What are you stocking in the pantry?

[liz stevens]

Obviously foods that have a long shelf life and require no refrigeration or special preserving processes make the ideal prepper stock up.

If you ask most preppers what they now have in their dry storage pantry you would probably all agree on the normal staples of wheat berries or flour, oat groats or oatmeal, corn or corn meal, a mix of dried beans and a mix of white and brown rice.

If someone had suggested to us a year ago to stock such things as lintels, and barley we would have probably said no thanks, as neither one of us ever really enjoyed beef and barley or lintel soup.

However, over this past year a renal diet has became a requirement in our household, meaning we were forced to explore other lower protein alternatives.

As bad things come along they also often open other avenues that one might not ever consider otherwise. We have now discovered a whole new world of food and meat substitutes that are perfect for the prepper pantry.

We only use about a third of the meat that we would of normally used in all our dishes and supplement it with barley. If we didn't have any meat available we would still have the barley. A cup of cooked barley contains approximately 3.5 grams of protein compared to 26 grams in a cup of hamburger.

Despite the lower protein it is still a good source of protein and fiber as well as rice, oatmeal and beans that provide 4-7 grams of protein per 1 cup cooked serving.

We cook the barley and then mix it with a little cooked hamburger to make such dishes as stuffed peppers. We also cook it in with dried beans at the same time to make chili and or soups.

The barley when cooked down adds a thickener to the stock and makes a wonderful stew, so you will probably need to add water as the cooking progresses.

Amazingly we also discovered that barley does not taste as bad as we remembered and the health benefits make it one of the healthy foods to eat, just Google barley health benefits.

You can search for recipes using barley and other grains under vegetarian recipes. Now might be a good time to use the Internet to explore your own alternative recipes. Purchase small bags of grains that you havent tried in new recipes and decide if they are something to prep the pantry with.

We are still exploring other grains that we cant even pronounce by shopping different ethnic food stores.

Copy of your favorite recipe discoveries now and add to a notebook as the Internet may not always be available when the SHTF occurs.

Also by stocking foods that your family will enjoy now, means you can also use and rotate your stock adding new for longer shelf life.

So what are you stocking in the pantry?

 

[ThrottleJockey]

I've never tried it but hear quinoa is fantastic and may just be the superfood of the future...straight out of the past.

 

[Hinotori]

What we stock and use regularly is pasta, rice, quinoa, millet, mung beans, lentils, peas, chickpeas, beans, oats, wheat, barley, salt, white sugar, and brown sugar. I have some flour stocked usually.

We eat all the seeds and grains in soups whole and well cooked (except mung beans unless they are peeled). I'll mix the quinoa with peas, lentils, and orzo or couscous pastas and serve that as a dish. Sometimes it's just quinoa or lentils cooked in broth depending on what we are having. Toss some caramelized onions, broccoli crowns, lima beans, and chopped chicken in and it's a good meal.

I don't use bread crumbs in meat loaf. I use cooked rice or barley. Rice is also good if someone has a wheat allergy or celiac disease.

Mung beans are sprouted in a jar and eaten that way.

I'd stock amaranth if I could get it in large quantities and cheap enough.

I've gotten some interesting seed and grain mixes at the asian groceries around here. All work well in soups.

I still have a box and a half of potatoes left in the pantry. They usually last me until March or April.

We have frozen fruits, veggies, and meat as well. If I had to I'd can it up before it could go bad. There is enough fuel to run the generator carefully for the freezers for a while.

I do need to restock the dog and cat food. There is only about two months worth left. Chickens are good for 3+ months. I'll let the chickens out more to range. They are pretty good at finding their own food.

I just emptied a jug into the water fount so we are down to 10 gallons of water stored. There is plenty of it outside in the huge pond for animals, and I could filter and boil it if needed for us.

 

[Mattemma]

I like the barley too. I have a pearl one,and one that is flat like milled oats. I like adding the flat barley to soups.

As for other odd ball things I stock hmmmmm I have lotsof jams(apricot,currant,cherry,raspberry).Also I get a few honey combs when I have extra cash.Nuthazel spread for ds.Hot chocolate.Various sugars(cane,beet,stevia,agave,honey).

I know canned tomatoes don't last long,but I like getting the fire roasted tomatoes when they are on sale for 49 cents a can. I make a chicken taco soup recipe with the tomatoes,beans,and either fresh or canned chicken.Toss in some rice for extra protien. I have lots of different kinds of rice saved. I have seaweed,miso varieties,and ume.

I have lots of spices. I like making lots of ethnic dishes,so they come in handy.That reminds me I have oil stocked up.Grapeseed and olive oil right now. I would get some walnut and brown rice when I have some extra extra cash.

 

[moolie]

Dry staples? We stock: hard red wheat, hard white wheat, spelt, sometimes rye, jasmine rice, brown rice (in the freezer), oats, barley, quinoa, millet, green and yellow dhal split peas, chick peas, navy beans, red kidney beans, pinto beans, black turtle beans, lentils, sugar, honey (well not dry but definitely a keeper), almonds, pecans, hazelnuts, peanuts. Plus baking staples like baking powder and soda, cocoa, yeast, coconut, custard powder. And of course coffee beans, but hubs buys them freshly roasted so we never have more than a pound or so on hand.

Been doing most of it for years and years, the wheat/spelt/rye is something we began buying and grinding fresh for baking just a few years ago when we got our grain mill--we love it and would never go back.

Oats make a wonderful traditional breakfast porridge if soaked overnight and then cooked and served with milk and brown sugar, been eating it since I was a small child and my kids love it too. Also useful in meatloaf, muffins and cookies etc.

Barley goes into many soups and stews. Rice is a huge staple in our life, goes with most meals as well as added to soups and dishes like stuffed peppers. Quinoa can go into all sorts of things as it is a complete protein, excellent as a cold salad with raisins, nuts, and citrus fruits.

Dhal (split peas) are my secret to thick home-canned soups--they break down in the canning process and make soups "creamy", the yellow are better for this if you don't want a strong "green split pea" flavour as they don't really add any flavour, just thickness. Also wonderful in Indian dishes. Chick peas are mostly used for hummus at our house, also in cold salads.

Beans and lentils go into soups, stews, and chili as well as Baked Beans--trying to get away from Boston style and more towards English style, but haven't perfected it yet. I think the traditional canned Heinz beans must have a huge amount of sugar in them

Sugar, honey, nuts are mostly used in baking but I also do some Asian dishes with peanuts and occasionally (although they are expensive) cashews.

 

[baymule]

I've never tried it but hear quinoa is fantastic and may just be the superfood of the future...straight out of the past.

http://feedadam.com/

I use quinoa like rice. It is good with just about anything. Quinoa and gravy anyone??

 

[heatherlynnky]

I wish we were this organized. I tell my mom I want to do this and the first thing she does is buys olive oil and coffee. She bought enough coffee to ensure she has some as long as she is alive. That took up an amazing amount of space.

 

[so lucky]

I wish we were this organized. I tell my mom I want to do this and the first thing she does is buys olive oil and coffee. She bought enough coffee to ensure she has some as long as she is alive. That took up an amazing amount of space.

From what I read, neither of those keep fresh very long, either. Maybe a year tops on the olive oil? And ground coffee, well, it gets stale very quickly.Too bad she couldn't have left the stocking up on dry goods up to you, Heather. At least you could have bought a variety. :/ Maybe you could start by buying a large amount of one thing each payday. Store it under your bed, if nothing else.

 

[mrscoyote]

Whatever I can. It is hard when hubby is constantly asking if we need this or that.

 

[moolie]

I wish we were this organized. I tell my mom I want to do this and the first thing she does is buys olive oil and coffee. She bought enough coffee to ensure she has some as long as she is alive. That took up an amazing amount of space.

From what I read, neither of those keep fresh very long, either. Maybe a year tops on the olive oil? And ground coffee, well, it gets stale very quickly.Too bad she couldn't have left the stocking up on dry goods up to you, Heather. At least you could have bought a variety. :/ Maybe you could start by buying a large amount of one thing each payday. Store it under your bed, if nothing else.

Yup, coffee goes rancid quite quickly, fastest if already ground, but within two months for roasted beans. I think un-roasted beans last longer, but I don't drink coffee--it's my hubs' one luxury. He'd rather have a good cup of coffee than a beer, and it's not that he doesn't appreciate a nice cold beer.

If you are looking for help starting out with stocking a pantry and getting a your long-term food storage organized, first make sure you have everything you need on a regular basis in your cupboard (staples, baking items, spices etc.) and then check out these two sites:

Food storage on $10/week: www.backwoodshome.com/articles/hagan59.html

Food storage 10 baby-steps: www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net/babysteps/

These are definitely other people's ideas of what may work for you, we've always lived this way (having extra in the cupboard, it's how we were both brought up) so we never had to "get started"--I always bought more of each thing than I needed when I went shopping. Stocking up on things that are on sale is the best way, you maximize return on what you've spent. The other huge thing that we do is to buy in season and preserve--freeze, can, dry etc. so you have yummy things year-round.

Hope that helps!