3 Month Supply Menu: Month 1

Can you believe we are posting again? Are you there? Hello?

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To kick off our new found resolve to consistently post on kill.the.gluten, Liz and I have decided to talk Food Storage, gluten-free style.

This is a task that has haunted us both, as we know we should keep some food in reserves, but how do you even start when a food intolerance is involved? It seemed very complicated. We are here to tell you that it isn't. But it does take a little time.

We are going to start with our 3 Month Supply. Planning your 3 Month Supply of food is a matter of gathering a list of meals, making a list of ingredients that you would need for each meal, and multiplying it by a number that would equal a total of 90ish meals. Sounds complicated, right? Let me show you.

I started by looking for recipes that I had made often, had few ingredients, and used mostly non-perishables. My first month of dinners looks like this:

Spaghetti
Shepherd's Pie
Tortilla Soup
Spanish Rice

I then take each and list the ingredients like this:

Spaghetti
1 jar spaghetti sauce (I use a packet and add tomato paste, but the jars are good too)
8 oz spaghetti (for the rest of the family)
4 oz spaghetti (for the celiacs)
1 lb ground beef

Shepherd's Pie
1 lb ground beef
4 cups potato flakes
1 can corn
1 can green beans
1 can Italian-style diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
Olive oil
1 onion
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic salt
2-4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Cheddar cheese

Tortilla Soup
Olive oil
1 Red bell pepper
1 onion
1 1/2 lbs chicken
1 can green chiles
1 can corn
1 can pinto beans
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 can diced jalapenos
4 chicken bouillon cubes
chips, cheese, sour cream, salsa

Spanish Rice
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
olive oil
2 cups rice
5 bouillon cubes
1 can green chiles
1 can olives
2 cans stewed tomatoes
1 can red beans

Now these are just the first 4 dinners of a 12-dinner menu rotation that I'm using. Some use 9. If you plan for 12 dinners, you need to multiply all of your ingredients by 8. If you plan a 9 dinner menu, you need to multiply all of your ingredients by 10.

I also take out the fresh items that aren't necessary for the meal. In these recipes I would omit the bell peppers, chips, cheddar cheese, salsa. I also substitute for fresh items where possible, so I would use dried minced onions and garlic salt in place of the fresh stuff. Don't worry, I'll show you what I mean.

This is what your list of items to buy from the store should look like when you are done:

Spaghetti
8 - jars of Spaghetti sauce
4 - 16oz packages spaghetti
4 - 8oz packages gluten free spaghetti
8 - lbs ground beef

Shepherd's Pie
8 - lbs ground beef
32 - cups potato flakes (not packages, cups)
8 - cans corn
8 - cans green beans
8 - cans Italian style diced tomatoes
8 - cans tomato sauce
1 - bottle oil
1 - container dried minced onion
1 - container Italian seasoning
1 - bottle Worcestershire sauce

Tortilla Soup
1 - bottle oil
1 - container dried minced onions
12 - lbs chicken breasts
8 - cans green chiles
8 - cans corn
8 - cans pinto beans
1 - container cumin
1 - container garlic salt
8 - cans diced jalapenos
32 - bouillon cubes (not packages, individual cubes)

Spanish Rice
1 - container dried minced onion
1 - container garlic salt
1 - bottle oil
16 - cups rice (not packages, cups)
40 - bouillon cubes (not packages, individual cubes)
8 - cans green chiles
8 - cans olives
16 - cans stewed tomatoes
8 - cans red beans

Now I know that it looks like a lot. But here's how you do it. You check the sales each week. When an item from your list is on sale, you buy as many as you can. If you bought just one item extra each time you went to the store, you would have your supply sooner than you think.

I tried picking meals that would do well without the meat. However, I am storing frozen goods, because I have room in an extra freezer. I would suggest that if you do decide to store them, you divide up larger packages into smaller ones. Like ground beef into 1 lb increments, double bagged in freezer bags. I will also eventually add in cheese, as it can freeze, but haven't gotten that far yet.

I didn't divide out the potato flakes, rice, and bouillon into packages, as these vary. When you go to buy, check to see how many cups or cubes are in the package and divide accordingly. If your bouillon comes 6 to a package, you need 7 packages for the Spanish Rice and 6 for the Tortilla Soup. I am a round-upper, not a round-downer.

This is meant to help you start your own plan. You do not have to follow my plan. There is a lot of information out there about food storage. The biggest thing that you need to remember is ROTATE. These items are not meant to last for years and years. Make sure that as you are purchasing, you put the new items behind the older ones.

And where you store them is important also. Pick a place that you will be able to access easily and has a constant temperature that's not too hot and not too cold. I'm putting mine in my hall closet, which is right around the corner from my kitchen. You will need to organize well, so you know what you have and what you still need to buy. Liz will post on that later, she has a great system.

In the meantime, we hope to get more recipes up. It's been a while, but we are excited to be back.