I Can't Believe It's Food Storage: A Simple Step-by-Step Plan for Using Food Storage to Create Delicious Meals

Okay, first off, let me just say, the closest I ever came to food storage before 2009, was some basic home canning, cake mixes and preparing for hurricane season year after year. Can you say canned soup, spam and canned fruits, etc. :o)I ordered this book on January 6th, 1010, after searching online for about six months and getting frustrated, because I wanted to know -how- to use food storage, as well as what to store. I had clicked on different links and wound up on Crystal's website. I started searching & reading and loving her video tutorials and then after staying with her site for about 4 months I finally clicked on a link about her book that would help me. Perfect!The first part of her book pertains to the LDS church and food storage, and family. Not being LDS myself, I first thought, oh great, there will not be anything in those sections for me and my family. Wrong! There is some great info in the beginning sections, whether LDS or not.Now, this book is -not- supposed to be a comprehensive book, but what it is supposed to be is a book showing how to store and use your food storage items that sometimes can seem a little daunting if you are just starting out. e.g. dried beans, powdered milk, wheat berries, powdered eggs, and more! For someone like me, who didn't even know that there was such a thing as powdered eggs, let alone what a wheat berry was, I was amazed. And a little scared. I mean, powdered eggs? I hated baking and cooking with fresh eggs (bad experience with them), what the heck was I gonna do with powdered eggs?! Between this book and watching her videos (thank you Crystal for doing those!), I now use powdered eggs for ALL my baking and cooking. No, you can't do an over-easy or soft boiled egg with the powdered, but, you can make pancakes, casseroles, waffles, cupcakes, cakes, and so much more, oh, did I mention pancakes?!! :o)I now grind my own wheat to make bread, biscuits, pizza dough, pancakes, waffles, cakes, garlic knots and so much more. It is absolutely amazing the difference in taste and mind-boggling to me that more people don't do it. It really is super easy. And hello, you get -all- the nutrition! Nothing is taken out. Amazing.I use dried beans all the time now. Again, the difference in taste is amazing. One of my favorite things to do (if you have access to electric and a freezer) is to make up big batch of kidney beans and then separate it into portions for use and freeze the portions. Instead of grabbing a can of kidney beans which always seem to have more liquid than beans, I grab a portion bag and go to it. Small white beans(Navy beans) are yummy to eat just by themselves after being cooked with a little salt and pepper. Great Northerns are so good with a small splot of ketchup. :o)I have to mention the powdered milk. I mean really, could you get any yuckier thing than powdered milk? Well, I still don't drink powdered milk on its own. Maybe in time, but for now we take a gallon of whole milk, split it into 3rds, and then make 2/3rds powdered milk to mix with the 1/3rd. And using Crystal's tips (although we use less than she uses), we have something that we actually will drink. And like it! That truly was the ultimate test for us. So from 1 gallon of milk, we now have 3 gallons. Awesome.So much more is in the book, like recipes too! *laughs* She takes you step-by-step, and then gently nudges and encourages you to try on your own.If you don't want to try anything else, try the Magic Mix. It is so versatile. Soups, sauces, gravies, pudding, and hello... fudge-pops!There are some mistakes etc., in the book, but I was able to see them and still have everything work like it should. This is not the fault of the book, but of the proof-reader and editor for letting them pass into the book. That said, I have no problem with this book, nor do I have a problem recommending it to those who are hesitant to get food storage because they have no clue what to do with it besides let it just sit there.If you keep an open mind during the first part of book and give the other stuff a try, you might just surprise yourself and your family with how easily using food storage will become part of your daily life. I mean what could be simpler than putting together a casserole from freeze-dried broccoli florets, cans of soup, powdered milk, powdered sour cream, chicken (either freshly cooked or yes, freeze-dried) and topping? Yes, that canned soup is food storage! Just mind-boggling.Okay, I think you get the idea, I truly do like this book, use it all the time, and have found that, dare I say it, I love food storage, now! And no, even after a year of using, still sometimes, I Can't Believe It's Food Storage!*******************Update: 8/4/2011This book has made such a positive difference in our lives, and now in the rest of our families lives. I've been slowly getting my sisters used to food storage and using it, by using it myself. So, after they finally started asking questions, I purchased as gifts, books for them. I ordered 2 days before they went home, so the books were waiting on them when they got there! (I have PRIME account.) I get calls all the time, so I know they are using the books, and the care packages I sent home with them. I love it!! Thanks Crystal!

As I write this, we are in the midst of a recession. Maybe it will end soon. Even so, think about the advantages of using part of an emergency fund to buy three months to an entire year of food supplies. If you are unemployed,still have limited funds but expect to run short if work isn't on the horizon, at least your food supplies will be sufficient - and the book is geared toward inexpensive meals. If you wonder how to squeeze out ENOUGH money to buy emergency foods, the author has tips on that, too.This is NOT a cookbook for emergency survival if you are trying to camp out or live without some source of refrigeration. Most of the main dishes require a refrigerator or freezer for storing ingredients such as butter and/or ground beef. However, this book could be used to save a great deal of money over driving to the grocery store to get dinner or breakfast foods every week and you might test some of the recipes with vegetable protein that doesn't require refrigeration. Some even come in beef flavors but can be very salty so you'll need to experiment to get potentially satisfactory results.There are MANY desserts in this book, far more than main dishes. If you don't like the idea of so many desserts, you may want a different book.This book has only 8 steps but they are vital ones: Getting the family involved, creating a 3 month food supply, a one year food supply, using powdered milk, using powdered eggs, using whole wheat, using dried beans, using dried fruits and vegetable.Important note: the author lists far more food supplies than those above. Also, this is written from a religious viewpoint but that shouldn't put readers off. The information is still very useful, depending on your goals.Recipes include both main dishes as well as desserts. I did have to subtract one star because the writer includes ground beef in many recipes and fresh ground meat may not be available in some circumstances and requires either refrigeration or a freezer unless the temps outside are low enough to keep the meat in an animal-proof container.There is a recipe for cracked wheat sausage which would work well and doesn't require any refrigerated products. In other cases, the fresh meat could be eliminated (Pioneer soup) and would taste fine if you substituted powdered beef broth to give it a beefy taste and then used the rest of the ingredients. You'd also have to find an alternative to fresh tomatoes unless you have some on hand or grow your own. I'd use canned tomatoes during the winter or in a camping situation but canned tomatoes can be heavy so you'd want to factor that into a camping trip.Ground beef is a major ingredient in MOST of the main dishes, though. If you are looking for a book that uses only dried or unrefrigerated ingredients, this is NOT that book.The recipes are plenty tasty, though, and storing a year's worth of supplies should could come in handy if cash runs low.