In this episode, we’re going to talk a bit more about the food go bag, and the best ways to go about using the list. Then we’re going to talk about some easy meals that can be made when you have a few more supplies than the absolute minimum, but still not many – or perhaps no power, or limited power from a generator.
But before I give you some ideas for those, I want to talk more about the food go bag. If you haven’t downloaded the printable with the list of items that you can select from for the food go bag, (you can also add your own) and then plan your meals for your bag, you can find that on familyfoodformoms.com/foodgobag.
It’s important to know that not all the items on this list are meant to be packed into your food go bag. You need to choose some of them, so as to have enough supplies for two or three days. That’s what we’re aiming for. So, you want to have enough food for two breakfasts or three breakfasts. You decide how many days – two or three, or if you want to do more days, that’s fine. But remember that you obviously are going to need to carry all this.
Say you have two to three days of breakfasts, lunches, snacks, dinners, and perhaps desserts, which are always good for cheering you up when things are hard, and are also needed for extra energy boost if you’re staying up late trying to figure things out. Once you’ve decided how many meals you need, then you can go about planning them. The lists in the printable are arranged so that you can tick off what you want to take, and then add how many of each thing you need, and decide what meals you’re going to make. For example, you could add oats plus long-life milk plus cinnamon, salt for oatmeal, and some nut butter; anything that you can choose that’s non perishable that will do for your first breakfast. And then depending on the number of people in your family, perhaps if you need coconut cream for something, you can choose to have one or two tins.
It’s a good idea to pack the contents of your go bag into something that’s easily portable; easily carryable, and to maybe spread the load between family members. So, if you have two strong male teenagers plus mom and dad, maybe you can have four packs, or maybe if mom needs to look after the little ones, then make it three packs. Then you distribute your meals between the packs. It’s probably a good idea to pack everything for one day into one pack, and then everything for the next day into another pack.
I like to use those picnic backpacks that have got space that’s nicely lined to keep the food cooler, and also have the space for the plates and the knives and forks and the cups, etc. Or you could just use an ordinary backpack and put a bit of padding in if necessary, but it’s great to have those ready to go, and they can be carried by any of the family members. Or if you’re going in your car, then cool boxes would be fine – whatever you feel would work for your particular situation. But the main point is that we don’t want to have this huge, heavy box that’s just all jumbled up, and we don’t know what we’re going to use from it. We want to organize things, both in the meal plans, and in the actual supplies per meal and then per day.
So, now let’s talk about if you have access to more than just the very basic things in the go bag, like we talked about last week. It’s great to just have a few more options for easy meals. If you have access to things like eggs, more dairy, fresh dairy, cheese, meat, that opens up a whole lot more possibilities for meals.
Obviously, the meat is a great one. You can do burgers on the grill, you can do ribs, you can do hot dogs, you can do a stew, a beef stew, either using a generator and a crock pot, or a fire, or a pan on a hot plate, just on a low heat. That opens up a lot more options.
And then the eggs obviously are useful for breakfasts, for omelets, for fried eggs, for egg fried rice, or to use in pancakes. The pastas would be even yummier using fresh dairy and possibly egg, or whatever other options you have.
Bread also makes it easier to do quick sandwich meals, especially sliced bread. Cold meat helps as well for quick options. These things make it a lot easier.
Now let’s talk about a few more specific meals that you could make. So, a very easy economical meal to make in a pot or a pan would be a chicken noodle stir fry. All you would need for this would be chicken breasts, some pre cut vegetables, julienne or stir fry vegetables, and some rice noodles. It’s also gluten free, so it works for everyone. Then you would just chop up the chicken breasts small, and use some coconut oil to fry them up. Add some salt and a little soy sauce. If you happen to have sesame seeds, those are great in this. Then you put the chicken to one side, and you fry up the stir fry veg, again with a little salt and soy sauce or tamari. Then, for the noodles, you just pour boiling water over them in a bowl or in a pot for a few minutes until they’re soft. Then you drain them and add some salt and soy sauce, but not too much. Each element has a little soy sauce in it. Then you mix them all together in the pan if you have space, if it’s a wok type pan. Otherwise everyone can dish up their own parts. You just mix up the chicken, the veg, and the noodles and it makes for a delicious healthy meal.
Another easy meal in a single pot or pan would be a spaghetti bolognese. So, for that you would just need your mince, and your spaghetti. You would cook up the mince; browning it, and adding salt and herbs and perhaps onion powder, and then some tomato puree and chopped tomatoes with onion. Anything like that from a tin that adds to the flavor, perhaps a bit of tomato paste or a little bit of soy sauce. You cook up your mince, add some water and leave it until it’s nicely thickened. That would be just at a medium heat; a low simmer, until it’s nice and rich, and has a deep flavor. Then you can add a little extra water if it needs it. Then simply put your spaghetti into the cooking mince, and within a few minutes it will be nice and soft – ready to eat. You can grate some cheese or some parmesan to put on top. It makes a great one pot meal.
Another great option for if you have access to a grill, or these things have actually been known to work in a frying pan as well in a pinch, is some form of pizza. If you don’t have access to real pizza bases, you can use tortillas or English muffins. Add a little tomato paste on top, some herbs and salt, and then add your veggies or your pieces of cold meat or anything you like on top, and then your cheese. Grill those, or put them in the frying pan until the cheese melts.
You can also do something similar with soups. If you have canned soup, maybe tomato soup, you can do grilled cheese on your grill, or even in the frying pan if you have a bit of patience. Just grill on the one side, and then turn them over, and by then the cheese should have melted.
If you do have access to a crockpot and a generator, you can quite easily do some meals in there as well, which helps, because then you don’t have to stand there and cook, you can just let it cook on its own.
So, dump some chicken breasts in the crockpot, and cover them with a jar of cheese sauce, marinara sauce, or pasta sauce. Then just let that cook. You can even add a little rice, and that will cook as well with a bit of liquid.
A stew in a crockpot is also pretty easy. Get some stewing meat; stewing lamb or beef. Add that to the crockpot with some salt, some rosemary, thyme, and pepper. Then, add some chopped up carrots, perhaps some chopped up potatoes, and then some broth; beef broth or vegetable broth, and a little water. You don’t need to cover the stew with water, you just put an inch or two at the bottom. And then you cover the crock pot, and cook until it’s tender. Usually four hours on high is good, or you can do the first hour on high, and then maybe four hours on low. Maybe you need five hours on high – you can test it and see how it works.
Another easy option for the crockpot is a whole chicken, a leg of lamb, or even a piece of beef brisket. Those are lovely. I find the beef doesn’t get quite as tender in the crockpot as the others, but the chicken and the lamb work beautifully. Just four hours on high, and they’re good to go. The lamb I would actually do on low most of the time. But I do like to start out on high so that the crock pot comes up to temperature. So again, an hour on high and then four to five hours on low for a leg of lamb. These things are great for easy meals. Once they’re ready, you can just eat them. And if you’d like to, you can put some carrots and potatoes in around the roast, and it’s quick and easy to get everything done at the same time.
You could also make a great chili as a one pot meal, either using some ground beef plus beans and lentils, or making it vegetarian with just beans and lentils. Then add your veg and your chili sauce, perhaps a can of tomato chili sauce. You would cook the meat up first, add a bit of seasoning and then add your tinned beans, tinned lentils, and perhaps tinned vegetables, and then your spices.
Also, pastas work well in a one pot. I did mention the spaghetti bolognese. A similar thing that people sometimes do is a kind of lasagna soup. So, you would still make the mince, and then when you’ve added your sauces and it’s ready, then you tear up the lasagna strips and just add them to the pot. Then you add a bit more water and some cheese, and it’s kind of like lasagna as a one pot dish.
You could use any kind of pasta, cook the pasta in the pot, and drain it, and then add your protein, your veggies, and some olive oil or cream sauce. Those are great for quick and easy meals.
If you wanted to do nachos or taco fillings, you could also use your ground beef, and then just add yogurt or fresh avocado – make some guacamole. Perhaps you have some salsa, some cheese, some yogurt, or some sour cream, or anything that works well in your tacos or on your nachos. You can also use shredded chicken breasts or shredded brisket that you’ve cooked in the crock pot, and put those inside tortillas or tacos, or on nachos.
I’m sure you’re a lot more creative than me, so I hope you have fun thinking of good meals to do in that situation where things are not as easy as usual – where there’s less time, fewer resources, and perhaps no power.
It’s also helpful to have some barbecue sauce available – you can put that on to sausages if you’re going to be grilling, or you can put it on the chicken breasts, or you can put it on the shredded meats to go in the tacos. There’s lots of ways that it would help. Also, some lemons are always a great thing to squeeze on fish or chicken, or on anything that you’re cooking that needs added flavor.
This last meal I’m going to talk about is one of our favorites. I’m sure there’s many, many other meals that you could make in this kind of situation, but I really love the one pot meals because they’re so much easier when things are difficult, and there’s not a lot of washing up afterwards. So, this one is a fish chowder. You can use your favorite fish. You would start with the base that has to get ready in the pot – chop some onion, give that a little stir fry, add a little bit of garlic, and then add some broth and some water till it’s about halfway up the pot.
You let that cook for a little bit, and then you add some corn. Tinned corn is great for this. I usually add some plain tinned corn, which I drain, but some cream style corn makes it fabulous. So, you add about three tins of corn, maybe two cream style, and one ordinary corn.
Then, once that’s cooking, we want to add the fish. You season the fish before you add it. You don’t have to cook it first, but you season it with some good salt, pepper, onion powder, paprika, and maybe some thyme – whatever you like to do with your fish. Then you put the little pieces of fish – it mustn’t be in big wads. If the pieces are very big, you can chop them up a little bit. You add them to the pot, and you let them cook for about 10 minutes on a simmer. Then you can start to break up the fish with a fork or a potato masher to kind of loosen it up and make sure it’s all cooked through.
Then you can add some sour cream or some creme fraiche, and also lemon zest or orange zest – that makes it delicious. Add a little bit more salt. All those things will add flavor at the end. So, that’s a lovely one pot meal to do.
We’ll have all these recipes in the blog post for this episode on our website, familyfoodformoms.com. Just look under podcast and you’ll see this episode on emergency food meals.
I hope you enjoyed this, and I hope it inspired you. And remember, you can download the printables for the Family Food Go Bag on familyfoodformoms.com/foodgobag. That’ll help guide you through selecting your meals for an emergency, and then having the supplies ready for them.
Thanks for listening. I’ll see you next time.
Chicken Noodle Stir-fry
Ingredients:
- Chicken breasts
- Julienne or stir-fry vegetables
- Rice noodles
- Soy sauce or tamari
- Honey
- Sesame seeds
- Salt
- Coconut oil
Instructions:
- Cut up the chicken into small pieces with a sharp knife.
- Add some coconut oil to a hot pan, and put in the chicken.
- Sprinkle on some salt, and add a splash of soy sauce.
- Stir the chicken around as it cooks, making sure it doesn’t stick to the pan. Once it’s completely browned, cut a piece open to make sure it’s cooked through. When it’s completely cooked, take the pan off the heat and add a little honey and some sesame seeds. Move the chicken to a plate or bowl so you can use the same pan for the vegetables.
- Next, add a little more oil to the pan and put in the julienne vegetables. Add salt and soy sauce again, then put a lid on to trap steam in the pan. This helps the vegetables get soft faster. Keep an eye on them so they don’t stick to the pan and burn.
- For the rice noodles, simply put them in a big bowl and pour boiling water over them. Leave them for a few minutes, and drain the water when they’re soft. Mix in a little salt and soy sauce.
When you’re ready to eat, you can either mix all three parts together, or everyone can dish up their own.
Spaghetti Bolognese
Ingredients:
- Beef or pork mince
- Spaghetti
- Tomato puree or tinned tomato
- Dried herbs such as basil, oregano or parsley
- Salt and pepper
- Onion powder or a whole onion, chopped fine
Instructions:
- Add some oil to a pot, and once it’s heated up, add the mince.
- Use a fork to break up the mince as it browns, and add some salt and pepper.
- Once the mince is completely browned, add the tomato sauce and onion, and some dried herbs.
- Add a little water if the sauce is too thick. Let the bolognese simmer for a while until the meat is soft and the sauce is flavorful.
- When you’re almost ready to eat, add the spaghetti to the pot and let it cook for a few more minutes, until the pasta is soft.
- Grate some cheese over the top.
Improv Pizzas
Ingredients:
- Pizza bases, tortillas or English muffins
- Tomato sauce
- Any pizza toppings you like, such as ham, chicken, pineapple, peppers or mushrooms
- Grated cheese (mozzarella works best)
- Salt
- Dried oregano or basil
Instructions:
- Spread tomato sauce on the bases or tortillas. If you’re using English muffins, cut them in half before adding the sauce.
- Sprinkle salt and herbs onto the bases, then add your toppings.
- Cover them with cheese, then put them on the grill or in a hot frying pan until the cheese is melted and the base is crispy.
Meaty Stew
Ingredients:
- Stewing meat, beef or lamb
- Carrots
- Potatoes
- Broth or stock
- Dried herbs such as thyme and rosemary
- Salt and pepper
Instructions;
- Add the meat to the crockpot, and season it with salt, pepper. (no need to brown the meat but you can if you like).
- Roughly chop the potatoes and carrots and add them.
- Add some stock or broth plus a little water (to cover about a third of the stew).
- Add herbs like thyme and rosemary (for lamb) or basil (for chicken) and spices e.g. smoked paprika, onion powder, chilli powder (you choose).
- Put on the lid on the crock pot and cook the stew on high for two hours, then turn it down to low and cook for about four more, until the potatoes are soft and the meat is tender.
Fish Chowder
Ingredients:
- Fish
- Onion
- Garlic
- Stock or broth
- Tinned corn, either plain or creamed
- Salt and pepper
- Onion powder
- Paprika
- Dried or fresh thyme
- Sour cream or creme fraiche
- Lemon or orange zest
Instructions:
- Finely chop the onion and stir-fry it with the garlic until it starts to get translucent.
- Add some broth or stock, then half-fill the pot with water.
- Let that cook for a while, then add the corn.
- Season the fish with salt and pepper, and paprika, thyme and onion powder, if you have. Make sure it’s in smallish pieces.
- Once the soup comes to a simmer, add the fish. Let it simmer for about ten minutes, or until the fish is soft.
- To finish some sour cream or creme fraiche, and some citrus zest, and salt, then serve hot.
Tips for cooking in a crock pot:
- For roasts, such as leg of lamb, beef brisket or a whole chicken, cook it for 4 hours on high OR 2 hours on high then 4 on low OR 8 hours on low.
- Lamb works best on low, so it gets tender, but chicken is fine on high.
- Meat should be defrosted before you start cooking it, or it’ll end up tough.
- For chicken breasts or spare ribs, cook them for 2 hours on high or 4 hours on low.
- Stew is also best on low, or high and then low, so it’ll be tender.
