Monday, March 1, 2010

Food Storage & Pantry Binder




I'm lazy with getting any pictures...but it's laid out like the one I shared in the links previously. I have a zippered binder, tabs, baseball sheets for coupons I don't know if I'll incorporate into it or not, and lots of notes and recipes.

We sorted through 45 meals we tend to eat around here. LOL...and here I was thinking I'd struggle with getting even 30!  After gathering a list of main dishes, I pulled recipes for all the meals and copied them...stupidly, just gathered onto notebook paper. No rhyme or reason. No organization into meats or the like. Just written as I pulled them from recipe files here, cookbooks, and of course, the Kitchen Blog.
Like I said, I'll kick myself for this. Not right now, because my wrists are killing me from all the copying, but later I will. Remind me.

So far the binder goes like this:

First Tab:
Menu Listing for meals, our standard breakfasts, basic snacks.
I also have a copy of the Year's Storage on $5 a Week list
And the monthly storage plan from various LDS sites.
I'll glean what I need from these lists as we build the storage back up, and make my notes as I go along.
I also have several copies of the Weekly and Monthly Menu sheets, and the Inventory sheets.

Tab 2:
Shelf Life sheets
a Supply Table sheet from the LDS ebook
a listing of emergency supplies, bartering items, etc. That we have/will store. Part of this is the list of the Top 100 Things to be in short supply in an emergency from a survival list.

Tab 3:
A seed list -- heirloom varieties
The LDS Master Food List/Long Term Storage
A Year's Supply per peron listing to give me a rule of thumb

Tab 4:
This starts the larger section right now. I printed the pages from the LDS ebook that pertain to each storage group (Dairy, Butters, Cheeses, Eggs, Sugar Honey and Sweeteners, Fats and Oils, Baking Powder, Soda, Salt, Vinegar, Yeast, Grains and Legumes, etc). These pages discuss the varieties available, how to best store each, etc.

Tab 5:
Cleaners & Household Recipes
Like the many uses for baking soda, vinegar, and so forth

Tab 6:
Water Treatment pages

Tab 7:
Herbal Medicines & Notes

Tab 8:
The Master Recipe Listing
...which I will go back through and work up differently for easier locating of recipes :o). Do they make pocket pages for recipe cards?  Hmmm...

See what I mean?  I'm a bit haphazard at this point, but I've gathered things I want to keep at hand and have done some very generalized categorizing.

I'll be sorting recipes and making a master listing for shopping amounts, then looking at the freezer and pantry stock currently. With the large menu listing, doubling makes 3 months, so very simple to plan that, or even a 6 month supply. Plus you have all the 'special' or 'traditional' meals around birthdays and holidays.

I'm not nearly as overwhelmed at the idea as I was just thinking about doing this. I just needed to START :o)

LOL...can you imagine if I got down and dirty serious with yearly school planning again???

2 comments:

Greg and Donna said...

Deanna, You can get plastic pocket pages for your recipe cards at office supply stores. Mine came from Staples. Hallmark has some but they are for the smaller binders, not a regular size 3 ring notebook. I am trying to make a "family" cookbook that contains recipes that we love from all my cookbooks. Putting them into one location will make it easier for the girls to find and help. Actually, I just came up with a blogpost! Recipe books!

Momzoo said...

Having a binder is a good idea. I get overwhelemed trying to keep track of it all. :)

Jer.6:16

Jeremiah 6:16
Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.

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