This week's item

We'll be getting peanut butter this week. Peanut butter is such a great item to have on hand.  Not only is it something that most people like (including kids!), it's very filling and just brimming with protein. These kinds of food can be hard to come by in times when food is scarce.

The experts have said that in times of hardship and emergency sweets can be very comforting (I think they're comforting any time!) So peanut butter is the perfect solution.

My kids eat lots of PB&J sanwiches, plus they like it on their waffles and pancakes too (gross!) so we go through a lot of the stuff.  Keep your storage and monetary situation in mind when you decide how much to buy, but I really think it's an important item to have on hand.

If you have peanut allergies you have a couple of choices: you can either buy some to have on hand anyway (maybe if things get really bad you'll be able to barter it.  Not to freak you out, but hey, there's always that possibility.)  Or you can substitute a different item: tuna fish? jelly? syrup?  Or you can just take a week off!

Rice, rice baby

Sorry everyone about dropping the ball for our preparedness item this week! I'm still getting used to this calling but I'll get my act together soon, I promise.

So we're buying rice this week (or last week if you were good and faithful). 3-5 lbs per person is a beginning amount. I recommend putting smaller bags in a larger ziplock bag to keep out the weevils. They love rice! If you ended up getting a giant bag, then that's obviously not a possibility. Just pray for no weevils!

Did you know that the shorter grain of rice you get, the stickier it is? Long grain is nice and fluffy and is great plain or in pilaf. It's the traditional kind of rice that Americans prefer. Medium grain is the kind of sticky rice you find at Chinese restaurants (it's my favorite!). Short grain rice is the stickiest and is perfect for things like sushi.

Get ready for the New Year

I'm excited to kick off the New Year by starting a weekly preparedness item.  Since everyone goes to the grocery store at least once a week, the idea is to buy a few items to slowly build our three-month supply.

Now remember, it's important to take baby steps.  We don't want to burn out and get discouraged.  The important thing here is starting and moving forward.

We are not going to worry so much about prices.  I don't want you to go all over town trying to save yourself a few cents.  It's more important to get your items bought than to get the world's cheapest price.  Buy what you can afford.  If it's just an extra week's worth of food, that's better than nothing.  If you can afford to get three month's worth of each item, that's wonderful!  I'll give you an idea of quantities, but you know your family's tastes better than I do.  

I'll have each week's food storage item listed up at the top right column.