September's order

Hey, those few people who read this blog. I'm sorry, but I forgot to put up September's order, and it's already in.

That being said, I've been doing a lot of food storage shopping lately, and have found that Costco is an excellent place to buy your food storage. Today we used the last of our government stimulus money to flesh out our food storage. For $280, here's what we got:

10 buckets with gamma lids (purchased at Macey's)
150 pounds white flour
75 pounds sugar
50 pounds rice
50 pounds pinto beans
15 boxes Mac & Cheese
2 jars peanut butter

We're going to go to the Lindon Cannery to get some oxygen packets to throw in our buckets, and then store away! As a reminder, the rising cost of fuel and everything else means basics are going to get more expensive this fall! Stock up on your food storage while it's still "cheap." You may need this food with the coming economic recession.

Food storage calculator

While at our stake Provident Living fair this past weekend, a member of our stake provided me with a food storage calculator. By inputing the number of people in your family, you can see how much food you should store for a year's supply (you can even change the number of years, if you want to store more than 1 year). By inputing how much you currently have, you can also see what percent of the recommended total you have so you know where you need to keep storing. I'm going to try to put the file on the right-hand side of this blog for download. If I can't figure out how to do that, you can email me or leave a comment, and I'll send it to you.

Thanks to Bro. Barnes for sending me this file, and thanks to whoever created it.

Food storage saves lives!

"Faithful compliance with these revealed welfare principles and practices have preserved lives in times of crises. An example is found in the response of Church members to the 1985 earthquake that devastated parts of Mexico City. Church members and leaders rose to the occasion, drawing on their own prepardness efforts to help themselves and others around them."

President Thomas S. Monson, Ensign, Sept. 1986

Broccoli Rice Casserole

10 oz (3 packets) frozen broccoli
10 oz (2 cans) cream of chicken soup
8 oz (1 jar) Cheese Whiz
3 c. cooked rice
3 tbsp butter
1 large onion, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sauté the onion in butter until it turns transparent. Add the frozen broccoli, cooking over a low heat until the broccoli is tender. Add chicken soup, Cheese Whiz, and cooked rice. Pour into a three-quart casserole dish. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until bubbly.

Homemade Yogurt

4 c. very warm water (not over 120 degrees)
1 3/4 c. regular nonfat dry milk (3 c. instant)
1/3 c. plain yogurt with active cultures and no additives (if bought from the store to use as a starter), OR 1 packet of yogurt starter (available at Good Earth or Wild Oats stores)

Mix well with hand mixer or in blender at the lowest speed. Pour into a ceramic or glass dish with a lid. Put a heating pad on your counter and turn it on low. Cover it with a kitchen towel; put the yogurt mixture on the towel and cover the entire thing with a large bath towel to retain the heat. (Do this just before bed and it is perfect in the morning.) Do not disturb the incubation. During the incubation period, the cultures multiply and thicken the milk.

After incubating, refrigerate the mixture for 2-3 hours until completely cooled and cold throughout. Set aside 1/3 c. as a starter for your next batch. Divide the remaining in half, or as you wish, and flavor using cannery jams. Mix the yogurt and jam together with a hand mixer until well blended. You can add chunks of fruit if you wish.

August Order

This month you can prepare by buying rice, oats, and a can opener (most food storage cans require one of these - it's good to have one with your food storage, in case your can opener is electric or goes dull before you need it).

# 10 can of white rice: $9.22
# 10 can of quick oats: $6.95
Can opener: $7.45

Money is due August 30th!

Water barrels

We got a great deal on some storage barrels, so I bought a few extra. We have 55 gallon barrels for $17, and 5 gallon barrels for $3. If you are interested, please leave a comment or contact me ASAP. No delivery charge for places near our condo, but delivery may apply for those outside The Ranches.

**Update: I am currently out of 55 gallon barrels, but can order more 5 gallon barrels. If you are interested in 55 gallon barrels, please let me know. If I can get a large enough order together, I can order more at a good rate; otherwise, the price will be at least $20.

Hand mills

The hand grain mills (part of May's order) are back-ordered. They will be in hopefully sometime during the first week in August. If you bought one and are moving or something, please let me know and we can make arrangements (getting your money back, having it delivered elsewhere, etc.).

Food storage website

A coworker of mine found this website: http://www.alpinefoodstorage.com/. You can bulk order items, similar to what we do in the stake. There is an order form on the site. Prices are pretty decent and include shipping to her home in Alpine (you'll need to pick it up there). Check it out.

Good food storage cookbook

A coworker of mine let me look at her food storage cookbook, and it's awesome! It's not only a cookbook--it also gives tips for slowly building your food storage, what to buy, how to store it, how to rotate it, using food storage in "normal" recipes, etc. You can buy it from Deseret Book by clicking here, or from Emergency Essentials by clicking here. If, for whatever reason, the links change, just Google the book's name (Emergency Food in a Nutshell, by Leslie D. Probert and Lisa L. Harkness).