Woman in my ward did the challenge

A woman in my ward sent this to me, after going 2 1/2 days without eating food from the fridge or freezer:

Hi Amy, I took up the challenge this Sunday to just today.  Let me just tell you one thing that I was very happy about.  I don't use my food storage items, you know the big cans from the cannery, but because of this I did.

I was glad I had powdered milk.  It tasted good and from now on I am just going to use that instead of fresh milk from the store that I pay a lot for and have to carry home.  

I also opened a can of wheat.  At night I would soak it so it would be ready for breakfast then in the morning I'd rinse add more water and either eat that or put it in my Vita Mixer with water and powdered milk.  That was delicious!  I found it very filling.  

By lunch I'd still not be hungry and I lost two pounds the first day!

Thank you for the challenge.  I not only feel more prepared but have found a good way to not eat as much!

Thanks for all you do to help us be prepared.

-C.B.

My Experience doing the No Fridge Challenge: Tuesday

(This is a continuation of my report of doing the Shelf Stable Challenge in my ward.  I had to live without a fridge or freezer for 2 1/2 days.)

Tuesday:

 We have been drinking tapwater, or room-temperature Crystal Light. The house is air conditioned so at least the drinks are a little cool, not warm.  But I want cold milk!

Tuesday breakfast for one adult.

I ate instant oatmeal again.

2 packages of Maple and Brown Sugar instant oatmeal

1 tsp. powdered milk

boiling water

Tuesday Lunch for 1 adult, 3 children.

Three of my grandchildren were here for lunch.  I had to figure out what to feed toddlers.  We had no bread left.  This is what I made:

Instant mashed potatoes

1 jar applesauce (they almost ate the whole thing)

1 banana

1 can mandarin oranges

1 container baby food

Ritz crackers, peanut butter.

Water to drink.

They all seemed happy with the meal.

Tuesday Supper for 1 adult.

I was sick of the food in the pantry.  I didn’t want to cook.  I have to confess that I ate very badly.  I ate the rest of the applesauce, Doritoes, and peanut butter and honey on Ritz crackers.  I know that is a terrible supper.  I wonder what it will be like when we have an actual disaster and our shelf stable food is REALLY the only thing we can eat?  We better be prepared.

Wednesday morning:

The challenge is over!  The first thing I had was a glass of cold milk.  I had really missed that!

Things I learned:

It is going to be difficult not having cold milk.

I missed eating cheese.

We are going to have to open small cans and use them up the same day.

Food in big cans will probably spoil before we eat it all.

We must remember to get foods that children will eat.

Crackers are a good substitute when you don’t have bread.

Vegetable oil can substitute for butter in cooking.

My Experience Doing the No Fridge challenge: Monday

(This is a continuation of my report of doing the Shelf Stable challenge in my ward.  I had to live without a fridge or freezer for 2 1/2 days.)

Monday breakfast for 1 adult

  I wanted cold cereal but couldn’t deal with putting warm powdered milk on it.  Instead, I made hot cereal,  so the warm powdered milk didn’t bother me.

1 banana

2 packages of Maple and Brown Sugar instant oatmeal

1 tsp. powdered milk

boiling water

Monday lunch for 2 adults

I made one box of Hamburger Helper.   

1 box Hamburger Helper

a little powdered milk

tapwater

1 pint canned ground beef (I canned this last year.)

Ingredients for Turkey and Dressing Casserole (substituting chicken)

Monday Supper for 1 adult 

I made Turkey and Dressing Casserole, but substituted canned chicken.  (There was about 3/4 of this left over.)

Sauce:

1 can chicken

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 Tablespoon powdered milk and 1/4 cup water.

1 can peas.

Dressing:

Water

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil instead of butter

1 box Stovetop stuffing

 I realized that I could only make a small meal each time, we couldn’t open more cans than we could consume since there is no refrigeration.

I am accustomed to making more than we can eat, and putting the rest in the fridge, and eating it for leftovers the next day.

I might rethink buying large cans.  Small cans would be quicker to consume before they spoil from lack of refrigeration.

Monday night snack for 1 adult

I craved sweets so I made a little amount of buttercream frosting (powdered sugar, powdered margarine, powdered milk, water), stirred it until it was the right consistency, and ate it on graham crackers.

(To be continued)

My Experience doing the No Fridge challenge: Sunday

I was out of town for both weekends that our ward was doing the Shelf Stable challenge.  The rules were to tape your fridge and freezer shut from Sunday after church until Wednesday breakfast.  Don't use anything from the fridge or freezer during that time.  Don't use any ice.  See if you have enough shelf stable food in your house to make nourishing meals for those 2 1/2 days.

On Sunday Aug. 26 after church, I surprised my husband and 18 year old son by taping shut the fridge and freezer and telling them we were going to participate in the challenge.  (It was a week late, but I say, Better late than never.)

My son never really went along with it.  He cheated and kept getting the milk out.  My husband is on Nutrisystem so he was eating separately.

I was a little stricter on myself than I had required in the rules of the challenge.   I decided not to go shopping at all, so I could see what I would run out of.  I also decided to leave food out, since in a disaster you couldn’t put leftovers away in the fridge to keep them fresh.

I kept notes of what I ate.  Here is the list:

Sunday after church:

Luckily I had just baked bread and made cookies the night before, so we had plenty for the first day.  

When I came home from church, I noticed we had very little butter in our butter dish (which we don't refrigerate).  That was gone within the first day.

Sunday Lunch, for 1 adult.  

Half a can of Beef Barley soup.

One slice bread.

some Doritoes

Half an apple.

Tap water to drink.

Because I was pretending the power was out, I left the rest of the soup out of the fridge.

Sunday afternoon snack for 1 adult.

The other half of the soup.  (I didn't want it to spoil.)

Some fritos.

Sunday supper for  7 adults, 2 babies.

Some of our married kids and grandkids came over. I made BBQ Pork sandwiches, it was a good supper.

1 quart canned pork (I canned this last year.)

BBQ sauce.

6 hamburger buns  (that was all we had.)

3 pieces of bread

1 can green beans

1 can pears

1 can baked beans

some Tostitoes

8 cookies (now the cookies are gone.) 

tap water to drink.

We pretty much ate everything, so there were no leftovers to spoil without power.

(To be continued)

Lessons Learned One Year After Hurricane Irene

Remember a year ago when New York City braced for Hurricane Irene?  It turned out to be a non-event there, but smacked Connecticut, Vermont, and Maryland instead.

What can we learn from this?  Maybe we better be prepared for Tropical Storm Isaac, even though at this point we don't seem to be in its path.

http://www.weather.com/news/irene-anniversary-20120825

First hand account of using Shelf Stable Food

Here is a comment from a woman in my ward who did the challenge for this month:


Well I did learn a lot from this challenge.  I think the biggest thing is that I should not exercise as much as I usually do because my body does not do so well on that kind of a diet.  Oh, I need my fruits and veggies ;)  We also decided to extend your challenge because when I went to the store I couldn't believe how many options there were for already prepared meals and desserts that you didn't have to add anything but water or milk to.  So I bought one of every kind and we will once a week make 2-3 meals of those and taste test.  Eventually we will be done and be able to decide which ones our family likes and store those.  We have decided to have a 1 year storage of stuff that we are not going to be too happy with eating but will survive.  A 3 months shelf stable that will be what we normally eat just lesser quality, but with that we will open cans of dehydrated stuff like cheese, meat, sour cream, butter, eggs etc...  AND we will store a one week supply of shelf stable that you just add water or milk because quite frankly I don't want to open up one of those large cans for just a power outage that may only last a few days.  -B.D.


What a great example of really diving in and trying to learn from a challenge!

Reminder: Today is your second chance to start the challenge

2012: A Year of Preparedness

Our August Challenge is:  Eat no food from the fridge or freezer for 3 days , while imagining it is a widespread power outage. Did you do the challenge yet?

Rules:

Choose 3 consecutive days, and during that time, make all your meals out of shelf stable ingredients.  

Tape your fridge and freezer shut from Sunday after church until Wednesday breakfast. (Start today!)

Using all other electricity is OKAY during this challenge. Using city water is also okay.

No using ice or ice chests.  We are practicing how it will be after power is out for several days, with no ice available.

If you have leftovers, you can store them in the fridge, but you can’t get them back out until Wednesday.

You are not restricted from shopping, but you can’t use anything refrigerated or frozen.

Goals:

Learn to cook with some substitutions.  Do you own powdered milk, powdered eggs, powdered butter, powdered sour cream, etc.?  If you haven’t used them before, buy one can of powdered milk and one can of powdered eggs, and begin using them in baking to rotate them.

Email Amy to tell her what you learned!

Organizing Three Month's Supply in boxes

A person named RS95 wrote the following post about packing all of her Three-Month Supply in boxes. She gave permission for it to be reposted.   I thought it sounded like a good idea.

"In my food storage, I have taken the boxes from the cannery that hold 6 #10 cans, and I put a week's worth of dinners in one box, repeating 13 times, to get a 3 month supply of dinners. I did the same for breakfast and lunch. 

I took a box of each meal to my (food storage) class, and unpacked them, talking about what I chose and why.

For example, I packed this into a dinner box. I don't have it in front of me, so I may be forgetting some things that round it out better. 

*2 meals of what we call Spanish Rice...rice, tomato sauce, a packet of seasonings including dried onion, pinto beans, etc. Those ingredients are stored in a gallon ziploc, in the boxes.

*2 meals of pasta and sauce, complete with parmesan cheese and canned veggies.

*Chicken helper with canned chicken.

*Canned chili and cornbread mix.

*A boxed meal, one pot kind of thing by Stauffers. They are really high in sodium and fat, but it would keep us alive if we had nothing else to eat.

*Spaghetti O's and canned veggies to fill in for the kids, if they don't want to eat something one night.

There are also some odds and ends that I included because of extra space, like a box of Stove Top stuffing mix, candies and gum, etc.

My approach is somewhat unique though. I have those meals safely stored, they are completely shelf stable, somewhat well thought out nutritionally, and will last about a year. The dates of packaging are clearly marked on the outside. I'm not rotating through them on a monthly basis, as many people do. But I don't feed my family shelf stable meals usually. They are not as healthy as what we usually eat. We eat way too much produce and other short term items to make it realistic for us to store a 3 month supply of what we usually eat, but it will be a great variety if we need to live off of it.

The sisters responded well to my display, as I explained clearly that I have 13 boxes of each meal stacked in my garage. I described my method for coming up with a list of things to buy, by planning out a week's worth of meals and including every ingredient needed. Then I multiply the ingredient list by 13, and pack complete meals together, a week's worth at a time.

After losing 3 freezers and 2 refrigerators worth of food in January's 4 day power outage (Western Washington), I refuse to count my freezers as part of my three month supply. We lost hundreds of dollars worth of meat and fruit, not to mention the other odds and ends. 

Shelf stable. Not as nutritious as produce, but it would do in a pinch. My goal was to get the food on the shelves, and as I rotate through it (donate what we don't eat to the food bank before it expires) I'll be able to replace more nutritious foods for some of the less nutritious stuff I already have. It works for us! It's insurance.

I have to add...we have a LOT more stored in our pantry and on a storage unit of "every day foods" that we pull from. Canned beans, canned veggies, bags of oats, pasta, jam, peanut butter, canned meats, etc. Really, I'd say we have an 8 month supply of every day foods stored for our family of 5, because I did our official 3 month supply in handy, movable boxes. I guess the box idea came to me for an "official" way to know we had that food storage, organized into complete meals."

----RS95

Reminder: Start your Shelf Stable Foods challenge today!

2012: A Year of Preparedness

Our August Challenge is:  Eat no food from the fridge or freezer for 3 days , while imagining it is a widespread power outage..

Rules:

Choose 3 consecutive days, and during that time, make all your meals out of shelf stable ingredients.  

Tape your fridge and freezer shut from Sunday after church until Wednesday breakfast. (Suggested starting dates:  today or next Sunday Aug. 19)

Using all other electricity is OKAY during this challenge. Using city water is also okay.

No using ice or ice chests.  We are practicing how it will be after power is out for several days, with no ice available.

If you have leftovers, you can store them in the fridge, but you can’t get them back out until Wednesday.

You are not restricted from shopping, but you can’t use anything refrigerated or frozen.

Goals:

Learn whether you have all the ingredients necessary for making the food you want to eat.  Are the meals nourishing?

Become aware of some unpleasant things you may have to endure.  For instance, you may have to eat cold cereal with room temperature powdered milk.  How will your children handle this?

Consider non-electric methods for cooling food, and plan to buy items which will help you for a future disaster situation.

Please email Amy and tell her what you've learned!

Simple meals for tight times

http://thesurvivalmom.com/2011/08/08/simple-food-storage-meals-for-tight-times-stock-up-on-three-months-worth-fast/

Another article on the drought

This article gives me incentive to get MORE FOOD STORAGE and gardening supplies and seeds.

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/usda-alert-half-of-u-s-counties-designated-primary-disaster-areas-financial-fallout-intensifying_08022012

Another firsthand story of the Derecho of June 29-30

This man's story of the big windstorm at the end of June 2012 is a real eye-opener, he begs everyone to test out all their preparedness supplies BEFORE a disaster happens.

http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/effective-prepping-and-survival/

Historic Drought

There is a lot of good information on this website (and it is where I found the link to the Arkansas farmer's article.)

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/historic-drought-giant-dust-storms-and-massive-power-grid-failures-a-glimpse-into-our-future

Arkansas Farmer tells about worst drought he's ever seen

I don't know this guy, but his post about the Arkansas drought is extremely troubling.

http://standeyo.com/NEWS/12_Food_Water/120730.Ron.Klinefelter.html

August Challenge: Tape your fridge and freezer shut for 3 days

August:  Eat no food from the fridge or freezer for 3 days.

Rules:

Choose 3 consecutive days, and during that time, make all your meals out of shelf stable ingredients.  

Tape your fridge and freezer shut from Sunday after church until Wednesday breakfast. (Suggested dates:  Aug. 12-15 or Aug. 19-22.)

Using all other electricity is OKAY during this challenge. Using city water is also okay.

No using ice or ice chests.  We are practicing how it will be after power is out for several days, with no ice available.

If you have leftovers, you can store them in the fridge, but you can’t get them back out until Wednesday.

You are not restricted from shopping, but you can’t use anything refrigerated or frozen.

Goals:

Learn whether you have all the ingredients necessary for making the food you want to eat.  Are the meals nourishing?

Learn to cook with some substitutions.  Do you own powdered milk, powdered eggs, powdered butter, powdered sour cream, etc.?  If you haven’t used them before, buy one can of powdered milk and one can of powdered eggs, and begin using them in baking to rotate them.

Become aware of some unpleasant things you may have to endure.  For instance, you may have to eat cold cereal with room temperature powdered milk.  How will your children handle this?

Consider non-electric methods for cooling food, and plan to buy items which will help you for a future disaster situation.

Research shelf-stable menus, and collect the ingredients for them.

Find out how your children cope with this challenge.

“While it is sincerely hoped that members do not get caught up in any hysteria or obsessive preparations for disasters, the Church continues its long-standing practice of encouraging members to be self-reliant and reasonably prepared.” (Bishop H. David Burton, Presiding Bishop, “Conversation,” Ensign, Sept. 1999, 78.)

"Acquire and store a reserve of food and supplies that will sustain life. Obtain clothing and build a savings account on a sensible, well-planned basis that can serve well in times of emergency. As long as I can remember, we have been taught to prepare for the future and to obtain a year's supply of necessities. I would guess that the years of plenty have almost universally caused us to set aside this counsel. I believe the time to disregard this counsel is over. With events in the world today, it must be considered with all seriousness" (L. Tom Perry, "If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear," Ensign, Nov. 1995, 36).