I KNOW WHAT I’VE BOUGHT AND I’M NOT AFRAID TO USE IT
But what about just buying lots of miscellaneous foods?
That’s the method some people use for building their food storage, which is fine if it works for them. I’m not an especially creative cook. I need to plan my meals and practice cooking a relatively small number of dishes in order to become comfortable with the preparation, and fast.
Besides that, in the event of an emergency, I don’t want to be trying to figure out, under pressure, what to cook with random ingredients. We don’t do that when we plan meals for vacations. The food for a trip to the mountains, lake, or cabin is planned well in advance with extensive lists. We purchase only the ingredients we’re actually planning to serve. Why would we plan so carefully for vacations and then plan to wing it during an emergency?
Even if you start with only one dinner, buy all the ingredients that can be stored in groups of three, and then make a specific plan for eating it, like the first Monday of each month, you will become more organized, more prepared, and more capable. As soon as you have one recipe organized into the process of food storage, move on to a second and third meal, and then just keep going.
Every time I use my food storage it’s like a cooking fire drill. Why wait for the emergency?
Tags: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, cooking preparation, easy and healthy meal organization, emergency preparedness, food storage, organizing your pantry, planning family meals, prophet, provident living
October 14th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Hey Liesa,
Just to let you know some feed back on your talk. Karyn my friend said she really enjoyed it and can’t believe how simple it all is. She is the one that wants to have you do your thing after the first of the year. She is hoping to combine 2 wards together for the event. Good Job. Your a genius. Lynda
October 14th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Thank you, Lynda! Now you know why I’m so excited to share this food storage system. IT’S EASY! Please tell Karyn that I would love to come back to Las Vegas and give another presentation in her Stake. In the meantime, she can share a complete outline of the system by directing her sisters to the STRATEGIES section on the website. In fact, she could probably give the presentation herself. Hey, go for it! Liesa
October 15th, 2008 at 10:36 am
For years the idea of a year’s supply of food was mysterious and intimidating to me. What to buy? How much? Why buy it if I don’t know how to cook it? Why cook it if my family won’t eat it? I didn’t know where to start so I would just buy some canned fruit and vegetables and a jumbo jar of peanut butter and call it food storage. It was better than nothing, but certainly didn’t give me any peace of mind. Then you came along. After hearing your take on food storage, the mysteriousness of a year’s supply vanished! I was so relieved to be able to visualize what a year’s supply would look like for my family of five. Multiply by 2 and it’s 10 cases each of the 7 pillars (wheat, rice, beans, pasta, oats, potatoes, and wheat again). Suddenly food storage is simple! I’m not done yet, but I’ve gone to the cannery twice and am off to a good start. I laugh at myself for not “getting it” before. Thanks for putting it out here in a way that we simpletons can understand and not be intimidated by!
October 15th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
NOT a simpleton! I think most people just need a bit of help seeing what a viable food storage looks like. They need to know how big it is NOT going to be, how much money it will NOT cost, and how EASY it will be to use and enjoy the food.
Just this past Sunday, a woman in Las Vegas leaned over the bench during Relief Society to tell me that for her, the most useful part of my presentation was knowing the little tricks, like multiplying the number of people in her family by 2 and then purchasing that many cases in each of the 7 stacks, or pillars as you call them, of dry goods. She said that she used to go to the cannery, buying random amounts of whatever seemed like a good idea that day. Now, with a “magic number” in mind, she knows what to buy for her family and how many cases she needs in order to meet the quantity that has been specifically recommended by the First Presidency. Beyond that, as she eventually needs to take inventory and replenish her stock (because she’s of course going to be cooking and eating this food) she’ll find it so much easier to manage her food storage with one specific number in mind.
Easy-peasy!