Canned food

News Shooter

News Shooter

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OK, I don't want this to go off topic. I'm only talking about canned food you buy at the grocery.

I'm by myself so I don't have to worry about a family. I figure I could live indefinitely on one can of food a day and could easily store two or three months worth

If you were to pick only one can of 12 oz food what would be the most filling and nutritional?

I'm thinking Dinty Moore Beef Stew to start with. What are your thoughts?[grin]
 
My personal opinion is chilli and/or baked beans; but you are going to get sick of it fast.
 
I would just get many different types of beans ,chili, stew, etc. So you don't go nuts. Keeping your positive mindset is really important during survival.
 
News Shooter said:
Any particular kind of beans? I know I would get sick of it, but this is survival mode at this point.
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Beans have more protein, such as kidney, navy, etc. The only thing is you wouldn't want that as your main diet. Stock various things you like and rotate through them.
I have dried and canned beans, but other staples to go with them so you can make more meals.
 
Also, I stock up on what I use anyway. That way I can rotate my stock ( I probably should have more). Also, Ensure is a meal type drink you can get in a can at most drugstores and have a fairly balanced nutritional value. If I only ate beans for a month I might turn into one. lol
 
Spaghetti-O's with meatballs! Mmmmmmmm.........

I'd get the Dinty Moore, but also canned chicken and tuna, beans, green beans, peas, corn, spinach, zucchini.......if you are buying cans anyway why not get a variety?
 
News Shooter said:
I'm thinking Dinty Moore Beef Stew to start with. What are your thoughts?[grin]
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Perfect! Do a side-by-side comparison, and you will see that not only does the Dinty Moore Beef Stew have an expiration date of 2+ years longer than anything else on the shelf, but it has the best balance of nutrition.

Also, if you simply add some dry rice to your food storage, you could eat the stew over the rice, and stretch your food supply for short money. Another thing to remember, is that Dinty Moore only has 240 calories per eight-ounce serving, so 1-12oz. can per day, will not even come close to sustaining your vital functions, even if you sleep all day long.
 
Canned tomato sauce will help as well. It can be added to rice, veggies, etc giving you some flavor and added nutrition. I believe it has a fairly long shelf-life as well.
 
News Shooter said:
Any particular kind of beans? I know I would get sick of it, but this is survival mode at this point.
Click to expand...

Don't stick with one thing... get a variety....seriously there is no 'one' key item that you can survive on... I mean you could probably survive eating the leaves off trees....but would you want to?

Buy a bunch of cans from wherever (15-20), try them all...find your 5-10 favourites and buy 10 cans each per person. That's probably 25-50 days of food if you aren't being extremely active.
 
You probably want to add some canned veggies in there, too, for variety. One thing to watch, though, is if salt drives your BP up, most commercial canned stuff has a LOT of salt.

I personally keep a fair bit of the Campbell's chicken soup on hand - I like it and it's filling.
 
SPAMSPAMSPAMSPAMSPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM
Find a SAVE A LOT near your home and spend 50 bucks and walk out with 100 dollars worth of food.
 
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Variety is the spice of life - even survival. In my most basic survival kit I have things like garlic powder, salt, pepper and Tobasco. Why? Because if I have to eat earthworms, they may as well taste a bit like normal food... [wink] I take a similar approach to canned foods. Why eat nothing but beans - survival or not? I stock things like Dinty Moore, Ravioli, Spam, B&B Brown Bread, beans, beets, etc...I would also add jars of honey to the mix as well.
 
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dwarven1 said:
You probably want to add some canned veggies in there, too, for variety. One thing to watch, though, is if salt drives your BP up, most commercial canned stuff has a LOT of salt.

I personally keep a fair bit of the Campbell's chicken soup on hand - I like it and it's filling.
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I would stick with frozen/dehydrated veggies if you can. The cooking process of canned veggies usually destroys much of the mineral/vitamin content. I had a nutritionist for two months last year....and was always mad because I'd say I cooked canned veggies for dinner as a serving...
 
dwarven1 said:
The only problem with the frozen veggies is that that presumes that you have power...
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Yes it does... with a decent chest freeze you should have a good week or so before it thaws and everything has to be used.

But that's why I also included dehydrated; it doesn't lose as much of the mineral/vitamin content. Freeze-dried would probably be even better.
 
The other alternative is to can your own veggies. You won't believe how much money you can save doing it, and you know exactly what is in it. I still have some corn left over from last year, and it's as good today, as it was the day I canned it. While nothing is as good as fresh, just having it beats not having it at all!
 
And making your own dried fruits, meats, etc, is a great food source. Nothing like beef jerky! Also, nuts can be frozen for a time for use in an emergency later on.

Everything needs to be rotated, so make plans to eat everything over time and keep replacing.

What's great about canning is that you can make jams and jellies very easily. Those you can keep for more than a year. Stewed tomatoes to add to any dish, and tomato sauce. I also canned fruits, and made applesauce.

Tips and recipes
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/1012/canning.html

Lots of info on canning tips and techniques
http://www.pickyourown.org/canningtips.php

Be prepared for steamed up windows, and lots of moisture in the kitchen - I always used fans and kept windows open as much as possible.
 
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One tip for those with a chest freezer. Unless you have it packed to the rafters, put gallon jugs of water in your deep freezer. Mine is a huge one and is powered by my generator in case of power failure. The bottom tub is lined with 1 gallon jugs of water. This way, if the power goes out and the generator goes down, I have a bit more useful time on the chest freezer with the frozen jugs of water, plus the added bonus of 12-gallons of fresh H2o....
 
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MassMark said:
One tip for those with a chest freezer. Unless you have it packed to the rafters, but gallon jugs of water in your deep freezer. Mine is a huge one and is powered by my generator in case of power failure. The bottom tub is lined with 1 gallon jugs of water. This way, if the power goes out and the generator goes down, I have a bit more useful time on the chest freezer with the frozen jugs of water, plus the added bonus of 12-gallons of fresh H2o....
Click to expand...

Great idea! Make use of ALL the space!![grin]
 
Canned goods are a viable soultion in a survival situation but one thing I keep running across is some folks want to just buy a bunch of "XYZ" nad then just let it sit unitl its needed.

Food storage needs to be both varied and active. IMHO the best thing to start off doing is just to buy a little more than you normally would every time you go shopping.

Canned goods, dry goods - (pasta, rice oatmeal...), shelf stabilized dinners,
Freeze dried items, frozen items and even MRE's all have a place in the pantry.

If you don't already have a home vacuume sealer get one. These are very versatile and will pay for themselves in short order.

Mulit-vitamins are another good item to put away.

Set aside what you normally eat/use and then just eat/work your way through your stockpile, replenishing it as you go.
 
Adam_MA said:
The other alternative is to can your own veggies. You won't believe how much money you can save doing it, and you know exactly what is in it. I still have some corn left over from last year, and it's as good today, as it was the day I canned it. While nothing is as good as fresh, just having it beats not having it at all!
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+1 I canned green beans last year, and they taste way better than what you buy. It also doesn't have all the preservatives and other crap in them, and the taste was just like I picked them.
I plan on canning alot more this year. I have already used up my beans, and we are working on the zuchini that I froze. We had an over abundance of that last year.
 
The fact that you only need to care for yourself simplifies the situation. I agree with the variety idea. Buy what you like, stockpile it to a certain extent, and rotate your stock. Try to plan a balanced diet as best as you can.

Chris
 

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