Food Basics

Today, I want to begin talking about storing food. Probably the least expensive and easiest item to store is rice. There are many different types of rice. Brown rice is a great antioxidant. Basmati rice is low in arsenic, a common by-product of rice. But plain white long-grain rice is inexpensive, easy to cook and store, and provides over 200 calories per cup. It’s a very good way to start storing up. One pound of rice equals 7 1/2 cups of cooked rice, so a 50-lb. bag, costing $25 or less, will give you a whopping 375 one-cup servings. 

Rice alone, however, is an incomplete meal. But combine rice with beans, and you have a meal consisting of all 9 amino acids which, together, form a complete protein. Again, beans are very inexpensive and easy to cook and there are many different varieties. So, add multiple pounds of various beans to your stores along with your rice, and you’re well on your way to being able to provide healthy and filling food for your family in an emergency.

This is about as basic as you can get. But these two items form a foundation on which you can easily build. A friend of mine who clips coupons stocked up once on cans of Rotel tomatoes.  With double coupons, she was able to purchase each can for pennies and she remarked that her family would enjoy some tomatoes with their rice and beans. I like to buy bouillon cubes and other spices to flavor my basic food stuffs.  In the Hispanic section of grocery stores in my area, you can find lots of varieties of seasonings - ham seasoning, chicken and beef bouillon, chicken with tomatoes, garlic cubes, and onion cubes. Buying a box of these every other week or so to add to my stores means we won’t get tired of the same meals too quickly. 

For years now, I have been disinfecting and saving all my used jars. Ziploc bags are air-permeable so moisture can also get in, but jars seal up airtight. Jars with the labels soaked off and run through the dishwasher to disinfect are great ways to store seasonings without worrying about bugs or deterioration from air or moisture. Jars can also be used to store rice and beans. I use freezer tape and a Sharpie to label my jars. 

Another storage idea is to ask at the Bakery Counter of your local grocery store if they have any used frosting buckets. After use, they are thrown away. I’ve found the Bakery employees are more than happy to pass along their used buckets. They have very tight-fitting, air-proof lids.  I wash these thoroughly by hand with hot water and soap, then disinfect with bleach water and dry fully. These buckets can be easily stacked on top of each other and can hold a lot of whatever item I choose to use to fill them. Again, label clearly on both side and lid with your Sharpie. 

A few years ago, I heard the Lord call me to learn to can. But life is always just.so.busy and I quickly forgot. Until . . . the threat of a pandemic (I think it was the Bird Flu at the time) brought it crashing back into the forefront of my mind. I repented, then set about learning to can, which my family has greatly appreciated! About the same time, I began using a dehydrator.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my dehydrator and when my poor, sad, tragically over-worked little one finally died, my husband decided to invest in a far more expensive, larger, and better-designed version. I prefer the rectangular type with the motor in the back and the more trays it houses, the better. I dehydrate TONS of stuff - pineapple, peaches, strawberries, melon (although I don’t really like dehydrated melon), celery, potatoes, carrots, herbs, green beans, bell peppers, hot peppers, onions. The list is never-ending. Dehydrated foods require far less storage space and the removal of water extends shelf life almost indefinitely. Again, those jars come in handy. I like to hit the grocery store early in the morning and check for marked-down produce. At my favorite store, they have a rack where they stash mesh bags with produce that’s on its last leg. Each mesh bag is $1.00. I’ve come home with as many as 10 mesh bags jammed full of all colors of bell peppers. If they’re a little rubbery, it doesn’t matter, since I’m just going to dry them, anyway. I clean them, dice them, and dry tray after tray of this cheap produce, putting the finished product in jars that seal tightly. Some of these jars I keep for use during the winter months when I don’t want to have to pay $1/bell pepper, and some of them go into my Stores for the future.  Having dehydrated vegetables and fruit means my family won’t have to worry about scurvy if we ever need to eat solely from food we’ve stored up. 

I live in the South, and I take full advantage of an extended growing season. Around April each year, the strawberry fields are plentiful. I go to Farms and buy them by the bucket, freezing some, dehydrating lots, and eating well over my weight’s worth. Just about the time strawberry season is finished, my blueberry bushes hit their heighth. I don’t like dehydrated blueberries, so I freeze them. After blueberry season is peach season. When the peach farms begin to run out of fruit, it’s time to harvest my apple trees. Meanwhile, the zucchini and yellow squash, melons, and bell peppers are plentiful from Farmer’s Markets or grown myself. When I find an unusually good price on an item (like the $1 pineapples or $.47 mangoes), I buy several and dehydrate or freeze them. All this adds up to lots of fruit and vegetables without spending very much money!

One last comment about beans. Not only can you add them to rice for a complete protein, but you can also sprout them in jars. The chemical make-up of beans changes when they sprout, providing extra nutrition and breaking down antinutrients, which allows your body to absorb more of the nutrients in this form. Sprouting can be accomplished very easily in wide-mouthed jars and the sprouts can be used in cooking, eaten plain as a salad, or put on bread to add crunch and additional nutrition to your sandwich. Two cautions, however. Never eat sprouted kidney beans. They produce a toxin when sprouted that can make you very sick and must be boiled to remove the toxin before eating. And most grocery store beans have been radiated during the packaging process to keep them from sprouting. If you want to try your hand at sprouting beans, start with beans from a health food store. Grains can also be sprouted. With just water, a jar, and the appropriate beans or grains, you can provide the additional nutrition of sprouts to your stored meals. Crunch away!