So Much to Store... So Little Space

So I had intended to write this before I moved.  But moving is quite an undertaking in and of itself.  Moving across the country is a monstrosity we don't want to discuss further ;).  Clearly, I simply didn't get around to it.

Basically, I wanted to share, briefly, that a lot of space is not a requirement for creating a home store of food.  True, it may seem like it is.  And absolutely true, it is probably nicer and more convenient to have a dedicated space for all of one's home store.  But there are ways to store a lot in not so much space.  I know, because I did it.

Prior to moving, our apartment was under 1000 square feet.  When we first moved in, there were two of us.  We doubled our family size in the 3.25 years we lived there.  And we were running out of space.  But that didn't sway us from our goals in regards to having a home store and being prepared.  It just required that we be a little creative.

My first suggestion is a can rack of some sort.  I happen to have a very capable husband who likes to create and build.  So, for Christmas one year, he made me a can rack.  If you don't have the time or desire to make your own, you can buy one!  In fact, THRIVE Life sells them in a variety of sizes, and they are fantastic!  In time, once we have a home of our own (we are currently staying with family and all our stuff is in storage), I fully intend to get one of these for my #10 cans!  You can check them all out at my website:  www.thrivelife.com/thriveingnilla (follow that link, click on shop, and choose "food rotation systems" on the left-hand side). 

 So that's a picture of my can rack.  And you can see I used the top of it for other storage of food.  Plus a shelf in the top of my closet was full of open THRIVE. By the way, did I mention we kept all that in the closet in our bedroom?!?  Haha.  Like I said, not the most convenient, but it's where we had the space.  So it's what we did.

These are the buckets that hold our bulk basics.  Flour, sugar, oats, rice, macaroni, powdered milk, etc.  These were in the living/dining area under an overhang from the kitchen counter.  Visible, but out of the way.  One time, the property manager stopped by, and, seeing all these large buckets, thought we were painting.  Hahaha.  We told him it was food.

 This was a bin in our closet in the master bedroom that held unopened bulk items (things we bought at Costco, like oats, sugar, flour).  We always keep a back-up.

 This was an old cabinet that ended up in our possession.  I used it for open THRIVE -- mostly pantry cans.  It could be shut and was therefore not super visible. 

 This is what under the bed looked like.  This was under my side of the bed.  The next one was under my husband's side of the bed.  We even stocked up on baby formula!

 And this was the bottom shelf of some long (and in many ways otherwise useless) shelving in our bathroom.  About half of the shelf was behind a wall, so it wasn't easily accessible.  So I decided to keep our "rainy day" extra THRIVE Life cans there.  These were ones I wouldn't open immediately, but they were there for use if needed. 

So yeah, it was probably less than idea.  Well, it was.  But it worked.  I truly believe that, if you are committed to doing something that is important, you'll find a way to make it work.  And for us, having a home store is important.  I'm grateful we could find ways to store all our food.  But I'm definitely looking forward to having our very own house and having a space that is just for this purpose!

Happy THRIVEing!

February Home Store Challenge: Debriefed!

Today I went to the grocery store and bought groceries for the first time in about 6 weeks.  I bought a lot of lettuce.  LOL.

The truth is, I had been wanting to experience the whole "living off our home store" thing for quite some time now.  I wanted to see how practically we had prepared.  I wanted to know how well we were doing.  I wanted to know we could eat good food, not just sustainable food.  I'm a total foodie.  I am sure if I am in a situation where it's "starve or eat gruel" one day, I'll find a way to choke down the gruel.  But if I can avoid that choice, and instead have the choice of "eat yummy food!"...  Well, I'll pick the yummy food every. time.  So I had been wanting to know how well I could do this for my family.

Due to a couple of other circumstances (namely that my grocery budget was in the red, due to 1/4 of a cow we bought at the end of last year and the fact that I hadn't created a sufficient buffer in our grocery budget to cover said 1/4 of cow; and also the fact that we are likely moving out of state in the not-too-distant future and therefore had reason to work on consuming said 1/4 cow as well as other perishables in our house), I decided February would by my month of finding out the answer to those questions.  Some of you may have joined me on my journey in February, whether via Facebook or through this blog.  You have seen the meals I have prepared for my family throughout the month, using only what I already had in our home from mid-January.  It was an awesome experience, and I really enjoyed doing it.  I may do it again sometime in the future, just for practice.  Because I think we can always learn more.  But for now, this is what I've learned:

1.  Whole Egg Powder is a must in my household.  Either that or chickens.  Or preferably both.  I really believe in a variety of things, because you just never know what situation might present itself.  My husband also says he thinks we should have a rooster.  I'm really on the fence about that one.  I mean, I can totally see the logic in it; but (call me wimpy), the idea of eating fertilized eggs really grosses me out.  So we shall see...  I am, as my husband accuses me of being, a total city girl ;).

2.  I love fresh produce.  And, surprisingly enough, it's not even the fruits that I missed.  It was the vegetables!  Why?  Because I depend a lot on salads as a quick source of vegetables for my family!  My THRIVE Vegetables were AWESOME.  Seriously.  But THRIVE doesn't make freeze-dried lettuce.  This meant I had to learn how to make delicious vegetable dishes using my THRIVE veggies!  It was a great learning opportunity for me, and I came up with a written recipe (based on my friend Tina's recipe) for pea salad.  And I loved it.  I also developed a stir fry recipe not too long ago (before February began, though) that was super helpful for a delicious vegetable dish.  And I LOVED the vegetable soup I made with all my THRIVE.  Not only was it super-tasty, it was also super-easy to prep!  So I have filed those 3 things away for future knowledge of easy and delicious ways to use my THRIVE Vegetable home store ;).  And I also know I need to play around with recipe for vegetables using my THRIVE more!  But I also know my hope is that, if we ever do have to live off our home store for a couple months, I hope it's in the summer ;)!!!  Then I can grow my produce!  Hahaha. 

3.  In regards to my mention of the fruit above...  I totally didn't miss fresh fruits.  THRIVE Life fruits are awesome.  And technically fresher than at the grocery store, since they are picked ripe and flash-frozen within 2 to 4 hours of picking, then freeze dried (as opposed to being picked early, sprayed with chemicals, shipped, sprayed with more chemicals, and then being sold to you!).  Bananas are a huge staple in our house, and I was concerned it would be a real hardship without regular grocery-store bananas.  It really wasn't!  My kids were just as happy with the THRIVE Bananas.  And we also enjoyed THRIVE Raspberries, Blueberries, and Granny Smith Apples during the month of February.  PLUS the Snackies Fruit Crisps are also super-awesome and a great source of not only fruits, but vegetables!  Total win and must-have for our home store!

4.  Some of my THRIVE Life ingredients are so versatile!  They are definitely must-haves in my home store!  I mentioned the eggs above, but also the sour cream powder!  Twice I needed cream cheese or a soft cheese-like spread for a recipe, and twice I subbed THRIVE Sour Cream Powder!  It was awesome!  The lemonade powder is another great example of this (as would be the Lime Powder, which I didn't use in February, but which would be just as useful for things like salsas or key lime bars or limeade!

5.  Because I have been using THRIVE Life in my daily cooking for the last (almost) two years, this was not a difficult thing to do during the month of February.  It wasn't like I was all of a sudden changing my family's eating habits or ingredients.  I use a good mix of grocery-store items and THRIVE Life ingredients daily.  This meant I didn't have to feel stumped (or afraid) when trying to use the ingredients.  It also meant my family didn't turn their nose up at any of it (well, my girl didn't like the pea salad, but she ate it...).  This is a totally awesome reason for not only building your home store with THRIVE Life, but also using it in your daily life!  My hope is that none of us every has to rely on our home store exclusively.  But life happens.  Jobs get lost, people get hurt and can't work for a time, disasters do happen (consider Japan's earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and the emergency situation with their nuclear plant, which caused people to be advised to stay in their homes for days), and economies do fail (consider the plight in Venezuela that is going on right now).  It is comforting to know one is prepared for any of those events, should they happen, even if none of us ever wants to have to endure them.  I am prepared, not only with a home store of stuff, but also with the knowledge that helps me to use the stuff :).

I learned a lot.  And I wanted to share what I learned with you!  If you have questions, feel free to ask!  If you're interested in learning how you can build your own home store, contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com or you can also follow me on Facebook at THRIVEing With Hila.

Happy THRIVEing!  And thanks for joining me on my learning adventure during my February Home Store Challenge :)!

February Home Store Challenge: February 29

I haven't been to the grocery store to grocery shop since mid-January. I won't be going until March 1st! This is how my home store (made-up of both THRIVE Life and non-THRIVE Life products) is helping my family eat well and eat healthy for the month of February!
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And we're done!  I have completed the home store challenge.  Not once did I go to the grocery store to purchase an ingredient for anything I've cooked since mid-January.  Granted, there were a couple times we ate out or ate at a friend's house or family's house.  But anything I prepared for my family at home came from whatever we already had on hand.  I had to make a few substitutions (like THRIVE Sour Cream Powder for cream cheese), but it worked out great!  I learned A LOT.  I will be debriefing this (hopefully) tomorrow and sharing what I have learned from the experience!  Meanwhile, today...

Breakfast:  Granola with milk.  Not pictured is little man's usual:  applesauce and cereal.

 Lunch was grilled cheese and tomato soup for me and my girl.  Not pictured (again -- I was a slacker!) is the baby's squash and corn.  But he did have some French Bread too, and that's pictured ;).

 Oh, I gave my girl chocolate milk today.  Just because.

 Dinner fixin's...  Plain old white rice in the big white bucket.  We had chicken stir fry.  The baby had macaroni and veggies from the (still) leftover vegetable soup and also had sweet potatoes and some THRIVE Chicken mixed in there.

February Home Store Challenge: February 28th

I haven't been to the grocery store to grocery shop since mid-January. I won't be going until March 1st! This is how my home store (made-up of both THRIVE Life and non-THRIVE Life products) is helping my family eat well and eat healthy for the month of February!
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Just as a personal choice, I don't post business stuff on Sundays. So that's why I didn't post all these until today ;). But I am now caught up and *should* manage to post today's as well, after I get the kids down tonight (assuming it isn't 10:30 again!) So here was Sunday!

 Breakfast: We had Conference and watched from home, and I usually like to do something a little different on those days. I didn't have the motivation to do cinnamon rolls, so instead I found a recipe on Pinterest for Frech Breakfast Muffins. The baby just had plain cereal, because I also gave him some pieces of the muffin (not the parts with sugar topping, though) and he was in hog heaven eating those!

Lunch consisted of ramen and peas and corn.  And I decided to toss in some celery after I'd taken this picture.  My big girl had milk.  I had water.  The baby had some of the corn and peas, but was mostly interested in squash and sweet potatoes.  I think the corn and peas weren't quite soft enough for his liking.

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We had tons of leftovers in the fridge, so we worked on those for dinner!  I had Southwestern Egg rolls with salsa and ranch.  My husband had a Southwestern egg roll, vegetable soup, roast, and spaghetti and some green bean casserole.  My big girl had roast and green bean casserole and milk (and she and I also had the rest of the lemonade I'd made earlier in the week) and the baby had the leftovers of his lunch as well as lots of macaroni and veggies from the vegetable soup.  His favorite are the green beans!

February Home Store Challenge: February 27th

I haven't been to the grocery store to grocery shop since mid-January.  I won't be going until March 1st!  This is how my home store (made-up of both THRIVE Life and non-THRIVE Life products) is helping my family eat well and eat healthy for the month of February!
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This was the day my husband came back home.  I actually got a lot done on Saturday.  And I was planning to go to a girls' night, so I made cupcakes.  Alas, that didn't end up happening.  Family life is sometimes unpredictable.  But it was good...  We spent time as a family after having daddy gone for a couple days (which is so rare for us, so even just 2 days is kind of a big deal...).

Breakfast: Blueberry waffles!  I love THRIVE!  Crushed up some blueberries and tossed them in the batter -- they turned a beautiful blue/purple color and were yummy!  Even the baby loved them (and yes, he had these for breakfast!)

 I don't know why, but if my pictures load out of order and I try to put them in order, the formatting gets all screwy.  Oh well...  But for lunch we had chicken salad on crackers and PB&J on crackers.  The baby had something (I can't remember now), but also had some spinach fruit crisps.

 The lemon-zucchini muffins I intended to take to a girls' night ;).  They are now in my freezer.  Hey, they are awesome, so it's not like they won't be enjoyed!

 

And dinner...  Again, messed up order and such.  But we had spaghetti and French Bread (again, a half-loaf I'd frozen from earlier in the month) and green bean casserole.  YUM!

February Home Store Challenge: February 26th

I haven't been to the grocery store to grocery shop since mid-January.  I won't be going until March 1st!  This is how my home store (made-up of both THRIVE Life and non-THRIVE Life products) is helping my family eat well and eat healthy for the month of February!
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I am so behind...  We had a birthday party for my nephew Friday night (it went until 10, but we left at 9), so by the time I got my kiddos to bed, it was 10:30.  I was beat.  Solo parenting is really exhausting.  I have to say my hat is off to anyone who has to do that on a regular basis!  So yeah, I decided to crash on Friday instead of post our food pictures.  I will rectify that today (and also make up for my lack of post on Saturday and Sunday as well!)

Oh yeah...  I was also out and about at lunch time.  I decided to make my life easier and we ate fast-food. Totally not the best mommy decision, but you know...  Desperate times and all that ;).  Haha.  I made up for it, though, with a super-awesomely packed veggie soup for dinner!

Breakfast: We ate leftover oatmeal from Wednesday.  I forget how much I should make when my husband isn't at home to eat with us for breakfast!

 Baby ate his usual...

 And this was for dinner.  This is our bucket of macaroni (just so you'd know what was in the white bucket in the other picture ;)).  I don't think the date on it is right, though.  I think I've added to it since then.

 I used the remnants of the asparagus in the vegetable soup.  With THRIVE Life, nothing goes to waste!  But, I forgot to picture the can in the "group" ingredient picture ;).

 That was some French Bread I had frozen from making 3 loaves earlier in the month (or maybe even last month?  Don't remember...)  We enjoyed lemonade with our dinner and sprinkled THRIVE Parmesan Cheese on the soup.  The baby had squash and corn and lots of macaroni and veggies from the soup!

February Home Store Challenge: February 25th

I haven't been to the grocery store to grocery shop since mid-January.  I won't be going until March 1st!  This is how my home store (made-up of both THRIVE Life and non-THRIVE Life products) is helping my family eat well and eat healthy for the month of February!
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Today was a fun day!  The sun was shining, and it was pretty comfortable weather for February in Washington State!  Plus we had a play date this morning, so we had company for lunch!  The not as fun part is that my husband is gone for a couple days, so we miss him.  But it's only a couple days!

Breakfast was French Toast!  I don't know why I don't think of doing this more often.  haha.  But this was a nice change from the norm!  The baby had his usual:  applesauce and cereal.

 Ingredients for the mommies' lunch!  We had Southwestern Egg Rolls!  The kids all had chicken nuggets, fruit snacks, tortilla chips (not pictured), and milk.  The baby had squash and corn, but I forgot to take a picture.

 Oh yeah, I made lemonade, since we were having company.

 And leftovers for dinner!  Since Daddy was away, we had plenty of leftovers (we don't eat as much as he does!).  I ended up having the orange chicken and fried rice and a SW Egg Roll.  I was originally only going to eat the part of the Egg Roll my girl didn't eat, but it was too spicy for her, so I ate the whole thing and shared my fried rice with her.  Plus she had roast and pineapple.  The baby had squash and sweet potatoes.  Oh, and my girl had lemonade and milk and I had lemonade ;).