There may or may not be another great depression in this country. It remains to be seen. We are seeing food shortages, crazy inflation, supply chain disruptions that most of us alive now have never experienced. It's pretty frightening. I'm sliding into 70, and I have experienced some weather catastrophes that got a little unnerving. I'm a vagabond who has lived in several places around the country, which gave me untold opportunities. Tornadoes. Earthquakes. Floods. Hurricanes. Power grid interruptions that lasted for weeks sometimes, grocery stores with no deliveries made. I also grew up in a large family with one working parent, so money was always a little tight, though we never had to do without basics. My parents were Depression kids who could remember how tough things got in the world. The duration of it was about 120 months. That floors me. I had no idea it lasted that long. No wonder people were so mentally and spiritually devastated by it all. My mom was a pretty good cook and knew how to stretch a dollar. My dad worked a union job in a steel factory, so we were not destitute. But as we all know, it takes a lot to run a household. I remember days before payday when she would invent things for us because the grocery money was used up. One of my favorite suppers during those times (and still is today) was cooked white rice with milk and sugar and cinnamon and butter. And fried potatoes. It was a Keto nightmare, LOL, but tasted soooo good to us kids. And it fed all 8 of us with no problem. After WWII something interesting happened in America and convenience foods were born to make a wife's job "easier" Women were encouraged to get out of the kitchen and enjoy life. (*snort) The foods became much less nutritious and more processed until we ate our way into heart disease and colon cancer and general malaise.
I hear people all the time complain that eating healthy is more expensive (not true), it's too difficult, and they don't know how to do it. The hardest part of cooking is the planning. And doing it every day.
Some people make meal plans. I tried that, but like everything else in my world, I lack the discipline to follow through. So I just wing it mostly. But I only have to cook for 2, and that guy will eat almost anything I put in front of him. Of course, after cooking for him for 30 years, I pretty much know what he likes and dislikes.
One of the first things I want you to remember is to please-- only stock foods your family will eat. I'm going to start with your first pantry item for the week to buy, and it's old fashioned rolled oats. An important thing to keep in mind is that you need things in your pantry that are versatile and healthy. Filling. I keep a 5 gallon food grade bucket of rolled oats in my pantry. One thing about oats, you CAN eat them without cooking if you have to. They are digestible and tasty. You can use oats to make cereal (granola type AND cooked hot cereal). You can easily make your own granola bars. You can use it to make cookies with peanut butter and raisins (no bake cookies). It's a healthy way to bulk up and fiber enrich home made bread. Meatloaf filler and binder. You can find them in any grocery store or order them in bulk online. Here's a recipe for an easy to make granola that is customizeable and relatively inexpensive.
You want to get out a medium sized saucepan and mix together the next 6 ingredients on the list. (Hint--if you put the oil into your measuring cup before the honey or BMS, the sticky stuff will come out effortlessly!) Cook over a low flame, stirring to dissolve all the ingredients. While this is cooking, assemble your dried fruits and nuts...I often use a combination of nuts, like walnuts, peanuts and almonds. Depends on what I have on hand. You can put in coconut if you like that. Put in whatever seeds you like into the oats mixture. DO NOT PUT THE DRIED FRUITS INTO THE MIX YET.
