Free Giveaway

I just wanted to tell you about a giveaway I'm doing on my fitness blog. It's for a "Super-Healthy-Kids" plate and if you are a mom who cares about getting their kids to eat more healthy, you should enter this drawing! It's simple. Just leave a comment and next Friday, I'll be announcing the winner! 

Food Storage

So I get on here and see everybody's great ideas and always think, "I wish I had something cool to share." And today a friend called to get some info about Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness--so I thought I'd add the info she called about. Maybe it will be useful to someone else too!

Food Storage Rotation Poster:

On the front of each pocket is a list of items (I added the amount I wanted to have of that item to complete a year supply). Inside each pocket is a slip with the differnt item names on it. Each time you take something from your storage you pull the corresponding slip and put it in the "Re-stock" pocket. Then on shopping day, you pull all the slips and buy those items. This way you always keep your supply up ot know what you need when the sales come! You can email me for the excel file that has the pocket labels.

72 Hour Food Kits:

We put together these bags of food for 72 kits. Sealing them in the milar? bags extends the shelf life another 5 years so you don't have to rotate your food every year. In one bag we were able to fit three days of food minus the water. We had to make sure to get self opening cans so we didn't have to worry about can opener too. We taped the menu to the front so who ever was eating knew what food was intended for what meal. You can get the bags from the cannery for $.33 each and check out the sealing machine for free.

Apple Box Reflector Ovens:

These ovens can be used to cook bread, cookies, just about anything! These can be used for camping, when the power goes out or just for fun!

You take one half of an apple box and completely cover it in heavy duty aluminum foil. You either have to make sure your tape is between the box and foil and none is exposed (or it will catch on fire) or you can use metal tape (not duct tape) from a hardware store.

When using the box oven you put down foil (shiny side up) on the ground and then use empty pop cans or empty cans on the corners of the foil to place your cooling rack on. Make sure it's level. Use a charol starter to get briquettes ready (briquettes are ready when a white dime size sopt appears on them) and then put them on the foil between the foil and the rack. (One briquette equals approx. 35 degrees. To bake at 350 degrees you would need about 10 briquettes. More on cool or windy days.) Use tongs to spread the briquettes out evenly on the foil between the cans and across the middle. Then preheat the oven by putting the box oven lid on and making sure one corner is propped up about 1" on a rock or something. Let stand for 5 minutes.

Then you lift the lid striaght off and place box facing down so the heat does not escape. Quickly place the food on the cooling rack and return the oven lid--do not tip lid. Replace the rock (or lid) in the corner. Briquettes burn for approx. 35-40 minutes. For longer cooking time you can add additional briquettes by slightly lifting the box and slipping them in with tongs. You can cook multiple batches of cookies with one set of briquettes.