BASIC FOODS- HELP

Flour Tortillas

Serving Size : 12

• 4 cups Unbleached all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons Salt
• 4 teaspoons Baking powder
• 2 tablespoons Vegetable shortening
• 1 1/2 cups Warm water or more if needed
  

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt and baking powder. With a pastry blender, a fork or your hands, gradually work in the lard or shortening until it is all incorporated. Add enough warm water to make a soft but not sticky dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead for 5 minutes.
Divide the dough into 1/4 cup (3 oz) portions and form them into balls.
Roll each ball into a flat round about 6 inches in diameter and 1/8 inches thick.
Heat a large heavy skillet over medium high heat. Place the tortillas one at a time into the dry hot skillet; cook until brown on one side, then turn and brown the other side.
Remove from the skillet and keep warm in cloth towel.
Source: Southwest cookbook

I'be bought a bread making machine,it is electric,cost about £25.Flour only has about 6-8 months use by date on it.

In my house there is me,my partner and toddler son.

I have spent the past 5 days doing massive shopping sprees -

tinned vegetables and fruits of all descriptions,esp.tinned tomatos.check use by dates-alot will be towards end of 2007,some 2008,others 2010.

tomato puree,baked beans,packets sauces (dried),jar sauces for pasta,herbs,spices,tinned grated onions,garlic puree and ginger....rice,tinned kidney beans,haricot beans etc (tinned keep for years,dried do not),tinned curries and meat based meals if you eat meat (just incase electric goes and you lose all your frozen meat),tinned macaroni cheese,ravioli etc etc....massive bags of pasta,coffee,tea,powdered milk,long life carton milk,sugar,honey,jam,marmite/yeast spread, tube pate's ,crackers (only about 6 months use by on them sometimes)....tinnes tuna,salmon,sardines,shrimps etc

just buy everything you can think of and as many tins of each as you can afford as one way or the other you will use them over time,so are not wasting money but doing shopping in "advance"....

i have about 100 toliet rolls but plan to get up to at least 500,but my grocery list has been really big as am having to consider my mum,brother and my partner's parents incase they dont bother llistening to advice and have no back up supplies....

kitchen roll,disinfectant,lots and lots of bleach,bin bags for rubbish,liquid soap for washing dishes and some for clothes....matches,candles,batteries,wind up radio,torch,knofe,tin opener,camping stove and gas bottles,portable gas heater and gas bottles,oil lamp a good one too.....corded phone (someone said cordless ones wont work if electric goes off)....masks,gloves,coveralls,sanitizing scrub.....

i could go on but they are the basics and if you read a bit more on the site there are lots of posts about what to buy.

just write down what you normally buy per week/fortnight per person and then multiply that by about 24 weeks to be safe and anything you normally buy fresh (vege,fruit),buy in tins....dont forget dried egg powder if you need it.

I WILL be filling my freezer and hope the electric doesnt go,but i am going to fill it only with protein ,that can easily be defrosted overnight and cooked on a camp stove

suggestions-

1. chilli con carne and rice

2.pasta with pesto and freezed dried parmasan cheese

3.pasta with tinned tomatos and herbs

4.pasta with jar of wild mushrooms in olive oil or roasted peppers (these jars have good shelf life)

5. spaghetti bolognaze with either real mince or vegetarian dried mince

6. tinned shrimp/prawn curry-you can buy coconut milk in tins with a few years in them

7. tuna with rice and tomatos and herbs

8.tuna pasta

9. tinned mixed beans made into a stew with tin tomatos and maybe tinned potatos

10. packet instant mash potato with beans and sausages (you can buy packet vegetarian sausage mix or burger mix etc)

11.tinned soups

12. stir fry made with tinned chinese mixed vegeatbles.tinned shrimps,soy sauce,ginger puree,garlic puree,bit of tinned onion

13. there are loads of jars/tins of chinese,indian or thai sauces that have about 18 months-2 years shelf life on them....mix these in with tinned chick peas,or tinned shrimps etc or tinned mixed vegatables and serve with rice

talking of all that food i'm hungry and off to eat leftover spaghetti sauce :)

otskot; there is a good cookbook by Viki Tata call Cookin with Home Storage. You can order it from survival acres, emergency essentials. or from amazon.com Also go to any book store or even Walmart and pick up a few cook books. They will give you all kinds of recipes, plus the more you get familiar with cooking the more you give yourself freedom to add different spices and herbs and seasonings to suit your taste.  BTW Welcome to you and to Kriztah! if you need to find a good overall list of the things to consider try going to http://www.lacetoleather.com/hom.html it is a very comprehensive list and you just print it out and cross off what you don't need or use and go from there!

Meewee

This is from Emergency Preparedness & Survival Guides published by Backwoods Home magazine. I basically used this as my guide with a few  modifications for my family. I figure a quart is roughly a regular can, a pint is roughly a large can, and a half pint is roughly a small can (like tomato paste).

A year's supply of food for your family. This is for a family of 3. If you have a family of 4, increase by 25%, a family of 6, by 50%, etc. It also allows for a few company meals.

Grains
300 lbs hard wheat or a combo of 150 lbs wheat and 150 lbs flour
50 lbs dry corn to grind for cornmeal
50 lbs soft wheat
50 lbs white rice
50 lbs brown rice
50 lbs oatmeal
25 lbs masa harina de maize (corn flour for tortillas & tamales)

Pasta
15 lbs spaghetti
6 lbs assorted noodles
6 lbs lasagna

Legumes
50 lbs pinto beans
50 lbs combined other beans (navy, kidney, black, etc)
20 lbs split peas
20 lbs lentils

Dairy
18 #10 cans dry milk or in combination with boxes of store bought dry milk
2 #10 cans cheese powder
5 #10 cans dehydrated eggs
3 #10 cans dehydrated butter or margarine

Sugar
50 lbs white granulated sugar
10 lbs brown sugar
10 lbs powdered sugar

Shortening/Oil
10 3# cans shortening
5 48oz bottles vegetable oil
2 16oz bottles olive oil

Salt
10 lbs (for table use, pickling & meat preservation)

Vegetables
104 pints green beans
104 pints corn
104 pints carrots
104 quarts tomatoes
104 pints tomato sauce
104 half-pints tomato paste
104 quarts potatoes and/or 22 lbs instant potatoes
26 quarts squash or pumpkin
26 pints beets
2 #10 cans dehydrated corn
4 #10 cans dehydrated peas
1 #10 can dehydrated onions
2 #10 cans dehydrated broccoli

Fruits
52 pints peaches
52 pints apple sauce
52 pints fruit cocktail
52 quarts apples
52 pints pears
104 pints misc fruits
1 #10 can raisins
1 #10 can dehydrated strawberries
2 #10 cans dehydrated apple slices
2 #10 cans dehydrated banana slices

Meat
52 pints lean beef/venison roast
52 pints chicken/turkey
52 pints ham/fish/misc
52 cans tuna
52 cans spam
52 pints home canned hamburger for tacos, casseroles, etc
1 #10 can each TVP bacon & chicken

Seeds
heavy supply of garden seeds. Most last for years with the exception of onion seed which should be replaced yearly

Miscellaneous
1 lb baking soda
3 lbs baking powder
1 lb dry yeast
spices usually used
25 dozen canning jar lids, wide mouth & regular
coffee, tea, powdered drink mixes
grain mill to grind grains
an Amish or other "cooking with the basics" cookbook or two
1 gallon inexpensive pancake syrup
an assortment of "treats" such as pickles, jams

I'm new to this site.  I've seen lots of references to bread makers, but bread is really easy to make and uses all the foods that are easy to store.  If you have a kitchenaid or a bosch it takes 5 minutes to mix.  By hand, takes maybe 15. 

3 c warm water

1/3 c honey or sugar

1/3 c vegatable or canola oil

1 1/2 Tb yeast

1 c bread flour (high gluten)

1Tb salt

mix the above then add flour (white or wheat or combination of the two) until dough can be handled (pulling away from the sides on a bosch).  This is usually 5-6 cups.  Wheat flour, particularly hard red will require a little less than white flour.  Knead for 5-8 minutes--use a little canola oil in your hands and on the counter to handle sticky dough.   Split dough in half, and put in two greased bread pans.  Raise until bulging over the top of the pans.  If you need it to raise faster, put it in a 150 oven; slower, put it in the fridge.   Bake at 350 for about 55 minutes.  Check for doneness by popping the bread out of the pan and sticking a meat thermometer in the bottom of the loaf,  Should be 180-200 degrees.

It would be easy to cook round loaves in a dutch oven if you didn't have power. 

I'm domestically impaired and even I can make this.

P.S when you purchase your rice..buy some sauces to flavour it ..

I also buy lots of kd, but when I make up the macorini I put chez whiz on it and save the pouches of cheese from the boxs for later(I do this because I prefer the chez whiz on my macoroni and it is available now)..a inexpensive sauce to pick up for rice soya sauce, but getting a variety of things is better...

KatDoe67

I second the bullion - both my boys like rice flavored like that.  I had not thought of the shredded carrot or parsley - I will try that.  If anyone has other ideas on simple things to do with rice I would like to see them too.

Thanks

Rice:

Add a can of chunked chicken to rice cooked in boullion (I grew up on this).  You can also add sliced mushrooms, onion, bacon or TVP, almonds, peas...

Make pilaf by frying uncooked rice in a pan until brown, put in a casserole with twice as much boiling broth as rice, salt, and pepper.  Cover and bake at 375 for an hour and a half, remove and stir, and add  chopped vegetables (carrots, celery, broccoli, peas, etc.) and slimered almonds if available.  Then bake for 30 more minutes. 

Or try substituing 1/2 c fruit (apple is good) or vegetable (tomato, etc) juice for 1/2 c water when cooking. 

Add one of the following herbs to cooking water:  1/2 tsp thyme, oregano, sage, or rosemary or or 1 small bay leaf.

I have more if you need them.  

If you have a dehrdrator; buy bags of frozen peas, thaw and dry. 1kg frozen = 250 gr dried

Do the same with other frozen vege