What I learned about my prepps in a tough month

[mamabearCali]

So the S did not HTF in the outside world, but in our little household it did just a little. A $1000+ check that always comes on time is now 4 weeks late, and to put icing on the cake we two different $1000 repairs on car and house that had to be done in the past month and a half and my daughter decided to experiment with q-tips (she is 4) and popped her eardrum (expensive drugs and doctors). So in short we were short this month. So I had to spend less than 1/2 of what I usually do on food this month--no problem right--I mean I have got stuff stored away....well sort of anyway. So what I learned this month about food storage. Thought I would pass it on to yall.

#1 If you are cooking everything from scratch it will take almost all day long to keep up with 3 meals a day

#2 It is good to have some skills beforehand (I already knew how to make bread and flour tortillas from scratch so that helps)

#3 You can never have enough butter, shortening, and olive oil around--if you think "OK I'm good" put another batch away because they go really fast.

#4 Do not under any circumstances neglect what I have started to call the sanity foods (cookies, juice boxes, and bags of chips). If your kids are used to juice and whole milk and you feed them dyhrated whole milk and tang--they will survive--but no guarantee that your sanity will. Note--extra boxes of oreo's always make things better--put more cookies away in storage--especially if you have kids.

#5 Store cheese and ketchup--lots of it. Got someone that is not fond of beans either throw a little cheese on it or ketchup (depending on the person) and they eat it right up.

#6 If you have decent skills and decent food stores there is even a chance that supper will make you smile instead of grimace. We found a few recipes that will now making into the rotation of suppers

May we all learn from adversity instead of being squashed by it.

[mamabearCali]

I should add that if you have small children--especially ones in diapers--the more diapers the better! Cloth diapers are fine, but I could not imagine if I had needed to hand wash them!

[OakRidgeStars]

May we all learn from adversity instead of being squashed by it.

Well said. Thanks for sharing your real-world experiences.

[gunderwood]

May we all learn from adversity instead of being squashed by it.

Well said. Thanks for sharing your real-world experiences.

+1

[Jakeiscrazy]

Good post and a good example of how prepping can help you even if the S doesn't HTF.

[Sweetpea]

Great post! What are the recipes that you found?

[rod]

Great post. I need to take some of your advice and put it to use. I have small kids and not enough treats put away for them.

Hope things take a turn for the better for you.

[mamabearCali]

Recipes we liked

Chicken and drop dumplings

basic recipe here http://www.cheapcooking.com/Recipes/chi ... plings.htm
Additions I made--I used my own chicken broth (which I made fresh, but that was only because I was making chicken broth the evening before), added a bit of dried garlic and onion, and I added a can of peas

Rice and Bean burritos
Black beans cooked with a bit of garlic, onions and a spritz of lime juice
Cheese
Rice
Homemade tortillas

[mamabearCali]

Great post. I need to take some of your advice and put it to use. I have small kids and not enough treats put away for them.

Hope things take a turn for the better for you.

Thanks--things will get dramatically better come Tuesday when DH gets paid again and the baseball league will eventually pay my husband (and every other umpire they owe) because if they don't guess what--they don't get umpires next year. As it is there are perhaps about 50 umpires that they owe money to and they are all a part of an association that will lean on the baseball league to pay up or else, and the commissioner of said association also wants his fee too so it will happen, it is just REALLY late this year.

[WRW]

Ever do any canning? You can put up MREs in Mason jars (and stay under the radar...lol).

[mamabearCali]

Ever do any canning? You can put up MREs in Mason jars (and stay under the radar...lol).

I do can--mostly tomatoes, this year anyway, as my green beans did not produce one bean and my cucumbers died in the heat of last month. I have a hot water canner, but not a pressure canner (yet), and so many options are not as open to me. But yes canning is a good way to put up food without attracting any undesirable attention. Good suggestion.

[WRW]

Ever do any canning? You can put up MREs in Mason jars (and stay under the radar...lol).

I do can--mostly tomatoes, this year anyway, as my green beans did not produce one bean and my cucumbers died in the heat of last month. I have a hot water canner, but not a pressure canner (yet), and so many options are not as open to me. But yes canning is a good way to put up food without attracting any undesirable attention. Good suggestion.

Hot water canner...the last time I saw one of those was back when paraffin was OK to use for sealing. To this day, I haven't tasted a jelly that good.

[mamabearCali]

They sell them at lowe's . Mostly you can use them for pickling/high acid items like tomatoes/fruit.

[WRW]

Bottom line is: You got your family through it, You learned from it, and you shared the lessons. Good job!

[Skeptic]

My food preps have slowed considerably by the fact that my youngest wont eat any of it. He only eats kraft M&C from the blue box and a couple of other foods. Very stubborn , we let him get hungry but then he just gets low blood sugar then super cranky

Hope he grows out of it soon.