Food Storage Recipes

I don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.

No, this is not a drill.

You've seen the TV footage of food riots in parts of the developing world. Yes, they're a long way away from the U.S. But most foodstuffs operate in a global market. When the cost of wheat soars in Asia, it will do the same here.

Reality: Food prices are already rising here much faster than the returns you are likely to get from keeping your money in a bank or money-market fund. And there are very good reasons to believe prices on the shelves are about to start rising a lot faster.

"Load up the pantry," says Manu Daftary, one of Wall Street's top investors and the manager of the Quaker Strategic Growth mutual fund. "I think prices are going higher. People are too complacent. They think it isn't going to happen here. But I don't know how the food companies can absorb higher costs." (Full disclosure: I am an investor in Quaker Strategic)

Stocking up on food may not replace your long-term investments, but it may make a sensible home for some of your shorter-term cash. Do the math. If you keep your standby cash in a money-market fund you'll be lucky to get a 2.5% interest rate. Even the best one-year certificate of deposit you can find is only going to pay you about 4.1%, according to Bankrate.com. And those yields are before tax.

Meanwhile the most recent government data shows food inflation for the average American household is now running at 4.5% a year.

And some prices are rising even more quickly. The latest data show cereal prices rising by more than 8% a year. Both flour and rice are up more than 13%. Milk, cheese, bananas and even peanut butter: They're all up by more than 10%. Eggs have rocketed up 30% in a year. Ground beef prices are up 4.8% and chicken by 5.4%.

These are trends that have been in place for some time.

And if you are hoping they will pass, here's the bad news: They may actually accelerate.

The reason? The prices of many underlying raw materials have risen much more quickly still. Wheat prices, for example, have roughly tripled in the past three years.

Sooner or later, the food companies are going to have to pass those costs on. Kraft saw its raw material costs soar by about $1.25 billion last year, squeezing profit margins. The company recently warned that higher prices are here to stay. Last month the chief executive of General Mills, Kendall Powell, made a similar point.

The main reason for rising prices, of course, is the surge in demand from China and India. Hundreds of millions of people are joining the middle class each year, and that means they want to eat more and better food.

A secondary reason has been the growing demand for ethanol as a fuel additive. That's soaking up some of the corn supply.

You can't easily stock up on perishables like eggs or milk. But other products will keep. Among them: Dried pasta, rice, cereals, and cans of everything from tuna fish to fruit and vegetables. The kicker: You should also save money by buying them in bulk.

If this seems a stretch, ponder this: The emerging bull market in agricultural products is following in the footsteps of oil. A few years ago, many Americans hoped $2 gas was a temporary spike. Now it's the rosy memory of a bygone age.

The good news is that it's easier to store Cap'n Crunch or cans of Starkist in your home than it is to store lots of gasoline. Safer, too.

Write to Brett Arends at brett.arends@wsj.com
Copyrighted, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

Title: Kitchen -cupboard
Type: Poster
Size: 24 x 36
Our Price: $6.99Buy at AllPosters.com

Framed   Mounted


Webmasters Make $$$

Ok, so you have a pantry full of beans and spaghetti sauce. Now what? Hopefully you have stored foods that your family will eat and you have given some thought to ingredients for full meals.

Here's a tried and true recipe for bean salad. This is a great food storage recipe. It requires no cooking, is very versatile, and is mostly made from canned beans. It goes well with summer BBQ meals. I love this bean salad and have substituted whatever beans I have on hand such as garbanzos or black eyed peas. Beans are a superfood, very nutritious.

RED, WHITE, AND BLACK BEAN SALAD

One 15 oz can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
One 15 oz can black beans rinsed and drained
One 15 oz can white beans rinsed and drained
One 15 oz can sweet corn, drained

Combine beans and corn in a medium to large sized mixing bowl.

Dressing
----------------------------------------
1/2 cup olive oil (or oil of your choice)
1/4 cup rice vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
-------------------------------------------------
To make the dressing, combine all the ingredients and either whisk in a bowl or shake in a covered jar. Pour the entire contents over the bean mixture, then toss to coat and to blend the colors.
This can be served immediately or made ahead and left to marinate in the refrigerator up to 8 hours.

Source: The Can Opener Gourmet by Laura Karr

This recipe from the Can Opener Gourmet assumes that you still have power, but this dish could be cooked over a fire in a cast iron skillet or on a camp stove. Canned butter is available for purchase from Best Prices Storable Foods for your long term storage. My family likes these Breakfast Potatoes.

BREAKFAST POTATOES

1 tablespoon butter
One 15 oz. can sliced potatoes, drained
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
Salt and Pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.
Stir in the potatoes and coat with butter
Sprinkle with the garlic and onion powders and sautee untill thoroughly heated. It's not necessary, but if you want them to have a little brown or golden coloring, continue to cook a few minutes more.

Serves 2 generously

Buy at AllPosters.com

Framed   Mounted


Webmasters Make $$$

The Storm Gourmet by Daphne Nikolopoulos is a guide to making meals without electricity. This is a great book for those who live in hurricane country or other areas prone to loss of power. She has a complete shopping list, a list of substitutions for fresh ingredients and a chart showing how long food in the refrigerator can be considered safe after a power outage.

Here is a sample main dish recipe:

HONEY-MUSTARD CHICKEN WITH PECANS

14 oz. (2 packages) premium chicken breast, drained
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
2 tablespoons yam syrup
2 cups canned yams, sliced, syrup reserved
2 tablespoons dried cranberries

Place yams, chicken and pecans in medium bowl. In large screw top jar, combine honey, mustard, oil, and syrup and shake vigorously. Pour over chicken mixture and toss. Before serving, top with dried cranberries.

Serves 2-4

To keep from wasting food I plan to store things that my family already eats. That's why I bought Kraft Mac and Cheese. I make a very simple tuna casserole with this and I know my family will eat it.

Rotating your food storage will keep it fresh. When you put an item into your storage, write the date on it with a Sharpie pen. Use from the front and put new items in the back. When you use something out of your stash replace it.

I like the idea of storing meals. That way you know that you have all the ingredients and can put a meal together quickly. I plan to do this as much as I can. For example, I'll store Kraft Mac and Cheese, Cream of Mushroom Soup and Tuna together.

Simple Tuna Casserole

1 box Kraft Mac and Cheese (prepared with butter and milk as package directs)
1 can tuna
1 can cream of mushroom soup

1. Prepare mac and cheese according to package directions.
2. Add tuna and cream of mushroom soup and mix together.

Voila! Tuna Casserole. You can add frozen peas, sauteed onions or green peppers if you wish. You can also make this with a pound of ground beef instead of tuna.

The mac and cheese calls for butter and milk but I have left out the butter if I don't have it and I have subbed other things for the milk (sour cream, powdered milk) with good results. Canned butter from Best Prices Storable Foods may be used.

I always double this recipe and if there is any left it will be eaten for breakfast by my son who doesn't like any breakfast foods or I'll send it in someone's lunch.

Title: Campbell's Soup I (Tomato), 1968
Artist: Andy Warhol
Buy at AllPosters.com

With the economy worsening, my husband and I decided to beef up our food storage a little. We hit a couple of the grocery discount stores. At the first one almost everything we looked at was expired by about 5 months so we passed on most of that.

At the second one we hit the jackpot. They had several things on my list. We picked up canned diced potatoes, a few small canned hams, condensed cream of mushroom soup, condensed cream of chicken soup, canned corn, and Pasta Roni.

Today we tried out some meals that we can make from our storage food. For breakfast I opened a can of diced potatoes, and fried them in butter and seasoned them with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. I added some diced ham and a can of mushrooms. No one was overly fond of this but everyone would eat it in a pinch. You could add more things to it such as onions, cheese, or corn.

A box of Shells with White Cheddar Pasta Roni with diced ham used up the last of the canned ham and was pretty good! Everyone will eat that.

Look what I found! Here are some interesting items for your food storage. I ordered a sample case of canned meats, cheese and butter from Best Prices Storable Foods. I was curious about these products, especially the cheese and butter. Regular cheese and butter can't be easily stored and if you were forced to rely on your food storage these are things that would be missed.

Contents of the case:

1 can ground beef
1 can pork chunks
1 can beef chunks
1 can boneless chicken
1 can boneless turkey
2 cans cheddar cheese
1 can creamery butter

Here is a link to the Sample case

The sample case costs $36.15 and with shipping it came to about $53.00. Cans are heavy! This works out to $7.57 per can so this is an expensive way to add to your food storage.
Review

Yesterday I was making a beef, bean and tortilla casserole which called for 2 cups of grated cheese. When it came time for the cheese, I realized I had only 1 cup. I didn't want to run to the store and I remembered I had the canned cheese. A perfect opportunity to try it!

My 17 year old picky eater looked on skeptically as I opened the can. "That's not real cheese," said he. I asked him if he would eat the casserole if I used the canned cheese and he reluctantly said he'd try it.

I tried the cheese out of the can and I can't say that it tasted exactly like cheddar. It was a little salty and tasted more like American cheese.

It was solid enough to grate easily. I grated more than one cup and still had about 1/3 of the can left.

I sprinkled it on top of the casserole and baked it. When it came out of the oven the cheese had melted nicely and looked great. Everyone liked the casserole and no one commented on the cheese. My picky eater especially loved the casserole so I would say that the cheese was a success.

The cheese is available by the case or by the can.

Real Kraft Cheddar Canned Cheese imported from Australia. 8 oz can. Nutrition Facts: Serving size 1 1/2 Tbsp Servings per container 8 Calories 100 Calories from fat 80 Total fat 9 grms 14% Sat Fat 6 grms 30% Cholesterol 25 mgs 8% Sodium 450 mgs 19% Carbohydrate 1 grm 0% Protein 5 grms Vit A 8% Calcium 17% Not a significant source of dietary fiber, vitamin C and iron

Click HERE to become a Squidoo Lensmaster and create your own lenses.

Please join my fanclub at stargazer00