Fun with Food Storage is at it again.

Can I just say how much I love these ladies. They are AWESOME. Crystal's (Everyday Food Storage.net) new book is finally here! 'I Can't Believe it's Food Storage'

What is included in I Can’t Believe It’s Food Storage?

• A step by step training program for using your food storage every day in your own recipes. Think of me as your food storage personal trainer.
  
• Over 100 kitchen tested (and very delicious) recipes, including some not yet featured on my blog!
  
• Family Home Evening lessons to help get your entire family involved in planning your 3-month supply and helping you in the kitchen.
  
• Information on the what, where, and why’s of common food storage items.
  
• Practical tips for getting dinner on the table, picky eaters, grocery shopping, and more!
  

How do I purchase I Can’t Believe It’s Food Storage?

I Can’t Believe It’s Food Storage is available for pre-order NOW and will be released on Wednesday. You can pre-order your copy from Amazon.com or through DeseretBook.com for $17.95. If you pre-order it through Amazon.com by Wednesday, your copy will be signed by me plus the book is eligible for FREE shipping (with an order of $25 or more)! Or you can purchase it from your local LDS bookstore in the next week or so. Be sure to keep asking for it!

You can also enter for a chance to win a copy at everydayfoodstorage.net!

I'm am so excited for this book! I know it will help me so much in my goal of implementing food storage into my everyday cooking. Her web site has already helped me so much with tons of very helpful tips, yummy recipes and many other great tools!

Congratulations Crystal! I can't wait for pay day tomorrow so I can go out and buy it!

Don't forget to get your entry in buy tonight for a chance to win a copy of Jodi & Julie's latest and greatest food storage binder!!!

Food Storage Made Easy Binder Giveaway

You all know how much I love the ladies over at the Fun with Food Storage Network. Well, Jodi & Julie at Food Storage Made Easy have come up with an awesome binder for their Baby Steps. I'm really excited about this. Right now you can get all of their Baby Steps through their website and in bi-weekly e-mails, but now you can have them all in one place in a hard copy. AWESOME! They will be available as an eBook Thursday April 9th for $17, but they are also giving 10 away! 7 winners will be drawn at random, but 3 winners will be chosen for being the most excited and passionate about sharing the news.

To show how passionate and excited about them and their new binder I'm going to give away one of their Binders too!

Here's what you need to do -

Go check out their website to see what it's all about.

Then come back here and leave a comment about your food storage situation with your name and a way of contacting you by midnight Monday April 13th.

I will announce the winner on Wednesday April 15th.

Good luck to everyone!

Thanks Jodi & Julie for your awesome web site and this amazing binder. You are the best!

Albertson sale & Smiths case lot

I haven't hit too many sales lately because I spent WAY too much last month. I'm going to try and control myself better this month, but I'm not off to a very good start =)

I started with Smith's case lot sale yesterday and got cases of:

Flour (8 5lb bags $1.60 each)
Peanut Butter (15 jars .87 each)
Mandarin Oranges (24 11oz cans .33 each)&
Tomato Soup (24 cans .40 each)

Re-stocked my supply of Pillsbury breads ,

and got milk and some other odds and ends.

Retail it was $144.74
I spent $74.63
A savings of $70.11

Today I went to Albertsons.

I got:

6 boxes of cereal ( Cheap cereal that came with a $5 catalina)
4 packs of gum (free)
2 bags of cough drops (free)
3 cases of water ($3/6)
6 bags of Starburst Jellybeans (My FAVORITE candy for $1.17)
1 box of 6 microwave popcorns ($1.49)
20 cans of chicken broth (.49 each)
1 doz eggs (free)
sour cream (just a need)
juice (just a need)
and a reusable grocery bag (I've been trying to buy one every trip)

Retail $116.13
I spent $42.03
& saved $74.10



It was a great chance to build up some food storage for cheap. How's everyone else doing? Does anyone have questions or want me to go over something about couponing? I'm also happy to get together with anyone who wants a one-on-one lesson. Just let me know.

Brown Sugar

Have any of you ever started a baking project only to find that your brown sugar is as hard as a rock? We all know it doesn't store well, so it's pretty hard to have a year's supply of the stuff. But, you can make it yourself! In fact I have stopped buying brown sugar because making it is a simple as blending white granulated sugar and molasses together. If I'm making a recipe that calls for brown sugar, I just add the sugar and molasses rather than blend it first. So easy--and no more brown sugar rocks!

Brown Sugar

Blend together 1 cup of white granulated sugar and 1 Tablespoon molasses

Powdered Milk

I know this is one of the biggest issues people have with food storage, BUT if this is you, I think you would be surprised. Last night I went to my food storage support group and we taste tested instant potatoes (Walmart brand vs. the LDS Cannery's Potato Pearls) and powdered milk (Morning Moo's Alternative Milk, Morning Moo's Soy Milk, Carnation Instant, Country Cream & LDS Cannery). This is what the group thought of them

" . . . the worst was the Soy and the LDS Cannery brands. These might be just great when it comes to baking or cooking with them, but to drink like a regular glass of milk...YUCK! Now, the best we found was the Morning Moo's Alternative and the Country Cream followed close behind by the Carnation Instant. The Carnation Instant was by far the most expensive and comes in a small box (only makes 3 quarts) but the others make up to 5 gallons."

I personally really liked all three, Morning Moo's Alternative, Country Cream and the Carnation Instant. I love milk. We go through about 4 gallons a week at our house. I couldn't even tell the difference with some of these. So today I took the plunge and used some powdered milk in one of our favorite recipes.

One of our favorite cold day meals is chili and corn bread. We like Stagg's classic chili with beans with home made corn bread. I like Quaker's yellow corn meal and use the easy corn bread recipe on the back of the can with a few substitutions.

Easy Corn Bread
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
3/4 c. corn meal
1/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder (I use 1 tsp. baking powder & 1tsp. baking soda)
1/2 tsp. salt (optional)
1 c. skim milk (I use butter milk)
1/4 c. vegetable oil (I use butter and let it melt in the pan while the oven pre-heats to grease the pan)
2 egg whites or 1 egg beaten

Heat oven to 400*F. Grease 8 or 9 inch pan. Combine dry ingredients. Stir in milk, oil and egg, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown and wooden pick inserted in center come out clean. Serve warm. 9 servings.

I found a great milk conversion chart for cooking with powdered milk at Everyday Food Storage. It also includes instructions on how to make your own Sweetened Condensed Milk,
Evaporated Milk, and Buttermilk. So I pulled out my box of Carnation Instant milk and made my own buttermilk. The corn bread turned out great. I also made up quart to keep in the fridge and use. I am now a powdered milk believer. Try it. I really think you will be surprised. Then, if you are ever in the position that you have to use powered milk, you'll already know what to expect.

Food storage baby steps

If you haven't already checked out the Fun With Food Storage network I highly suggest it. While you are there go to Jodi & Julie's Food Storage Made Easy and sign up for their baby steps check list e-mails. This is a great way to get started on your food storage. I have been receiving their check lists since the beginning of the year, but I have been slacking and haven't done much with them. Today I decided to get serious. With getting started Jodi & Julie focus on having a basic emergency plan in place for your family complete with emergency contact info, meeting locations, 72-Hour Kit, Emergency Binder, a list of important things to grab and a car kit. This is what I'm starting on today. Thanks to my Job I already have 72 hour and car kits. I recently cleaned out the closet by my front door so I could put all of this in one location that would be easy to access on the way out the door. Today I started on my Emergency Binder and next I'm going to get a storage tub to put everything in. Where is everyone else in their food storage journey?

Using Food Storage

Before I got my food storage organized, I would go to the dry pack cannery and just guess at what I needed. When I got my rotator shelf and began filling it up, I found that I had 3 times as much oatmeal as I thought. Although I'm fond of oatmeal, I'm not 20 cans fond of it, so I began brainstorming how I could use more oatmeal. I came up with this oatmeal pancake recipe. I'll make a couple of batches at one time and freeze the pancakes, put them in freezer bags, and then pop them in the microwave for 2 minutes. I have been having 1 every morning now for a couple of months. I have yet to get tired of them! Here's the recipe:

Combine in a large bowl:

4 cups oatmeal

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Combine in a smaller bowl:

4 cups (1 quart) buttermilk or regular milk

4 beaten eggs

2 cups unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup melted butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

Add liquid all at once to dry ingredients. Stir until dry and wet ingredients are combined, but don't over beat. Let the batter stand for 45 minutes. The batter will thicken, so add regular milk until it is the right consistency. Cook on a hot griddle and enjoy.

I place cooked pancakes on cookie sheets and freeze; then I transfer them to freezer bags and stick in the freeze. I'll take one out, microwave for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes, and it's ready. Brooklyn asks for them every Saturday morning she's at my house. With the applesauce in the batter, she doesn't want any 'dippin' (pancake syrup).

Food storage

I mentioned that I might do a little bit about food storage on here. I personally am just starting my food storage. How about you? I felt really over whelmed by the whole idea of food storage for a long time.

Then I found the Fun With Food Storage network and got really excited about it. Not long after I found this web site my ward started a food storage support group. Now I have lots of information and two methods to choose from.

My ward's group is a very basic method where we are given a monthly shopping list and at the end of one year you will have a year supply for two adults. We meet once a month. During our meetings we talk about food storage (where every one's at, what their doing, what they want to do, etc.) and usually have a treat made from food storage. Last month we talked about canning your own meat and this month there is talk of dry milk taste tests =) For more information about this group visit www.foodstoragesupport.blogspot.com.

The Fun With Food Storage network is a little more in depth and detailed method. They are 4 ladies with three blogs that have come together to share their wisdom. Jodi & Julie's blog Food Storage Made Ease have come up with baby steps to get your food storage going. They have lots of great tips & tools. Shauntell's blog The Obsessive Shopper focuses on buying your food storage and of course couponing. She also has a lot of great tools & tips in her system. Everyday Food Storage with Crystal helps get over the myths and misconceptions most people have about eating food storage. She has lots of yummy recipes made from food storage as well as tips on organizing your kitchen & pantry.

If you have wanted to start your food storage, but haven't know where to start, these resources are amazing so take advantage of them.

I'll keep you up to date on my progress, but I also want to hear about yours. Good luck and let me know!