National Emergency Preparedness Month
Quote:"...set your houses in order. If you have paid your debts, if you have a reserve, even though it be small, then should storms howl about your head, you will have shelter for your wives and your children and peace in your hearts." President Gordon B. Hinckley, October 1998
Could you take care of yourself and your family if an emergency situation arose? Would you have the necessary emergency supplies, food and water? How long could you last by yourselves?
"And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." (Doctrine and Covenants 64:33) What a wonderful scripture, and the quote by President Hinckley! If we just start by adding a couple of cans of vegetables, fruits, meats, soups, etc. each week when we go grocery shopping, in no time at all, what started out small, will become great. Just a few extra cans a week, that is all it takes! When we were a young family, with only one income, Robert was hit while driving his service truck, his injuries kept him home for three months. As you know, Disability does pay you your full pay check. Because of us being diligent in adding a few cans of food each grocery day, we were able to have enough food to get us through the next three months, to be able to pay our bills and take care of our small family. What a blessing it was to have our Food Storage!
Just start, that is all you have to do! You will be so excited to see your Food Storage grow, just like a savings account, and you will desire to add more and more.
September Goals: Emergency Supplies and Adding Breakfast Items to your Food Storage
In last week's posting I listed several items you should have in your Emergency Supplies. There is also a handout of the list on the display table in front of our church chapel, or you can cut and paste and print out the list for yourself.
Weekly Assignment...Emergency Supplies:
1) This week inventory your emergency supplies from last week's emergency supplies posting list. Make a chart of what you have, what you need, and where they are stored in your house, garage and/or shed. This would make a great Family Home Evening activity, or Family Saturday activity.
2) Sit down as a family or with another family member or friend not in your household. Review the chart. Set goals to add the items you need.
3) Set a goal to replace or repair any items that need your attention.
4) As I mentioned last week, some items will be easy to gather together. Some items you will be able to organize in a day or a week, some may take longer. Set a goal to work on one or two on the items in the list each month. Involve the whole family.
5) Check off the items needed on your chart as you complete them. I love lists and checking off items as completed! Keep the chart visible so it will remind you what needs to be done. Review the chart at each Family Home Evening. Once one item is check off, set a new goal to accomplish the next one, and so on, until you have completed all your goals.
Weekly Assignment...Adding Breakfast Items to your Food Storage:
1) This week add 1-2 items for each family member for a one week to one month supply from the breakfast food list on last week's posting. Remember, only store what your family will eat. Keep the food items in a cool dry location.
Weekly FREE Monthly Giveaway Drawing Question: What happens when you start out small? Please email me your answer to theark.carsonward@gmail.com. Please include your name if not in your email address. Your name will be entered into our FREE Monthly Giveaway Drawing each week you answer the question, giving you four chances to win.
Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness Ideas:
"Dinner Is In the Jar" by Kathy Clark http://dinnerisinthejar.com/
If you use the quart Mason canning jars you will need to purchase quart and pint (some recipes call for both) canning jars and a Food Saver Sealer. I purchased my Food Saver Sealer on EBay for about $20 (maker sure it has the port hole for the hose that attaches to the jar sealer caps. I also purchased the Jar Sealer caps (a large and small one) for about $15 on EBay.
If using Mason jars you place the ingredients in the jar, then seal the lid as instructed with the Food Saver Sealer. Place a label, with the instruction, on the jar and store up to 90 days. Note: If the ingredients are powdery, you cannot seal them in the Mason jars, when you seal the jar the jar sealer cap will clog. If sealing in the Food Saver, put all the powdery ingredients, like seasonings, in the bottom of the jar, then the rest of the ingredients.
If you use Mylar bags you will need to purchase the Mylar bags and the oxygen absorbers. You can purchase them from the LDS Dry-Pack Cannery or from EmergencyEssentials.com (not the large ones). Cut the Mylar bag in half length wise, then seal the longer edge with your hot iron (no steam), fill the Mylar bag with the recipe ingredients and then seal the top of the bag, leaving about 3 inches, with a hot iron. Vacuum out the air in the bag with a vacuum cleaner hose, then seal the remainder of the top with a hot iron. Place a label, with instructions, on the front and store up to 90 days.
The regular "dinner in a jar" or "dinner in a Mylar bag" will feed about 4 adults. The soup recipes make between 8-10 cups. Biscuit recipes make about 12 biscuits.
A great tip in the book. Make the recipe for dinner that night. Then put the same ingredients together in 3 jars or Mylar bags. One dinner jar for each months. If you make all the recipes you will have 90 days of "Dinner Is In The Jar" (or Mylar bags).
Add-ons: Most of the recipes have "Add-ons". These are ingredients like meats, poultry, water, etc. You can purchase cans of meats, chicken and other meats to add to your recipe. Watch the expiration dates, rotate as needed. Or, you can can ground meat, other meats and chicken in Mason jars with a pressure cooker canner. Probably much to hard for most of us. If you check out Wendy Dewitt online she has a UTube video that shows how to do it.
Chicken Noodle Soup
2 tablespoons minced onion
2 tablespoons bouillon
2 tablespoons celery flakes
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/3 cup dried carrots (dehydrated or freeze-dried)
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup dried mushroom slices (optional)
2 cups macaroni
3/4 cup rice
Add-on: 1 pint of cooked chicken, 12 cups water.
Directions: Remove the oxygen absorber from the Mylar bag if using them. Mix jar contents with chicken and hot water. Simmer 15-20 minutes. Remove Bay leaf, serve. Remember to never get hot water from the tap, it comes from your hot water heater which has sedatives at the bottom of it. Heat the water on the stove first.
(All of the above information under Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness Ideas is from "Dinner Is In The Jar", by Kathy Clark)
Comments: Most welcome!
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