Saturday, July 25, 2020

Emergency Food .... What Have We Learned About Food ?

Food Shortages
Emergency Food Supply Deals
Serving Sizes
Make your own Emergency Food Package
Keeping Food Portable

   This is long and windy. Many of the people that see this will already know about all this good stuff. Share it with someone that may need encouragement to save up some home goodies. 
    If I can figure out how to do it I will try to have photo's on serving sizes in the future.
    One thing for sure, we have all learned a lot or at least more about the things we only had a idea about. I bet there are some folks that can't believe they go though as much groceries as they do! I mean we all know we spend a lot of money on stuff at the store but when you have to start eating 99.9% of your meals at home, WOW! You can have a real moment of disbelief when you see how much your family goes through. Even if it's just 2 people and your not big eaters, when you start bringing food in for 2 or 3 meals a day into your house for at least a week at a time it stacks up pretty quick.
    Anyone make it to the store or try to do some online shopping at the beginning of all this pandemic stuff and find out it just wasn't there and not going to be for a few weeks or longer? I know I went online to walmart and made a grocery list. As I put it in the basket it was there. Fifteen minutes later when I went to check out at least half of it wasn't in stock. In just 15 minutes ! It is better now compared to what it was. But we still have a lot of things that have limits of 1 or 2 on them if they are in stock. Personally I wish I had a years supply of all the things I know don't go bad. Things like shampoo, laundry soap, dishwasher stuff. sugar, flour. TP of course ! LOL I know that isn't all food. It is stuff that makes life easier and more comfortable.
    I have even looked at all those ads you see about emergency food supplies. You buy a years supply for one or two people and you have way the heck over a $1000.00 bill to go with it. It states it has ???? amount of servings for everyone. Just for fun I bought some Krust Ease Pancake and Waffle mix it was really cheap $1.97 for 32 ozs. I looked at the back and it said for 4 - 7 servings mix 1 cup of mix with 2/3rds cup of water. See it has everything in it so I wouldn't have to store all that extra milk, and baking powder etc. Each pancake was to be approximately 4" round. The best I can figure out 3 of those little bitty pancakes was a serving for 1 adult. So that one cup mix and water was probably enough for 2 people. If your in a upside down world that is not enough food to put a dent into a hungry belly! If you happen to be really active your going to have to add a lot more stuff to the meal. I doubled up the pancake size using 1/2 cup of batter. That was more like it. It wasn't IHOP pancake size but I could live with it. I know the first picture is ugly but the first batch of pancakes don't always turn out right and I didn't have a lot of batter here to play with to get it perfect.
                                                   1/4 cup                  1/2 cup                               
    
  1/2 cup
 

    Have you ever looked at those "deals" really good? I have been looking at some. Not like I have a lot of money to spend on that stuff but I am seeing small batches of big cans of this and that thinking maybe I could afford to stash that away. When you get down to it and really look at the contents of all those big bundles a lot of it just wouldn't do well in my family. It has items and seasonings we just don't like. It would be a waste of money to buy it if we wouldn't eat it some day. If you have dangerous food allergies like I do that could kill you at the worst or close to it you really need to make your own food emergency bundle. Maybe your diabetic or have crohns or something else. 
    Go look at some emergency food deal you think you like. I know way too much money you just can't spend. But copy their list of what they have in it and how many servings. After looking above you may want to plan on double or triple the servings per person. You do know that in more times than I can count I have seen that exact item on the grocery store shelves. Usually in a can or box or bag. The difference is many times the stuff in the store is not in a container that will last a long long time compared to their stuff in a airtight can or freeze dried heavy duty bag. That's ok. Right now our current emergency is no work, no money, government help is either not there or very hard to get even though it isn't supposed to be. WE ARE IN A EMERGENCY SITUATION NOW !
    When you are able to get a few extra items for your family don't worry about the fancy stored things. Just have it in the house somewhere. Date everything that comes in after you disinfect it. (That's what I do so maybe things won't get to old and lost in a cabinet)
    I like to cook from scratch. All those mixes and things have stuff in it I just can't eat because I have food allergies. (Thank you alpha gal)
I tried the pancake mix just to see what their serving size was. It's just ad water so I could just bag some servings up, label it and put directions on it for camping or a quick exit if your in a neighborhood that has gone wild. I need to make my own mix somehow. The milk and I think it has yeast in it is driving my breathing wild so here comes the breathing meds! I wish I could find some powdered coconut milk to make my own mixes. Another day maybe.
    I keep putting off things like getting the food drier out and actually getting something on sale and drying it. They say the food shortage is going to get worse. Anything that was grown in the ground will be in short supply. You think ok we will have plenty of dairy products etc. Remember the grain and other forage these animals eat my not be in good supply so best try to get or grow what you can now.
    I don't know about you but it feels good knowing I am able to feed my family when things are crazy. I can even cook up something and share it with someone that may not have enough that week.
    If things really get bad in your neighborhood and you need to leave and stay with family or somewhere else take your food with you! Have containers you can shove or store it in and toss in the auto. Plan to have enough to go for as long as possible because you just don't know how things will go now days.
    If you made it this far I would love to know how you would like to do things for your family. If you have any bright ideas let me know. 
 
Love
Ranchmama



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