Rotating emergency food stocks

Food, Nutrition and Agriculture
jennyjj01
Posts: 3465
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 11:09 pm

Re: Rotating emergency food stocks

Post by jennyjj01 »

Bosworth wrote: Sun Feb 24, 2019 10:06 am Hi. I wouldn’t be against the idea but most of my food preps are built up over a long time. Refreshing them early enough to be useful to others would need a fairly chunky investment and far more active management than I have time for.

For example, next time I refresh a box it’s likely one of these listed below will go. I always try and find room, but I can’t take over the whole house...

If the world fell apart today I would be perfectly happy eating any of this stuff, if it was not spoiled, hence keeping it for as long as possible.

Apologies for the poor formatting - cut and paste from pretty word documents doesn’t work on the forum...


Mixed Food Box
4x

Qty Weight Type Description Expiry
1x 2,600 g Tin Fruit Cocktail Dec 2015
1x 280 g Dry Smash mash potato (9 servings) Jul 2012
20x 108 g Dry Pasta’n’sauce
- 5x Macaroni Cheese
- 5x Cheese leek and ham
- 5x Chicken & mushroom
- 5x Cheese & broccoli)
Jan 2015
2x 500 g Dry Pasta (shapes) 2015
1x 500 g Dry Pasta (spaghetti) 2015
5x 500 g Dry Risotto rice Mar 2015
10x 80 g Dry Noodles – chicken Oct 2014
2x 454 g Tin Irish Stew Aug 2016
2x 454 g Tin Chicken & Vegetable curry Jun 2016
2x 454 g Tin Sausage Casserole Oct 2015
5x 454 g Tin Meatballs in tomato sauce Jul 2016
2x 454 g Tin Hotdogs (8) Sep 2016
2x 454 g Tin Chunky Chicken in white sauce Sep 2016
2x 200 g Tin Ham Jun 2014
1x 300 g Tin Spam 2016
1x 300 g Tin Pork 2016
1x 300 g Tin Salmon 2016
1x 454 g Tin Peas Jun 2013
1x 454 g Tin Ravioli Jan 2013
1x 51 g Wrapped Chicken stock cubes (6) Sep 2015
1x 375 ml Jar Dark Soy Feb 2015
1x 150 g Dry Vegetable Spelt Mar 2014
2x 40 g Dry Onions Jun 2015
2x 50 g Dry Mixed vegetables Apr 2015
1x 454 g Dry Skimmed Milk Powder (~8 pints) Sep 2014
Other Miscellaneous extra bits for padding
- Pasta’n’sauce etc.
- Extra tins etc.
1x Tin opener
END. October 2013
Admirable list, Bosworth.

How many similar boxes do you reckon you have?

My observations...
You've probably bought enough food to last a LONG time. But a long time of 'pot noodle' diet without cooking! In a real shtf war-zone scenario, you'll see folks pounding grain, making some sort of bread and boiling up a hearty broth. You don't seem to be prepped for that. To be honest, I don't have you down as a cook? No offence meant. Pot noodle on the days no-one else feeds you?

It's not as crap as you suggested, though. even if the tins are 'everyday value'
Where's the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree or pasata... or pasta sauce jars? Almost everything I'd use rice or pasta for would need some.
What: No Baked beans? Can be used with mashed spuds or spam to make a meal.
Nothing bread like? No flour, yeast or oatmeal? Life's so much better if you can make some sort of bread, just once a week..
No oats, cereals or crackers? They can be cheap and last a year or two.
No Tea or Coffee? Not much milk.
No cooking oil?
Effectively only two onions. That's just lip-service to cooking.
Do you have kids to feed? Something sweet and filling like redy-brek? Some chocolate and beer for morale?

Generally, you seem to have considered meals to be either edible from the tin or a boiled kettle away 'pot noodle'. Open your mind to what you can do in a frying pan while that pasta or rice is on the boil.

I suggest you try. really try to make up a dead simple sauce from 20g dried onions, a tin of tomatoes a teaspoon garlic flakes and a glug of Worcester sauce. Then add rice and maybe a few cubes of spam and scoff it. You'l see tomatoes in a new light.

On a positive note, You've embraced the instant dried pasta and noodle sachets. I have very few of those and I might add to mine, however, something in them gives me migraines, so I'll need to add paracetamol :)

Oh and try those meatballs. If they are a value range, you may be shocked at how ill they make you!

Hope the feedback is taken in the spirit intended.
JJ
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought

Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
User avatar
Deeps
Posts: 5797
Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2014 8:36 pm

Re: Rotating emergency food stocks

Post by Deeps »

I've got some cheap meatballs, a fair bit actually and again if you 'pimp' them they're alright. Dried bits and bobs and cooked in the sauce, either with a wee bit of extra water or passata to hydrate them and voila ! I'd get bored eating them every day but with pasta or tatties (or rice etc if that's your bag) but they're cheap and give you a bit of an option.