You need to plan your food storage in terms of what you can actually DO with the items. Wheat won’t do you any good if you don’t have other baking supplies needed to make edible food out of it. Using information from the book. Marlene’s magic with food storage As a general guideline, I’ve compiled a list of different foods you can cook based on what items you currently have in your food storage. This should be a starting point for anyone determining which items to start stockpiling or seeing which items to add to really improve your food options.
I would suggest getting a 3 month supply of all of these items first, then moving on to a full year’s worth of food. You don’t want to end up with a year’s supply of wheat and not be able to make even a loaf of bread because you don’t have the other ingredients.
Foods You Can Prepare Using Common Food Storage Items
If you ONLY have: Water, Wheat, Salt, Butter or Oil
Can you do:
- sprouted wheat
- Cooked cracked wheat
- cooked whole wheat
- wheat grass
- Gluten (a strange bread-like food that is very high in protein)
- omelettes
Just add: Powdered Milk, Powdered Eggs, Honey or Sugar, Flour
And you can do the items above PLUS:
- wheat pudding
- german pancakes
- Crepes
- Pasta
Just add: yeast, baking powder, baking soda
And you can do the items above PLUS:
- Puddings/custards
- Pancakes
- some types of cookies
- waffles
- muffins/english muffins
- breads
- Cookies
- Some varieties of cookies
Just add: Tomatoes, butter and cheese powder, plain gelatin, canned milk, canned fruit
And you can do the items above PLUS:
- meatless dinners
- meatless pans
- cream sauces
- jello salads
- whipped cream desserts
- baby formula
Just add: Rice, Legumes, Beef/Chicken Broth, Canned Meats, Dried Potatoes, Dehydrated Vegetables
And you can do the items above PLUS:
- Lots of great chunky soups
- chili
- refried beans
- rice dinners
- Rice pudding
- sandwiches
- Many different dinners and stews.
Just add: Extras like oatmeal, raisins, nuts, spices, juice, peanut butter, tart cream, etc.
And you can do the items above PLUS:
- A wide variety of almost any type of food you want to cook.
Summary
As you can see, with a little planning (and a great food storage recipe book on hand), you can be sure you’ll be able to create healthy, filling, and comforting meals for your family in case a true emergency strikes. It will also be helpful to start using and rotating these foods in your daily kitchen so that you can find the recipes your family likes, get them used to eating these foods, and ensure that all of your storage is kept at its peak freshness.