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)

Oxygen Absorbers

I'm trying to put loads of "water storage and water filtration" type articles on my blog this month, because that is the goal of our bishop's challenge this month.

However, our ward is also supposed to be continuing to buy food for our 3 month's supply and our long term storage.

I did a Relief Society display last night about dry canning, and wanted to give this link for some really good information on Oxygen Absorbers.  It is posted on FoodStorageMadeEasy.net.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2012/04/30/oxygen-absorbers/

Stay Tuned....

Sorry I haven't been putting up blog posts more often lately.  Bishop B. has asked me to put together a year-long push for emergency preparedness/food storage for our ward, and I have been busy putting together my power point presentation, handouts, etc. for that.

The whole 12-month program will be unveiled at the 5th Sunday meeting this Sunday.

Wish me luck!

Jan. 2012 Provident Living Challenges

January 2012 Provident Living Challenges

Do one of these by the February 2012 evening Relief Society meeting, and get a prize!

Challenge #1:  Buy Breakfast for 3 months:  Cold cereal.

Determine how many boxes of cold cereal your family goes through in a week, and what flavors they like.  Buy 13 weeks worth of cold cereal.  

Mark the date on the top so you can rotate the boxes.  Make a goal to never go below this amount of cold cereal in the future, so you will always have a three month’s supply.

(To make a complete breakfast, you would also need fresh milk or powdered milk.  However, that is not part of this month’s challenge.)

Challenge #2:

Safeguarding your important documents.  The challenge this month is to save at least three major documents (or categories of documents) safer than they were last month.  You be the judge.

Picture your house burned to the ground, with all your documents destroyed.  Which documents would be the most painful to lose?  This month we are going to try to protect our documents and find ways to store them safely or duplicate them and store the duplicates in different places. 

I will not attempt to list every document you might want to protect.  Some documents include confidential business/financial information, and these need to be protected from unfriendly eyes using encryption, locks and keys, or passwords.  Other documents, like recipes, can be open to the world, but you need to save them offsite because you would be heartbroken to lose them all in a fire or flood.

Think of all the ways documents could be lost:  theft, fire, flood, mold, chewed by mice or bugs, hurricane, left behind in an evacuation, etc.  Try to keep every document in at least two places OR MORE so that if one place has a disaster, you can get it from the other place.

Important paper documents:

Deeds to house, cars

Insurance documents

Birth certificates, adoption records

Passports

Marriage certificate

Wills

Life Stories

Genealogy

Financial records

Tax records

Etc.

Protect paper documents from fire by storing them in a fireproof safe ($33 at Target) or protect them from theft in a safety deposit box.  Also, make copies and store the copies elsewhere (either digitally or on paper)

Where to store digital photos and documents:

Your computer internal hard drive stores documents and photos automatically.  This does not count for our challenge.  You need to find an additional place to safeguard your information.

Here are some options:

Store on CDs, ask a friend to keep a copy at their house.

Store on external hard drive, keep it at work or at a relative’s house.

Email them to yourself (saved on Gmail)

Email them to someone else

Pay an online backup service, like Carbonite or Mozy

Keep a thumbdrive in your purse or at work. (These can be encrypted with a password.)

Copy all your recipes onto a blog or website.

December Provident Living Challenges

Do one of these by the January 2012 Relief Society meeting and win a prize!

Challenge one:

Give at least two Christmas gifts which are “Food Storage” or “Emergency Preparedness” related.  

To give you some ideas.....

On FoodStorageMadeEasy.net, in 2009 they did a whole “Food Storage” Twelve Days of Christmas, with gift suggestions for each day.  I have put links on my blog   http://gottawannaneedagettaprepared.blogspot.com/  to each of their “days of Christmas”, so you can easily find them from there.

For instance, 

on day 6 they give suggestions for gifts which include “grains”.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2009/12/01/day6/

on day 8 the gifts are “baking ingredients”.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2009/12/01/day8/ .

On each day, they include a free/under $1 gift, a $5-$20 gift, and a more expensive option, so there is something for every budget.

Challenge two:

Browse the website “http://myfoodstoragecookbook.com/

  and THEN MAKE ONE OF HER RECIPES. 

Discover the great dishes she makes using 100% shelf stable ingredients.  She usually includes a photo of all the ingredients which are included in that recipe.

When you use one of her recipes, please report back by email so we can see your comments.  We all like to know about yummy food!

And I hope you will buy all the ingredients to make that recipe 13 times for one of your Three Month Supply meals.

Here are a few I thought looked delicious:

Balsamic Tortellini- takes less than 5 minutes to make.

http://myfoodstoragecookbook.com/2011/09/30/balsamic-tortellini/ 

Hot Ham Rolls

http://myfoodstoragecookbook.com/2011/09/14/hot-ham-rolls/ 

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas.

http://myfoodstoragecookbook.com/2011/08/19/creamy-chicken-enchiladas/

Homemade Cheese Ravioli   (If you want to be a show-off, follow the instructions for this one.  In it, she teaches how to make ravioli using a ravioli rolling pin, and makes mozzarella from scratch using powdered milk!)

http://myfoodstoragecookbook.com/2011/08/24/homemade-cheese-ravioli/ 

November Ward Provident Living Challenge

November 2011 Provident Living Challenges

Do one of these by the December Relief Society meeting and get a prize!

Challenge one: Buy three months' worth of dishwashing liquid, bars of soap, laundry detergent, toothpaste and shampoo.

In July I challenged you to mark your dishwashing liquid, shampoo, toothpaste, laundry detergent, etc. with a line across the bottle, and to write the date on it, so you could see how fast you used it. Now, it has been 4 months, and you ought to be able to look at those containers and get an idea of how much you need to buy to get a three months supply. Imagine if there was a natural disaster or economic disaster which closed all the stores. How much of those items do you want to have stored in your house? We have been taught to get a three months supply FIRST, and then get longer term storage.

Challenge two. Use wheat without a wheat grinder, and learn to make Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes

. Here is a delicious recipe for Blender Pancakes. You put regular wheat kernels (not ground up) in the blender with the other ingredients, and blend it on high for 4 minutes, and the wheat gets pulverized into wheat flour in the batter while it is blending. To qualify for the prize, make Blender Pancakes at least once, and buy three month's supply of all the ingredients to make this for your family for breakfast once a week for 13 weeks (this equals 3 months.)

Recipe:

Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes

makes 4 servings.

1 cup milk (or 1 cup water and 3 Tablespoons powdered milk)

¾ cup wheat kernels

2 whole eggs (or 2 Tablespoons powdered eggs and 4 Tablespoons water)

2 Tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon salt

4 Tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

Blend the milk and wheat kernels on high speed of blender for 4 minutes. (Wheat should not be ground ahead of time!) Turn to a lower speed and add the remaining ingredients.

Make small pancakes on a hot griddle.

This is a great way to use wheat if you do not own a wheat grinder.

October Challenge #2- What if you are stranded at work

October 2011 challenge Provident Living Challenges:

Do one of these by the November Relief Society meeting and get a prize!

Challenge #2:  Consider what would happen if one of the adults in the family was at work when a disaster happened, and do at least one of the following:

Pack a 72 hour kit and keep it permanently in the commuting vehicle or in the workplace.  Include sleeping gear, long-lasting food, hygiene supplies, matches or firestarters, water, and flashlights.

Plan how to get home, possibly on foot.  Pack good walking shoes in your trunk or at work, if you regularly wear high heels or other unsuitable shoes.

During fall and winter, make a habit of always having cold weather gear (coat, hat, gloves, boots) in your trunk or at work.  If you have to walk home in inclement weather, or if you are stuck in a building with no heat, these will be important.

Speak to your family about disaster situations, and make definite plans in case communications are down.  Which will be the rule?    a)If you don’t hear from me, I will make it home myself, OR 

b)If you don’t hear from me, come and get me at a predetermined spot.  Think about an earthquake, terrorist attack, hazardous spill on the freeway.  Heading toward the disaster may be more dangerous than waiting for the loved one to get home on his/her own.

October challenge #1- Taco Soup once a week for 3 months

October 2011 ward Provident Living Challenges:

Do one of these by the November Relief Society meeting and get a prize!

Challenge #1:   Buy ingredients for TACO SOUP (OR YOUR FAVORITE MEAL. ) Plan to eat it once a week for 3 months (this equals 13 meals).  You need to figure out all the ingredients multiplied by 13. 

First:  Choose a recipe where all the ingredients are shelf-stable (this means they do not have to be refrigerated or frozen.)

Second:  Make the entire meal, and keep all the ingredients on the counter.  Write down how many cans of each item you used, and any other ingredients you needed to add.

Third:  Multiply the ingredients by 13, and buy them.   

Fourth:  Rotate and use the ingredients.  Even if you only eat this dish once a month, you will still use up the ingredients in a little over a year (13 months.).  As long as you always use the oldest and keep replacing with new, your ingredients will get rotated and won’t go bad.

Now I will give you the recipe for one of our family’s favorite meals:  Taco Soup.

TACO SOUP

Brown:

 1 pound extra lean ground beef

1 onion, diced

1/2 package Taco Seasoning  (or 3 Tablespoons)

Add:

15 ounces canned corn

1 large or 2 medium can kidney beans

15 ounces crushed canned tomatoes

1 small can tomato sauce

Combine all ingredients and simmer, or leave them 

in a crockpot for a few hours.  Serve them with the 

following toppings and additions: 

Fritos

grated cheese

sour cream

green onions, chopped

black olives

shredded lettuce

Here is a picture of the ingredients that I used when filling my standard size crock pot (note: its different than the recipe.)

(1/4 cup dehydrated onions, 3 Tablespoons taco seasoning, 1 can olives added as a topping, 15 oz. can tomato sauce, 2 cans corn, 3 cans kidney beans, 2 pints bottled ground beef, add some corn chips as a topping.  Not shown:  sour cream powder.)

I learned to pressure can meat, so I have bottled ground beef.  (If you don’t want to pressure can ground beef, choose a different recipe that uses canned chicken or canned tuna.)

I own powdered sour cream, and dehydrated onions.

I own containers of Taco Seasoning.

I own bags of Fritos.  But I also found a recipe for homemade fritos, and tested it.  Although it isn’t as tasty as store-bought, I could make it work if I had to, and I have the ingredients.

Things I don’t have in my food storage:   We like this dish with shredded lettuce and shredded cheddar cheese.  However, if we don’t have those refrigerated items, we can still eat Taco Soup.  For your recipe, consider if you still like it without any of the refrigerated items that you usually eat with it.

(PLEASE SUBSTITUTE YOUR FAVORITE MEAL)

Sept. 2011 Provident Living challenges

Do one of these by the October Relief Society meeting and get a prize!

1)Buy enough peanut butter and jelly to make sandwiches for your family for three months. 

 You need to determine how many sandwiches your family would eat each week, and how much peanut butter and jelly you use for each sandwich.  I gave some pointers for calculating that on my blog yesterday (Aug. 31, 2011).

2) Sign up for the Seven Day Challenge on FoodStorageMadeEasy.net. 

(Sign up here:  http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/7day/)

I signed up to participate last September, and had many great learning experiences as I had to change a tire, go without city water, go without electricity, and other mock disasters.

There are no consequences if you sign up and then don’t participate.  But I want you to sign up so that you can see all the comments on Facebook as about 2000 people try to live through their assigned hardships.

From their website: 

“The Seven Day Challenge is our way of celebrating National Emergency Preparedness Month in September. The Challenge is a week long series of mock emergencies with daily limitations and tasks to help assess your level of preparedness. On a surprise day in September, participants are notified that the Challenge has begun. Most of the learning and fun occurs as we share our experiences through comments, surveys, and Facebook. 

Seven Day Challenge pages from previous years can help you prepare for the next challenge. We encourage you to check them out, and start preparing now! ARE YOU READY?
2010 7 DAY CHALLENGE Overview
2009 7 DAY CHALLENGE Overview

3) Think of two items you were lacking for hurricane preparedness, and buy them this month.

We usually only have two challenges per month, but I felt we needed a third this time.

Consider Hurricane Irene as a practice run.  What if it had hit us hard?  Using the news stories of the devastation in New Jersey and Vermont as suggestions, consider what supplies you need to have in your home.

These could be items such as:

One week's worth of easy to prepare food

One week’s worth of diapers, formula, feminine hygiene, toilet paper

One week’s worth of paper plates, paper cups, plastic silverware

Bottled Water- a minimum of 1 gallon per person per day.  (But you need much more than that!)

More flashlights

A campstove or fuel for cooking

A lantern

An inverter to plug into your car, to power a TV or laptop.

Part of the Sept.Challenge: Peanut Butter Sandwiches

(As I was writing the September challenge, it got so long that I feared no one would bother reading it.  So I decided to put half on today, and half on tomorrow.)

Sept. Challenge 1)  Buy enough Peanut Butter and Jelly to make sandwiches for three months.

What if there were no stores, and you had to eat only what was in your house?  Now honestly answer, how many lunches per week could you stand to eat peanut butter sandwiches?  If you can’t eat them every day, then you better plan for other lunches (such as soups, macaroni and cheese, tuna sandwiches, canned Spaghettios, ramen, etc.)

Okay, do you have a number?  Lets say you want to eat peanut butter sandwiches twice a week for lunch.  In three months, that is 26 times.

Peanut Butter:  On my 40 oz. jar of Jif Peanut Butter, it says “Serving Size 2 Tablespoons.  Servings per container, about 35.”  So a 40 oz. jar of peanut butter contains about 70 Tablespoons. 

I will take their word for it and assume that I can make 35 sandwiches from a 40 oz. jar.  (Feel free to alter these numbers if you know your family uses less than 2 tablespoons per sandwich.)

Jelly:  On my 22 oz. jar of grape jelly, it says “Serving Size 1 Tablespoon.  Servings per container, about 31.”  Using these measurements, you would use twice as much peanut butter (2 Tbsp.) as jelly (1 Tbsp.) per sandwich.

Here is a tentative plan for one lunch for a family of four:  2 sandwiches for Dad, 2 sandwiches for Mom, 1 sandwich each for the two small children. Six sandwiches use 12 Tablespoons peanut butter and 6 tablespoons jelly.  Therefore, one lunch would use 1/5 of a jar of peanut butter and 1/5 of a jar of jelly. 

If my calculations are correct, you could make 5 lunches for this imaginary family of four out of one 40 oz. jar of Peanut Butter and one 22 oz. jar of jelly.

If you were planning for 26 lunches (which is twice a week for three months), you need 5 jars of Peanut Butter and 5 jars of jelly.

Of course if you are planning to eat PBJ sandwiches FOUR times a week for three months, you would need 10 jars of each.  And so on.

(Note: You still need to store bread ingredients and learn how to make bread so you can make the sandwiches.  And powdered milk so you can make some milk to drink.  But that isn’t part of this month’s challenge.)

August Challenge: Oatmeal Breakfasts, Emergency Communications

August Provident Living Challenge #1:  Breakfasts!  

Buy enough ingredients to make oatmeal 3 times a week for three months.

Make an oatmeal breakfast for your family.  Measure carefully how much everyone eats.  Buy enough of those ingredients to have that food 30 times.  That would be about 3 times a week for 3 months.

Eventually you will want to have food collected for 90 days of breakfasts, with all of the ingredients being shelf-stable.  You don't want your food to go bad if the power goes off!

Most of us would want to have several different menu choices such as cold cereal, hot cereal, pancakes, waffles, etc.  You could plan to have that item once a week, twice a week, or more.   But for this challenge, you will get the prize if you buy enough breakfast ingredients for 30 days.  (Choose some other breakfast menu to buy if you don't like oatmeal.)

Thanks to Laura H. who wrote up the following explanation and put it on her blog.  Go to this link and you can see the photo she took:

http://halehealthyrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/07/oatmeal-for-30-days-for-family-of-6.html 

"Here's a picture, list of ingredients, and cost of preparing oatmeal for my family of 6 for 30 days using food storage. There is actually more cinnamon, brown sugar, or salt than I'd actually use, but I think "planning" visually is much easier this way and keeping track of my inventory to make sure I do indeed have enough food. I have all the supplies as food storage for emergencies, and rotating the ingredients before expiration dates is easy since I use all the ingredients in many other recipes.

20 lbs whole or 1 minute oats
7 lbs. brown sugar
16 oz. vanilla
2.25 lbs. raisins
1 lb. salt
cinnamon
water

$33 for all ingredients (items purchased at Sams or Costco)
6 people for 30 meals = $1.10 per meal or .20 per person

-When I prepare oatmeal, I DO NOT cook it. I merely poor in boiling water (or hot milk), salt, and vanilla and let oatmeal sit for 5 minutes to soften oats (this will prevent "gluey" oatmeal). 1 Minute oats get VERY soft with this method and Whole Oats get a more muesli-like texture. Then I sprinkle on desired toppings!"    -Laura H.

August Provident Living Challenge #2:  Emergency Communication. 

Think of the ways you could give information or receive information when the power is out.  Do one of the following:  

Buy a solar powered or windup radio.  

Buy a solar-powering device which will allow you to charge your cell phone.  

Investigate the steps to acquiring a ham radio license.  

Plug an inverter into your car, and use it to power a TV or laptop.  Test whether you have any TV’s which can receive a signal using an antenna instead of cable or satellite.  

Add a black marker and large sheets of paper to each one of your car trunks and to your 72-hour kits.  

Get a home phone which has the handset attached to the base, because those types will usually work when the power is out. 

Discuss with your family where you could leave notes for each other in an emergency situation.  It might be important to choose hiding places where strangers would not see the notes.

July Provident Living Challenge

Do one of these by the August evening Relief Society meeting and get a prize!

A.  Buy a shelf-stable three month supply of everything for a soup lunch.

Have soup for lunch, and include any additions such as crackers or croutons that you normally eat with soup.  Think of shelf stable items such as bottled juice or boxes of jello  or pudding to go with the meal.

Determine how much you need to feed your family for one meal.

Then buy all the ingredients for 13 meals.  This is the equivalent of eating soup for lunch once a week for three months.  

B. Know what you use. With a permanent marker, write the day, month and year on toothpaste tubes, shampoo bottles, dental floss, hair products, contact solution, dishwashing liquid, laundry detergent, and other supplies.  Draw a line on the bottle to show how much was in it on that date.  In some cases, it may take two months to get a good idea of how much you use. 

 When the item is empty, you will know approximately how many you will need for a year's supply.  If you use it up in a week, you will need 52; in a month, 12, in two months, you will need 6.

For items such as toilet paper which have wrappers, save the wrappers for two weeks.  At the end of the two weeks count the wrappers and, now you know how many you need for a year.

June Provident Living Challenges

Do one of these by the Morrisville Ward July evening Relief Society meeting and get a prize!  (If you are in another ward, you have my permission to use these challenges in your ward.)

1. Buy all the ingredients to make a spaghetti dinner once a week for 3 months.  

First: Cook dinner, leaving all the ingredients out on the counter.  

Second: Make a list of everything you used. 

(Example for one meal: I’m just guessing here, it will be different depending on your favorite recipe and how many people in your family.)

2 oz. of uncooked spaghetti per person.

1 can spaghetti sauce

a few tablespoons oil

a few tablespoons Parmesan cheese powder

1 can green beans or 1 can corn (or other side dish)

A dessert, if you want.

Third:  Multiply what you used by 13, which would give you enough ingredients to make this meal every week for three months.  (If you only want to eat it every other week, buy enough for 6 meals or 7 meals.)

Fourth:  Buy the ingredients and put them on your shelf.  Notice that all these ingredients are “shelf-stable”, that means they don’t need refrigeration.  This is important, because usually in a disaster we won’t have any electricity, and you don’t want your food to spoil! 

Fifth:  Feel satisfied that you are on your way to getting your 3 months supply!

1. Plan a way to cook without electricity and make sure you have the means to do so.  Acquire a propane campstove or a charcoal grill if you don’t have one.  Charcoal is on sale at many stores before Independence Day, so buy some charcoal if you don’t have any.  Refill your propane tanks.

During our last hurricane (Hurricane Fran, in 1996) some people in Cary had no power for NINE DAYS.  We all need to prepare for that same situation to possibly happen again.

May Provident Living Challenge

May 2011 Provident Living Challenges:

Do one of these by the June evening Relief Society meeting and get a prize!

1.      Transportation alternatives:   Ponder what your family would do if gas was not available or too expensive, Come up with three alternate forms of transportation that your family could use to move goods or people short distances without gasoline, and report to Amy what you would do. 

 Look for items you already own, or inexpensive items you could buy.  Think of baby strollers, garden carts, wheelbarrows, bikes with baskets or panniers, wagons, small personal grocery carts, or wheeled luggage.  Note:  It is also important for each person in the family to have suitable walking shoes for walking long distances.  

2.     Grind some wheat and make something with the wheat flour.

If you do not have a wheat grinder, there are many people in the ward who will be happy to let you grind some wheat at their house. (Amy will get a list of these people.)  If your food turns out yummy, turn your recipe in to Amy and she will put it on her blog.