Basic Food Storage Recipe Resources - PreparednessMama (2024)

What Are You Going to Do With All That Food?

Why use it, of course! There aresome food storage items that my family always has on hand. Things like rice, beans, wheat, powdered milk, and sugar. These are considered basic food storage items and they have a LONG shelf life – 20 to 30 years in most cases. Not only do we store them for everyday eats, but for use in an emergency. We have, on more than one occasion, needed to use basic food storage for an extended period of time.

It’s important to have these basic ingredients ready. Do not just put them on a shelf for using “one day in the future”. You may find that you have stored what you need to eat, but you have no idea how to use it. Why try unfamiliar recipes in a time of stress? We have everything to gain by including delicious food storage meals in our everyday diets. It’s really not that hard.

What Are Those Basic Items?

These simple to obtain and easy on the budget items that will sustain basic needs. Their shelf life is greatly extended when they are stored properly. With these items you will be able to:

Make bread and pancakes or waffles, rehydrate and use apple slices (or other fruit) in cooking and make a hearty soup using beans, rice, or pasta.

So start collecting some recipes that you family will love and begin using your basic food storage at least once a week.

These resources have a ton of recipe ideas for you to use. Each link is a downloadable .pdf file that you can add to your preparedness resource library.

BUT – don’t just download and forget about them. Pick a group of recipes and start making them for your family.

Cooking With Food Storage by Utah State University

We eat the same main dishes about 80% of the time because of taste, habit, awareness,familiarity, etc. Using your food storage can be as simple as creating a list of dishes eaten andliked by your family. The created list should be at least 10-20 dishes long.

Which of the dishes could include the addition of basic food storage items? Make smalladjustments to recipes and increase changes as taste preference allows.For example:

• // Meat Loaf – Add rice and/or wheat berries and/or dry beans.
• // Chili – Add wheat and/or rice.
• // Tuna Noodle Casserole – Add wheat.
• // Stroganoff – Serve over rice. Add wheat berries to the sauce.
• // Hamburger Macaroni – Add dry beans.
• // Stuffed Green Peppers – Add rice and/or wheat.

For best results:
Choose familiar recipes your family likes. Avoid creating abnormal dishes. The further from a “normal” dish the recipe becomes the greater the chance the dish will be rejected and considered undesirable. Add new dishes and recipes to the master menu which uses basic storage. Make a conscious effort to use the master menu and basic storage items that you identified. Start out slowly to avoid gastrointestinal problems

New Ideas for Cooking With Basic Food Storage

REFRIED BEANS (from pinto beans)
Fill a crockpot with pinto beans (sorted and rinsed). Fill with water until ¾ full. Cook beans until tender. Add more water if needed. Takes approximately 4 hours on high. In a sauce pan cook
1 clove garlic and 1 small onion in 1 tbsp. of shortening or oil. Add beans, mashed. Add oregano and salt to taste. Can be frozen

Food Storage Cooking School byRebecca Low andDeloy Hendricks of Utah State University

Creole Beef and Rice –8 Servings
¼ pound country sausage
¼ pound ground beef
1 cup celery, chopped (about 1-2 stalks)
1 onion, chopped
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning, more or lessto taste
1 ½ cups uncooked white rice
2 14 oz. cans canned stewed tomatoes
1 12 ounces vegetable juice, spicy
1 ½ cups frozen okra (optional)
Brown meat with onion, celery, and Cajun seasoning, stir frequently. Add remaining ingredients. Add 1 cup water. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20-30 minutes.

Preparedness Nibbles & Bits

Has a different version of New Ideas for Cooking with Basic Food Storage on their website.

Are you ready to get started? The Kitchen has instructions for starting a basic food storage plan for $10 per week. What do you have to lose?

Jamie Cooks It Up!

This website isn’t necessarily prepping-based, but the particular article I want to focus on features 40 different recipes made especially for people who want to store food long term. I like the fact that a non-prepper cook puts all of their heart into crafting a comprehensive list of long-term food storage recipes.

It also shows that you don’t necessarily need to be into prepping for a long time and still see why it could be necessary. Personally, I really like the idea of more people finding out about prepping culture. Not because I want it to become a trend, but because I want to know that more and more of my fellow people will be alright in case of a disaster.

USDA Nutrition.Gov

One thing that just about anyone can appreciate about the U.S. Department of Agriculture is their effort to provide people with nutritious recipes. If you go to the link mentioned in this heading, you will see a list of valuable recipes for every type of person and every type of budget.

You’ll find recipes for children, for people looking for gluten-free diets, healthy meals, cheap meals, and just about everything in between.

County of Barnstable, Massachusetts

Thanks to the recent pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, more and more people have been wondering how to cook at home, and how to do it for the long-term. Fortunately, another authority figure from our country has thought about creating a resource page for this reason exactly.

Not only that, but you’ll also find resources regarding proper food disinfection, how to wash different types of foods, canning and preserving instructions, foods without gluten and how to cook them, plus diet-friendly foods, and much more.

Love Food, Hate Waste – A to Z Food Storage

This wonderful little website has storage methods for just about every type of food you can find out there. That’s it. That’s the whole gist of things. Do you want to know how to store an apple? You can find it there. Same goes for meat, vegetables, and so forth.