I recently was told of an approach to accumulating a 3 month food supply. I liked it. It was easy and everything that is on the list are things your family will eat, you’ll see why as I explain. I liked it more because it was something I already do on a regular basis just magnified. Even magnified, it’s still easy.
In a previous post where I outlined several simple food storage plans, I told you about one way that included how I meal plan for 2 weeks at a time. I do this for the purpose of organizing my nights, keeping my sanity when my children ask me “what’s for dinner?” and to stay on budget for the month. Also, I actually hate the grocery store. I know. Some love it, I just don’t. I plan it with my calendar beside me so I can account for busy nights, activity schedules, holidays and more. Once the menu is set, I go through meal by meal to create a grocery list. I even organize my grocery list into categories. I don’t need therapy, my reasoning can be figured out by remembering my previous comment. I hate grocery shopping. If I’m organized it helps me get in and out faster. I really should look in to some of these store programs that shop for you and then you just go pick it up at the front door. Hmmm…maybe I do need therapy. I’m not sure I can relinquish that kind of control.
In order to make producing a 3 month dinner plan easier I have found that first you should write down all the meals your family uses as “go to”. You know the meals you usually end up cooking several times a month or on a steady rotation. We will call this a meal journal.
There are several ways to organize your meal journal. You can organize it like you would a cook book. For example:
Appetizers
Soups
Salads
Main dishes
Sides
Dessert
Another organization option is to organize it by time of day you’d eat it. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. The issue becomes that the dinner section would be rather large and frankly needs a subcategory to keep it organized. I would do this using the primary main dish ingredient. For example:
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Chicken
Beef
Pork
Fish
Soup
Pasta
…and so on.
Another way, is to utilize the previous breakfast, lunch, dinner category and have your dinners organized by genre. This is the way I have chosen to organize my meal journal for the last several years. It has made it easy to look for soups, BBQ, chicken dishes, Mexican, Italian or comfort foods. The point is, find a way to customize it to however your brain sees it the easiest.
Once you have this, all you have to do is take your menu planner out and start to populate it with meals you find on your list. I like to leave at least one meal a week or every other week (depending on how busy the week is) for a “new recipe” that I’ve found and want to try. It’s a way to expand your repertoire and always be adding to you your meal journal for those new recipes you try and love.
I know some of you are saying, “you can do this using Pinterest and it’s way easier!” I realize that. Though Pinterest doesn’t have your mama’s home made BBQ sauce or her famous enchiladas or your recipe for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. And, yes you could put them on Pinterest and digitally file that way. (Side note, be sure to leave me a link on where to find some your go to’s should you decide to put them on Pinterest please!) The caveat is…remember this is for the purpose of emergency preparedness and my guess is, if theres an emergency you may not want to put all your hopes on Pinterest working through whatever just hit the fan. A hard copy is always a safe back up.
I have always done a 2 week meal plan for my family. I can’t remember if it’s because we used to get paid every 2 weeks or something different, but regardless, I’ve stuck to it all these years later. You, of course, can do it however you’d like. Here is a link to a simple 2 week meal planner that you can just hit the print button and be on your way. If you’re so inclined you can use one of your own making. I’ll be honest here…mine have previously always been made from scrap paper or extra pads of paper my husband seems to accumulate from work. The link is just here to make it easier for some who choose to use it.
Click Here for 2 Week Meal Planner Printable
To create your 3 month food storage plan all you will do is create 3 weeks of meals and then recycle them over the next 3 months generating your 3 month storage plan outline. For mine, I did this on the computer and then switched out 5 repeat meals with some different meals just to give it a little bit of variety.
Now it’s a trip, or trips, to acquire all the ingredients for all the meals. *Note for your fresh ingredients consider planting a garden, canning or buying canned goods for the primary use of emergency use only. For dishes requiring meat, consider buying freeze dried options that have a long shelf life rather then buying fresh meat that you would store in your freezer. I think a combination of freezer and freeze dried options are applicable here in whatever formulation you think is best for your use as it pertains to your emergency food storage.
Making your grocery list can be one of those tasks that feels overwhelming. I’m often surprised how many people don’t go to the store with a list in tow. I usually categorize mine to make my grocery shopping more organized, a.k.a. faster. I usually put all my fresh produce in one column, meat in another and then I have a general category for everything else. I’m sure there are people who do it better, this is just how I do it. As I get what is on the list at the store, I cross out that item until I’m all done. Keeps me organized and on budget. Once you have your grocery list for each meal, just add a number to the side of each item to “times” the amount you need for that particular food item. For example:
Spaghetti Noodles (4)
Tomato Sauce (4)
Tomato Paste (4)
and so on…
At the end of this exercise, you’ll have a 3 month food supply of food your family will actually love to eat. Why? Because they are all your family’s favorites. Having this type of rotatable food storage makes it convenient when you can’t quite get to the store for a few days OR you need it to tie you over when you have a few expensive months or financial conflicts. Just remember to REPLACE the ingredients in your storage so you always have it available.