Smaller Bites

Marla in Utah offers the following idea for planning 3-month storage meals:

Smaller Bites

The best way to get started on your food storage meal plan is to break it down into smaller "bites." To build a three-month supply, a family chooses 10 breakfasts, 10 lunches, and 10 dinners that they really like to eat and which contain ingredients that store in cans, bottles, packaged boxes, or the fridge/freezer.

Once the meals are chosen, it's time to make a shopping list for the ingredients and multiply the items by what would be needed to make each meal ten times.

For example, I've chosen a meal called "Stuffing Dinner with Gravy" for one of our dinners. The recipe is simple and easy and includes the following:

1 family sized box of stuffing, chicken flavor
12.5 oz. can (or equivalent freeze-dried) chicken breast
15 oz. can, drained (or equivalent freeze-dried) corn
2 packets chicken gravy

Follow instructions on stuffing package for water and butter. Add chicken and corn. When boiling, add stuffing. Mix and stir until just combined. Put on lid and turn off stove. Let sit 5 minutes. Remove lid and fluff. Serve with gravy.

I would also serve this dinner with a canned or freeze-dried fruit like mandarin oranges or peach dices. So, my shopping list for this meal would look like this:

Chicken flavored stuffing mix (10)
12.5 oz canned or freeze-dried chicken breast (10)
15 oz. can or freeze-dried corn (10)
Chicken gravy packets (20)
Canned or freeze-dried fruit (10)


Some ideas for breakfast are: pancakes and syrup, muffins, toast and jam, cold cereal with milk, oatmeal with brown sugar. Some ideas for lunch are: chicken noodle soup with crackers and pineapple chunks, ramen noodles and mandarin oranges, tuna sandwiches and pickles, peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, chili with cornbread.


Just as in my shopping list example above, I would break down the ingredients for each meal chosen and multiply by 10 to buy what I would need to have a three-month supply for my family.

Just remember: 10 dinners, 10 lunches, 10 breakfasts...10 times each!

Another important category to account for is treats! Let's be honest, many of us love to enjoy a cookie or brownie once in awhile for dessert and if times were tough, a treat would really be appreciated! So, make sure to put some of those items in your plan as well and buy as much as your family tends to eat over a three month period.

What I really love about this plan is that it's VERY easy to rotate! Since we're eating the meals regularly, I'm re-buying the ingredients regularly and keeping my storage fresh.

I hope you Replace this as helpful as I have!