really old style living?

ChocClare

I belong to a couple of groups on Yahoo - food storage; food storage, the basics and beyond; food storage made easy are the ones I can think of. They send you emails where people talk about problems they have getting their a) 3 month store b) year's store together and how to live from it. Some days I just delete every email digest I receive, sometimes there are really interesting threads.

Food storage made easy is a pretty good blog - they also run challenges (there's one coming up) where they send you some imaginary scenario every day for a week and you have to think about if you could manage with your present stocks/set-up. Admittedly, it's designed for America where they are more liable for floods/snow/power cuts/tornados/earthquakes etc, but I found it quite interesting to THINK about what I would do if there was no power/the roads were blocked/I was stuck at home with a sick child and couldn't get out at all etc. They tell you what you can and can't do in the scenario, so you do have to think laterally! They also have fun things like how to make a rotating can rack.

Don't forget, though, that the Latter Day Saints lay down what you're supposed to store - mainly wheat, rice and beans, as far as I can see. Personally, I'd go insane. They also have a big thing about peanut butter and dried milk. However, they DO all say (well, the women say rather than the "elders" that run the church - that you should only store what you will eat. You may want to cherry-pick the ideas you like and ignore the ones you're less impressed with!

Look at their store rooms here and you'll realise there is no food in your house AT ALL:rotfl:

maryb

I have never really stopped to work out how much we actually use of all the stuff I keep buying. I need to record the date when I open something and see how long it lasts so that I can plan properly. It seems to more or less work out at the moment, I have plenty of stuff in stock and I buy more when it's on special offer but I'd like to be a bit more scientific about it, then I'd feel happier

katholicos

Maryb, I would like to be more organised/scientific (?) about our food. I always try to rotate food proucts so the long term dates get put to the back and what have you, but it is all too easy to take advantage of offers while at the same time it slips my mind that i alread have 4,10, 20 of that very same product sitting in the storecupboard at home(at one time i did have about 72 tins of baked beans - no 'windy' jokes please ).

My pantry and other food storage areas are full of foods that i bought as brill bargains, a lot of it is clearance food with short dates or products past their sell by. I tend to think that doom and gloom is around the corner financially (it usually is) so i try to take advantage of offers so we have enough to keep us going through the lean times. (ok so i live in a perpetual state of lean-ness...financially speaking, though not physcially mores the pity!)

What i have realised is that (for me), even in my relatively 'poor' predicament, financially speaking, we can eat resonably well if I can continue to shop wisely. Ok so i am not so discerning about best before dates, but i would never be able to feed us so well if i didn't shop as i do.

Even so, there is a side to the mentality of buying for long term food storage that i dislike (panic buying) and i try to be measured in my purchases asking myself, 'do we need it?', 'have we enough of X already', 'could this money be better used in other ways?'... small amount though it may be.

It's important to me not to spend money accumulating a store cupboard of foods just for the sake of it and so i try to make purchases based on the 'usability' and 'versatility'' of a product (does it have many uses, ie: oats make cereal, flapjack, oatcakes, biscuits...flour makes bread, rolls, pizza dough, sweet pastries etc....pasta sauce can also be used for pizza topping, to flavour casseroles, soups, stews etc).

Accumulating a food storecupboard, combined with growing my own veg this year means that there is always a meal in the house...now i just need to sit down and do some meal planning!

mardatha

Me too Kath. Menu planning is the mainstay of really OS, you'd never catch the Victorian housewife just making one meal and throwing out the leftovers - they didnt throw anything away. It is my weak point, I cant think of what to make and if I do make a plan then I cant stick to it. I think I could make meat go a lot further and I think we eat too much of it. OH cannot have pasta in any shape or form at all, and I did so depend on pasta before he was diabetic.
I am looking for the link that somebody kindly posted re Weezl's xmas meuns and I cant find it !! If anybody coms across it, would they post it for me ?? Ta

pink_numbers

I too fin it hard to stick to a menu plan Sometimes I do a very loose menu plan, just a list of what to make that week, not specified to a day during that week. I DO find this very useful in planning and doing my shopping. However, I fall of the wagon about three days in to the plan, when I learn a new dish or something and HAVE to try it. It's worse if I actually like the new dish as I will tend to make it again!

Bigjenny

Hi Mardatha

Here is the link for Weezl's Christmas Menu http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/planner-christmasweek.html

The recipes are still being tested. If you do try any of the recipes we would love your feedback on the How Much Have you Saved Thread, on Weezl and friends, Phase 3.

HTH

katholicos

mardatha wrote: »

Me too Kath. Menu planning is the mainstay of really OS, you'd never catch the Victorian housewife just making one meal and throwing out the leftovers - they didnt throw anything away. It is my weak point, I cant think of what to make and if I do make a plan then I cant stick to it. I think I could make meat go a lot further and I think we eat too much of it. OH cannot have pasta in any shape or form at all, and I did so depend on pasta before he was diabetic.
I am looking for the link that somebody kindly posted re Weezl's xmas meuns and I cant find it !! If anybody coms across it, would they post it for me ?? Ta

That's my problem with meal plans too. When i've tried them i feel constrained by them and they lack the spontaneity to say...'no actually, i fancy something not on the meal plan!'

What i might do is write down a long list of say 20 or more meals that i can make with what i've got in and then just pick one off the list. I have a problem with being tied to things an i know it sounds silly and that for some people meal plans really work for them, but they just don't seem to work with the way i'm wired.

mardatha

I dont like to be organised at all really - I like to do what I want when I want it. I suppose that makes me a wee spoiled brat
I do a loose plan of about 8 meals too, and pick something. Well sometimes. Sometimes I just make him bacon & egg ..
BJ, cooking and me do not get on. At all. It's taken me 44 years of marriage to be able to make a shepherds pie.
And even them my tatties sink ! :rotfl:

ChocClare

I just saw on another thread (don't think it was here - if it was, apologies, and I'm clearly still more senile than I think I am ) a link to a 30-day menu plan (bear with me here), which I actually thought looked quite good BECAUSE what it said was, assemble your favourite recipes - oh, you'll see, it's here. I liked the way it incorporated recipes "you'd like to try" and didn't tie you to particular days.

I thought it was far less constraining than most things I've seen and I loved the spreadsheet where you put what was needed for each recipe, so that if you had, say, chicken breasts, you could look down the chicken column and see a whole raft of things you could make. Could never throw away my cookery books though.:eek:

mardatha

Only ever had one cookery book and that was Delia.. gave it to my daughter cos I never used it. Don't think she does either:rotfl:
Can I ask for help and advice re padding out meat to make it go further ? Also I'm quite interested in a mincer to make my own sausages & burgers. Does anybody in here do this ? I need to be careful what I add, as too much of anything like lentils will send OH blood sugar too high. I find veg is the best thing to add but all I can think of is chopped up bits of frozen broccoli and cauli.. It does get boring. But we are eating too much meat.