Food Storage Meal Plan

Many people may have been collecting food storage or stocking up on items when they were on sale for quite some time.  Others of you may be new to the whole idea.  I am a HUGE believer in having food storage.  The other thing I really feel passionate about is knowing what I can actually make with the food I have here at the house.

This desire motivated me to search out recipes that could be fully storable - this means that I would have to be able to store all the ingredients at my house.  Some feel that your ingredients need to be shelf-stable.  I have come to realize that 99.9% of the time that you need to be using your food storage the electricity is fully functioning.  For this reason, I count my freezer as an essential food storage tool.  I do keep some meals that are fully shelf-stable, but plenty of other meals require that I use my freezer.  You need to decide for yourself.

The most recent counsel from the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to store 3 months' worth of what your family eats on a normal basis and then a year supply of basics such as wheat, beans, and rice.  We are going to focus on the 3-month supply.

To come up with what you should be storing to cover 3 month's worth of meals, first determine 2 weeks' worth of meals, snacks, and desserts that you could store and then just store enough ingredients to be able to make these meals 6 times each.  This will give you 12 weeks of meals which is about 3 months.  I will be sharing plenty of recipes on this blog that you can use, but you can also think about some of your family's favorite recipes.  Many of these can be stored - you may just need to make a few slight changes.

Most of you probably already have some meals that fit in this category.  Think about what your go-to meals are. You know, the ones that you always know you can make because you always have the ingredients on hand.  Spaghetti is one that is easy.  All you need is a can of sauce and a package of noodles.  You can also store some meat and shredded cheese in the freezer to make it a little more fancy.  Pizza is one of our meals.  I always have what we need to make some kind of pizza.  Pancakes is another option.  Once, you begin thinking about it, you'll surprise yourself with what you can do.

When you have a meal plan, you have the peace of knowing just how to ration that food you have to last as long as you need it to.  You also know there are recipes that you know how to cook and your family actually loves.  In this uncertain world that we live in, you never know when you will need to pull from your stores.

I cook these food storage meals on a regular basis so I am constantly rotating through my supply and nothing is getting too old.  I also use the ingredients in other meals that I make so I just do an inventory every 6 months or so and re-stock up on what I need when I see it hit a good price.

If any of you have any ideas of good recipes that would work, please be kind enough to share -