A few simple food storage tips:
1) Remember to label and rotate your food. Newest food at the back, oldest at the front to be used. Label food with a date and put in the back everytime you add food to your storage.
2) Storing Meats - You can store meat a few different ways. One option is to buy meat in bulk, individually wrap it at home, and store in freezer bags in a freezer chest for up to 2 months (you can wrap 4 lbs of hamburger in 5 or 6 individual packages to make it go further). A second option is to purchase canned meats and store them in your food storage. An even more advanced method is to can and store your own meat. Here is a link to a helpful website if you are experienced with canning and would like to try canning meat: http://www.gopresto.com/recipes/canning/meat.php
3) Storing Flour and Sugar - Kevin and I purchased large buckets with 'gamma seal lids' from Emergency Essentials for flour and sugar. You can find these on their website (link to site at the right side of page). I only purchase flour and sugar when it is on a great sale such as a caselot. Then I pour all flour and sugar into these large buckets for long term storage. As we have had problems with bugs in our flour in the past, we have found this a great way to store these items in our basment storage without any issues.
Here is a recipe I modified to include some of the food storage items that were on sale last week. Items with an asterisk are from food storage:
Chicken Enchiladas
1 lb. chicken, cooked and chopped *
2 cans cream of chicken soup *
1 can Rotel (or Hunts) Tomatoes *
8 oz. sour cream
1/2 - 1 cup rice, cooked *
12 flour tortillas
Shredded cheddar cheese
Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl, mix chicken, chicken soup, tomatoes, sour cream, rice, and cheese. Spread a thick layer of mixture in bottom of 9x13 casserole dish. Spoon some filling into a tortilla, roll and place in pan. Continue until pan is full. Spread remaining mixture over tortillas. Top with cheese. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. *Rotel tomatoes give these enchiladas bit of a kick.
If you have any great food storage recipes that you would like to share, please e-mail them to me and I'll put them on the blog!
This may sound really random, but when you are using sour cream in a recipe for baking or cooking you can substitute a can of evaporated milk with 1 Tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice (mix the two together and let stand for about 5 minutes to thicken). It gets the right flavor there and they are things from food storage. DON'T try to use this when you want regular sour cream like on a baked potato---GROSS! :o)
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