Time to SPICE IT UP!!

I was thinking the other day as I was making chicken for dinner. Boy this would be so bland with out my spices. So would soups and other things. Spices, hmmm, how will you make your special dish with out that little dash of your special spice if you are living off food storage and don't have any in it? Well, your special dish will be lacking...
  So I was thinking. What spices do you use regularly? Cinnamon? Salt? Oregano? Paprika? Chili powder? Bouillon cubes?  These are things to have in  your food storage. Costco has some much loved spices for usually a good price. I am sure for about $50 you could seriously stock your spices and herbs! Think about it. At Costco, a 25-# bag of salt is around $3.00 !!! super cheap!
  Ok, so don't think of just dry spices, what about bug juice (worcestershire sauce), soy sauce, mustard, vinegars, vanilla or other flavorings.  Vanilla at costco is $6.00 for 16-fl. oz.  good price! Good vanilla too.

I do not use distilled vinegar for cooking, we use it for cleaning. But we do use red wine vinegar, apple cidar vinegar, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, mustards and horseradish. We also use vanilla, A LOT!

Making something as simple as potato soup can be made a little tastier with some salt, pepper, thyme or rosemary. And yes you definetly need some salt for potato soup.

Now if you prefer REAL salt, then yes, that will cost you more, about $55 - 85 per 25-# bag. More pricey, but it is a better salt for you than iodized. Although I stock both. Why? Because iodine helps prevent goiters, and no one wants those! Normally we would get our iodine from fish, but we don't eat a lot of fish.

Ok, so now that you are now thinking a bit about some spices.. DON'T stock spices you don't like, or don't use. That is just wasted money.  BUT if you don't use a lot of a spice, but use it, go to Dollar tree or grocery outlet or some such place and pick up a small cheap bottle of it. I picked up a "the Spice Hunter" grinder of (salt free) garlic herb sensation, it contains garlic, onion, lime peel, red bell pepper, rosemary and basil. I used it on our chicken with some paprika and pepper too... The kids LOVED it! It was worth the whole $0.85 I spent on it. And when it is empty, I can reuse the jar as it is glass! I don't usually buy grinders, but this has stuff in it I would use, and the price was worth it!! I picked that up at Bimore in Enumclaw, over by Del's (feed store).

See so getting spices does not have to break the bank. And it wasn't out of my way. I went to Del's to get chicken feed, so just went one more block to bimore to see what they might have in stock.