FOOD STORAGE | Where to begin?!🥫

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. I'm sure you can tell by the title of this video, we are going to be talking about food storage and preparedness. And this is not something I've ever talked about on my channel, but it is something that I have become passionate about over the last couple of years and something that I've done a lot of research on. So I wanted to pass that information on to you guys today because of everything that's going on in the world today. No matter where you are at in the world, every single person has been affected by this virus. We live in Utah and yesterday we went to the store to grab a few things right after the governor announced that he doesn't want anybody out in groups of 100 or more. So I'm sure lots of things are going to be closing down, but I have just never lived through something like this and seen grocery stores literally completely empty. And so I've been watching people panic. And in times like this, this is not the time you want to be thinking about preparing yourself. You want to already have food and supplies in your home. So that's what we are going to talk about today. And I actually want to share just a couple of the topics that I will be covering in today's video. So number one, we are going to be going over shelf life, different items, the best kinds of foods to have in your food storage and what their shelf life is. The next thing I want to talk about is how to make delicious meals in your food storage and not just have a pantry or a storage room full of random food that you have no idea. Like you go in there, you see you have a million cases of corn, but you're not really sure what am I going to make for dinner when that's all I have. I also want to cover some of the essential items I think are necessary to have in your food storage that you probably won't be thinking about because all you're thinking about right now is food and water and those kinds of things. I'll be sharing with you how to create a shopping list for your family and where the best places are to shop. Another thing I want to cover is ways that you guys can actually have access to fresh food all the time. So just different ideas with that. And the last thing I will be sharing is where to start. I know this can sound super overwhelming, especially if you're starting from scratch and you have nothing in your storage. So I'll be giving you guys my personal advice to be getting your food storage started and how much you want to start storing immediately. Okay, so to start, we are going to cover shelf life and what kinds of things you want to have in your emergency food storage. Now, when I'm talking about emergency food storage, I'm talking about worst case scenario. Okay. I think that we should be planning for things like that. And that would include having no running water, having no electricity to cook with, um, no availability at stores. Like there's nothing to go and purchase for yourself. So stores are out of the picture and no one's coming to help you. Okay. So in those kinds of situations, worst case scenario, you would still be able to eat your food. That is how I personally have planned things. I don't store items that I wouldn't be able to cook with my equipment that I have for outside. And I'll cover that in a little bit. But what we want to start with is shelf life and the importance of having things that can last a really long time. So first thing I want to talk about is these number 10 cans. Okay. Um, I'm going to share a list of things that last 30 years. Macaroni being one of them, as long as the seal isn't broken and it's not dented or damaged, this macaroni will last me for 30 years. So I can store this on my shelf and not have to worry about it for 30 years. Now the flavor might not be the best. The nutritional value can go down over that timeframe. So you can be rotating it. You know, if this is something that you're eating normally, I would suggest doing that, but I love the security of knowing this is good for 30 years. Here is a list of food that's good for 30 years in these cans. Okay. Uh, potato flakes, onions, spaghetti, beans, rice, apples, wheat, macaroni, oats, sugar is actually indefinite. So as long as the seal isn't broken, it's good for a lifetime. So that's good to know. And something else that has a really long shelf life is actually powdered milk. So that has a 20 year shelf life. This is powdered milk right here. So that's another really good thing to know. For the most part, you're looking at between 25 and 30 years when you're talking about these number 10 cans. Now I want to cover just your regular canned food. So this is actually really, really cool. I'll share this website with you guys down below, but this is the quote from this website. It says for emergency storage, commercially canned foods in metal or jars will remain safe to consume as long as the seal isn't broken. Okay. This is a perfect example of a damaged can. So we have some SpaghettiOs here and I don't know, can you guys see that big dent right there? This would not be safe to eat over a lifetime. Okay. You'd want to pay attention to the expiration date since this is dented, but this is safe to eat indefinitely as long as the seal isn't broken. So this is great to know with food storage. You could be stocking up with these canned foods, knowing that they will be safe for a lifetime. Something else I want to share about canned fruit and canned vegetables. I love storing this because it comes with the water inside. And when we're talking about food storage, you need to also consider how much water it's going to take to make each item. So when you're talking about canned corn, you do not have to add water to this. It already has the water in it. That's another time saver money saver because it already has the water inside. Something else that's good to store is shortening. Shortening has a 10 year shelf life. And I know once you get into shortening, I will personally say I've never had one last the whole time because once you open it, it starts to get rancid at the bottom. But here's a tip for that. So if you are baking and cooking with shortening, if that's what you have in your food storage, and we're talking, this is like worst case scenario. So you need your shortening to last in order for you to make certain meals. What you can actually do is the first time you open the shortening, use the amount that you need and then melt the rest of it. Pour it into a pot, melt it completely, and then have little tiny jars that you can actually pour the rest of the shortening into. Close it up. And then as it's cooling, it will actually seal the lid shut. Once that happens, it's like you never opened it. So those little jars will have a 10 year shelf life. Hopefully that makes sense. As far as baking goes, cream of tartar and baking soda are also really good things that have an indefinite shelf life. So those are some things as well as sugar, like I mentioned, that you want to make sure that you store because those all have an indefinite shelf life. Now I want to cover creating meal plans because I think this is where everything changed for me. It made me actually excited to do food storage rather than just like, okay, let's store away a bunch of random food that I probably won't enjoy or like to eat. And this is by creating your own meal plan. So this is a suggestion I actually got off a different video, and I will have that one linked below. But she suggests you come up with seven meals, seven breakfasts, seven lunches and seven dinners. Okay. Just to keep it simple. And what you're going to do is we're going to start at the beginning of the week. So you'll say, okay, Sunday breakfast. What would my family like to have for Sunday breakfast? And you guys, nothing is off the table. I promise you, you can make anything that your heart desires. Okay. So for my Sunday breakfast, we have planned pancakes and eggs. Okay. That's something we typically have on Sunday breakfast right now. And something we could still have even in a worst case scenario. So pancakes and eggs. Now what I figure is for a family of five, how much of all of these items would I need to feed us for one Sunday? Okay. So now what I'm going to do is figure out how many pancakes we would eat, how many eggs our family would eat. Right now we have a family of four, but I am pregnant. So I want to count for him. So that's why I'm doing a family of five. Now, something you don't want to forget is for your batter. Let's say you're making your pancake batter. That's going to take some water. If you have some powdered eggs, that's also going to take some water. So you need to incorporate everything. You probably will want syrup. So you need to also think about how much syrup am I going to use for my family for one day? I have an example right here that I'm showing you. So here is my one day now for me to get a year supply. All I want to do is times that by 52. Okay. Cause there's 52 Sundays in a year. So 52 Sundays times by whatever that is. That's how you're going to create your shopping list. And I'm going to talk about that in just a second. So that's going to show you how much of everything you're going to need for a year. Okay. We're talking about one year food supply right now. Now let's talk about Sunday dinner. I just wanted to give you guys two examples. So let's talk about Sunday dinner, Sunday dinner. Let's say we want mashed potatoes. We want gravy. We want chicken. We want muffins and maybe some corn. Like that would be a delicious dinner. Okay. Now same thing goes for that. How much of each item am I going to need to feed my family one Sunday dinner? And then again, times that amount by 52. Here's the thing. This will take you the longest figuring out the amount you're going to be needing. If you're kind of sitting on the edge, definitely go for a little bit extra. Something else you want to consider when making your meals is how much seasoning you're going to want that could easily make or break your food. If you don't have any salt and pepper or any of those spices or seasoning that you typically like and enjoy on your foods, um, seasoning is definitely something you want to remember to store. Now let's talk about shopping. So where you're going to be going and getting all these things, how to create a shopping list for your one year food supply. Again, you guys, I would suggest having one to two years. I'm going to talk about where to start here at the very end. Um, so don't feel like you're getting overwhelmed, but do create a one year list as of right now. Okay. Create a one year list of breakfast, lunch, and dinners. So you should have a total of 21 meals and you're just going to rotate those. You're just going to use the same thing every single week. So make sure you're putting things in your food storage that you won't get sick of, meals that your family really enjoys, and then you won't have any problem. So here I'm going to show you my example of what I will need for my breakfast. Okay. So how much of everything I'm going to be needing for a one year supply. And again, don't forget water because you won't be able to make any of these things if you don't have water. So looking at my Sunday breakfast, I have pancake batter. I could get by with one large container and that has 253 servings. Okay. So one large container could feed my family for a year with the powdered eggs. I would need six containers to feed my family every Sunday for a year with syrup. I would need four of these large bottles of syrup and to make everything I would need five gallons of water. So store five gallons of water away for your Sunday breakfast. Again, you guys, you can see here, this will take math. This will take some serious thinking. I actually go through everything like four times to make sure I'm not missing something or I'm not getting something wrong because nothing would be worse than just doing the math wrong and thinking you have enough to get by and realizing, oh my gosh, I don't know how I only had six months here, not two years or one year. Double check your math and make sure that everything adds up. Okay. Now with Sunday dinners, we have our mashed potatoes, corn, chicken, and muffins for mashed potatoes. I would need two cases of this mashed potato mix because that will make me 64 cups and technically I would only need 52. So there is some extra there. Gravy packs. I would want 52 packs of gravy. Let's see chicken. I would need 52 pounds of chicken. We're going to talk about chicken in just a minute. Muffins. I would actually need seven cans of muffins and this would make me 260 muffins. Corn, 52 cans. I don't need any water for that. So that's great. Now with the gravy, I didn't include water underneath there. So already I realized I need to go and fix my math here. So 13 gallons wouldn't be enough. I probably will need closer to 16, 17, maybe even more because that would be an additional 52 cups of water because these each take one cup of water. So really guys check your math. Make sure you're doing your math. Make sure you have enough water really quickly while we're talking about water. If you want to just go by the rule of thumb, this is what the CDC recommends is having at least one gallon per person in your family per day. Okay. So that includes drinking water, um, to make food with and to take little mini baths. If we're in a worst case scenario, you're not going to be getting a bath every single day. I probably would be getting one, maybe once a week. And I'm talking about like just splashing yourself with soap and water. But again, a gallon of water per person per day. So if there's five people in my family, I'm going to be needing five gallons of water a day. Now that can add up very quickly. That's just to ensure you have enough water to be drinking, to be staying hydrated, um, and to be able to make your meals. So if you want to just go by that rule of thumb, that works, but just make sure you have enough to make your food. Okay. Now when it comes to buying food, if you're talking about the number 10 cans, I want to share it. The cheapest place you could possibly get them. And that is my church's website. I will have it linked below. It is not even comparable to other food storage. Okay. I paid so much money for these brands right here, a fraction of the price here. And you can just order it online. I'm going to be showing you guys prices right here. Now these prices are for six cans. That's not for one can. That's for six. Okay. They come in a case of six. So six cans is going to be this price. Now, if you're ordering online, it's about 10 bucks more. If you're going into the warehouse, it's a little bit cheaper. And if you can them yourself, it's even cheaper. So you're looking at 40, 50, $60 for six cans. When you're talking 30, 40, 50 for one, if you're ordering them off Amazon. So I just wanted to share that with you. Now they don't have every single thing, but I'm talking about these big, large items. If you're wanting to get a bunch of these, just because it's so much cheaper doing it this way, they last longer. They have a 30 year shelf life. So get as much of these cans as you possibly can. Let's say like these types of cans, right? Like canned foods. My biggest suggestion is to just look at case lot sales. Get them as cheaply as you possibly can, but you're already looking at about a dollar a can anyway. So these are not too expensive and these will last you again forever. So these are just great items. I don't care where you buy them, any grocery store, just look at case lot sales and you'll save even more money. Now, another way to be prepared is to have a garden yourself so that you have access to your own fresh fruit, fresh vegetables all the time. I think if things got really bad, those gardens would be the most precious thing that anybody has and everybody would have their own garden. So even if you have very limited space, do what you can to start a garden this upcoming summer. I think it's also equally important to be learning how to do these things because there might be a time where we don't have access to YouTube, where we can't be watching videos and learning then. It would be really hard to just figure it out rather than learning all of these things now while you can and developing those skills that you could really be self-sufficient if things ever got bad. So that's just a recommendation, having your own garden, fruits, vegetables. We started ours a couple years ago and every year it's gotten better. Every year we've gotten a little bit better learning things to do, not to do. And we could do a whole video on gardening as we're creating our garden this year. So let me know if you guys are interested in watching that. And another thing would be raising your own backyard chickens. We have six and they produce so many eggs, we couldn't possibly eat them in a week. So before we had our chickens, I bought a whole bunch of powdered eggs, which we probably will never touch because our chickens produce so many eggs. We're getting dozens and dozens a week. How great would it be if times were ever bad that you are producing more food than you could even keep up with? So having those backyard chickens, if that's a possibility or something that you're interested in, I definitely suggest it. Chickens are great at eating scraps from the garden. Their food is very inexpensive. And to be getting fresh eggs, I mean, think of all the things you could make with them, all the things you could bake, and also just having eggs every day. That would be great. That's just another suggestion. If you can have backyard chickens, we actually have a video, I will link that below, on raising them their first nine weeks of life. When we first got them, I wasn't really sure what the heck I was doing. And so I made a video for people like me that have never done anything like that. So if you're interested or maybe curious what it takes to raise some chickens, just watch that. I'll have it linked below. Earlier, I talked about chicken, having chicken on your shelves. And I'm sure a lot of you are like, that's not even possible. You could not store chicken like that. And again, I'm talking worst case scenario, because obviously you can store chicken in a giant freezer or in a fridge, but we're talking having it last for multiple years on your shelf. And I'm going to show you how. This big old piece of equipment right here is called a pressure canner. I'm sure everybody's heard of a pressure cooker, not the same thing. So this is a pressure canner. And when I learned about this, I bought one immediately because I just thought this would be a game changer in food storage. So basically what you can do here is you get raw chicken, you put them into jars, cook them inside of here. There's a lot of instructions. So you don't want to mess this up. You've got to have your temperature right. The pressure gauge, you need to have the right amount of pressure depending on the location that you live in. I live in the mountains, so my pressure will be different than someone that lives at sea level. So there's a lot of instructions, but once you get the hang of it, you guys, it's so simple to do. Chicken takes about 75 to 90 minutes to cook inside of this. You take your cans out, put it on the shelf, and you have chicken that will last multiple years on your shelf. So just think of how delicious your meals could be if you could have chicken. And I'm not talking just chicken. You can have turkey, you can have beef. There's all sorts of things you can cook in the pressure canner. I will have everything I'm talking about linked below. I will have a link for the pressure canner, but I'm also going to link a video for you guys to watch a step-by-step tutorial on how to make chicken in one of these. The reason I didn't want to go through that today, this video would be probably well over an hour if I took the time to do that. And watching this girl's video is actually how I learned to do it. So I just followed her step-by-step. I didn't do anything differently than what she did, and our chicken turned out perfect. So I want to link her video below. Watch that. See if that's something that, okay, I could totally be doing this. I would love to have chicken stored on my pantry shelf. This is something else I would suggest. Because it doesn't have a crazy long shelf life, you want it to be rotating this. So have some in your pantry. And then as you're going through it, make more, put that down in the food storage, and bring that food storage up to your pantry. So that you are using the chicken, it's not going to be going bad. And make sure you date everything. You also want to get a canning kit, and I just found my box downstairs. So it's going to come with everything you need to can. Again, I will have this linked in the description box below as well. Something else I wanted to show you guys, if you're wondering, how are you planning on cooking all of these meals outside? Well, I invested in a Sun Oven. And when I say invest, it is pretty pricey, but it's definitely the best thing that I possibly could have in my food storage. So let me just show you how this works. I've actually never used it. I think that this is something, it's very necessary that we start using it, so we know exactly how it works. But this is what it looks like. You can see the blue film is still on here. So what you do, as long as you have sunlight, you can cook anything in this little oven. The temperature gets up to 400 degrees, and you can cook just like you would cook in a regular oven. So this is a game changer in your food storage. And again, this is definitely an investment, but so, so worth it. There's so many things you could cook outside with no electricity. Your whole family could be eating hot meals for every single meal. So I just wanted to share this quickly with you guys, because this is a big part of our food storage. Basically everything I shared could not even be eaten unless I had this, and that's talking worst case scenario. So again, I will have this linked in the description box below. Okay, now I want to talk about where to start. I know in this video I talked about getting a one-year supply of everything you're going to need, but I know that's not realistic to go out and buy every single thing you're going to need for a year for your family. So what I would suggest is getting a three-month supply as soon as possible. And I'm going to have a list here of the things that I would suggest getting a three-month supply of. So everything you can think of that you would possibly need for your family for three whole months. This includes food, water, cleaning supplies, hygiene, medicine, things for animals. This is something people forget. If you have animals, they need food also. Seasonings, first aid, and equipment. And this includes flashlights, batteries, candles, outdoor cooking supply, and those kinds of things. So when I'm talking about food, when you're looking at your list, like let's say you have your 21 pages done of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, right? 70. What I would suggest is not going crazy and getting like the full-blown meals for every single thing. So for example, you say, okay, my Sunday dinner is going to be chili and maybe there's a few other things like cornbread and whatever. Start with 12 cans of chili, okay? That would be about $15, okay? And then you have your Sunday dinners done. But as long as you have something to eat for breakfast, something to eat for lunch, and something to eat for dinner, I think that that's a great start. Go find a K-Slot sell somewhere, get your 12 cans of chili, probably will pay around 12 to $15, okay? And then you have your Sunday dinners done for three months. So basically do everything that I shared, but cut it down to a three month period, 12 weeks, okay? And again, this is something people do not think about, but water is so important. I promise that might be the best thing that you have in your food storage over your food is your water. Make sure that that is something that you are storing and something that you are getting immediately and not putting that off. I know this video is probably kind of a bit long, but there's so much more I could share, so much more in detail that I could share. I probably could talk for about 24 hours on food storage, but if you guys enjoyed this video and if you guys would like more videos in this category, please let me know in the comments below. If you have any questions, let me know, and maybe I can get another video out for you guys pretty quickly. I hope this video encouraged you guys to get out there and start your food storage. I promise there's nothing more satisfying than going down into our basement and seeing all the food and supplies that we have for our family and just knowing that if something were to happen, that we are safe, that we would be fine not leaving the house for a long period of time and that our life would kind of just go on as normal. So that's the number one thing is just making sure that your family is safe and they are prepared in case there's an emergency and in case something else like this happens to the world. I know most people did not feel prepared for this by the looks of what the cities are looking like right now and the stores and everything else. So that's really what encouraged me to get this video out during this time. I just felt a big impression on sharing any knowledge that I have with you guys and just trying to motivate you and hopefully inspire you to just get the ball rolling for your own family. Thanks again for watching guys and we'll see you in the next video.