The world feels very serious right now. There’s so much going on! So many people are affected by conflicts, and by Hurricane Helene. They have to either move, or figure out their lives without power or water. Now with the new hurricane Milton coming, there’s so many people in the world who live in ways that we can’t even imagine – they have so little.
So, my prayers go out to all of you who are affected by the hurricanes or whatever other things in life that are very hard. Today was supposed to be my second family fun night episode, but I’m going to postpone that till next week and do an episode today. I want to talk about an emergency food go bag that you can build up, ways to cook outside, ideas for simple meals that you can cook if you don’t have power, and things that you can cook if you have really limited supplies, like no fresh food, using the food from the go bag.
Then, next week, I’m going to record some more simple meals that you can make when you have more supplies from your freezer or perhaps from a grocery store, but are still quick and easy, and things that you can do with limited power, say from a generator. So, we’ll start really limited today, and then we’ll expand it a bit next time.
I also have a new printable for you, which will be a list of supplies for the emergency go bag. Don’t worry if I mention odd things to add to the bag at various times throughout this episode. I’ve compiled them all into a categorized list for you to download, so that you can have that and you don’t have to worry to write down as you listen. Also all the meals that I mention, I’ll write down so you can download the list after the episode.
So, firstly, let’s talk about ways you can cook if you don’t have power. You could use one of those small camping gas stoves. It’s a tiny little gas bottle attached to a top kind of grid that you can put a pot on top of, though not a very heavy pot. That would be a really basic thing that you could use wherever you are, whether you’re in your car and you stop for a moment by the side of the road, or whether you’re in your garden. The wind would be a factor though – it would probably blow the lit gas out. You could protect that with something around it.
You could also have a bigger gas hob that connects to a larger gas bottle, like a camping one. Usually it would be a big metal one that’s got two plates that you could use. Also, maybe there’s an outdoor grill that you could use, or you can make a simple fire pit if you put a whole lot of large stones in a circle on some concrete and then build a small fire in the middle. Trying to keep the fire really small and localized in the middle will help because otherwise the flames kind of creep up around the pot or pan when you’re trying to add things and that’s not convenient. Some people also make them so that they can just put your kebab sticks or your grid across the top of the fire pit to cook on.
Also, you get those solar ovens which are, I think, usually made of a certain kind of cloth that you put a Dutch oven or a cast iron pot inside to cook in the sun. Some people even bake bread in them. These are a bit more complicated, as you have to have them in advance and know how to use them.
Sometimes you may have access to a generator. We’ve used a generator quite often during power cuts, and it’s not generally strong enough to power the oven – it draws too much power. Plus, how would you connect it? It’d have to be a permanent connection. So, usually, as we have a smaller generator, we attach something like we can plug in a crock pot, the instant pot, the vegetable steamer, or the kettle. We can generally attach one or two of these things at a time to be able to cook with. It’s great to be able to use the crock pot in that situation because then you can just put all your things in and leave it for a while; dump and go. Also, with the Instant Pot, it’s really convenient to be able to use a generator. And then of course, you would be able to run your refrigerator off it, and would have a lot more fresh food.
But today I’m going to talk about options for when you don’t have power or fresh food. These are all just ideas to get your mind going. You do what works for your family – maybe you have a large family or a small family, specific dietary requirements or specific likes or dislikes, maybe you have teenage boys who eat a lot more than younger kids. You need to tailor this to what works for you. We’ll be talking about some easy meals, ideas for easy meals that can be cooked outside. Some of these would work for cheap meals in a normal situation as well, in the times we live in when the economy’s bad, or things are just so crazy expensive.
Especially if you’ve lost things in a disaster, you need to find food that’s as cheap, easy, healthy, and as nutrient dense as is possible in this situation. And also, we don’t want to have to just eat the same thing over and over. So hopefully these will be some ideas you can use.
So, let’s start with a food grab bag. Often we talk about a go bag or a grab bag that has clothes, maybe a first aid kit, torches, and all those kinds of supplies for emergencies if you have to suddenly leave the house, or you can’t leave the house, or you need to suddenly move upstairs in case of flooding. So, similar to that, this would be a food grab bag that you would grab in the case of an emergency, where you would need to leave the house suddenly or suddenly go upstairs, in the case of flooding, as I said.
You would need to obviously do what you can to supplement it in the time available. That would be emptying the fridge into a cool bag, or grabbing things that you might want to use from the freezer, and putting them in a cool bag, or emptying the fruit bowl, the vegetable drawer, or anything that you might want to take with you.
But we would start with the basic go bag. That would be the minimum you would take to be able to feed your family for a couple of days on what is in there. A thing like a tiny camping gas stove with a small gas bottle attached is a good idea to have packed and ready. Then plastic or wooden knives and forks, or perhaps even metal ones; just a set of camping knives, forks, spoons, teaspoons, et cetera. Then cups and plates. Paper plates are great too because you don’t have to wash them if you’re not able to.
You’d need a sharp knife; usually one with a cover is nice and safe, a manual can opener, and a pan and a pot or two. Sometimes camping pots are much lighter to carry, but usually not made with the best quality material. But then again, it’s only for a day or two, so you’d have to find the balance. Then an egg lifter, cooking spoons, and anything that you generally use as equipment for your cooking that is light and cheap, so that you can have an extra one in your food go bag.
A good way to think of your go bag is in terms of meals. So, not just a whole lot of one thing, like a whole lot of rice and some tins, but think of each individual meal – what am I going to need for that meal? – so that you have a good range of things to be able to make.
An easy one is rice and beans. You just need to cook the rice and add the beans from the tin. You could also do tinned meatballs. You get powdered mashed potato which is easy to reconstitute with water in a little camping pot. We used to do this when we went hiking when I was a child. My dad would have the meatballs and the mash, and he would make up a lovely dinner after a long day of walking. So then, tinned spaghetti is also a good one to have in your bag, and things like bully beef. There’s beans of various kinds, so choose the ones that you like the most. And then there are tinned lentils, which can be used instead of meat, or added to some meat if you have some to stretch it.
Then a great dessert would be some canned or tins of peaches or pears with maybe a box of custard or some long life cream. Also, tins of vegetables like corn or peas, or some other vegetables perhaps are nice to add to a meal, perhaps to the lentils.
So, tinned lentils are obviously cooked already, so you just need to add them to the meal, perhaps to the stir fry pan with the corn and peas, and make a little stir fry mix. It’s a good idea to have some soy sauce or tamari in your pack. Tinned soups are a great option to store in your go bag. Then there are things like tinned tuna and chicken that have long shelf lives. Also, different kinds of pasta that are sealed well can be used for lots of things. Perhaps even include a wheel of cheese or a block of parmesan that would last a long time. Then you can do a cooked pasta dish, to which you add a bit of long life milk or cream, some parmesan cheese, and perhaps some olive oil to really make it taste good. And salt, of course, is important to add to your go bag, plus some spices like cinnamon, and herbs like dried parsley, dried oregano, dried basil, or anything that you like to use in your cooking.
Things like nut butters are useful because they’re quite shelf stable, as long as you switch them out regularly when the expiry date is coming. They’re quite high in protein, fat, and calories, so they really help when you need a good hit for energy or to get more food in. You can even just eat them by the spoonful if you need to. And you can perhaps add a few crackers to go with those; savory crackers, salty crackers. Perhaps you can find sourdough crackers that are packaged well so that they’ll last, or rice cakes, or corn cakes. When my kids were little, they loved to eat corn cakes with peanut butter on them.
And then also the usual snacks such as granola bars and protein bars are great for energy and easy to store. If you’re walking out in the woods and you need to take something with you, dried fruit packages of maybe dried apples or dried raisins, and packages of salted nuts will also help and maybe last longer, but unsalted nuts are good too. So, cashews, almonds, macadamias, pecans, those are all great.
Then, as well as the long life milk and or cream, it’s helpful to have powdered milk as you obviously can’t really store much dairy. The wheel of cheese I mentioned, if it’s sealed with wax around the outside, is also very helpful in that it lasts long. You can get small wheels, not those giant ones, that are sealed with wax all around. It’s always lovely to have some fresh cheese if possible, but the powdered milk and the powdered mashed potato would help as well. The powdered mashed potato could also be used as a thickener for sauces, or you could have specifically some potato starch to do that in your go bag.
Freeze dried options for meals are possible, but I find them expensive and they’re not really appetizing. So it depends; you may want to add a few of those for an emergency, but I prefer to do whole food.
Things like oats are nutritious, and you could add a bit of nut butter when cooking them. Some coconut cream tins are also very helpful. When you’re making some kind of soup or stew, even with just lentils, if you can add coconut milk or coconut cream to it, it really adds to the flavor. Then also you get boxed broth, and you get sachets of concentrated stock or broth, and those are really great for adding flavor and nutrition.
You may want to add some coconut oil or olive oil to your go bag for cooking with. Obviously, water is important. Let’s see what else. Split peas, I forgot to mention, along with the lentils and beans, are great for a soup, or for adding bulk to any stew. Perhaps add some seeds, like sunflower seeds. Also, some self raising flour would be good, as then you don’t need the baking powder, just in case you want to make a pie, pan bread, or something simple that can be baked over the fire. Some popcorn would be great if you pop it in a pot.
And then some tomato tins to add flavor, or tomato puree in bottles, crushed tomatoes with onion or basil, or tomato paste – all of those add really good flavor. Perhaps add a mayonnaise. These things would need to be rotated regularly because of expiry dates. Then things like desiccated coconut is a healthy thing to have in stock in your bag. And you could make a trail mix, adding the coconut to the raisins and nuts, putting it in some small plastic bags to divide it up if you’re going to go on little outings, or you need a smaller portion.
Also perhaps a couple of containers would be great, plastic containers with lids to store food that’s been cooked. Anything that you might need.
So, pasta of many kinds is made nicer if you have cheese with it. In the case of an emergency, one of the things that I would grab out of the fridge if I had a moment would be as much cheese as possible. Some cheddar, some parmesan, as much as I could find. And garlic; perhaps you could put some dried onions and garlic in your go bag because those things would also help to keep pests away once they’re in the bag. Even maybe some potatoes if it’s in a dark place. Potatoes can be cooked by wrapping them in tin foil, which I really don’t recommend, but you can do it for emergencies, or perhaps if you have some waxed paper, or any kind of baking paper, wrap the potato in that first, and then in the tin foil, so that that the aluminum foil that can go directly into the oven, into the coals or the wood around the bottom of the fire to bake those potatoes.
So, as for the pasta, I like to do a tuna spaghetti with cheese where we just cook up the spaghetti, drain the tins of tuna and add them and then sprinkle with cheese as possible. Something to definitely add to your food go bag is oven gloves or some form of outdoor grill gloves – anything that will protect your hands when you need to pick up hot pots or hot food. Those things help hugely. Every time we go away somewhere, the kitchen will be well stocked except for oven gloves. They always seem to forget those. A couple of dish cloths would be useful as well for drying dishes, or just drying cloths that you can put down to dry dishes on.
Long tools are also useful, like tongs or a long fork. These help when you have to cook over a fire and you can’t put your hand in too close. It’s also great to have some sugar to go in your tea or coffee, or perhaps a hot chocolate bar. And then honey is always delicious on rice cakes, on corn cakes, or on bread if you have some, or just on the edge of some fresh fruit or with some pecan nuts, which you can dip in the honey. These are great for good nutrition and calories. Also perhaps add some granola. Something else to add to your emergency storage would be chocolate and marshmallows and crackers to make s’mores, which are a great way to cheer you up.
And then tinned chickpeas are great, whether you have them in a cold salad, or a hot vegetable stew. You wouldn’t have salad ingredients, but you could just put olive oil, and perhaps cumin on the chickpeas and then mash them up into a sort of hummus, or eat them as they are. Also, the canned fruit, like the apple, can be heated in the pan, and then a bit of flour and sugar and oats sprinkled on top. You could do plain pasta with just olive oil, garlic and salt.
You could also make fried rice, stir fried rice with some tinned vegetables. If you have eggs, you can add them, but soy sauce will always give you a good flavor with that. If you don’t have eggs, you just add the vegetables and mix it up with the rice. We’re talking about emergencies when you always have limited supplies. You could do pasta with a tinned tomato and onion marinara sauce. You could make curry, using onions, canned coconut milk and some vegetables. Hopefully you have some tinned chicken, fresh chicken, or frozen chicken to add to that, and then have a little curry powder in your stash so that you can add it to make a great curry.
Things like tinned sardines or salmon are also useful and easy to use. If you have cheese, as I mentioned earlier, you could make a form of mac and cheese, depending on the type of pasta you use. Then when you’ve cooked the pasta, you just stir in some cream and some cheese.
Perhaps dried, hard, corn tacos, because they would probably last better than tortillas. Those are great because then you can add whatever you make as a filling for those, and they taste yummy.
You could make a batter, though usually you would need eggs for that, but a pancake batter in some form, perhaps using tinned pumpkin or butternut squash and adding sugar and some long life milk. Those things always help if we have some good dairy, but sometimes we don’t. You could make tomato soup from the puree, and do a form of cheese sandwiches to go with the soup, either with crackers or with bread if you have some.
So, these ideas are for if you have very limited resources, and if you don’t have any fresh produce. Obviously, it’s a bit easier if you have access to a grocery store, or perhaps to your freezers, or if you grabbed some things out of the fridge or freezer as you left. It’s still limited, but much easier. So, I hope that nobody is in this kind of situation for long without power and without access to a grocery store. But I’m sure that if you are, you’ll be innovative and able to get through it.
Next time I’m going to talk about meals that are easy and nutritious and cheap to make when you have access to a few more things from the grocery store, things that you can still make outside or on the grill, or perhaps with a generator in a crock pot. So, we’ll talk about that next time. In the meantime, remember to download your lists for your FOOD GO BAG and preparedness items below – to be able to make meals for a couple of days.
I’m praying for grace and for protection for everybody in the path of the hurricane, and just know that you’re in our thoughts.
Thanks for listening. See you next time.
