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).