ALDI

Can Food Organizer Review with a 4 Year Update

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Can Organizer Review

 

Gear Review: Can Food Organizer
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The cardinal rule of food storage is store what you eat and eat what you store.   In my home we eat can food, and we go to the local ALDI and buy our can food by the flat.  Now we do mark the month and year on the top of each can with a sharpie, but it seems like we always end up with the newest flat of cans on top of the older cans.  It also is hard to see exactly what is it the cans.  I have been searching for a solution, and have found a few options online.

Some are DIY cardboard organizers that you cut and glue from old boxes, others are large plywood and metal track affairs, you can even buy commercial options from small versions for thirty dollars to large scale rolling shelves for a few hundred.

This Option is Both Good and Inexpensive

A simple internet search of “can food rotator” will lead you to all of them.  I found a good compromise in cost, ease, and size.  I bought 7 sets of cardboard can food organizers from www.canorganizer.com to organize my kitchen and pantry.  These sets contain 4 sheets of die cut cardboard, and each sheet folds into one rotator box.  They are strong enough to stack (I tested them by stacking full organizers 4 across and 4 high on my dryer).

The can food organizers come in two sizes, Cupboard (which is shorter and holds 9 soup cans) or Pantry (which is deeper and holds 18 soups cans)

Cupboard costs 11.96 for a four pack, Pantry costs 15.96 for a 4 pack.

They are strong enough to carry full of cans.  Additionally, I moved them around a lot while trying to decide how I wanted to use them.  For added strength you could wrap a loop of tape around them.

My only complaint is a minor one, the instruction video moves a little fast and they don’t come with any additional documentation, so the first organizer I made took me a couple minutes of backing up and replaying specific parts of the video translate it to the actually cardboard sheet.  That’s a minor complaint, because after the first one, folding the next one is really easy.  I really like the can organizers, as they are a good balance of cost and effectiveness.  They do exactly what they are advertised as doing.

Here is a Update after Four Years and a Move

 

 

eMeals

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I first heard of eMeals several years ago from Dave Ramsey, and I subscribed for about a year.  I found the service to be very easy, and only let it lapse because I changed banks and was too lazy to change the account.

Now that we have a baby, and I am busier with classes and night shift I wanted to find an easier way to eat better without having to put a lot of thought into it.

I was very surprised when I went back to the eMeals site and saw how many new plans they have now – my wife and I spent some time “talking” about what would be better.  I wanted slow-cooker for simplicity, or the Aldi plan for frugality – but the clean eating plan won.  I couldn’t even get a compromise on the slow cooker clean eating plan.

Oh well, if that’s what Genny wants, I can accommodate – after all, how many wives will let their crazy husbands grow fish in the basement or run a steam engine on the stove…

I recommend you looking at their site, even if you don’t subscribe to their service, they have a very good concept, and I think you will be well served by checking it out.

They also have a referral program, that I learned about as I went back to reactivate my service – if you have a website you can make a little from passing the word around.  If you click on the link from my site, I make a small percentage of your purchase – but its okay – its going into the I want some land fund, I promise I won’t use it to pay tuition at Diamond Dave’s Ninji School.

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How to Make 6 Can Chicken Soup

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Recipe: 6 Can Chicken Soup
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As I have mentioned several times, when it comes to food storage strategies I prefer simple, and use consumer size canned vegetables bought in bulk from stores like Aldi as a large component of my plan.  It is cheap, easy, stores well, is sturdy – and is “normal” which makes incorporating it into daily recipes is easy.

Canned food also augments my bulk food storage of grains and beans to help stave off appetite fatigue.

Today’s post is a recipe for a dead simple 6 Can Chicken Soup which as you can imagine is made by dumping 6 cans of various foods together to make a surprisingly good soup.

One other tip, in a grid down SHTF situation, when draining your can vegetables, save the liquid – it is high in sodium, but it also contains many of the nutrients leached out of the vegetables in the can.  I use it in making risotto or other dishes – think of it as “vegetable broth”

Ingredients

  • 15 ounce can whole kernel corn, drained
  • 2 14.5 ounce cans chicken broth
  • 10 ounce can chunk chicken
  • 15 ounce can black beans
  • 10 ounce can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers, drained

Procedure

  • Open the cans of corn, chicken broth, chunk chicken, black beans and diced tomatoes and green chilies.
  • Pour everything into a large saucepan or stock pot.
  • Simmer over medium heat until chicken is heated through.
  • Serve with tortilla chips and shredded cheese if desired.

Recipe Cream of Whatever Soup Substitute

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52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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Typical canned food bought in bulk at Aldi or warehouse stores makes up a significant portion of my families food storage plan.

It is simple, lasts several years, and fits like a glove in the “store what you eat, eat what you store” philosophy.

However as easy as it is to use canned soups as bases for recipes, it is not the most frugal way of doing things.

In today’s post I will show how to make a simple base for cream of whatever soup.

If you want cream of chicken use chicken stock, for tomato us tomato juice – its that simple…

I use this cream of whatever soup recipe all of the time to make different sauces and soups – which cheese it makes a great alfredo sauce, and I love it with gnocchi – which reminds me I need to make a gnocchi video in the near future.

The flexibility this recipe gives me a lot of options, but I also like the ease of cooking this gives me – it is akin to the prepper classic “magic mix“.

I use this whenever I need a fast dinner – I dump this over noodles and mix it with some meat and vegetables. You can even make a really good tomato cream sauce with a similar technique.

Ingredients:

  • 3 Tablespoons butter or oil
  • 3 Tablespoons flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • dash of pepper
  • 1-1/4 cup liquid, milk or stock

Procedure:

  • Melt butter or oil in saucepan.
  • Stir in flour and seasonings.
  • Cook over medium heat until bubbly.
  • Add liquid slowly, stirring with wire whisk to prevent lumps.
  • Cook until thick.

Makes the equivalent to 1 can of condensed soup.

Variations:

Use your imagination

Tomato Soup: Use tomato juice for the liquid. Add dashes of garlic, onion powder, basil and oregano.

Chicken Soup: Use chicken broth for half the liquid. Add 1/4 t. poultry seasoning or sage.

Mushroom/celery/chive soup: Saute 1/4 C chopped mushrooms, celery or chives and 1 T minced onion in butter before adding flour.

Allergy Suggestion: If you use a gluten-free flour (rice, tapioca, etc.) or cornstarch, you can make the soup gluten-free. And if you use a stock rather than milk, you can make it milk-free, too.