A quick Q&A and a What's Cookin'?

What happened to your "Safely gathered in" Button, The picture seems to be gone.

We had some issues with our bandwidth. I have no idea what bandwidth is, but what I understand happened, was that so many people uploaded our button and we didn't have enough 'bandwidth' (mystery word again) to support it.

The issue has been fixed and if the button hasn't reappeared on your blog, you may need to re-upload it using the instructions on the right hand side of our blog.


When you said, storing enough food and clothing to the extent the law allows: what does that mean. Is there a law as to how much food a person can store?

In some countries it is against the law to store more food than you can eat. If you don't know about a law in your country, you are probably okay to store as much as you want/can.



I have a few questions about your pasta purchases? Do you buy it from the grocery store? Do you process, mylar bags and O2 absorbers, the pasta or leave it in the cardboard box?

Pasta for my 3 month supply is constantly being rotated through my kitchen so I don't bother to do anything with it other than stack it on a shelf when I get home from the store. Pasta for my longer-term storage I generally buy from the cannery, where it is packaged in #10 cans or mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. Properly packaged pasta will last 30 years.


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Now onto the exciting part!
I made chicken salad for dinner this week as part of my weekly goal to rotate my 3-Month supply. I added some chopped green onions, since I was rotating, and I never make chicken salad without curry now. It's delicious.

I topped it with cashews instead of almonds, just because, and served it with naan, Indian flat bread, instead of pitas--because naan can be cooked on the stove top and I didn't want to heat up my whole house.

Ahh, food storage is delicious.


What did you make this week from your food storage? Post about it on your blog and leave your link below!

Note: Please remember that this rotation link is to share what meal you or your family cooked out of your food storage this week. Links promoting merchandise or websites will be deleted. Please link directly to your 3-Month Supply Rotation post.

Food Storage Friday: Steel Cut Oats

Steel cut oats are a great alternative to regular oatmeal. I'll admit, I don't really like oatmeal, but these steel cut oats were really good, and so easy! The only problem is that they take quite a while to cook, but I have heard that if you soak them overnight (similar to beans), they'll cook much faster in the morning. I didn't do that this time, though.

Ingredients: Steel cut oats, powdered milk, honey (or sugar, optional), and dried fruit (optional).  Oh, and cinnamon (optional, not pictured).

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil, then add your oats. Let them simmer, uncovered, for about 25 minutes (2 pictures above).

Next, prepare 1 cup of powdered milk (mix with water), and add to the simmering oats (above picture). Simmer for another 10-15 minutes, or until the oats have reached your desired consistency.

Dish up! Add honey or sugar for sweetness (brown sugar is great!), and some dried berries as well. Enjoy!


Steel Cut Oats (serves 3-4)
1 cup steel cut oats
1 cup milk (1/3 cup powdered milk and 1 cup water, mixed)
Honey or sugar
Dried berries

Cinnamon

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add your steel cut oats and let simmer, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes. No need to stir. Next, stir in 1 cup of milk, and let it simmer another 10-15 minutes. Serve with honey/sugar and dried berries.

When you're rotating this meal, fresh berries would be a delicious alternative to the dried ones!

How To...Store Water in Plastic Bottles

One of my biggest challenges with food storage, actually, has nothing to do with food. It's the water storage part.

My problem is a mixture of no space and basic marital discord. You see, Mountain Man doesn't see the need for water storage. His argument: we live near a large body of water and we own several water purifying systems. My argument: what if our legs get cut off and we can't walk to get the water?

Just kidding. But I do feel strongly about having some drinking water in the house, and so I'm finally taking steps to have a water storage.

Because space is an issue, I am diversifying the types of storage and spreading them throughout the house in different areas according to what will fit where. I plan on having my water storage in three types of containers:

1. Store bought bottled water, for convenience when traveling.
2. Some 7-gallon containers like these. I don't have a lot of space for these, but I want some anyway.
3. Mainly in 2 liter soda and juice bottles, because they are readily available (as in, free).

So, let's walk through how to prepare 2-liter soda bottles and juice bottles to store water. I encourage you to check out the Provident Living website about water storage and purification. I've noticed that they've updated it quite a bit and I found it very informative. Even if I found it after I had cleaned out my bottles.

What you'll need is water (ha ha), bottles, and household bleach. Make sure your bottles are PETE plastic, and rinse them out in soapy water when you've finished drinking whatever is inside.

Fill up your kitchen sink or a VERY large bucket with water and add bleach. I added about a cup of bleach to a full sink of water (I have shallow sinks).

Gently insert your empty bottle into the water. You want to fill up as much of the inside as possible so the bleach solution can kill any microorganisms inside the bottle.


You won't be able to keep the bottles completely full of bleach water, so whenever you think about it roll the bottles so the bleach water has time to sit on each side of the bottle. If that made any sense.


Yes, you should use gloves.



I filled a bucket with some water and a higher concentration of bleach for the lids because the juice/soda inside the lids can be harder to get out.


I used to run my juice bottles through the dishwasher then fill them up with water and call it good. Then I noticed things growing on the inside of the lid.


Let them sit for several hours. I usually let it go all day. I like the smell of bleach.

After several hours of soaking, let the water out of the sink and rinse the bottles and lids. It doesn't have to be completely rinsed, a little bleach won't hurt you.


Nothing on the inside of these guys.




Fill the newly bleached bottles up with water. If your water comes from a reliable source (chlorinated tap water) you don't need to add extra bleach (source).



Clearly label your water bottles. You still need to rotate these regularly and having the date on them with help you rotate in a timely manner.



Store in a cool, dry space, away from direct light. Like your daughters' closet. They can't have that many clothes right? You aren't supposed to store your water directly on the ground. Anyone know why?



Start all over again. My goal is a 2 week supply for each member of the family. Wish me luck.

If you don't drink a lot of soda or juice, ask around to your friends and neighbors. I inherited my soda bottles from a soda-drinking family.

For more information on water storage, check out our series here.