Living off of Food Storage: Recipe Taco Soup (GFDF) (2024)

This month our family is living off of food storage to save money for a trip to Disneyland. We also wanted to get an idea of what it was really like to only eat food storage and to see where we were strong and where we were weak in terms of what we store. As part of our LDS (or Mormon) religion, we have been asked by our leaders to keep a year’s supply of food and other necessities to protect us against disasters or job loss. We have tried to follow this counsel and now we’re trying to see how we can improve!

This week has been interesting. While I thought we had a generous one year supply, I’m quickly learning that we are running out of a lot of things on THE FIRST WEEK!!!

Here’s what we ran out of:

Laundry Detergent

Bananas

Vanilla extract

Dishwasher soap

Tissues

Cooking spray

This has opened my eyes a lot to what we really need and what will get old really fast. For example, the beans I used in the taco soup did not soften because they were too old. My friend told me in this case you can only soften them in a pressure cooker. You can cook them for days regularly and they will never soften. So, good to know I should have a pressure cooker! I will be getting this one after we go to Disneyland.

We had guests who stayed over for a couple nights. I was a little embarrassed to tell them of our plan to eat from our food storage while they were here. I don’t know why I was embarrassed because they didn’t care, but I guess I thought the food I would be serving them wouldn’t be very good. They were very gracious however! We had taco soup one night (they didn’t make it for dinner that night, but our family ate it), chicken and rice the next, and rice pudding for breakfast.

I have enjoyed cleaning out the pantry of things I’ve meant to cook for a long time, but haven’t. It’s great to rotate the older items in our food storage as well as learning how to cook and prepare dried and canned foods.

I will try to post the recipes for the other things we’ve made, especially the overnight rice pudding because it’s a great cereal substitute.

As I mentioned before, the beans didn’t soften all the way. The kids loved it though, there were no complaints and we served it with fresh peaches that we got at a local farm (we budgeted a small amount to buy fresh fruit and dairy items).

**Positively Mommy occasionally provides recipes and other information about food preparation. Please keep in mind that it is the reader’s responsibility to determine the value of these recipes, nutritional and otherwise. It is also the reader’s responsibility to determine the safety of the preparation instructions. Recipes are prepared “at your own risk.” We assume no liability, obligation, or warranty with respect to these recipes. Positively Mommy is not responsible for any damage, medically or otherwise, that could result from preparation of these recipes. Visitors must take care to check the instructions provided and determine their value and any possible medical condition that may arise from the preparation instructions and consumption of the ingredients listed in this site’s recipes.

Rachel Meyers

Hey there! I'm Rachel and Mom of 4 joining you on a quest to be a positive parent! Help me along the way and maybe learn some new things in the process.