# Pandemic Cooking



## dwaynefries (Aug 28, 2020)

With our pandemic going on right now, I have been putting a lot of thought into pandemic cooking. I have 5 kids so the idea of getting emergency food rations from a processed food company is far out of a price range. Instead, I have been putting a great deal of thought of how to put things together on an average day and average budget. I do not consider myself a prepper by any means. After going to the grocery store when the pandemic started, I realized I should make some changes around how food is done around the house in case of shortages though.
One of the things that I did was make a list of a few weeks of a menu that works for our household. Some of the normal recipes, though not normally done with shelf stable items, can be. For example, one item that I like to make is split pea soup. The peas for it are shelf stable. I normally buy pre-sliced up ham to include, but there are small cans that can be bought for a small price. I like to include sliced potatoes in my recipe, but there are cans of this as well for sale. 
This brings me to my final point. As a normal household, there are plenty of times I either garden or buy extra vegetables at the store and they begin to go bad before I actually use them. I have a dehydrator and have begun to dehydrate all of those extra vegetables. I do not include things like potatoes because instant mashed potatoes are really cheap. For all the others, after they have been fully dehydrated to a crisp, I grind them all up in a coffee grinder into a powder. You would be amazed of how a hundred vegetables can fit into a really small container. Dehydrators are only like $40 so I would highly recommend everyone have one. With that vegetable powder, you can mix a small amount into a small tea cup with boiling water as a broth. I often have a hard time eating all of my vegetables within a day, but I can easily down a small cup of this broth and feel good that I have a full set of daily vegetables down. It is not going to have the necessary fiber that comes from the structure in the vegetables, but it will have all the necessary vitamins and minerals. 
My only other suggestion in the dehydrating the vegetables, I slice the vegetables to the right size for the dehydrator first, and then boil them completely before dehydrating. This makes it easier to mix for a broth first.
I welcome any comments.


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## JC in GB (Aug 28, 2020)

Meal and emergency planning are always a good idea.  One of my main problems with it is planning for the correct emergency.

When the pandemic hit and the state shut down, I had a freezer full of meat and home made sausages that got me comfortably through the shut down.  Had the emergency been no power for three weeks, I would have been in trouble.

I have also made alcohol stoves and a wood fired stone oven to cook food in the case of a long term power outage.

I prefer a multi-faceted approach with frozen, dried , and canned foods.  Your vegetable powder idea seems like it would work well as emergency rations. 

The key to survival IMHO is not hoarding but sharing.  Everyone is going to have something they can contribute and a group working together has a far better chance of survival than a  single person going it alone.

Make your connections today.....

JC


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## tallbm (Aug 28, 2020)

dwaynefries said:


> With our pandemic going on right now, I have been putting a lot of thought into pandemic cooking. I have 5 kids so the idea of getting emergency food rations from a processed food company is far out of a price range. Instead, I have been putting a great deal of thought of how to put things together on an average day and average budget. I do not consider myself a prepper by any means. After going to the grocery store when the pandemic started, I realized I should make some changes around how food is done around the house in case of shortages though.
> One of the things that I did was make a list of a few weeks of a menu that works for our household. Some of the normal recipes, though not normally done with shelf stable items, can be. For example, one item that I like to make is split pea soup. The peas for it are shelf stable. I normally buy pre-sliced up ham to include, but there are small cans that can be bought for a small price. I like to include sliced potatoes in my recipe, but there are cans of this as well for sale.
> This brings me to my final point. As a normal household, there are plenty of times I either garden or buy extra vegetables at the store and they begin to go bad before I actually use them. I have a dehydrator and have begun to dehydrate all of those extra vegetables. I do not include things like potatoes because instant mashed potatoes are really cheap. For all the others, after they have been fully dehydrated to a crisp, I grind them all up in a coffee grinder into a powder. You would be amazed of how a hundred vegetables can fit into a really small container. Dehydrators are only like $40 so I would highly recommend everyone have one. With that vegetable powder, you can mix a small amount into a small tea cup with boiling water as a broth. I often have a hard time eating all of my vegetables within a day, but I can easily down a small cup of this broth and feel good that I have a full set of daily vegetables down. It is not going to have the necessary fiber that comes from the structure in the vegetables, but it will have all the necessary vitamins and minerals.
> My only other suggestion in the dehydrating the vegetables, I slice the vegetables to the right size for the dehydrator first, and then boil them completely before dehydrating. This makes it easier to mix for a broth first.
> I welcome any comments.



Hi there and welcome!
I understand what you mean.
I started buying up meat based on sales but didn't hoard.  I would buy up to the limit and cook it, vac seal, and freeze it.

Like JC, had my emergency been that power went out I would have been a bind so its good to be covered in a few different areas.  I wasn't worried about power outage in this scarcity emergency, just having enough to feed me and those I'm responsible for over a prolonged period of time.

I also have plenty of noodles and rice in the pantry so in a no electricity situation I still have food.  I have this stockpiled from when the grocery store would clearance those items out over the years.... Then I seriously cut down my carbs over the past couple of years so the stockpile sits haha.  I also bought a 25 pound bag of rice when things got scarce as that would go a long way should things have gotten bad.

My spice cabinet is ALWAYS full of spices with some backed up hahaha.

I am however lacking on canned items.  I have a "small" amount of canned tomato and maybe 6-12 cans of beans.  I bought 2 packs of ranch style beans form costco when i bought the bag of rice just in case i needed canned items.

If I were to really prepare with canned items I would buy more AND I would take meat I buy on sale pressure can it in quart jars.  This would solve the no electricity situation and a no heat/fire situation.

I really like the idea of dehydrated veggies but I have no garden so no constant supply.  Canning them in a pressure cooker would be a thing too for low acid veggies.

Finally, if you really want to get efficient and crafty get some tubs of protein powder.  There are a billion options out there that have tons of carbs, fats, as well as protein and options that have almost nothing but protein.  The idea is that if u can get clean water u can have a meal with enough basic nutrients to get through almost any emergency.... except a toxic water and/or a no fire situation to purify water dirty water.  For the bad water situation I have a gallon of plain unscented (no additives) 100% bleach where  0.75 milliliters  (8 drops) to a gallon of water makes the water drinkable.   If the water is full of toxic stuff this doesnt help but for general water that needs micro nasties killed, this will do the trick.

I'm not a prepper but I am knowledgeable of a few things that I feel are fundamental for survival if you get into some bad situations.  I hunt so getting stranded alone or hurt in the wilderness drives me to learn enough entry level survival information.  This has lead to learning other non-wilderness entry level survival info so that I can keep myself or my loved ones upright long enough for help to arrive or long enough to help ourselves out of a bad situation :)


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## gmc2003 (Aug 28, 2020)

Hi ma how ya doing.

Chris


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## JC in GB (Aug 28, 2020)

tallbm said:


> Hi there and welcome!
> I understand what you mean.
> I started buying up meat based on sales but didn't hoard.  I would buy up to the limit and cook it, vac seal, and freeze it.
> 
> ...



Great comment...   A solar water distiller is on my to do list of emergency equipment.  However, being from Wisconsin, water is usually not difficult to obtain.

I never thought about using protein powder as an emergency supplement.  It is now on my list.

A simple survival solar distiller can be made out of a 2 liter bottle.


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## Brokenhandle (Aug 28, 2020)

All good ideas! We have plenty of canned vegetables on hand always, thinking of canning some meat also just to free up space in freezers. They are always full of food. We have a gas stove so cooking isn't a problem,  have two 500 gallon propane tanks at our place and two 1000 gallon propane tanks at dad's not far away.  Our water provider has generators so never lose water, if we would we have two generators and a deep well we could still get water. We also raise hogs so a plentiful amount of live food. Just hope we never have to get to that point. 


Ryan


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## tallbm (Aug 28, 2020)

JC in GB said:


> Great comment...   A solar water distiller is on my to do list of emergency equipment.  However, being from Wisconsin, water is usually not difficult to obtain.
> 
> I never thought about using protein powder as an emergency supplement.  It is now on my list.
> 
> A simple survival solar distiller can be made out of a 2 liter bottle.


I'll have to look at the solar water distiller, never read up on them at all so that is something new for me to learn about.

Yeah the protein powder thing is pretty simple.  It has expiration dates but I've gone way past and never noticed a rot or spoiling.  Maybe the nutritional value goes down kinda like having old medicine where potency decreases but it still works and never goes bad.

In any such case you just work out and make shakes with it or do some meal replacement shakes and keep rotating stock.  Much like anything you worry about with canning or expiration dates :)  If you buy soy protein concentrate or isolate you can also use it as a binder for sausage and sandwich meat making haha, thats what my soy protein gets used for other than shakes.



Brokenhandle said:


> All good ideas! We have plenty of canned vegetables on hand always, thinking of canning some meat also just to free up space in freezers. They are always full of food. We have a gas stove so cooking isn't a problem,  have two 500 gallon propane tanks at our place and two 1000 gallon propane tanks at dad's not far away.  Our water provider has generators so never lose water, if we would we have two generators and a deep well we could still get water. We also raise hogs so a plentiful amount of live food. Just hope we never have to get to that point.
> 
> 
> Ryan



Yeah thats a nice to have for sure with all that propane.  I have 4-5 1 pound tanks and always have 1 backup 25 pounder for the grill.  That will be something to limp by with should i need flame to cook with.
I have a rifle, plenty of hunting rounds, and i reload so finding live food is just a matter of finding game :)


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