Today I bottled hamburger. It took 30 lbs. of ground beef to fill 20 pint jars. I wasn't sure what the fat percentage of my beef was because it's some my dad raised and had butchered. So I cooked the hamburger until it was about 90% done, just done enough to release the fat. I drained about 11 cups of fat off of the 30 lbs. of meat. Then I CRAMMED all the cooked meat into each jar that I could, leaving an inch of head space. Then I added about 2-3 Tbsp. of beef broth to each jar. I'm not sure adding the liquid is necessary, but I did because I had been told to. (It was just enough liquid to fill in the empty space in the jar. Don't overfill w/ liquid) Then I tapped them slightly to release any trapped air bubbles and put on my 2-piece lids. I processed at 15 psi in my pressure canner for 90 minutes. That may have been a little long for pints, but can you really over process something? I don't think so. Better to be safe than sorry! I did 40 pints today and they look great! I only had one not seal and I realized afterwards that the ring on that one was dented.
Happy Canning!
Showing posts with label Pantry Meals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pantry Meals. Show all posts
Monday, August 29, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Pantry Meals: My words
The notes on pantry meals that are here on my blog are a suppliment to the presentation that I gave for my ward and stake. They assume that you were there to hear me speak. But some people weren't able to attend, so here is my presentation, in my words, as if you had been there. Hopefully it will then make all of the other pantry meal posts make more sense....
Being raised in the church, I know all about food storage. And as an adult I have worked on having what storage I could under the circumstances that I found myself. But I always found myself a little uneasy about what I had stored. Was it really enough? Could I really make things that were good to eat out of what I have in #10 cans? All of these thoughts were always going through my head. And I found myself going down to my well stocked pantry and still thinking that there was nothing to eat! Or for the 10 meals I can think of to make on any given night, I would be one item short on all of them.
I try to make up a monthly meal plan to use in my home and then purchase the shelf stable things for the month. But I was always finding that by the end of the month, I was short things I thought I would have. They had been used for other things. I never could calculate things out right and then use the food how I had calculated it. All of these things have weighed on my mind looking at my food storage.
But over the last couple of years, the Lord has put people and ideas into my path that have "turned on light bulbs" in my brain until I finally had a method that I could get my head around and that works for my family. These ideas might not work for everyone's families. But I hope you get at least a few ideas from all of this. I use this method for my "90 days of food that are part of my normal, daily diet" and still have all of the longer term storage in buckets and #10 cans. You can use this for as few or as many meals as you would like to store this way.
Why pantry meals?
-Our stake asked us to. The stake presidency issued the challenge to have every family in our stake prepared with a 90 day supply of food and needed items by Nov. 1, 2011. This is one way to get there.
- The general authorities asked us to. "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." ---LDS Home Food Storage Pamphlet
- I have full meals packaged in the boxes and I know that everything I need is there.
- I am often in a hurry or running behind at dinner time. These meals make easy "grab it off the shelf and have dinner on the table in a 1/2 hour" meals for those nights when there just isn't time to think of what to make.
- My kids can grab a box off the shelf, read the directions and make the meal!
Wendy DeWitt's food storage method can be found here.
A few key points from Wendy's seminar:
- Eat what you store and store what you eat. Wendi bases her food storage off of the meals that she eats all the time. and has it figured out down to the last teaspoon of salt.
- A year supply of food for one person fits under a twin size bed! (It doesn't take as much space as we think it does!)
- Wendy goes through her food storage once a year (usually over a General Conference weekend) and pulls out all of the food that expires in the next year. She puts that food in her pantry to use and buys new for her storage. That way she never has food meeting or exceeding its expiration.
Judy's method:
- Judy's website and cookbook, "Cooking from my pantry" is the basis of how I put this system together for my family. You can find all of her information on the blog and in her recipe book. The full book is online and is FREE!
Bags vs. Boxes
The pantry meals that you put together can be put in boxes or plastic gift bags to keep all of the ingredients for each meal together. Whether you use bags or boxes is really just a matter of preference. I personally prefer the boxes because they stack well. Others prefer the bags. Here are thoughts on the pros and cons:
- Price. The boxes cost around $1 each and have to be special ordered online. The bags can be purchases at Xpedx stores for about 45 cents each.
- Space. 2 boxes stacked on top of each other take up the same amount of space as 2 bags set next to each other.
- Both are reusable. Once you have used the meal inside, you can set either aside to be refilled after you go to the store again. The bags will fold down flat when empty and take up much less space. The boxes are boxes and take up the same amount of space full or empty.
- The boxes are sturdier.
- The boxes only come on one color. But the bags come in all sorts of colors so you can color coordinate you meals if you would like to. Red bags for beef. Yellow for chicken. Blue for breakfast, etc.
Canned vs. bottled food:
- You can make your pantry meals out of whatever you have on hand. I bottle a lot of tomatoes and chicken, so when one of my recipes calls for tomatoes or chicken, I put in a bottle instead of purchasing canned. Use what you have and what you like.
Water
In the book "It's in the Bag", the author includes in her bags enough water to make the meal. She never wants to be without water. If a recipe needs 4 cups of water to prepare the dinner, she puts 2 bottles of water in the bag. When she is at home, she just uses her tap water, but if she ever does use a water bottle, she saves it and refills it and puts it back in the bag.
I'm not so worried about keeping the water in with my meals because of the water I already have stored. . I have about 100 96 oz. apple juice bottles full of water in my basement and 8 - 55 gallon water containers in my back yard. If I ever had to evacuate and take my pantry meals with me, I will have to remember to take my apple juice bottles filled with water with me.
Cornbread, Bread & Tortillas
To supplement my meals in a box I plan to make cornbread to go with some of the less filling meals. I store my ingredients to make cornbread, tortillas, and bread separately. I have a container for each one that holds all of the ingredients for each.
Why cornbread and not always just regular bread? I think that we often think that when we are in a crisis all we will have is time on our hands. But the opposite will be true. We might not have the 2 hours or so that it takes to make a batch of wheat bread. But cornbread can be make and baked in a 1/2 an hour and can be ready to eat with any meal without much for-thought. I store popcorn to grind into cornmeal to make cornbread with. For my favorite recipe, click here.
Breakfasts & Lunches
The pantry meal concept can be used for breakfast and lunches as well as for dinners. In my house, I store bulk items for breakfast. Like 50 lb. bags of 9-grain breakfast hot cereal, 25 lb. bags of oatmeal, or 5lb. bags of Krustez pancake mix. I could separate them out into meal size portions, but I don't bother. I know how much I have of what and I'm okay leaving it in the bulk package.
I am working on my lunches. Most of my breakfast are carbohydrate heavy (there aren't very many traditional breakfast proteins...eggs, ham, etc... available for long term storage.). So for lunches I would like to have protein. That also doesn't leave a lot of choice. Tuna, canned ham, canned chili and bean spreads. But they don't really need their own boxes. So I haven't done lunches in boxes. But you could also just do more of your dinner meals and use them for lunches.
Rotation
I really like Wendy DeWitt's "pull out everything once a year and use and replace what is about to expire" method. Once a year is about all I have time to think about it. Maybe not even that often! It's a good thing that canned goods are good for several years!
How to buy it:
Instead of buying cases of food one at a time and then needing to eat it and realizing that you only have cases of cream of chicken soup, pineapple and green beans. (What are you going to make with that??? Yuck!) I like to choose one or 2 pantry meal recipes a month and buy all of the ingredients for those recipes, put them in the boxes and then I know that I have full and complete meals ready to go at all times.
The PMS Group:
Several friends and I found out about pantry meals at the same time. So we decided that since none of us had very many meals that were shelf stable and ready to put into boxes, we needed to try some out. There were about 12 of us that would get together once a month and swap pantry meals. Hence the name: Pantry Meals Swap group! We would each make up several of one recipe and then go and trade around. That way we came home with one each of different recipes to try. Some of my very favorite pantry meal recipes came from these swaps. We swapped a couple of months and then the fall and holidays hit and we didn't get it going again. But for the little time we swapped, it was fabulous! For more thoughts on the PMS group, click here.
Conclusion:
No matter what method you choose to use to get and organize your preparedness meals and items, it's important to remember that the principle of food storage isn't a principle of keeping our tummies full, it is a principle of obedience to the Lord. The Lord will not give us commandments that He won't provide a way for us to keep. (1 Nephi 3:7) If we are serious about getting the storage our stake presidency and general authorities have asked us to get, and do all that we can to make it happen, miracles will occur on our behalf. We may have to use our storage before we feel like it is full and complete, but it is my testimony that through our obedience and diligence our "barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail" (1 Kings 17:14).
For some more of my thoughts on pantry meals, click here.
Being raised in the church, I know all about food storage. And as an adult I have worked on having what storage I could under the circumstances that I found myself. But I always found myself a little uneasy about what I had stored. Was it really enough? Could I really make things that were good to eat out of what I have in #10 cans? All of these thoughts were always going through my head. And I found myself going down to my well stocked pantry and still thinking that there was nothing to eat! Or for the 10 meals I can think of to make on any given night, I would be one item short on all of them.
I try to make up a monthly meal plan to use in my home and then purchase the shelf stable things for the month. But I was always finding that by the end of the month, I was short things I thought I would have. They had been used for other things. I never could calculate things out right and then use the food how I had calculated it. All of these things have weighed on my mind looking at my food storage.
But over the last couple of years, the Lord has put people and ideas into my path that have "turned on light bulbs" in my brain until I finally had a method that I could get my head around and that works for my family. These ideas might not work for everyone's families. But I hope you get at least a few ideas from all of this. I use this method for my "90 days of food that are part of my normal, daily diet" and still have all of the longer term storage in buckets and #10 cans. You can use this for as few or as many meals as you would like to store this way.
Why pantry meals?
-Our stake asked us to. The stake presidency issued the challenge to have every family in our stake prepared with a 90 day supply of food and needed items by Nov. 1, 2011. This is one way to get there.
- The general authorities asked us to. "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." ---LDS Home Food Storage Pamphlet
- I have full meals packaged in the boxes and I know that everything I need is there.
- I am often in a hurry or running behind at dinner time. These meals make easy "grab it off the shelf and have dinner on the table in a 1/2 hour" meals for those nights when there just isn't time to think of what to make.
- My kids can grab a box off the shelf, read the directions and make the meal!
Wendy DeWitt's food storage method can be found here.
A few key points from Wendy's seminar:
- Eat what you store and store what you eat. Wendi bases her food storage off of the meals that she eats all the time. and has it figured out down to the last teaspoon of salt.
- A year supply of food for one person fits under a twin size bed! (It doesn't take as much space as we think it does!)
- Wendy goes through her food storage once a year (usually over a General Conference weekend) and pulls out all of the food that expires in the next year. She puts that food in her pantry to use and buys new for her storage. That way she never has food meeting or exceeding its expiration.
Judy's method:
- Judy's website and cookbook, "Cooking from my pantry" is the basis of how I put this system together for my family. You can find all of her information on the blog and in her recipe book. The full book is online and is FREE!
Bags vs. Boxes
The pantry meals that you put together can be put in boxes or plastic gift bags to keep all of the ingredients for each meal together. Whether you use bags or boxes is really just a matter of preference. I personally prefer the boxes because they stack well. Others prefer the bags. Here are thoughts on the pros and cons:
- Price. The boxes cost around $1 each and have to be special ordered online. The bags can be purchases at Xpedx stores for about 45 cents each.
- Space. 2 boxes stacked on top of each other take up the same amount of space as 2 bags set next to each other.
- Both are reusable. Once you have used the meal inside, you can set either aside to be refilled after you go to the store again. The bags will fold down flat when empty and take up much less space. The boxes are boxes and take up the same amount of space full or empty.
- The boxes are sturdier.
- The boxes only come on one color. But the bags come in all sorts of colors so you can color coordinate you meals if you would like to. Red bags for beef. Yellow for chicken. Blue for breakfast, etc.
Canned vs. bottled food:
- You can make your pantry meals out of whatever you have on hand. I bottle a lot of tomatoes and chicken, so when one of my recipes calls for tomatoes or chicken, I put in a bottle instead of purchasing canned. Use what you have and what you like.
Water
In the book "It's in the Bag", the author includes in her bags enough water to make the meal. She never wants to be without water. If a recipe needs 4 cups of water to prepare the dinner, she puts 2 bottles of water in the bag. When she is at home, she just uses her tap water, but if she ever does use a water bottle, she saves it and refills it and puts it back in the bag.
I'm not so worried about keeping the water in with my meals because of the water I already have stored. . I have about 100 96 oz. apple juice bottles full of water in my basement and 8 - 55 gallon water containers in my back yard. If I ever had to evacuate and take my pantry meals with me, I will have to remember to take my apple juice bottles filled with water with me.
Cornbread, Bread & Tortillas
To supplement my meals in a box I plan to make cornbread to go with some of the less filling meals. I store my ingredients to make cornbread, tortillas, and bread separately. I have a container for each one that holds all of the ingredients for each.
Why cornbread and not always just regular bread? I think that we often think that when we are in a crisis all we will have is time on our hands. But the opposite will be true. We might not have the 2 hours or so that it takes to make a batch of wheat bread. But cornbread can be make and baked in a 1/2 an hour and can be ready to eat with any meal without much for-thought. I store popcorn to grind into cornmeal to make cornbread with. For my favorite recipe, click here.
Breakfasts & Lunches
The pantry meal concept can be used for breakfast and lunches as well as for dinners. In my house, I store bulk items for breakfast. Like 50 lb. bags of 9-grain breakfast hot cereal, 25 lb. bags of oatmeal, or 5lb. bags of Krustez pancake mix. I could separate them out into meal size portions, but I don't bother. I know how much I have of what and I'm okay leaving it in the bulk package.
I am working on my lunches. Most of my breakfast are carbohydrate heavy (there aren't very many traditional breakfast proteins...eggs, ham, etc... available for long term storage.). So for lunches I would like to have protein. That also doesn't leave a lot of choice. Tuna, canned ham, canned chili and bean spreads. But they don't really need their own boxes. So I haven't done lunches in boxes. But you could also just do more of your dinner meals and use them for lunches.
Rotation
I really like Wendy DeWitt's "pull out everything once a year and use and replace what is about to expire" method. Once a year is about all I have time to think about it. Maybe not even that often! It's a good thing that canned goods are good for several years!
How to buy it:
Instead of buying cases of food one at a time and then needing to eat it and realizing that you only have cases of cream of chicken soup, pineapple and green beans. (What are you going to make with that??? Yuck!) I like to choose one or 2 pantry meal recipes a month and buy all of the ingredients for those recipes, put them in the boxes and then I know that I have full and complete meals ready to go at all times.
The PMS Group:
Several friends and I found out about pantry meals at the same time. So we decided that since none of us had very many meals that were shelf stable and ready to put into boxes, we needed to try some out. There were about 12 of us that would get together once a month and swap pantry meals. Hence the name: Pantry Meals Swap group! We would each make up several of one recipe and then go and trade around. That way we came home with one each of different recipes to try. Some of my very favorite pantry meal recipes came from these swaps. We swapped a couple of months and then the fall and holidays hit and we didn't get it going again. But for the little time we swapped, it was fabulous! For more thoughts on the PMS group, click here.
Conclusion:
No matter what method you choose to use to get and organize your preparedness meals and items, it's important to remember that the principle of food storage isn't a principle of keeping our tummies full, it is a principle of obedience to the Lord. The Lord will not give us commandments that He won't provide a way for us to keep. (1 Nephi 3:7) If we are serious about getting the storage our stake presidency and general authorities have asked us to get, and do all that we can to make it happen, miracles will occur on our behalf. We may have to use our storage before we feel like it is full and complete, but it is my testimony that through our obedience and diligence our "barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail" (1 Kings 17:14).
For some more of my thoughts on pantry meals, click here.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Notes from the Pantry Meals class I taught for RS
All is Safely Gathered In: Pantry Meals
June 2011
"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." ---LDS Home Food Storage Pamphlet
Everything that I talked about can be found here on my blog. On the right hand side under "labels" you can click on "pantry meals" for all of the posts and click on "pantry meal recipes" for all the recipes.
RESOURCES:
*LDS Home Food Storage pamphlet
*Fast Food in a Bag; Original Concept by Mary Ann Swenson and Christine Van Wagenen
*Cooking from my pantry website
*Cooking from my pantry blog
*My Girlfriend's Pantry
*Wendy DeWitt's Blog
*Video of Wendy DeWitt's food storage seminar that she gave in Utah County
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Creating Your Own Family Plan
Step One: Put together a list of meals that your family already eats and likes.
Step Two: Collect the recipes and convert to use pantry foods as needed.
Step Three: List items in each recipe and multiply by how many times you want to serve it.
Step Four: Purchase food
Step Five: Develop a working rotation system that is good for you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RECIPES:
WHEAT BREAD RECIPE
CORN BREAD RECIPE
Hawaiian Haystacks
Chicken and Rice Bake
Shepard's Pie
Taco Soup
Green Chili Beans
Green Chili Burritos
Beef Barley Soup
Tamale Pie
Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I ordered my tuck top boxes from here:
http://www.papermart.com/Product%20Pages/Product.aspx?GroupID=37547&ParentGroupID=18885
They are this item code:
072770 - 12 1/4 x 9 1/4 x 4 inches
Shipping is the killer on the price of these. They end up costing about $1 each. But if you get together with your friends and order 450 or more, you can get a discount making them 86 cents each!
June 2011
"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." ---LDS Home Food Storage Pamphlet
Everything that I talked about can be found here on my blog. On the right hand side under "labels" you can click on "pantry meals" for all of the posts and click on "pantry meal recipes" for all the recipes.
RESOURCES:
*LDS Home Food Storage pamphlet
*Fast Food in a Bag; Original Concept by Mary Ann Swenson and Christine Van Wagenen
*Cooking from my pantry website
*Cooking from my pantry blog
*My Girlfriend's Pantry
*Wendy DeWitt's Blog
*Video of Wendy DeWitt's food storage seminar that she gave in Utah County
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Creating Your Own Family Plan
Step One: Put together a list of meals that your family already eats and likes.
Step Two: Collect the recipes and convert to use pantry foods as needed.
Step Three: List items in each recipe and multiply by how many times you want to serve it.
Step Four: Purchase food
Step Five: Develop a working rotation system that is good for you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RECIPES:
WHEAT BREAD RECIPE
CORN BREAD RECIPE
Hawaiian Haystacks
Chicken and Rice Bake
Shepard's Pie
Taco Soup
Green Chili Beans
Green Chili Burritos
Beef Barley Soup
Tamale Pie
Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I ordered my tuck top boxes from here:
http://www.papermart.com/Product%20Pages/Product.aspx?GroupID=37547&ParentGroupID=18885
They are this item code:
072770 - 12 1/4 x 9 1/4 x 4 inches
Shipping is the killer on the price of these. They end up costing about $1 each. But if you get together with your friends and order 450 or more, you can get a discount making them 86 cents each!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Pantry Meals: the PMS group!
Let's talk a little bit about the PMS group, because I know you are dying to know!
My friend, Judy, gave a homemaking/enrichment night/RS meeting (you know what I mean!) on pantry meals. She invited anyone in the homeschool group that wanted to, to attend and several of us did. We finally were able to get our heads around the concept. We decided that we needed to get going on this, so the PMS group was formed. PMS is, of course, for Pantry Meal Swap! And you thought we were just a bunch of ornery moms! :)
We decided that we would meet once a month and swap meals. Each one of us would choose a pantry meal and make 12 of them. 12 of the same meal. Then we would swap and come home with 12 different meals to try. We set up some ground rules and went for it. We swapped 5 times before life got hectic and Christmas rolled around. It was fabulous! Some of my family's very favorite meals came from the PMS group. I can't wait until we get going with it again!
Our ground rules were:
1 - The week before the swap, you had to post to the group what meal you were preparing. This kept us from duplicating what someone else was doing.
2 - The meal had to have several ingredients. It wasn't specified how many, but we didn't want someone bringing spaghetti sauce and noodles and calling it a meal. If you wanted to bring spaghetti sauce and noodles, you would pare it up with a side dish (like a can or 2 of green beans).
3 - We did NOT include the meat. That made things too pricey. It was assumed and understood that everyone would just use the meat that they had at home.
4 - The full meal had to be shelf stable. We tried to avoid things that had to be put in the fridge. The whole meal went in the box and stayed in the box.
5 - Everyone included a typed 4x6 card of the recipe with the meal. There's nothing worse than getting home with a bag full of canned goods and not know what to do with them! I usually printed mine at this site: http://www.apollostemplates.com/templates-food/recipe-card-templates.asp
6 - Every meal had to serve at least 8 people. Most of our families are large!
7 - Not everyone was taking the meals home and putting them in boxes. Some preferred bags. So we would just put our whole meal in a grocery bag and then when each person got home they could do with them what they wanted.
My friend, Judy, gave a homemaking/enrichment night/RS meeting (you know what I mean!) on pantry meals. She invited anyone in the homeschool group that wanted to, to attend and several of us did. We finally were able to get our heads around the concept. We decided that we needed to get going on this, so the PMS group was formed. PMS is, of course, for Pantry Meal Swap! And you thought we were just a bunch of ornery moms! :)
We decided that we would meet once a month and swap meals. Each one of us would choose a pantry meal and make 12 of them. 12 of the same meal. Then we would swap and come home with 12 different meals to try. We set up some ground rules and went for it. We swapped 5 times before life got hectic and Christmas rolled around. It was fabulous! Some of my family's very favorite meals came from the PMS group. I can't wait until we get going with it again!
Our ground rules were:1 - The week before the swap, you had to post to the group what meal you were preparing. This kept us from duplicating what someone else was doing.
2 - The meal had to have several ingredients. It wasn't specified how many, but we didn't want someone bringing spaghetti sauce and noodles and calling it a meal. If you wanted to bring spaghetti sauce and noodles, you would pare it up with a side dish (like a can or 2 of green beans).
3 - We did NOT include the meat. That made things too pricey. It was assumed and understood that everyone would just use the meat that they had at home.
4 - The full meal had to be shelf stable. We tried to avoid things that had to be put in the fridge. The whole meal went in the box and stayed in the box.
5 - Everyone included a typed 4x6 card of the recipe with the meal. There's nothing worse than getting home with a bag full of canned goods and not know what to do with them! I usually printed mine at this site: http://www.apollostemplates.com/templates-food/recipe-card-templates.asp
6 - Every meal had to serve at least 8 people. Most of our families are large!
7 - Not everyone was taking the meals home and putting them in boxes. Some preferred bags. So we would just put our whole meal in a grocery bag and then when each person got home they could do with them what they wanted.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Pantry Meals: a few of my thoughts...
Here are some things that I have been thinking about as I have been posting about pantry meals.
--Every time I get recipes from someone else, they may look great, but just aren't what my family is used to eating. I make menu plans based on someone else's likes and my family ends up not eating anything. So when I got serious about putting these pantry meals together, I went first to the meals that my family eats on a regular basis. I was quickly able to go down my list of things that we eat and choose the meals that lent themselves the best to being converted into a pantry meal. So while MY family likes what are in boxes at MY house, yours may not like these things. Fit your meals to what YOUR family likes and will eat. This is why the PMS group (hee hee...I laugh every time I say that!) was so great. I could get one of a new recipe to try. If we liked it, we added it to our list; if we didn't...no loss. And we tried the new meals over several weeks. I didn't try to feed my family all of the new meals all in a row.
--At our house, we don't often eat "out of a can". I did have to do converting of my recipes to make them shelf stable. I usually don't buy canned beans. It is easier and cheaper to buy and cook dried beans. Or bottle them myself. But for my boxes right now, I found sales and bought canned beans because I didn't have any bottled ones on hand. I also cook beans and freeze them to have on hand. I don't often think ahead far enough to be able to soak and cook beans. So I soak and cook them when I can and then have them frozen when I need them. And our pantry meals are only a small percentage of the meals that we eat. Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't eat these meals all in a row and "eat out of a can" for 90 days straight. We store pantry meals for use in extreme circumstances.
--We mostly eat fresh or frozen veggies because the sodium is so high in the canned veggies. But fresh and frozen veggies aren't shelf stable. We do what we can in our pantry meals...
--I don't just put my pantry meals together and them hide them under the bed and forget they are there. If I have a super busy day and don't plan ahead (that happens more than I would like to admit!) I grab a pantry meal to get dinner on the table quick. But I don't necessarily use every can out of the box. If I grab Taco Soup in the box I would use frozen corn and beans and leave the bean and corn cans in the box and be that much ahead when I refill the box. If I pull the box of stroganoff, I would use sour cream out of my fridge and not use my sour cream powder. If I pulled the box of Shepard's pie, I would make mashed potatoes from the potatoes in my house and not use the potato pearls. You get the picture. I save the longer term storage items for the emergency use of the meals.
--One of my favorite stories to share about my pantry meals is from our vacation to AZ last year. We went to Phoenix for a week to visit family and we stayed in a condo. We knew that we would have a full kitchen in the condo to cook in and we did NOT want to have to eat fast food the whole time. I grabbed enough of my boxed pantry meals to last the week and packed them in the car. (The boxes fit great and traveled really well!) When we got there, I just stacked up the boxes on the counter and cooked out of the boxes. I knew that I had everything that I needed for the full meal in the box. We added salad or a fresh fruit on the side and had great meals! It saved us SO MUCH money on food! There were also several days that we were over at my Grandma's house and didn't want her to have to feed our big family, so I would just grab a box and take it with us to her house and cook her dinner!
--Every time I get recipes from someone else, they may look great, but just aren't what my family is used to eating. I make menu plans based on someone else's likes and my family ends up not eating anything. So when I got serious about putting these pantry meals together, I went first to the meals that my family eats on a regular basis. I was quickly able to go down my list of things that we eat and choose the meals that lent themselves the best to being converted into a pantry meal. So while MY family likes what are in boxes at MY house, yours may not like these things. Fit your meals to what YOUR family likes and will eat. This is why the PMS group (hee hee...I laugh every time I say that!) was so great. I could get one of a new recipe to try. If we liked it, we added it to our list; if we didn't...no loss. And we tried the new meals over several weeks. I didn't try to feed my family all of the new meals all in a row.
--At our house, we don't often eat "out of a can". I did have to do converting of my recipes to make them shelf stable. I usually don't buy canned beans. It is easier and cheaper to buy and cook dried beans. Or bottle them myself. But for my boxes right now, I found sales and bought canned beans because I didn't have any bottled ones on hand. I also cook beans and freeze them to have on hand. I don't often think ahead far enough to be able to soak and cook beans. So I soak and cook them when I can and then have them frozen when I need them. And our pantry meals are only a small percentage of the meals that we eat. Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't eat these meals all in a row and "eat out of a can" for 90 days straight. We store pantry meals for use in extreme circumstances.
--We mostly eat fresh or frozen veggies because the sodium is so high in the canned veggies. But fresh and frozen veggies aren't shelf stable. We do what we can in our pantry meals...
--I don't just put my pantry meals together and them hide them under the bed and forget they are there. If I have a super busy day and don't plan ahead (that happens more than I would like to admit!) I grab a pantry meal to get dinner on the table quick. But I don't necessarily use every can out of the box. If I grab Taco Soup in the box I would use frozen corn and beans and leave the bean and corn cans in the box and be that much ahead when I refill the box. If I pull the box of stroganoff, I would use sour cream out of my fridge and not use my sour cream powder. If I pulled the box of Shepard's pie, I would make mashed potatoes from the potatoes in my house and not use the potato pearls. You get the picture. I save the longer term storage items for the emergency use of the meals.
--One of my favorite stories to share about my pantry meals is from our vacation to AZ last year. We went to Phoenix for a week to visit family and we stayed in a condo. We knew that we would have a full kitchen in the condo to cook in and we did NOT want to have to eat fast food the whole time. I grabbed enough of my boxed pantry meals to last the week and packed them in the car. (The boxes fit great and traveled really well!) When we got there, I just stacked up the boxes on the counter and cooked out of the boxes. I knew that I had everything that I needed for the full meal in the box. We added salad or a fresh fruit on the side and had great meals! It saved us SO MUCH money on food! There were also several days that we were over at my Grandma's house and didn't want her to have to feed our big family, so I would just grab a box and take it with us to her house and cook her dinner!
Pantry meals: Teri's plan
My friend, Teri Ebert, also has a food storage plan that utilized pantry meals. Her plan is amazing and really helped me get my head around food storage. She doesn't do meals in boxes or bags like I do, but she does use the same theory for her 2 weeks of emergency meals. Here are Teri's ideas:
Basic food storage planning worksheets
Food storage strategies
72 hour kits and 2 weeks of meals
Basic food storage planning worksheets
Food storage strategies
72 hour kits and 2 weeks of meals
Pantry Meals: notes from the original class
The following are the notes that I have from the very first class I went on on pantry meals. I claim NO credit for the following. I am just passing on the information I was given. My friend, Judy, taught the class and she was amazing! If you would like to print a hard copy of the following, it is here. ---Jen
Fast Food in a Bag
Original Concept by Mary Ann Swenson and
Christine Van Wagenen.
Having food ready in individual bags along with the recipe and ingredients makes meals and baked goods quick and easy.
All types of recipes are workable, from main dishes to desserts and snacks. These recipes may or may not be made completely from storage items.
Including our families in filling the bags is a great way to teach children and other novice cooks how to cook easy meals for themselves.
Saving Money on Groceries
Research shows that we can cut our food bill in half if we do three things:
- Make either a two-week or one-month menu that includes breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks
- Buy in bulk
- Have a food pantry
Meals in a bag can help tremendously with this.
Bagged Meals
For pictures and information on making bagged meals please visit: www.cookingfrommypantry.blogspot.com
Meals can be put in gallon or two-gallon Ziplock bags, plastic gift bags or boxes (see blog).
Seasonings can be stored in 2”x3” or 3”x5” zip top baggies found at craft stores and paper stores
Converting a Recipe
The following chart shows how the recipe for
Lubia Polo (Persian Green Beans/Rice) can be adapted to 100% Pantry ingredients.
Lubia Polo (Persian Green Beans and Rice)
| Original Recipe | Adaptation |
| 1 pound ground beef | 1 can ground beef or beef chunks |
| 1 large onion | ¼ cup dehydrated onions |
| ½ large Anaheim pepper | 4 dehydrated Anaheim pepper strips or try red pepper flakes |
| 1 T. curry powder | Same |
| 4 c. chicken or beef broth | Same |
| 1 can tomato paste | Same |
| 1 pound fresh green beans | 2 cans green beans |
| 2 c. rice | Same |
Canned Meats
Canned meats are available at the grocery stores and the Cannery.
The LDS Church has canneries where they do canned products. Periodically they do canned meats. Their canned meats only contain meat, water and salt. They do canned ground beef, beef chunks, chicken and pork. To get on their e-mail list in Utah County (Lindon Cannery) call 785-0998. In order to purchase these products, you need to pre-order and then work a shift at the cannery where you actually help can the products.
100% Pantry Meals
The following recipes have been adapted to 100% Pantry—everything is in the bag except water. It is easy to throw together a nutritious meal when rushed. Also, they work great for traveling, camping, emergencies and busy college students. (Just remember to take along a can opener.)
The following seven recipes are 100% pantry meals. (Note: The recipes are typed in two columns to make it easier to cut the recipes apart and include the recipe with the bagged/boxed meal.)
Lubia Polo (Persian Green Beans/Rice)
100% Pantry
In the Bag
1 can ground beef OR beef chunks
2 cans chicken or beef broth OR sub 4 c. water plus bouillon
1 can tomato paste (plus 1 ½ c. water)
2 cans green beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups uncooked basmati rice (white or brown)
Seasonings Packet
¼ c. dehydrated onions
4 dried Anaheim pepper strips
1 T. curry powder
½ t. salt
In a large pan, brown the canned beef. Add seasonings, chicken broth, green beans, tomato paste and water. Bring to a boil. Add uncooked rice.
Cover and reduce heat to low/medium. Cook for 20-25 minutes for white rice or 50-60 minutes for brown rice.
Carol’s Taco Soup
100% Pantry
In the Bag
1 can ground beef OR beef chunks
1 can kidney or black beans
2 cans stewed or diced tomatoes
1 can corn
1 can tomato paste (plus 1 ½ c. water)
Seasonings Packet
1 T. dehydrated onions
Homemade Taco Seasoning
2 t. minced onions
1 t. salt
1 t. chili powder
½ t. crushed dried red pepper
½ t. garlic powder
½ t. cumin
¼ t. oregano
Combine all ingredients and simmer for 15 to 30 minutes until soft.
Chicken Curry
100% Pantry
In the Bag
2 cups white or brown rice
2 cans chicken (if desired, drain and rinse)
1 can coconut milk (13.5 oz)
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)
2 cups chicken broth OR 2 c. water + 2 t. chicken bouillon
Seasonings Packet
1/3 c. dried onion
1 T. curry powder
1 t. ground ginger
½ t. salt (or to taste)
½ t. cinnamon
½ t. garlic powder
¼ t. ground cloves
¼ t. cayenne pepper
Separate Seasoning Packet
cilantro (optional)
Cooking Rice
Bring 4 cups water to a boil. Add 2 c. rice and cover with lid. Turn on low. Cook 20 minutes for white rice and 50-60 minutes for brown rice.
Cooking Curry
Pour all ingredients except for rice and cilantro into separate pan. Bring to simmer. Simmer until flavors blend. I put it on to cook at the same time as the rice.
To Serve
Serve curry over the rice. Sprinkle with cilantro, if desired.
Spaghetti
100% Pantry
In the Bag
Bottled spaghetti sauce
1 can ground beef OR beef chunks
Pasta
Heat spaghetti sauce and canned meat.
Bring water to boil in a separate pan. When boiling, add pasta and cook approximately 8 minutes until done.
Potato Soup
100% Pantry
Our daughter really likes potato soup. She especially likes it when she isn’t feeling well. I usually make it with approximately 2 quarts water, peeled/cubed potatoes (to the water line), 1 lb cooked hamburger, 1 onion, approximately 4 stalks of celery plus salt and pepper. We still really like homemade potato soup, but I found the following quick version tasty.
In the Bag
1 large can potatoes (15 oz from cannery) or 2 small cans potatoes from grocery store (drained and rinsed)
1 can ground beef (14.4 oz from cannery)
Seasonings Packet
¼ cup dried onions
¼ cup dried celery
½ teaspoon garlic powder
Put 1 quart water on to boil and add seasonings. Cube canned potatoes. Add all ingredients. Cook until heated through and dried celery is soft. Add salt and pepper if needed.
Kathy’s Quick Chili
100% Pantry
In the Bag
1 can cannery ground beef OR beef chunks
2 cans diced tomatoes (14.4 oz)
2 cans red kidney beans (14.4 oz)
1 can chili beans (14.4 oz)
2 small cans tomato sauce
1 can green beans
Seasonings Packet
¼ c. dehydrated onions
1 T. chili powder
Mix all ingredients in a pan. Heat through and serve.
Spicy Chicken Soup (5 quarts)
100% Pantry
In the Bag
2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1-2 cans cannery chicken (broken apart, drain and rinse if you like)
1 (15 ounce) can corn, drained
2 (16 ounce) canned beans (black, pinto, chili, etc.), drained and rinsed
1 ½ cup salsa
Seasonings Packet
1/4 c. dehydrated onions
5 cubes or teaspoons chicken bouillon
2-3 Tablespoons chili powder
2 Tablespoons dried parsley
1 Tablespoon onion powder
2 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon salt
Dump everything into a pan or crockpot along with 2-4 cups water and heat up. You can simmer for a while to blend flavors.
Partial Pantry Meals
Mary Ann Swenson fries up 10 pounds of hamburger (along with onions and peppers) at a time for many different recipes (chili, tacos, lasagna, etc.) and stores recipe size bags in the freezer. She calls this “one mess and ten meals.”
She also cooks a large quantity of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the crockpot and freezes the cooked chicken in recipe-sized servings.
She premixes dry ingredients where possible, and finds that with a little planning and preparation ahead of time, she can have healthy quick meals in minutes in this fast paced world of ours.
Below is a recipe to try:
Mary Ann’s Cowboy Delight
In the Bag
4 cans diced tomatoes (14.4 oz. cans)
1 or 2 cans tomato sauce
1 cube beef bouillon
1 6-oz package elbow macaroni, cooked according to package directions
2 Tablespoons dried parsley
From the Freezer
1 package hamburger mix (This is a combination of one pound of hamburger, 2 chopped onions and one chopped green pepper, cooked and then frozen in a bag.)
From the Refrigerator
1 cup diced celery, optional
1 cup grated carrots, optional
1 teaspoon minced garlic
Combine tomatoes, beef broth, garlic, celery, carrots and hamburger mix. Simmer 20 minutes. Add cooked macaroni and heat five minutes more. Serve.
You can add the dry macaroni directly to the rest of the ingredients if you choose. This will make the consistency much thicker.
Spicy Roast Beef
In the Bag
2 cans diced tomatoes (14.4 oz)
1 can diced green chilies
From the Freezer
Beef roast, thawed
From the Pantry
Onion, chopped (or ¼ c. dehydrated onions)
Place thawed roast in the crockpot. Cover with chopped onions. Top with diced tomatoes and chilies. I usually put the crockpot on high for an hour to get it up to temperature. Then I reduce the crockpot to low for approximately 8 hours.
Breakfast Pack
Recently I started putting together a breakfast pack. I put a variety of individual mixes in quart Ziplock bags. I then put different mixes along with the recipes in a gallon Ziplock bag. This makes it easy to put together a hot breakfast in the morning. (My breakfast pack might include 1 Blueberry Coffee Cake Mix; 1 Apple Pancake Mix; 1 Scone Mix, etc.)
Breakfast Ideas to go in Breakfast Pack
(Include the dry ingredients in a Ziplock bag along with the recipe)
- Blueberry coffee cake
- Apple pancakes
- Hot cereal
- Scones
- Banana Pancakes
- Cranberry Applesauce Muffins
- Pumpkin Pancakes
- Hoe Cakes
- Apple Bread or Muffins
- Pumpkin Bread or Muffins
- Waffles
- Coconut Bread or Muffins
- Crepes
- Blueberry Muffins
- Banana Bread or Muffins
- Applesauce Bread or Muffins
Bread in a Bag
You can put together lots of different breads in a bag along with the recipe. The ingredients can be much healthier than the ingredients found in mixes from the store that include lots of preservatives.
This makes it really quick to throw bread together and get it in the oven. I do some of the following in bags:
· Muffins
· Pita Bread
· French Bread
· Cornbread
· Pizza Crust to use for Pizza or “Flat” Garlic bread
Desserts in a Bag
These same concepts can be used to create easy desserts in a bag.
Here are some desserts that can easily be made into mixes:
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Cake
- White Cake
- Angel Food Cake
- Upside Down Cake
- Gingerbread
- Brownies
- Pie Crust
- Pudding Mix
Credits
I have learned so much from my Church that has helped me in my efforts to have foods stored that our family (with its very special diet needs) can eat. Many of these ideas and concepts have come from members of the Church who have shared their ideas so freely with me. To all of those that have helped, I thank. I especially am grateful for our Prophet and Church who have given this guidance.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormons) recommends that its members have a three-month supply of foods that is part of our normal, daily diet.
They also recommend for longer-term needs to build a supply of food that will last a long time such as beans and rice.
Quoting from their Pamphlet “All Is Safely Gathered In” “We encourage Church members worldwide to prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings.”
For more information, see www.providentliving.org
Creating Your Own
Family Plan
Step One: Put together a two week menu plan. (Meals your family likes!)
Sample 14-Day Menu
(Note: Many of these recipes can be prepared with 100% Pantry items or they can be prepared with items from the freezer or fresh ingredients. I make a lot of spaghetti sauce in the summer from the garden and freeze it. However, I also buy a few jars of prepared spaghetti sauce for camping. Also, we buy beef directly from a farmer so I use a lot of beef from our freezer. However, it’s also very nice for a quick meal or traveling to used canned ground beef.)
| # | Recipe | Recipe |
| 1 | Lubia Polo | 100% Pantry |
| 2 | Pizza | |
| 3 | Julie’s Chicken Strips | |
| 4 | Spaghetti | 100% Pantry |
| 5 | Taco Casserole | |
| 6 | Mock Chili Potato Bar | 100% Pantry |
| 7 | Chicken Curry | 100% Pantry |
| 8 | Spicy Chicken Soup | 100% Pantry |
| 9 | Skillet Lasagna | 100% Pantry |
| 10 | Potato Soup | 100% Pantry |
| 11 | Chicken Cacciatore | |
| 12 | Taco Soup | 100% Pantry |
| 13 | Carli’s Sloppy Joes | |
| 14 | Thai Chickpea Curry | 100% Pantry |
Our Family’s Two-Week Menu
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Step Two: Collect the recipes and convert to use pantry foods as needed.
Step Three: List items in each recipe and multiply by how many times you want to serve it. (See example below.)
Step Four: Purchase food
Step Five: Develop a working rotation system that is good for you.
Shopping Plan
Meals our Family Likes—All ingredients from pantry.
| | Carol’s Taco Soup | | Qty | Amount needed to make meal 6 times |
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| 1 | Cannery ground beef | | 6 | Cannery Ground Beef |
| 1 | 15-oz can kidney beans | | 6 | 15-oz can kidney beans |
| 2 | 14.5-oz. cans stewed or diced tomatoes | | 12 | 14.5 oz cans stewed or diced tomatoes |
| 1 | 11-oz can corn | | 6 | 11 oz cans corn |
| 1 | 8-oz can tomato sauce | | 6 | 8 oz cans tomato sauce |
| 1 | Package taco seasoning | | 6 | Packages taco season |
| 1 | T. Dehydrated onion | | 6 | T. Dehydrated onions |
| | My Recipe | | | Amount needed to make meal 6 times |
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