Lindals

My husband and I also like the soft soap in the shower, we dislike the bars of wet soap. So this is really great for us. So far it hasn't turned hard. Too much water to turn back hard I would think. I am gonna make many jugs of this and put in storage. Sure does make a bar of soap go a long ways. I love finding a bargain, not many of us have the money to buy a great amount of this or that and converting bar soap helps in this department.

Want to save money????? Make your own soft soap. Cost is the price of a bar of soap. EASY.... Soft Soap: 1 gal water (.00) 1 bar of your favorite soap (grated) (.97) Old gallon milk or water jug cleaned (.00) Heat water to boiling, put in grated soap. Simmer till all soap flakes are melted. Let sit over night or 12 hours. It will thicken in those hours. Use mixer to blend and pour into bottles or jug. Total cost .97 practically free and soooooooooooooooo easy

This is the first time I have canned beef. I bought 4 Eye Round Roast and 4 Chuck Roast and cut in chunks and put them in the pressure canner. Now I am thinking about some pork roast I have in the freezer. I used pint size jars which seem to be a perfect size for my husband and myself. This jar didn't seal so we had it for dinner. All I had to do was thicken the juice and open a can of peas. Now that's fast food. Will sure be canning more beef soon.

Thank you all for your encouragement. Today I am gonna get going on qts of navy beans.

http://www.preparednesspro.com/breaking-news-lds-canneries-halt-canning-2/ The government even raided several canneries looking for lists of the patrons. http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/06/govt-shuts-down-lds-canneries-demands-list-of-patrons-2668888.html?utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fb4in.info%2Fs7jG&utm_content=awesm-fbshare-small&utm_campaign=&utm_source=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fl.php%3Fu%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fb4in.info%252Fs7jG%26h%3DdAQHMD-tH%26s%3D1&utm_medium=facebook-post

Ok I haven't given up on my canner. Yesterday I put my big girl panties on and made a huge batch of chili. I canned 5 pints of it for the food storage. My husband said don't get rid of it we will use it. (Which of course means I will use it) So I did and all is well again. Thanks for the support

Ok Violet, with your last post I am convinced I will not longer can anything. The pressure canner can go in a yard sale.

Hi Violet, I do up 4 pints of meatballs and sauce I had left over from last nights dinner. Not sure how they will come out but will test one jar that didn't seal today.

Lovinit where do you live that the prices are so high? What country I mean not your address.

I tried the ground beef I had canned. Made spaghetti with it. Yukkkk Did not like the taste at all, nor the texture. So I will use the rest of it for dog food as my dogs can't have commercial dog food. At least I won't be wasting it. Not sure how much I will use the pressure canner. I prefer freezing and dehydrating meat. When I dehydrate it I put it in the freezer as it takes up less space. But I think the majority of the meat will stay frozen.

Wow that is good to know

Hello, Had to try my canned chicken. So here is the process I looked to make sure it looked good, popped the lid and it had a good seal, smelled it and it smelled like canned chicken, took the fork to it and it is flaky like tuna, that I had to boil it for 10 min. Than I put it on he plate and let cool a bit. Now the big verdict....... Da Da "It tasted just like canned chicken". I will make this into chicken salad and will use a lot of the chicken for soups casseroles. Next test will be tonight. I am making spaghetti with canned ground beef. Pictured is the chicken after it has been canned. The jars are my ground beef and chicken

Don't have any special plans for today so I am gonna get a load of chicken breast canned. I really want to do up my own cooking rather than commercial. That stuff always taste "different" Can hardly wait till I get to make up beef chunks and stews. But for now I have to work on what I have in the freezer. It is packed full but won't be for long. I'm busy busy busy

Yes I did thanks for helping 12 lbs I have now made a double batch of red beans and rice (No rice yet will add when I open) I have the beans and seasoning and meat in the canner now. I got 5 gts going and will process for 90 minutes at (12 lbs) This is usually an all day process when we want red beans and rice. So it will be great just having to cook the rice and boil the red beans for 10 minutes.

Well I got my first batch done. 5 pints of ground beef and 2 of chicken strips. Violet: my husband checked out the gauge as he has all the equipment. It says 11 on the gauge at 10 pounds. So all is well as I made the adjustment. Jeepers: Yes I cooked the beef and than drained it, very little fat remained. I now have visions of beef chunks, stew and soup with chunks of veggies. Costco here I come Wanted to post a picture but couldn't figure out how.

Good morning everyone, I am so excited. Yesterday I hit up Costco and Sams and when I got home I found my new Pressure Canner on the front porch. So last night I washed up all my jars and plan on canning ground beef and chicken today. I got the canner mainly for meats as I am low on protein in my reserve and I am not a lover of store bought canned meat. (except Spam, we do like Spam) I have never done ground beef, so today will be my first. Ok I am off to work in the kitchen today, you all have a blessed day.

Thanks so much for your input, I was thinking 2000 calories a day because of stress. This makes it so much easier. Yes the canned items would be great. I never really gave chocolate a thought as I am not a lover of it. But you are right most people are. Andrea those ideas are perfect and much easier. I love the prepackaged meal idea. Philbe I will be checking into those bars. They will need the fiber plus the snack. Jeepers Thanks for the nice words. We are very blessed to all still be here as I am the youngest of this bunch at 65 and the oldest is 78.

I came across a site that suggest you put a weeks worth of meals in a bucket for a family of 4 and have it ready to share if neighbors needed. Having it ready will stop having to collect and assemble while they wait or something like that. Well I thought what a good idea. I could have them ready for family as I have 8 older siblings (5 still have their spouses) and most are poorer than church mice. We are talking in their 70s. Ok to the point of this message. I thought what a good idea, I could make these up and have them ready when the time is needed. Well I also began to pay serious attention to calories and wrote down how many each meal would supply. I have discovered I am way off on calories. Meals were running around 900 calories a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I took a closer look at what I was putting in and realized the protein was mainly tuna or chicken. I need to add more protein that is for sure. So I put in peanut butter but am still very low. Example: ( Oatmeal and a box of raisins (L) Ramen noodles with added vegetables (D) Tuna Helper Creamy Broccoli , 2 cans tuna added peas (Snacks) 28 g mixed nuts What would you suggest for some of these meals? I really need to boost these up as it holds true for all my prepping meals. Thanks for your help.

Hi Canning Nerd, Lindals, a pressure "cooker" is not any use for canning meat anyway since you need a pressure "canner". I'm sorry but I meant a pressure canner not a cooker. I just went to Amazon and ordered a new one so I will be working on getting some meat canned up.

Quail Flockmistress, I do know how to can but haven't done it in many years. So after reading these comments from Munchie Mama about canning meat, I went looking for my pressure cooker. Couldn't find it anyplace and than realized where it was. I kept it in the shop out back and two years ago we were hit by a tornado and lost the shop completely. Never gave that pressure cooker a thought. Darn, it never got put on the insurance either. :frying pan: So much for canning meats. I do agree about the electric going out and have prepared for that event as much as I can. Yes I am picking up canned meats as I go but need to get much more. The last couple of days I have been going through my storage and checking everything for condition and taking a count of what I have. I also have Ramen noodles for the kids and will add veggies as needed to improve them. (totally off subject) Quail Flockmistress my husband is from a tiny town near Binghamton NY and I am originally from Middletown NY but we have been down here for over 40 years. Family Member I really haven't been thinking calories very much, but I guess I should start. I do plan on getting much more peanut butter and I think I will pick up some jar cheese. Use to love that stuff when I was a kid. I sure wish I had room for chickens and rabbits but than I probably couldn't kill one anyway.

Vegetables are not a problem I can get them easily and have been dehydrating them non stop. Meat is another concern, I have a freezer but it is full of meat and pizzas and such. But I don't feel I have near the meat I should. Buying freeze dry from the big companies is out of the question so I am trying to fill in with what I find on the shelves at the stores. But I do have buckets of different beans (navy, pinto, lima, split peas, kidney and lentils) and they are full of protein so they will have to fill in on the part of our diet that needs protein.

I think this is the best for me too, just keep going till I can't anymore or we are out of time. I do have bags of sealed items such as flour, sugar but it is all sealed tight in bags and then sealed buckets, so it won't go bad. I also have fruit leather and sweets (not tons just some) for the little ones as I do want to keep from shocking their systems if I can. If things go south they will have enough stress on them. I am sticking pretty much to the way we eat now but low on the meat side. But then we have always been a beans and dumplings type diet. I come from a poor family and ate mostly basics so that won't be a big change. Now this I never thought about. This sure gives me a better way to organize my thinking. I have bought toilet paper for instance but never figured how much just got a couple of cases. But this gives me a measure to go by, thanks great idea. I don't know what contractor bags are and have no cats. But I am dehydrating veggies and chicken (separately) for my dogs. One of them is in the picture above. They are on this diet anyways so they won't know any difference. (A very quick and dirty estimate of how long your canned supplies could sustain your group could be done by counting one quart jar or one 15-oz can as a day's supply for one person.) Wow that really isn't much food for one day. Yeah I have to work on that, stress alone would eat up all those calories. . Thanks so much, already I can see how to organize better and that I don't have to have a limit until I run out of money.

Thank you for your responses, it looks like I am on track so I will just keep going as I am. I have flour, rice and sugar bought in 25 and 50 lb bags but I won't be storing any raw wheat. These items I can store in mylar bags in huge buckets. We pretty much stay away from glass jars as we live near the New Madrid fault and I sure don't want to see all this food bounce off shelves and shatter on the floor. So for me it is cans, boxes and bags and buckets.

Thank you for the warm welcome. Happy Mothers Day to all moms. I have two 55 gal drums for catching rain water and LP gas stove and heaters in the house that require no electricity. We have a 500 gal LP tank and of course we set water aside. We also have a well on our property. At our age and with the disabled family member, I can't see us hitting the road and heading to any other place so this is the best I can do. Prepare and do my best and let God do the rest. I have tested and found that when you dry canned veggies you don't have to boil them to bring them back. Just add boiling water, cover and let sit. This is true with cooked rice and pasta. So that is a bit of fuel savings. Here in Alabama we have many, what we call "bent and dent" stores. They buy pallets of items and sell at great discounts. No they are not all bent or dented. I just bought all those large cans of crushed tomatoes for 75 cents a can. Two #10 cans of pizza sauce for $3.00 a can, veggies for 3/$1.00 ect. Pasta of every kind for .50 a box etc. So I watch the dates and condition of can and buy a great deal from these stores. I come home with boxes of cans and they hit the dehydrator as fast as I can to clear out some space. Well I have to get a load out of the dehydrator before we head out for the day. I hope you all have a special day today with your families.

Hello Everyone, I can, dehydrate and buy food and supplies but I just don't know how much is enough. Where and when do we stop? My house hold is just my husband and myself, but we have two daughters and 6 grandchildren that will need help. One daughter was working on a food storage but ended up having to go to work and now has all be forgotten it. My other daughter is trying but she is disabled and can't do like most of us. So I am working on setting enough aside for all of us. Can anyone help me with at least the basics of the amount I need? I have only started this seriously for the past 8 or 10 months. Thanks for any help.