THE SQUIRREL CHALLENGE: Want to join?

[TanksHill]

Wow I left town for two days and I missed it all. I'm in. Not sure if I will ever catch up with you all but a challenge will get me moving a bit faster.

SkR I too am envious of your pantry. I tried to show my DH but looking at another's canned goods isn't really his thing. I wanted him to see I am not the only one with buckets and gamma seal lids. I did notice a couple things in your storage and I wanted to ask.

Do you always store your jars with the bands on?
I am so afraid of my jars being jolted in an earthquake. I guess you don't have that problem.
Did you freeze all of your flour before putting it in the buckets?
Did you grow all of that beautiful food in jars or do you buy in bulk and can?

When I come and park my fifth wheel at your house, I will bring creamer for all that great coffee, it's the least I can do!!

 

[Homesteadmom]

Well we added 3 trees this weekend & I have 6 new rhubarb plants, 9 strawberry plants planted, the garden is being expanded so we can grow more. I have lots of canning jars & lids. Not anywhere near what sk has, but getting there in my own time. I will be increasing my chicken flock this yr too. I have 4 layers & 1 bantam layer, so I plan on getting 20 more layers this yr. I have tons of seeds stored up for future gardens too. I will have to count it all up & post it later here.
I also have clothing stored up to size 14 for dd whom now wears a 3t(not complete wardrobes).

 

[Dace]

I am going to SK's house if things go bad!! He can feed my family of 8 for at least a year or more!!
I just planned out a one month meal menu plan and I plan try to stock 12 of each of those meals as I can. I tried to make the meals so they did not have to be from the fridge or freezer so if I actually count in all of our out of the freezer meals and fresh food meals the 12 months of meals should actually last us two or three years.
Examlple: Chicken or tuna noodle casserole....I want to stock up 24 bags of noodles, 12 cans of chicken or tuna, 12 large cans of cream of mushroom soup, 12 cans of condensed milk, and 3 boxes of the 4 packs of crackers.

Pam that is a really great idea. Can you share some of your other 'meal' ideas?

 

[SKR8PN]

Wow I left town for two days and I missed it all. I'm in. Not sure if I will ever catch up with you all but a challenge will get me moving a bit faster.

SkR I too am envious of your pantry. I tried to show my DH but looking at another's canned goods isn't really his thing. I wanted him to see I am not the only one with buckets and gamma seal lids. I did notice a couple things in your storage and I wanted to ask.

Do you always store your jars with the bands on?
I am so afraid of my jars being jolted in an earthquake. I guess you don't have that problem.
Did you freeze all of your flour before putting it in the buckets?
Did you grow all of that beautiful food in jars or do you buy in bulk and can?

When I come and park my fifth wheel at your house, I will bring creamer for all that great coffee, it's the least I can do!!

Yes, we always leave the bands on. Don't know why, but we do!
Yes, I froze the flour twice before putting it in the buckets. I also added a couple oxygen absorbers to help keep it fresh. Everything you see in the pictures that is home canned, came out of our garden with the exception of the second batch of canned carrots, and the apples. The local store had a screaming good deal on carrots so we bought them and canned them. The apples we buy from a local orchard that has THE nicest stuff I have ever seen!

If your gonna bring the creamer, I have a request. Make sure it is Carolan's Irish Cream. and bring a LOT of it, 'cause we're gonna be here for awhile!!

 

[PamsPride]

I am going to SK's house if things go bad!! He can feed my family of 8 for at least a year or more!!
I just planned out a one month meal menu plan and I plan try to stock 12 of each of those meals as I can. I tried to make the meals so they did not have to be from the fridge or freezer so if I actually count in all of our out of the freezer meals and fresh food meals the 12 months of meals should actually last us two or three years.
Examlple: Chicken or tuna noodle casserole....I want to stock up 24 bags of noodles, 12 cans of chicken or tuna, 12 large cans of cream of mushroom soup, 12 cans of condensed milk, and 3 boxes of the 4 packs of crackers.

Pam that is a really great idea. Can you share some of your other 'meal' ideas?

Hmmm...I can't seem to find my list so I will try and remember some of the things.
1. Taco rice: pita shells, taco seanoning, canned cheese sauce, and rice, fritos
2. Baked beans and corn bread: #10 can of baked beans, 2 boxes of Jiffy corn muffin mix (we like to add hot dogs to our baked beans)
3. Speghetti: noodles and sauce
4. Pizza: dough mix and pizza sauce (then just add cheese and other toppings)
5. Chicken flavored rice: rice and chicken boullion cubes, some speghetti noodles, shredded chicken (canned or leftovers)
6. #10 can of Ravioli
7. Sloppy Joe seasoning (then just need ground meat and buns)
8. Homemade mac 'n cheese: condesce nacho cheese soup, macaroni noodle, evaporated milk, and crackers
9. Hamburger Helpers (Just add the meat or canned tuna) (Stocking up during the $1 a box sale because my family uses 3 boxes at a meal.)
10. Chili: beans, tomato juice, tomatos, seasoning (I make a 20 quart roaster at a time so this lasts for several meals in our house.) (Just add meat and onion, and green peppers from freezer but I am going to try and dehydrate my onions and green peppers for next year.)
11. Chicken or tuna noodle casserole
12. Chicken noodle soup: chicken boullion cubes, noodles, carrots, (usually leftover shredded chicken from roasted chicken)
13. Oodles of Noodles
14. Skillet Mac: same as speghetti only we use macaroni noodles
15. Salmon patties: canned salmon, bread crumbs

And a few other meals I can not think of. I know a lot of it is not real healthy but I tried to plan meals that did not require to much freezer space.
We put 50 broiler chickens that we raised in the freezer last year...and plan on doing more than that this year. We also put two deer in the freezer. We also have enough canned applesauce and frozen corn that we did to last a whole year.

Like I said, when I figure in all of the fresh meals these meals should last a long time.
I still need to come up with about 10-15 more meal choices. Any suggestions???
I tried to plan the meals so that if we do lose power and lose all of our food in the freezer we will still have meals/ food. I also tried to pick meals that did not require the oven to fix and could be done on a stove top thing.
Again this is my goal to stock 12 meals of each of these and of course I have to stock them in bigger portions than the average family because there are of us in my family.

 

[Homesteadmom]

Pam, did you know you can make your own hamburger helper mix? My family loves it, & it is sooooo much cheaper than buying it in the store & less garbage in it too.

 

[PamsPride]

Pam, did you know you can make your own hamburger helper mix? My family loves it, & it is sooooo much cheaper than buying it in the store & less garbage in it too.

I would love to know how!! All I really need is the seasoning mixes! We also have lots of noodles on hand in the house and the meat/tuna. We started making our own taco rice meal based off the HH meal.

 

[TanksHill]

]If your gonna bring the creamer, I have a request. Make sure it is Carolan's Irish Cream. and bring a LOT of it, 'cause we're gonna be here for awhile!!

Ok I got ya covered!!!!

 

[Iceblink]

SK- unless you buy dehydrated or canned dog food, I wouldn't recommed stocking up too far in advance. The oils can go rancid and make your dogs sick.

Check the expiration dates carefully, most good foods should have them.

Beautiful, enviable pantry! I'm impressed and inspired.

 

[TanksHill]

Pam, did you know you can make your own hamburger helper mix? My family loves it, & it is sooooo much cheaper than buying it in the store & less garbage in it too.

I would love to know how!! All I really need is the seasoning mixes! We also have lots of noodles on hand in the house and the meat/tuna. We started making our own taco rice meal based off the HH meal.

hey you two, great ideas. Just thought I would give my .02. I picked up a book with my last order from Emergency Essentials. It's a called Mix A Meal. It has all kinds of recipes for using what you store. As well as making your own mixes, seasoning blends and salad dressings, baked goods and a bunch of other stuff. All from dry pantry items. I did need to purchase a couple staples like the dehydrated shortening and butter. There are so many things in this book it's crazy.

They have what they cal mini mixes so you can try it out. Then if you like you can go big. I currently use the pancake mix and cheese sauce mix. But I can't wait to try more seasonings.

Good luck, g