Make Your Own Collection of 3-Month Supply Recipes Handout

Make Your Own Collection of 3-Month Supply Recipes

Most recipes can be converted to be food storage friendly. These new versions of your old family favorites will help you rotate and stock your 3-Month Supply. You will know exactly which items you will need to store and how to use them. Identifying and substituting out perishable, fresh ingredients for shelf stable alternatives turns your recipes into food storage friendly recipes. In the end, you will have your own collection of 3-Month Supply recipes made from meals your family already enjoys.

Step 1: Start With a Recipe
Most recipes can be converted; but some, like “Eggplant Parmesan” or “Mixed Greens Asian Salad”, just aren’t going to work. Choose your recipes wisely.

Step 2: Identify Perishable Ingredients
Anything that requires refrigeration or doesn’t store well will need to be replaced with a shelf stable substitute.

Step 3: Determine the Best Shelf Stable Substitute
Some ingredients can be easily changed out for something shelf stable. For example, most fresh fruits and vegetables can be substituted with canned fruits and vegetables. But with other ingredients you may need to be creative and find something close enough. Minor ingredients can even be omitted if you can’t find a good alternative. If a main ingredient cannot be reasonably substituted you will need to find another recipe.

Step 4: Test it out
Your new recipe may not work perfectly the first time you make it after all those substitutions. And it will probably taste slightly different from the original. Most likely, you will need to make adjustments before trying it again. Then, decide whether or not you want to keep it in your 3-Month Supply Recipe Collection.

Substitution chart for converting basic ingredients in family favorite recipes into food-storage, friendly options.

Food	Fresh	Equivalent	Rehydrate
Beans	1 cup cooked beans	1/3 cup dried beans	1 cup water
Beans	1 (15-oz) can beans	a heaping ½ cup dried beans
Butter	1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)	1/2 cup powdered butter	1/2 cup water
Butter	1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)	6 TBSP olive oil
Dried Herbs	1 TBSP fresh herbs	1 tsp dried herbs
Egg	1 large egg or 1 3/4 oz	2 TBSP powdered egg	2 TBSP water
Egg Substitute	1 large egg or 1 3/4 oz	1 TBSP ground flaxseed	3 TBSP water
Egg Substitute	1 large egg or 1 3/4 oz	1 TBSP ground chia seed	3 TBSP water
Egg Substitute	1 large egg or 1 3/4 oz	1 TBSP gelatin	3 TBSP water
Garlic	1 clove garlic or 1/2 tsp minced fresh garlic	1/8 tsp garlic powder
Lentils	1 cup cooked lentils	1/3 cup dried lentils	1 - 1 1/3 cup water
Milk	1 cup milk	3 TBSP powdered milk	1 cup water
Milk	1 cup milk	2 TBSP powdered instant milk	1 cup water
Milk	1 cup milk	1/2 cup canned evaporated milk	1/2 cup water
Onion	1 cup diced fresh onion or 1 onion	1 cup freeze-dried	1/3 cup water
Onion	1 cup diced fresh onion or 1 onion	1/3 cup dehydrated	1/3 cup water
Onion	1/3 cup chopped fresh onion	1 tsp onion powder
Potato, Mashed	4 1/2 cups mashed potatoes	3 cups potato flakes	1 cup milk + 1/4 cup butter + 3 cups water + 1 tsp salt
Split Peas	1 cup cooked peas	1/3 cup dried peas	1 - 1 1/3 cup water

Cooking With Your 3-Month Supply Handout

Cooking With Your 3-Month Supply

“The best storehouse is the family storeroom. It’s the most accessible reserve in times of need and the best suited to our individual needs.” - Gordon B. Hinckley, Oct 2005, General Conference

“Build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet. One way to do this is to purchase a few extra items each week to build a one-week supply of food. Then you can gradually increase your supply until it is sufficient for three months. These items should be rotated regularly to avoid spoilage.” - First Presidency, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, All Safely Gathered In

Benefits of Cooking with Your 3-Month Supply:

• Helps you ease into cooking with your food storage staples. 
• On a busy day, when you don’t have a lot of time, you will always have a meal on-hand. 
• You will know how to prepare meals in an emergency situation that your family will eat. 
• Using and rotating your food items ensures they will still be nutritious when you need them.

Red Beans and Rice

Serves: 6
Start-to-Finish: 30 minutes
Ingredients: 1 ½ cup dry white rice 3 cups water for steaming rice 1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil 1 ½ - 2 cup summer sausage, cut into half circles 1 (8.75-oz) can corn, drained (approx. 1 cup fresh corn) 1 (12.5-oz) can of cooked chicken, drained 1 (15.5-oz) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed ½ cup water (+½ cup for consistency) 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp Kosher salt ½ tsp paprika 2 tsp chili powder ¼ tsp chicken bouillon ½ tsp onion powder ¼ tsp black pepper ¼ tsp smoked paprika 6 TBSP ketchup	Directions: Add dry white rice and 3 cups water to rice cooker and steam until soft and fluffy. Measure out all seasoning. (This recipe goes together fast and you will want them ready!) Cut summer sausage into ½ inch thick half circles. Heat oil in large saucepan. Add sausage to saucepan and brown gently on each side (about 3 minutes). Drain and rinse kidney beans, and drain canned corn and canned chicken. Add ½ cup water, beans, corn, chicken, seasonings, and ketchup into saucepan. Stir together and simmer for 8 minutes, adding more water as needed for a nice consistency. Serve sausage mixture over steamed rice

Free Food Storage Pep Talk Guide

The Food Storage Pep Talk is a free downloaded guide put together by Food Storage Made Easy. The guide talks about topics such as "What is food storage?", "Why do we store food?", "Common Food Storage Problems", "Solutions for those problems"and plans to achieve your food storage goals. You can download the 19 page pdf here or head over to there website at www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net and download it from them, as well as see what other great resource they are offering.

The Food Storage Pep Talk

This would make a great starting point for an FHE lesson for those who are looking to start a food storage plan in their home and set goals with their families.

Handouts for Food Storage and Organization

Storage and Organization Handouts:

Food Storage and Organization
3 Tier Home Storage Plan (in one year)

Recipes
We served Black Bean Brownies and Pantry Salsa at our April class. Both recipes can be found by clicking the recipe name links or by searching our Recipes Page.

Storage and Organization Links:

Food Storage Calculator. This provides a generic list of food items for your 1 year supply and fills in an amount you will need based on the people in your family
http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm

This spreadsheet determines how much food you will need in your 3 month supply based on a menu you enter. Helps you plan your meals, put together an inventory list, track sales prices, and more.
Three Month Food Supply Excel

This spreadsheet helps you determine how much you should store and offers a tracking system for your 1 year supply inventory
Long Term Food Storage Calculator Excel

Includes common foods you can use to substitute in cooking. Also includes tables of measurements and yields.
Common Substitutions, Measurements, Yields

Wendy Dewitt's System. Includes instructions, recipes, and rotation information
http://everythingunderthesunblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/book-2.html

Equivalency Information form Wendy Dewitt
Equivalency Information

DIY Survival Candles

I found this great step-by-step tutorial for making long burning candles. I thought it was worth sharing. The cost to make these candles is approx $1.62 a candle and burn for about 50 hours.
This post is from teotwawkiblog.blogspot.com

DIY Survival Candles:

Candles are an easy-to-use source of emergency lighting and a little bit of heat. I'm shocked to see some of the prices that are charged for long burning candles sold for survival or emergency preparedness - if you want to buy a dozen or so candles, the cost really starts to add up.

Never fear! You can make your own survival candles at home for cheap, using high-quality, long burning soy wax. It's an easy project - the materials are easy to buy and you won't need any specialized tools.

The materials you will need are:

• Soy wax flakes. These are commonly used in making scented candles and are sold in craft stores or Amazon. I bought a 5 pound bag from Amazon for 12.79 shipped - right here. A pound of wax will fill around a 24 ounce container, give or take. You can use other wax, but soy is affordable, typically has a longer burn time than other waxes and has some other beneficial qualities (all-natural, renewable, etc.).
• Canning jars. I purchased a dozen 8 ounce jars from Wal Mart for around $8. If you have jars around the house, no need to buy 'em. We've used jars from jams, sauces and so on for candles in the past.
• Wicks and Tabs. You can find these on Amazon, eBay and at your craft stores. You'll want your wicks to be a bit longer than your candle holder is tall. I have 100 tabs and 100 nine inch wicks on eBay for about $10 total.

The tools you will need are:

• Scissors: For cutting the wicks to size
• Double Boiler: For melting the wax. I don't have an actual double boiler, so I just get a large pot, fill it about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way with water, and then nest a slightly smaller pot inside.
• A Pouring Device: I just used a pyrex measuring cup. 
• Protective Gloves: We'll be using boiling water and hot wax, so you want to keep you hands safe.

The steps are simple.

First, you'll want to get your wicks ready. If your wicks are way too long for your container, you'll want to trim them down to approximate size. I had 9" wicks here. Insert the wick into the tab - I found it helpful to use my Leathman to "tighten" the mouth of the tab around the wick, but it's not a must. If you buy pre-tabbed wicks then you can skip this part.

 

Put your wicks in the jars. Don't worry if they're not centered - we'll fix that after we pour the wax. Now it's meltin' time!

This is my "double boiler." Works well enough. Using a double boiler helps melt the wax gently, avoiding risk of it catching fire, burning, etc. You could probably do it without, but it's not hard to improvise so why not?

Here are the flakes beginning to melt.

And now fully melted.

Carefully transfer the melted wax into your pouring container. Then, pour away! Don't worry about the container - soy wax is all natural, non-toxic and cleans up fairly easily. Beware if you have a soy allergy, though.

Don't fill the jar up the whole way - leave some room between the wax and the top of the container. You'll want to center the wicks at this point. Then, take a break and let the wax cool and harden up. Almost done!

Last step. After the wax has cooled, trim the wicks as needed--you want the wick to be about 1/4" above the wax. Then, screw the lids on and you're ready for storage!

While some advertise 70+ hours of burn time for 8 ounce candles like this, they're more in the ballpark of 40 to 50 hours, and you'll get the most life out of them if you burn the candles four hours at a time. Since you would only use the candle for about 4 hours every evening, a single candle should last for around 10 days of regular use. Not bad! You can of course use different sized jars--bigger for longer burn time, or multiple wicks for more light.

Including the purchase of new jars, my cost per candle is around $1.62. With recycled jars, it's under a dollar.

These aren't crap materials, either--these are the same quality of materials use for high-end aromatherapy candles that sell for $20 a pop. Another plus - the combination of soy wax's lower melting point and the protective glass jar make this a safer source of light when compared to other candles, oil lanterns and so on.

One modification that I plan to make it to include a booklet of matches inside of each jar - cheap and makes sure you've got a way to light the candle if it's pulled out of storage during a power outage, etc.

Anyways, give it a shot and let us know how it goes! Have fun!

Handouts for Gardening

January's self reliance class was all about "Gardening". We discussed how to make a raised garden bed, soil mixes, and square-foot gardening. There were lots of resources and information in the class about gardening for our area, irrigation, pollination, and solutions to common gardening problems.

Handouts:

This attachment is 76 pages of everything you could want to know about seeds and harvesting and planting. It includes charts for optimal planting times, planting guides, pest control, and how to maintain your garden each month of the year. It is in depth and very detailed.
Hugh Johnson's Garden Class

This handout is in PDF format. It is from the Texas Cooperative Extension and shows the varieties of 35 different vegetables that grow well in Montgomery County, TX.
Vegetable Varieties for Our Area

This handout is in PDF format. If you are looking for specific seed varietes and can't find them in your local home improvement store this handout lists several companies that offer a variety of quality seeds, depending on what you need.
Seed Source

Discount on Sun Ovens

If you have been thinking about purchasing a "Sun Oven" and dehydrator, this is the time. Sun Oven company is offering a great discount from $364 retail to $237.80. It includes the dehydrating and preparedness accessory package and shipping. This is your opportunity to get one. Normally the oven itself cost $299.00 plus shipping. If you are interested go to www.sunoven.com and enter the discount code MORRTXGSO, it will be shipped to your home. Ends January 31st.

Sun Oven Class in Cypress

Karen Johnson and Mary Ann Miller have set up a Sun Oven Class by Paul from Sun Ovens.  The class has been set up for Monday Feb. 13 at 10:30 a.m. at the Cypress Stake Center, 12310 New Hampton Dr., Cypress, TX.  For more info on Sun Ovens see http://www.sunoven.com/ Please be aware that this isn't the only solar oven available.  For more info see http://www.simplyprepared.com/solar_box_ovens.htm