Making Sense of Food Storage

Let's talk food storage! I've been trying to get a handle on my food storage since.....forever! One of my favorite speakers I've ever heard talk about food storage is Wendy Dewitt. She has practical food storage suggestions that anyone can do based on what your family likes to eat. I don't know about you, but food storage has always seemed so overwhelming to me. So I would end up just buying stuff from the cannery with no idea what I would ever do with it, but knowing that I could say, I have something in my food storage. When I heard Wendy speak it was like a light bulb finally turned on and I realized that you had to have a plan and you had to store foods that you could make into meals and that your family would actually eat, I know common sense right? Anyway, I am including a link to some you tubes of classes she's done, now be warned they are just someone videoing a class they are not professionally video taped. And I also included a link to her blog post where she talks about her system. I hope it helps make food storage seem more attainable and logical.

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Easy Honey Storage

I love to use honey in recipes, but it never fails that not long after I open the container of honey it crystalizes. Well, I have a great solution. When you open your honey put it into glass canning jars, that way when it crystalizes, you can just throw it in your microwave and it will be as good as new!

Why you need to buy a FoodSaver!

Here's why I want you to grab that FoodSaver for $24.99 from my last post.

See this little beauty?

It's one of my all time favorite kitchen gadgets because it means that I can have chocolate in my food storage--yay!
But here's the problem, Foodsaver no longer manufactures the hand held vacuum sealer. So, the next option, which is a perfectly good option is the actual Big Foodsaver which comes with a little hose and does the exact same thing that my little vacuum sealer does. The problem is the high price (unless you can find one on e-bay or at the DI.)

You will need to purchase this little attachment
which runs about $6 and it comes in small mouth or wide mouth jar sizes.

This allows you to store (in mason jars) all kinds of great things that would normally go bad very quickly. Chocolate for example will last for years when vaccuum sealed. I've stored raisins and crackers and nuts. After you opon the jar, you can just reseal it with the same lid. You can also use it for refrigerated or frozen foods, but make sure you store those items in the refrigerator or freezer and NOT on your shelf and you will extend their life by at least double. This is not canning or pressure canning! You also, have to be super careful with any powdered items because they can really mess up your system, but if you want to vacuum seal sugar or cake mix, just be sure to put it in a plastic bag first and then vacuum seal it in the jar some people even put a coffee filter on top to be safe. I use mine for storing cheese, like parmesan which is soooo expensive but I can't use the big block fast enough. The possibilities are endless, but I LOVE mine!

70% off Foodsaver Kit

This is a great deal for a Foodsaver Kit !You'll want to snag this deal quickly before it's gone. Make sure you follow the directions correctly:

Go here (Foodsaver.com)
put Vacuum Sealer V2222 in your cart
Click Checkout, and you should see on the left side "You received free standard shipping"
next to the "You received free standard shipping" you should see "edit"
Click edit
Enter Promotion code LOFV7OA
You should see your total change from $79.99 to $24.00
Enter your credit card info. and You just got an awesome deal!

I want to get this deal up quick, so I'll post later about why I love this deal so much!

Thanks Hip 2 Save!

Food Storage--Pinto Beans

Just a little FYI. I was going to order pinto beans from the cannery this week and then decided to price check them before I ordered (we can only order from the cannery once a month.) I checked at Sams and they sell a 50lb bag of Pinto beans for $ .56 cents/lb and the cannery price is $ .82cents/lb. I'm not sure if prices vary at Sams and the cannery and of course, you have to consider that buying them at Sams means you have a great big bag of beans. I know that some canneries will let you "check out" the canner, buy the cans and take it home to can your own stuff. You could also store them in poly buckets. Anyway, I don't think anyone beats the cannery on milk and the potato flakes are awesome in homemade bread! I think I'll do a running price check between the cannery and Sam's and keep you posted. You can also check Sams prices on their website, just click the "click and pull" link.