The last three weeks we have started a new family tradition - Food Storage Meals!
The kids take turns, and every Friday we either make an entire breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert from only what we have in our food preps (including the garden which is... almost nothing at this point...). We pick one random ingredient that we have to use, to help us get creative with using everything. Here are the results so far:
Week One: Pinto Beans/Dinner
We made pinto bean applesauce muffins, not too bad actually. We also made potato flake mashed potatoes and canned green beans to go along with it. No one complained. Success!
Week Two: Onions/Lunch
We simply added dried onion flakes to our spaghetti and marinara sauce. They didn't love it. I think we were a little too liberal with the onion flakes. Oops. That's why we practice now, right?
Week Three: Rice Cakes/Dessert
This was tonight's and it was the most fun one we have done so far. Rice cakes, marshmallows and chocolate chips. Microwave for 15 seconds. Quick, delicious and totally a morale booster if we need one. I think our solar generator can power the microwave to make these in a grid down situation. Otherwise, we all know how to make Smores the good old fashioned way.
Benefits of this new tradition...
- I love that the kids are getting familiar with our food storage items, learning how to prepare them and enjoying them now, so it won't be unfamiliar if that's all we have to eat.
- I worry that we won't rotate our food stores fast enough if I'm not consciously thinking about it. This reminds me to use all of our ingredients regularly.
- This helps me think about how I am going to prepare family favorites in a grid down situation, which will make cooking less stressful in the long run.
- I'm also learning where our food storage holes are.
This week was the perfect example... Should we store marshmallows? I mean... we love them... but they aren't necessary. Then when trying to think of a creative way to use rice cakes, we realized marshmallows was the easiest thing to have on hand. Case closed. We now store marshmallows. :vs_box: Maybe not as important as rice and beans, but let's be honest... I'd probably regret it if I didn't buy them and they suddenly became unavailable. Morale probably needs to be a little higher on our priority list with small children.
The kids take turns, and every Friday we either make an entire breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert from only what we have in our food preps (including the garden which is... almost nothing at this point...). We pick one random ingredient that we have to use, to help us get creative with using everything. Here are the results so far:
Week One: Pinto Beans/Dinner
We made pinto bean applesauce muffins, not too bad actually. We also made potato flake mashed potatoes and canned green beans to go along with it. No one complained. Success!
Week Two: Onions/Lunch
We simply added dried onion flakes to our spaghetti and marinara sauce. They didn't love it. I think we were a little too liberal with the onion flakes. Oops. That's why we practice now, right?
Week Three: Rice Cakes/Dessert
This was tonight's and it was the most fun one we have done so far. Rice cakes, marshmallows and chocolate chips. Microwave for 15 seconds. Quick, delicious and totally a morale booster if we need one. I think our solar generator can power the microwave to make these in a grid down situation. Otherwise, we all know how to make Smores the good old fashioned way.
Benefits of this new tradition...
- I love that the kids are getting familiar with our food storage items, learning how to prepare them and enjoying them now, so it won't be unfamiliar if that's all we have to eat.
- I worry that we won't rotate our food stores fast enough if I'm not consciously thinking about it. This reminds me to use all of our ingredients regularly.
- This helps me think about how I am going to prepare family favorites in a grid down situation, which will make cooking less stressful in the long run.
- I'm also learning where our food storage holes are.
This week was the perfect example... Should we store marshmallows? I mean... we love them... but they aren't necessary. Then when trying to think of a creative way to use rice cakes, we realized marshmallows was the easiest thing to have on hand. Case closed. We now store marshmallows. :vs_box: Maybe not as important as rice and beans, but let's be honest... I'd probably regret it if I didn't buy them and they suddenly became unavailable. Morale probably needs to be a little higher on our priority list with small children.