Emergency meal kits

I saw on another blog where a lady posted that we should make up emergency meal kits so if an event happened you would have those and not have to think about what to make. I think its a good idea not only for emergencies but also for your kids to be able to make a meal without too much trouble. One lady suggested buying those plastic shoe box's and placing shelf stable ingredients into it along with a menu and cooking instructions. Here are a few shelf stable meal kit ideas I came up with.

Be sure to eat these meals at least every 6 months and immediately make a new kit. Its a good idea to put a use by date on the kit.

1.Tuna on crackers. Cans of tuna, small jar of mayonnaise, small jar of relish, crackers and a jar or can of fruit. (I would tell my kids that if we are at home and they are using the kits to use the mayo and relish in the fridge first).

2. Beef gravy, biscuits and instant potatoes.
1 or 2 jars of beef stew meat, seasoned flour, instant potatoes, powdered milk, biscuit mix and 1 or 2 cans of green beans.
Mix the seasoned flour with water to make a paste and add to the liquid from the stew meat to make a gravy. Make biscuits according to package directions. Make instant potatoes according to package directions.

3. Bean burritos
Dehydrated re fried beans, small jar taco sauce, black olives, tortilla mix and dehydrated cheese if available. Re hydrate beans in hot water. Make tortilla by mixing the tortilla mix with water and kneading and rolling and cooking.

4. Salmon patties with tartar sauce and peas.
Canned salmon, crackers, small jar of mayo, small jar of relish, powdered eggs, small jar of cooking oil, 1 or 2 cans of peas.
Make salmon patties with the egg powder, crackers and salmon. Cook in oil until brown. Make a tarter sauce with the mayo and relish. Top cooked salmon patties with the tarter sauce. Warm peas and enjoy your meal.


5. Spaghetti with lentils
Spaghetti sauce, 1 c. lentils, angle hair pasta.
Use the lentils in place of ground beef, it cooks fast and tastes great. I am not sure what seasonings to use with this meal.

6. Canned soup, crackers and a jar or can of fruit.

7. Small jar peanut butter, small jar jelly, crackers, fruit.

8. Chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes and a vegetable if desired.
Canned chicken, egg noodles, cream of chicken soup, chicken bullion, instant potatoes and a can or two of vegetables.

9. Chicken and dumplings, mashed potatoes and a vegetable.
Canned chicken, dumpling mix, instant potatoes and a can or two of vegetables.

10. Canned chili, crackers, canned fruit.

11. macaroni and cheese. Vienna sausage. Fruit (powdered milk)

Do you have any shelf stable meal ideas? If so leave a message in the comments. Thank you.

Fill your pantry-an insurance policy

I am a believer in keeping my pantry as filled as I can afford. It really is an insurance policy. If you can learn to buy in bulk when things are on sale you can be able to buy only sale items.

For example: Last year we bought and canned chicken breast when it was at the lowest price we had seen it, in this case it was 1.79lb. I canned enough to last at least until the next sale. In our case the best price came a whole year later. This time I was able to purchase boneless, skinless chicken breasts for 1.48 a pound. Of course I canned at least another years worth.

I buy flour in 25 or 50 lb. sacks and store in icing buckets I get for free at bakeries. I make bread often enough that I don't worry about bugs because I go thru it fast. Flour seems to go on sale about every 3 to 4 months. At least the price I call a good one. This time I purchased 25lbs for 4.99. This is about the best price I can find.

For my whole wheat flour, I bought a few bushels from a neighbor who grows organic wheat for Bob's red mill. I paid what they got from Bob's. It was much cheaper than buying from the store of course. I then froze and refroze the wheat. It now sits in the basement in 5 gallon buckets. I usually grind 5 to 10 lbs. at a time and store in the extra fridge we have in our garage.

My favorite price is free or close to free so I use coupons.

A couple of days ago I went to United in Guymon for some salad. We like spinach in our salad so I picked up 2 packages of Dole spinach and one package of Cesar salad mix. I noticed they had a recipe booklet in a little rack, I looked at it and sure enough there was a 1.00 coupon in it. United doubles coupons up to 1.00 so that meant I could get 2.00 off per bag. United will only double one like coupon per transaction so I just made 3 separate transactions. I saved 6.00 and paid 2.00 total including tax for 3 bags of salad. Not quite free but pretty good.

I realized I sure could have saved even the 2.00 if I were to grow my own salad mixes. That is why on my side bar I have it listed to plant that. After my initial cost of potting soil and seeds, all of my salad will be free. My favorite price.

This year we all need to plant as much of our food as we can. It may mean a couple of tomato plants, some lettuce and a pepper or two but anything you can grow is more than you had before.

In times past nearly everyone had a garden and I think we need to get back to that. Food doesn't magically appear in the grocers.

Anyway back to my original post.

I buy only things my family likes and we will use. If we never eat sardines even free sardines are not a bargain. Unless you have a friend who loves sardines. Why be a waster?

Another good thing to keep on hand are several kinds of dry beans and rice. Both store well and are good dishes for yummy meals.

I tried canning dry beans but the process was so long, soak, cook and then can it was more time then I wanted to spend. What I do now is soak, cook package into meal sized freezer bags and freeze. When I canned the beans we ate them so fast it wasn't worth the time and bother. So I just cook about 3 to 4 meals worth and freeze. I try to have navy, black and pinto beans frozen for a variety of dishes.

On my birthday a couple of years ago I received a very nice rice cooker. At the time it seemed silly. I started using it and now I love it. Don't buy the cheapo kind get a good one. I have used my rice cooker on mission trips to cook many things. I even took it to a craft day recently filled with canned stew items and it was a hit. I used canned beef, potatoes, carrots and then added beef stock and some barley. We gobbled it up.

Do you have pantry stocking ideas to share?

My pantry downstairs

The first picture is of Mollie and Hannah taking inventory. The second picture is of one set of shelves in the basement pantry.

Pictures of my pantry

I think my camera needs replaced. Any way you get the idea I think. We live quite a ways away from grocery stores. There isn't even any place to buy milk. We do live a mile from a cheese factory but it is not a retail store. I just got the can organizers. I love them except my shelves are too narrow. It would be better on a wider shelf. Hopefully when we move we can have wider or deeper shelves.