What Preps are you doing this week? Part 4

[CraighR]

I feel like a bit of a looser. I haven't done any food prep. Just running and firmness training and training with my Bow.
Maybe I should revisit my plan and get some food saved.
Would you guys really rather make your own food then buying ex MOD rations? I loved my boil in the bags personally.
Is it a cost saving scheme or are your foods better?

[Stonecarver]

For anyone who uses olive oil. Lidl will have extra virgin oil on special from 2.39 to 1.49. I of course will be buying a couple of cases of 12

[Jamesey1981]

Nothing wrong with rat packs, but they weren't really designed to be eaten long term, they're missing some nutrients, they're often high in salt and low in fibre, it's also an expensive way to buy food.
They're certainly worth having, but I personally think it's better to plan your preps around normal food, you can not only get more variety, but you can save some money and have a more balanced diet if you plan it properly.

[CraighR]

Nothing wrong with rat packs, but they weren't really designed to be eaten long term, they're missing some nutrients, they're often high in salt and low in fibre, it's also an expensive way to buy food.
They're certainly worth having, but I personally think it's better to plan your preps around normal food, you can not only get more variety, but you can save some money and have a more balanced diet if you plan it properly.

Ok that makes sense. SO what are the recipes and ways of storing that you guys use? Where do you find them?
I persoanlly do not cook. I have a wife that is awesome in the kitchen and kinda lived on burgers and pizza till I met her.
SO any ideas would be awesome.

[Jamesey1981]

First thing to think about in my opinion is starch and calories and one of the easiest and cheapest ways of getting those stored up is rice. You can buy big bags in most large supermarkets but it's a lot cheaper to visit an Asian supermarket, they sell it in huge sacks, white rice stores better than brown as brown has oils in it that can turn rancid.
Once you have your rice you can be thinking about what to put with it to give you the missing nutrients and make it interesting, I have huge amounts of dried beans stored, you can store canned but dried store better, cost less and take up less space.
Everything else depends on what you like to eat, if you're a meat eater you'll want meat, there's the usual corned beef and spam but also check the polish section of your supermarket or a polish store, they have a lot of different kinds of canned meat and some are a lot nicer than spam.
Of course there's also tinned curries, stew and various other things, just keep an eye on the salt content, it can be very high.
Canned fish is good, mackerel and sardines are cheap and give you fatty acids it's hard to get elsewhere, so try some stuff out and add what you like.
You'll need vegetables, I have canned and dried, like many others on here I buy it when it's cheap and dry it myself, if you fancy doing that you can get a dehydrator pretty cheap that does the job, I'm happy to share a link to the one I use and I'm sure others will be too.
Fruit is good, I have lots of canned fruit, not just as a prep but also to use everyday, a lot of fresh fruit upsets my stomach, but if it's dried or canned I can eat it and I don't fancy scurvy!

The main thing is, what I store probably won't be right for you, but think about what you like to eat and think about how you could make it out of dried, canned or otherwise stored ingredients then stock up on those things, just make sure you have a good amount of a staple like rice, pasta or beans then you can add to it to make it into a more interesting diet, but if you're left with only that it will keep you going and give you energy long enough to improve your situation.

[Deeps]

First thing to think about in my opinion is starch and calories and one of the easiest and cheapest ways of getting those stored up is rice. You can buy big bags in most large supermarkets but it's a lot cheaper to visit an Asian supermarket, they sell it in huge sacks, white rice stores better than brown as brown has oils in it that can turn rancid.
Once you have your rice you can be thinking about what to put with it to give you the missing nutrients and make it interesting, I have huge amounts of dried beans stored, you can store canned but dried store better, cost less and take up less space.
Everything else depends on what you like to eat, if you're a meat eater you'll want meat, there's the usual corned beef and spam but also check the polish section of your supermarket or a polish store, they have a lot of different kinds of canned meat and some are a lot nicer than spam.
Of course there's also tinned curries, stew and various other things, just keep an eye on the salt content, it can be very high.
Canned fish is good, mackerel and sardines are cheap and give you fatty acids it's hard to get elsewhere, so try some stuff out and add what you like.
You'll need vegetables, I have canned and dried, like many others on here I buy it when it's cheap and dry it myself, if you fancy doing that you can get a dehydrator pretty cheap that does the job, I'm happy to share a link to the one I use and I'm sure others will be too.
Fruit is good, I have lots of canned fruit, not just as a prep but also to use everyday, a lot of fresh fruit upsets my stomach, but if it's dried or canned I can eat it and I don't fancy scurvy!

The main thing is, what I store probably won't be right for you, but think about what you like to eat and think about how you could make it out of dried, canned or otherwise stored ingredients then stock up on those things, just make sure you have a good amount of a staple like rice, pasta or beans then you can add to it to make it into a more interesting diet, but if you're left with only that it will keep you going and give you energy long enough to improve your situation.

Pretty much what Jamesey says, you can't go wrong with the prepping mantra of "store what you eat, eat what you store". You just need to figure out what works for you. If you're planning on running off to the hills then either ratpacks or a DIY alternative will be be your thing, if you're planning on staying put then you can eat more 'normally'. The duration you foresee your stores needing to last will have an impact, and have a look at the food section on here. A lot of us do the dehydrating, both individual stuff like onions, apples or whatever and also DIY walking meals. If you're planning on short 'outages' then there's no real need to get too bogged down with the balanced diet/2500 calories etc but its easier to sleep on a full stomach. For longer term then you will need to think about getting that balanced diet or as close as you can get, vitamin pills can help here.

Strange as it sounds, I really enjoy doing the dehyrdated meals, I use Quorn as the missus is a veggie but it has less issues than getting the fat out of the meat, you get to make meals to your palate too, I like spicy so I make things spicy, have a swing through the food section mate.

[CraighR]

First thing to think about in my opinion is starch and calories and one of the easiest and cheapest ways of getting those stored up is rice. You can buy big bags in most large supermarkets but it's a lot cheaper to visit an Asian supermarket, they sell it in huge sacks, white rice stores better than brown as brown has oils in it that can turn rancid.
Once you have your rice you can be thinking about what to put with it to give you the missing nutrients and make it interesting, I have huge amounts of dried beans stored, you can store canned but dried store better, cost less and take up less space.
Everything else depends on what you like to eat, if you're a meat eater you'll want meat, there's the usual corned beef and spam but also check the polish section of your supermarket or a polish store, they have a lot of different kinds of canned meat and some are a lot nicer than spam.
Of course there's also tinned curries, stew and various other things, just keep an eye on the salt content, it can be very high.
Canned fish is good, mackerel and sardines are cheap and give you fatty acids it's hard to get elsewhere, so try some stuff out and add what you like.
You'll need vegetables, I have canned and dried, like many others on here I buy it when it's cheap and dry it myself, if you fancy doing that you can get a dehydrator pretty cheap that does the job, I'm happy to share a link to the one I use and I'm sure others will be too.
Fruit is good, I have lots of canned fruit, not just as a prep but also to use everyday, a lot of fresh fruit upsets my stomach, but if it's dried or canned I can eat it and I don't fancy scurvy!

The main thing is, what I store probably won't be right for you, but think about what you like to eat and think about how you could make it out of dried, canned or otherwise stored ingredients then stock up on those things, just make sure you have a good amount of a staple like rice, pasta or beans then you can add to it to make it into a more interesting diet, but if you're left with only that it will keep you going and give you energy long enough to improve your situation.

Pretty much what Jamesey says, you can't go wrong with the prepping mantra of "store what you eat, eat what you store". You just need to figure out what works for you. If you're planning on running off to the hills then either ratpacks or a DIY alternative will be be your thing, if you're planning on staying put then you can eat more 'normally'. The duration you foresee your stores needing to last will have an impact, and have a look at the food section on here. A lot of us do the dehydrating, both individual stuff like onions, apples or whatever and also DIY walking meals. If you're planning on short 'outages' then there's no real need to get too bogged down with the balanced diet/2500 calories etc but its easier to sleep on a full stomach. For longer term then you will need to think about getting that balanced diet or as close as you can get, vitamin pills can help here.

Strange as it sounds, I really enjoy doing the dehyrdated meals, I use Quorn as the missus is a veggie but it has less issues than getting the fat out of the meat, you get to make meals to your palate too, I like spicy so I make things spicy, have a swing through the food section mate.

Hey guys. Awesome answers.
Please send me the link to the dehydrator that you use. I bought tonnes (literally) of canned foods and bags of rice in South Africa. There we have a civil war thats been brewing for years so I had loads of time to prepare.
Although I doubt the UK is nearly as volatile as SA its not perfect and you have your own terrosits running about.
I had always considered canned food the best as it takes less time, seemed to me that it be A LOT less likely to go off, and was easy to carry (in a vehicle.
In the Uk the issues as I see it are that there is a lot less space to hide. If it comes down to it that the SHTF then there are a lot more people in close proximity coming on the scrounge and due to the lack of tools to keep robbers at bay you would need to move somewhere. I would have though forest region with a bow (hence why I have one). I was planning on cans as a supplement. But you guys are saying that you can (easily) dry your own food and make it last the same time span as cans? And also that it is better quality? Is it really that much cheaper to do that it warrants the extra work?

I love this as its so new to me. We had the bags of rice ( I think I had 120kg of it) plus pasta and about 4 months of canned food. Gave it all away when I left. It never occurred to me to make my own dried food.

The polish stores are an idea that also never occurred to me. I'm not a fan of spam, would rather eat the canned curried meatballs etc, however if I'm hungry I will eat anything.

Thanks for your time and advice guys.

[Deeps]

Type 'dehydrators' into the big online sellers and you'll see there's a huge range, same as anything, some cheap, some really gucci. My missus got me one (was about 50 quid), one of the round ones with 5 trays. There's loads of stuff on youtube as well, what I usually do when I'm making a big pot of chill/bolognese/Quorn chicken curry is cut the veg up small, trying to get the onions etc roughly the same size so they dry evenly and quickly and then put it on a cut to measure bit of baking parchment. Once its dried I break it up and 'armour' the contents with a triple layer of they vacuum sealing bags. Label (with date) and stick out the way. The only extra process is the dehydrating and vac sealing. I've not done it but you can boil pasta then dehydrate it, when you hydrate it again it takes a lot less time if time/fuel is an issue.

Same as anything, do the research mate and have a play, see what works for you.

viewforum.php?f=21

Have a swing through dude.

[Jamesey1981]

The main advantage with dried food over canned is the space and weight saving, a large proportion of what is in a can is water, both in the food and sloshing around in the can so if you can take that water away then you only need to store the food itself and replace the water when you're going to use it.
Canned food has its place for sure, and I store both, some people on here also can their own foods which is an old school but very effective way of storing stuff, it can be a struggle to get the equipment here though, it's huge in the USA but not so much over here.

Different foods need different treatment if you're going to dry them, there's loads of info in the food section on here and also there's loads of homesteaders in the states that have made YouTube videos on the subject so have a scout around on there to see if it's for you.

Stored properly dried foods can last the same or longer than cans so I think it's worth it, and I also dry my own backpacking meals, I mainly bought the dehydrator for that (and beef jerky!) but I've got into using it for all kinds of other things.

This is the dehydrator I use https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282067921093
The clear plastic is a little flimsy although I haven't broken anything yet, it's cheap, has a temperature control (this is important, you can dry fruit and veg at a lower temperature, this helps to preserve the nutrient content, but meat needs to be dried at a temperature that won't allow bacterial growth.) it does the job pretty well in my view, I bought a cheap one as I wasn't sure how much use I would get out of it, doesn't feel like it'll last forever but it's lasted me about two years and shows no signs of letting me down, it's paid for itself many times over in the savings on beef jerky, I like beef jerky.

Oh, one other thing, a while ago I posted a link to the church of the Latter Day Saints preparedness manual, it's available as a free PDF download, the church encourages food storage and self reliance and there's a huge amount of info in there, there's a little religious stuff in it which isn't really for me but I personally think it's worth a download. Use the search function and you should be able to find it.

[Yorkshire Andy]

If you have a garden grow your own veg?

As for storage most kitchen kickboards pull off and you can stash food there

You sorted how you are going to cook it?