All Things Transcription

How you handle food storage influences what you can make to feed your family on short notice. It also influences what you can feed your family when the grocery budget is a little short. When you make a food storage plan you will always have something available to you when you need something fast or when the power goes out. All it takes is a little advance planning.

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If you already cook at home frequently, you have a leg up. Most cooks will tell you that they keep a good stock of staple ingredients on hand at all times. These are things such as flour, sugar, cornstarch, salt, butter, and anything else you use often when you cook. The staples you stock are related to the types of recipes you like. Most of these cooks will also tell you that they shop once a week or less after making an exhaustive list.

However, it can be a challenge for those people who go by the market on the way home from work every day. This one meal at a time approach is expensive and inefficient. It is very much worth the time to develop new food shopping habits. The first step is to change from once a day to no more than once a week.

Sit down with the sales ad from your market of choice. Better yet if you haven’t done some comparisons of your local markets, now is a good time to start. Glance at some similar items and compare a few prices in a few stores. If you find a market that is significantly cheaper and it isn’t the one that you usually shop at perhaps you should give it a try. The worst mistake you can make is shopping at a particular store because it is closer. It may be worth your time to travel a little further if the savings and selection make it so. However, it is usually not worth your time to visit several different stores.

Make a list of what you want to serve and come up with some ideas to use the things on sale. Take the list with you and buy all you need for the week at one time. Now comes the storage part. If you see something really on sale that you will use and will store well, buy it. Ten cans of carrots for $5? You and Your family love carrots? Buy ten cans. Now you have started storing food. All you have to do is choose a couple of items to do this with each time you shop. No perishable items allowed. You do not need to spend lots of money. You do need to remember that just because it’s on sale doesn’t mean it’s a bargain. It doesn’t matter if you have extra food if nobody likes what you have stored and they refuse to eat it.

However, once you get started, where do you stop? Obviously that can be dictated by space. Once your kitchen cabinets are bulging there are other places to store food if you use your imagination. The flat boxes canned goods come in can be stored under beds. The bottom of any closet that does not have shoes in it can be used.

It is a good idea to use Rubbermaid containers for anything that is not canned. Dry goods such as flour or pasta are best stored in the freezer or refrigerator, but if that is not feasible you can put them in Ziploc bags with a bay leaf on the shelf. Large amounts of rice should be frozen to prevent bugs if it is not used immediately. The idea is not to go overboard with this. If you won’t eat 50 pounds of rice in this lifetime, do not buy it. If you do not use flour very often, 5 pounds ahead is plenty.

Keep in mind that you do want to have some food available in case of emergencies that may cause lengthy power outages. Canned foods are best for this because they have their own water source. Things that require water to make should be limited for obvious reasons. Water may be scarce and you will want to conserve it as much as possible.

Also, do not forget treats. Store what little things make you and your family happy. A bag of candy and a board game uses no electricity or water, and can take up a large block of time. It helps to relieve stress when you have something so simple on hand to cheer things up.

Once you get started on this process it becomes second nature and requires less time than stopping at the market each day. Take the time to become familiar with some simple recipes that take little time to make. If you have a Crockpot gathering dust somewhere, break it out and find some recipes for that. Google is your friend. There are plenty of sites that can help you feed your family fast nutritious meals. Hence your grocery budget will increase when you stop shopping so often and eating take out so much. Give it a try.