Preparing Wisely

Food Storage Meals

Making meals with food storage is quite advantageous to you in many ways. First, you are better able to assess how well you like certain products. Secondly, you can determine how to prepare the base ingredients. Third, you get a feel for how products can be used together. Finally, you find out if the amount you are storing is at an adequate level, or if you might need to add more of a certain item.

People often say that they will eat anything when they are hungry. This is quite true. Anyone who has been in a situation where they are facing hunger finds that he or she is more prone to consuming foods that he or she may not have been willing to eat in the past. Furthermore, individuals may consume certain foods with more eagerness than in normal circumstances. The problem arises when we are faced with eating the same foods day after day. This condition can lead to food fatigue, which is quite a serious issue.This is why using food storage will help you determine what you like, in order to avoid fatigue.

When you first start using freeze dried and dehydrated products you start to learn how to go about using the foods in your meals. Many items need to be rehydrated. Some products, like fruits, will rehydrate with cold water. Others, like cheeses do best with luke-warm water. Most however, do best with hot or boiling water. However, do you always need to rehydrate? Do you want to soak the product and then drain off the water? You can lose some of the taste and nutrition this way. You may be able to add the product into your recipe as long as the product has enough liquid and sufficient cooking time to rehydrate. This is not always possible, but you will learn these skills as you cook.

Lastly, as you use the food you store you will get a better feel for how much of a product you may really need to store. Food calculators are great, but you may want to cook certain items or prepared certain foods that require more of a certain product than others. You may determine that you don't need as much of a certain product as another, whereas you may want to bulk up on certain items.

Recently, we have been focusing on food storage meals. The most enjoyable way to use food storage is to replace food storage ingredients in a recipe to see how things turn out. The one below is a great example of the variety that food storage can provide:

This meal featured a cheesy potatoes, cooked broccoli and cranberry sauce. The cheesy potatoes were delicious and filling. The broccoli tasted just like freshly cooked broccoli and the cranberry sauce was better than the pre-made stuff from the grocery stores. We have the recipes in the store so that you can try them too!

Berkey Purifiers The Ultimate in Purification

Stainless Steel Housing with Ceramic and Active Charcoal Purification Elements

Royal_Berkey

For us, there is nothing more enjoyable than having at our fingertipsgreat tasting,clean water that has not been stripped of trace minerals. A Berkey Purification System on your countertop is a truly great way to improve your quality of life and have you prepared for emergencies.

So many times we focus on food storage and give very little thought to water. We really should be thinking: Water! Water! Water! With the Berkey Purification System, you can enjoy great water every day and have a filtration and purification system in place to deal with emergencies. We think that every household should have one of these units. Why? There are several reasons:

These purifiers are easy to use! Just fill up the top reservoir with water. The water then is absorbed by the filters and then is gravity fed down through the purification elements and into the lower chamber where it can be dispensed. The set of 2 filters that comes with each unit will last for 6,000 gallons before replacing. It would take almost 5 years using 3 gallons of water a day to go through that much water!

Do you have water stored in 55 gallon drums or other containers? Do you ever wonder if it is truly potable? Berkey water purification systems will not only purify stored water that may not be safe for drinking, but it will also improve the taste of water. What a great combination!

Another fantastic reason to own a Berkey is for personal health reasons. With all of the water treatment and water product options out there, we believe that the Berkey Purification Systems make things simple. We feel like Berkey systems provide great benefits at an affordable price with little to no maintenance. Berkey systems purify water and leave the trace minerals in the water. These units remove chlorine, pesticides, herbicides and a whole host of volatile organic compounds. They significantly remove heavy metals by up to 95% ! You can also add an additional filter to remove fluoride and arsenic.

Many people want an affordable option to bottled water or water purchased by the gallon. Others are tired of making trips and hauling heavy containers of water. With a Berkey Purification System you not only have immediate access to pure, great tasting water, but you also save yourself money and are making an environmentally conscious choice by not using so much plastic.

Berkey Purification Systems make an important part of your emergency water filtration and purification planning. These units can be used to filter and purify lake water, streams, stagnant pools and other water sources to remove germs, bacteria, cysts and protozoa and improve the taste of the water. You can see the power filtration and purification process of the Berkey by adding red food coloring to the water to be filtered in the top. This unit will remove the food coloring! This is also a way to periodically test your filters for performance.

Berkey Purifier

Many of you have heard of the Big Berkey, but our preference is the step up in size, which is the Royal Berkey. (The Big Berkey is kind of small.it only holds 2 gallons of water while the Royal Berkey holds 3 gallons of water.) You can find pricing and additional details at our store website:

http://www.preparingwisely.com/water_storage_supplies__filters

Start improving your water, your health and your emergency preparedness today with the Berkey Purification System!

You can also watch our video review of the Berkey Systems as posted on YouTube:

Posted in Emergency Preparedness, Food Storage |

Freeze Dried and Dehydrated Fruits

June 30th, 2011

Eat as a snack or usein place of fresh fruit in your recipes

Pineapple

For me it has been hard to imagine not having fresh pineapple once in a while. Even though it is hard to eata lotof it without my tongue going raw, it is so delicious that I usually indulge until I cant taste anything for hours. Canned pineapple is OK..but just not the same. So, when companies started coming out with Freeze Dried Pineapple I was a bit skeptical. Dehydrated pineapple has been around for years and is quite common in various trail mixes.Dehydrated pineapple retains a fairly good deal of its moisture and is quite chewy anddelicious. However, I must admit that Freeze Dried Pineapple is really the way to go if you are craving a delicious snack. It is not quite as good as fresh pineapple, but it runspretty close behind in mybook.

The offering of dehydrated and freeze dried fruits in cans is now quite staggering. For years it was mainly apple chips that wereavailable. However, you can now find freeze dried and/or dehydratedpeaches, strawberries, apples, apricots, pears, blueberries, mangos, bananas, blackberries, raspberries, mandarin oranges and more! Freeze dried fruits generally rehydrate better, but dehydrated fruits can often be rehydrated in hot water or being cooked in water. If you need these delicious freeze driedfruits for a recipe you can soak them in water four about 10-15 minutes or until they fully rehydrate. Then, just add them into your recipe.Depending on the fruitthey work great in pancakes, muffins, cobblers and other baked goods. The nice thing is that they are ready tobe usedand do not spoil like fresh fruit.

We have several sample cans at the store for you to try..but bewarethesewonderful freeze dried fruits can be addicting!

FIFO Food Rotation Shelves

May 30th, 2011

Easy to Adjust Food Storage Rotation Shelves

FIFO Food Rotation Shelf

FIFO Can Racks are not as well known as the Shelf Reliance brand can racks, but are similar in use and quality. The rack pictured above is the 72 tall model that is 36 wide and 24 deep and can hold over 500 small and medium sized cans.Shelves that are 72 high, 36 wide and 24 deep are the largest sizethat either Shelf Reliance or FIFO makes. Many of you have these type of shelves or are familiar with them. For those that are not familiar with these shelving systems, these can racks help make storage of cans and rotation easy.

The food rotation shevles operate under the principle of First In First Out (FIFO). The tracks are angled toward the back of the rack in a U-Shape.You simply load your cans from the top of the track and the cans rolltoward the back. As the cans near the back of the track they slip down the back of the U, slide down the curved back and then roll forward. The cans you put in first at the top can then be extracted first. This helps you rotate your cans using the oldest cans first.

The FIFO can racks are actually easier to set up and adjust than the Shelf Reliance racks because of how the tracks fit into the main unit. However,FIFO only makes two models right now: A 72 rack for small and medium cans and a 72 rack for #10 cans. The small and medium can rack will hold small cans like tuna fish and green chillis, as well as soup cans, vegetable cans, fruit cans and other cans up to 36 oz cans. The #10 can unit holds small cans up togallon size (coffee)#10 cans.

FIFO Can Tracker

While this is the only size of can racks that FIFO makes, they do make a Can Tracker and a Mini Can Tracker. The Can Tracker is designed to fit on pantry shelves, while the Mini Can Tracker is designed for cupboard shelves. Both of these units can be adjusted to hold various types of small soup sized cans.

We add a board to the top of our unit and you can store food or gear on top. If you are struggling to organize your canned food and need help with rotation, these shelves can be a great tool.

Posted in Emergency Preparedness, Food Storage |

Katadyn Combi

April 30th, 2011

April30, 2011

Katadyn Water Filters

Katadyn is a Swiss company that has long been recognized as one of the premier water filter companies in the world. Katadyn filters are even listed as one of the recognized brands on http://www.providentliving.org/.

The Combi is one of Katadyns best filters because of the amount of water that it can filter. It has a filtering capacity of up to 13,000 gallons. This is a top of the line ceramic filter that also features activated carbon to improve water taste and quality. Here is the technical information on the ceramic and activated carbon filtering capabilities:

Katadyn Ceramic filters have a micro porous structure with impregnated silver which delays the growth of bacteria. The pore size of Katadyn ceramic filters is 0.2 micron (0.0002 mm). Bacteria range in size from 0.2 to 5 micron and like protozoa (1 15 micron), are efficiently filtered out.

Activated Carbon is used for its ability to reduce harmful organic and inorganic substances in the water. It removes unpleasant tastes, odors, chlorine, pesticides (such as lindane, DDT) and trihalomethanes (THMs). These substances adhere to the large surface area of the activated carbon.

Katadyn has a wonderful video of their product that can be viewed at:

Katadyn Combi

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Katadyn Water Filter

March 30th, 2011

March30, 2011

Katadyn Water Filter

Here is our experiment with our Katadyn Water Filter. Troy filled the bucket with water, dirt and bugs.

They put one end of the filter in the water and started filtering the water into the blue cup. It is easy to filter the water.

Here is an up close picture of the dirty water and the clean water that came through the filter into the cup.

We all drank the water. It didnt taste like RO water. But it was clean.

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Everything Tastes Better in the Sun Oven!

March 1st, 2011

DONT DELAYUSE THE GLOBAL SUN OVEN TODAY!

sun_oven_new

The Global Sun Oven is the industry standard for solar oven cooking. In my experience, no other sun oven heats up as well, maintains its heat as well or cooks food as well as the Global Sun Oven. There are several key elements to the construction of this unit. First, this unit has a glass top. This is not a magnification type glass top, but it istempered glass that allows the heat of the sun to pass through in order to heat the black interior of the box. This glass top is essentially the lid to the sun oven as you open and close this for food placement and extraction. Inside the box, the unit has anodized aluminum sidewalls and features a leveling tray. This leveling tray not only allows you to adjust the unit up and down with the rear stand, but it also keeps the food off of the bottom of the oven to allow forair circulation whichprevents hot spots. The inside of the unit includes a built-in thermometer that allows you to monitor the internal temperature. The box itself is nicely insulated with food-gradefiberglass battingand has a plywood top finish to help with its overall durability. The outside portion of the box is made of ABS Plastic and has a handle attached to the front to allow for easy transportation. The back of the box has a built in stand that adjusts up and down. As we progress through the seasons of the year, you raise the stand during the cooler seasons to more fully align the face of the Global Sun Oven with the sun relative to the horizon. In the front, the aluminum reflector panels also help to redirect the rays of the sun. (However, the efficacy of the unit itself is primarily based on proper centering of the unit towards the sun.) The Aluminum Reflector panels fold up nicely for storage and the back piece has a nylon strap and snap that fit to the front of the unit to secure the panels during transportation. Overall, the unit is well built and made to last for 20 or more years. The only thing that I would change could be instead of a top loading system have a rear loading system. I would love to see an insulated rear entry door. It would be much easier to get in and out of. However, this would certainly add to the cost of the system greatly.

As to the food you can cook in the Global Sun Oven, the sky is the limit. The only thing that you wont be able to do is fry foods (orheat frying oil). Thesre is not a sufficiently high enough contact temperature to provide this type of cooking. What about breakfast you ask? Well, you can actually start this unit as soon as the sun is fully up and light can hit the oven. Turn the Sun Oven upside down. Swing the leveling tray around and Voila, you are ready to cook in the morning. The only problem is that the relatively low ambienttemperature outsidemakes this the least effective time of the day to cook and requires much longer cooking times. For the most part, count on 1.25x to 1.50x longer in cooking times during the day. During the morning, it could be up to 2.0x to 2.5x as long. The best time we have found is to start cooking between 10:00 and 11:00. If you use the unit as a slow cooker, place the food in it and readjust the unit to face the sun a couple of times to help with the cooking. Your food will be ready for you in a few hours and will stay warm until you are ready. Going to work in the morning? OK, put your food in a pot, face your sun oven to where it will be facing the full sun at about 1:00 PM, put your food in it, and come home in the evening to a warm meal. It really is that easy! Need to bake bread? Pre-heat your oven for 1/2 hour, place your bread loaves in, rotate the oven after 1/2 hour to compensate for the movement of the sun and have wonderful tasting bread in 45-60 minutes. I know some folks we let their bread rise in the sun oven and then just let it naturally lead into the cooking of the bread.

We use our oven 3-5 times a week. This definitely sounds like a sales pitch, but food just tastes better in the Global Sun Oven. There is something wonderful that only the direct rays of the sun provide in cooking. Meat or chicken cooked in the Sun Oven used as a slow cooker becomes tender and falls of the bone, while maintaining its moisture. Bread has a wonderful thick crust on the type, with thinner crust on the sides and bottoms. I always tease my wife that I like her bread better from the Global Sun Oven. In the regular oven, the radiant heat from the oven creates thicker crust on the sides and bottom of the loaf. I like the Sun-Kissed top crust of the bread for the Global Sun Oven. We have also cooked casseroles, stews, soups, muffins and cakes in the sun oven. You can either cook the things you normally like, make up your own recipes for the oven, or scour the internet or books for recipes. You will never get bored with this stove!

Whole Wheat Bread

Here in the desert region of Arizona this unit typically has a temperature rating of 340 380 degrees in the summer and 320 350 degrees in the winter on a sunny day. We have also tested this unit out at over 5,000 feet on a cool day (45 Degrees) and had the unit reach 300 degrees, which is sufficient to cook food and bake bread. In my conversations with Paul Munsen, the President of Sun Ovens International, the maker of the Global Sun Oven, we have discussed the limitations of the oven in colder temperatures. On a sunny day in the mid-Thirties, you can reach a temperature of over 180 degrees, which believe it or not is sufficient to bake a loaf of bread. Not your best looking loaf mind you, but it will cook!

In terms of cookware, we find that the dark, thin-walled enamelware pots are wonderful. These heat up well and help to collect heat because of their dark color.For warmer areas, small dutch ovens in the 2 4 quart range (without the feet)work great.These smaller dutch ovenstake longer to heat up than thin walled pots, but retain their heat better. Glass cookware and stonecookware are also wonderful options. Experiment with these as well. Avoid white, shiny or metallic cookware. These naturally reflect light and are slower to heat up. However, in spite of the fact that traditional bread loaf pans are metallic and shiny, since the bread covers most of the surface, these work fine.

As I write this post, hundreds of these units are being deployed to Haiti in order to provide meals, and more importantly, to pastuerize water, in order to help with the aid efforts to the Haitian people. Of course, a hot meal is often a luxury in a crisis, but drinking water is essential. Solarizing water is another in a number of methods to provide potable drinking water.

It is obvious that there are limitations to the Global Sun Oven. On cloudy or partially cloudy days, the temperature may not be sufficient to cook food. Thus, a dutch oven and a supply or wood or charcoal becomes important. However, on sunny days there is no better alternative to cooking than this. These units are relatively expensive, but the investment can pay huge dividends both now and in the future. So, dont delay..use a Global Sun Oven Today!

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Food Storage in PETE Jars

February 23rd, 2011

Convenient and Air-Tight Food Storage Containers

PETE Jars

Many people have been using PETE Jars for storing food for years. However, not everyone is familiar with these containers. Plastic PETE Jars derive their name from the symbol on the botom of the container. On this particular type of jar, the symbol is 1 with the letter designation of PETE or PET. This type of plastic is considered BPA Free and air tight. This type of plastic container is commonly used for juice containers, sports drinks and other liquid and food products.

So, why use PETE Jars? For us, having our grains, seeds, nuts and legumes in PETE jars encourages us to use and rotate our food storage. Keep the jars in the pantry, in your cupboards or on a bookcase like we do and have easy access to your for storage. The PETE jars are so air tight that you can add an oxygen absorber with a metal lidand it will hold a tight seal and help provide a great long-term food storage option. Many of them are made in a square design, so they maximize space. They are clear, which helps you see the contents easily. However, this also means that for long-term storage they should be stored in a box or kept in a dark place.

We also prepared a short video on storing food in PETE Jars. This will help you see how easy it is to use them for short or long term food storage.

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Six Grain Pancake Mix

February 15th, 2011

Easy to Make Pancakes that are Fluffy and Tasty

THRIVE Six Grain Pancake Mix

The Six Grain Pancake Mix from THRIVE has a great shelf life of 10 years and mixes up easily with just water to provide a delicious breakfast. This mix re-constitutes well and can easily be stirred after adding water with just a fork. The pancakes cook up fluffy and golden on the griddle. The six grain mix includes red wheat flakes, white wheat flakes, barley flakes, rye flakes, rolled oats, and ground sunflower seeds to provide a really great tasting pancake. Check out our video review below for more information and to see how easily the pancakes mix together and how good they look!

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Volcano II Cook Stove

February 7th, 2011

Multi-Faceted Outdoorand EmergencyCook Stove

Volcano II Charcoal Grill

Volcano II Cook Stove

The Volcano II Collapsible Cook Stove is a multi-functional stove and grill that can be fueled by three different sources. This stove and grill can be heated using wood, charcoal, or an optional propane burner. There are many unique designs that have led to this stove being extremely versatile, efficient and useful for outdoor and emergency use.

The grill itself has double wall construction. This means that the inner liner is in contact more with the heat from the fuel source, but an air space between the inner wall and outer wall improves the effieciency of the stove and maintains a lower temperature on the outer wall. The stove then has three bottom legs that provide support and stability, while maintaining air flow under the unit itself. The outer wall has air ventilation holes that help to feed air through the bottom of the inner liner and focus the heat up. The stove has a ventillation control that allows you to bank the coals with little air flow or stoke the coals with increased air flow.

Volcano Grill

At the bottom of the stove the coals or wood are supported by a steel grate. This grate allows ash to spill off of the coals and allow improved coal efficiency. A few inches above the grate a heat plate fits in. This heat plate helps transfer heat around the stove or helps hold the coals closer to the grill. The heat plate can also be moved up to the top of the stove to support a pot or pan. The top has a removable grill top that can be left in place to grill meat or vegetables, or removed to provide a place for a pot, wok or dutch oven.

Volcano II with Dutch Oven

As you can see, the Volcano II Cook Stove works well with dutch ovens. A 10 dutch oven will fit fully inside of the Volcano II Cook Stove. When using the 12 dutch oven, insert the heat plate and the dutch oven will protrude slightly from the stove. Dutch ovens ranging from 14to 16will sit on top of the stove. You still use coals on the top of the dutch oven, but you now have a dutch oven stand for your dutch oven. You can even light your briquettes in the stove and then remove the necessary coals and place them on the lid.

Volcano II Cook Stove with Propane

Volcano II Cook Stove with Propane Burner

The Volcano can also be fueled by an optional propane burner. This burner provides you with another option for cooking everyday or in the outdoors. The limitation with the burner is that it is not very wide, and so the heat is focused in a small area. This limits the food you cook to a small area on the grill itself. It does however provide a very hot cooking surface for pots, pans and woks.

The stove collapses down to about 5 inches high and comes with a carry case. Volcano now makes a Volcano lid for the stove. This Kevlar lid makes the stove even more efficient and improves cooking time. The lid packs down nicely and fits in the pouch inside of the bag for easy store.

The video review above helps you get a good look at the Volcano II Cook Stove and provides information on how to use the Volcano as a stove or grill. Hope you enjoy.

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Freeze Dried Peaches

January 31st, 2011

Delicious Peaches You Can Enjoy Year Round

THRIVE Freeze Dried Peaches

THRIVE Freeze Dried Peaches are large peach slices that come packed in #10 cans. These freeze dried peach slices make a wonderful snack all by themselves, but they really excell in recipes. Since they are large in size, they are perfect for use in pies, cobblers, cakes and other dishes. These peaches are super sweet without any added sugars. These peaches can store for up to 25 years if stored in cool, dry conditions.

It is easy to rehydrate these peaches for use in recipes. Simply soak the peach slices in hot water for 3-5 minutes.THRIVE recommends that you soak 1 cup of peaches in 4 cups hot water to help fully rehydrate the peaches. We found that if you soak them for more than 10 minutes they really soften up and are like bottled peaches without the syrup.

These peaches really are as good as they look! So come on in and try out a can today.

Dont be afraid to try them in your favorite dessert or give some to your kids to see how much they like them. Our little taste testers at home were delighted to try them.

The only problem was.they wanted to eat the whole can!

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Healthy Quinoa Salad

January 24th, 2011

Healthy Quinoa Salad

Nutritious and Delicious

Quinoa is one of the powerhouses of the grain world. Quinoa is gluten free and is a great source of fiber, magnesium and iron. Quinoa is high in protein, and more importantly, it is a complete protein. This means that it provides us with all of the essential amino acids. Quinoa develops a high level of protein as it is grown in the high elevations of Peru and Bolivia. Quinoa comes in three different colors: traditional (white), red and black. Each of the three has slightly different tastes but are all packed with great nutrition.

This quinoa mix can be served as a main dish on a bed of greens or a side dish. It is easy to make and tastes great.

The first step is to cook the quinoa. Prior to cooking the quinoa, make sure you soak the quinoa for at least a few hours to help break down the saponins that leave a bitter taste. After soaking, rinse a few times to ensure great tasting quinoa. In a pot, bring2 Cups of water to a boil. Add the soaked quiona and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 15-20 minutes. This will yield 2 cups of cooked quinoa. Allow to cool and then continue with the following recipe.

2 Cups Cooked Quinoa (1 Cup Quinoa and 2 Cups Water)

1 Bunch Cilantro (chopped)

1 Bunch Green Onion (sliced)

1 Large Tomato (diced)

1/4 Cup Lemon Juice

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Salt to Taste

Mix ingredients and then serve over a bed of mixed greens or lettuce.

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