My wife and I are thinking of starting to hold food in reserve. Reciently we had some economic challenges. I would be nice if we had some storage of food to help streach the budget. Our problem is my diet. Please correct me. But a low carb high protein diet is not compatitable with storage.
I eat a lot of peanut butter because I have gastroparesis and it is easy to digest - that is easy to store. Also tuna is a good protein source & would be something that you could store.
It is hard to store things like veggies and all for a long time, but freezing may be a good option. There are often a lot of things that can be frozen for several months. Most meats for example can be frozen for as long as 6 months. Making meals and freezing them for a while is good too. My mom for example would make turkey soup out of left overs from thanks giving , and freeze it for like 3 months and it was always still good. We used to blanch and can our own vegetables too, which allows them to be frozen for long periods of time. Most of the time you can google the suggested freezing times of most foods or if they should be frozen at all. Other wise canned and dried goods are your best bet. Growing up in back woods Maine and being snowed in for 2 weeks or more at a time taught us how to store food.lol.But we also grew a lot of veggies our selves and my dad went hunting and stored that meat. I was like Laura Ingles on Little House On the Prairie.lol
Do you have a freezer? You can buy meat and seafood in bulk and freeze it. Also you can freeze nuts. I keep things like almond and flax flour in the freezer, again you can buy in bulk.
I frequently cook in bulk, and then freeze it in individual serving sizes, and I only have a regular top-of-the-fridge freezer.
Some things that freeze well for me are turkey chili, spaghetti sauce, barbequed chicken (slightly undercook so it doesn’t get overcooked when you microwave it), and several recipes I have for boneless chicken breasts. I buy the boneless breasts and ground turkey when it’s on sale, and then I cook it all up that week and store in freezer.
Then all I have to do is buy fresh vegetables and milk, bread (I don’t like bread after it’s been frozen unless I toast it, which doesn’t always work for sandwiches.) Oh, and of course I buy frozen vegetables too, but they tend to develop a lot of frost if you keep them too long.
Ruth
When I’m motivated, I make soup, sauces & stews & freeze it in portions.
Meat/fish/poultry freeze well, of course. Smoked fish lasts a long time. I’ve bought dehydrated eggs & egg whites, which last forever, but I don’t know if there’s a cost savings. My mother froze cream because she used it infrequently.
Like Kelly, I go through a lot of peanut butter & keep 3-4 jars stocked. I’m addicted to peanut butter. Never tried it, but I’ve seen powdered peanut butter.
I have heard great things from my survivalist type friends about http://www.mountainhouse.com/ . My wife cans and we keep a good amount of beans and lintels. Also have stashes of heirloom seeds. If you are doing this for budget reasons check to see if it is safe to freeze most meat can be frozen for over a year and even them just taste funny won’t get you sick if you going for disaster readiness go for then look at freeze dried and canned goods. Our ancestors did a lot with out a fridge and Wal-Marts we can do it today if you want to.
We live with a freezer filled with things that we have done in duplicate. Meaning, I cook two meals and freeze one.
Although I am not doing it for financial reasons, I think that it could safely be said, that is one of the top four reasons. But time managment and availibility are my reasons for freezing. We live in the upper midwest, where some things are not available in the winter, and I take advantage of fresh whenever I can, and freeze it. I am not a canning person, but drying or freezing works for us. Hope whatever you come up with you’ll share with us. I don’t know too many people who aren’t on some type of budget these days, and if we can help each other, we’ve done our job as friends and neighbors.