Did you ever think about....

buying fresh fruits and vegetables and freezing them for food storage?

I never even thought about it! I was reading on my favorite food storage blog the other day about a woman who buys fruits and vegetables ONLY when they are on sale and freezes them! What an awesome idea I thought to myself.

So....
Today that's exactly what I did! Lins had green, red, and yellow peppers 10 for 10.00 so I stocked up a few days ago. Keep in mind some of these peppers are around $3.00 each! Today I washed, cut, and bagged them for my food storage. I also bought grapes on sale and froze them in little snack ziplock bags! My sister loves frozen grapes so I thought I would give it a try!

Keep in mind, its not best to use frozen veggies or fruit if you are making something fresh like salsa. I froze green peppers to use in fajitas for example. Now, when I want to make fajitas I just go out to my freezer, grab some chicken and peppers, let them defrost, and cook away!

Can anyone tell I am like the food storage queen lately? I think my mom is sick of hearing about all my crazy stories and sick of me asking so many questions! Sorry mom, I love you!

Fun Times Great Savings

*Ok so for some reason when I download pictures it always posts the last one first! *
Last night we went out with some of my closest friends from work! I have been so lucky to work with awesome people! Braydon and Vanessa have been so nice and welcoming. We had originally planned on going to the temple, but it is closed for cleaning (just our luck right). We decided to go to Made in Brazil. There is a huge salad bar and then the servers bring around all different types of meat on skewers. The boys had the green top up the entire time meaning, "Bring it on!" I can't even begin to tell you how much food I ate! So good!
In the picture: Myself, Melissa, Vanessa, Colby, Braydon, and Mike!
If you go back up to the top, the awesome picture displayed is most of us talking about food storage! Yes, I know your thinking we are so lame for talking about this but Vanessa and I talk about it ALL THE TIME at work and slowly we will get Braydon just as excited as we are! Mike (Vanessa's husband) was getting into it and as you can see Colby is just kicked back and seems to show no interest in the subject. I think he is just sick of me talking about it non-stop this last week! LOL!
It was so much fun to spend time together (without kids) and get to know each other a little better! Our next trip will be to the temple together. It's been so nice to be able to work with people who have the same standards as Colby and I do and to be able to find some new friends!

Oh ya....Did I mention that Vanessa convinced me to get a Dixie Direct card and we saved $12.00 on our meal last night! Awesome!

Getting there...

Ok, beware this post is FULL of pictures! I have been trying to be better about my food storage and getting prepared! I have always felt like I was good about trying to get my food storage stocked but I didn't realize how much food I honestly had! This past week I saved a lot of money at Smiths and I was able to stock up on a lot of good food...
This is the freezer in our garage that is basically full of meat, butter, whipping cream, cream cheese, and frozen juices (some are on the door so you can't see them). I bought 1/4 cow from my Uncle Mike (actually my mom ended up paying for it) last year and we have used so much meat. I haven't bought hamburger, steaks, stew meat, or roasts for almost a year now!
I know It looks lame but this Shelf Reliance shelf is actually in my master walk in closet! I don't have tons of extra room in our new house so I have had to deal with the space I have! This shelf contains #10 cans of rice, red wheat, white wheat, pinto beans, black beans, oats, macaroni, and dry milk. My mom gave me most of this for Christmas a few years ago but I bought some a few weeks ago when our ward went to the cannery! It's almost completely full!
This is a close up shot of most of my Campbell's soups (cream of chicken, mushroom, broccoli, and tomato soup). It is also the shelf where I store all my canned vegetables (corn, beans, garbonzo beans, kidney beans, black beans, green beans, and tomatoes). I also have canned chicken on this shelf from Costco! I didn't realize how much food I had until I unloaded boxes out of our garage today! Lins is having their case lot sale next week and I plan on buying enough to fill my other Shelf Reliance shelf!
More of our pantry: Hamburger Helper (my husband's favorite), baking goods, cakes, cookie mixes, pasta, etc.
Other side of my pantry: Cans (as shown before) Cereals, pasta sauce (I usually make my own sauce but occasionally we use this if we are in a hurry), marinades, salad dressings, BBQ sauce, jams, ziplox bags, tin foil, and plastic wrap!
Colby captured these wonderful pictures of Trevin trying to help mom! I just woke up from my night shift! He thought it was fun to sit in the box and hand the cans to me! Oh I love him!

This is a cabinet in my kitchen that stores some extra stuff! I have been using coupons to stock up on medicine! I also got a slammin' deal on common spices that I use! *Cara I still have your recipe books and I will get them back to you!*
Close up on some of the spices I got!
Close up on my sauces!
I also started to stock up on laundry detergent, bleach, dryer sheets, shout, and also WATER! I didn't post a picture of my water but I honestly completely forgot that water is an essential item in your food storage! I wouldn't be able to do anything, make anything, or survive without it! What was I thinking? I am going to do better about stocking up on my water!

On the opposite side of this shelf I have our sleeping bags, air matress, flashlights, extra batteries, etc. so they are available in a hurry if we ever have to leave!

Goal this next week: My 72 Hour Kits, Baby items, and Water!

OH YA...Did I mention I still have four boxes of canned food and two bags of sugar in my laundry room still! CRAZY!

Just playin...

Ok so keep in mind this is the very first photo I have edited with this new software I got. I purchased some software about a year ago and I have not got to use it because we have been having computer issues and I didn't know how to download it correctly (trust me I tried).

This picture was a random picture that I took the other day while Trevin was watching Mickey! I have some better pictures that I will edit and show you when I get them saved to a CD and saved on this computer! What a mess!

Also, I have been trying to be a little better about spending my money! I am happy to report that I saved $57.00 at Smith's yesterday and on top of that I got 15 cents off/gallon of gas! What a steal! You should have seen all the food I got for 128.00! I will have to take a picture next time I make a good steal!
If you are interested, my friend Vanessa showed me an awesome blog! Check it out!
myfoodstoragedeals.blogspot.com

Anyone have any tips they can share?

Valentine's Day

On Valentine's Day we drove to Spanish Fork to spend some time with Colby's family. Diana made us Pickenchillos AKA Chicken in a Pillow. They were yummy! We played The Newlywed Game, Settlers, and another game (sorry Tana I can't remember the name). I tried to get Colby to take a picture with me (being Valentine's Day and all) and of course he was his goofy self for about six pictures and then finally decided he would be nice and smile normal.
Being Goofy... but I love him to death! He makes me laugh on a daily basis!
Josh was the official Winner of Settlers and so I had to get a good picture of him!
Winner, Winner...
Diana, Tana, and I while playing Settlers. Alyse and Carson left early and so I never got a picture with them. Sorry guys, I never even thought to get the camera out!

We had a blast spending time with everyone! We didn't get home until about 2:30 a.m. I couldn't believe we stayed up there that late!

Sunday

This weekend we went to Nephi to celebrate mine and Colby's birthdays! My mom made us a wonderful dinner and also bought a Cold Stone Ice cream cake! We played Mario Kart on the Wii and just spent time together. Nothing fancy but it was nice to be able to be together as a family. I had not been to Nephi since Christmas so it was a nice time to relax and be with those I love the most!

On Saturday Colby's parents took us to dinner at Tepanyaki and to see the movie "He's just not that into you." Lets just say it was the dumbest movie I have EVER seen and also not a good movie to go and sit by your inlaws at! Oh man! Diane and I laughed through the whole thing because it was so embarassing! We have decided that going to movies with Kent and Diane never turns out good. We always pick the wrong movie!

We got back from Nephi earlier today and I have been cleaning my house, taking care of Trevin, and trying to figure out our new software on our computer to upload photos. I know my blog has been pretty lame the last few months and I apologize.

Tonight Trevin got in the bathtub and loved it as usual! I love to see him play in the water with his toys and enjoy how happy he is! Whenever I get him out of the tub and wrap him in the towel he loves to sing "Baby Bumblebee." I don't know if any of you know what song I am talking about but it is something we do everytime we get him out of the tub. He is always so happy! I finally got a decent picture with him tonight and I am so excited to be able to post it on the blog.

I will be a better blogger....I promise!