Monday Food Storage Meal

A few years ago I was asked to be the Food Storage Specialist in my ward. I didn't know a lot about food storage but because of that assignment I learned. I learned why it was important to store food, how to store food and what things I needed to store. I don't have the money or the space to have a year's worth of food storage, but I do little things to stock up my pantry and freezer and try to do my best with what I have. The best food storage advice I've ever heard was, "When you run out of something, go out and buy two." I've been doing that and I have a pretty good supply of things my family likes to eat. Recently I've been wondering if I could go a month, a week, even a couple of days on what I have in my kitchen. Since my grocery day is on Tuesday I plan out my dinners for the week and then go shopping for everything, but I seem to always go to the store on Saturday to "get a couple extra things". I decided that I am not going to plan a meal for Mondays but instead only use what I have in my food storage. This Monday I did just that. I looked around for what I had: egg noodles, cream of mushroom soup, cheese, peas and carrots, chicken (sometimes when I buy meat I will cook it and then freeze it in 2 cup portions. Perfect for casseroles, soups, chili, tacos, etc.). I knew I could make Chicken Noodle casserole, but what about side dishes? I had some corn muffin mix so I made mini corn muffins the kids loved and canned peaches since we were out of everything for salad and the only fresh fruit we had was a brown banana and one apple. It was an easy meal to make, the kids liked it and I did it all with what I had on hand. If you want more food storage recipes, tips and ideas go to one of my favorite websites http://www.everydayfoodstorage.net.