Beginning Prepping 101 PT. 1 : Rice, Rice and More Rice !

Time to check your tears at the door. BO is back for 4 more years and there is nothing we can do about it. Now is the moment if you haven't all ready to think of food storage for you and your loved ones. If our economy hasn't awoken you to the idea, then look no farther then those folks in the Northeast and the conditions they are now living in due to mother nature. I betcha 9 out of 10 of them never thought it could happen, and they expected the government they voted for this week would swoop  in on white horses to help them out...well, we can see where that is going. So let it all be a lesson to you.

My first food item I recommend to stock pile is RICE, and lots of it.. If it has been good enough for a billion chinese for thousands of years, then its good enough for us. It is a dry grain and if stored correctly can be saved for 15 -25 years.

Rice is a staple in most of our cabinets. You can add it to any main course, or meat. ND and NW love plain ole rice and gravy more then anything. I love plain white rice with a little bit of butter. We eat rice at least 2-3 times per week in one form or the other. Whether its done in my rice cooker, or some sort of boxed dinner mix...
Plus, you can mix plain white rice with  boiled chicken and feed your dog.

Senior and I go to SAMS club and buy the large commercial size bags.We use to go out to COSTCO, but the drive was just getting to be too much.  We then bring it home and separate it down to manageable sizes, by pouring it in to mylar bags, and adding oxygen eaters. Occasionally we will use the extra large bags, but we have recently  began to use the smaller zip lock bags and can do smaller portions which is more manageable for small families like ours. 
I have blogged about it before and here are the links to the posts:

Storing Rice and Sugar

Mylar Bags

We ordered our mylar bags from USA EMERGENCY they are really nice folks that carry
a cornucopia of storing supplies and emergency essentials which can help get you started on  your own food storage. You can also get the oxygen eaters from these fine people.

Another good tip: start buying and saving those 5 gallon buckets..You can  buy them at any home improvement stores, or go to your local bakery..they get all their cake frosting and cake mixes in the same size buckets. Ask the owner or manager if they are willing to either give you some or sell you some. We scored once by doing this and brought home 20 + buckets.
You can go to Home Dept for lids...Senior and I found these awesome Gamma Lids..which If they are affordable for you I recommend spending the extra money and getting these instead of the normal bucket lids.

Now that we have all our rice sealed in our mylar bags and buckets Senior adds our food items to  the most fascinating food storage list he created on excel. You want to know how much you have stored and how long will it sustain you. He just did a post about it, so swing over to his blog and check it out: SENIORS FOOD STORAGE EXCEL FILE

I hope this first lesson has helped some of you out, even if it is just one person..then I will consider it a success.

So Good Luck In your beginning prepping items, and If you have any questions just ask...REMEMBER: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A DUMB QUESTION, ONLY DUMB PEOPLE..    :  )