Why I Like to Have Pancake Mix in My Food Storage...

Growing up, my father always made pancakes on the weekends. He used his purple bowl (which he stills has to this day) and would whip up a batch of batter. Sometimes he let my brother and I help, which we LOVED. We always knew Saturday mornings were pancake day and that was something we looked forward to as a kid. I mean who doesn't like pancakes? We all do right?

Well over the years I have continued that tradition of pancakes on the weekends. The only difference is that I use a homemade recipe. I like to throw in extras or make the batter whole wheat if I desire. I like the "options" factor of going homemade. 

I do still buy Krusteaz pancake mix to keep in our food storage and today I thought I would share with you why. Now I know that I typically have flour and sugar, but there have been times when I am missing a few other ingredients. When times are tough and the money isn't always coming in, you don't always have oil or eggs on hand. When this happens, having a pancake mix in your food storage will help a ton. 

We will all have rainy days and no matter how well we prepare ourselves, there may be times when there just isn't extra money to go buy those few things we need to round out whatever we have on hand. We have had times in our life, when hubby was out of work. For all of my friends who have been in this situation, you know it is a scary thing to go through. Not knowing when the money will start rolling in again can definitely be stressful. When these times happened, we made do with what we had. We ate out of food storage, stretched our savings as much as we could, and honestly tried to not spend anything extra. 

Sometimes that meant going without. Sometimes that meant cutting our regular grocery budget in half, so that we could pay the electric bill. We've all been there right? We've all had seasons where tough decisions had to be made, so we could provide for our family. When this did happen, I turned to my pantry staples to make a meal for my family. We would combine our pancakes with canned fruits and call it a meal. Having this just once a week really helped to stretch our budget when times were tough. 

Pancake mix also has a fairly long shelf life...lasting about two years. You can add all kinds of things to your batter, like fruit, chocolate chips, pieces of sausage, etc. I remember my dad saying that his family used leftover pancakes for sandwich bread growing up. They did this because money was tight and pancakes were a cheap option to fill tummies. 

I hope to share more pantry staples like these, which are great to stock up on and have on hand for when the time to "make do" arises. I want you all to know that I know what it is like to not know how the bills are going to get paid next month. I remember that feeling of uncertainty and how unsettling it can feel. I do want to tell you though that if you do the little things...like adopting a life of thrift, stretching your budget, putting money away for those rainy days, and stocking up when your budget allows...those rainy days will not be so hard. Knowing that you are preparing, as much as you can, for when the rain comes is a great comfort. We can do amazing things in our lives. We're in the drivers seat of our life and we can do hard things. I never want you to forget that.

May God Bless you and I hope this post finds you with a happy heart :)

Have a wonderful weekend friends! 

XO Danielle