Food Storage Friday - Inventory, Seedlings, & More

With rising prices, bad weather, unstable job environments, one of the best things we as women (or men) in charge of our homes can do, is work on our food storage to ensure our family will continue to eat well no matter what the circumstance is. It doesn't take a lot to organize your pantry and make a little room for extras, and with the help of coupons and sales, can be done very cheaply. Every Friday, I'd like to encourage you to join in with me to do one or two little things to add to or work with your food storage.

This week, I've got a few things for you to do.

Have you looked at what you've got in your pantry lately? I mean, really look. Probably if you menu plan, each time you look at what you've got to make the menu, you make a mental note... but if you don't, you might not realize what you're low on. Take a half an hour out of your day over the next week and take a look at what you've got. You might realize you have a ton of canned vegetables, but no spare fruit. You can make an inventory checklist, or just a mental note. I posted a great Basic Pantry Needs list last week - you can always cut and paste the items that YOU use and would like to stock into a spreadsheet file, and print several copies. Every so often, use this list to make an inventory and keep it near so you know what you are using. It's a great way to make sure what you are buying vs using. (For instance, you buy a lot of canned refried beans - the number instead of going down is climbing. You're not using this product and need to stop until you've gone through most of your stash, so the cans don't end up outdated!)

And while you're at it, it's great time to go through your fridge and your freezer! Toss the outdated things, and move the stuff you need to use ASAP to the front!

Planting season is upon us! It's time to start those seedlings! Even if you live in an apartment, you can still keep a small container garden. I even planted onions last year in a small windowsill planter outside, and they came out GREAT! If you need planters that are easy to move due to extreme sun, storms etc, I recommend the cat litter buckets - just scrub them well and plant those seedlings in them. If you don't have cats, asks friends with cats or ask on freecycle or craigslist - those of us with multiple cats are swarming in those buckets, trust me. (lol) If you're feeling super motivated, plant as much as you can afford to (space, money), and we'll do some canning together this summer! Canning is a great way to add to your food storage, and have organic food that you know where it came from. Plus, you have the satisfaction of knowing you grew it yourself - how cool is that? If you have kids, you can get them to do most of the work help you get that garden going! Honestly, it doesn't cost much to get a garden going. A few packets of seeds, a little bit of dirt. If you're doing planters, you can recycle that potting soil next year with some homemade compost mixed in. I haven't bought planting soil since the first year we moved in here.

And one more thing - I have a fun Food Storage project I'd like to work on with you over the next few weeks. If you have an abundance of cooking magazines with just a few recipes you like in them, get those ready! We're going to have fun. :)

Don't forget to add a few extras into your food storage this week! I recommend canned meats (tuna, salmon, chicken) or dry/canned beans. (Don't know how to cook with dry beans? See my How To Cook Dried Beans post.)