One Stop Shopping!

I'm sure all of you already know this, but in case anyone doesn't, I want to fill you in on the BEST tip around! Walmart matches prices to ALL major grocery stores. A Walmart less than 5 minutes down the road just opened and it has been AWESOME!! With gas prices so high it wasn't worth it to me to drive the 20 min. to the nearest Walmart, but now that it is so close it has been great to be able to match all of the RED deals each week in ONE place! The 'red' deals from the weekly deal sheet you have access to if you are a member are the items in the ads that are LESS than 'warehouse' stores (Costco/Sams Club) and beat Walmart prices. These are the items each week you should be stocking up on and adding to your food storage. For those who are members (if you live in Utah and are not--visit http://www.myfoodstoragedeals.com/ ) you get a list of the weekly deals that tell you which items in the ads are GREAT (red/stock up immediatly!), GOOD (blue/okay deals, only buy if you are low) and OKAY deals (green/only buy if you are out). We make it SOO easy for you to cut your weekly food budget. If you are ONLY buying items on the 'red' list, you will be saving anywhere from 30-80% on your groceries!! Walmart now makes that easier by being able to match all prices in one place--FABULOUS!! If you haven't tried it, give it a try (bring your ads just incase they want to see verification on prices, or just bring your print out of our deals and they will match them).

Shopping is now easier than ever--and so is getting your year supply ;)

Read more...

Oat Flour--my new favorite food storage item!

About a year ago Oats went on sale at Albertsons for less then .50 for an 18 oz. container of oats. It was such a GREAT deal that I pretty much bought Albertsons out of their oats (three carts full!--you only need around 20 lbs. per person for a year supply). I have loved using my oats in cooking, for cereal in the morning, cookies, etc. but I just couldn't get through my oats fast enough. I was told that I could turn my oats into 'oat flour' and have LOVED this idea!! I broke my last wheat grinder by trying to grind flaxseed (don't ask me why I thought that would work?), so I was hesitant to grind anything but wheat. But..it worked and my wheat grinder is still intact :) I have now used oat flour in ALL of my baking since I started grinding it. I now take a recipe and do 1 part white flour, 1 part wheat flour and 1 part oat flour. You can't tell a difference and it feels great to be using up my oats. I have put it in cookies, pancakes, cornbread, pizza dough, and just tried it in my homemade bread recipe (recipe below). It turned out yummy and seems to make the dough a lighter color and gives it a little more texture. To help me rotate through my food storage I grind wheat, oats, pinto beans (into pinto bean flour--

another favorite!) once each month (or whenever I run out) and keep the flour in a large Tupperware in my pantry. I have them all labeled for which flour it is and this makes it easy to help me use up my wheat and other food storage items. Because the grinding is noisy and makes a small mess it is nice to grind a lot and keep it stored in your pantry for later, so you're not having to grind it everytime you need more flour. Make homemade bread with honey butter as your reward after your items are ground into flour and you will look forward to monthly 'grinding' day ;)

**The least expensive place to buy oats is at the LDS Canneries--$10 for a 25lb. bag.

Read more...

Tips from fellow food storage friends!

Do you need something to store your food storage items in?


Nancy from Springville has the answer..."I sell used 4 gallon buckets for $1.55 each. They use to have cherries in them and have been pre-rinsed. Great deal and store food well!! I live in Springville. And I deliver to Salt Lake County for a $25-35 fee or if I am going up there for many delivers I only charge $5 per order. They can reach me at: 801-704-9626 Nancy. "



A tip from Miranda for storing water in small spaces...

"My husband and I live in a condo so of course we have no extra space. So when a friend of mine gave me a 15 gal water barrel as a birthday gift and I wasn’t sure where we could put it with out it looking completely out of place (you know cause that bright blue barrel goes with everything J ). My friend suggested that we buy one of those round table tops at the store for about $5 (you know those glass tops that go with the small wooden tables) and turn the water barrel into a side table. That was the perfect solution for us! We just attached the glass top with large scrapbook glue dots (so it is easily removable yet sturdy), threw a table cloth over it and now it holds a few decorations and a desk lamp. (The glass top should even still fit the 30-gal barrel. Your table will just stand a bit taller.) It has worked out perfect for us and I like knowing that even though it is a small amount we still have some water incase of an emergency. "

Read more...

Storage Tips for SMALL Spaces!

Question from Samantha (Mesa, Arizona): I live in a 3 bedroom home with NO pantry and NO storage room. Do you have any tips?

*Be clutter-free. I found that in a smaller space I could not hold on to things I didn’t use or need. I went through the house and de-junked every closet and every room. Once I did this I was able to use half of my kids’ closets for food storage. I put my big bins/tubs on the bottom of the closet, food on top of the closet shelves and in any extra space I could find.
*Under the bed is a good place to store large bagged items. You can buy ‘bed lifters’ at Home Depot or other stores like that (or just raise up beds with blocks of wood or cement) and then store items under beds. Bags of wheat, flour, oats, pasta, etc. that should be kept in plastic containers to keep away from insects/rodents/moisture fit perfectly in the tupperwares that are about 6-8 inches tall and 3-4 feet long. These fit perfectly under a bed (measure first) and are a great way to keep your food storage hidden.
*Stay organized. I would make a list (or use the inventory sheet) and write down where you have each item around the house along with how much of each item you have. Try to keep ‘like’ items together. For example, have all of your grains (wheat, flour, cereal, cornmeal, oats, pasta, etc.) in one room (perhaps under one bed and in one closet). Have your ‘legumes’ in another area, ‘oils’ in another, etc. so that when you are looking for a particular item you won’t have to search all over the house.
*Have canisters of flour, oats, sugar, and other items ON your counter (cute ones of course) to help rotate through your food better and to keep smaller bagged items in your pantry.
*Utilize your garage—build well organized shelves so that the majority of non-food storage items can be kept out in the garage leaving more food storage room inside. My husband even built shelves on the ceiling of our garage (above where the garage door comes up on the ceiling). It makes me a little nervous, but that is where we have light storage items that won’t put too much pressure on the shelves (I wouldn’t recommend this unless you know how to brace it properly) :) A well organized storage room can generally fit more than we think it will.
*I have heard of people in hot climates like Arizona having a shed on the side of their home that has an air conditioning unit hooked to it to keep the food cool. You can either put the food in a shed or put other storage items in a shed and have more space for food inside.
*Keep your water storage in the garage to save space in the home. Make sure and keep all water jugs/barrels off of cement. Keep a thin layer of wood, plastic or cardboard in between all water jugs and the cement.
*Keep a well-stocked car kit in your car (water, food, blankets, old shoes, flashlight, batteries, etc.) that can act as a 72 hour kit without having to store another kit somewhere in your home or in a closet. You can get a list of what can be put in a 72 hour kit on our website.

**OUR SERVICE IS COMING TO ARIZONA SOON! YOU CAN FORWARD ME FRIENDS & FAMILY EMAILS THAT LIVE IN ARIZONA AND WE WILL EMAIL THEM THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AND KEEP THEM UPDATED TO WHEN OUR SERVICE WILL BE LAUNCHED. (SHANDRA@MYFOODSTORAGEDEALS.COM)

Read more...

Last weeks savings$$

Last week was a GREAT week for food storage shopping! Thanks to Albertsons I was able to stock up on several items I needed for my food storage. I was running low on my 'legumes' and was able to get AWESOME deals on S&W Beans--the white beans are my favorite for White Bean Chicken Chili (Yum!). The other items I added to my food storage last week were the Lipton Onion Soup Mixes (great to have in your storage for flavoring/spices), Lipton Rice/Pasta Sides (makes an easy side dish or meal in an emergency or on a busy night), Best Food Mayo (part of your 'oil' yearly totals), Lawry Marinades and Terriyaki Sauce (good to have in case you had to live off of all of your rice--these would give it some flavor and are good for marinating in a hurry), and Wishbone salad dressing (part of your 'oil' yearly totals). Here's what I bought (to give you an idea of how much money you can save each week and how you can get your food storage shelves stocked a little at a time!)

*21 bottles of Lawry's Marinades
*16 boxes of Lipton Onion Soup Mix
*47 Lipton Rice/Pasta Sides
*4 Wishbone Salad Dressings
*6 jars of Best Foods Mayonnaise
*70 cans of S&W beans (black, kidney, and white beans)

Total: $106.56 + tax
TOTAL SAVED: $233.69!!

Read more...

It's Garden Time!

I am posting this blog to help encourage any of you who are debating whether or not to plant a garden to give it a try! I DO NOT have a 'green thumb' nor do I know much about gardening. Pretty much everything I plant, doesn't grow (except for tomatoes, zucchini and peppers--so that's about all I grow ;). However, I do know I LOVE having fresh produce from my garden and know it saves me TONS of money in the summer! I was reading a talk by President Ezra Taft Benson that had some good insight on why we should grow a garden. If you are interested, here it is...

"More than ever before, we need to learn and apply the principles of economic self-reliance. We do not know when the crisis involving sickness or unemployment may affect our own circumstances. We do know that the Lord has decreed global calamities for the future and has warned and forewarned us to be prepared. For this reason the Brethren have repeatedly stressed a “back to basics” program for temporal and spiritual welfare.

Today, I emphasize a most basic principle: home production and storage. Have you ever paused to realize what would happen to your community or nation if transportation were paralyzed or if we had a war or depression? How would you and your neighbors obtain food? How long would the corner grocery store—or supermarket—sustain the needs of the community?

An almost forgotten means of economic self-reliance is the home production of food. We are too accustomed to going to stores and purchasing what we need. By producing some of our food we reduce, to a great extent, the impact of inflation on our money. More importantly, we learn how to produce our own food and involve all family members in a beneficial project. No more timely counsel, I feel, has been given by President Kimball than his repeated emphasis to grow our own gardens. Here is one sample of his emphasis over the past seven years:

We encourage you to grow all the food that you feasibly can on your own property. Berry bushes, grapevines, fruit trees—plant them if your climate is right for their growth. Grow vegetables and eat them from your own yard.” (Ensign, May 1976, p. 124).
Many of you have listened and done as President Kimball counseled, and you have been blessed for it. Others have rationalized that they had no time or space. May I suggest you do what others have done. Get together with others and seek permission to use a vacant lot for a garden, or rent a plot of ground and grow your gardens. Some elders quorums have done this as a quorum, and all who have participated have reaped the benefits of a vegetable and fruit harvest and the blessings of cooperation and family involvement. Many families have dug up lawn space for gardens.

The Lord wants us to be independent and self-reliant because these will be days of tribulation. He has warned and forewarned us of the eventuality."

I had SO much fun planting our garden today with my kids. We were out there for several hours laughing and talking about the miracle of how a small little plant or seed will soon turn into a large plant with vegetables and fruit we can eat--SO amazing! My kids were extatic to see that for the first time (it's taken 3 years) our peach, apple and pear trees all have tiny little buds/fruit on them--bottling season here we come! Our garden is NOTHING special, but the feelings it creates within a family is priceless :)

***For all those experienced gardeners out there--what kind of a spray do I use for my fruit trees? I have never had buds or signs of fruit before and I would be devistated if we lost it all to bugs...help!! Thanks!!

Read more...

SPICE IT UP!

An important element to your food storage is to make sure you have enough spices to last you for a year supply. We don't know if we will ever need to live soley off of what is in our storage, but I do know if we ever needed to, I would need A LOT of spices to make my hundreds of pounds of wheat, pinto beans, rice, oats, pasta, etc. taste good! I LOVE to cook and LOVE buying new spices! The more spices and flavor, the better for me! So...what spices do we need in our food storage to make sure we have enough flavoring to make our food taste good? Besides being able to make our food storage food taste good, having a stocked pantry and food storage filled with a large variety of spices will make cooking and meal planning fun! If you have a good supply of spices in your pantry, you will be able to make nearly ALL recipes.

So...this is what I do. The spices I KNOW I go through quickly I buy at Costco in the BIG jars. This way, I know I will use the spice quickly and don't need to worry about the spices losing their flavor over time. Any of the spices I buy at Costco I always make sure I have a backup jar (for when I run out and to make sure I have my year supply). I buy my spices in three quantaties--MOST (the spices I use ALL the time and I make sure I have 2 or 3 extras of each thing), SOMETIMES (the spices I use a lot, but don't rotate through as quickly) and RARELY (spices I use only every now and then and I usually don't have a backup). Here are a list of the spices and flavorings I keep in my storage:

MOST (spices I use ALL of the time and keep in LARGE quantaties!):

*Montreal Seasoning (or Kirkland Steak Seasoning)--absolute favorite!!!

*Chili Powder (Costco)

*Granulated Garlic (Costco)

*Taco Seasoning (Costco)

*Pepper (Costco)

*Salt (I buy salt at Costco in the 25lb. bag for around $2.49--can't beat that!!!) (8 lbs. per person for a year supply)

*Garlic Spread (from Costco--I LOVE it in everything with an Italian flavor)

*Parsley (Costco)

*Basil (Costco)

*Lemon Pepper (Costco)

*Seasoning Salt (Costco)

*Lemon Juice (Costco)

*Lime Juice

*Vanilla

*Cinnamon (Costco)

*Soy Sauce (Costco)

*White Vinegar (Costco)

*Apple Cider Vinegar (Maceys)

*Baking Powder (Maceys Baking Case Lots)

*Baking Soda (Maceys Baking Case Lots)

*Beef and Chicken Base (from Costco--McCormick--I LOVE it, it's WAY cheaper than boulion cubes and tastes better!)

*Lipton Onion Soup Mix

*Yoshidas Sauce (from Costco and is great to have in case you need flavoring for your rice)

*Dehydrated Onions (cannery least expensive)

*Cornstarch (Case Lots)

*Cumin (my new favorite spice!!)

*Cocoa (Case Lots)

SOMETIMES (spices I use often but only buy in smaller quantaties):

*Allspice

*Nutmeg

*Dry Mustard

*Rosemary

*Salad Supreme

*Cayenne

*Red Pepper Flakes

*Curry Powder

*Ginger Powder

*Real Maple Syrup (kind of expensive, but worth it!)

*Cajun Seasoning

*Poppy Seeds

*Sesame Seeds

*Dill

*Sage

*Sesame Oil

RARELY (spices I use rarely and don't keep an extra of):

*Cream of Tartar

*Celery Salt

*Mollasas

*Coconut, orange, mint, peppermint, lemon, butter, almond extracts

*Paprika

The other day I went to Costco and spent around $50 and got TONS of the above spices to make sure I have enough spices in my food storage. Per oz. spices are the least expensive at Costco. If you don't want large quantaties like they sell, you can go to Harmons, Walmart or some Dollar Stores and buy the smaller sizes for only $1. This makes stocking up on spices reasonable and that way if you don't go through it before the spices lose their flavor, you won't feel sad about throwing it out. The really good seasonings like Montreal and Johnny's Seasoning Salt won't be found for $1 :(

Remember to think in 'meals' when you are buying items for your food storage. If one of your food storage meals is 'oatmeal' then you will need ALL of the ingredients (oats, raisins, CINNAMON, brown sugar, powdered milk, SALT, etc.) Spices are an important part of your food storage--so...have fun and spice it up!!

Read more...

One of my favorite tricks!

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE making freezer meals! I don't do the traditional 30 meals in one day--I am not patient enough to do that. I just double whatever recipe I am making (assuming it can be frozen) and then I freeze the extras for another meal. Last night I made meatball sandwiches and rolled the extra meatballs, layed them out on a tray, froze them and then put them in a Ziploc bag once they were completely frozen. Next time I want to make Spaghetti and meatballs, all I will have to do is brown the meatballs, throw them in my sauce and I am done! Fabulous! Why spend $15 for a bag of meatballs at Costco when you can make three meals worth (for my family of 6) for under $7 (I bought my hamburger on sale for $1.49/lb.).

Read more...

WEEKLY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q: In the meal plan it says Food storage and then this week “Bran muffins” does that mean we make them up and then freeze them for food storage? I think I am missing part of the big picture to understand how the system works… Do you plan so many meals for your year supply and then multiple the ingredients to get what you need?
A: The ‘food storage recipe’ is a recipe that the ingredients can be pulled from the food in your food storage. These recipes are to get people to use what is in their food storage and begin rotating through the ‘basic’ items in their storage. Sometimes there will be an ingredient or two that you would need to make substitutions if you were unable to go to the store or use the items in your freezer. For example, if you didn’t have butter, or sour cream, in an emergency (or in a situation we had to live on our food storage solely) then you could substitute shortening, oil or powdered sour cream in it’s place. For oils you could also substitute applesauce, that is why I recommend having quite a bit of applesauce in your food storage. Either way, these food storage recipes each week are ones you can make from the items in your storage. I don’t make up the food and save it for the year—that could get messy and make for a big headache :) I just make sure I have a year supply of each of the ingredients I would need for each particular recipe (ex: a year supply of baking powder, sugar, powdered eggs, oil, raisins, flour, etc.). That way, if I were to have to cook from only my food storage, I would know I would be able to make all of the ‘meals’ and recipes from my food storage recipe collection (you can get the recipes and checklist on my website under the FREE DOWNLOAD tab on the homepage and download the FOOD STORAGE RECIPES download.


Q: This is just my personal preference but I would love to see the shopping list for the items created in Excel with columns for the ingredients, store, sale price and also the meal & area of store to find ingredient in (produce, canned/dry, frozen, bakery, meat/dairy, etc.). My reasoning is then it would be sortable – I could sort the list by meals and delete the meals I am not using for that week and then sort the list by store so my shopping list was ready to go, is that possible?
A: We are working with our programmer to help create a better format for our grocery list page. Would it help if we had the produce a certain color, canned goods another color, etc. and a chart at the top to help you know which items are which? We used to have the recipe/grocery list formatted per store and that seemed to cause more problems. People seem to enjoy it broken down into recipes verses store or grocery category because it easier to cut out the ingredients they aren’t going to buy (because they are not making that particular recipe that week). We are definetly looking into ways to stream line the process and make it easier to read—if anyone has suggestions, feel free to email me :)

Q: On the excel note it would be cool to have an editable excel meal plan file that would have the meal plan for the week and you could add the ingredients and then macros would actually generate the shopping lists after you edit – can you do that?
A: We are working on a simplified process, but we have found ‘excel’ may not be the answer because several of our customers don’t have this program, or have a Macintosh and wouldn’t be able to have access to the excel program. Kind of a tricky one—although that would be VERY cool and helpful if it worked. We’ll keep thinking.

Q: Can you freeze blocks of cheese or do they need to be shredded first? Can you chop and freeze green onions? (It would be great to get a list of items that one could buy on sale and freeze with prep work) I have heard you can freeze milk but I have never personally tried it – I also have heard you can freeze eggs… would love to know your thoughts.


A: You can freeze just about everything—here is a quick list of items I keep stocked in my freezer:
Butter, margarine, whipping cream/heavy cream/half&half, tortillas, bread, hamburger/hotdog/hoagie buns, cheese (shredded and blocks of cheese—you won’t have a problem with blocks of cheese being crumbly as long as you wait until it is COMPLETELY thawed and then it will slice just fine)—I keep parmesan, mozzarella, cheddar, Colby jack, provolone cheese, and swiss cheese in my freezer at all times (I buy these cheeses at Costco unless they are on sale for less at a store, and put them in smaller Ziploc bags for later), lunch meat, pepperoni, hamburger, pork, shrimp, steak, chicken, ham, sausage, bacon, frozen vegetables (corn, peas, stir-fry vegetables, carrots/peas (for chicken pot pie), broccoli, bell peppers in every color (just wash, cut in big slices and put in a Ziploc bag), onions (cut up and put in a Ziploc bag), freezer meals (lasagna, chicken cordon bleu, taco soup, Hawaiian haystacks, Homemade marinara sauce, taco meat, shredded chicken, shredded BBQ Pork, etc.), freezer jams, milk (if it is a great deal and I have room—this freezes fine, just make sure it completely thaws or you will have ice chunks in it for awhile), over-ripe bananas (for banana bread), yeast (it lasts longer in the freezer), frozen fruit, (and I think that is about it :) I am surprised it all fits!! **I have never frozen eggs, but I assume as long as you crack the eggs and put them into a Tupperware, it would be fine to freeze.


Q: Do you store frozen vegetables, dehydrated or canned? Or a mix of all? How about fruit?
A: It is good to have a variety of all kinds of fruits and vegetables (canned, dehydrated, frozen, etc.). In an emergency you would eat out of your fridge and freezer first, then your canned food and then lastly your dehydrated food. They all have different shelf lives and will be beneficial if you were to need to survive off of what is ONLY in your storage. The cheapest place to buy dehydrated fruits and vegetables is the cannery. You can either can each item in a #10 can or buy them in bulk and keep in a cool, dry place. Canned fruit and vegetables go on sale for less than ‘warehouse’ prices at least 2 times a year, generally during caselot time (Aug. & February--generallly)—watch for them to go on sale and then stock up!

Q: Where is the best place to buy a deep freezer? How many do you have and what brand is it?A: My husband work at RC Willey, so of course we bought our freezer there (great discounts!). I know you can buy freezers at Sears, Lowes, Best Buy, online, etc. You can also buy them used through the trifties. I haven't done a lot of research on how long they last, all I know is we have a Fridgidaire 15 cubic feet deep freezer and in 10 years we have not had any problems with it (I don't even defrost it--oops!) How many do I have?...I have the double sided fridge and freezer in my kitchen, a fridge & freezer combo in our garage, a fridge/freezer in our basement, and a 26cubic feet deep freezer in our garage. It’s funny that sometimes I wish I had another one! It may seem crazy, but I save SOOO much money by ONLY buying items when they are on sale and keeping my freezer well stocked. If I didn’t want to, I could easily live out of my freezer and fridge for 6 months (with only using minimal food from my food storage). I try and keep AT LEAST 3 months of meat in my freezer at all times. Doing this makes meal planning quick and easy! I don’t ever have to run to the store for anything unless it is fresh produce. That is the great thing about food storage—it is like having a complete grocery store in your own house :) When you get the weekly deals each week (if you’re not a member, it is only $4.95 a month) I will tell you which items to stock up on for your food storage and also tell you which items you can add to your freezer and how much you would need of each item for a one year supply. I take all of the guess work out of it—just follow the ‘deal sheet’ and you will be set! ***I have never frozen eggs, but I’m guessing as long as you crack them into a Tupperware and then freeze them, they would be fine. I will have to look into that :)

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at Shandra@myfoodstoragedeals.com and I will do my best to answer them :0)

Read more...

Best Bread Recipe Around

For many people homemade bread is something they are afraid to tackle. Well, here is my FAVORITE bread recipe that works every time! I try to have a year supply of ALL of the ingredients I need to make bread at all times. Below I have told where you can buy basic bread ingredients at the lowest prices. You may need to be patient if you do not have your year supply of wheat or flour. Costco is currently out and so is the cannery. If you call them every couple of days, you will most likely be able to catch them on a day when they have a new shipment of it. Also, if you do not have a wheat grinder yet, use your Stimulous Package money and go and get one. Once you start using it--you will LOVE it! I put wheat flour in pretty much EVERYTHING that asks for flour (I do 1/2 white, 1/2 wheat). Keep a large tupperware of wheat flour in your pantry and it will help you use it on a regular basis. I even add what flour to my cookies and cakes--it makes me feel less guilty for eating so many :)

Strawberries are on sale this week--make some homemade freezer jam and some wheat bread and there is nothing better! Wheat pancakes with homemade jam is another favorite in our house.

Dianne's Wheat Bread

Full Recipe: (makes four loaves)
5 c. Hot water

1 c. sugar
3 T. yeast (Costco least expensive--keep in the freezer so it will last longer)
2/3 c. oil (watch for it to go on sale for $2/48 oz.)
2 T. salt (Costco 25lbs. around $3)
3 T. lemon juice (Costco least expensive)

1/3 c. vital wheat gluten (if you don't have it, it will still be great, just not as soft & pliable)
10-12 c. flour (white or wheat)

(Wheat Cannery $6.75/25lbs.--call to make sure it's in stock before you go and get it)

In a bowl, place hot water, sugar and yeast. Mix and let stand for 5 minutes to grow. Add oil, lemon juice and salt. Slowly mix in flour 1 cup at a time. Once flour is mixed in, knead for 5 minutes (4 min. if white). If the dough is too sticky, add another 1/2 c. until dough is sticky, but manageable. Don't add to much flour. If your dough has too much flour it will be hard and dry. Cover bowl and let rise to the top. Spread a thin layer of shortening or oil on the counter to keep the dough from sticking to the counter. This also helps to keep your dough moist--flour on the counter can make your dough tough. Cut the dough into four equal parts. Put in four loaf pans and push down all sides of the dough into the four corners of the pan equally. This makes your bread cook evenly and not have any high or low parts of the bread that can burn. Put the 4 loaf pans in the oven at 170 degrees. Let the dough rise in the oven until it is the size you would like it to be when you cook it (about 1 inch above the pan). Once the dough has risen, turn the oven to 350 degrees. Don’t take the dough out of the oven when raising the temperature, or open the oven door during this process. Cook until bread is golden brown (around 30 minutes).

Read more...

I LOVE grocery shopping!!

Do you ever come home from the store SO thrilled with the purchases you made! Today was one of those times for me. For those who live near the new Harmons off of Bangerter and I-15 (it was their Grand Opening), they had some GREAT sales this week on their meat and other items! To give you an idea of how much money you can save by only buying those items in the ads that are GREAT (red on my deals sheets) deals, let me tell you what I bought....

*27lbs. of hand trimmed boneless/skinless chicken breast
*32lbs. of 93% lean ground beef
*3 loaves of bread
*5 dozen eggs
*Swiss Cheese
*23 Yoplait yogurts (Albertsons)
*4 boxes of fruit snacks (Albertsons)
*4 boxes of granola bars (Albertsons)
*16 lbs. of fresh strawberries (for freezer jam) & the Pectin to make the jam
*108 bars of Ivory Soap (I think that is my LIFE supply of soap!)
*14 Secret deoderants
*4 gallons of milk
*2 Betty Crocker cookie mixes (Albe's)
*10 boxes of Angel food cake (Albe's)
*10 Pilsbury crescent doughs (Albe's)
*And enough produce to make my WHOLE WEEKS meals for (mushrooms, zucchini, 5 lbs. potatoes, green onions, cilantro, bananas, limes, romaine lettuce, celery, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc)
**As an added bonus, I got a coupon for .50 off 20 gallons of gas at Harmons (that's $10 off-yippee!!)

$245.18

Is that cool or what?? I was thrilled! We have been in Canada & Washington all week and I couldn't believe how expensive the groceries are there. We spent WAY over $225 for one weeks worth of food. I didn't realize how lucky we have it living in Utah. All the more reason to stock up our freezers and food storage shelves, because if our food prices ever get to what they are out of state and out of the country--wow! It would be tough to add higher food prices and higher gas prices to our monthly budget.

Thanks for letting me share my shopping success today. Hopefully it gives you an idea of how much money you can save if you watch the ads carefully (or...let me do the work for you and tell you EXACTLY which items you should buy and where to buy them :)

Have fun shopping and if you have success stories, email them to me and I will post them under our "Top That" portion of our blog. Have a great day!!

Read more...

WEEKLY QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:

Question: What are some already prepared meals/recipes that I can have on hand in case of an emergency?

Answer: Besides the MRE meals, their are other meals/foods you can have on hand in case of an emergency. Some examples are canned chili, stew, soups, pancake mix, spaghetti and bottled pasta sauce, etc. Pretty much anything that the preperation time is quick and easy to do--nothing more than warming up and eating. Canned food is great because you can warm the food up in the can and don't need to have any other attachments. The other great thing about having a stocked freezer is you will have frozen bread, tortillas, etc.in your freezer, that you can make sandwiches (PB&J, tuna), quesadillas, etc. with not much preperation. Visit our website under the FREE DOWNLOAD tab and download the FOOD STORAGE RECIPES to give you some ideas of easy meals you can make with your food storage food. If the power was to be out for an extended period of time, it's important we have an idea of how we would cook and stay warm. Camping stoves are something most of us have already and would make cooking easy. Costco sells propane and it's a good idea to have several stored for an emergency. When deciding what to add to your food storage, the LDS church recommends starting with a three month supply of foods/meals your family eats on a regular basis. Once you have your three month supply, then branch out and start getting your long term food storage items. Another way I tell people to start your food storage is to come up with several meals you can make from food storage food and build your food storage around those meals/items. Thinking in 'meals' makes it so that if you had to eat and live off of the food in your food storage, you would be able to create meals that were fast, easy to make and ones you know your family will eat. Make sure you are buying ALL of the components of meals so that if you needed to cook something you would have all of the ingredients. Powdered milk is an important one to have. You wouldn't have a way to eat your cereal, oatmeal, or make many recipes if you didn't have milk. People often times forget about spices as well. Spices are what makes food have flavor and taste good. Having a good supply and variety of spices in your food storage will make it easier to make yummy meals as well. Food storage isn't something that sits in your basement and never gets eaten. It is food that you are eating on a regular basis. I think of my food storage as my own 'store'. The items I buy at the store, I try to have a year supply of in my basement. Between a full freezer and fridge (and a generator/gas to keep them going in an emergency) it would make an emergency or hard ecinomic times easier to handle. It can seem overwhelming, but if you add to your storage a little each week (we tell you exactly which items to add each week and how much of each item), you will eventually have ALL of the items you would normally buy at the store--in your own basement/storage! It's a great thing :)

QUESTION: Why don't you charge less for your monthly membership? My friends aren't signing up because they think they can't afford the monthly fee.

ANSWER: I think you have a valid point. However, if you check around for similar services (we are the only ones that offer any help or info. on food storage), ours is BY FAR one of the cheapest! Many companies like My Grocery Deals charge $25 a month for 5 stores, and many other services charge $2 a week for 1 or 2 stores. Many of these companies also make people sign year long or 6 month long contracts. I didn’t want to do that because I feel that if people aren’t saving the $1.13 a week, then I want them to be able to cancel anytime. We also guarantee that if people don’t save $1.13 a week, then we will refund their months membership 100%. I am hoping that people not only save money on their groceries, but that they also save time. It takes me over 20 hours a week price matching, doing research, getting info. on food storage, etc., and I want people to not have to do any of that. I am hoping that all they will need to do is print off their sheet and go to the store. I don’t know about you, but I feel like my time is worth more than $1.13 :) Before we looked into what it would cost to start this ‘business’ we were wanting the monthly price to be even less. With all of the monthly costs, expenses of website designers/programmers, hosting fees, advertising fees, etc. we make under .25 on each email I send out. There isn’t too much more room to negotiate price without losing money. I have learned a lot from this process and want this service to be beneficial to all—I wish I could still offer it for free. I did that for nine months and hope that those who aren’t able to pay the $4.95 a month, would still find the free weekly email helpful. Tell your friends I’m sorry I am not able to make the monthly membership less, but that I hope they enjoy the weekly newsletter and help them understand that if they want to try the service, they can do that at anytime and if they don’t save, I will refund them their money.

Read more...