Search Results

I love books, for a variety of reasons, but one of the biggest reasons I like books is because I don’t have to remember everything. Everybody should have a home library of emergency type books that would help him or her with everyday needs and/or emergency situations. As long as I know I have the information in a book and that all I have to do is look it up when I need it, then I feel that I am prepared. This list of books has been very helpful to my family over the years. The American Medical Association Family Medical Guide Author: Jeffrey R. M. Kunz, MD and Asher J. Finkel, MD Publisher: Random House Inc. / ISBN 0-394-55582-1 Lots of good information that is reader friendly. The Merck Manual Of Medical Information – Home Edition Author: Lots and lots of people Publisher: Merck Research Laboratories / ISBN 0-911-910-87-5 Using this book, I have correctly diagnosed multiple problems that we were able to verify with one doctor visit, versus multiple doctor visits. A must have. The Herbal Drugstore Author: Linda B. White, M.D., Steven Foster and the staff of Herbs for Health Publisher: Rodale / ISBN 1-57954-134-8 The Herbal Drugstore book is very interesting AND helpful. Whatever the ailment, it first talks about the ailment and then it tells what the doctor would prescribe and how it works. It then goes on to possible alternative home remedies and how to use them. The Doctors Book of Home Remedies Author: By the editors of Prevention Magazine Health Books Publishers: Rodale / ISBN 0-87857-873-0 All of the home remedies that I have tried from this book have worked. A lot cheaper than a visit to the doctors. The First Aid Companion For Dogs & Cats / Prevention Pets Author: Amy D. Shojai Publisher: Rodale / ISBN 1-57954-197-6 (hardcover) / ISBN 1-57954-365-0 (paperback) I don't have pets, but if you do, you need a good reference guide. Whatever type of pets or animals you have around your place, it would be a good idea to get a medical book so that you could take care of them in an emergency. Reader’s Digest New Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual Author: Lots of people Publisher: Readers Digest / ISBN 0-89577-378-3 “Reader’s Digest Back To Basics / How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills Author: Lots of people Publisher: Reader’s Digest / ISBN 0-89577-086-5 This will help you know how things in your house work. It might even help you learn how to fix something and save big on repair bills, all while helping you to learn a new skill set. It has a lot of really useful information Camping & Wilderness Survival / The Ultimate Outdoors Book Author: Paul Tawrell Publisher: T (Paul Tawrell) – SurvivalBook.com / ISBN 1-896713-00-9 This is one of the best ultimate survival books that I have ever read. It covers everything and more. This book is very informative and enjoyable. It is one of my favorite books; it covers just about everything. Dawn

Several posts ago, I wrote about how miserable I was when my parent’s water wasn’t working at their house in St. George, Utah. I also told you that it took eight 2-liter bottles of water in order to flush the toilet. What I didn’t tell you was that because I didn’t want to have to keep filling the toilet up each time I used it, I decided to cut back on how much water I drank. Stupid! Me, of all people, cutting back on water intake! Keep in mind that I usually drink a lot of water and so I become somewhat dehydrated, but that wasn’t such a big deal, right? Wrong! My body was used to having water and instead of just being thirsty I got a urinary tract infection (UTI). That’s right, I was miserable. Now, I am not telling you this because I want sympathy. No, I’m telling you this because I think that it would be a good idea to talk about our sanitary situation during a disaster. First and foremost, don’t limit your water intake, make sure that you have enough water for your body to stay healthy. UTI’s are very painful and if not treated, can lead to death. (Two gallons of water per person, per day, for a two week period). Next, most disasters like severe storms and electrical power outages won’t disrupt the use of our sewer and water systems, but if we have an earthquake and our water and sewer lines are disrupted, what will you do? And how long will you be able to do it? Are you going to use the bathroom in your trailer? Do you have a trailer? Or do you have a port-a-potty? How long will it be before it is filled up? How will you dispose of the refuse? What will your children do if they are at school without facilities? Does your school district have a plan in place for this type of problem? What is it? We do have a portable restroom company that is local, but could they deliver them? Are the roads usable? How many people would they be able to serve? Who would get priority? And how long would they be able to keep up with the demand, and would they even be able to dump them or service them at all? I have lots of questions and I don’t know all of the answers. I do think that as families and communities we need to think about this before we are confronted with it. My biggest fear is that people will get desperate and just start using “the bushes.” I mean, how can you say no to a child? Do we need to have our city leaders call somebody in the community to be The City Latrine Master (or whatever other creative name we can come up with – Emergency Sanitation Engineer, or Privy Person, or – whatever, but I digress). Can we build latrines in our back yards? What are your city’s rules and regulations on that? Maybe there should be a latrine for each neighborhood. Who’s property would it go on and who would clean it out once the disaster is over? So many questions, but better to ask and answer them before a disaster than to make unhealthy decisions in the middle of the disaster. My biggest concern out of all of this is the disease that follows when sanitary issues aren’t addressed. More people died in the Civil War from dysentery, diarrhea, and cholera (all caused because of unsanitary conditions) than from war wounds. What a miserable way to die. Keep extra water on-hand to make sure you wash your hands and keep as clean as possible. Have wet wipes and hand sanitizer available. You don’t want to get sick when you can avoid it. Dawn

I have been waiting all summer long for August to get here. Not so much because the kids go back to school, but because I could write about another kit – for when the kids go back to school. This is a kit that you should put together for your kids to take to school each year and leave in their locker or classroom in case of an emergency. This idea is good for elementary, middle school, Jr. High, and Senior high school students. (It is also a good idea for parents to have an emergency travel kit in the trunk of their car.) School Emergency Kit * Inexpensive backpack or small duffel bag * 1 or 2 sealed bottles of water * 1 or 2 Energy Bars/Candy Bars (remember - chocolate will melt and make a mess) * Hard tack candy and/or gum * Tennis shoes or boat shoes * 2 pairs of cotton socks * A pair of sweats (or change of clothes) * Flashlight * Poncho and/or umbrella * Small first aid kit * Whistle * Toilet paper - one roll * Small bottle of hand sanitizer and/or a small packet of wet wipes * Money - You decide on the amount, but make sure that you have small change in coin as well as paper bills. Maybe a pre-paid card - if the power isn't out. * Pictures, on a lanyard or necklace of some sort, of each member of your family. Mount the pictures on some cardstock and on the back write the name of the person in the photo, the address, contact names and phones numbers. It is best to have individual pictures instead of a group photo because the person is more recognizable. It would also be a good idea to have the pictures laminated. Each person in the family will need a set of every person in their family. These will need to be updated every year. The best time to do this is when you get school pictures because they are usually taken at the beginning of the year, or just get your digital camera out and get them done before school starts. * You should also put any medical instructions such as allergies, asthma, diabetes, etc., on the back of the pictures before you laminate them. * Include a letter from the parents with instructions on what to do in case of an emergency at school and a letter of assurance that all will be well and that you will be together again as a family. As a parent/student, you need to ask your teachers if they personally know what your local School District’s policy is for the different types of emergencies (i.e., earthquake, chemical spill, person/group takeover, extreme storms and power outage, etc.). You need to know more than what to do for a fire drill – each disaster will be treated differently. Do not let administrators or teachers tell you that you can read it in the school district information guide (you will already have done this), make sure that THEY know the policy themselves and what needs to be done. Make sure that they reviw and explain it to all of their students at the beginning of school. Do this in each of your classes. Maybe the school could hold an assembly for the entire school. If the teachers don’t know the policy, tell them that you are assigning them homework and to get acquainted with the policy. Give them a short quiz and grade them. They will understand that. Dawn

Wow! Was anyone in that storm last week in Provo, Utah? I was in the middle of it and, wow, what a storm! It only lasted 10 to 12 minutes, but (can I say WOW again) what a 10 minutes it was! I was at work, and I had about 2” of water rushing through my office within minutes of the start of the storm. Actually, the water flooded the entire main floor of my building. I was very lucky; I was in my office when everything started getting wet and so I was able to save everything, but not everyone was so lucky – at work, or in Provo City. There is nothing like a mini-disaster (and remember, it is only a small disaster when you are not actually involved in it – it is a HUGE disaster when it affects you) to help you re-evaluate what you need to change, what you did right and what you will need to do to be better prepared for future disasters. One of my co-worker’s daughters’ basement was flooded and she and her family weren’t home at the time. Was there food storage on the floor that wasn’t protected like flour, rice, or oats in a sack on the floor? Well, they are no good now. Did they have a freezer full of food? Did they have a generator and gas to keep the freezer running? Also, how about all of the people that were forced from their homes? They were forced to leave their homes because of the broken power lines that were leaning on their houses for the length of the entire block. Or were they at work and not even allowed to get to their homes to check them out because of safety issues? Where was their family emergency meeting area? Who was their out-of–state, or at least out-of-area, emergency contact person? If they had medicine that needed to be taken, but was at the house, what was their backup plan? These are all questions that need to be asked and answered before a disaster strikes. Fortunately, most of the phone lines were still working and cell phones were not down (at least not that I am aware of) and so communications were able to continue, and emergency measures were immediately put into place and Provo City employees started right in with emergency disaster clean-up. It was also fortunate that the entire city was not affected, but what if it had been? What if the entire county had been affected? What if you hadn’t been able to call home or call your spouse or your children’s workplace to make sure that they were okay? What if? Please, get together with your family and ask these hard questions. Is your food storage stored in a way that would be safe from flooding? Do you have a backup energy source to keep your fridges and freezers going? Who is your out-of-state contact person? Where would you meet if you were not allowed back in your neighborhood? Do you have kits in your car that would help you if life as we know it changed in a moment, even if only for a day? These are all important questions and I know that you and your families will be able to come up with even more. The best thing that you can do for your family is to sit down with them and discuss these things, no matter what their ages are and even if, or especially because, they don’t live at home any more. Remember, knowledge is power. Take control and empower you and your family to confront a disaster head on. Be prepared. Dawn

Have you ever noticed how versatile the humble tortilla is? I know that I have given you the recipe for the tortilla before, but I am going to do it again because we are going to be using the tortilla in this article. Tortilla (wheat or white) 3 cups flour – your preference 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking powder ¼ cup oil 1 cup warm water Mix dry ingredients, add wet ingredients, and knead until you have a smooth ball. Cover for about 10 minutes with a moist cloth and let it rest. Divide up into 12 equal balls and roll out, thin (they will thicken up a bit when they cook.) Do not use flour to roll them out because when you cook them the flour will burn. If they happen to be a little too moist, just lightly dust the ball before rolling out. Fry the tortillas on medium high heat, with NO oil (using oil will make it crispy), on a cast iron skillet. When the tortilla starts to puff up, turn it over until it starts to puff up again and then remove from heat. These are very soft, very tasty tortillas. Now that we have our tortillas, let’s use them. The first thing that comes to mind is the obvious things like tacos, enchiladas, burritos, and such, of which I love, but we are going to do so much more. The first thing I’m thinking about is breakfast – sometimes on the run. Scramble some eggs and add whatever you want – peppers, mushrooms, etc…(you will have these already cut up and waiting in your fridge), add some salsa, cheese, maybe some sour cream and then wrap it up and go. You will be smiling as you pass by all those drive-up windows on the way to work. The whole cook and assemble time is less than 5 minutes. If you are really good, maybe you can con somebody into making it for you so you can just grab it as you run out the door (tomorrow set your alarm clock to get up 10 minutes earlier). Ok, not only did you not set your alarm earlier, but you overslept. You don’t have five minutes to spare, but you do have 1 ½ minutes, so grab a tortilla, smear a goodly amount of peanut butter on it with just a dab of jam and roll it up and go. You only used one minute. To make it even better, stop for just a few seconds more and peel a banana and roll it up in the peanut butter/jelly. This is a really good, easy and nutritious breakfast or snack. You can also use this as an alternative to the usual school lunch sandwich. My kids love it. Another favorite of mine is to take left over Chinese vegetable mix and toss with a little soy sauce, add a little cheese and microwave for about 30 seconds. Wrap it up in the tortilla and you have another nutritious on-the-go meal or a hearty snack/meal for around the house. If you are thinking that it would be difficult to make the tortillas when you need them, that’s ok because you can make them ahead of time and freeze them. Just let them thaw out in the fridge the night before. I started teaching my kids to make them when they were eight years old (I did help them with the cooking part until they got older). You don’t have to do it all – let others help you and learn something useful at the same time. There were some pretty interesting shapes in the early days, but they all ate the same. Nowadays they are experts and if I want to, I can call ahead and have them whip some up before I get home. Now that is what I call “fast food”.

I have a friend that works out in the hot sun every day, so he makes sure that he drinks lots, and lots of water. The problem is, because he is hot and because he drinks lots of water, he doesn’t feel like eating a lot and that can cause problems, like loose bowels – or diarrhea. I know, unpleasant subject, but real life. The good thing is that he doesn’t need to go running to the medicine cabinet for relief. After making sure that his electrolytes are good, he can head for the fridge and make himself a sandwich. Yep, that’s right, a sandwich, but more specifically a blackberry jam (without seeds) sandwich and it will take care of his immediate problem. Using blackberry jam to stop diarrhea is an old time remedy that really works. I have tried it firsthand, and so has my family, and they love it. Not only that, but blackberry jam tastes so much better than any over-the-counter remedies that I have ever tried. The more I talk to people the more I realize that we need some of these simple, yet effective, homemade remedies. Instead of running to the store and paying a lot of money for something that may cause side effects, you could just go to your spice cabinet instead. Now, I’m not an “all or nothing” person. I am a big believer in doctors and prescription medications. I also think that holistic medicine (acupuncture and massage therapy) has their place. You, as an individual, need to learn what is best for your body and what is the least of these things you can use before heading for the “hard stuff” (i.e., over-the-counter (OTC) or prescriptions). Please take what I am saying in context. I am not a medical professional, just a mom that has found what works for her family – like blackberry jam. When my son was three years old, he got a really sore throat on a Sunday. I didn’t have any throat lozenges (he would have just chewed them up and not sucked on them anyway) or numbing throat spray. I looked in one of my books and it suggested that I make sage tea. Take ¼ tsp. rubbed sage and steep it in 1 cup of hot water. Strain, sweeten with honey (for older children and adults) or sugar (for younger children). This does two things: 1) the sage numbs the throat (who knew) and 2) it helps your child to not get dehydrated because it hurts to swallow. This would also be good to use after a tonsillectomy, so the patient doesn’t get dehydrated (a really bad thing). My son is now 15 years old, and he still loves sage tea. I now make it with 1 teaspoon of sage to 4 cups of water, and after straining it, I store it in the fridge in a glass jar and it is there for anybody to use and they can sweeten it to their taste. If you are coughing a lot, but you have already had too much cough medicine or too many cough drops, suck on Jolly Ranchers, or any hard tack candy instead. It is not always the medicine that is fixing the problem. Sometimes it is the saliva that is soothing your throat instead. My mother, who has a mechanical cough from chronic bronchitis, got this tip from her doctor. And it works! Ginger. Ginger is a wonderful thing, especially when your stomach is queasy, or you are nauseous. If you will either sip on some ginger tea, ginger ale, or nibble on some gingersnaps, or candied ginger, your nauseousness will go away. This is good when you are flying, pregnant, or taking medications that make you nauseous. Also, peppermint tea is good for a sick tummy. I used to have horrendous sinus headaches, sinus pressure and a stuffy nose all the time. My doctor, who was a good doctor, would give me prescription drugs that would help dry me up and would seem to alleviate the problem, but only for a while. It was a vicious cycle. One day I was reading in Prevention Magazine© and it was describing me, or at least my symptoms. It said that by using decongestants that I was not allowing the body to flush out the yucky bacteria and that I would just dry them up and they would come back to haunt me again, and again. Their solution was to eat spicy food with hot peppers in it so that it would loosen up the yucky stuff in my nose and sinuses, and encourage my nose to run and get everything out. It worked like a charm. I have not had a sinus infection, or sinus congestion problems, for several decades now. The science behind it is the capsaicin, found in hot peppers, which is a colorless, pungent, crystalline compound that is a strong irritant to skin and mucous membranes. It encourages the nose and eyes to water more, and with more fluid, it helps to break up the “stuff” in your nose and allows it to flush the bad stuff out. Also drinking hot drinks and hot soups will help (it’s the warmth and steam that helps). I also add cayenne pepper to my soups. Whenever I feel that I might be congested, I just bring out the cayenne pepper or the Sriracha sauce and use it liberally on my food. A little Sriracha sauce in my tomato juice works every time. Yum! Dawn

Have I talked about water lately? I have a tale of sorrow and woe (mine). Actually, it was my parents’ problem, but I shared in their misery, even if it was for only a day and a half. Recently, my parent’s house, in St. George, Utah, developed a BIG plumbing leak out by the road. But they were leaving for a week and didn’t have time to take care of it and so they just turned the water off at the road and left. They were planning on coming back the next Wednesday and having a plumber come out and fix it – no problem, right? Wrong! The problem started when my cousin, my daughter and I took a last minute sales trip to St. George, Utah, and Mesquite, Nevada, and we were going to stay at my parent’s house from Thursday to Saturday. I mean after all, my parents went back on Wednesday and got the water fixed, right? The only problem was that on our way down, I saw a truck pulling a trailer on the side of the road getting hooked up to a tow truck and it looked suspiciously like my parents’ rig. Then I saw another truck pulled over on the side of the road with somebody that looked just like my dad! My parents had gotten a late start on Wednesday and so they decided to go back on Thursday instead, but then one of their trucks died just past Beaver, Utah. (Just as a side note, this is not the first time that they have had car trouble in the Beaver area, and I just have to let everyone know how wonderful and helpful the police in that area are. Thank you, law enforcement personnel for taking care of my parents). Long story short – we got to my parents’ house just about the same time that they did, late at night with NO WATER. More background information, this is during the peak of the summertime heat – 100++ degrees. Thank goodness that my parents had taken my advice and stored a lot of water. My mom has been storing water in emptied out 2-liter pop bottles for quite some time and has built up quite an impressive water supply, which was a good thing because I found out that it takes a minimum of eight 2-liter bottles of water to flush the toilet – EACH TIME! (There were five people at the house, and you can do the math as to how much water we were going through.) It takes at least one 2-liter bottle to wash my short hair and I was too tired to worry about anything else that night. It was a big inconvenience not to be able to shower because, well, because we were in St. George in the summer and that translates to a lot of sweat (the temperatures ranged between 110 degrees to a high of 117 degrees). All I can say is that I don’t know how the pioneers did it without air conditioning and running water. I still had the air conditioning, but not the running water and I felt like I was going to fall apart. The moral of the story is STORE LOTS OF WATER! You never know when you are going to need it. It could be a personal disaster, like my parents, or it could be just the block that had a mainline rupture, or a community wide disaster and no water is flowing to anyone. If worse came to worse, and if my parents had not stored water, they could have gone to a motel (very expensive) or imposed on a neighbor (notice the word “imposed”), but because they had water, they were able to tough it out. Remember, water is life. Please make sure that you get your bottles, containers, or jugs filled today. You can even wait until this coming weekend to work on it, but just make sure that you DO IT! Lucky for us there is a happy ending to the story. The nicest plumber in the world, or at least in Saint George, came out and fixed my parents’ plumbing - and showers were able to be taken, and toilets were able to be used, and life was able to continue on. I know that my mom is re-filling her 2-liter jugs even as I write (two gallons, per person, per day, for a two week period). I want to hear your taps turning on and the filling of water jugs this weekend! Dawn

I hope that you were able to enjoy the recipes that I shared in my last post. I thought that it would be fun to share a few more of my quick and easy, food storage friendly, recipes. I promised recipes with rice this time. My first recipe is another family favorite. After all, what would be the purpose of having recipes that your family doesn’t like? First, cook up twice the amount of rice that you need to feed your family (you will use it tomorrow). One cup of rice to 2 cups of water, add a little salt to the water and boil on medium heat until water is gone (I usually cook three to four cups of rice at a time.) While you are waiting for the rice to cook, make Rice with Refried Beans. Open one or two cans of refried beans, depending on how many people you are feeding, and warm up in a saucepan. Add just a little bit of water so that it isn’t too thick and season with granulated garlic, chili powder, cayenne pepper, powdered onion, black pepper, salt, and cumin (you have to have the cumin – it just isn’t the same without it) to taste. When the rice is done put a good size serving in the bottom of a bowl, put another good size serving of the seasoned refried beans on top of that, top with shredded cheddar cheese, salsa, and sour cream. This is a very hearty and healthy meal. OK. It is the second night, and you have all that left over rice. Life is so easy. Just make Refried Rice with Ham. Cube some ham, or you can substitute bacon (however much you want), and fry it up in a large frying pan. When it gets good and golden brown on the edges, add a little bit of olive oil and the cold leftover rice. Fry the rice and ham together and season to taste with black pepper. I like to add just a dab of butter at the end of the cooking process to add a little flavor, but that is optional. No, wait, butter is never optional. Serve up with a side of corn and season the rice and ham with soy sauce. My family requests this one but remember that it cooks up better and tastes best with day old rice. If you don’t have any ham, don’t worry, just add a bag of frozen oriental vegetables, and have Oriental Vegetables with Refried Rice. I like the oriental vegetable mix because I like baby corn and snow peas. You can use any frozen vegetable mix you want. The only thing that I would do different from the ham and rice is that I would re-fry the rice up separately from the vegetables so that the vegetables don’t get all smooshed up. Flavor with a little bit of soy sauce. Soy sauce is a must in your food storage. I like soy sauce – no, I love soy sauce. My favorite is Kikkoman. I buy it in the five gallon bucket for only $35.00 (at least that was what it was the last time I bought it in 2006.) Soy sauce is not just for oriental cooking, it is a highly versatile seasoning. Try this recipe for Beef Soup as an example. I think that you will be surprised. Take a very large pan and brown your stewing beef or beef chunks, add onions at this point and let them start to sweat. Add approximately 16 cups of water (in my pan that fills it ¾ of the pan). You really don’t need to measure, just make it approximate. Add about 1 cup of soy sauce (now you know why I buy it in five-gallon containers). Add your cut up vegetables: celery, carrots, potatoes and whatever else you want. To make this recipe even faster, less than 10 minutes preparation time (or about the time that it takes to heat the water), pour in a bottle of canned beef and canned vegetables, with a tablespoon or two of dried onions. Flavor your soup with garlic granules and black pepper. I also like to add a touch of cayenne pepper. You can put in a touch of sage or Italian seasoning if you want to. It is all about the taste, just experiment with the flavors you like. If there is too much soy sauce, add a little water. Not flavorful enough? Add more soy sauce. This recipe has become a favorite of anyone who tries it. It is one of those “comfort” foods that people always talk about. If you have any leftover rice (of which you won’t) you can add it to the soup. No bouillon cubes here! Dawn

Now would be a good time to re-evaluate why you eat a certain way and why you buy certain types of foods. Do you buy things to eat because they are healthy and tasty for your family, or do you buy food because it is convenient and easy? Do you cook from scratch or is opening a box your thing? There is a really good book called “Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence” co-authored by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. Basically, the book talks about our relationship with purchasing convenience and how much it costs us. It talks about how advertisers convince us that we need “and deserve” convenience. Advertisers have convinced us that we just can’t do “it” as good as they can and that our families will be better off if we let them do it for us so that we have more time to what? Go to work so that we can earn more money so that we can buy more convenience? How inconvenient, and so very expensive. I know that everyone that works is going to say, “I just don’t have time to fix dinner and I’m too tired”. I know, I understand. I work full time, I clean a house for a woman every other week, write a newspaper article, help out in the community, and I have a family. I get it. I understand what you are saying. I’m tired too. I just find it too costly to buy “convenience” as an everyday way of life. I am not saying that I don’t ever stop off and get a pizza on the way home, but my family does consider fast food a rare and unexpected treat – not an everyday way of life. In order to keep my sanity, I have come up with my own “Fast Food” and I will share it with you. You probably have your own favorite quick fix meals but remember they don’t all have to be casserole or crock pot meals and you can use your food storage items. My first and favorite recipe is one that my friends shared with me. It is called Salsa Soup: Brown 1 lb. of hamburger and drain the excess oil. Add 1 pint of your favorite salsa and 1 quart of stewed tomatoes. Heat and eat. Really that’s it. By the time it is warmed up, it is ready. I serve tortilla chips with it on the side and a bit of shredded cheddar cheese on the top with a dollop of sour cream (both are optional). This soup only gets better with age – think yummy homemade lunch the next day at work instead of the old, tired sandwich or the expensive “buy on the run” meal. This next recipe is actually a two-nighter planned meal. Have spaghetti the first night (that is easy enough) and cook twice the amount of spaghetti noodles. With the leftover spaghetti noodles you can make my family’s favorite meal – Spaghetti and Veggies (a variation of some Chinese dish). Warm up the spaghetti by putting it in a colander and running hot water over it. Meanwhile either steam or fry up some frozen oriental vegetables from a bag. After the vegetables are hot, toss the noodles and vegetables in a large hot pan (the one you cooked the vegetables in) with just a little bit of olive oil. Season with some granulated garlic, black pepper, and lots soy sauce – to taste. You might use more soy sauce than you are used to, but it will make all the difference in the taste. Warm everything up together so that the sugars will caramelize a little. You can also add a dab of butter at the end for taste or drizzle just a little bit of sesame oil on it. Throw a couple of shrimp or chicken chunks in with it, if you have them, but that is optional. Serve with soy sauce so that everyone can season it to taste. Remember you are using leftover noodles – very EASY and TASTY! Very quick. Next time I will share with you how to make rice come alive. Remember that stuff in your food storage? No longer is it just a side dish.

We have discussed the Siege mentality and the Practical mentality and now we will look at the Provident mentality. The Provident storer is a combination of Siege and Practical storer with one big difference. Instead of just storing what the Siege storer stores (i.e., wheat, dry milk, sugar, etc.) the Provident storer uses it. The Provident storer will also have a large garden and will bottle, freeze, and dehydrate the foods they grow. They will raise animals where they are able to and will do their best to not rely on the grocery store. When they go grocery shopping, they buy in bulk, taking advantage of sales and only go to the store once in a while for fresh foods like milk and eggs (unless they have a cow and chickens). Some Provident storers will even make their own cheese (which, by the way, is A LOT OF FUN!) A Provident storer will incorporate foods in their everyday diet that most people wouldn’t consider taking on like wheat and powdered milk. Which, if you started to incorporate these “gotta’ have, but don’t ever actually use” items into your diet, you would be surprised at how easy and tasty they can be, not to mention how much cheaper and healthier your diet would become. I’m not advocating that everyone goes back to the pioneer days of becoming completely self-reliant, but I am saying that you can find a balance between your food storage and the way that you build it, use it and rotate it. I find that I am a Practical storer with tendencies of the Provident mentality. I love trying to find different ways to use what I have stored. I know that wheat, whole grains, and beans are healthy for us, but how do I use it? Well, I just jumped in. I started grinding and blending and going to classes to learn more about how to use everything that I knew was good for my family’s health. I also did it because I wanted to know that my family would enjoy the food that I had stored and that it wouldn’t make them sick. To introduce wheat to your family, try using wheat flour instead of white flour when making the tortilla shell recipe that I shared with you. (3 cups flour, 1-tsp. salt, 1-tsp. baking powder, ¼ cup oil and 1 cup warm water.) We actually prefer the wheat tortilla shells to the white tortilla shells. The way that I started to incorporate powdered milk was to take a class on how to use powdered milk. What a fun class! The teacher gave us lots of wonderful recipes (that are available at the USU Ext. Service, Darlene Carlisle milk pamphlet) and I will never be able to look at powdered milk the same. After trying this pudding recipe, you will be hooked and will want to sign up for her class the next time she teaches at the USU Extension Service in Provo. Basic Pudding (or pie filling) 1 cup of sugar 2 eggs 5 Tbsp. flour (6 for pie) 2 Tbsp. butter 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (2 for pie) 2 tsp. vanilla ½ tsp. salt 2/3 cup non-instant powdered milk 3 1/2 cups of water (3 cups for pie) Bring half of the water to a boil, take the other half of water and blend in a blender with the dry ingredients and the 2 eggs, add to the boiling water. After it comes back to a boil, cook for 1 minute stirring constantly. Stir in 1 Tbsp. of butter and the 1-tsp. of vanilla. Chocolate: add 4 Tbsp. of baking cocoa to dry ingredients. Coconut: add 1 cup shredded coconut. Can use coconut flavoring instead of vanilla. Banana Cream: use banana flavoring instead of vanilla. This recipe is yummy and soooo very easy to make and a lot cheaper than if you bought it in a box or pre-made. THIS is good food storage.

I like eating. I have found that most people do. I have also noticed that most people tend to eat several times a day – three main meals and snacks every now and then. I have also made the observation that people like to eat food that tastes good and looks good. That is why I am a big believer in being a Practical food storer. I store lots of the food that my family likes. Instead of shopping at the store every day, like my Danish family, I come home and shop in my basement. A few years back my bishop asked for volunteers to live off their food storage for a week as a preparedness experiment. When he made that announcement my kids snickered and said to me, “Yeah mom, let’s see if we can live without going to the store for a WHOLE WEEK!” and then they chuckled some more. At that time, I would only go shopping once a month. I would buy the gallons of milk that I would need and place all but three in the freezer and then as I would use one up, I would take another one out of the freezer to start thawing. I bought eggs in large sized crates, baked my own bread, and would only buy things in cases or bags. We decided as a family to accept the challenge, but we decided to try for two weeks. Granted, not much of a challenge, but if we did run out of something I wanted to know why. During those two weeks we feasted on Salmon, ate homemade Key Lime Pie, and enjoyed homemade chicken noodle soup. We did run out of cold cereal because we always ran out of cold cereal (I’m not a really a big cold cereal fan and so it is not high on my priority list). Basically, we did really well and wanted for nothing, but as some of our neighbors and I discussed the experience that the bishop had asked us to try, I felt really bad because some of them had to break down and go to the store. They found that they just couldn’t go without going to the store to supplement what they had on hand – and they had only tried to go one week without shopping. You might think that being a Practical food storer would be expensive because you buy in bulk, but actually just the opposite is true – it is less expensive. I started a “$10.00 Will Do It Club” in my church to show people that if they would just spend $10.00 on a case or sale item instead of buying a pizza or fast food each time they went shopping, they would be shocked and surprised at how fast their food storage would start to grow. At first, they didn’t believe that $10.00 would really make that much of a difference, but I soon changed their mind. Every week I would choose items on sale that would equal $10.00 or less and go buy it for them and deliver it to their houses (yes, they paid for it), and people’s storage started to grow. The fun thing about it is that you can wait until a good sale comes on and buy then and get even more for your money! One time I bought 100lbs. of chicken for only $19.00 (in 1996). You say, “Yeah, right”, but really, I did. An incredible sale came on for only .19¢ a pound and so I took advantage of it. The next week when it was back up to .79¢ a pound I had saved $60.00 AND I had chicken that I froze and bottled, and it lasted my family for a very long time. Food storage, if approached correctly and rotated as part of your daily eating experience will be the most economical, healthy, and tasty way to save money and stay healthy and happy. Your food storage shouldn’t just be used during the hard times, but during all times, good and bad. You question how much you need of something to last a year? Don’t worry, you will figure it out over time. Buy two cases and see how long it lasts and then buy more the next time you see a good sale. If two cases of “whatever” lasts you six months, then buy four cases and see if it lasts for a year. I write on my sacks or boxes the date, cost and how much I bought (e.g., 1 of 4, 2 of 4, etc.) That way I get to know how much I need without making my inventory system too complicated. Work out what works best for you. It isn’t as complicated as you want to make it. Believe me.

Have you thought about what type of food storer you are? Remember, there are three types of storers: Siege, Practical and Provident. Today we are going to talk about the Siege storer. Some of us might remember the “Y2K – Everything, as we know it, is going to shut down and leave us without the use of computers and we will revert to the Dark Ages” time. It was a time that, if you were in the emergency food storage business, you were going to make millions on people’s fear and lack of preparation. The selling of pre-boxed, pre-fixed food storage kits that would last a person for a year, was the rage. The cost was anywhere from $1,300.00 to $2,000.00 per person – for a family of four that was over $5,200.00 (with convenient monthly payments)! I know that my food budget is smaller than most families, but that is MORE THAN DOUBLE my food budget for my family for the entire year! So technically, instead of buying the prepackaged kit, I could have gone out and bought two years’ worth of the food that I eat every day. I had a friend that went through difficult financial times, and they broke open their families “one year pre-packaged food kit” – it only lasted them for four months and no matter how creative she got while cooking this food, her family was not impressed. The big selling points of these kits were that you could buy it, store it and never have to use it – except during an emergency or crisis. For the Siege storer that is very appealing: 1) They don’t have to think about bad times, yet still feel confidant, 2) They don’t need to sit down and figure out what their family really uses in a year and 3) They have the possibly false sense of security that they will be able to provide food for their family in an emergency. Okay, the Siege storer will have food on hand, but will it be palatable? If they are buying just to store it and hopefully never use it (after all it was EXPENSIVE), it will go rancid; it needs to be rotated. I know that they say that it will last 25 years, but if there is granola, anything with flour, or other things with oils in it, it will go rancid long before the 25 years are up. Also, did you try the food to see if your family will eat it? If your family is in a high stress environment (the kind where you would be eating your emergency food), they need to be eating comfort food, food that they enjoy and know, not food that is foreign and sometimes just downright yucky to their taste buds. The food that you provide for your family should not cause them stress; it should give them comfort. Other Siege storers might be tempted to store just the basics and not spend the money on the prefab food kits. Instead, they will go out and buy: Grains (mostly wheat) – 300lbs*, Powdered milk – 75lbs*, Honey or Sugar – 60lbs*, Salt – 5lbs*, Shortening/Oil – 20lbs* and Legumes (a variety of dried beans) 60lbs*. (* – Approximate amounts for an adult, for a year.) Again, they will buy these items, enough for each family member, and then they will store them in their basement without giving it another thought. That is okay if that is all your family ever eats, but I suspect that most of you, especially those with the Siege mentality, are not grinding your wheat, drinking powdered milk, or preparing and eating beans on a weekly basis. When you are forced to eat what you store, are your bodies going to be able to handle it? Will you get sick? It has been proven that after a time, people that are forced to eat what they do not enjoy will simply stop eating. Depression and lack of variety will do that. In the book “Food Storage for the Clueless” the authors, Clark L. and Kathryn H. Kidd give an easy reminder of how to remember what you need to store as a Siege storer (i.e. Salt, Honey, Powdered Milk. Legumes and Wheat): “Siege Storage Has Produced Much Loud Weeping” (pg. 31). Stop weeping and start storing what you eat. Don’t punish yourself and your family in an emergency with the food that you have stored. Instead, look at how you can have an effective, tasty, easy to maintain food storage that will not financially break you. You can store food for your family that will not only help them to survive, but also to thrive. I’ll be sharing ideas of how to do just that in my future articles – so stay tuned and work towards becoming, at the very least, a Practical storer.