Book Review: "All Things Provident" by Tamara Price

(Source)

So you have stocked up your long term food supply, and now have buckets, cans and jars of wheat, "Maggie Moo" dehydrated milk (the best, IMHO), dried beans, various fruits, and so on. Now what do you do with it? There are several cookbooks on the market that have a general focus on using food stores, and one that my wife has used and enjoyed is All Things Provident: Inspiring ideas to help use your food storage, manage your finances, and prepare for emergencies by Tamara Price ($17.99 through Amazon). The author also runs her own website--All Things Provident--with additional recipes, prepping ideas, activities, and so on.

The book is split into three main sections: Food Storage (including recipes), which takes up the bulk of the book; Finances (basically on how to create and follow budgets and live within your means); and Emergency Preparedness (some information on making 72-hour kits and some other basic information). She finishes up with a chapter entitled "Getting It All Done" which delves into ideas on managing your time, ideas for incorporating the preps into your daily life, involving your family members, and so on. Finally, she has an appendix with some example forms and lists.

Since the Food Storage portion takes up two-thirds of the book--and was the reason for our having bought the book--I will just outline the individual sub-sections:

• Food Storage Hurdles
• Creating a 3-Month Meal Plan
• Using Your Freezer
• Storable Meals
• Storable Snacks
• Storable Desserts
• Cooking with Whole Wheat
• Bread Making
• Pantry Mix Recipes
• Cooking with Dry Beans
• Using Powdered Milk
• White Sauce Mix Recipes
• Using Garden Produce
• Preserving Your Harvest
• Just for Kids

In short, the author takes you from the very beginning of a food storage program to building up stores, and then offering many recipes so you can make use of the food storage. The recipes are scattered throughout the book. So, for instance, in the chapter on "Using Your Freezer," the author discusses the "why" of using a freezer, lists the types of food items she keeps in her freezer, and then offers a dozen or so recipes using some or all of those food items.

The chapter on "Storable Meals" is a guide to making meals where at least some ingredients are prepared before hand (for instance, storing hamburger that has already browned) or part of your regular food storage (e.g., substituting reconstituted powdered milk for fresh milk; canned or dried fruits for fresh fruits); or canning some items rather than using dried versions. Many of the meals can be quickly prepared.

I would also note that these are not "bland" meals: the author offers recipes for many American favorites as well as "ethnic" dishes (including Mexican style or Italian style). To us, this is the most important points about this book: unlike others in this category, this book actually shows how to make palatable (some actually quite tasty) meals from your food storage. It shows how to use your food storage on a daily basis (thus saving money), rather than merely in an emergency.

We have, of course, our favorite recipes; and others that we tried out that we didn't like. And, if you are already experienced with food storage and using it, some the basic information may not be as of much use. The author is LDS, and some of her comments are directed at an LDS audience, but don't let this turn you off if you are not LDS--it is only in the sections about getting the right mind-set, and discussing the importance of paying tithing. There is, obviously, nothing LDS specific on making bread or a breakfast burrito.

We found some favorite meals from this book, that we frequently use (we've been using this book for almost 4 years). So, although we've looked at (and collected) cook books oriented toward using food storage, this is our favorite. So, check out the author's web-site for an example of some recipes and ideas and, if you like it, try the book.