Rotate Your Food Storage (Without Your Family Knowing They Are Eating It)

Recently I taught a class on how to rotate your food storage without your family knowing they are eating it. Manipulative, you say? Absolutely! It's a mother's right to trick her children into doing what's in their best interest. You know that game that we play as adults.... "Guess what we did when you were gone, mom?" (admit it... you totally know this game because if your children aren't old enough to play it, you have done it to YOUR mom)... Well now I give to you the ability to come right back at them and say "Guess what i put in your meatloaf when you were growing up"   Two can play those games...LOL
I had lots of people, who couldn't attend the class, ask me if I could do a handout or something to share the information.
It's never quite the same in print as it is in person because you miss all the conversation on the topic, (and all the admissions of experiments gone wrong) but here are a few of the highlights of what we discussed at the class:

Store what you eat and eat what you store.
It in no way benefits you or your family to stockpile food that you don’t know how to cook or that your family won’t eat. If you are going to store it, have a plan on how you intend to cook it. Keep in mind that you might not be able to simply use the stove or oven like you normally would, so I encourage you to experiment with other ways to cook your food such as a crock pot, dutch oven, BBQ grill, etc...
It can also potentially be a negative experience for your family if your bodies aren’t used to some of the food, so you need to have it be part of your diet on a regular basis. Our bodies need time to adjust to certain foods and by introducing it in your diet now, you will know if any family member has any allergies or unpleasant reactions.


Food Tips and Trick

Instant  Potatoes – can be used as mashed potatoes, in casseroles, add to potato salad as a filler so you don’t have to use so many potatoes, use as a base and ladle soup over it in a bowl to make the soup a little more hearty. Can also be made very runny and added to soup or gravy to thicken. Make the potatoes a little on the thick side and add cheese, pepper, ham, and form patties for fried mashed potatoes (this is how we use our left over mashed potatoes and they are a big hit at our house) Make sure you keep an eye on the expiration date for potatoes that have butter flavor added as they will go rancid over time.

Oatmeal – Oatmeal, add to favorite cookie recipe, add to favorite meatloaf recipe to make meat go farther, also soaks up some of grease, add to taco meat to go further (put dry oatmeal in blender to disguise it when using it in other recipes). I have added this to my meatloaf for over 25 years and my oldest child (nearly 24 yrs old), just recently found out, only because I told his wife my trick and she said something about it at a meal when we were eating it.

Beans – put a few cups of dry beans in a crock pot and fill crock with water. .(I am a working mom, so I need the beans to be ready in the morning so I can toss them in soups) Cook on low over night.  Rinse well in a colander before using in recipes The juice from certain beans cooking can become toxic, so I just rinse them all as a rule of thumb. You can use these cooked beans for any recipe that calls for canned beans such as soups/chili or you can mash them for re-fried beans … I also add re-fried beans to my taco meat to make the hamburger go farther, you can mix re-fried beans and rice and even some oatmeal for great burrito filling. It’s so much easier to use them if you have them ready, so I always cook twice as much as I need and freeze the extra. Put them in an airtight container or a freezer bag.

Rice – Rice with gravy, fried rice, casseroles, add a handful to any soup recipe, burrito filling. You can also use rice as a base for recipes that call for being served over noodles, such as Stroganoff. We had quite the discussion about rice and it did come up that certain kinds of rice will still be a little crunchy even when fully cookes. Experiment with different varieties to find out what your family likes the best.

Dry onions – any recipe that calls for chopped onion or any recipe you need to add a little flavor to, it's quicker and easier than peeling and chopping onions. It is chopped super small so most of the time you don't even know there are onions in the dish.

Powdered Milk – Hot Choco mix much better than store bought. If you can't do chocolate, you can still make the recipe with the cocoa and use other things to flavor such as flavored syrups, crushed up mint candy, caramel, etc.. You can substitute as milk in most recipes (not pudding, or gravy) 2 Tbps/1C water = cup of milk in recipe. I have a quart jar next to my stove so it's handy to add it to most recipes. If using in soups, add some flour or instant mashed potatoes to thicken. If using as actual milk, you can add a little vanilla to it for better flavor.

72 hour kits – Rotate food in them by using them as snacks to cut back on some meals during conference weekend. That way you always know the food is fresh and no bugs or rodents have gotten into packs. Rotate batteries in flashlights (I store mine in flashlight backwards so they don’t get bumped in the on position and run the batteries dead.) Rotate water if you store in 2L bottles at conference time so you always know how old your water is.


Other Storage Tips:

Use your empty canning jars to store food/water.  Oven canning (Google how to) works well to preserve dry foods in canning jars. Just don’t put in anything that has moisture content or it won’t last. You can also “can” water, so that you have safe drinking water or clean water for first aid. Don’t store empty bottles, put SOMETHING in them! It takes up the same amount of space and most people have empty bottles hanging around already.

Don’t store plastic buckets/ water bottles directly on concrete. Chemicals will leach into plastic and contaminate food/water. Put boards, pallets, or cardboard under them to create a barrier from the concrete.

Refill empty liquid laundry detergent containers with water (don’t let the suds run out) and you have soapy water ready to go in case of emergency. You can wash dishes, laundry, or people with the water. (Not for drinking, but it frees up your other water for drinking/cooking if you don’t have to use that water for hygiene/cleaning)

Use soda can dispensers to rotate canned foods or write DOP on lids with sharpie to help keep canned foods rotated. Most exp dates are only when the manufacturer guarantees nutritional value. Generally, canned foods, that are in undamaged cans, can be used long past exp dates.