I know I’m not the only one who’s been feeling the tug of “get your year supply in order!” It seems like that prompting has only been getting stronger since I first felt it over a year ago. I tried a few different approaches. First, I planned 30 meals and figured out how much food it would take to make each meal 12 times. That resulted in a pretty good plan, until I became a better cook and the ingredients soon became obsolete. Then, I stumbled upon OAMC or Freezer Cooking and thought I could just rotate out meals and build up a years worth of entrees. It sounded alright, until 3 months in I figured out that the big dogs use preservatives in their frozen foods for a reason. heh.

So, we all know we’re supposed to have a year-supply, but the “HOW do I know when I’ve got a year’s worth of food?” is always a hang up.

Which is why I just have to tell you about this cool new tool I found that got me and C all planned out [calorie counts included] during one single family night. We even had time to make a plan for our 72-hour kits.

Introducing:

The Custom Food Storage Calculator

You seriously go there, input each member of your family including their daily caloric intake, input some basic preferences and it spits out a complete food-storage plan, in POUNDS.

The plan being in POUNDS is important, I’ll tell you why.

A lot of food storage places will calculate how much of each food item you need in #10 cans, or other obscure measurements specific to their products in an effort to monopolize your business. Shelf Reliance gives you information in pounds so you have the ability to purchase the raw ingredients from other places when they go on sale, because honestly, I don’t have $4,000 extra to spend on food that’s going to be in #10 cans. I do, however, have extra money in my grocery budget every month that could easily go toward extra flour, rice, beans, bottled water, etc. that are in usable containers so I know the food won’t be wasted.

Check it out. I promise, it’s worth all 45 minutes it takes.

How’s your food storage lookin’? Any tips/tricks for the rest of us?

The meals in our freezer are dwindling, which means it must be time for OAMC! I’m hoping to have my major cooking day on Saturday, but it may get pushed to Monday, so my mom can help. She’ll be in town all week! I’m so excited to see her!

Our month is going to cost next to nothing because I already have about 10 pounds of chicken and 4 pounds of ground beef that I found on sale last month. I also found dry milk on sale at Smiths for a dollar, so I bought 6. Now I can afford to buy dehydrated fruit for the oatmeal! I can’t wait.

Here’s what’s going down:

Dinners

• Buffalo Chicken Pizza
• Stuffed Hamburgers [Jalapeno Cheddar this time.]
• Italian Chicken Rolls
• Lasagna
• Taco Salad
• Cream Cheese Chicken
• Sweet & Sour Chicken Bowls
• Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches
• Chicken Enchiladas
• Tamale Pie
• Pineapple Chicken
• Macaroni Chicken Bake
• Divine Crock Pot Chicken
• Teriyaki Stir Fry

Sides

• Crystal’s Butterhorns

Lunches

• Brown Bag Burritos

Breakfast

• Instant Oatmeal

Need some recipes? Check out my Recipes page!

Note: I’ve also had requests to come see a Freezer Cooking day in action. I’m happy to open up my kitchen to those who are interested. Contact me for more information.

Leave a comment with a recipe you’d like to see. I’ll post a recipe as soon as it receives 5 votes!

No, really. C actually grilled the burger like that. Impressive, eh?

These burgers were a brand new recipe for us, but we’re 100% sold after just 1 bite! I’m excited to try different combinations of fillings.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of ground beef
• 1 T. oil
• an onion
• 1/2 c. sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 c. parmesan cheese

The How-to:

1. Make 10 super thin patties out of 1 pound of ground beef and lay them on a cookie sheet
2. Sautee the mushrooms and onion in the oil until onions are translucent and everything smells awesome.
3. Throw in the cheese until it’s melty
4. Spread equal amounts of the mixture on the 10 patties
5. Cover the patties with another layer of ground beef
6. Freeze uncovered for an hour, then bag

On Cooking Day:

1. No need to thaw, just throw these on the grill!

Alternative Fillings we’re planning on trying: Jalapeno Cheddar, Bacon & Cheese, and Mushroom & Swiss. If you come up with any other ideas, I’d love to hear ‘em!

This recipe has been C’s favorite since the very first time I ever made it. It used to be the meal we ate on the major cooking day, but since converting it to a freezer cooking recipe, we can have it whenever we want!

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, cooked & cubed
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup [we also like this with cream of chicken. depends on what we have on hand most of the time!]
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cups crushed Ritz crackers
• 3 tablespoons melted butter or margarine [margarine kind of makes the crackers soggy, but it's up to you!]
• 1 heaping tablespoon poppy seeds

The How-to:

• Put chicken in the bottom of a casserole dish
• Mix soup & sour cream; spread over the chicken
• Combine crackers, poppy seeds, and melted butter in a zip lock and mix
• Spread cracker mixture over the sour cream & soup
• Cover & freeze!

On Cooking Day:

• Thaw
• Bake at 375 degrees [uncovered] for 30 minutes

C helped me with OAMC this weekend! It was wonderful to not be alone in the kitchen all day. Happy Saturday to me! We only had 16 meals to make and I grossly miscalculated how much chicken we already had, and so we’re left with an extra Costco bag for next month. True to form, I definitely modified almost every recipe from the cookbooks I told you about in my plan. So stay tuned for my version of these delicious freezer meals!

We made:

• 2 Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches* [Homemade BBQ sauce that made our mouths water every time we opened the crock pot to stir it. YUM!]
• 2 Chicken-Asparagus Pot Pies [More on this later.]
• 2 Poppyseed Chicken [YES. C's favorite dish gone freezer style. I was giddy when I figured out this could be frozen!]
• 2 Italian Chicken Rolls*
• 2 Cheese Mushroom Burgers* [Really excited to try different combinations of fillings for these! Jalapenos are next on our list!]
• 3 Lemon Chicken Marinades*
• 2 Souvlaki Marinated Skewers
• 1 Buffalo Chicken Pizza*
• Homemade Refried Beans*
• Homemade Baked Beans
• Lemon-Dill Rice Mixes*
• and 20 Whole Wheat Brown Bag Burros

We finished in just a couple hours so we decided to go ahead and make up the salsas we’d planned for Sunday. Holy Cow they’re INCREDIBLE. We like things spicy! These salsas are about a 5 on a 1-8 scale. [The book's scale, not mine. Who makes a scale up to 8? Really.]

• Tomatillo Salsa Verde
• Salsa Mexicana

Still to make:

• Blackberry Jam [Got a good recipe that uses Sure Jell? Please send it my way!]
• Strawberry Jam [These were on sale $4.44 for 5 lbs. Jam time it is!]

The [*] indicates that the recipe will be up soon! I realize that almost the whole list is marked, but the [*] is more for my own notes than anything else. I have to remember what I promise! If you see one you’d LOVE the recipe to that isn’t starred, just let me know in the comments and I’ll add it to the list. The starred ones are just my favorites for now. If you need more ideas for OAMC recipes, be sure to check out my recipes page!

Also, be sure to come visit later this week for a series on realistic money management and a Dave Ramsey giveaway!