In Review: Food Storage Preparedness Night

I know it's been a while since we had our Food Storage Preparation class with Karen Wilkinson, but I'm finally getting around to blogging about it. (Good things come to those who wait!) :) Anyway, the class was fantastic!! A big thanks goes out to Janine and the Provident Living committee for getting that put together for us! I wasn't able to take notes on the information and I had to leave a bit early to get a baby to bed, but you will get all the information I can remember (and anyone who wants to add their two cents worth of memory, please leave a comment or email me and I'll update it!). So anyway, here's some of the highlights of the evening as remembered by some of the sisters...

First, Deena is super excited to know that you can wax cheese and can beef. [And adding my thoughts to this, I thought it was super cool that when you wax cheese, you can store it at essentially room temperature (I think it may have been more like 65 degrees) for several years! And you can reuse the wax! That being said, I sense a fun enrichment activity opportunity! :)]

And then, Robin recalls that her "favorite things were her [Karen] stressing that it is a food SUPPLY, not food storage. That turns the whole idea into using and rotating the food... it's an action, not buy it and forget it. We need to rethink our purchases and what we will actually eat. Didn't we find that out after Hurricane Ike? I didn't want to eat the food that I had purchased [and stored]. I wanted "Good Stuff". So, we need to store REAL food... food that we actually eat. That is what we want in times of stress. "Good Stuff". "

And my personal inspirations from the night were:

-That we need to dedicate a space in our home to our food supply. The more centralized the food is, the more functional our system will be (and the more likely we'll be to use it). Granted, we don't all have a whole room we can dedicate to this, but do what you can! (We're working on turning half of our master closet and a third of our office/sewing/craft room into dedicated food supply space.)

-And our food supply should just be a years worth extension of what we've already got in our pantry. The concept that made it easy in my mind was simply this: make a rough outline of one month's worth of meals in your home. (i.e. we have pizza twice a month, beef stroganoff once, spaghetti twice, etc...) When you've got that outline, simply multiply each menu/recipe quantity by 12 (for twelve months) and write down what ingredients that would entail (so, if you have spaghetti twice a month, multiply 2 x 12 = 24 and you need 24 recipe's worth of ingredients to last the year). Then just work on getting those ingredients over the next couple months or so (a little here and a little there... or take one recipe per month and get a year supply of it during that month) and walah! Before you know it, you've got a year supply of meals! (Don't forget breakfast and lunch too!) The beauty of this is that once you've got your "year pantry" stocked, you're back to shopping as usual. Once you use something, add it to the grocery list, restock what you've used and you're always keeping one year's worth of everyday food on hand. Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

-Also, our food supply should not be an afterthought that we spend money toward after we have our hair done and our nails done and the latest Wii video games purchased for our kids, etc. It should come before all that and probably right after our tithing (and bills)! It needs to be a priority! Karen pointed out that we, here in America, live with this little idea in our heads that the stores will always have food in them. That will not always be the case. She commented that 'we are not far from the time when we will have to live off of what's in our house.' That struck home with me. Especially when she commented that 'if we (the adults/parents) want to live off of rice and beans for a year, that's our right to choose. But we don't have the right to choose that for our children and force it on them'. We have a responsibility to provide them with healthy, nutritious food that they can and will eat. The thought of my little girls starving and possibly dying because I failed to "store" anything but wheat, rice, and beans really tugged at my conscience. (And if you think you can survive a whole year on just those things, check out her blog, Kneadful Things Now, for information on appetite fatigue. Also consider that young children can develop an intolerance to wheat/gluten if they eat too much and therefore won't be able to eat it anymore.) Needless to say, my idea of food storage has taken a big turn.

Okay. This has gotten really long. Sorry. :) I'm wrapping up. I promise! :)

So, the idea of all this is not to scare us into action (although if that's what it takes, then so be it). The idea is to make us knowledgeable of what will and will not work when the time comes that the prophets have been talking and warning us about and for us to get our homes in order. (We have prophets for a reason!) If you want to think of it like this, Karen made a comment to the effect of that when the time comes that we'll be living on our food supply, 'if you want to be surviving on beans and rice, go ahead. I will be enjoying a nice pizza.' (Doesn't that sound so much better?!) It doesn't take much work, just a little bit of preparation and go-to power.

Anyway, take this info for what it's worth to you and do as you are directed by the Spirit.

And on that note... I'm done. :) We love you, Sisters!

The Wonderful World of BEANS--Part 2

To sum up Thursday's Tasters Table in a word: Wow. Or maybe: Yum. Or Amazing. Inspirational. Life Changing. Okay, well that's two words... but seriously, it was fabulous! A special thanks goes out to Robin and the Provident Living Committee for putting that together. Who would have ever thought that beans could produce such a tasty array of food?? We had fudge (my personal favorite), brownies, chocolate chip cookies, an amazingly delicious dip, soup, a spice cake... have I forgotten anything?... all made from beans! I left the evening a converted believer in the power of beans. And of course, I woke up the next morning a truly converted believer in the REAL power of beans! :) That being said... a word to the wise: Start Slow. 

As part of the evening, we discussed some of the Pros and Cons to the world of beans.

The Pros are so numerous: Beans aid in weight loss (enough said! Where do I sign up?!) because they fill you up; reduce the risk of certain cancers (pancreas, colon, breast, prostate, and intestinal); lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol (they have no cholesterol in them); lower the risk of heart disease; they are an excellent source of low-fat protein; they make a whole protein if eaten with grains, dairy, nuts or meat in same day; they lower your blood pressure by relaxing the arteries and veins; and finally they are high in B Vitamins, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Wow.

The Cons? Gas. This one stinkin' (no pun intended) con is often a big enough deterrent to keep us from enjoying all the benefits beans have to offer. I will be the first to admit, as I mentioned before, I woke up the next morning after our activity with quite the rumbly tummy. Beans are rarely a part of my daily caloric intake, so my body did not respond positively to the sudden overload. But I'm determined to change that. And so, some of the ways we discussed to thwart the harsh effects beans can have on our digestive systems are:

1) Start slow in your conversion process. Don't just change your whole diet overnight. Allow your body some time to adjust to the effects beans will have on it, and hopefully soon your body will be able to keep up with all the beans you want! :)

2) Eat canned beans, or soak beans and pour off the water (add fresh water to cook), or pressure cook the beans.

and 3) Add Bean-O to the top of your shopping list. It is apparently quite effective. You can get it as a pill (take one before eating), or a liquid (and a drop... or a few... to your first bite). 

Or I guess there's a fourth option too...

Well, I am devoting this month to beans. For those of you who weren't able to join us, I will be trying out the recipes we received throughout the month and will post the finished results (along with the recipe) so that you can all enjoy them as well.

Preach The Gospel

We were treated to a wonderful lesson today in Relief Society from Sis. Cobb. A big "thank you" to her! The lesson was on preaching the gospel and sharing the Good News. Her "marker moment" (as she calls it) :) was from page 331 of the Joseph Smith manual... "If there are any doors open for the Elders to preach the first principles of the gospel, let them not keep silence." Let's all look for opportunities in which we can be member missionaries and pray for them as well. And then, when the Spirit prompts us to open our mouth, let us not keep silent!

Our lesson for next week is #29 from the Joseph Smith manual... "Living with Others in Peace and Harmony".

Have a great week, Sisters!

Visiting Teaching Workshop Recap

Today was our Visiting Teaching Workshop. The theme was "Nourishing His Flowers" and it was fabulous. For those who weren't able to make it, here's a little recap of what was talked about...

Sis. Kim Colbert: Each sister is in a different place and circumstance in life. We may be feeling lonely, depressed, overwhelmed, anxious or stressed, but we need never feel like we are in this world alone. As a visiting teacher, we are able to help others in their times of need and others can help you in your time of need. It may be inconvenient and not an easy thing, but we are asked to serve in this capacity. You never know where a new friend is hiding. It just may be that sister you've been assigned to teach.

Sis. May Carrillo: Visiting Teaching 101... Some quidelines: 1) If you feel like you are maybe struggling with your visiting teaching, try praying more about it. 2) The responsibility of the Visiting Teacher: Visiting Teachers provide watchcare for their sisters. Watchcare is more than a brief visit or a pleasant conversation. It is caring for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the sisters and their families. 3) If you find it difficult or near impossible to make a home visit, remember that your contact may be via a phone call, email, or letter. So, a tip from May: get your visiting teachees email addresses and cell phone numbers... especially if they are going to be out of town. (And she adds... if they won't give them to you, then you're not doing a very good job! :) Make sure they trust you as a visiting teacher.)

Bishop Ellsworth: There are going to be challenges in our lives. This year may be much more difficult than the last. Please watch over the sisters you are called to teach and make sure their needs are being met. Also, please remember that the Lord will never give us a challenge that we are unable to meet. Remember that prayer is our way to communicate with the Lord and receive personal revelation from Him. When we are facing hard times and challenges, please remember to be humble enough to get down on your knees and pray.

We love you sisters! Let's all make the resolve to do our visiting teaching 100%! Let's help the Lord to nourish His flowers as we work to take care of each other.