30 Day Grid Down Food Prep Challenge.

[arakboss]

Other than actually gaining weight, what's your reason for 2.4K cals/day? I'd be planning on 1.8-2k cals/day (and in extreme circumstances one meal a day) unless I knew I had some serious physical work, like cutting/splitting wood (that I'm actually doing, but not everyday all day) from all the trees being damaged in the ice storm, but even then I'd keep it maxed at 2.2k cals/day for that.

I was actually hoping to lose a few pounds over the month. I calculated my TDEE at 2800ish. Since heating up food is going to require more work, no left overs in the microwave, frozen pizzas, etc, I expect I will be eating less. I suppose that depends on how many snack foods I buy. My plan was to buy enough food to provide for 2400 calories a day, I don't necessarly have to eat them all. I am already going to be way out of my comfort zone for my daily diet. I didn't see the wisdom of making that more worse by cutting 30% or more of my current calorie intake.

 

[Howard1955]

I haven't read every post here, so this might be repeating someone:

If you have a pressure canner, then canning meat is a good idea.

 

[arakboss]

The part about carrot storage starts at about 5 minutes on the counter.

Pretty cool but I think I will have to stick with canned carrots if it all.

 

[arakboss]

I'd include quinoa, peanut butter, tuna, wax covered cheeses, basic camper kitchen tools. Make sourdough. Lotsa root Veggies. Various teas. Cast iron cookery over outdoor flames. Cowbiy coffee. One pot meals. Sounds challenging in urban setting.

Keep us posted.

PB, tuna, cheese will be on the list. For bread I am going to stick with tortillas as we keep them around for weeks on a normal basis and rarely have to throw them out. I like lots of non-dairy liquid creamer in my coffee but for month of march I am going to have to cut back and use the little single serving packs like they have in restaurants along with powdered creamer. I live in a condo so outdoor fires are not going to be an option for me. Meals are going to have to be super simple. If I wasn't worried about money I would just Mountain House my way through the entire month but that food cost arms and legs these days.

 

[arakboss]

I haven't read every post here, so this might be repeating someone:

If you have a pressure canner, then canning meat is a good idea.

We have an instant pot but canning seems very labor intensive to me. My mom use to do it when we were kids and she would be working on that stuff entire days at a time. The canned meat should suffice for a month.

 

[Camelfilter]

Missed it:

Are you going to do such based upon what you would normally have on hand at any given time?

Or are you asking for suggestions on what other folks would normally have on hand, and you would likely be able to buy in a more common reasonable midterm localized outage?
---- ---- ----
It's best to store what you eat, then eat what you store. So look towards what you normally eat, and simply extrapolate towards what you would normally have on hand to make such or similar.

If you don't normally use tortillas, you wouldn't normally have them on hand. Oversimplified example. However you could likely still buy them in a reasonable midterm localized outage. Useless & wasteful if you don't like them.

Then there's efficiency. If you all eat stuff that you normally cook in an instapot type cooker, then perhaps get a small stove top pressure cooker (or few). We don't have an instapot type deal, but do have a few small stovetop pressure cookers. Use them mostly for simple staple stuff like rice*, lentils, steel cut oats etc.

*Parboil rice, mostly these days. Best compromise towards nutrition & storage. Second to PB rice is jasmine simply for preference & diversity. Not much nutritional value to Jasmine / Basmati etc compared to PB, primarily carb load/flavor/consistancy/diversity.

However, as above, if you all don't normally do rice dishes, not much sense thinking you'd enjoy such.

Not talking about a starvation type situation where you'd make about anything work, preferences be darned. Simply thinking on what you'd normally have at hand, or be able to buy local.

B&M canned breads, sailor boy crackers as another example. If you don't normally / even occasionally eat them, you wouldn't have them at hand. Unlikely to source them locally either.

Short term shelf life crackers/breads? Sure. Depending on the comeuppance, would still likely be able to source local.

Also, would you be using your normal current washing / dishwashing? If not, try to calculate in water usage / time as if you weren't. Cereal / coffee cleanup vs pancakes vs ham & eggs ex.

Just some thoughts.

 

[OldTengu]

I plan on getting a couple of cans of the canned cheese. Winco's store brand is pretty good and much cheaper than the name brand. I love block chesse though so I am going to buy a couple of two pound blocks and see how they hold up on garage shelf. I am also wondering how long I could store eggs on the garage shelf. They are pretty cheap these days and cook fast.

My grandfather used to buy the blocks of cheese and store them in the cool garage, in their sealed wrapper until it had swollen and burst. That's how he decided it was ready to eat.

 

[Lilhigbee]

I can vouch for the lime-water egg storage and the meat-canning. Jeannie and I just finished a dozen eggs that had been stored in the garage in lime water for eight months. The membrane around the yolk gets weak so it breaks easily when you crack it, other than that they were fine. Fried some, boiled some, used the rest for cooking. All perfect.
And canning meat isn't that hard. Hamburger is the best!! I'd rather eat things made with canned hamburger than fresh. We've also canned steak, chicken breast legs and thighs, bacon and pork roast. All perfectly edible straight from the jar, although the bacon is a lot more palatable after some time in the skillet. The Presto canner can hold sixteen wide-mouth pints at a time. Approximately a pound of meat per. About two-and-a-half to three hours total time invested per canner load. Lasts a whole lot longer then the "Up to eighteen months" it says for the jar lids. And we have enjoyed the learning experience and the comfort of being that much more prepared if SHTF.

 

[arakboss]

Missed it:

Are you going to do such based upon what you would normally have on hand at any given time?

Or are you asking for suggestions on what other folks would normally have on hand, and you would likely be able to buy in a more common reasonable midterm localized outage?
---- ---- ----
It's best to store what you eat, then eat what you store. So look towards what you normally eat, and simply extrapolate towards what you would normally have on hand to make such or similar.

If you don't normally use tortillas, you wouldn't normally have them on hand. Oversimplified example. However you could likely still buy them in a reasonable midterm localized outage. Useless & wasteful if you don't like them.

Then there's efficiency. If you all eat stuff that you normally cook in an instapot type cooker, then perhaps get a small stove top pressure cooker (or few). We don't have an instapot type deal, but do have a few small stovetop pressure cookers. Use them mostly for simple staple stuff like rice*, lentils, steel cut oats etc.

*Parboil rice, mostly these days. Best compromise towards nutrition & storage. Second to PB rice is jasmine simply for preference & diversity. Not much nutritional value to Jasmine / Basmati etc compared to PB, primarily carb load/flavor/consistancy/diversity.

However, as above, if you all don't normally do rice dishes, not much sense thinking you'd enjoy such.

Not talking about a starvation type situation where you'd make about anything work, preferences be darned. Simply thinking on what you'd normally have at hand, or be able to buy local.

B&M canned breads, sailor boy crackers as another example. If you don't normally / even occasionally eat them, you wouldn't have them at hand. Unlikely to source them locally either.

Short term shelf life crackers/breads? Sure. Depending on the comeuppance, would still likely be able to source local.

Also, would you be using your normal current washing / dishwashing? If not, try to calculate in water usage / time as if you weren't. Cereal / coffee cleanup vs pancakes vs ham & eggs ex.

Just some thoughts.

Good questions. I would like to store what I eat. If I can lose a few pounds on this diet then all will be good, if not it will be back to the drawing board. It would be much harder to store healthy fresh foods in any quantity so I am hoping this works. I don't eat much fresh foods like veggies in normal times so those foods won't be missed too much. I do eat a lot of fresh meat but the canned meats that I will be eating in March can be stored for quite a long time. During normal times I will have to try and substitute some canned meats in place of fresh meats so I can keep stock rotated. Crackers, chips and other prepackaged goods may or may not survive a monthly rotation but we'll see. I will try to buy items in mylar type bags with sell by dates weeks or months out. I just bought some Cheetos puffs the other day and the bag has a guaranteed fresh by date of 18th of May. They are packaged in a mylar bag.

I was thinking about the dishwasher last night after posting the thread. I think I will cheat and use the dishwasher as I am not tracking water for this challenge. I am used to washing dishes with very small amounts of water at my cabin, so I am confident I could do that during a disaster period here at home. Maybe on the next challenge period I will try to go without city water but that is going to be tough. In a major disaster I would likely not be working so I would have more time to haul water from the Willamette River. I have filters and containers on hand.

 

[arakboss]

My grandfather used to buy the blocks of cheese and store them in the cool garage, in their sealed wrapper until it had swollen and burst. That's how he decided it was ready to eat.

I am going to give it a go. I love Tillamook or Bandon medium cheddar, we rarely have less than two unopened blocks in the fridge at any given time. I might buy one sharp for March as I heard it sweats less.

 

[ma96782]

I like to stock up on canned goods at Winco. When the canned green beans and corn hits $0.50 a can, it's time to stock up.
Spam, corned beef, corn beef hash, Vienna sausages, chili, mac and cheese, oat meal, spaghetti noodles, ramen, various soups, tuna and canned spaghetti sauce are also staples at my house.

MREs are also good to have.

Rice and dried beans are also good to have on hand.
BUT.......without an elec. rice cooker.......well, I'm not so sure. But then....making rice soup is easy enough. LOL.

Aloha, Mark

PS....don't forget the various broths and drinks (not really speaking of drinking alcohol types). And standards: cooking oil, salt, sugar, etc....

 

[arakboss]

I just picked up a box of 200 mayo packets for less than $10. That will make the Tuna and other canned meats go down easier. I picked up a boat load of crackers and other individually package sweat treats for about $40 from Grocery outlet. $10 of that $40 bought a huge 54oz tub of organic refined coconut oil. That would supply over 13,000 calories if polished off the whole tub. No corned beef though

Edit: I decided to pull out the heavy hitter (camp chef two burner with oven) for cooking duties as I left my both my two burner table top stoves at my cabin.

I grabbed a 20 pounder when I was picking up the camp stove from my mom's place and stopped by Bimart to pick up an adapter hose. While at Bimart I spotted a sweet food thermos so picked that up too, so I can have hot lunch while working.

 

[powersbj]

A couple of laying hens would be better than all the processed meats, but only if you have the room.

 

[arakboss]

I am thinking about buying evaporated canned milk because I can't stand the smell or taste of powdered milk especially at room temp. Any ideas on how long a can of evaporated milk would last on the shelf after opening?

 

[arakboss]

A couple of laying hens would be better than all the processed meats, but only if you have the room.

I am liking the water glass idea for storing eggs, which are crazy cheap to buy these days.

 

[powersbj]

I am liking the water glass idea for storing eggs, which are crazy cheap to buy these days.

If you can get unwashed eggs they don't require any refrigeration.

 

[arakboss]

If you can get unwashed eggs they don't require any refrigeration.

Unwashed, probably won't find those for cheap in grocery store?

 

[powersbj]

Unwashed, probably won't find those for cheap in grocery store?

Neighbors have chickens? If they've started laying there is usually an excess to be had for cheap. But if we're going for cheap, protein dry beans are probably the biggest bang for your buck, skip the meat other than a little flavor.

 

[Soli]

Never thought of it along with low energy use (cooking) as a factor.

Seems like hydration would be a thing to do, because rice and beans are both cheap and stable. The dry kind. Soak them for as long as necessary before cooking. Cooking is chemistry, the heat changes things, but I imagine that cooking time would be reduced considerably if they started out hydrated.

Do a root cellar set up, cool, dark and dry area. Vegetables, root vegetables and some fruits last weeks in such an environment.

My wife is big into oats, don't know why lol but she says they're a great grain. Oatmeal.

Protein will be where the money goes, I imagine. Sausage may be a way to go. Any smoked/dried meat really. But $$$.

Have oils. Will easily keep a month.

Thanks for doing this, I'll be following your progress!

Last thing - if you don't know spices/herbs and such learn them. Amazing things happen to bland food.

 

[Camelfilter]

If you can get unwashed eggs they don't require any refrigeration.

Nor do store bought. Just don't last as long room temp, because they've already been stored before they hit the shelf.

A month would be roundabout rite for store bought at room temp.

Would also float test any after a week or so, store bought room temp storage.

However given current temps, would store them outside or unheated garage this time of year.