With the constant bombardment of news stories on the swine flu, it is easy to become panicky. However, I see this outbreak as an opportunity to assess our supplies in the context of a real threat. If a case of swine flu was confirmed in your local school, would your family be prepared to be quarantined in your home for 2 weeks? When you think of all the ingredients you would need to feed your family 3 meals a day for 14 days, without going to the grocery store, it helps you to see items you wouldn’t want to be without. If our local school had a swine flu case, I would have been quarantined without cheese for a couple of weeks (oh, the horror!). With a prayer of gratitude in my heart for the opportunity to shop, I eagerly bought two large bags at Costco today. It’s a silly thing, but quesadillas can sometimes equate to happiness in my household and I just don’t want to risk it. The powdered cheese in the #10 can is great in many recipes, but I just don’t think it will suffice between two tortillas.
Let’s use the steady reminders of illnesses and disasters to feel more prepared and less stressed about the future. Stock first aid and food storage supplies so that if you are ever quarantined, you can spend the time playing board games with your kids, not fretting over what to feed them.
Without cheese??
Have you seen http://www.internet-grocer.net/cheese.htm ?
There’s canned cheese there that will store indefinitely!
Having been living primarily on our food storage and graden for the last couple of years, a quarantine would be no different for us, except that we couldn’t go to church and my husband could not leave the house for work. (If everyone was healthy, it would be a time where we might get some needed things done around the house!)
School would go on for us as usual, as we homeschool.
Not going to the grocery store is a normal thing for us. Every once in a while I get to go and get a few things, and if we have money to do it, cheese is one of those things that I get and put in the freezer. It helps me to make several more meals. I don’t buy milk anymore (we just use our powdered milk in cooking and we drink water) but I will buy cheese if I am able to.
Having a garden is a huge blessing as well. We have fresh food because of our garden. Today we have eaten asparagus, spinach, and lettuce, and tonight we are having artichokes–all from our garden. In a quarantine situation (or if you found yourself living on your food storage) a garden will help to make that time much more delicious.