Prepped Living Blog

With the holidays approaching, now is a good time to give some thought to gift giving. In the past few weeks we have posted our 2024 Gift Guide and our Homemade Gift Ideas - Crafts article. This week we are posting ideas for homemade gifts revolving around food and drink. Drink Mixes Over the last couple of months, we have posted four recipes for powdered drink mixes that you can use to make gifts. Pour one of these mixes into a jar with an airtight lid, add some decoration to the jar to make it special, and write or print a nice card with instructions for use. You could add a mug and a nice spoon if you want to make a gift basket of it, or you can make a sampler basket by making several recipes and putting a jar of each into the basket. Here are the recipes we have posted for reference: Hot Cocoa Mix Chai Spice Mix Winter Coffee Mix Russian Tea Mix Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix Soup in a Jar Mixes These mixes have been popular for decades and you can find several resources online. Here are a...

Homemade gifts blend your time, talent, and treasure to create a unique gift made with love. Whether you are on a budget and need to use what you have or if you simply want to create something unique, making your own Christmas gifts can be a great option. Here are a few homemade gift ideas our family has enjoyed: CRAFTS Christmas Tree Ornaments The girls and I made angel ornaments by upcycling old pant pockets. We found a photo on the web for inspiration. We used the legs of the pants to make quilts some time ago and cut out the pockets thinking we would eventually find a use for them, and we did! Angel ornaments made from pant pockets There are many other great ideas for DIY Christmas ornaments out there. Here are some other ideas you can check into: Ribbon Ornaments We made something similar to this several years ago. They turn out beautifully and are so easy! Clothespin Ornaments  Here is a site that lists 5 ways to make ornaments from clothespins. More Ornament Ideas The Pion...

This is another recipe for the powdered drink mix series. While we don't normally advocate for using store-bought drink mixes, there are times when they are useful and they are a great option for your food storage or preparedness plan. Why? Because even if they have more sugar than you would normally allow, they add variety to your diet. They can encourage people to stay hydrated by making plain water more appealing. They can also help to mask the taste of stale or purified water, especially if you have used iodine or chlorine to purify your drinking water. Should you find yourself in an emergency situation where you are having to use your stored drink mixes, it will be helpful to have the option to make a variety of flavors. You don't want food fatigue to keep you and your loved ones from staying properly hydrated. Russian Tea calls for several mixes you might already keep in your pantry: instant tea, orange drink mix (the original recipe calls for Tang), lemonade mix (the ori...

November is here and so is our Christmas gift guide! We spent some time getting input from our family and compiling it into a usable list. It is a combination of health and preparedness items we have and use and items we would like to have. We hope you enjoy perusing the list as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you. We have a photo compilation of this list over on the website for fast and easy shopping. Large Item Wish List Camp Stove - This is a must-have for emergency preparedness. Having more than one way to cook is important for any situation resulting in a power outage. Boxed snacks are fine for a time, but never underestimate the power of a hot meal or a warm drink in an emergency situation. Big Berkey Water Filter - While we originally purchased our Berkey water filter as a camping and emergency filter, we use ours every day to filter our tap water for drinking and cooking. The Berkey filters a wide range of contaminants from almost any water source. Click here ...