Category Archives: Storage Items

Started Taking Coconut Oil Everyday

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cold pressed coconut oilLast year, I started to stock up on coconut oil in my food storage because it keeps well for several years in its solid state (below 76 degrees). I started using my coconut oil in my cooking and baking to get a feel for how it works. One of the other reasons I stocked up on coconut oil is that many say it has incredible healing and health boosting abilities. I don’t always believe everything I read but I decided to put it to the test in my own life.

I started by taking 1 tablespoon all by itself right before I ate breakfast for one month. I then increased my dosage to 1 tablespoon before dinner also, that is a total of 2 tablespoons a day. I have been doing the 2 tablespoons a day routine for the past 3 months and it has improved my life.

Here is what I noticed it did for me:

  • Less headaches (and less severe when I actually do get one).
  • Easier to focus and remember things.
  • More energy throughout the day.
  • It seemed to curve my appetite so I don’t feel like pigging out every meal.
  • I lost about 10 pounds, I didn’t really need to loose 10 pounds but I didn’t mind.
  • Significantly less acne break outs, in-fact I hardly had any.

These were just some of the things I was able to notice it did for me. I hardly ever visit the doctor so I can’t tell you “medically speaking” how it has effected me but I feel great. I would highly recommend adding coconut oil to your food storage and your daily intake.

Type of Coconut Oil to Get:
Cold Pressed (check the back label), un-refined, organic, and virgin coconut oil.

Spelt Wheat

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Spelt Wheat

One of my goals in my food storage is to have, and learn to use, a wide variety of different whole grains in my food storage. I now have a few 5 gallon buckets of Spelt Wheat and baked quite a few recipes with it. So far I have found spelt wheat to work great for pancakes and cookies and I hope to explore some new foods this spring and summer with it.

Spelt is much lower in gluten than whole wheat and also much higher in protein and other nutrients. It is considered an ancient grain like KAMUT but it has a has quite a different taste and grinds up much finer than KAMUT wheat. Spelt wheat will store 30+ in good conditions, just like whole wheat.

Because spelt is lower in gluten than whole wheat it can be tougher to use for making yeast breads by itself, loaves may come out much denser than normal. The plus side to being lower in gluten is that spelt is easier on your tummy and many people who are gluten intolerant can eat spelt with out the side effects they get from other wheat products.

Spelt not only works great in non-yeast-ed baked goods by itself but it is also a great wheat to combine with other whole grain flours. Chef Brad created a whole grain flour mix called WonderFlour to replace all-purpose flour in most recipes. He sells pre-packaged WonderFlour but you can also make your own with a good grain mill, click here to see the video for making WonderFlour. I found out about WonderFlour while taking the Grain Mill Wagon Challenge and it was fun to play with.

Spelt Recipes to Try:

Spelt Pancakes

Spelt Pancakes

Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies

Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies

Whole Grain Peach Pancakes

Whole Grain Peach Pancakes

Spelt Gingerbread Pancakes

Spelt Gingerbread Pancakes

Ricotta Spelt Waffles

Ricotta Spelt Waffles

 

Maple Extract

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Maple ExtractAn opened container of imitation maple extract, or maple flavoring, will last a year in your cupboard. I am guessing that an unopened container will much longer but I don’t know for sure. I try to keep 3 bottles of imitation maple extract in my cupboard at all times, which is about a 6-12 month supply for our family.

It can be used for making syrup for pancakes or even flavoring breads, cookies, baked goods, cranberry sauce, frosting, meats, grilling, sauces, and other sweets.

Recipes to Try Using Maple:

Imitation Maple Syrup

Imitation Maple Syrup

100% Whole Wheat Rolls

100% Whole Wheat Rolls

I hope to have more recipe posts to share in the near future.

Canned Pumpkin Puree

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canned pumpkin

Homemade Pumpkin Chili

Homemade Pumpkin Chili

I love canned pumpkin and I use it all the time in baking. We make pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cake, pumpkin cornbread, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin sweet rolls, and pumpkin pie of course. I recently even made pumpkin chili and, to my surprise, it was quite good. There are many other things I would like to try with pumpkin puree, it just makes food taste great.

Another great thing about pumpkin puree is that it can replace oil and butter in many recipes. For replacing oil you can use 1 to 1 ration, for example use 1 cup of pumpkin puree in place of 1 cup oil called for. For replacing butter you can use 3/4 to 1 ration, for example use 3/4 cup of pumpkin puree in place of 1 cup butter called for. These amounts might need to be adjusted from recipe to recipe but it is a good starting point for you.

Because I use canned pumpkin often, it is a perfect product to add to my food storage list, it may not be for you. Canned pumpkin has a shelf life for up to 2 years from the date it is processed, so about 1 1/2 half years from the date you purchase it from the store. I try to make sure I use it by the “best by” date printed on the can, any older than that and the quality and nutrition goes fast.

My goal is to store about a one year supply of canned pumpkin in my storage room. I use about 4 cans a month, so I would need 48 cans of pumpkin puree to reach this goal. I am only about half way to my goal right now. I buy 8 cans of pumpkin puree every month, 4 to replace the ones I used and 4 help me reach my goal. You might consider buying a 12 pack of the quality organic pumpkin puree to get a good start.

Recipes to Try

Kamut Pumpkin Pancakes

Kamut Pumpkin Pancakes

I hope to post more of the pumpkin recipes I use later on. Feel free to share your pumpkin recipe links below, I am definitely looking for more to try.

 

Canned Peaches

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canned peachesOne canned food I have started to add to my food storage is canned Peaches. My 3 year old daughter loves fruit and especially peaches. Peaches seem to be the canned fruit that we use most in our house by a long shot.

Canned fruits are a great comfort food to store, especially if you have kids. Fruit is nutritional and sweet tasting, that is a win-win in food storage. Of course you get some sugar with canned fruits too but I don’t mind a little sugar.

Most canned fruit should be good for 2 to 3 years from the date of production. I try to use canned fruit within two years from the date of purchase to be safe. They may not be bad after 2 years but the quality deteriorate fast after that. It is best to store your canned fruit in a dark place with a temperature less than 76 degrees to get the maximum shelf life. If you canned the fruit yourself the shelf life may be different than this, I haven’t researched self canning much yet.

I plan on getting into canning fruits and other thing this next fall. I have some close relatives who know the canning process, which is good cause I don’t. I planted 2 peach trees, 2 apple trees, and a cherry tree in our back yard this last fall in hopes that in 2-4 years we can have good fruit producing trees. Hopefully I will have the canning process down when they do produce fruit.

For now, I am just buying canned fruits by the boxes from Costco, I spread out the costs by buying only 1 box of canned fruit a month and slowly over time I will have a good supply of canned fruit. If you find that you are eating most of the fruit before you buy your next box, you may need to buy 2 boxes a month.

I, as mentioned earlier in my blog, I believe in using the foods that you store so that there are less surprises when you have to use your stored food. You can eat fruit straight from the can but I think it is best to find ways to incorporate it into the foods you make.

Some other things you could use canned peaches in: Cobbler, muffins, salads, oatmeal, sweet salsa, dessert topping, smoothies, cake, rice pudding, pie, jam, jello, and on and on. I have a few recipes that I have incorporated peaches into that I will post at a later date, and I will be on the search for more now that I store them. Feel free to tell me what you use canned peaches for in the comments section below.

Recipes with Peaches:

Whole Grain Peach Pancakes

Whole Grain Peach Pancakes

I hope to share a few more recipes in the near future.

Granulated White Sugar

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Granulated White Sugar

White sugar is an item that stores very well for long periods of time and is great for making comfort foods when you need them. I store pure cane sugar because that is what we already typically use.

Most white sugars have a best use-by date of about 2 years. After 2 years of being stored in the original packaging, the white sugar may start to clump a bit but it is still just as good to use. If you store your white sugar with optimal storage methods, it will put off clumping much longer. As I mention before sugar that has clumped together is still good to use, its just a pain to break apart.

Optimal methods of storing white sugar should address 3 things: protection from moisture, protection from light, and avoid high temperatures. Probably the most important of these 3 is to keep your white sugar protected from moisture exposure. I have also been told by multiple people not to use oxygen absorbers with storing white sugar, it will cause it to clump faster. Most sources say that white sugar will store almost indefinitely under good storing conditions.

I purchase white sugar in bulk bags and pour them into a 5 gallon food-grade bucket with a Gamma Lid for easy access. This seems to keep the moisture and sunlight out very well. My basement storage room, where I keep my sugar, stays cool enough for almost everything I store. I try to keep 2-3 buckets full of white sugar in our food storage, which is well over a 2 year supply of sugar for our family. I have heard of people keeping sugar for over 5 years this way without having any clumping issues.

I have a 45 gallon plastic garbage can with a loose lid that I filled with white sugar about 7 years ago. The sugar is now so clumped together that it is a workout to scrape it out. From this, I can tell you that a non-sealed container is a good idea for long term sugar storage. The sugar still tastes great but I just can’t stand scraping it out every time I get into it. I haven’t decided what to do with what is left in the garbage can yet but I have started to use my sugar from the 5 gallon buckets instead, for now.

To build up to the amount of white sugar I have in my food storage, I bought a 10 pound bag of sugar every month. One 10 pound bag of white sugar usually lasts our family about 3 months. It took us about 20 months to build our supply of three 5 gallon buckets full. For rotation, we now wait until one of our three 5 gallon buckets is empty and then we start buying one 10 pound bag of sugar every month again, until that bucket is back to full.

I have been told that powdered sugar stores really well also but we don’t use powdered sugar very much. I just keep 1 bag of powdered sugar in my pantry at all times.

Freezen Butter

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Sticks of ButterTo me, nothing makes food taste better than when it has the added rich taste of butter. Butter may not be a really long term food storage item, unless you buy the canned butter, but it can be frozen for up to one year with out going rancid. I keep several sticks of butter in my freezer and rotate them to keep them good. I don’t keep butter in the refrigerator except for a what I am going to use in the next 2-4 weeks because butter only lasts about 4 months in the fridge. I always buy salted butter because, not only do I like the taste, it keeps longer than non-salted butter.

I keep enough butter in my freezer to last about 10 months of my normal use. Just calculate how much butter you use in a month and times it by 10 and you will have your 10 month supply goal. I didn’t just buy my 10 month supply of butter at once, I built up my butter supply over a few months. Each time I buy butter for the month I bought twice as much as I needed for that month; I did this until I had an 10 month supply, if you follow this method you will have 10 months worth in 5 months. I now just buy enough butter to replace what I used that month so I always have at least a 9-10 month supply of butter on hand.

Butter is not the cheapest item you get for your food storage but it is something you probably already use on a regular basis in your kitchen so I would highly recommend storing it. I have seen canned butter for sale before that stays good for a really long time but it is usually expensive. My in-laws bought some last year and it tasted really good, just like regular butter I use.

There are so many ways that we use butter in the kitchen: sauteing, frying, in sauces, spreading over food & vegetables, flavoring popcorn, creaming, and on and on… Since I store plenty of whole grains for grinding into flour, it is a good idea to store butter for making baked goods that taste great and spreading on my rolls or bread. We also use butter quite a bit with pasta sauce. Butter is something that our family would rather not due with out.

Powdered Buttermilk

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powdered buttermilk

When I first started using buttermilk I would buy the liquid buttermilk and use a little bit in a recipe and end up throwing the rest out because I didn’t use it in time. What a waste of money this was for me. I reluctantly bought some powdered buttermilk to give that a try and it worked perfect and it keeps for a long time, up-to 3 years.

I like using powdered buttermilk in baked goods, especially if they contain whole grain flours. Buttermilk makes baked goods lighter, moister, and better tasting. Powdered buttermilk in not good for making buttermilk to drink but I don’t drink buttermilk straight anyway. Since I have started using whole grains quite regularly I decided I had to work powdered buttermilk into my food storage.

Storage & Shelf Life

The powdered buttermilk that I have been buying has an expiration date of 2 1/2 – 3 years. Powdered buttermilk will last much longer than this if stored unopened in the freezer.

How to Use Powdered Buttermilk

When using powdered buttermilk in baked goods, you add the water to the wet ingredients and the powder buttermilk to the dry ingredients for the best results.

  • 1 Tablespoon powdered buttermilk + 1/4 cup water = 1/4 cup buttermilk
  • 4 teaspoons powdered buttermilk + 1/3 cup water = 1/3 cup buttermilk
  • 2 Tablespoons powdered buttermilk + 1/2 cup water = 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 4 Tablespoons powdered buttermilk + 1 cup water = 1 cup buttermilk

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I Love Using KAMUT Wheat

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Kamut-wheat

KAMUT (ancient khorsasan wheat) is a very special wheat that I have really loved using this past year, 2012. As I have mentioned before, I am always trying to use several different types of grains to my diet instead of just whole wheat and KAMUT is one I find easy to add to the things I make. The taste is unlike any other wheat I have tried yet, to me KAMUT has a slightly buttery & nutty taste. It does not seem to have the slightly bitter taste that most wheat has from the bran.

I usually only use KAMUT flour as a portion of the flour in yeast breads because it is low in gluten. I hope to try making 100% KAMUT bread soon to see if I can make it light enough to use as sandwich bread, right now I am looking for a recipe that looks good to me (update: I found a good recipe). I have used KAMUT in bread, rolls, tortillas, pancakes, and muffins; I hope to try it in several other baked goods in 2013.

KAMUT wheat can also be cooked as a whole grain for cereals, salads, or soups but I have yet to try this. I am sure that it would cook up fast in my pressure cooker. I could even make cracked KAMUT with my hand grain mill for oatmeal-like cereals.

KAMUT wheat has not been modified like most modern wheat and the farming of KAMUT is highly controlled for the highest quality wheat. Because of this, KAMUT is superior in nutrition and is easier to digest than modern wheat. KAMUT is also considered a high-energy wheat and it has higher protein levels than modern wheat, which keeps your body going longer.

Like other wheat, KAMUT can be stored almost indefinitely if stored properly, this makes it great for preppers and your food storage. A good example of KAMUT’s ability to be stored for a long time is the story of how it was re-introduced to the world. Khorsasan wheat was commonly used by ancient Egyptians and was found in an Egyptian tomb in the mid 1900’s. It is estimated that this wheat was 4,000 years old. That 4,000 year old wheat was planted, farmed, and became what we call today “KAMUT”. Amazing that this wheat seed was preserved this long and was still good. I’m sure my stored KAMUT will last my life time, except that I will eat it all before then.

gamma lidI buy my KAMUT wheat in bulk from Kitchen Kneads in Ogden, Utah. I store it in 5 gal food-grade buckets in my basement storage room, which is always below 76 degrees even in the summer. I always have a Gamma twist-off lid on the bucket of wheat that I am currently using so that I can access it easier.

When I grind KAMUT in my grain mill, I find that the flour is slightly coarser feeling than my whole wheat flour. KAMUT flour also tends to adsorb a little more water than whole wheat flour. I grind KAMUT wheat between the pastry and bread settings on the WonderMill grain mill. Fresh ground KAMUT flour, like all whole grain flours, will begin to loose it’s nutrition fast. I like to grind my flour the same day I use it and I don’t keep my leftover whole grain flour more that 2 weeks from the day I milled it, the flour is still good but I like fresher flour.

Some Recipes to Try

KAMUT Buttermilk Rolls

KAMUT Buttermilk Rolls

100% KAMUT Bread

100% KAMUT Bread

Grain Mill Wagon Challenge Recipes

I recently started participating in a Grain Mill Challenge and I made some KAMUT recipes that you might be interested in (click the image to see the recipe).

Kamut Pumpkin Pancakes

Kamut Pumpkin Pancakes

KAMUT Breakfast Muffins

KAMUT Breakfast Muffins

Whole Wheat Tortillas with KAMUT

Whole Wheat Tortillas with KAMUT

Some of these recipes have been featured on Kamut.com, the official website of KAMUT.

Popcorn Kernels for Long Term Food Storage

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When I used to think of popcorn kernels, I just thought of watching movies with freshly popped popcorn but now I also think of cornbread and uses of cornmeal. Did you know you could grind popcorn kernels into cornmeal in a quality grain mill? It makes the best cornbread that I have ever tried too.

I always grind popcorn kernels on the finest setting in my friends WonderMill grain mill, which I get one soon, for the best results. It grinds good in my Wonder Junior hand grain mill but it grinds supper fast in his electric grain mill, I am so glad I have both. Electric grain mills are much better for every day use and hand grain mills are great for power out emergencies.

Popcorn kernels are great for long term food storage because they keep for a very long time, plus they are cheap to buy. I bought a 50 pound bag of popcorn kernels from Kitchen Kneads in Ogden, Utah for about $40. Popcorn kernels and cornmeal have multiple uses and gives you more variety of things to eat long term. You can pop it for a snack or grind it into corn flour for cornbread or combine it with other flours to put in breads and other baked goods. I would suggest storing your popcorn kernels in a air tight can or bucket with oxygen absorbers if possible for longest storing freshness.

Here is a recipe that I found for a basic cornbread that tastes great and uses whole grain flour that you can make from stored grains of your choice. I use spelt flour made from spelt wheat but hard white wheat flour works great too. I have heard that amaranth flour works good too but i am not sure how long amaranth grains store for, I will have to look into that.

I hope you give freshly ground corn meal a try, you may never buy store bought corn meal again. Freshly ground corn meal also has all the nutrition that gets lost in corn meal processed commercially and while sitting on a store shelf. So get some popcorn kernels soon and give it a try.