How To Incorporate Food Storage Into Everyday Life
So, you’ve got an emergency food supply in place, or you’re doing the research in order to find the best emergency food supply out there—good for you! We’re impressed that you’re making moves to prepare for the unexpected and have that integral piece of security in place in case of an emergency. There are a lot of benefits to having emergency food storage, but they don’t end with that reassuring feeling of peace you get when you see your neatly stacked buckets of freeze-dried food.
If you’re doing your emergency food storage correctly, you’re likely on top of rotating supplies so that the oldest items remain at the front. It’s a key way to ensure none of your food storage (or time or energy or money put into it) goes to waste. But did you know it’s also a great way to supplement your pantry supplies, cut down on your grocery bill, save time, and relieve stress before a “true” emergency ever really strikes?
With a large store of emergency food or an emergency food supply kit that is meant to last for decades, it is important to know how to incorporate your food storage into everyday meals and take advantage of all those extra benefits! Here are some of our favorite tips for how to incorporate your food storage to get you started.
The Best Hacks For Incorporating Your Emergency Food Supply
While it may not be the natural disaster you were assuming you’d need your emergency food supply for, many of us find ourselves feeling the pressure of increased grocery bills, record inflation, and needing to make a dollar stretch in any way we can. This can absolutely be classified as a food storage moment! There are plenty of ways to get creative and figure out how to incorporate your food storage into everyday life to ensure it doesn’t go to waste if it’s nearing its expiration date, or—even if it’s nowhere near its expiration date—to ensure that you’re receiving the full benefits of having it around.
Keep A Food Storage Inventory
One of the best ways to improve your food storage is to actually know what’s going on with it! Keeping track of how much you have of individual items, expiration dates, and which foods or meals your family likes best will help you maintain a sense of control over your food storage, not to mention make it easier to replace what needs replenishing, reduce the possibility of sickness from eating something out of date, and lessen fears of the unknown.
Don’t Limit Yourself To Hard To Use Ingredients
Hey, it’s only logical that if you don’t know how to grind your own wheat properly and then use it effectively now, you’re not going to suddenly know how to do it in an emergency. One great way to incorporate food storage into your less emergency-like situations is to invest in prepared meals that take very little time or effort to whip up. That way, in the event that everyone is exhausted after work or you just don’t seem to have anything in the fridge, high quality and delicious freeze-dried meals can be ready in minutes and the whole family will love it.
Buy Mostly Items You Know Your Family Eats Regularly
We may say this often, but for good reason—do not believe the food storage myth that your family should have to eat poorly just because it’s an emergency! Feeding your bodies and minds with high-quality, nutritious food may become even more important in a crisis, so stock up on what your family loves and fuel them the right way. This also makes it easier to ensure that items like peanut butter, pancake mix, and canned tuna get used as they near their expiration dates without complaint. Hello stress-free food storage rotation!
Practice Preparing Your Food Storage
Most modern food storage options are fairly simple to prepare, especially quality freeze-dried emergency foods. But that doesn’t mean the first time you prepare it should be at the height of a stressful situation when there are no other options available. Get familiar with how much water is needed, boiling times, and even play around with new recipes (see more on that below!) in order to make sure you can provide nourishing and well-prepared meals for your family when you need to. Plus read more about how to best cook your food storage here!
Understand The Nature Of Freeze-Dried Foods
Many people incorporate long-lasting freeze-dried foods into their emergency food supplies so knowing how freeze-dried foods are made will help you understand your food options that much better. Freeze-drying is different from a simple dehydration process in that it removes anywhere from 4 to 14% more liquid and, because the liquid being removed moves directly from a solid to gaseous state in the sublimation process, freeze-dried foods maintain much of their original flavor, texture, color, and YES—nutrient load, once rehydrated. It also gives them their tantalizing crunch!
Try Adding Food Storage Items When You Cook
Cooking dinner can become easier when you take into account the vast resources you have available in your food storage. Whether it’s grabbing some freeze-dried veggies to make your soup preparation go much faster or dipping into your rice storage for fajita night, using food storage in your weekly menu doesn’t have to be seen as cheating. Instead, it’s providing your family with what you need today. Just ensure that you are working to replenish your long-term storage as needed!
Use Food Storage Items In Baking
Another great tip for how to incorporate your food storage is to use it in baked goods. Are you a summer canner? Use one of those delicious jars of peaches for a cobbler in a pinch. Have some freeze-dried chicken in your emergency food supply? It’s perfect for chicken pot pies, and no one will be able to tell it’s not fresh.
Bring Food Storage Along As You Adventure
One of our favorite food storage hacks and a great way to incorporate your food storage is to take it with you when you’re enjoying the outdoors, particularly when you’re adventuring. Many forms of food storage (our favorites are freeze-dried meals and fruit) are an excellent and light-weight way to fuel your backpacking, hiking, snowmobiling, fishing, and camping trips. Dinners and snacks are covered with hardly any dent in your weight limit and without tons of preparation equipment.
Keep Food Storage Items In Less Obvious Emergency Places
Speaking of leaving the house, another way to use food storage is to make sure you have some in unexpected places. Do you have a lake house? Make sure you’ve got a food supply properly stored there in case of a sudden storm you didn’t pack for. Keep some food storage in the car for snowstorm situations or even just ornery road-tripping kiddos (and adults). Think about where you spend any decent amount of time, and keep a little food storage there. Emergencies don’t just happen when you’re safe at home!
Implement A Food Storage Night
Whether your family decides that once a month is sufficient or once a week would be better to curb food storage cravings, use some of your emergency food supply by indulging in a beloved food storage-exclusive meal every so often. You can make an occasion of it which may help ease the stress surrounding food storage and ensure that your family has the chance to associate positive memories with its use.
Follow Hibernate’s Instagram For More Ideas On How To Incorporate Food Storage
One of the best food storage hacks out there? Make friends (in real life or on social media) with clever people who can help expand your food storage-utilization repertoire and offer trustworthy ideas for how to incorporate your food storage into everyday life. For instance, Hibernate’s Instagram feed is full of easy food storage challenges, important information like how much food you’ll need to feed your family in an emergency, and tons of delicious recipe ideas that incorporate food storage into your daily menus.
Our Favorite Emergency Food Storage Meal Combinations
Need a few more ideas on how to incorporate your food storage into realistic meals, even when you’re not under zombie attack? Check out some of our favorite emergency food storage meal combinations that are quick, nutritious, and perfect for planning ahead or falling back on in a pinch!
Rotisserie Chicken & Creamy Potato Soup
Rushing home from work knowing there won’t be time to make dinner but still have to feed the family? Why not grab a hot rotisserie chicken at the grocery store and then hustle home to quickly whip up a side of Hibernate’s Creamy Potato Soup for a complete, nutritious, and homey meal the entire family will enjoy.
Freeze-Dried Fruit Smoothie
If you’ve got a smoothie-loving bunch but don’t always have frozen or fresh fruit around, substitute freeze-dried fruit from Hibernate for an extra kick of nutrient-packed flavor! We love a greek yogurt-based smoothie, flavored with a handful of berries, sweetened with a tiny bit of agave, and blitzed with plenty of ice! Bonus if you add a little spinach or kale for a flavorless but vitamin-loaded boost.
Spinach Pancakes
Another favorite spinach recipe, even easier than the last? Blitz up several handfuls of fresh or a couple tablespoons of freeze-dried spinach and add it, along with a very small amount of extra liquid, to your premade Hibernate Buttermilk Pancake Mix for a nutritious and speedy breakfast. Trust us, the kids will love that they’re green, the spinach is virtually flavorless in this tasty food storage recipe, and it’ll be the quickest way to go from bleary-eyed morning frustration to bright-eyed and nourished satisfaction.
Spaghetti Marinara & Bagged Salad
You’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t love a classic spaghetti dinner, complete with french bread and a side salad. But sometimes, you don’t don’t have the time to bring it all to life from scratch! And that’s where one more pit stop at the grocery store for a loaf of french bread and a pre-made salad mix comes in, alongside a hearty plate of Hibernate’s Spaghetti Marinara, of course. Have one in your family who isn’t in the spaghetti-loving majority? Swap out the spaghetti for any one of the other nutritious and delicious meals in Hibernate’s 6-Month Premium Food Supply!
Pumpkin Spice Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal
One more favorite food storage breakfast go-to—especially in the fall, but delicious any time of year—is our flavor-packed pumpkin spice oatmeal. Simply add a hearty spoonful of canned pumpkin and a shake of pumpkin spice to Hibernate’s Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal to really bring all the fall feelings (plus a whole lot of fiber, protein, and vitamins and minerals) to the table.
Stop Procrastinating Your Emergency Food Preparation
If you’ve been thinking that having food storage around simply waiting for the worst to happen isn’t something you need to worry about—think again. Because even if 25 years were to go by without a massive disaster striking your household (thank goodness!), you still deserve the benefits of investing in nutritious and easy-to-prepare food for your family on a daily basis. Even following some of these easy tips on how to incorporate your food storage into regular life situations can allow you to save time and money, cut down on waste, ease stress, and keep things interesting in the pantry.
Ready to get started with your own food storage? There’s no better place to start than with Hibernate’s 6-Month Premium Food Supply! It contains several of the meals and sides mentioned above and is the perfect way to provide 25+ years of food insurance for your family, or a convenient way to contribute to easier meal prep and a variety of nutritious meals for your family today!