View Full Version : What to eat when the power is out?
I've always prided myself on having 3 days supply of food and water and some cash for a "katrina" type scenario. But, today, the power was out. On the stove were my rice and beans, not fully cooked. If the power had stayed off for more than a few hours, what would I have had to use? Well, my water worked without power, so that was not an issue. What did I have? Well, half a loaf of bread. Cheese and salad fixings and dairy products in the fridge. But the rest? Canned and dried beans. dried rice, and legumes. Minimal amount of crackers. half a loaf of bread, oatmeal, tea, coffee, Canned tomatoes. Canned milk. No canned fruit, because I don't eat it so I can't rotate that. I don't eat pre prepackaged cereal, so I don't have that. No processed food mixes. No yogurt from the store. No candy or junk food. Just tea, coffee, sugar, grains, beans, in various forms. I think my water supply was workable, but I realized, I had no cooking source. No stove to work as it takes power. I don't have a fire place. I have a tiny portable barbeque that would have taken a trip to the shed to uncover, set up and get going. I do not own a propane stove or a fireplace. All my heat runs on electricity in my rental home. So, for tonight, I could have built a fire on the small barbecue to heat water. Drink tea or coffee. Use the pickled foods (olives, artichokes and mayo and mustard and make finger foods with them to be eaten with the scimpy cracker supply.
So, if you were facing a theoretical 3 day without power challenge, what would that look like for you? I need ideas for foods I will actually eat, so I can rotate them. So, I don't buy canned fruit. I don't buy many mixes or pre mades. I do make lots of food from scratch and closest to natural forms for the most part. But today, faced with a 3 hour dark spell of no power I had to think: what do I have? Well, two wind up powered camp lights. An emergency flashlight on a charger. The other two flashlights are about dead. I have a couple of days worth of regular, nothing special flashlights. I have a supply of cash if need be. And yet, I felt completely unprepared. I would have managed, certainly, but I didn't feel I had every idea of what I would do, if the situation got a big pinched. I think boiling water would have been the biggest challenge, just to get foods to cook. Boil water and such.
During the winter, I often have 2-5 day power outages.
I just cook atop or in the wood stove, the BBQ grill, the Evo BBQ grill, and the Coleman stove, and cook the normal regular food, just a bit differently.
Tussiemussies
6-23-12, 3:32am
I would eat as much as I could from the freezer and refrigerator so it doesn't go to waste.
Bae's idea of grilling is a good idea you could use certain stainless steel pots and cook your beans and rice on there if you soak your beans overnight.
Hopefully your power will be on soon. : ))
I have the choice of a wood stove, small propane gas sylinder for my portable stove for cooking and simple precooked food that is in the freezer like precooked chicken, chickpeas, chili, pizza, frozen simulated crab to go with salad and fruit to be added to oatmeal and the almonds.
Good question as it made me think things through.
I second all-the-above. Tap into any/all resources at your disposal. Noodles, rice, beans, tomato based dishes, and soups, just to mention a few.
Can you pick up a camp stove? Or do you have a grill you could use?
We are lucky in that we have a gas stove so we just need to light it with a match.
Mrs. Hermit
6-23-12, 9:04am
We keep a camp stove for power outs, hurricanes, ice storms etc. (got to be able to make tea!) So I could just cook on that. But, since I try not to open the fridge or freezer during power outs (Katrina events I treat differently), I also keep a stock of canned meals handy. Canned refried beans, packaged tortilla fillings and chips can make a meal. Pouches of tuna and crackers. Canned or dried soup that I can heat over the camp stove. Raw Oatmeal, peanuts, dried fruit and dried milk combined with water makes a meal. Cans of baked beans for baked bean sandwiches on bread.
Miss Cellane
6-23-12, 9:35am
The stove in my current apartment is electric, which is a pain. I have a small Coleman camping stove for blackouts. It takes longer, but you can cook rice and pasta on it, and boil water for tea or coffee (I have a french press coffee maker). I'm curious why you don't consider your barbeque a cooking source--you can boil water, make pasta or rice on it. You could wrap meat or chicken and veggies in foil and cook them over the coals. You can bury potatoes in the coals and bake them.
I keep some canned food around--stuff that I do eat on occasion. Soup, canned beets (which for some reason are sort of a comfort food for me), canned tuna, tomatoes, olives, a few cans of beans (normally I cook beans from scratch, but canned beans can be a big help in throwing together a quick and easy meal). Dried fruit, if you ever eat it, can add some variety.
Living alone, I don't have the need or the room to stockpile much food. But I do try to keep more than a week's worth on hand. So I've got 2 loaves of bread, one being eaten, one in the freezer. An open box of crackers and one in the cupboard waiting. It saves on emergency shopping trips and also ensures that in the case of an emergency, there's something to eat in the house.
My rock-bottom foods that are always in the kitchen--peanut butter, bread, crackers, canned tuna, canned tomatoes, canned beans, canned soup, boxed mac & cheese (which can be made with just water if you have no milk), some hard candy, dried fruit, nuts, oatmeal, rice, pasta, a few potatoes. You could eat from that without any cooking source for a few days--not a well-balanced or varied diet, but it would keep you alive. With a cooking source for the oatmeal, rice, potatoes and pasta, you could eat quite well for a few days.
For ideas on what foods will keep without refrigeration, check out websites about hiking/camping food. There's a lot of ideas for foods that are shelf-stable and don't need cooking. Most of the food that does need cooking could easily be made on your BBQ.
Also, as kind of a last resort, I have a few MREs tucked away. Not something I would chose to eat on a regular basis, but good enough in a pinch. They get rotated a bit, as I do take them camping/hiking. But I've heard they remain good for a couple of years at least. Again, highly processed and packaged, but for an emergency, I'm okay with that.
Can you pick up a camp stove? Or do you have a grill you could use?
We are lucky in that we have a gas stove so we just need to light it with a match.
Actually we were just given a camp stove. I need to go buy the propane for it. And actually cook on it at least once, so I know what I'm doing. You can use a propane stove indoors which is nice.
Plus, I don't use or buy a lot of bread, but in an emergency I could make tortillas or grilled flat bread, as homemade bread isn't hard to do, and I usually have the basics.
The power did come back on, so I never had to figure out what I was going to eat for dinner, just finished my beans and rice, but it made me think.
Actually we were just given a camp stove. I need to go buy the propane for it. And actually cook on it at least once, so I know what I'm doing. You can use a propane stove indoors which is nice.
Just make sure you have proper ventilation.
goldensmom
6-23-12, 12:46pm
Lamenting a 6 hour power outage one day and not having dinner ready for my husband when he got home from work he asked, "why didn't you start the generator?". I had forgotten we had a generator AND a camper with a propane stove and furnace. The camp stove is a good idea. I got my brother and wife a camp stove for Christmas one year. They poo-pooed the gift because they were not campers but then used it to cook on for a week after losing power due to a bad ice storm. I would think with a camp stove your food choices could be like any other day.
awakenedsoul
6-23-12, 1:58pm
I'm glad your power came back on and you could finish. I have a 1950's vintage O'Keefe and Merritt gas stove. I like it because I can use it even if we are without power. (My old stove had an electric ignition.) I keep plenty of dog food, water, and extra food in my stockpile. I have lots of canned tuna, dried beef jerky, and half of a baked ham in the freezer. I always have plenty of cheese, dairy, and baking supplies to make bread, crackers, tortillas, etc...I have stewed and dried fruit, plus I buy fresh fruit in bulk. I keep an extra bag of coffee in the freezer. (I have about a month's supply of food that eat from and restock each month.) I also grind some and keep it in a can since I can't use my coffee grinder if the power is out. My vegetable garden is doing really well, and I have lemons on my tree. In the fall I will have pumpkins, (which keep well,) and in the winter I'll have loads of pomegranites, citrus, and persimmons. It's a nice feeling to have all of that food growing in back, and staying fresh by being on the trees! I always keep things like peanut butter, dog treats, popcorn, frozen desserts that I've made, and homemade granola. I normally make my coffee in an electric percolator from the 1930's, but I also have a french press and a stovetop espresso maker. I keep a box of dried milk, and I also have extra cans of evaporated and condensed milk. I have a year's supply of rice, t.p., sanitary needs, etc...I keep my gas tank half full, and have cash in case I need to leave the area quickly. I also have two oil lamps I bought at the thrift store, lamp oil, candles, and matches. I have a BBQ but I need to buy more charcoal. I usually have a casserole that I either just made, or am eating through for the week. I may start keeping an extra loaf of homemade bread in the freezer. I also have a bin full of potatoes, and a stockpile of pasta. It's a good feeling! Glad you were prepared and are making changes.
It was funny to have the power go off for two hours on Saturday and this thread popped into mind immediately. It all worked out because it was a short period of time but knowing that we had bottled water, cheese, nuts and apples, a generator for power, etc., proved that we are prepared in general.
awakenedsoul
6-25-12, 1:31pm
That's a good feeling, razz. My mom always kept an excellent stockpile of food and it gave us a nice feeling of security.
During the winter, I often have 2-5 day power outages.
I just cook atop or in the wood stove, the BBQ grill, the Evo BBQ grill, and the Coleman stove, and cook the normal regular food, just a bit differently.
We used to get day long outages in the winter fairly regularly, occasionally longer. For cooking we have a similar set up to bae, several grill/smoker/camp stove options using propane, white gas, charcoal or wood. We have a Big Green Egg that can work pretty well as an oven if we wanted to bake anything. Had a woodstove that always had hot water on it anyway to help with the low humidity in the mountains. Keeping things cool or eating through a freezer full of food if the power fails in the summer would be our greatest challenge.
Bae, what do you think of your Evo grill? I've been looking at them for a little while, can't just walk by them without gawking when I'm at the local patio shop. They seem pretty sweet, but with the price tag I don't want to be impulsive!
Bae, what do you think of your Evo grill? I've been looking at them for a little while, can't just walk by them without gawking when I'm at the local patio shop. They seem pretty sweet, but with the price tag I don't want to be impulsive!
I don't think the Evo is the thing to get if you want "a grill" or are doing classic American-style BBQ'ing.
If, however, you view it as a giant outdoor griddle, Mongolian BBQ, or Spanish-style plancha, that can also be used as a nice outdoor oven with the cover on, it is a wonderful thing to have. I use it a lot to make pizzas and flatbreads, for instance, and I made pancakes for a dozen teenagers over for a study party the other day with no effort at all. It is also super for seafood, especially whole fish.
I think you could achieve much the same effect, at a lower price, if you already had a grill of some sort, and procured an iron plate of the right size/thickness and used that atop it.
Hmm....no power and no alternative ways to cook using camp stoves, etc. I would say that I'd be eating my cans of tuna, crackers and any bread that I had left over. I'd find a way to use up the chocolate and I'd probably be combining tomato soup with the reconstituted milk that I'd make up as needed. It might be room temperature but it still would be edible. I'd be downing my dried fruits and of course eating any left over fresh vegetables and fruit. Cucumber/tomato salad with a little olive oil is quite nice. No canned fruit, eh? What about home canned fruit. Home canned peaches, pears and the like? I wouldn't be using homecanned low acid veggies as those should be heated to be sure they're safe. I suppose I could do something with powdered beef or chicken broth, even if it was room temperature water.
It wouldn't be fun but I think I'd survive. It would be much harder if I didn't have access to clean running water.
I think you could achieve much the same effect, at a lower price, if you already had a grill of some sort, and procured an iron plate of the right size/thickness and used that atop it.
That's pretty much what I was wondering about. Thanks. I have a medium sized Griswold cast iron griddle that is always close to the gas grill. That is my go to burger cooking method already. I have a chunk of 1/4" steel plate in our kitchen oven for pizza & flat bread (ala M.C.). Had I been thinkng ahead I would have had it cut a little smaller. It fits great in the oven, but is just a shade wide to transfer to the grill. Once I get over my current bout of sloth I will trim it down and try a little Mongolian style cooking.
That should work perfectly, Gregg.
I have a gas stove so I could cook. But if the gas went out too I'd build a fire and do SOMETHING in the fire place. I think the experiment of trying to do something would actually kind of be fun and would also kill some time while I didn't have the internet or lights by which I could read.
Man AwkndSl--You are set!
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