Stephanie Posted March 6, 2009 Author Share Posted March 6, 2009 I"ve been looking for this thread and stumbled upon it! It's a good one! Link to comment
marylp Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 I also practice the "store what you eat" thing , however I have come upon sales like last week all varieties of rice a roni and hambuger helper were on sale for 89 cents each. I bought 20 of each. I dont use these products at home. I have traded with my neighbor who has a bunch of kids who love this stuff. She gave me tons of homegrown veggies. Also comes in handy for potlucks and unexpected company. I hope I never have to barter because I have to, but if it comes to that I have stuff like this to use. Sometimes sales are to good to pass up. Link to comment
HazelStone Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 In a crisis, not all of our "comfort food" will be available in the same form. If civilization takes a real dive, it's possible to make pizza out of food storage, but it won't be like from your favorite delivery chain! The cheddar powder from Walton Feed makes a fine sauce, but isn't the wonderful bubbling goo in a cheese quesadilla (does fine in a bean burrito though). Since I am unemployed, I am putting my food storage to the full test. I'll admit that the past few months I had gotten into the fast food/pizza delivery way too much. Unless there is a way to render Pizza Hut shelf-stable, eating out of my food storage has meant resisting my childish impulses. Gathering reasonable "comfort food" recipes from storage foods is very important. I only have been out of a job for a month (and saw the writing on the wall in earnest two weeks before), so call it six weeks of eating mostly out of storage (I've gotten milk, cheese, and a little fruit as it's been on sale). The good points of my storage: I put away a fair bit of canned meat/fish (my freezer is awful and freezerburns anything in short order). There is a fair bit of chicken, tuna, corned beef, and turkey to round out the regular grains n beans storage. Since I eat a lot of my meat this way anyway, there isn't a whole lot of change to my cooking in this respect. I guess this is what they mean by "store what you eat and eat what you store." I also have some Mountain House packets stashed away in case of power outage (electric based apartment). I figured I'd try the flavors out and note which ones I liked for further storage. Never got around to eating them. Bad thing if I took a notion to order a year's supply of food NOW, but for the meantime I'll use the packets when moving out of my apartment, moving into a new place, and the kitchen being a shambles. And then I'll know what varieties to order in quantity when I have a bigger place with a basement. I also have a fair amount of baking ingredients stashed from the holiday sales. Can't waste money on fast food, but I CAN make myself cookies! I also have a variety of grains: barley, oats, wheat berries, quinoa. Breakfast may largely be "cheap boiled grain," but I've still got a variety of flavor and texture. The bad aspects of my food storage: Rice n' beans, which I haven't eaten much. Oh, I'll fix beans (love mexican and indian food), but the rice I haven't eaten much of. I'll have to try a rice cooker to see if that'll give me the steamed, clumpy rice you find at chinese restaurants. I just don't like rice in soups or the "boil in a pot" variety, unless it's risotto. Some of my rice was stored in a tupperware container, some of it just left in the bags, and some of the bags got buggy. Same with my flour and cornmeal, but only superficially. When I move to a new place and get back into "storage" mode rather than using reserves, I'm going to pack the stuff better. Things I'll definitely get more of: The cheese powder (love cheddar) Freeze dried fruits (great on hot cereal or for a cobbler) Freeze dried veggies (SO much better than the grocery store canned stuff, which just sits on my shelf) More canned meat/fish: You can only eat grains and beans for so long without having a break. Dried milk: regular milk is cheap enough around here, but if the cost/availability became a problem, doing soup bases with dried milk would be very helpful. It's a given that when I finally buy a house, I'm going to garden. But part of the key to food storage isn't just having what you want, it's wanting what you've got. So try to find some new "favorites" ahead of time. Link to comment
Stephanie Posted October 10, 2009 Author Share Posted October 10, 2009 Searching for a recipe that Westie once gave me and came across this thread....good grief it is full of interesting and helpful info. Well worth reading again!! Enjoy! Link to comment
GirlNextDoor Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Home made Hamburger Helper: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf114072.tip.html http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,hamb..._helper,FF.html Here are the basics: http://thriftytimes.com/index.php?option=c...35&Itemid=1 A bit more specific: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/9/Al...Helper531.shtml Link to comment
Stephanie Posted October 11, 2009 Author Share Posted October 11, 2009 Great links, thanks! We did something similar to this ourselves last week. I had finally opened the can of powdered cheese to try and I'm really liking it, esp for mac and cheese. We have used it to create a couple of 'tuna helper' meals and then last week a mexican skillet . We browned our meat, added taco seasonings, elbow macaroni and cheese powder, plus I threw in some corn and a few left over pintos. The kids loved it! Link to comment
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