If ye are prepared...ye shall not fear.

Last Sunday, September 14th we had a huge wind storm that hit just as church was letting out. No rain, just really heavy wind. The kids were having a good time playing out in the wind letting the wind blow them around. Brian and Brady were flipping the trampoline over and the wind nearly took the trampoline. I ran to get my camera to "video" them, well let's just say Brian didn't want his frustration to be shown on the "blog". (no bad words, just major frustration :) so it got deleted) Anyway, we lost power and so did the rest of the Louisville area. In fact, as I am blogging there are still 4 people in our ward that are still without their power. We got our power back after 5 days. So I thought I would journal the things that we did for cooking and how prepared we really were.

For Sunday dinner, I luckily had an easy dinner planned - grilled chicken, corn on the cob, baked potatoes and rolls, all of which were perfect for the grill.

By the morning, we decided to try some things out, because all we had to cook on was our grill. I had all of this "stuff" in my storage or in my fridge.   Wal-mart was open, but I kept thinking in my mind that we were in a "disaster" and we couldn't get to the store.  

Hot chocolate - honey bran muffins and blueberry muffins - in my storage I had lots of the Martha White muffin mixes (just add milk - which I had lots of because my family now drinks morning moo milk.  I order it from www.bluechipgroup.net
White cake - It was so yummy - I made chocolate icing with powerded sugar, butter, cocoa and a little milk.  As you can see in the picture, put whatever you are baking on the top rack and a cookie sheet on the bottom.  We like having the temperature gauge that is on our grill. 
Banana muffins - Here's the recipe:

2 cups ripe mashed bananas

1 cup oil

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp lemon flavoring

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

Mix all together.  (I hooked up my bosch mixer to the generator to mix this up) and bake in muffin tins.  Will make 2 dozen or more muffins.  In the real oven 350 degrees, but on the grill we cooked them about 300 degrees.  We just didn't want anything to get over cooked.

A proud daddy.  I didn't make this bread from scratch.  I had frozen bread loaves in my freezer.  
One of my kids favorites - chicken pillows.  Here's the recipe as I make it for picky kids.  

2 cans refridgerated crescent rolls

1-2 cans of chicken

1 8oz cream cheese

butter

stove top chicken dressing mixture crushed.

(if you don't have picky kids the real recipe says to add a 4oz can of mushrooms and green onion to the chicken mixture)

Mix the cream cheese and chicken

Put a spoonful of chicken mixture onto unrolled triangle crescent, roll up like crescent rolls. Dip in melted butter and then roll in crushed stove top crumbs.  In this case, I put them into the muffin tins.  We tried to cook everything on about 300 degrees.  

I believe, overall we were prepared.  Amie and Aaron had a generator so we ran an extension cord across the street to our house, otherwise we would have lost all of our food in our fridge and freezer.  

So here is our list of some things we will make sure we have for a lengthy power outage - yes, we could get to the store but it is good to be able to think as if we couldn't.  

1 . A Generator is a must!

2.  We didn't have enough batteries or flashlights.  Keep in mind the generator will more than likely not light up your whole house.  In our case we had one lamp that was hooked up to the generator.

3.  We were fortunate that our water heater is gas so we were able to have hot water for showers and dishes.  Make sure you know what you have so you will be prepared.

4.  Speaking of dishes.  Have plenty of paper plates and cups.  The less dishes you have to wash the better.  

5.  The three month supply is so crucial.  I love how the prophets have given guidance so clearly  and if we listen D&C 38:30 reads...but if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.  For us, cans of fruits, veggies, peanut butter, muffin mixes, morning moo, water, noodles, marinara and spaghetti sauces, canned meats, and many more things should be in there.  You can clearly eat well with these simple to fix ingredients.

6.  Since the grill was huge for us, we will keep a couple of extra propane tanks on hand. 

It was such a great learning experience.  We really were blessed.  The weather was beautiful, so we were able to leave the windows open so the house was not hot.  The kids had a great time staying out of school for the entire week.  Not having the t.v. and computer was a true blessing.  The beautiful way in which we saw friends helping friends was so awesome to see.  Throughout the week as ward families were getting their power back, the reaching out was unbelievable, laundry, hot showers, meals, and friends to talk to.   So many blessings.   I am grateful for this experience, it really helped us to see how prepared we really were.