Monday Message

"The best place to have some food set aside is within our homes..."We can begin ever so modestly. We can begin with a one week's food supply and gradually build it to a month, and then to three months...I fear that so many feel that a long-term food supply is so far beyond their reach that they make no effort at all.

"Begin in a small way,...and gradually build toward a reasonable objective." (Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley, Oct 2002 and quoted again in April 2007)

This week I have been giving some thought about building storage and having storage. I talked before about getting green beans one can at a time. Each time you go into a store get one can, that would be almost painless to do. But I wanted to take things a bit further.

If you had seasonings and spices and flour and sugar and brown sugar and the basics like baking powder, baking soda, salt, vanilla and other flavorings and vegetable shortening and baking cocoa, raisins and nuts...just a few things to get you thinking.

I know I tell you many times how we need to cook from scratch. Well what goes hand in hand with that is having the supplies on hand so that you can cook from scratch. Yeast is important. I get my yeast at Sam’s Club, I get the best price there and you get two packages. I open one and put it in a jar, I put the other unopened package in the freezer. The one in the jar i keep. That jar in the refrigerator is my using jar. I keep as many packages as I can in the freezer.

When it comes to the basics try to get one item when you go to the store like rice, oatmeal, cornmeal, beans, different flours, powdered milk, dehydrated onion, dehydrated garlic. I also have black pepper and garlic powder and onion powder, also onion salt and garlic salt, bouillon cubes, cornstarch, etc.

This way you would be able to cook if you had a low pay time or some other crisis.

Having these basics on hand helps you to save money.

Just to let you know some of the things you can make from this list...


bread
cake
pancakes
syrup
oatmeal
rice for cereal
rice side dishes
gravy
cookies
biscuit
cornbread
cinnamon rolls
rolls
donuts
flour shells

And it does so much more. Add other things to the basics and you will be able to make many things.

I am just saying that sometimes we go for the Rice-A-Roni when, if we had these basics, you would not have to pick it up.

It gives you freedom and they are usually the less costly things to get in your storage.

So work on getting in the basics. I just threw a few out there for you to build on.

Those of you who are gluten free need to spend a little more and stock those items and store properly to keep them.

Did you know you could make oat milk using gluten free oats?

Oatmeal Milk 
4 c. water
1 c. gluten free oats
Blend together for only one minute

I feel it is very important to have the ingredients on hand to cook from scratch.

Someone gave us croutons from a bakery in a bag, maybe a cup and a half and the price was $2.99. This is stale bread oil and spices. It's so much cheaper to make your own. 

Croutons
(Our favorite from the Tightwad Gazette, you can double this) 
4 slices bread 
2 Tbs. parmesan cheese 
¼ tsp oregano 
¼ tsp celery salt 
2 Tbs. oil 
Cut bread into cubes and place in bowl. Add seasonings and oil. Toss well. Place on cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degree until crisp. Let cool and then store in glass jar.  

This recipe tastes sooooo much better than any I have tasted. If you have seasonings on hand I think it would cost a nickel for the  amount they were selling. For that amount of money that is a huge difference

Look for things you like and learn to make them yourself, learn to store those ingredients.

Store things to make your own soups. Freeze leftover veggies and broths and meat in tubs in your freezer. 

http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/FN_Cooking&Baking_2011-02pr.pdf - here you can get the soup or sauces called SOS. It is so fantastic to save on those canned soups and every bit as convenient.

http://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/search?q=cooking+from+scratch - read around on these Monday Messages, there's great info there on how to get started. 

Keep working on your storage and building skills.

If you have anything like a mix or recipe to share put it in the comments, we all learn from each other.