Day 1: Spaghetti and mushroom marinara sauce with parmesan cheese. Sauce came in a pouch. Boiled the pasta and added the sauce after I strained the water. Put it on simmer and stirred it for a minute to warm up the sauce.

Day 2: Oriental shrimp and noodles. Took two bricks or Ramen. One was Oriental flavor and the other was Shrimp Flavor. Boiled for 2 minutes, added 1 can of cooked shrimp. Added Ramen flavor packs as well as some curry, garlic, and pepper.

Day 3: Louisiana Chicken and Rice: 1 bag of Riso brand black beans and rice. Cooked that up, added 1 can of chunk chicken, stir, add some spices..Cayenne, black, and red pepper along with garlic and some salt. Yummy!

None of this was easy-quickie freeze-dried stuff. I had to cook. So you need a stove with a variable flame (or some way to simmer the food.)

Additionally we had some Peanut Butter & Maple Syrup to mix up and spead on crackers. (Fat, Sugar, and Starch..woo-hoo) We had some BearNaked Granola (overpriced/overrated), Clif Mojo Bars (awesome!) and Instant Oatmeal for breakfast.

I could have opted for organic or higher quality noodles, but Ramen is cheap and you can avoid much of the MSG by not using the seasonings they give you. Bring your own, that’s what I did.

I also have a dehydrator. I didn’t use it to dry anything for this trip, but have done so in the past for long-term trips or ones where we had a lot of people going. I’ve dried fruits, veggies, herbs, and meats. It’s worth the investment and labor if you want to save money and plan to do a lot of backpacking.

Here is a link to their website:

http://www.mountainhouse.com/index.cfm

Bert

Your home owner insurance should cover it, no matter what state you live in. However in most areas it is not recognized as a “normal” household item. If you have records of purchases, and photographs of your pantry, your homeowners will cover it…eventually. May take you some time arguing with them, but they will cover it.

By the way, you need to learn to use those foods, and cook with them on a daily basis, for them to be useful to you and your family in the event of an emergency.

Once you start to price those freeze dried #10 cans, you will find that the price of the food is not that bad. When you remove the water from food, it takes up far less space. So many #10 cans have 80 servings, or more. Do the math, and compare it with fresh items, and you start to find the price is not as much as you thought.

Waiting until an emergency to break into the food storage is a bad idea. For example, we purchased 50 pounds (!!!!) of dehydrated alphabet chicken noodle soup. It gives my mother heartburn so bad, she calls it “death burn.”

One brand of scrambled eggs tastes rather like snot mixed with paste. Another brand is pretty good.

You need to know these things BEFORE an emergency. Also remember when storing freeze dried and dehydrated foods they take a LOT of water to cook up. It’s not like opening a can of chili, which already has all the water it needs. You have to add all the water. So you must store a lot of water, or have a way to purify water.

If you want a lot more information about food storage, email me, and I’ll direct you to a very good food storage group.

~Garnet
Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years
2 years food storage in our pantry, for 3 adults (at 5000 calories a day)
Making our own purified drinking water for over a year now

http://www.freezedriedsurvivalfood.com

http://www.freezedriedfoodreviews.com

You could search for “mountain house freeze dried food” and that would help find places. The only place I have ordered from is Nitro-Pak. They’ve been around a forever and have great prices.

Hope that helps.