Feminine unmentionables

Here's an article about female items in an emergency, or long term crisis. I've been getting a lot of these items free or really cheap with coupons & have them stored. But eventually they run out. The reusable kind, or the diva cups are probably the best option for storing because of that. And using them now would save money; something us single mom's need. And I've heard nothing but rave reviews from those using the diva cups. And they are probably the most cost effective solution.

Here's the article:

The topic for today is Sanitation. Feminine sanitation to be exact. The purpose today is to get you thinking and moving in a direction that will make this a non-issue from a preparedness standpoint.

In today's world, if we are female, we typically rely on products each month that are purchased from the local grocery or big box store to handle our stuff. Think for a moment, "Do I have a years (or more) supply of these feminine sanitary supplies?" I know a few who do, you know who you are and "GREAT JOB!" But for the rest of us, What is your plan if they weren't available or if the stores simply didn't have them for whatever reason?

I know what some of you are thinking...."I'm past that stage in my life, Yeah Me" Well what about your daughters, they'll need supplies. Or you might be thinking "Ha ha, I only have sons" For you I'd say, son's will be married at some point and what about grand children? In any event, someone you know would love you to bits if you thought ahead and prepared for them. (Because heaven knows they aren't preparing for themselves)

So how do we handle this? Well, what did the pioneers do? They got through....with rags. That will work but I know we can do better than that and be tons more comfortable. The solution is reusable washable pads. I know ladies, the ICK factor, and 'are you kidding me?' were my first thoughts too. But I got over it when the alternative came into view. We had a class at a RS meeting last year about this topic, I remember the giggles and UGH's that we got at the thought, . We must remember that we have been lovingly commanded to "Prepare EVERY needful thing" I think that this falls in that category.

Make your own:

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/sanitarypads.htm Love this whole site

http://tipnut.com/free-pattern-for-washable-feminine-menstrual-pads/

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Own-Reusable-Menstrual-Pads

And you can even buy these premade, here are some sources (there are many more)

http://www.gladrags.com/

http://lunapads.com/ Reusable Luna cups are an option too, & are also on these sites.

Free firestarter!

I've seen a lot of products at emergency stores for starting fires. You can even buy a whole big bucket of what is basically kindling. Do you know what works great that you can get free? Dryer lint! I keep a little garbage by my dryer like we all do to put it in, but when that's full, I compress it down into a ziplock & toss it into my food storage. It compresses down a lot! My brother has been using it lately to get his charcoal started easier for grilling. And you can't beat the price!

Delicious canned salsa

This is a wonderful salsa. I have people request it from me as a present all the time.

I HATE peeling tomatoes, & I need to save time wherever possible. I discovered Costco has #10 cans of peeled tomatoes for $2.50. I use the whole can for a batch. A huge time saver & inexpensive too!

Salsa is a great food storage item. You can use it to flavor all those eggs your chickens are laying. Or all the meat your rabbits are producing. It's nutritious & tasty! And we love to open a jar when we're having a bad day!

14 1/2 cups tomatoes chopped & peeled
5-6 jalepenos (seeds make it hotter. I put in all the seeds from 2 jalenpenos, & left the rest out, & it was about medium hot)
2 onions chopped
1 1/2 bell peppers chopped
4 cloves garlic minced
2 T salt
1 T dried mexican oregano
1 bunch cilantro chopped
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 4oz can diced green chiles
10 sweet yellow wax peppers chopped (& some of the juice)

Directions:
Cook everything down for at least 1 hour.
Process pints in boiling water bath canner for 20 min.

I don't like chunky salsa. So after I cook it down, & run it through the blender before putting it in the jars. This also saves time as I don't have to chop the veggies as much either. My quick chop is another real time saver on this!

Chicken Tomato Alfredo in solar oven

I got this wonderful recipe from my cousin Jessica. It's one of our favorites. So we decided to see if we could make it completely out of our food storage & in our solar oven.

Ingredients:
8 oz dried spiral pasta (about 1/2 bag)
16 oz heavy whipping cream
16 oz salsa
4-6 oz shredded cheddar cheese
12 oz defrosted, precooked, diced chicken (fajita flavor is good)
sour cream (for garnish)
diced tomatoes (for garnish)
diced avocado (for garnish)
shredded cheese (for garnish)

Directions:
1. Cook pasta and set aside.
2. In a large nonstick saute pan, heat salsa and whipping cream until hot. Add shredded cheese until desired thickness is reached.
3. Add diced chicken to the sauce and cook until heated through. Then add cooked pasta.
4. Serve alone or with any or all of the suggested toppings. (We used diced tomato, diced avocado, sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese.)

We didn't use any of the suggested garnish's. I got some water hot in the solar oven (it didn't boil, just hot), & cooked the pasta. It took about 30 min. Then I mixed everything else (I used our canned chicken & cheese), & let it sit in the solar oven for a few hours. It really doesn't need very long, just to heat it through, but I wasn't ready for dinner for a couple hours. Very tasty! The salsa gives this recipe most of it's flavor so you want a good salsa. I used my home canned salsa.

And what about, you may ask, the whipping cream? How do you have whipping cream in your food storage. With shelf stable whipping cream! One of my favorite luxury food storage items! It requires no refrigeration to store. If you want it to whip, it does need to be refrigerated beforehand. But in recipes such as this, you can use it right off the shelf. I know people who have used it up to 4 years after the expiration date & said it was fine. I've used it a year past myself, & could tell no difference. I get mine at www.alpinefoodstorage.com, which happens to be 10 min from me & has some of my favorite food storage products. Amazon also carries it.

Can you imagine having something this tasty when you're living off food storage? Sure beats rice & beans! And it's a great way to use your canned chicken & all that pasta you've bought at sales!

Preparedness Items at the Dollar Store

http://www.ldsmag.com/component/zine/article/7579?ac=1

This is a great article. Had some things I'd never thought of! And great on a small budget!

Reusable canning lids!

You may have heard Glenn Beck advertising these recently. I think they're great! I'd heard some people who had trouble with them. But I carefully followed the instructions & they worked great! Last time I canned chicken I did some with metal lids & some with these. I had 2 metal lids not seal, but all of these did.

If you do a lot of canning; these save money in the long run. But to me they have a more important benefit. I'm always of the mindset of what would I do if there were no longer grocery stores to buy things at. I would have lots of jars, & fresh fruit from my trees & meat from my rabbits; & no way to can them after I ran out of metal lids. So I'm working on gathering enough of these to use on all the jars I have.

Amazon has them if you want a smaller amount to try:

They're a bit cheaper though on the main website. www.reusablecanninglids.com

My favorite magazine

A friend referred me to Backwoods Home magazine. I love it! It's the only magazine I save all the issues from. Each one has something I'm so glad to know about!

They have a free email newsletter you can sign up for

http://www.backwoodshome.com/nl/join.html

And they have a subscription special where if you get one subscription, you can give up to 10 subscriptions for half price. Some friends & I subscribed together & shared the savings.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/store/files/subscriptions.html

I also especially like Jackie Clay's book "Growing and Canning Your Own Food". I like that she's really been doing everything in it for years. And there's some things in there that aren't extension service approved, but that I've been trying, such as canning cheese & butter. I'll post about those another time.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/store/files/jc01.html