Food Staples you should have in case of an emergency
What are Food staples for emergencies? What foods should I have on hand and or in stock?
What food should I stock for emergencies?
How much emergency food supply do I need?
Check out some tips and ideas for food staples in case of emergency aka food staples for emergencies.
It’s no secret that the Corona Virus is spreading rapidly and it’s no secret people are doing the people thing and panicking. Don’t be one of those people! One of the reasons my family and I do not panic is because we are prepared. Not only are we prepared with our emergency kits we are prepared food wise with our food staples. I plan our meals for at least two weeks most of the time. Sometimes it is three weeks or a month.
One huge way I do this is I make freezer meals in advance. If you don’t know what freezer meals are or you haven’t started please click here to read all about my simple tips to help you get started. And if you want ideas for freezer meals you can keep reading!
One of our food staples for emergencies is spaghetti…why? Because you can make a huge amount of sauce and freeze it. If your power is out you can also share with your fellow neighbors. Where did that go anyway? People these days are quick to forget about their surrounding neighbors who in fact may be doing worse off than you so go ahead and bring them a meal.
If they are quarantined then drop it off at their door and ring their doorbell or knock. You don’t have to come in contact with anyone! Sorry, just had to get that off of my chest before anyone said anything about that scenario
Another food staples for emergencies would be chili! You can make your chili vegetarian or not, with or without beans, you choose. That’s the glory in chili! I’ve had some amazing chilies all cooked with different meats, beans, or lack thereof. Same thing goes with the spaghetti you can make it with or without meat. We make it both because my son doesn’t care for the meat so I usually make a small batch of just the sauce for him. Click here for my AMAZING chili recipe!
Now, this meal is all about the meat but again you can substitute for a vegetarian flare. Taco meat, make a bunch (it’s really simple) and freeze it or go ahead and make some dishes and put in the fridge to eat for the next few days. You can make enchiladas, taco bakes, taquitos, etc… Huge food staples in our household.
One thing I always do and you’ve heard me talk about before is buying a rotisserie chicken and shredding it and bagging it up to make 4-6 meals. These freeze amazingly but you can also put them in the refrigerator for 3 days. If you need some inspiration for meals to make with your shredded chicken check out my posts below!
5 Easy Meals in 30 minutes or less
5 Instant Pot staples you need to cook now
One thing is you want to keep in mind is your budget, how to stockpile food on a budget and making in bulk and freezing is one of the best ways I’ve found to help with that.
One meal that you do not have to cook and my kids think are food staples for emergencies is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They’re simple easy and pretty cheap. Peanut butter is a cheap non perishable food really. It last a pretty long time in your pantry. Don’t go and buy those un-crustables because you will waste so much money. Just make your own with these cute sandwich cutters and you can freeze these as well.
Now, one meal I didn’t want to mention because I have so many friends who don’t eat beans but I have to because it is one that is super cheap and I love beans so I had to include it on my list for food staples for emergencies. Beans and rice or bean soup. Depending on where you are in the world you can get some pretty cheap rice and beans are always super cheap.
Instant Pot Beans recipe
Equipment
- instant pot pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 1 lb dry kidney or pinto beans
- 6 cups water
- 2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Soak beans for at least an hour then drain
- Put everything into Instant pot and push Manuel (or pressure cook) and set to 45 minutes
- Quick release to let all pressure out
Notes
They’re even easier to make in your instant pot and don’t take all day. We grew up on red beans and rice, navy beans and rice, northern beans and rice, bean soup, etc… because it is Cheap and you could change out which bean you were eating to have some sort of variety.
One tip I want to also share is the cheapest cut of chicken is either going to be the thighs or the legs. Usually the breast is the most expensive part of the chicken so if you’re looking to save some money opt for the darker meat.
There are so many chicken recipes I can’t even begin to go into those but if you want to get some ideas on super easy fast chicken recipes you can check them out here. Because let’s face it chicken is one of the if not the cheapest meats.
I like to tell people to have at least 2 weeks of emergency meals planned out but if you can do a month that is even better! I have a month of emergency meals in my freezer right now and it took me all of 2 hours to make them all.
Well, I hope I have helped you in this crisis with at least one thing. I hope you’ve gotten an idea of the foods to buy in case of an emergency. Now, go look in your pantry make a list of staples you have and get to work making some meals! If you want to make things easier you can always check out my pre-made meal plans. I have 10 amazing meal plans that are already done for you with recipes and very detailed shopping lists. Check them out by clicking Here!
PS) Don’t forget to grab your free meal plan here
very simple way of explanation which covered maximum aspects, Thanks for this article from
catering food suppliersuk, keep going on”
Great info. Thanks for sharing.
These are some important tips and recipes you have shared at the perfect timing. Well done
Some great tips on staple foods and always a good idea to make more and freeze. we are lucky, living where we do, we can grow so much and these are exchanged with neighbours for the vegetables we don’t have. Stay safe
Hi Jenny,
We too have started a garden this year and our neighbors have their garden as well and we share food and tips with each other over the fence lol (we share a fence) We are so lucky to have amazing neighbors huh?
Very useful information you are providing at right time. Thank you.
Thanks, I love the tips and the list you’ve shared. We all should be prepared and food is very essential in case of such emergencies. I’m updating my list with few of your shared items. Be safe and take care
Some excellent tips on meals that can be frozen in advance. I like freezing pasta sauce too – and it can be used in many other recipes as well, which is an added advantage. In the current panic, it is sometimes simple things like this that a lot of people forget!
Most the staples you mention are what I have in my larder or freezer! Here in Italy pasta and pasta sauces are number one. But I also freeze chili and have a stock of dried beans in the larder! I like your tip to freeze a rotisserie chicken. I’ve never thought to do that!
Thanks for sharing this….some of these I didn’t think about before…gonna stock up of them!
Thank you for this Felicia. I was actually thinking about this yesterday. This came just in time. Luckily my family loves spaghetti and that always goes down well. I am going to prepare some meals and freeze them.
This is a great list to have. It is so important to be prepared! Thanks for sharing
Thank you for sharing the list of important food staples. I believe in this situation they are useful because of coronavirus