Breakfast Foods for Food Storage. How much to store?

Breakfast foods are easy to gather for food storage and that is what I focus on buying in February. I love it because I know that if I had nothing else to eat, we could survive on breakfast foods. Or if we had a short term emergency such as job loss or illness, having some breakfast items on the shelf would really come in handy. I thought I would share how I figure out how much to store. You just need a calculator, some basic recipes and food labels from the items you want to store.

1. Look On Your Shelf For Shelf-Stable Breakfast Foods

Shelf-stable means they can sit on your shelf without requiring refrigeration until opened. I store items which can be stored for about a year. Some much longer like my oats and wheat. Some foods I like to store are oats, breakfast cereal, granola, dehydrated apple slices, brown sugar, pancake mix, pancake syrup, powdered sugar, powdered milk, and oil. I don’t store powdered scrambled eggs because we don’t eat them for breakfast. And if we don’t eat them regularly, they just sit and sit on the shelf until I eventually toss them out which defeats the whole purpose of being frugal. I’ve also learned that storing foods your body is not accustomed too can upset the tummy or cause gastrointestinal problems. So I store what we eat, and we eat what Mom stores.

2. Create A 7-Day Menu. 
That’s super easy! My family normally eats fresh foods daily, but if we didn’t have much money or a disaster struck, we would use some of the menus below. You will see that I repeat the least expensive meals several times so the total is 7 menus. The least expensive meals usually have long-term ingredients like oats and wheat. Perfect for food storage!

My kids don’t drink dry powdered milk, so I listed a milk alternative called Augason Farms Morning Moos for milk drinking. You might be the family that drinks warm dry powdered milk with your cereal, but my kids won’t.

Here are some food storage breakfast menu ideas:

    • 3x OATMEAL: oatmeal, dry powdered milk, apple slices, brown sugar, canned fruit
    • 2x WHEAT PANCAKES: homemade wheat pancakes, pancake syrup, Morning Moos powdered milk to drink
    • 1x BREAKFAST CEREAL: variety, Morning Moos powdered milk, food bar
    • 1x WAFFLES: pancake mix, pancake syrup, powdered sugar, Morning Moos powdered milk to drink

    3. Figure Out How Many Meals Per Person You Need
    It takes time to figure out amounts. But it’s worth it. Multiply a weeks worth of food by 12 weeks, then that total by the number of adults to come up with total servings. My example shows 4 adults. I broke the ingredients down per serving (ps) in the parenthesis to make it easier to multiply by the total servings. Then I looked at food labels to figure out the amounts in the containers I want to store. That’s a little tricky, but I’ve given you some Tips that will help if you are storing similar items.

    Here are my details:

    Oatmeal Breakfast: 3 menus x 12 weeks = 36 x 4 adults = 144 total servings
    Tips: LDS #10 Can of Quick Rolled Oats makes 30 servings
    LDS #10 Can of Non-fat Dry Powdered milk = 207 tablespoons 64
    LDS #10 Can of Dehydrated Apple slices = 21 1 ounce servings
    48 teaspoons of brown sugar in 1 cup

    • 5 LDS #10 cans oats (1/2 c. ps)
    • 2/3 LDS #10 can dry powdered milk (1 T milk ps)
    • 3 1/2 LDS #10 cans apple slices (1/2 ounce ps)
    • 3 cups brown sugar (1 t. ps)
    • 36 cans fruit (29 oz. or 2 15 oz. cans)

    Blender Wheat Pancake Breakfast: 2 menus x 12 weeks = 24 x 4 adults = 96 total servings
    Tips: LDS #10 Can of Wheat = 14 cups wheat (who knew?)
    #10 Augason Farms Dried Whole Eggs has 177 Tablespoons (just fixed this amount!) (all manufactures have different amounts in their cans, so check your label)
    8.1 oz. Clabber Girl Baking Powder = 15 Tablespoons
    26 oz. Morton Salt = 122 tsp

    • 3.5 #10 cans whole wheat kernels (.5 c.)
    • 2 #10 cans egg powder (1 T ps)
    • 3 8.1 oz. baking powder (.5 T ps) 
    • 1/3 #10 can dry milk powder (1.5 T ps)
    • 48 oz. cooking oil (1 T ps)
    • 96 oz. honey (1 T ps)
    • 2.5 salt containers (1/2 tsp)
    • 1.5 64 oz. pancake syrup (1/4 c.)
    • 6 cups powdered sugar (1/8 c.)
    • 2 #10 cans Morning Moos (2 T per serving)

    Cereal Breakfast: 1 menu x 12 weeks  x 4 adults = 48 total servings
    Tips: All boxes of breakfast cereal are NOT created equal.
    16 oz. Lucky Charms = 12 1 cup servings
    14 oz. Kroger Granola = 8 1/2 cup servings
    I estimated 1 box to have 10 servings. If you eat more, figure differently.
    Morning Moos Milk Alternative = 26 x 2 T servings

    • 5 boxes of cereal (1 cup ps)
    • 2 #10 cans Morning Moos (2 T ps)
    • 48 Nature Valley Sweet & Salty nut food bars (1 ps)

    Waffles from Mix Breakfast: 1 menu x 12 weeks = 12 x 4 adults = 48 total servings
    Tips: 64 oz. Mrs. Butterworth’s Syrup has 32 x 1/4 cup servings
    Morning Moos Milk Alternative = 26 x 2 T servings
    10 lb. Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake Mix has 90 x 1/3 c. servings
    48 oz. cooking oil = 96 Tablespoons

    • 1/2 bag 10 lb. pancake mix (1/3 c. ps)
    • 24 oz. cooking oil (1/2 T ps)
    • 1.5 64 oz. pancake syrup (1/4 c.)
    • 6 cups powdered sugar (1/8 c.)
    • 2 #10 cans Morning Moos to drink (2 T ps)
    4. Create One List
    Consolidate all the food onto one big list, and bingo! You know what to store for breakfast. I checked off completed items, and then made a grocery list after subtracting what I have on my shelf. But I’m just showing you the total amounts. Now I know what I need to buy this month and where I can buy it. Easy!

    Shop at the LDS Home Storage Center

    • 3 1/2 LDS #10 cans apple slices
    • 5 LDS #10 cans oats ✓
    • 1 LDS #10 can dry powdered milk ✓
    • 3.5 LDS #10 cans whole wheat kernels ✓
    Shop at Costco
    • 96 oz. or 6 lbs. honey ✓
    • 3 x 64 oz. pancake syrup
    • 1/2 bag pancake mix ✓
    • 48 Nature Valley Sweet & Salty nut food bars ✓
    • 3 cups brown sugar ✓
    • 12 cups powdered sugar ✓

    Shop at any Grocery Store

    • 3 x 8.1 oz. baking powder ✓
    • 2.5 x 26 ox. salt containers ✓
    • 5 boxes of cereal ✓
    • 1.5 x 48 oz. cooking oil ✓

    Wait for the Spring Case Lot Sales

    • 2 #10 cans egg powder
    • 6 #10 cans Morning Moos
    • 36 cans fruit ✓

    You won’t eat this way everyday, but it’s nice to know you have extra food on your shelf when do need it. I spent a few hours figuring this list out. I know you can do it too, and you will probably come up with better menus than mine. Please excuse any errors in my math. 🙂 I rounded in some places. Let me know if you find huge mistakes (I found one), and please share some breakfast menus with us.

    So, get moving and gather some breakfast items this month. I know you CAN do it!

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