Friday Food Storage Quickie: Breakfast of Champions
Sharon November 6th, 2009
I know I missed last week, but I plead Amtrak . Now we’re back to adding just a little bit to our pantries and preps each week. So what’s on the agenda for this week?
Oatmeal, some kind of sweetener and some dried fruit are on this week’s agenda. This week we’re going to pick up two breakfast staples. First rolled or steel cut oats, or whole groats. You can get them from any supermarket, although as always they will be cheaper in bulk. They are nutritious, tasty and almost everyone will eat oatmeal. Even invalids and babies old enough to eat solid food can digest it, and it is makes a good ingredient in breads and baked goods, as well, of course, as being the solution to your breakfast questions. Oats keep for some years as long as they are protected from moisture and rodents, so there’s no rush to use them, although of course, you’ll want to practice eating them - always eat what you store. How much? I’d get as much as you can reasonably afford, since they are cheap, assuming you like and eat oats - because then you always have a good breakfast. I like them raw and mixed with fruit sauces, as oatmeal, in scones and bread and made into granola, so they aren’t going to go to waste at my house - oats are versatile.
If you are making oatmeal, you’ll probably want something to sweeten it a little - honey, agave nectar, brown sugar or maple syrup. This will improve the palatability of most of the other foods as well. Me, I particularly like honey, and it stores nigh-on forever, but any shelf-stable sweetener is fine. You don’t need a lot of it - a 5lb bag or jar to supplement what you’ve got already is good and should last a while unless you are sweet fiends
And I would add some dried fruit as well - whether raisins or apples, peaches or prunes. This will help with three things. First, dried fruits make children and sweet-dependent adults feel like they’ve had a sweet without you having to stock up on twinkies . Second, if you shift to a storage diet all of a sudden at some point, dried fruits will, umm, regularize things if you get stopped up. Finally, they offer nutritional value that you can’t get elsewhere. Dried fruit can be pricey, and you don’t need that much - if it is too expensive, consider looking for sources of fruit that can be dried for free - fruit trees that go unharvested or wild berries. You can dehydrate almost any fruit, and they are almost all delicious.
If you have a little extra space in your budget, all of these things will be welcomed by the food pantry, so pick up an extra package or two and donate them. They’ll also be grateful for pasta, canned soup and peanut butter.
Also, for a non-food preparation, time to check your stored water, or get some if you don’t have it. Remember, it happens all the time - the water goes out, or gets contaminated and boy does that stink! Having some stored water (at least 1 gallon per person per day for a week or two, 2 gallons per person per day is better) is a useful hedge against sitting in your apartment drinking all the vodka because there’s nothing else . Storing water is easy - get some recycled soda bottles, or glass bottles or gallon jugs. Fill with water. Add four drops of bleach per gallon, half of that for a half gallon, or just empty them out and rotate them every 3 months. Ta da! You are water crisis ready!
Sharon