Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Great site to check out

Just thought I would share with you guys a great site. I know lots of you already follow this site, but for those of you who haven't checked it out yet..........

http://blog.totallyready.com

Great info on preparedness and also she keeps up so much with the happenings in the world. Check it out.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Some of My Favorite Food Storage Mixes

Waffle / Pancake Mix
1 ½ cups white sugar
1 ½ cups ground white beans
1 cup powdered eggs
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp baking soda
3 tbsp baking powder
1 2/3 cups non instant powder milk
10 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour or mix part white flour
All you need to do to this mix is add water until it is the consistency of pancakes, or whatever you want to make! It will make waffles, pancakes, crepes, fritters, and more.
Muffin Mix
8 cups flour
3 cups sugar
3 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix well, put into a large airtight container. Label with date and contents. Store in a cool, dry place. Use within 6 - 8 months. Makes about 11 cups.
Muffins
This is so quick and easy, I use it for breakfast alot.
2 ¾ cup muffin mix (above)
1 egg beaten
1 cup milk
½ c butter melted or ½ c veg oil
Preheat oven to 400. Spray muffin pans with cooking spray, or line with muffin cups. Put muffin mix in bowl and combine egg, milk, and butter in small bowl. Add all at once to muffin mix. Stir until mix is just moistened. Batter should be lumpy. Fill muffin pans ¾ full. Bake 18 - 20 min. Add fruit, nuts, choc chips, for a variety of flavors.
Chili Dry Mix
Use to season chili, refried beans, taco meat, or spanish rice. Multiply by 4 and store in gallon container. I love this recipe and use it for so many things. It really is good. For the tomato powder, I made my own simply by using my dehydrated tomato chunks and chopping them up in my blender.
1 cup tomato powder
1 ½ c dried veggies (dehydrated onion, celery, and peppers, in equal portions, mixed and chopped in the blender and then add some garlic powder or dried garlic, yummy)
½ cup chili powder
3 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp salt
Chili Beans: Add ½ c mix to a quart jar of cooked beans topped up with water and ¼ cup beef tvp or taco tvp or hamburger
Taco Meat: Add ¼ c mix to burger or veggie meat and saute loosely in oil until brown.
Rice: Add ¼ c mix to cooked rice with ½ c water
Refried Beans: add ¼ c mix to 3 cups mashed beans
Salsa: Add ¼ c mix to 2 c homemade salsa
Cornmeal Mix Recipe
5 cups whole wheat flour
5 cups corn meal
1 1/3 c powdered margarine - or you can leave this out and add oil with your wet ingredients
¼ c powdered milk non instant
2 ½ tsp salt
½ c dehydrate egg whites
3 1/3 c white sugar
2 ½ tsp soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
If you grind your own cornmeal (by grinding popcorn), grind a small bit of wheat after to clean your stones. This recipe will make about 15 cups. To use: 3 cups mix to 1 cup water and if you have to add oil, then add about 1/3 cup. Bake an 8 inch square greased, for 40 minutes or 10 muffins for 20 minutes at 350.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Master Mix (enough for eight batches) I totally love this one and use it all the time!!!
18 Cups flour - mix part whole wheat and part white
8 tsp. baking powder
4 tsp baking soda
8 tsp. salt
6 Cups granulated sugar
6 Cups packed brown sugar
14 Cups chocolate chips
8 Cups nuts - optional
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar and mix well. Stir in brown sugar until evenly combined. Add chocolate chips and nuts and toss until uniformly combined. Place in airtight container and store in cool, dark location. There is no need to refrigerate.
To prepare cookies:
Beat 1 cup butter with 2 large eggs and 1 tsp. vanilla. Add butter and egg mixture to 6 cups of dry mix with and beat until well blended. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheets.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Awesome!!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

At the Cannery

Well, with price increases and food shortages being shouted throughout the world right now, we decided that we would head to the LDS Cannery in Lethbridge, and add to our already growing food storage. We specifically wanted to add lots more beans to our supply. They only carry three types of beans there: black, white, and pinto. They were completely out of black beans, only had 7 bags of white beans left, and not very many pinto left also. Now a few months ago, when I was in this same building, they had palates full of them stacked high on their shelves. For them to be out, was kind of scary to me, so needless to say, I bought every bean they would sell me. My favorite beans are the black beans, and I didn't get any of them.............but I will when they get some more in. They said they were expecting a couple of truck loads in soon, but there has been such a huge demand of certain items, that they are having a tough time keeping up with it. Apparently it is a common theme throughout most of the LDS storehouses that they can't keep up with the demand. So perhaps people are starting to wake up to the importance of what is going on out there in this rough old world.

Another thought, I have had many people tell me that they aren't noticing the prices going up at the stores, so here is what I want to tell you, don't check the prices, but check the size of the box or package, because the prices are staying about the same, but the quantity is definitely not. I compared a box of cereal today, with one that was bought about six months ago. The price was the same for sure, but the size of the box today said 595 g of cereal, and the older one was 950 g. The exact same packaging, with the label "Family Size" and everything, but almost half of the amount in the box. They are pretty tricky! So watch what you are buying.......they are attempting to deceive us!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Prices go up at the Cannery

 I did some figuring tonight on some of the price increases that I have seen at the LDS Church Cannery here in Lethbridge, Alberta.  I took the price list from six months ago, and then again in January, and the one that was updated as of Friday April 1st.  I then figured out the percentage of each increase per item.  It is quite scary to think that prices would increase this much over a six to nine month period of time. 
 
I would strongly encourage you if you think you are in need of any of these things, perhaps now would be a good time to get them.  If you continue to wait, you will find either more increases, or perhaps no products at all.  This is something to put some serious thought into.  The Cannery doesn't sell us these things to make money off of us.  They are providing a service for us to get our food storage at the cheapest possible prices.  Consider how much the increases must be at places that do want to make a profit off of us, and we happily and deliriously go about our daily lives not even realizing how drastically prices have gone up.  Perhaps it is time to wake up!!!
 

Products

6 months

3 months

Now

Increase

Percent

Black Beans

$15.35

$13.50

$17.15

$3.65

23.00%

Pinto Beans

17.25

17.8

18.95

1.7

10.00%

White Beans

14.95

12.8

16.35

3.55

24.00%

Rice

8.95

10.2

14.15

5.2

58.00%

Wheat

5.6

7.15

7.15

1.55

28.00%

Apple Slices

58.05

61.7

74.05

16

28.00%

Carrots

55.35

58.8

67.75

12.4

22.00%

Macaroni

12.85

16.85

20.7

7.85

61.00%

Quick Oats

8.6

10.05

16.3

7.7

89.00%

Regular Oats

8.05

10.05

15.7

7.65

95.00%

Dry Onions

73.3

77.85

90

16.7

23.00%

Potato flakes

23.5

31.5

34

10.5

45.00%

Spaghetti

15.4

20.35

24.35

8.95

58.00%

Refried Beans

27.5

29.15

36.65

9.15

33.00%

Hot Chocolate

24.5

34.15

39.75

15.25

62.00%

Flour

9.9

10.05

13.6

3.7

37.00%

Fruit Juice

24.45

28.3

31.95

7.5

31.00%