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91K views 116 replies 94 participants last post by  gatekeeper2earth 
#1 · (Edited)
Don’t want to stockpile 1,000 pounds of dried rice and beans? Want something that taste a little better then MREs? Want something that you don’t have to worry about rotating out?

One of the main problems with stockpiling survival food preps, is that people sometimes stockpile what they do not normally eat. So the food stocks sit in a closet, expire, and have to be thrown out. In the long run its easier to stockpile what your family normally eats so rotation is handled in a natural manner.



What are the requirements for a survival food prep?

Nutrition content
Calorie content
At least 1 year shelf life
No special storage after opening / or, serving size so that the whole thing can be eaten after opening
No special cooking requirements – open and eat, or heat and eat
Something your family normally eats
Considerations for special diets
Price



1. Honey – Stores for long time without refrigeration, can be used as a topical anti-biotic ointment, can be added to other foods, does not have to be cooked or re-hydrated, contains trace minerals.

Honey should not be given to children under 2 years of age. People with certain allergies should not eat honey due to allergic reactions.

2. Peanut butter – only stockpile what might be considered “organic” or “natural” peanut butter. Some types of peanut butter on the market contain partially hydrogenated oils, which has been linked to coronary heart disease. In 2006 the New England Journal of Medicine published a report linking trans fat consumption and coronary heart disease. So be sure to read the labels of your Peanut Butter – if it has partially hydrogenated oil listed as an ingredient, do not buy it.

My family stocks up on Jif Natural and Skippy Natural peanut butter.

Jif Natural Creamy 18 ounce jar:
Serving size – 2 tablespoons about 33grams
Servings per container – about 15
Calories – 190
Calories from fat – 130
Total fat 16g
Saturated fat – 3g
Trans fat – 0g
Cholesterol – 0mg
Sodium – 80mg
Total carbs – 8g
Dietary Fiber – 2g
Sugars – 3g
Protein – 7g
Calcium – 2%
Vitamin E -10%
Iron – 4%
Niacin – 20%

Skippy Natural Creamy 15 ounce jar:
Serving size – 2 tablespoons about 32grams
Servings per container – about 13
Calories – 190
Calories from fat – 140
Total fat 16g
Saturated fat – 3.5g
Trans fat – 0g
Cholesterol – 0mg
Sodium – 150mg
Total carbs – 6g
Dietary Fiber – 2g
Sugars – 3g
Protein – 7g
Vitamin E -10%
Iron – 4%
Niacin – 20%

Notice that the Jif Natural has 80mg of sodium, while the Skippy natural has 150mg of sodium. My family will probably be phasing the Skippy Natural Creamy peanut butter out of our food stocks in favor of the lower sodium content of the Jif Natural.

3. Some kind of canned fish – whether this is tuna fish or canned salmon, its left up to the taste buds of whoever is going to be eating the stuff.



Eating a lot of fish is a double edged sword – due to our dependence on coal fired power plants, most of the waterways around the world and fish are now contaminated with mercury. Its not recommended that pregnant woman (or anyone else) eat a lot of tuna these days.

Due to the mercury in tuna, and other fish, I'am kinda leery of listing it as part of a survival food stockpile.

Fish is a good source of protein, with tuna having about 10 grams of protein and 100mg of Potassium per serving.

Tuna also stores for a long time – the can I’am looking at right now has an expiration date of August 2013, which is 2 years and 7 months from when this article was posted.

Canned fish usually comes in 2 serving cans, which makes it ideal for adding to noodles or something else.

4. Nutritional Drink – Often overlooked are survival food preps that contain a lot of nutrients. One simple solution is to stockpile a supply of nutritional drinks. These can be drank before or after a workout, or as a meal replacement.

To keep my supply of drinks rotated out, I will drink one about 45 minutes – 1 hour before my workout. I feel that the drinks give my body fuel to run on during the cardio and strength training parts of my workout.

Currently my family stocks 3 different types of drinks – Ensure muscle health, Equate nutritional shake and Jillian Michaels ultimate shake.

Ensure muscle health expiration date – September 2011, which is 1 year and 8 months from when this article was posted.

Equate nutritional shake plus expiration date – December 2011, which is 1 year and 11 months from when this article was posted.

Jillian Michaels ultimate shake expiration date – August 2011, which is 1 year and 7 months from when this article was posted.

All of the listed drinks do not require any kind of special storage, besides being kept at room temperature, they are packaged in single serving containers, and they are jam packed full of nutrients.

For a list of nutrients, lets take the Ensure Muscle Health drink for an example:

Vitamin A 25% • Vitamin C 50% • Calcium 35% • Iron 25% • Vitamin D 40% • Vitamin E 25% • Vitamin K 25% • Thiamin 25% • Riboflavin 25% • Niacin 25% • Vitamin B6 25% • Folate 25% • Vitamin B12 25% • Biotin 25% • Pantothenic Acid 25% • Phosphorus 35% • Iodine 25% • Magnesium 25% • Zinc 25% • Selenium 25% • Copper 25% • Manganese 60% • Chromium 25% • Molybdenum 50% • Chloride 4% • Choline 15%

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 Calorie diet.

With a storage life of over 1.5 years, nutritional content, convenient packaging, no special storage requirements,,,, all of this makes nutritional drinks a good option for the survivalist food stockpile.

5. Canned beans or canned fruits -Not only for the fiber, but also for the nutrients and protein of the beans. The important topic is to stockpile what your family eats all the time, so that your survival food stocks are rotated out on a natural basis.

The drawback to eating canned foods is the sodium content. As an example, the 15 ounce can of Ranch Style Beans I’am looking at right now has 700mg of sodium per serving – and there are 3 servings in the can. If someone were to eat the whole can, your talking 2,100mg of sodium for single meal.

On the opposite side of the Ranch Style Beans, an 8.5 ounce can of Del Monte Pear Halves has 10mg of sodium, but the pear halves also have 23g of sugars.

Great Value cut green beans – sodium 390mg per serving, calories per serving 20, potassium 150mg, vitamin A 6%, Folic Acid 4%.

Great Value whole kernal corn – sodium 310mg per serving, calories per serving 60, dietary fiber 3g, sugars 4g, Iron 2%

Great Value pinto beans – sodium 410mg per serving, calories per serving 90, dietary fiber 7g, sugars 1g, Iron 10%, sugars 1g

Conclusion:

So there ya go, a short and simple list of foods that people can stockpile for SHTF, and also eat on an almost daily basis. I just do not recommend eating canned foods everyday due to the high sodium content.

There are lots of other good survivalist food preps options, such as mountain house, or storing rice and beans in mylar bags, but in this article I wanted to focus on food stocks that can be bought from just about any grocery store.
 
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#45 ·
Sort of thread necro, but I wanted to come back in here and correct a previous statement I made. I was shopping today and went to the peanut butter aisle. Originally, when I had priced the natural peanut butters, they were a lot more expensive than the regular type.

That is not so, today. There was about 20 cents difference in the prices between the two, and even though it's more expensive, it's no longer enough to keep me from buying it. So, thanks Kev for the kick in the pants to go check again. :D:

Now.......if I could only find a solution for the price of Ensure.....
 
#50 ·
PB, honey, spam, tuna, beans, rice,...
Heck,
Thats 80% of what I eat now anyway!:)

Throw in a couple big jars of Molasses. I LOVE the stuff!
My local farmers market sells honey and molasses in quart jars.
I usually have 2 or 3 of each on hand.

Throw in some lbs of dried oatmeal, and dried peaches and I'm pretty much livin' it large.
 
#53 ·
As an apartment dweller, cooking and storage are an issue. So I've focused on various canned foods and meal replacement powders that don't need to be cooked. And though I have ready access to #10 cans of beans, I don't store those. I'm only responsible for myself and my wife, and if the fridge was out due to power issues, the bigger cans would spoil once opened.

My stores are mainly comprised of:
Bushes Baked Beans
Dinty Moore Beef Stew
Peanut Butter
Canned Tuna
Canned Corn
Canned String Beans
Pancake Mix (just add water)
Instant Rice (small bags)
Pasta
Macaroni and Cheese
Lean Body Meal Replacement Powders
Multi Vitamins

I'd like to draw attention to the Lean Body powder. They come in boxes of 20 or 42 individual packets, comprising of 330 cal, with 40g protein, 8gr fiber, low sugar, and high in essential fatty acids. They are also fortified with vitamins. They have a shelf life of over a year, don't require cooking, are light weight prior to adding water so the carry well, and they taste great. You can get them at most health/suppliment stores, or order them online. The cheapest and most reliable online source is bodybuilding .com.
 
#86 ·
shelf life flour



I have regular flour more than 5 years old that is just fine. The trick is NOT to seal it tight. Flour & sugar need to 'breathe' that's why it is packaged in paper bags. Keep it dry, cool, dark, and a lid that keeps 'critters' out without keeping the air out. I buy it in 5# bags in the fall when the stores use it as a 'loss-leader' for the holidays. Weevils like heat, so, I do not buy it in the summertime. Weevils are edible btw and only hurt your eyes when using your flour. I have a 55g drum I keep the bags of flour in with the top on but NOT sealed air-tight. I use about 5# of flour a month depending on my baking urges so I keep it rotated. I have apprx . 200 5# bags on hand at any one time. I have only found weevils once in ten years and they were in a couple bags I had bought in the summertime.
 
#55 ·
food prep items

What I have been doing is vacuum packaging , rice, barley, and all kinds of pasta, also the dried mushrooms, Another item that has a 2+ year shelf life is tomato paste, just add water and wholaa. Another great item is a "Kelly Kettle" sold on ebay,it boils water with a minimum of fuel, you don't have to build a huge fire to give away your position/situation. Hope this helps. Dan
 
#56 ·
DEating a lot of fish is a double edged sword – due to our dependence on coal fired power plants, most of the waterways around the world and fish are now contaminated with mercury. Its not recommended that pregnant woman (or anyone else) eat a lot of tuna these days.

Due to the mercury in tuna, and other fish, I'am kinda leery of listing it as part of a survival food stockpile.
Actually, the only fish that really end up contaminated with mercury are the ones that live long lives. Short lived fish (such as salmon) don't live long enough lives to collect enough mercury in their systems to do you any harm at all. It's the ones that can live for a long time (like tuna and halibut) that you should probably not eat more than once a week. Stuff like salmon and trout will be perfectly safe though.

So long story short, buy canned salmon for your preps. There won't be enough mercury in it to hurt you. Or with any fish you think of buying, check the average life expectancy of that kind of fish before you plan on eating it regularly.

I'm a psychology major and we talked a lot about this in my childhood development class since it's an issue with the development of babies during pregnancy.

I hope this helps! :thumb:
 
#69 ·
Actually, the only fish that really end up contaminated with mercury are the ones that live long lives. Short lived fish (such as salmon) don't live long enough lives to collect enough mercury in their systems to do you any harm at all. It's the ones that can live for a long time (like tuna and halibut) that you should probably not eat more than once a week. Stuff like salmon and trout will be perfectly safe though.
Sardines too. They are awesome for you, and you can store tons of cans of them without taking up too much room.
 
#57 ·
Great ideas , especially peanut butter. I nearly live on the stuff anyway.
One caution is that one should be careful about canned beans. I bought some canned Northern Beans a couple of weeks ago that were so salty I could not eat them. Unless I find some with very low salt content I will stick with dry beans.
 
#58 ·
Just adding a tip re honey storage. I usually buy the large plastic containers at Sam's. Then I re package it into pint mason jars. Make sure your jars are clean and completely dry. Seal with regular lid and ring, no processing required and store as you wish. When you are ready for a jar, it may very well be crystallized, but just loosen the lid, put the jar into a pan over low heat and it will liquefy again. Just keep water out of the jar and it will be good forever. I don't store anything in plastic long term, and keeping honey in glass allows you to liquefy it without worrying about melting plastic.

Someone mentioned shelf life of white flour. White flour doesn't have a lot of nutrition anyway, so it doesn't matter if you lose some. As long as it is bug free when you put it up, it will store and be good many, many years. I vacuum pack mine in roughly 5# batches although I have some in #10 cans. I have whole wheat berries and a wheat grinder for making bread. Grind the whole wheat as needed because the flour doesn't store well, and add enough white flour to give your bread a lighter texture.
 
#62 ·
For those who worry about excessive peanut butter usage, bear in mind that it varies with body type and metabolism. If you have a V-shaped body (wide shoulders and narrow hips) you will crave protean more than anything else. The peanut butter will be a good staple if you vary it with other types of protean, especially fish. If you have a pear shaped body the situation changes and you will never understand the need for concentrated protean.
Everyone should offset the proteins with fruit and veggies and everything will stay balanced, hopefully.

I still like Kev's list and realized that baked beans in cans would be the alternative for my dislike of salty beans.
 
#67 ·
A comment: most adults in the USA eat a lot more protein, especially in the form of meat, than they need to. A little bit of canned or dried beef, chicken, turkey, pork, or fish can go a LONG ways when mixed with other staples such as rice, lentils, beans or split peas and such (cous cous or quinoa if you prefer or need a change) which also have protein.

Per 100 pounds of body weight, here is approx. how much protein you should consume to be healthy:

Protein per day if you're not very active - 36.4 grams or 1.3 ounces
Protein per day if you're active or pregnant - 59.2 grams or 2.1 ounces
Protein per day if you're extremely active or in training - 81.9 grams or 2.9 ounces

The protein in one chicken egg is 12.6 grams. Most meats have about 7 grams of protein per ounce. Thus a single "quarter pounder" from McDonalds is about 28 grams of protein (not including the cheese or bun - just the meat).

Besides health problems (too much protein can cause kidney or liver problems), the point is that you can have a healthy diet with much less meat per meal than most people usually consume.

I love meat, but I am cutting back on the amount I consume (doctor's advice).
 
#68 ·
for those that are apprehensive of canned tuna use it (well drained - if oil packed feed oil to a pet if you have or add to the casserole if you can stand the the added fat and sodium) in a casserole made with cooked 16 oz bag of egg noodles (more nutrition than rice), 2 cups chopped up canned cheese or even cheez whiz pourable in bottles (high sodium though) a can of sliced mushrooms (****ake best) and a can of cream of mushroom soup. use 2 cans of tuna. mix all together w/the hot, drained noodles and bake until somewhat browned on top in 325' oven.
this should make about 8 large adult servings of an entree that will hold you a very long time. very filling and satisfying - it could be stretched to 12 servings for kids. if they are hungry enuff to eat it when shtf likely will be...
the idea is the noddles and cheese add protein, fat and nutrition to the tuna allowing less tuna to be eaten per serving or per day as the case may be.
I prefer the albacore but it is more $$.
 
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