Better stock up folks – pumpkin shortage

I have firsthand info on this, so be forewarned. There is a pumpkin shortage looming.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/11/19/libbys-pumpkin-shortage-stymies-thanksgiving-tradition/

Some of the grocery stores in Hot Springs already have bare spots where the canned pumpkin used to be, with signs saying there will be no more available until next harvest.

If you have not yet stocked up on canned pumpkin and you use it even semi-regularly, this would be a good time to put it back if it’s still available in your area!

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Food for one year – one meal a day

I was thinking recently that if it came down to it, we could survive on one meal a day for one year – if we HAD to.

So…I sat down with a legal pad and my recipe file and made a list of 30 meals that could be eaten each month, then calculated the the amount of ingredients needed.

Please keep in mind this is ONLY a general idea – it could be supplemented with fresh garden produce, eggs from your chickens, fresh meat, etc.   It also assumes you keep regular supplies in your pantry (such as sugar, flour, spices, baking powder/soda, etc).

This is just a starting point.  I hope it will give you some ideas!

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(Disclaimer: I am not a dietitian or a nutritionist – I am a mom. The following list is a STARTING POINT and would need to be supplemented with food from a garden and also hunting. This is only given as an example and is not intended to be anything stated or implied other than a springboard for ideas. Nutrition information was not calculated. This was an example for a family of three.)
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Food for one year – one meal per day

1)  Chicken Alfredo	12 jars alfredo sauce 12 pkgs fettucine noodles 12 cans chicken
2)  Breakfast (biscuits:  flour, sugar, baking powder, shortening, salt, milk)	12 pkgs bacon
3)  Tacos (lettuce, cheese, taco sauce)	12 pkgs hamb meat 12 pkgs taco seasoning 12 pkgs taco shells
4)  Chicken Enchiladas (sour cream, cheese, milk)	12 cans cream of chicken soup 12 jars enchilada sauce 12 cans chicken 12 pkgs flour tortillas
5)  Chicken & Dumplings (biscuit mix or homemade)	12 cans chicken 24 cans chicken broth (or ckn base)
6)  SPAM / Mac & Cheese / Veggies	12 cans SPAM 12 pkgs mac & cheese 12 cans green beans (or other veggies)
7)  Beef Stew (rice)	12 cans carrots 12 cans potatoes 12 cans beef
8)  Bean Burritos (cheese or cheese sauce)	12 pkgs flour tortillas 12 cans refried beans
9)  Spaghetti (hamb optional /Parmesan cheese)	12 jars spaghetti sauce 12 pkgs spaghetti noodles
10)  Canned Ham / Rice / Veggies	12 cans ham 12 cans corn (or other)
11)  Red Beans & Rice (rice, dried beans, seasoning, cornbread mix/milk/eggs)	12 pkgs kielbasa 24 pkgs cornbread mix
12)  Meatballs w/Mushroom Gravy / Mashed Potatoes (flakes) / Lima Beans (dried)	12 pkgs hamb meat 12 cans cream of mushroom soup
13)  Hamburgers / Nachos (chips, pickles, homemade bread)	12 pkgs hamb meat 12 cans cheese sauce 12 cans rotel
14)  Chicken Spaghetti	12 cans chicken 12 pkgs spaghetti noodles 12 cans cream of chicken soup 12 cans cream of mushroom soup 12 cans cheese sauce 12 cans chicken broth
15)  Chili Macaroni (spices, dried beans)	12 pkgs hamb meat 12 pkgs macaroni pasta 12 cans tomatoes or sauce
16)  Chili Dogs (homemade bread)	12 pkgs hot dogs 12 cans chili
17)  Potato Soup (potato flakes, bullion cubes/ckn base/OR broth, cheese, powdered milk)	12 cans cheese sauce 24 cans chicken broth (?)
18)  SPAM, Mac & cheese, Veggies	12 cans SPAM 12 pkgs macaroni & cheese 12 cans green beans (or dried beans)
19)  Putanesca (parmesan cheese)	12 cans Putanesca 12 pkgs spaghetti noodles
20)  Gnocchi (potato flakes, powdered milk, eggs)	12 jars sauce (spaghetti/alfredo)
21)  Fried Rice (rice, soy sauce, spices veggies)	12 cans/jars meat (chicken, SPAM, etc)
22)  Pancakes & Sausage (syrup, flour, eggs, baking powder)	12 sausage chubs
23)  Chili (spices, rice, dried beans)	24 pkgs hamb meat 24 cans diced tomatoes OR sauce
24)  Chicken Pot Pie (biscuit mix or homemade, ckn broth or base, powdered milk, spices)	12 cans chicken 12 large cans mixed veggies
25)  PB&J  Sandwiches, hummus (dried chickpeas / homemade bread)	Peanut butter Jelly
26)  Hearty Beef & Beans (dried pinto beans, biscuits)	12 pkgs hamb meat 12 cans tomato sauce 12 cans vegetables
27)  Homemade Soup (dried beans, asst canned veggies, cornbread)	24 pkgs cornbread mix (or meal) 12 cans tomato juice 12 pkgs hamb meat (optional)
28)  Oatmeal
29)  Grits
30)  SOS (homemade bread, powdered milk)	12 pkgs hamb meat

Shopping/pantry list:

60 – Chicken breast
24 – Cream of chicken soup
24 – Cream of mushroom soup
at least 36 (or equivalent) – Cheese sauce
24 to 36 – SPAM
48 – Tomato sauce
88 to 100 – Hamburger meat
12 – Tomato juice
48 pkgs – Cornbread mix (or make from scratch)
6 – Peanut Butter
6 – Jelly
12 – Large cans mixed vegetables
12 – Sausage chubs
24 – Spaghetti sauce
36 – Spaghetti noodles
12 – Alfredo sauce
12 – canned beef
12 – kielbasa or beef smoked sausage
12 – Fettucine noodles
12 jars – Putanesca
12 to 24 – Rotel
24 (minimum) cans – Green beans
24 (minimum) cans – Corn
60 cans – Chicken broth (OR use bullion OR chicken base)
12 – Hot dogs
12 – Canned chili
12 – Canned ham
12 – Refried beans
24 – Flour tortillas (or make homemade)
12 – Bacon
18 – Enchilada sauce
12 – Taco seasoning
12 – Taco shells (or make homemade flour tortillas)
12 – Parmesan Cheese
12 – Macaroni noodles
24 – Macaroni & cheese (packaged)
12 to 24 – carrots (canned)
12 to 24 – potatoes (canned)

Basics onhand:

Spices (basil, oregano, chili powder, paprika, cumin, Cavender’s, etc)
Flour
Baking Powder
Baking Soda
Salt
Sugar
Shortening
Powdered Milk
Dried beans
Rice
Potato Flakes

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Cucumber Overabundance

We have been blessed to overflowing with cucumbers this year.  I don’t know if the wet/mild summer is the reason, or if the Good Lord just saw fit to teach me how to make pickles.  😀

I’ve made pickles 4 times so far – two batches of bread & butter, 2 batches of dill.  I can’t say which is my favorite yet.  I’ve eaten a jar of both almost by myself!

The dill pickles I’ve been making are fabulous.  I found the recipe on RecipeZaar:  Blue Ribbon Dill Pickles .

Changes I made to the recipe:  I put a healthy dash of pickling spice in each wide mouth jar along with minced garlic (from a jar), dried dill weed and dried dill seed.

I also kept the brine boiling and filled jars, then put them in the canner as I went.  I followed directions listed on the website the first time and the jars didn’t seal as well (I suspect because the brine had cooled off too much).  Keeping the brine boiling worked much better for me.

Now…where’s my jar of pickles?  🙂

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Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink

Er…in my case, rice, rice everywhere and none to cook with!

I learned a valuable food storage lesson recently.  I normally keep a quart jar of long grain white rice in my pantry so there’s not a huge bag open at one time.  I had already put most of the 50 pound bags we’d purchased into mylar and buckets.

Hence, the problem.

When I ran out of rice in the pantry, I quickly realized I had two options:  open a brand new 5o pound bag of rice or break into my long term food storage buckets.

Needless to say, I opened a 50 pound bag and spent the next half hour breaking it down into bags to vacuum seal.  This time, I did smaller bags of 4 to 5 pounds per bag.  Major “duh” moment on my part for not thinking of this sooner.  Since we are using/rotating most of our food storage, it just makes sense to have smaller amounts more accessible.

Lesson learned!

Don’t put all of your food storage into mylar and buckets!  There is such a thing as “long term” food storage, and then food that will be rotated more quickly.   I knew this already, but putting it into practice is another thing entirely.  🙂

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Emergency Buckets – “Grab & Go” Food

This should be part of every family’s emergency plans – food ready to go at a moment’s notice along with all of your other provisions (you do have a bag with a change of clothes and a toothbrush at the very least, right?  😀 ).

If you have to evacuate your home in a hurry, it pays to have an assortment of food storage in a bucket or two so you can literally “grab and go” without trying to decide what to take with you.

I took two of the orange “homer buckets” and divided up a variety of foods between them.  I don’t know how long this food will last for our family, but I can say with some confidence that it is at *least* a weeks’ worth, probably longer if we had to stretch it.  I’m using this only as an example – what you store in yours may be totally different.

(I also put a list in the top of each bucket in addition to listing on the outside for easy reference later – also make a note of rotation date, such as “rotate by 12/2010”.)

In bucket number one, we have the following:

(2) pkgs lima beans – dry (all pkgs vacuum sealed unless otherwise noted)
(1) large pkg pinto beans (dry)
5# bag white flour
4# bag white sugar
box of matches
powdered milk (probably 3 cups or so)
1# box baking soda
1/2 box instant potatoes (with instructions cut off of the box and included in pkg)
1 can vegetable shortening (inside a gallon ziploc bag)
1 large pkg popcorn kernels
1 pkg macaroni and cheese (removed from box, cheese packet vacuum sealed along with macaroni)

In bucket #2:

Vacuum sealed packet of dried onion / packet of chili powder
3 – pkgs macaroni and cheese
6 – pkgs ramen noodles
1# yeast
10 oz baking powder
1# salt
pepper
2 – DAK hams
1 – can tamales
2 – cans chili w/beans
1 – can rotel tomatoes
2 – 6oz cans tomato paste
4 – cans Spam
1 – LARGE bag of long grain white rice
1 – pkg of dehydrated mixed vegetables from a #10 can

From both of these buckets, you could make almost endless combinations of meals – everything from beans and rice, vegetable soup to bread, pancakes, biscuits, etc.

Hope this inspires you to get some “grab & go” food together for your family as well!  😀

UPDATE 4/12/09:  I also added 2 – 12.5 oz cans chicken breast and a ziploc bag of restaurant ketchup packets to the buckets.  There was a little bit of room left, and I wanted to make the most of it.   I’m estimating we could have at least one substantial meal a day for nearly two weeks from the contents of these two buckets.

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