Thursday, March 19, 2009

What did you spend your tax refund on?

We're making a tradition in our family that when we receive our tax refund that we will stock up on food storage items. Tonight we had our FHE on food storage. We then went down to our local ALDI and bought items to update our 72 hour kits and to add to our food storage. It's such a great feeling to be following the counsel of our church leaders on being prepared.

This would be a good time to introduce to you our new addition (Tyler is modeling - isn't he cute?). Please welcome Bonnie Blueberry!


And let me tell you, Bonnie has a lot of space for this yearly tradition!



Tyler actually volunteered to put it all away while I put the kids down for bed. No, really, he did.


How do you like these shelves? Tyler built them himself. That's my man!




Here are our four 72 hour kits. We don't have any idea how Kristina will be able to carry her backpack and Keith can't even walk yet - but it's the being prepared that counts, right?


Here are the items that are now outdated or will shortly be outdated from our 72 hour kits and from the food storage in the garage. Anyone have any idea what I can do with 12 cans of evaporated milk, 6 bottles of barbecue sauce, and 6 cans of chef boyardee?


18 comments:

Joseph and Kamber said...

Wow, that's inspiring. We're going to buy a half a cow along with lanscaping our backyard. We currently only have dirt and are looking forward to sod.

Are you needing to get rid of the BBQ sauce and evaporated milk? Try your local food bank.

Anonymous said...

Give your nearly outdated items to a food bank - there are so many needy people the food banks can't keep up with the demand.

Of course, if I had extra evaporated milk I just might consider making German chocolate cakes. Just saying, you know.

Mary said...

Heehee the first thought that came to my mind is that you could make 1 really weird, really big stew :-P

Since that's not practical/edible, I concur with the food bank suggestions.

Anonymous said...

I think you might consider adjusting your recipes to incorporate your aging ingredients. If your recipe calls for milk, try the evaporated milk. Bake with it. It may not produce the results you desire, but it will probably still be edible. For the barbecue sauce, try marinating different meats in it, and then bake in the oven, broil, or throw on an outdoor grill, or use a grill pan. Any recipe you have calling for brown sugar &/or molasses, ketchup, possibly with some liquid smoke, vinegar, or additional seasonings will probably do just fine by substituting in the barbecue sauce. Or make pizzas and substitute the barbecue sauce for the marinara. The Chef Boyardee should be easy. Make lunches for the kids out of it. Or dinner for the family. Depending on what varieties you have, isn't it basically noodles and spaghetti sauce? High on sodium, low on real flavor? Might as well use it or donate it.

My personal opinion on expiring dates for food is that they are usually sell-by dates, or best-if-used-before dates. It's not like they are edible one day, and then completely disgusting the next, or will suddenly give you home-cooked food poisoning. Trust your cooking instincts. You'll be fine.

KC

ps-promise that one day soon I'll really start doing something with that blog...

Diana said...

Gotta love the new van! Every dime of our tax refund will pay medical bills (mostly therapy) - but we used our economic stimulous check last fall to do this very thing - and my van looked about like yours.

We're still working on finding our 72 hour kits. We know they are woefully outdated, but we just haven't had the sanity or patience to dig them out and go through all the stuff.

Chicken BBQ pizza is awesome. Use BBQ sauce for the pizza sauce and then top with cooked, shredded chicken, green or red onions, fresh tomatoes and cheese. Yummy, yummy!

Dianah said...

That's a nice food storage. I can't wait to move into a home so that I can really get started on my food storage. There just isn't any room in an apartment.

Mommo said...

I agree with KC. It is a "sell-by" date. Don't throw it out. You are a great cook....use it up.

Carrie said...

I love your shelves and all of your food storage!! I have been budgeting so much money a month to add to ours. It is so nice knowing that I am doing what we have been counseled to do...you have further inspired me!!

Mary said...

I'd love to come cook for you...for me, half the fun of cooking is getting to feed other people :-) Thanks for stopping by my blog! You post some pretty awesome recipes on your blog that I can't wait to try out.

P.S. your kids are ADORABLE!

Also, another suggestion for the BBQ sauce - how about baby back ribs with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli on the side? It's one of my favorite meals.

Anonymous said...

Ooh cream of barbecue boyarde---my favorite!! ;)The items may be "outdated or expired" but so are many of my clothes and I still wear them! Hee hee! I wouldn't toss them, but offer them up to a shelter or someone you know who needs food.
Nice Shelves btw! We will have to build some for our next place!

Karin said...

I have an awesome roll recipe that calls for evaporated milk...if you want it. :) You could have a bunch of people over (or host a ward social) and have BBQ chicken or pork on rolls...! :) Congrats on getting some wonderful work done on your food storage. I always feel better when we are stocked up on food/necessities. There seems to be a spirit of preparedness that blesses our home! Hugs!

Super Happy Girl said...

What a great idea.
Look at all that food neatly stored in those cool shelves!

Stefanie said...

Sounds like it's time for a bar-b-que...!
St. Vincent's in downtown Dayton is running pretty bare on their shelves...and they're trying to feed 500+ homeless people in Dayton...just a thought.

Anonymous said...

At my house we use an entire bottle of BBQ sauce or more for our crock pot "country style pork ribs" (they're always the cheapest type of ribs, a bit fatty but super tender, hearty and tasty but I'm sure any cut would do). All you do is put your raw "country style" ribs in the botttom of your crock, and pour the sauce over them, close it, and then let them cook (while your at church or longer if you desire) if we're really daring we'll add onion quarters and potatoes (they all turn out BBQ style so only do a few). The ribs always turn out sooo tender and tasty but this recipe is as simple as can be we've tried it with all kinds of BBQ sauces and they all turn out great! We serve them with homemade potato salad and garlic bread. Yum! Typing this is making me hungry. I used to feel like that was too much sauce to "waste" on one meal, but we had a similar excess and expiring problem with BBQ sauce last year and now I don't sweat it. One good thing that came out of that was learning that our family doesn't use as much BBQ sauce as we thought, and now we buy less for food storage.
Your shelves are so gorgeous! I totally want a set! He should go into business!
I love this tax return tradition btw! Super smart thing to do.
Good luck using or sharing your excess and expiring food.
:)Lana

marlene said...

2007/2008 were food storage years for us - we really focused on getting organized and stocked-up. We always have more to buy, but we are making great progress and it feels good. In fact it brings a lot of peace. I do need to rotate through our 72 hour kits now - thanks for the reminder :) Your shelves are awesome by the way - it really does make it all so much easier when you actually have a place to keep/organize everything!

Carina said...

That's amazing. I really need to get going on food storage. Our next RS Enrichment will include 72-hour kits, so at least that will get me started. Your yearly tradition is inspiring, though!

Oh, and for the curious, we are using our tax return to go to the reunion in Texas! Not all of it, of course (the rest will go to bills), but yay! =)

Annie said...

Hey, before I read this post, we were thinking of doing the same thing with part of our refund. We don't know where it's going to go yet, though. Want to make us some shelves? How did you figure out how much to get for your family, by the way?

Chocolate Inspector said...

Hi Jill, So I am catching up on blogs, I wish I had more time to read and contribute. I LOVE your yearly tradition! You are inspiring. I will send you a great soup recipe that uses evap. milk, it's a corn/bacon/potato chowder that the kids love and uses a lot of canned food.