Week 6

All right. This week we are making our long term food storage purchase. I realized we just made one a couple weeks ago, but that’s because I left it till the end of January. So we are going to get our February purchase out of the way. So this month we’re going to follow the ​Thrive Life food storage specials​ again.

You ordered at the end of January, and so this is well before your auto ship would happen. And that’s another reason why we’re doing it now, because I kind of want to back it up a little bit. But really, it’s not going to auto ship until the end of the month, till one month from your last purchase.

So when you check out, you are free to just edit your delivery and then leave it and it won’t process until whatever date yours is set for, or you can click ship now. So once you decide what you want that’s on the sale, if you have the money in your account and you want to just get it ordered now, I recommend clicking “ship now” because if they go out of stock of anything that you want, that’s a bummer. There’s no rain checks on these sales. It doesn’t happen too often anymore. It used to happen all the time. They’ve gotten so much better with their supply and they’ve added so many farmers and all of that. The supply is actually pretty good, but you do still run the risk…there’s usually one or two things that run out of stock in one or both of the sizes each month. So if you know what you want and you fill your cart, go ahead and click “ship now” if you feel so inclined.

So this month there are only a couple of things that are 30 percent off and that is diced beef and tomato dices.

Diced Beef – 30% off

The ​diced beef ​is good. I just personally don’t have a ton of recipes that I could use that for. With any meat, as long as you brown it after reconstituting it, you are like increasing the flavor factor by a million. So, I definitely recommend once you reconstitute the diced beef, to brown it just like in some olive oil and then throw it in your meal, whatever you’re doing with it.

I’ve served it over rice just with gravy from a packet. It’s a great food storage meal. My whole family liked it. But like other than that, I could use it, you know in a stew or something like that. But there aren’t a ton of recipes so I don’t store a ton of diced beef, even though it’s good…it’s not as versatile as ground beef to me. So if you have enough recipes that you can think of where this could be a priority meat for you, by all means cash in on the 30 percent sale.If not, I might skip it. We did protein last month anyway with our eggs. And then I recommended meat past that, if you weren’t doing the eggs. So I feel okay about skipping meat this month, unless you love the diced beef idea.

Tomato Dices – 30% off

​Tomato dices​ aren’t my favorite. However, that comes with a caveat that nobody in my family likes cooked tomatoes. Not one of us. And so I don’t know how it is in a recipe, because I wouldn’t know how to compare it with anything because we never use them. We reconstituted them and put them like on a taco and it wasn’t our favorite. So, we’re skipping the tomatoes as a family, as my family. If you’re big into tomatoes, you know, go for it.

All Others are 25% off

Okay. The rest of the things that are on this list are all 25 percent off. So there’s no preference over one over the other, as far as the amount of discount you’re going to get.

And so just kind of choose from these options, which is what I did. I’m going to tell you the two things that were in my cart this month. I already shipped. I clicked ship now when I was getting ready to record this video.

WHAT I GOT!!!

So I got ​strawberry yogurt bites​ and ​sliced strawberries​. Those are two of my family’s top favorite things from Thrive Life and they are both on sale this month.

So that was a total easy thing for me, um, to just throw in the cart and be like, yep, this is a no brainer month for me. The strawberry slices are just like what you expect, um, freeze dried strawberry slices. Most people have had them in one form or another. They’re an awesome, fresh tasting. just amazing, amazingly sweet, fresh feeling snack.

They’re just amazing. Okay. And then strawberry yogurt bites. My favorite flavor of yogurt bites from Thrive is the pomegranate, but all my kids prefer the strawberry over the pomegranate. So I guess it just depends on your palate, but the yogurt bites are awesome. They’re like those little like Gerber yogurt bites that you get for like, babies who are starting to do solid food but can’t really chew yet because they don’t have the teeth.

They’re like those. So they kind of like melt in your mouth. They are so good. Uh, so anyway, I got strawberry yogurt bites because I have only seen yogurt bites on sale maybe once a year with Thrive. Not even that. So to have yogurt bites on a sale is kind of a big deal. They typically don’t put them on sale.

So I snagged a case of these because Like I said, it’s unusual for them to be on sale and they are so good and so amazing. They are pretty expensive though. So I don’t store, like this would be like a total treat, like a dessert almost. Um, if we were, you know, using our food storage, I don’t have open cans of these in my pantry year round or anything. They’re pretty expensive and I realized that. Um, so those are the two things I’m getting.

Chicken

Now I’m going to go through the other things that are on this list. Grilled chicken dices. Their chicken is not my favorite. Freeze dried chicken in general is not my favorite. It’s not Thrive’s problem.

It’s mine. Um, I am just not a fan of freeze dried chicken, regardless of who it comes from. I’ve tried several brands. Uh, it, it all tastes reheated, kind of like microwaved chicken to me and it kind of ruins the meal for me. I will say with all the meat I recommend after reconstituting it, brown it, brown it in some olive oil, throw it in a pan and brown it before you toss it in your casserole or add it to your pasta or whatever you’re doing with the meat.

And so it does help. to brown it in some olive oil, but I’m still not the biggest fan with chicken, um, people ask me what I do for my chicken in case that’s, that question is coming to mind. I focus on frozen chicken. I do a lot of, um, like I buy fresh chicken breasts and then I cut it up. I cut off the fat, I portion it out.

That’s a topic for another day. Um, it can be a lengthy process, but I am putting most of my chicken food storage in the freezer basket. You know, like quite literally, and if we were living through an extended power outage, that would be a bummer, because we wouldn’t have much chicken. I do still store freeze dried chicken, just not a ton, because like I said, I prefer the frozen over that, and so I use my freezer space for frozen chicken, and I don’t use a whole lot of freezer space for like ground beef, because I really like the freeze dried ground beef. So, um, I’m just being 100 percent real with you.

Raspberries

All right. The​ raspberries​, they’re good. They’re very tart. Think about when you take the moisture out of something, it just exponentially increases the flavor and the potency of that. And so the raspberries are really good, but like I have to tone them down with something else. I can’t just like pop raspberries for a snack. Um, cause they’re, they’re pretty zingy. Um, but they’re good. Strawberry slices we covered.

Mozzarella Cheese

Mozzarella cheese. It’s great. The cheese is actually really awesome. My only problem is the price tag. Freeze dried cheese is so expensive. So, um, I would recommend holding off on it. I don’t think it’s a top priority if you just started on your long term food storage. I would wait on that. Because cheese in and of itself just off the shelf and in your fridge lasts quite a while. So that’s a much more cost effective way. If you, if you want to have some cheese in your food storage, start with some fresh blocks of cheese and kind of build up your stockpile there in your fridge. I’m kind of getting ahead of myself. I don’t want to stress you out. That’s like, that’s actually a week is where we purchase cheese. Okay, so don’t worry about that. I’m just saying I wouldn’t prioritize mozzarella cheese right now if I were you. Most likely.

Instant Refried Beans

​Instant refried beans​. The price tag is just too high. They’re great. I’ve made them. They’re great. But a can of refried beans is, you know What a buck a buck fifty. Um, and this is these are just it’s they’re on sale for 10. 44 for a pantry can remember this is the size of a pantry can so they’re not super big This is probably the equivalent of two maybe three cans of refried beans And so to me, I’m gonna buy cans at the grocery store and just rotate them. I’m really good about rotating them I have a can rotator So I realized that’s a luxury that not everybody has, but I’m just saying like price wise, you can get refried beans that have a very decent shelf life for a heck of a lot cheaper where you can’t store strawberries. You can’t, you can’t just go buy a package of strawberries, how it comes and store that for very long at all.

And so I would focus on the things that are hardest to preserve on your own, um, or that don’t come preserved in other ways from the grocery store, like canned goods. So hopefully that helps you kind of prioritize what your purchase is going to be this month. I’m not here to tell you what to get. I’m giving you things to think about, especially if you’re new at this.

I just I want to make sure you feel good about where you’re spending your money and what’s going to get you the biggest bang for your buck.

So, honestly, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to have your purchase be strawberry slices or strawberry yogurt bites. It’s a pretty good slam dunk that everyone in your family is going to most likely enjoy them and like them.

It’s kind of like a welcome sweet snack. Uh, either one of those would be. And those are both things that you can’t preserve long term. in your, even in your refrigerator. So, um, those would be my top two choices.

Case Lot Sale

Now I do want to mention that they are having a ​case lot sale​ this month. So there are six more items that are on sale. Every single case is going to be over our budget, but if you have more money to spend and you want to get a full case. It’s ​chopped onions​, hands down. I use them every day in my everyday kitchen and cooking. They’re really not that much more expensive than fresh onions. And then you don’t have to worry about buying the fresh onion, peeling it, cutting it, having your hand smell, your cutting board smell, all of that. You just scoop and dump it in your recipe. I love them. They’re amazingly convenient. And so I absolutely hands down recommend that.

​Sausage crumbles​, great, great protein. I love them. Again, I don’t have too many recipes that use sausage crumbles, but they’re a little more versatile because I feel like you could mix that up, uh, rather than ground beef.

​Mushroom pieces​ are amazing. I also have a can of those open all the time in my pantry because I rarely buy fresh mushrooms anymore. Same reason. It’s so convenient, but also for, for the mushrooms, mushrooms go black and slimy so quickly, and I love having a fresh mushroom option. That does not expire. It’s amazing. I mean it expires in 25 years, but that’s pretty awesome It’s a lot better than like three days, which is what you get from the grocery store.

The blueberries are on a case lot sale. They are another really delicious snack. I highly recommend them.

Chopped spinach, not my thing Um, I couldn’t tell you how it tastes because we don’t use spinach in any of my recipes.

The mashed potatoes are great Um, nothing special nothing to write home about but they’re great. I Do not prepare them with water They’re gross when you prepare them with water. I use milk and butter and lots of it.

Recap

That’s probably super overwhelming but I did want to touch on the case lot sale in case you have more money, in case you want to spend more money this month. But if you’re totally overwhelmed at this point, remember get one thing off the regular sale flyer and your budget is a hundred and ten dollars this month and that’s to get you over the hundred dollar mark because over a hundred gets you free shipping.

So I’m always going to give you a budget if we’re ordering from Thrive. I’m always going to give you a budget a little over a hundred dollars. So go ahead, make your purchase this month, click ship now, um, so that you don’t run the risk of anything going out of stock and I will see you next week.