Open your fridge and pantry and take a look. Pretend that’s what you have to eat for the next two weeks.
Will you eat like a king, or go hungry?
If you’re groaning already at the thought of weird meals – or worse, no meals – for two weeks, it’s time to start on some food storage. Let’s discuss how to get to 30 days of meals for your household.
Please Note:
The contents of this article are my opinions only, and thus are not intended to be construed as food safety, personal health, or financial advice.
This article assumes you will rotate through your storage in 3 months. A future substack will discuss long term storage, as there are many factors to consider regarding food containers and shelf life of various foods longer term.
If you invest in food storage, make sure you’re using it up and replacing it so you don’t have to throw it out. Implement a “Last In First Out” system so you’re always using the oldest first.
Before you start collecting ingredients, let’s talk about different types of storage.
Freezers
A chest freezer is a vital tool for prepping because you can use it store plenty of meat, dairy, fruits and veggies that retain most of their original nutrients and flavor. Buy the largest freezer you can afford, or alternatively, buy 2 in case one breaks. If all you have is the fridge freezer, don’t worry; you should be able to store up to 60lbs of meat in an average sized one. If you’re storing large amounts of frozen food, buy a monitor as well that can alert you to low temperatures.
Most meat can be placed in the freezer in its store packaging, as long as you consume it within a few months. The less expensive hamburger that comes in tubes would likely be fine for 10 years in a freezer, as its all about how little air is in the packaging to dry out and damage the meat.
Alternatively, you can package your own bulk hamburger from a butcher store, and I’ve found red meat holds up very well for years wrapped in butcher paper. You can also add beef fat to your stores, as it is cheap and makes delicious tallow to bake and cook; it also beats bacon in both health and price.
For longer term storage of chicken and especially fish, you’ll want to use vacuum sealed bags that remove most of the air. However, this isn’t mandatory as long as you’re rotating your supplies every 3-4 weeks.
One-pound bricks of Costco butter are also a staple in my freezer. I like knowing that no matter how bad things get, I can count on homemade biscuits with butter, at least for a while.
A quick word on eggs: try to stay ahead of your consumption by at least 5 dozen. Be sure to rotate through them from oldest to newest, as they will last months in your fridge. This will help ensure you’re consuming the freshest eggs, while always maintaining a stash of reliable protein.
Canned Food
We don’t use much commercially canned food, because the process removes most of the nutrients, and I also suspect eating too much of it can cause illnesses down the road. Having said that, canned food is very convenient for tomato products, soups, milk for cooking, fruits, veggies and beans, so you should keep at least some of these on hand. You can also stock salsa, jelly, pickled foods, and any favorite condiments.
I’ll discuss home canning in a later substack.
Packaged Food
Most packaged food isn’t very tasty or healthy, and I personally try to avoid it since learning more about seed oils which is very often an ingredient. But certain items, like pasta, can be a force multiplier for your meals. Think spaghetti, macaroni, and buttered noodles as potential meal foundations.
There are other endless options for packaged food, such as pancake mix, mashed potatoes, brownies, biscuits and grits. Again, just keep in mind that many of these things can be made from other food storage in your home that will result in cheaper and tastier meals.
Dry Goods, Sugars & Oils
This is where you get the real bang for your buck. These are the base ingredients you’ll use to cook your carbohydrate staples, such as oatmeal, rice, beans, flour, and cornmeal. For long term storage these should be in food grade buckets, but if you’ll be consuming it within 6 months, just make sure it is in a cool, dark and dry place.
You’ll want to have your recipes ready to go so you can have other things available for making bread. At the very least, stock baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, honey, yeast, and coffee (if you drink it). There are many other items you could add to this list, such as cookie ingredients as you choose.
Olive oil is readily available from Costco, but the shelf life is measured in a few months. Ghee and coconut oil from Costco are also wonderful options.
Peanut and other nut butters are also a great high calorie snack to supplement lunches. Sad to say, but the more processed ones with hydrogenated oils added have a longer shelf life, so if you go with the natural peanut butter option you’ll need to consume it with in six months or so.
Breadmaking
Let’s touch on breadmaking briefly, which is a vital tool for optimizing home storage.
Quick breads are those that use baking powder or soda to rise, such as pancakes, cornbread, and biscuits. They’re easy to make, and a great way to have fresh food; it’s no wonder these have been a staple of sailors, soldiers, explorers, miners and cowboys for centuries.
Leavened breadmaking is something else to experiment with, which is a little more complex, but will yield a product vastly superior to what you will get at the supermarkets. A bread making machine can be a force multiplier for bread making option, as it will do almost everything for you. These often turn up at thrift stores or eBay.
Meal Planning
It is now time to plan 30 days of meals.
First, use this chart to calculate how many daily calories your family needs daily
Now, using only ingredients that can be stored dry, canned, or frozen (you may assume you have a few fresh eggs), start brainstorming meals. These constraints should give you the option to eat almost anything you want besides fresh salad. For reference, I’ve included a list of meal ideas at the end of the article, but those only scratch the surface of what is possible.
Generally, seven different meals for dinners and three or four breakfast/lunches is enough to avoid monotony. If you have the budget, plan one “fancy” dinner a week, such as a whole chicken or a roast.
While planning your meals, you’ll want dinners to consist of a carbohydrate mainstay (such as bread or rice), meat, and vegetables for flavor, nutrients, and added calories. Frozen fruit can be used for desserts or to flavor breakfasts.
With your menu, carefully calculate the amount of ingredients you need for each meal to ensure an adequate supply of calories for your household.
Start shopping for good sales, especially meat for the freezer. Don’t wait too long, because Summer 2022 is already looking sporting as far as food supplies.
Conclusion
I hope you see how easy it can be to create a full month of healthy and delicious meals. There is much more to talk about when it comes to food storage that I will be exploring in future substacks, such as pushing your food storage into multiple months and even years, but for now, I highly recommend you start with the steps outlined here.
List of Meal Ideas
Huevos Rancheros with rice and beans
Spaghetti
Taco Salad with rice and beans
Pork chops with cornbread, beans, and green beans
15 bean soup with pork chop bones and bacon
Chili with biscuits/bread/cornbread
Roast with biscuits and green beans
Beef Stew with bread
Chicken dumpling soup with bread
Canned soup with grilled cheese sandwiches
Buttered noodles
Burger steak with biscuits and carrots
Pancakes with bacon
Oatmeal with raisins, canned milk and butter
Biscuits and gravy with jelly
Waffles
Fresh bread with butter
Scrambled eggs with toast
30 Days of Home Food Storage
How do you track the shelf life of food so you know what needs to be rotated out or consumed? Excel is useful but it's a lot of data entry/updates.