Food Storage Fantasies

Well I am a few months in to this whole new life and I have realized that some of my lofty goals have yet to be realized.  I must admit putting this food strorage plan for my family in to action has been more difficult than I ever imagined.  For some reason, I believed that I would be completely done by now.  Three months in, what has been taking so long?  The easy answer, life.  Life with the hubby and kids and the dog and the cat and the rooster.  Yes, I can go on and on.  But the truth of the matter is that I live in reality and the fantasies keep me sane and give me a goal.  In my fantasy world, I dream of walking in to my grotto, with shelves stacked high in organized opulence.  In my fantasy world, all the food will be stored alphabetically and the spices will rise to the ceiling.  For now, the rift between  fantasy and reality is quite large.  Join me on the journey to bridge the divide.

A Pleasant Surprise

A few nights ago when I was whipping up some Mexican rice to serve with the bean tacos my kiddos love, I realized I was out of rice.  Well, not really out, but I had refill my kitchen rice container with some of my back stocked abundance.  What a fantastic surprise when the rice was done.  It was light and fluffy and far better than any Mexican rice I had made in the past few months.  I kept telling my husband that this rice was fantastic and he agreed and then I set to figuring out why.  The recipe was the same, I cooked it for the same amount of time, I used the same rice - yep there it was....I had used new rice.  No longer was I using the cheapest rice I could find to feed my family.  I had stocked my abundance with a high quality rice that was less expensive than than the grocery store brands and the quality shone in the finished product.  Really it made me feel quite good to provide my family with a fabulous meal using fantastic products at a fraction of the cost.  That night I learned another lesson in my journey...food storage and buying in bulk is making a difference AND quality make a HUGE difference. A difference for my family for sure and I pray a difference for your family as well.

Cash n Carry - Bellingham, WA

Basque Cabbage Soup

Home today with a little one with a fever.  Thought it would be good to use up the remaining cabbage to make a soup that reminds me of my favorite Basque Restaurant in my hometown.  Here is my recipe.  It not an exact version of Woolgrower's but it makes my hubby's heart (and belly) happy and it will be a great way to bless a dear friend of mine who is recovering from the flu as well.  Serve with pinto beans, salsa, and french bread.

Friendly note... this makes a very large pot of soup.  I use my 7 quart dutch oven we call Big Bertha each time I make this.  You can also half the recipe or plan to freeze the leftovers.  I have used some name brand ingredients that I had in my pantry because of free or almost free coupons but I have also made this by using regular tomato sauce and chicken bouillon.





Basque Cabbage Soup
2 T. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
3 stalks celery with leaves, diced
1 small head green cabbage, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 potato, diced
1 18oz. can Progresso Fire Roasted Tomato Recipe Starter or tomato sauce
128 oz chicken or veggie stock
1 packet Swanson Flavor Boost, Chicken
2 tsp dried thyme
1-2 tsp Kosher salt, divided
1-2 tsp ground pepper, divided

Heat oil in large stock pot or dutch oven (7qt).  Add diced onion, celery, carrots, and garlic.  Heat through until onion turns transparent, be careful onion does not brown.  Add diced potato, cabbage and tomato sauce, stir.  Add herbs, spices, and half of the salt and pepper.  Slowly add stock until pot is almost full.  Bring to boil.  Lower to simmer.  Put on the lid and let it simmer for 1 hour.  Taste and add additional salt or pepper to suit your tastes. Stirring occasionally continue to cook for 4-6 hours.  The length cooking depends on how hungry you are:-).
Serve with slow cooker beans, salsa, and french bread.

Beans, Beans, Beans

My family loves beans and so saving money making something that my family likes to eat just makes sense.  But I could never get over the convenience of canned beans.  Sure, I know they are expensive, sure, I know there are "other" ingredients in the can, but how could making beans be easier than using the can opener?  Insert 50 pounds of beans staring at me every time I walked in my back pantry, what to do with all the beans? Thankfully a friend of mine invited us for dinner and bless her soul, shared a super easy recipe for beans.  I tweaked the recipe and made it my own.  And yes, these beans taste better than their canned counterparts.

Slow Cooker Beans 
2 cups dry beans (black or pinto)

1/2 cup yellow onion, diced*
2tsp cumin
2tsp kosher salt
1tsp black pepper

Rinse beans and place in slow cooker.  Cover with 7-8 cups water.  Cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours.  Remove lid, add remaining ingredients.  Cover and cook on low 3-4 hours or longer depending on how soft you like your beans.

These beans freeze very well just make certain you allow them to cool completely before you place in freezer bags for storage.  To defrost, place bag of beans in shallow pan of water.

* I am not a fan of dicing onions for individual recipes (takes too much time).  Instead, I dice my onions in groups of 4-5 and parcel the diced onions into 1/2 cup servings that I freeze in double plastic bags.  Then, whenever I need onions I just add them in their frozen state.

A haul from the store

A few weeks ago the boys and I made a trip to our local Cash n Carry Store.  Cash n Carry is a restaurant/food service supply store that is open to the public.  I love it because it's like a mini Costco, without the added distractions and budget busters of clothes, samples, and holiday decor.  The focus of this trip was to start our food storage journey and to get some food in our house that was delicious and nutritious. I was looking for some great deals and I was not disappointed, although in calculating my totals I did realize that I could have saved more on some of the items.  Our flat bed cart was loaded with 50lb bags of rice and whole wheat flour as well as 25 lb bags of AP flour and beans (black and pinto).  For good measure, we top off the cart with smaller bags of popcorn and white beans. The total of our 187 pounds of food was a bit less than $128 which equates to about $.68 per pound of food.

My Beginning

A pantry full of food.
Nothing to eat.

What do you mean there is nothing to eat?
The pantry is full!

Disclaimer: My pantry was not this organized.

MOM!!!!!!!!

And so the sad realization began, the realization that while I had a lot, I had no idea how to make it all work.  My kids had no idea how to make it work.  My husband had worked hard I have a full pantry of food, plus an outdoor pantry, two fridges, and two freezers and yet there was nothing to eat. 

There was plenty of product, but no plan.
I needed help!