Survival Foods: What Are The Top Six?

You will not have the luxury of eating what you feel like when a catastrophe hits. In such situations, you should know what survival foods are best in terms of nourishment, vitality, energy and taste.  They should be also easy to carry around in case you need to bug out.
Here is a list of six survival foods regarded as the best by some of the top preppers:

Top Six Survival Foods

Canned Alaskan Wild Salmon

Salmon is rich in protein and sound fats like omega 3s. Many variation of Alaskan wild salmon will come canned with little to none of the contaminants that can appear in cans of other types of fish. The Inuit people (local individuals of Alaska and northern Canada) regularly eat Alaskan wild salmon.  Likewise, they are known for low rates of heart attack and stroke.  This phenomenon is credited to their regular salmon consumption. Like tuna fish, you can eat canned Alaskan wild salmon right out of the can without cooking. Leftovers must be refrigerated and will keep for 3 – 4 days.

Read more at Suburban Steader

A Doable List to Start a Food Storage Plan

 
Starting out with food storage can be confusing and intimidating.  You may have picked up a few canned foods and ramen noodles, but where do you go from there?

Found a nice article over at Backdoor Survival:  20 Items to Kickstart your Food Storage Plan

The list is well-rounded and doable.

Check it out!

A Good Addition to Food Storage

Food storage must include some fats and oils as they are essential to health.  You need fats and oils for making breads and other baked goods, to deep fry or stir fry foods.  Oil can even be used as a lighting source.  See this lamp made from vegetable oil. 

One issue with fats and oils is their short shelf life.  Oil can last about a year in storage.  After a while, oil becomes rancid and is no longer safe to consume.  I have olive and canola oils but I rotate them after a year.   Now I have learned extra virgin coconut oil has a two year shelf life.  That is even better.

Coconut oil also has a lot of health benefits: 

• anti-inflammatory
• anti-fungal
• anti-bacterial
• reduces fever

It can even aid weight loss.  See
Coconut Oil: A Nutrient Powerhouse and Metabolism Booster  an article from Natural Health Sherpa.




Part of being prepared is staying healthy, and coconut oil can help.  I am going to add coconut oil to my food storage.

Don't be Afraid to Try Powdered Milk

One of the items I had never tried before storing food is powdered milk.  I just was not sure how it was going to turn out.  I bought the smallest one I could find to first try it out.

I was running out of regular milk anyway, so I thought I'd give it a try.  The instructions say you need to first add warm water to the container, then add the milk.  You should not add milk to the water because it will clump up.  You definitely don't want clumps of powder in your milk.

How to mix powdered milk:

1.  Heat up two cups of water in the microwave for a minute.

2.  Add the warm water to 1 1/2 cups of room temperature water.

3.  Add 13 tablespoons of powdered milk.

4.  Shake up the container to mix well.  Make sure no dry powder is left.

I tasted the milk expecting it to taste bad.  I was surprised!  I actually tastes pretty good.  Chill it in the fridge and it tastes even better.  I also tried it with coffee and hot coco and you cannot tell the difference.  DH and the kids could not taste the difference either. 


I am going to keep using the powdered milk.  Try it out, you may be surprised too.  Powdered milk is good to have as part of your storage food pantry.

A Review of the Free Food Storage Analyzer from Emergency Essentials

I tried out the Emergency Essentials free Food Storage Analyzer.  They invite you to try it out and they give you a free $10 Emergency Essentials gift card for your effort.  It's a good offer -  I get to evaluate my own food storage, and I get a reward for doing so.  What a deal!

When you first get in, you are asked to provide the number of people, male or female and age of the persons you are calculating for.

It will tell you the number of calories you need in your food storage per day.

You then proceed to the analyzer.  In the analyzer you fill in the foods that you already have.  It will not allow you to fill in pantry foods unless you log in.  However, once you have finished entering the various categories - cereals, meats, fruits, vegetables etc, it will tell you how much you have on hand and what you will need.

Overall the Food Storage Analyzer was easy to use.  The instructions were thorough and walk you step by step throughout the process.  I learned a lot about my own food storage plan and "holes" in my plan.  I had to look through what I had to fill it out properly.  Including all the listing and finding what I have in the pantry, it took me about 20 minutes or so but it is worth your time.

I have a little ways to go in my food storage but I have at least a month's worth. I am glad I tried out the Emergency Essentials free Food Storage Analyzer.

Backpacker's Pantry Cheesecake

A lot of people wonder if the freeze dried desserts are any good.  I know, because other shoppers have come up to me at the sporting goods store, asking if I've tried them.

I can't vouch for all of them, but I can say the Backpacker's Pantry Cheesecake is very good.

It is easy to prepare:  just mix contents with hot water and wait a few minutes.

I know it says "Cheesecake" but don't expect a New York style cheesecake from a five star restaurant.  It is more like the no-bake "cheese pie"type dessert, or like a pudding.  Once you accept that, you will find it's pretty tasty.

It it sweet and nicely flavored, with a creamy consistency.  The kids liked it and asked for seconds.
And that is a good recommendation right there.

Grain Mill Review

Most beginning preppers are concerned about storing food for a week to a month, but as you get more familiar with food storage you eventually get to storing grains.  Then you will need a grain mill to process your stored grain.

If you are in the market for a grain mill here is a good review of one:

Equipment Review: WonderMill Junior Deluxe Grain/Flour Mill  

from ModernSurvivalOnline

Under the Bed Harvest Food Rotation System

I tried the Shelf Reliance Under the Bed Food Rotation System, hoping to add more storage space.

Here are the parts that came with it:

I laid it all out, got a few tools and set out to assemble it.

Two hours later I was still assembling.

The parts do not fit well together, and just when you think they will stay up, the whole thing falls apart.   I don't think I am totally clueless about building things-assembling bookshelves, cribs, futons etc.  The issue was the holes do no line up properly with the other parts.

When I finally got the shelf assembled, I found out it does not fit well under our bed.  Once assembled, it is 14 inches high.  The shelf is way too tall and I would have to elevate the bed several more inches.  In all fairness the height is specified in the Shelf Reliance website; my fault for not pre-measuring my under the bed space. 

Lesson learned:  Always measure your space before acquiring any new items.  As far as recommending this product, I give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars, due to the difficulty of assembly.

Is the E-Foods Sample Worth the $9.95 Shipping Cost?

E-foods is offering a free sample of entrees, but with a $9.95 shipping cost.  If you are still trying to decide, check out this review:

Product Review: E-Foods Creamy Potato Soup

It's over at Apartment Prepper

Mountain House Noodles with Chicken

At our last camping trip we took Mountain House Noodles with Chicken for one of the dinners.

Preparation:

After removing the oxygen absorber, just add a couple of cups of boiling water, seal and wait about 10 minutes.

We left it alone a couple more minutes to make sure the water was absorbed.

You can eat it right out of the packet or serve in a bowl.

Verdict:

This stuff is good!  The noodles came out soft but not overly mushy.  You can really taste the chicken pieces and the sauce was very flavorful.

This may be one of the best freeze dried foods I've ever had!  Highly recommended!

The family liked this one so much we plan to buy a few more for home use.