The Stash

Back in May our Bishop challenged our whole ward to gather a three-month supply by the end of November. I thought it was a great thing and was totally on board. Then we got a little bit sidetracked:

• We spent the month of July looking for a place to live
• We used up most of August unpacking and dipped heavily into the food storage we already had
• We had a baby in September and thought little about, well, much of anything not related to the baby

Guess what? We're now a month away from the deadline. I've spent most of October making lists of meals we eat, reading recipes, recording how much of each ingredient we need for all the food items we would eat during a three-month span.

In truth, I've gone a little food storage batty.

This site has been particularly helpful, especially the Excel worksheet for tracking ingredients.

One of the biggest impediments to our gathering has been our lack of freezer space. We have what might possibly be the smallest freezer ever. It is attached to a full-size fridge (or so it appears, although the fridge is freakishly small as well), but it holds very little. Bryan and I have gone back and forth on the whole should-we-buy-a-bigger-freezer-to-stick-in-the-garage debate. For the moment I'm trying to figure out how to replace all the freezer items on our list with canned goods. It works alright for tortillas (once I finally buckle-down and learn how to make my own), but not so well for cheese. Or fish sticks. Or french fries. Or zucchini or broccoli. Any ideas?

I guess I have a few weeks to figure that out.