Simple prepardness, with links to good videos

Will the news-images of people panic buying in the UN-AFFECTED areas of Japan be enough to prompt people into the idea of preparedness and planning ahead? Or will Human apathy raise its ugly head once more in a few short days when the Japan disaster is yesterdays news, and we all regain our short memories again?

This is my call to all the ordinary citizens of all nations to start taking responsibility for themselves and their loved ones, to move away from the victim mentality and to learn about simple preparedness and the incredible, and potentially life-saving benefits that come from it.

If you are convinced Preparedness is a good Idea but don't know where to begin, here are some basic beginners videos that I made last year to help get you started:

Prepared #1 - Storing Water - Basics (Preparedness series)

Prepared #2 - Storing Food - Basics (Preparedness series)

Prepared #3 - Storing Knowledge (Preparedness series)

Prepared #4 - Essential Equipment (Preparedness series)

Prepared #5 - How To Purify Water - Basics (Preparedness series)


Prepared #6 - Pandemic Preparedness (Preparedness series)

Easy Yeast Rolls (from my food storage)

Today I made two batches of these rolls one batch all white flour and the other batch like the recipe below. (I even used hard white wheat grains and ground them up in my blender to make the wheat flour)
Man they were GOOD.

food storage ingredients
1 3/4 cup warm water
1/4 c sugar
3 tsp yeast
3 Tbsp Thrive powdered milk (not instant)
1/2 cup Thrive powdered butter
2 Tbsp Thrive powdered egg
1 tsp salt
4 Tbsp Thrive dough enhancer
2 cups wheat flour or Thrive hard wheat grains ground to flour
2 cups flour

Makes 24 yummy rolls.
The rolls will be baked in a 9 x 13 pan.
The roll are easy to make but if you have a bread machine it can be even easier.
If you have a bread machine add all of the ingredients to the bread machine and use the dough cycle and skip step 2 and 3.
For everyone else follow all of the steps to make yummy rolls by hand.

Add these first, warm water, sugar, yeast. Let set about 10 minutes for yeast to activate. Then add, Thrive powdered milk, Thrive powdered butter, Thrive powdered egg, salt and mix well, then start adding in the last three ingredients.

Once all of the ingredients are fully incorporated knead the dough on a lightly floured surface. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (approximately 6 to 9 minutes). Place the dough in a very lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp towel and place in a warm area. Allow the dough to rise until it is about double in size (approximately 45 minutes.)

Butter your pan that you will bake them in.
Punch down the dough and start shaping the rolls. Take a section of the roll in your hand. Make a circle with your thumb and fingers that is smaller than the dough.
Hold the dough in the circle your hand creates. Using your other hand push gently on the backside of the roll (inside your hand.) Keep pushing gently while your other hand stays in a circle and smooths the outside of the roll.
Continue until the roll is smooth and shaped into a ball. Then place them in the greased pan.

Cover the rolls with a damp towel and let rise in a warm area for 15 to 20 minutes.
The rolls should increase in size by about 50%

Remove the damp towel and bake at 375 degrees F for 14 to 17 minutes or until the rolls are slightly golden brown. The color will be very subtle so make sure you do not over cook. When the rolls start to brown put foil over the top to keep them from browning to much on top.
Serve warm with butter.

Baby Food Storage: Make baby food in minutes from freeze dried produce.

My Grandson - Rylan Shawn Ingram 5 months

There are many advantages to making your own vs. buying it at the store:


* No additives
There are thickeners, fluoride, and other additives in store bought baby food

* More Nutritious
Store bought baby food loses nutrients in the canning process

* Lower Price
At $0.40-$0.80 a jar, it is far less expensive to make your own.

* Environmentally Friendly
What happens to all the jars of baby food you buy? They go in the garbage.

Freeze dried fruits and vegetables are amazing: completely different from dehydrated foods. They contain no added sugar, salt or other preservatives, they retain 90% (or more) of their original nutrients, they are often less expensive (per serving) than the fresh product and they have an extremely long shelf life. They will last for 25 years! In addition, they are very easy to use and take very little time to rehydrate.

It is so simple. All you do is:

* Add 1/2 c. water to 1 1/2 c. freeze dried produce.
* Let it sit for just a few minutes (6-7 in cold water or 2-3 in warm water)
* Mix in a blender or food processor
* Add water a few tablespoons at a time and continue blending until you reach your desired consistency.
* Makes 5-7 4 oz. servings (depending on how much water you add)

No need to boil large amounts of produce each week, blend it, and put it in Tupperware or jars. You can easily and quickly make just what your baby needs to eat each day! Healthy food with no additives that is affordable and doesn't hurt the environment! It doesn't get better than that!

These same products can also be given to older children in place of fruit snacks or used in easy casserole recipes, easy soup recipes, or breads and muffins. They can provide security and peace of mind because with a 25 year shelf life, they also work as long term storage or "food insurance" for your family!

Shelf Reliance has 11 varieties of freeze dried fruit and 10 varieties of freeze dried vegetables. Many cost less per serving than the same products fresh and you can get them all year long. One #10 can costs anywhere from $11.19 for cauliflower - $33.19 for pineapple and while it depends on the product, you should get 50-70 4oz serving out of each can so that comes to $0.16-$0.66 per 4 oz serving (1 jar).

Know your grains

Grains are a very important part of your food storage and should be the largest portion of your supply. Grains are important sources of many nutrients, including dietary fiber, several B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and folate), and minerals (iron, magnesium, and selenium). There are two subgroups of grains, whole grains and refined grains. It is good to store both types of grains. Here is a list of of grains you may consider storing:

Whole Grains                              
wheat                                                     
oats                                                           
bulgur (cracked wheat)                        
brown rice                                                   
whole grain barley                       
whole grain cornmeal         
popcorn                           

Refined Grains
white rice
pasta
white bread
grits
enriched cornmeal
flour
tortillas

Less Common Grains
amaranth
millet
quinoa
sorghum
triticale

Most refined grains are enriched which means certain B vitamins and iron are added back after they have been milled. However, fiber is not added back which makes it important to include whole grains into your daily diet. It is recommended that at least half of all grains eaten should be whole grains.

How to make beans user friendly.

When you eat too many refined foods, our bodies no longer have the enzymes to properly digest high in fiber beans and grains.  Here are some tips to help you overcome that three letter word GAS.

• Overnight Soak: wash and sort beans, place in large bowl or pan with 6 cups of water per pound of beans. Let soak over night.  Dump water and use fresh water to cook.
• Quick Soak:  follow the above instructions, but bring beans and water to a boil and cook 2 minutes.  Remove from heat, cover, and let stand 1 hour. Dump water and use fresh water to cook.

To make extra sure you are degassing your beans try the sprouted process because it develops enzymes to help digest beans more easily, just follow the over night soak instructions, rinse beans well and add more water to the beans and put the in the refrigerator for another 8 hours or so. Dump the water and use fresh water to cook.

Cooking Times for soaked beans
Black Beans  1 to 1 1/2 hrs
Black-Eyed Peas  1 to 1 1/2 hrs
Garbanzo beans  2 to 2 1/2 hrs
Great Northern beans  1 to 1 1/2 hrs
Kidney beans  1 1/2 to 2 hrs
Lentils  30 min. (no soaking required)
Pinto beans  1 1/2 to 2 hrs
Soy beans  3 to 3 1/2 hrs
Split Peas  35 to 35 min. (no soaking required)
White Navy beans  1 to 1 1/2 hrs

Using food storage everyday in your recipes.

Using food storage on a daily basis is simple, convenient, and economical.  (And, every meal doesn’t have to include wheat or beans!)  Here are some easy ways to incorporate food storage into your family’s diet and convert any recipe to a food storage recipe.

The THRIVE food line consists of the same foods you would purchase at the market—fruits, veggies, meats, beans, grains, dairy, and the basics—only with THRIVE you don’t have to dash to the store every time you run out of essential ingredients such as eggs or milk.

Use whole grains. Use wheat flour, oats, or other grains in your cooking.   They add much more flavor and nutrition to your recipes.  If this is new for your family, start slow.  Begin by swapping out part of the white flour in recipes for whole wheat flour and work up to using more.  Flour made from hard white wheat works great this way and the change is rarely noticed. Oats add nutrition and work just as well as bread crumbs in meatloaf. Cooked wheat can be added to ground beef to stretch a recipe for tacos.  The wheat takes on the taco flavoring, and generally goes without detection, while making the meal healthier.

Use powdered milk.  The pricey smoothie shops do it all the time!  Powdered milk has fewer calories and less cholesterol than whole milk products and adds protein.  Try it in soups, casseroles, bread recipes…and smoothies. Trive powdered milk is so great, I actually drink it for my milk now. Now this is dry powdered milk, NOT the instant milk, big difference. The first time I tasted it I was so shocked at how good it was and how it REALLY taste like milk from the store.  (see my milk conversion chart) I also love to have powdered buttermilk on hand.

Convert eggs.  I love having powdered eggs on hand.  They are convenient and easy to use.  They are even great for camping…no more cracked eggs in the cooler. Just add the egg powder with your dry ingredients and the required water with your liquid ingredients. (see my egg conversion chart) The best part of using powdered eggs in recipes like cake batter, and cookie dough is that you can now eat the cookie dough with out the fear of eating raw eggs.

Use dry beans instead of canned. The savings is significant.  To make them more convenient to use in your cooking, soak and cook a big batch of beans and freeze them in can-size portions. Place 1 2/3 cup portions of cooked beans in zippered sandwich bags and freeze. Then when your recipe calls for a 15.5 oz. can of beans, you just have to pull a bag from the freezer.

Throw in dehydrated or freeze dried vegetables or fruits.  Dehydrated or freeze-dried fruits and vegetables retain much more nutrients than do canned vegetables. Once you start using them, the convenience will win you over.  No washing, peeling, or chopping.  Dehydrated  or freeze-dried potatoes, onions, carrots, corn, bell peppers and celery are ready to go in soups and casseroles. Dehydrated or freeze-dried apples are fantastic in oatmeal, or reconstituted and chopped for baked goods.  Freeze-dried fruits are wonderful straight from the can as a snack.   The biggest difference between Dehydrated and Freeze-dried is that dehydrated veggies take longer to reconstitute than freeze dry ones. There are several benefits from incorporating your long-term food storage ingredients into your everyday cooking.