April Week 4: Ready dinners -- boxed, frozen, MRE's

This week's items for the Week-by-Week Food Storage Plan is:

April Week 4: Ready dinners -- boxed, frozen, MRE's

As with other weeks, decide exactly what your family uses in a year's time. When our kids were younger, and I was running them around in the afternoon hours, we ate "ready dinners" more often than we do these days. If you have a boxed dinner that you like to throw in your meal schedule, then decide how many times you may use that in a year's time, and add that to your shopping list.

I do like to have a frozen stir-fry meal on hand to use once in a while. We probably realistically use them only 4-6 times a year, so I'll put that on my shopping list and stow them away in the freezer for a rainy day.

If you like to store MRE's (stands for Meal: Ready to Eat) in your food supply for long-term storage, this would be the week to be sure you have what you need of those items. There are many great companies out there that have a wide variety of MRE's, and it might be a good time to research and find a company that sells the products that fit your family's needs.

You may not want to purchase MRE's for your family's needs, and you might not use any other boxed or frozen ready dinners. In that case, you have a "week off", and you can work on organizing your food storage space.

Add any items to your shopping list that you want to store under this week's category. Next time you're at the grocery store, pick up the items and get them on your shelves. Check. Done for the week! And as you look at your Inventory Sheets, look through to make sure you've updated all of the yellow-highlighted items. Since this is the last week of April, you shouldn't have any more of April's items to update.

If you would like the full info on the Week-By-Week Food Storage Plan, just click on the tab at the top of the page. You can then click on any single week and it will take you to the most up-to-date post that featured that week's items. It also has the information as to how you can get a copy of the weekly schedule as well as the complete inventory sheets.

April Week 3: Emergency Sewing Kit

For this week, the Week-by-Week Food Storage items are:

April Week 3: Emergency Sewing Kit: thread (upholstery thread), pins, needles, buttons, tape measure, scissors, etc.

The nice thing about this week's items are that once you have them on your shelves, they should stay there and you shouldn't have to replenish every year (in theory, that is!).

I keep my sewing kit and threads in a bin that also has some medicines and first-aid items. Store the items you think you'll need in a sewing kit. I keep both regular thread and upholstery thread. Upholstery thread is quite a bit stronger than regular thread.

You can find a little sewing kit with some of the basics at Joann's (or other craft stores), or you can put one together on your own. Gather a few of the necessary items, and put them on your shelves, and voila!... you're done for the week! I do check them every year as the week comes up... just in case someone has found my scissors or thread and "borrowed" it from my bin.

Remember... this is a plan that can be started any time during the year. You don't have to wait until the first of the year, or even the first of the month. Start this week, and move along from week to week. It is a continuous plan, so there really is no end to it, anyway. You will check on your food supply and replenish (if needed) once a week from here on in. It shouldn't be an overwhelming thing to think about, though, because it literally only takes a few minutes a week and can easily be integrated into your normal grocery shopping.

If you would like the full info on the Week-By-Week Food Storage Plan, just click on the tab at the top of the page. You can then click on any single week and it will take you to the most up-to-date post that featured that week's items. It also has the information as to how you can get a copy of the weekly schedule as well as the complete inventory sheets.

Blossoms and Snakes

It is that time of year! I so love spring! The warmth in the air feels so fresh and invigorating. And to see all the little green buds and sprouts poking through everywhere. I love everything about it. Last Saturday, I ran outside quickly to take a few pics of the blossoms before they're gone.

They're everywhere! Layers and layers of them on our old orchard trees. So beautiful!

As I was basking in the beauty, things took a real bad turn. Real. Bad. I mean polar opposite of sweet lovely blossoms. I had my first snake sighting in the yard. I always scoff when people say, "Oh, it's far too early for the snakes to be out yet". Right. This guy was a couple of feet away from where I was standing, and he didn't care a bit that I was there.

I quickly backed away, and sent this text to Bob (who was in the house at the time)...

He came out in a jiffy and dispatched the snake for me. 

At least we're one down for the year. I'm hoping to eradicate, but even as I do, our neighbors continue to make their yard a very snake-friendly yard. I think it may be hopeless.

April Week 2: Dry Milk, Evaporated Milk, etc.

This week's Week-by-Week Food Storage items are:

April Week 2: Dry milk, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate milk, hot cocoa mix

Again, think of these items in two ways: long-term storage and also shorter term. For long-term storage, I store powdered milk, hot cocoa mix, and Morning Moo's milk chocolate drink. I don't ever open those in the course of a normal year, so those will sit on the shelves for quite a while.

For shorter-term storage, I stock up on evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. I figure out what I will go through in a normal year, add a few to that number, and get them all on the shelves. I also am careful to use these items so that they are rotated through and don't have a chance of expiring.

One of the great things about this system is that I almost always have everything I need on my shelves for any given recipe (except of course fresh items). I never completely run out of anything, so I'm never in a panic to run to the store to get an item I'm in desperate need of. Its an easy system to start and an even easier one to maintain throughout the coming years.

If you would like the full info on the Week-By-Week Food Storage Plan, just click on the tab at the top of the page. You can then click on any single week and it will take you to the most up-to-date post that featured that week's items. It also has the information as to how you can get a copy of the weekly schedule as well as the complete inventory sheets.

April Week 1: pasta

We are in a new month! Accordingly, our color for this month is yellow, and you will find all of this month's items highlighted in yellow on the inventory sheets. Just trying to make this whole process as easy as can be!

This week's food storage items are:

April Week 1: Pasta - all types, including mac and cheese and packaged pasta dinners

This week's list will be short or long, depending on the pasta that your family consumes in a year. For my family, we are finding that we like the whole wheat pasta quite a bit, so we are trying to replace the regular pasta with that whenever we can.

Think about the recipes that you make that call for pasta: casseroles, spaghetti, lasagna, salads, etc. Write down the types of pasta that are used in the recipes and decide how many times in a year you'll be likely to make those dishes. You'll end up with a good list of the pastas you will need in your storage. Remember that this system is specifically designed to help you rotate through and use your food storage, so whenever you make any food using pasta in the coming year, take from your food storage. If you acquire a nice supply of foods, but don't rotate through them, you'll end up throwing a lot of old food away, and that is a huge waste of time and money.

My husband and I don't eat much mac and cheese (okay, we don't eat ANY mac and cheese, and since my macaroni-loving son is now married, we won't need to store any for him). I'll store just a few boxes of mac and cheese since I've got grandbabies that are just now entering the mac and cheese world.

Are there any other pre-packaged pasta dinners that your family eats? If so, be sure to include them on the master list.

I told you last week about the Family Home Storage Center.  (To read last week's post detailing the Family Home Storage Center, click here) Believe it or not, they also have pasta, and I have canned both macaroni and spaghetti. They are good for 30 years, so those are definitely long-term items that I don't open up unless I truly need to.

You should have a good list of items to add to your grocery list. Next time you get to the grocery store, pick up these items and get them on your shelves at home. You can now rest for the week, knowing you have something your family actually will eat, on your food storage shelves. Yay!

If you would like the full info on the Week-By-Week Food Storage Plan, just click on the tab at the top of the page. You can then click on any single week and it will take you to the most up-to-date post that featured that week's items. It also has the information as to how you can get a copy of the weekly schedule as well as the complete inventory sheets.