2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

I think a good first line of defense for food
preps would be to have 2 weeks of good food
that's ready-to-eat or very simple to prepare
with ZERO (or very little) cooking.

WHY?

FOR THESE TYPES OF SCENARIOS:

A short-term 2-week SHTF event happens.

Things are crazy in the World with rioting
idiots running around looting and shooting.

:fan:

1) You need to quickly "Bug Out" (Get Out Of Dodge);

OR

2) You're "Bugging In" (staying at home)
to protect your property and family,
but the power is out and you have no
electricity to cook!

SHTF PREPS NEEDED:

* You need 2 weeks worth of good nutritious
tasty food for your family of 4.

* You don't want to eat SPAM and Twinkies
(OK, maybe a few cans of SPAM and 1 box
of Twinkies is alright)

* You can't go to the store - you have to
eat for 2 weeks out of your 2 week preps.

* You don't have electricity for the stove
and only 1 Coleman gas canister for the
camping stove. (hardly any cooking)

* If you're "Bugging Out" you need your
2 week supply to be in a container/box
for quick "grab and go." (not too bulky/heavy)

2 weeks is a long time to not go to the store!!!

What food would you buy for this kind of situation?

Let's make a grocery list!

I'll start...

Water
Instant coffee (YUK!)
MREs - Meals Ready to Eat (Army Grubb)
Canned Meat - tuna, salmon, chili, etc.
Canned Fruit - pears, pineapple, etc.
Canned Veges - peas, green beans, etc.

What else?

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

I think for a bug out bag you've got your list pretty good. I would go heavy on MRE's. They can be a bit expensive, but you can run on one a day(per person) and they are light weight and small enough to throw in a good sized bug out bag(or several smaller oness.)

Id go heavier on the canned veggies than fruit. Canned fruit is good for something sweet, but the veggies would be a better balance.

Water is very important. BUt you're looking at needing around 4 gallons a day(for 4 people) x 14 days. Thats 56 gallons(or one 55 gallon drum). Can you carry 448 lbs of water easily? If not, then you are defently confined to bugging in.

Of coruse you could cut that water in half easily, if you are willing to sacrafice and know that your final destination will have water. Heres a link to some good water info:
http://www.survivaltopics.com/surviv...without-water/

If you are bugging out over some unihabitated area, you can carry water purification tabs, or iodine, and get water from lakes, streams, etc. Just make sure that wherever you are going, you know theres natural water around.


Canned meats are good, bugging out or in.

I still think that if bugging out and on the go survival, MRE's are your best bet, its just what they are meant for.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

If the thought of instant coffee "yuks" you -
what about
10 Monster boxes of lipton tea!!
also- if you are in supply of water- the purifying tabs, or the means to boil large quantities like matches and a big cauldron/pot.

trying to think of things you didn't have -

Canned Legumes/beans-Chick peas, kidney beans, black bean (frijoles negros!) etc.

Monster jars of Olives- Black pitted very good for camping-

Chili's with meat and the veggie version too. Hearty fill people up fast
pork and beans -

agree with Heimy on the veggie kick-

canned string beans-
"peas"< (YUK)
Corn - Lots of CORN!

SARDINES!!! & canned tomato- Your grandparents ate sandwiches of that.
(very nutritious)

Several liters/gallons of chicken broth and dry "noodles' to cook over an open flame.

BOXES of CRISP bread. MULTI GRAIN only. Sorry you'll LEARN to love it- i do- WASA etc.

probably wouldn't hurt to have some SPAM (no for real) and if you wnt to as a luzury!! a few jars of caviar- Oh that reminds me SNAILS or

Escargot are not expensive, tasty (garlic butter sauce) and filling. + a few cans of those.

PICKLES - Crunchy - - tasty and fun

BEER
Keep a bottle of cheap vodka too, could come in handy as an antiseptic.


ALSO- IMO-
It would be ideal if you had some plant either at home or at you desty that were sustainable or semi- sustainable for the course of your stay.
Maybe a tomato plant or two- some basil - beats, etc. whatever will grow in your area.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

Good stuff Heimdhal and AGRO.

I like the MRE idea a lot. (The ARMY already figured this out!)

Sardines and WASA bread are good. I like em.

Here are a few more ideas...

ATF - Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
BBB - Beans, Bullets and Bullion

:4_1_72:

But seriously...

I was checking out www.eFoodsDirect.com
and saw these "3-Day Responder" and
"Grab n Go" packs...

http://www.efoodsdirect.com/products...responder.html
http://www.efoodsdirect.com/products...od-supply.html

Good food? Or no?

:RockOn:

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

plenty of hardtack pre baked

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

2 weeks ?

Heck, I could live 2 weeks on peanut butter and saltine crackers....

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

i bought 4 cases of MREs for this type of situation. figure they'll last about 3-4 weeks.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

If i was to pack a Bug Out bag i think i'd go with the MRE's for first choice. if $$ is an issue, i agree with TA, nothin wrong with pb/crackers. also a couple of granola bars/day, jar of pickled eggs, canned veggies, beef jerky, and some smoked fish.

Hopefully, i can just Bug In, in which case i can go for two weeks from just my normal fridge and cabinets and not even tap into my preps.:ok:

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

Hmm, 2 weeks SHTF??

Well, the basics are:

1. Shelter
2. Water
3. Food

Since it's SHTF situation should we assume no electricity, no natural gas??

Can you heat your home, or stay warm enough not to freeze to death in the first couple days?

After the first couple days you MUST have water, right??

After that I agree with Andy. My nutritional health won't deteriorate much on peanut butter and crackers in just two weeks. It's after that I need to have preps for. Most people have enough canned goods and dry foods in the house to eat very well for at least two weeks, if not a lot longer. But then again dry foods will require water.

If you are on the move MRE's are hard to beat.

s

ps If TSHTF I don't really plan on digging into my long term/emergency preps for at least a couple weeks, or more, while I eat my normal food, which I can.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

cliff bars, cans of tuna, cans of soup, spuds, rice, noodles, cans of chili

That is easy, stores for along time and is plenty variety for a few months IMO. Now, talkng longer than a few months - sure get out all the crazy survival stuff like MRE's and mountainhouse and grind up that red winter wheat stuff that I hope to never see.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

Thanks for the great input everyone.

Here's the updated list...


2-Week SHTF Food Preps


MREs - Meals Ready to Eat
4 Cases from www.MREfoods.com

Proteins:

Beans - Black
Meat - Canned tuna, salmon, chili, spam, etc.
Kipper Snacks
Sardines

Fats:

Almonds
Butter - Canned
Peanut Butter
Peanuts

Carbohydrates:

Bread - Crisp Multi-Grain - WASA
Canned Fruit - pears, pineapple, etc.
Canned Veges - peas, green beans, etc.
Crackers
CLIF Bars
Gravy - Canned
Jelly
Potatoes - Instant
Noodles
Rice
Spaghetti Sauce

Other:

Candy for the Kids
ATF - Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms [For me]

:applause_ :banana:

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

CLIF Bars.....Not good look in to it.

ATF - Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms [For me]:111::111::111:
Thank you for this it's something we all need to think about.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

ATF - Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms

x2 Gonna wanna toast at the SHTF party
:biggrin:

ST

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

http://www.thoseshirts.com/images/model-atf-C375.jpg

:111:

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

there are no reservations at the table of life

you get what you can take, you keep what you can hold


lock 'n load

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

I have to move two weeks of food out of the way, just to get out of bed in the morning.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

I must be a lame prepper. I just went with six cases of a couple different kinds of Campbell's soups. I figure that could carry me at least a month.

-but then again I am expecting to relocate soon and didn't want to deal with a huge pile of supplies either, so I haven't really thought much about a bigger stockpile yet.

-----

I don't think you can really "plan" for a extended crisis situation, beyond having something nutritious to eat. And for a time period of only a month or so, I would not be too concerned about having a variety of foods either, really.

During a famine, if you look too well fed, people who aren't will notice.

------

I still tend to think that the best prep to make is to have transportation--to have a way to get out of the area. A vehicle that is ready-to-use, and to have enough fuel on board to not require stopping for refueling for the trip at all.

If you look at most recent disasters, the people who got it the worst are the people who got stuck in the worst area, with no way to get themselves out.



-end-

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

Soup is good, but a lot of soups are protein poor. Seafood is a great addition - I like tuna and salmon, and some trout.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

Wow. I thought I was the only person who eats that combo. You must be Scandinavian. Good for you. Good and healthy!

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

English

Kipper Snacks on Nacho Cheese Dorito chips are good too!

SPAM-ghetti is awesome too! :ok:

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

My favorite way to cook SHTF oats or grains are to pour boiled & still hot water into a "keep hot" thermos along with the oats or any gain. You can add beef jerkey or any other soup fixings.

Seal the thermos and in 8 hours (overnight) everything will be completely slowcooked and ready to eat. No simmering, just that initial boil and that's it.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

a fifty pound bag of rice and 3 or 4 dogs will keep a family going for a while.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

:111::111::111::111:

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

If your going the MRE route I'd also recommend adding some psyillum husk to the menu. Just a thought. You don't want to experience a stoppage.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

when the japanese invaded Manila during ww2 my father was 7 at the time. his family took to the hills, each person/children included carried 50 lb sacks of rice. other "preps" included the two family german shepards= bitch produced milk and puppies provided "meat" for the duration of the war. sometimes you gotta do what you got to do to survive...this was after my grandfather was shot in the head and thrown in the river.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

...just sayn

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

Be careful if you decide to go on amount of meals, it can vary greatly. A better measurement would be based on calories.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

I've been working on extending my "hurricane supply" food stores (of only about 1 month) to more of a 3 month supply. Eventually I'd like to work up to 6 months, but with a family of 6, and no basement or garage, storage space is a problem. (PMs are much more space efficient!)

Looking at the list above, I see you have children. I would highly recommend adding dry milk powder to your stores. No, the kids don't like to drink it, but you can add it to a lot of foods for increased nutritional value. They might learn to like it if they have no other option!

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

Um, I'm not Scandinavian, but I keep a supply of both.... and eat them together.

Yum.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

Actually it has since occurred to me that the Campbell's soups tend to have a lot of sodium.

I don't have any health condition that would make eating the stuff for a month life-threatening, but it is obviously not the simple solution to the question......

-end-

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

Another thing to think about which not many consider when putting together their survival foods is to make sure the foods you buy have no salt added or are low sodium.

The higher the sodium content the more water you'll need to drink to dilute it.

Even canned vegetables can be high in sodium.

Watch that sodium!

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

Many Campbell soups, if not most, contain MSG and are high in sodium.

Canned soups are a terrible choice for survival food unless you are watching the labels and buying a low sodium soup.

If not, make sure you have enough water to dilute it all.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

You are absolutely correct about the salt and other nasties in canned soup. But, in our case it conforms to the admonition "to store what you eat and eat what you store." Soup is our staple lunchtime meal. Typically breakfast and dinner are more healthy. Yesterday, for instance, we had a garden salad with julienned chicken breast and cheddar cheese with garlic toast for dinner and bagels with cream cheese and juice for breakfast. Makes the evil canned soup just a tad more acceptable. As for the need for water to dilute the soup, try fixing other disaster meals without water. The Mountain House freeze dried, beans, rice and wheat aren't much good without water either. Go ahead and make some suggestions for stored food that can be prepared without additional water. I'm genuinely interest.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

2 weeks of peanut butter? I hope you stocked up on the John Wayne tp. :111:

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

I'm curious what Mamboni thinks would be a good 2-4 week supply of food stuffs. If Mamboni were to make a two week menu what would it include? Assuming a SHTF scenario.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

Yeah, but we're talking about when SHTF...not your normal everday meals.

We have plentiful water right now so most dont even think about that excess sodium.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

If you want some good tasteing dried milk go to a mexican store and buy some "Nino" brand that has some fat left in it. OP did put in the stipulation that the foods needed to be prepared without added heat, that makes it tough.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

There are quite a few canned goods that have a lot of sodium in them. I stay away from high-sodium canned foods when I buy at the grocery store. There are, however, some healthier brands of soup and other canned goods that have less sodium (as much as 50% less Sodium). I buy those healthier brands of canned goods as my food prep. When I buy the canned goods at the grocery store, I just look at the nutrition labels to see how much sodium is in that canned food. I only reason that I know this is because I am cutting down on my sodium intake and I look at the nutrition labels on every canned good (and any other food item) that I buy. This works for me since I buy canned goods as my food prep.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

I think you are probably correct in the way you view this issue. In the future, I should be looking for the low-salt canned soups. Now, I ask this question: Why do all the canned soup companies charge extra for the salt that they never put into the can in the first place. The healthy, low-sodium canned soups are always much more expensive. And simply because of the salt they never put into the can?

And the answer is: because they can.

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

I got 2 cases (12 MREs per case) for $160 here...

http://www.mredepot.com/catalog/Case...lery_thumb.JPG

http://www.mredepot.com/servlet/the-...Eat/Categories

Got 2 "Tray Rats" too (tray rations - feed 18 people)

http://www.mredepot.com/catalog/Tray%20Pack_thumb.JPG


:banana:

Re: 2-Week SHTF Food Preps - What to buy?
 

Haha...good question. I have asked it myself.

Im pretty sure its because they sell much less of this type of product so therefore produce it in smaller batches.

Smaller batches = More expensive.