A Week Living Off Rations

[jennyjj01]

Thanks again, one more question in 2 parts if I may?

1. So the meals were sustainable, do you think your work load decreased or increased and would a SHTF scenario put extra pressure on maintaining weight/muscle and

2. Would a type of weight gain powder assist in any way ( cheats chocolate "milkshake" )

It was a pretty sedentary week with just one day of real activity. I imagine that extra carbs would have helped maintain weight, if I'd been more active. I do have some protein powder and vitamin tablets, if I start to flag. Not much, though. The Porridge was my go to for a boost.

v=

Seconding pseudonym's questions here, and I think maybe you've answered it, but is there anything you're looking forward to now you're through?

Proper meat and chicken, and chips. Pretty much any takeaway or restaurant meal would have trumped the best of this week's fare. I was eating with a bunker/ bug in mentality.

[Frnc]

Day 7: Woo Hoo

Breakfast: Porridge again with honey. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Estimated 360kCal

I have porridge most days in winter, with golden syrup, vanilla and cinnamon. My recipe is 220 calories. I have 40g oats, cooked only with water in microwave, 8g golden syrup, and I stick 70g whole milk on top. I don't mix the milk in.

[GillyBee]

I used up my expired dried egg in pancakes. I think this diet is a great example of a short term solution. Longer term the calorie count might be too low, especially if SHTF forces more activity on you.

If nothing else, you have rotated stocks, identified things to avoid and things you need more of and lost some unwanted weight. That is all a big win in my book. I really ought to do the same but am currently too much of a wimp.

[jennyjj01]

I think this diet is a great example of a short term solution. Longer term the calorie count might be too low, especially if SHTF forces more activity on you.

"In the long term we are all dead"
I suppose that we don't know what scenarios we face, so the future might be a sequence of short terms. Surviving the first short period is about outlasting our non-prepping peers and buying time. If calorie count needed to increase, I could simply scale up portion sizes and scale down how long they'd last.

If nothing else, you have rotated stocks, identified things to avoid and things you need more of and lost some unwanted weight. That is all a big win in my book. I really ought to do the same but am currently too much of a wimp.

It might have been a silly, rather shallow experiment, but I well recommend any kind of scenario 'dress rehearsal'. This was an eye opener for me.

[Arzosah]

I think this diet is a great example of a short term solution. Longer term the calorie count might be too low, especially if SHTF forces more activity on you.

"In the long term we are all dead"
I suppose that we don't know what scenarios we face, so the future might be a sequence of short terms. Surviving the first short period is about outlasting our non-prepping peers and buying time. If calorie count needed to increase, I could simply scale up portion sizes and scale down how long they'd last.

If nothing else, you have rotated stocks, identified things to avoid and things you need more of and lost some unwanted weight. That is all a big win in my book. I really ought to do the same but am currently too much of a wimp.

It might have been a silly, rather shallow experiment, but I well recommend any kind of scenario 'dress rehearsal'. This was an eye opener for me.

Absolutely not silly - I think it was a really useful, focussed experiment. Nearly all of us know that we've got food for a week, but combining it, without really using much refrigeration, and keeping it tasty, is a really helpful thing to do.

[jennyjj01]

...
To be honest, I'm struggling to find Tinned ready meals that I could tolerate long term.

My concept for using tinned ready meals was not to eat them alone, but to couple the tins with either Rice, Pasta or Mashed potatoes to make two meals of about 300kCal. The tin makes the meal, while the carbs add the calories.
I didn't want my list to come only from my limited imagination, so I sought suggestions from ChatGPT. It didn't disappoint

Please create a list of meals that can be created by an assortment of tinned ready meals, combined with assorted pasta, rice and instant mashed potatoes

I’ll mix and match these pantry staples in creative ways to give you some tasty, easy-to-make meals:

1. Tinned Chili with Rice
2. Spaghetti with Tinned Bolognese
3. Instant Mashed Potatoes with Tinned Chicken Stew
4. Rice with Tinned Curry (vegetable, chicken, or beef).
5. Tinned Tomato Soup with Pasta
6. Tinned Sausages with Instant Mashed Potatoes
7. Tinned Beef Stew with Rice
8. Mac and Cheese with Tinned Tuna
9. Tinned Beans with Instant Mashed Potatoes
10. Tinned Corned Beef Hash with Rice
11. Pasta with Tinned Vegetable Soup
12. Instant Mashed Potatoes with Tinned Gravy and Chicken
13. Tinned Beef and Vegetable Casserole with Rice
14. Pasta with Tinned Puttanesca Sauce
15. Tinned Ham with Instant Mashed Potatoes
16. Tinned Pasta with Meatballs
17. Tinned Vegetable Stew with Rice
18. Tinned Chicken Tikka Masala with Rice
19. Tinned Pork and Beans with Instant Mashed Potatoes
20. Pasta with Tinned Alfredo Sauce and Tuna
21. Tinned Beef Stew and Mashed Potatoes
22. Tinned Chicken with Instant Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
23. Tinned Spaghetti and Meatballs with Rice

These meals can be made quickly, and you can always adjust the seasoning or add a can of vegetables or some herbs to suit your tastes! Let me know if you need more specific recipe ideas or combinations.

[jennyjj01]

... Over the course of just a week I couldn't dip into every type of food that I store, such as tinned soup, pulses and soya...
... These rations were incredibly low cost. I haven't costed it properly yet, though.,,,
Below is a List of what I consumed over the 7 day experiment....
...

I'm itching to do some scaling up maths on this.
What say I draw up a shopping list for a 3 month hamper? or 12?

Maybe price it up and figure out good substutions? I'm already exploring tinned and non-tinned MRES to substitute out the Tinned Curry and Beef Stew. To be honest, I'm struggling to find Tinned ready meals that I could tolerate long term. I'd certainly sub out the pilchards and sausages.

[Peter]

We tend to buy a lot of Princes tinned ready meals, originally for when we were camping, stewed steak,
minced beef with onion, chicken curry, chicken in white sauce, hot dog sausages, tuna chunks,
and of coarse corned beef. Bulk out with packet rice, instant mash or pasta.
We have always found them tasty, so haven’t tried cheaper options, however Farm Foods have good offers.

[jennyjj01]

We tend to buy a lot of Princes tinned ready meals, originally for when we were camping, stewed steak,
minced beef with onion, chicken curry, chicken in white sauce, hot dog sausages, tuna chunks,
and of coarse corned beef. Bulk out with packet rice, instant mash or pasta.
We have always found them tasty, so haven’t tried cheaper options, however Farm Foods have good offers.

Princes is an easy go-to for ready meals and they justifiably dominate. Still worth occasionally straying to try other brands. I compared Princes Minced beef with Two others and found it had only half the beef content ! viewtopic.php?p=235882#p235882 But even with that, it won in the taste test.
I reckon quality fluctuates with each of the many times these brands merge or change hands. It's all about brand loyalty. Us being loyal to them, never them to us.
Check out ASDA's tinned curries. Really good at the moment.

Looking at ready dinners...... I wonder why no-one makes tinned Sweet and Sour chicken or pork?

[ForgeCorvus]

I've battered sardines, so pilchards should work too. Mine get a bit broken, because the thought of eating the spine disgusts me I ate a whitebait once in a "I'm a celeb" moment

Yeah, I don't like the spine either..... I gives me the judders
I split them open with a table knife ( run the tip in through the underside then twist to pop it apart into two fillets) before eating as is or pounding in to course 'Pâté'

Tommy K. and salad cream are part of our stocks for a reason..... Almost anything can become edible with enough of one or the other (or both if desperate )

I like Spam, I've cooked with it several different ways. We also have the big jars of 'Furters (those are easier to stretch over several days as you can store the spares in the liquid filled jar)

Hopefully cheese powders will fill a gap in your cravings.

I wonder if you can deep fry packet mash?

Yes please, to a Three month Jenny Hamper