL who sold them previously used for juice concentrate. I bought 3 of them for $10 each. I now have enough water for all of my family and another one in the future. It is an amazing piece of mind. I talked to this same person last week and she told me she can get more of these containers if any one is interested. Because she now works full time she cannot keep up with the cleaning of them. This should not be a problem for any of us. It is a simple solution and water and you are set.We could even plan a day to do it in the park in warmer weather. LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO BE PUT ON THE WAITING LIST! She will start collecting them depending on the need.

Rotation- Water can be stored up to 5 years at a time or more. It may not taste that great but any stored water is without oxygen will not maintain a overly pleasant taste. Think about it- tasty water or no water at all...With my bottle waters I use the oldest ones first for our current use. When I see a good deal I will get another one to replace it.

Place all water containers on top of a wood board if it is stored on top of cement. My husband just used some 2x4's and created a platform pretty simple. He can help out anyone as well who needs some assistance with that.I do not know the scientific reason, but the concrete can contaminate your supply.

Blog schedule

I have been thinking of ways to get the info out that I want without mass blogs. I think I will start off the week with a recipe on Tuesdays to help you implement your food storage into your meals.
On Thursdays I will focus on food storage items and tell you of any awesome deals to stock up on that week.
On Saturdays I want to focus on 72 hr kits and Emergency Preparedness tips
We will see if I can stick to that and if it works out:)

Surveys

I know it seems like I have forgotten about the blog, but I am just trying to get everyone on board first. Our neighborhood consists of 200 homes and I am gradually getting our info out. There is a survey link to the right that we need all of our neighbors to fill out and give back to me.

Who has their tax return back? Out of the chunk of money we got back, I was able to take $200 and get a good amount of food storage to add to my supply. I tried to get more out of my hubby, but alas I was grateful for this:) It is important to set aside money for a cash reserve as well as a little out of each paycheck to get supplies. I take at least $20 every 2 weeks from our one income family paycheck and I don't even notice it. But it greatly increases my storage. Some will have more or less to spend, but it is something. I don't really believe that getting one can every time you go to the store is going to build th esupply you need. If that is all you can do for now, than it is great. Think about what amount of money you can actually set aside specifically for preparedness. THEN when good sales come you stock up on that. You can get twice as much for your money.I will let you know when some of those awesome deals come each week as well. I will blog soon about how to get started and figure out what and how much you need to buy for your family.