Preparedness, when properly pursued, is a way of life, not a
sudden, spectacular program. We should
refer to all the components of personal and family preparedness, not in
relation to a disaster, but in cultivating a life-style that is on a day-to-day
basis its own reward. (Spencer
W. Kimball)
Family Home Evening is an ideal time to introduce and carry out
provident living activities that will become life styles in your family. Following are a few ideas for this.
Food Storage
Food storage, in addition to basic survival necessities must
include things that your family likes and will eat.
Make a couple of weeks of menus together and note what your
family likes. Be sure to include
breakfast and lunch as well as dinner.
If nobody will eat oatmeal for breakfast why would you store it? (Except
to make cookies). After you have looked the menus over, make a list of foods to
include in your storage. Teach your
children that it wouldn’t be provident to go out and buy everything on the list
all at once in the quantities that you would need for storage. Decide on one item to purchase by the case each
week to slowly build up your supply.
That evening you could go as a family to the store to buy your first
case of food for your storage. If you
already have some food storage you could make the treat for that evening using
items from your food storage.
Meals from Food Storage
As a family look over what you have in your food storage. This would need to be done the night before
the meal preparation. Decide on a meal
that could be made from the items on hand and then have your children help to
make that meal for dinner. Be sure that
you don’t forget dessert. You might
want to discuss additions to your food storage after this activity.
Snack Mixes
Snack mixes can be expensive and often contain something in them
that one (or more) of your children won’t eat.
The solution to this is to make your own snack mixes. First look in your pantry and see what you
might have on hand. Then take the family
and go to a store that has a good selection of bulk food and choose a few
things that go together and that everyone likes. Things that you might include are pretzels,
goldfish crackers, m&ms, cut up dried fruit, nuts, popcorn and cereal. Get snack sized Baggies and then divide your
snack items up into different combinations and bag them. You are set for individual treats in the car,
school lunches and after-school snacks – all at a fraction of the cost of
purchased mixes. (Thanks to Tammy Price for this idea.)
Alternate Cooking
Cook your meal in a Dutch Oven for Family Home Evening. There are many recipes on the Internet for
main dishes, breads and desserts. Your
children can help put the food into the Dutch Ovens but an adult will need to
take care of lighting the coals and attending the food as it cooks.
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