Monday, August 31, 2009

Food storage...Help!


I know I should have been being better all along, but lately I've been thinking about food storage a lot and wanting to get our's going better. I had been making it a goal in my head to get going on our 3 month supply. A few days later, I was looking through some papers and found a packet about food storage. I knew this could not be a coincidence. The packet listed the -Safely Gathered In- blog so I checked it out. It is an AWESOME food storage blog, I highly recommend checking it out.
So here's where I need help. I made my 3 month plan and started working on it, thinking it would be no real problem. It got hard because I was trying to think of meals that didn't involve eggs, cheese, or other dairy like sour cream since they can't be stored. I cook tons of different things, but a lot of them involve those dairy products that can't be stored. Does anyone know of something for eggs or sour cream? Like powdered milk is for milk?
Or am I just taking this too far? Something I looked at said if you followed their plan you wouldn't have to go to the grocery store a single time for 3 months. But we REALLY like eggs and cheese and dairy products..! I guess in a natural disaster or something it would be super hard to go to the store and they would probably be out of everything.. but still, that's not the only situation we plan for, right? How do you guys do it?
Next off, do any of you have any good recipes for food storage? Some of our normal meals work easily to store, but not a lot of them.

So pretty much I would love ANY advice, ideas, or help you can give me! I really want to get this going but I really need some help!

Monday, August 3, 2009

IKEA



Ikea. Where to start? I had heard of Ikea before. People say great things about it. I have spent hours drooling over their website. My visiting teacher (aka my personal angel!) even got me a couple things from there to go into my huge basket of bridal shower gifts from her. I love the sauce tool she got me. It REALLY does keep sauces/gravies from clumping!


Anyways... We went down to Provo a couple weeks ago with Doug's family to see his aunt and uncle's new house, and to see all their kids who are in town from all over the country. The house was FABULOUS!! It was cool meeting his cousins too, since I hadn't met most of them from that family before. We had a great time. When we were leaving town, Doug's mom asked if we wanted to stop at Ikea since me and Stacey (my sister in law) had never been there before. We happily agreed and I was SO excited!


The first thing we saw when we walked in the doors was side tables for $12. WHAT?! Who sells side tables for that cheap?!?!?! The family split up and set up a meeting time and place to leave. Doug and I took the escalator upstairs to the "Showroom". It was amazing! The store is so huge that they have to post signs up so you don't get lost. They even have posted shortcuts in case you want to skip some stuff to go on to other things. THEY HAD COMPLETE HOUSES IN THE SHOWROOM! They showed how you can utilize space and fit a whole house into like 500 or less square feet. You just can't understand the monstrosity of this store unless you have been in one.


We were walking along in the kitchen tools area and I saw a big basket of woks. I have been DYING to get a wok. In the store where we live, they are like $39.99 and up. I walked over to the basket and was admiring them and asked Doug how much they were cuz there wasn't price tags on them. He replied, "7.99". I squeaked out in excitement and asked if he had seen the right price for these. He assured me that was indeed the price of the woks. I excitedly asked him if I could get one and he said yes. There had been a lady near us who must have heard the whole conversation.. As we were walking away, Doug said, "As long as you cook stuff in it." The lady started giggling and as she walked by me she whispered, "Or smack him with it!" I couldn't believe it! It was so funny, but...I would never do that with someone I didn't know! Haha!


We picked up some wooden cooking utensils for... 59 cents (for a set of 3).


I saw a pot hanger. My parents have been looking for one since they moved into their new house. They had one in their old rental and my mom hated it at first and then fell completely in love with it. They looked around where we live for one and came back empty handed. They were not willing to pay $250-$300 for one. This pot hanger in Ikea was $15. I called my dad and he told me to get it. I grabbed fifteen hooks...$12. Are you saying WOW yet?!


We continued on. I saw pretty vases that at home would cost like $8-$12....for $2.49. Can you say HAPPY MARCIE?! I of course grabbed one. We finished looking around upstairs and went downstairs, where all the loose stuff is and the rooms aren't set up. I wanted EVERYTHING. I think my heart rate doubled in the kitchen tools area, because I wanted one of everything. My brother in law somewhere around this point asked me what I want for Christmas and I said, "This whole store!" He laughed. We continued and passed into the decorations area. We were unfortunately out of time, so we could only briefly look. It's probably a great thing, cuz I would have spent more money. :) We got a lucky twisting bamboo and a gorgeous little vase to put it in. I bet you can't guess how much the vase cost! 79 CENTS!!! And it's not plastic!!!


Somewhere in the middle, I looked at Doug and concluded, "We've died in a car crash, haven't we? We are in heaven." That is my summary of IKEA.