5 Easy No-Power Meals to Prep For an Emergency Situation
Are you worried about losing power and not being able to feed your family? No power, no worries–I will show you what I call “no power meals.” They are emergency meals ready to eat so you don’t need to panic.
These are emergency meal kits to keep on hand so you can always feel prepared during a stressful situation. Keep them in the back of your pantry, under your bed, or in a closet. Keep them in a 5-gallon bucket and they’ll always be handy.
Here are five quick and easy meal kit options that all have great shelf life. Always remember to store water in your emergency kit, as well, so you can make these items.
1. Chili mac and cheese
This is a classic. I have the following:
- 1 can of chili without beans
- 2 boxes of macaroni and cheese mix (liquid or dry cheese)
The chili is protein. The pasta calls for milk so store some dried milk or use water you’ve stored.
2. Ham mac and cheese
- 2 cans of smoked ham
- 2 boxes mac and cheese
- 1 can of peas but you can have any canned vegetables
3. Chicken rice dish
- 2 packages of Knorr rice sides/cheddar broccoli
- 2 cans of chicken
- Dehydrated broccoli or any other veggie
4. Chunky soup
- Bear Creek soup mix (family-size bag)
- 2 cans of roast beef, chicken, or tuna for protein
- Vegetables (canned or dehydrated)
The soup mix is super filling because it has barley, lentils, and rice. Something I like about dehydrated vegetables is that they are lightweight and not as heavy as cans of vegetables.
5. Beef stroganoff with rice
- 1 bag of precooked Ben’s Ready Rice (jasmine)
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
- Canned mushrooms
- 1 can of beef (Keystone from Walmart)
- 1 beef bouillon cubes with water
You can use pasta for this instead of rice if you prefer. I also keep Barilla’s Ready Pasta on hand, as well. This is a great hearty meal.
Package the meal kits
Write the meal’s instructions on a piece of paper and keep it in the zippered plastic bag along with the ingredients. You may not need it and you can use the back of the packages for directions. Also write on the paper if you need water or milk so you can grab that from your bin, too.
Cooking your meals
You can cook your meals using a generator like my tabletop solar-powered model from Geneverse. I have an electric pot I plug into it. I have a griddle, electric skillet, and more to plug into the generator. You can also cook in a fire pit if necessary.
Also, make sure you have a can opener in your kit to open the canned ingredients; manual will be better but electric will work with a generator, too.
No-power meals
You do not need to be a prepper to have these shelf-stable emergency meal kits on hand. These no-power meal kits will keep the stress down in an emergency.
Let me know if you think these would help you in a pinch. Do you have other emergency meal tips and ideas you can share with us?
Comments
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I am not understanding the title to this article. If no power, you are not making any of those meals. It is best to keep canned chicken, tuna and even chili. There are many already prepared foods in a can that you just heat up, like beans (good protein). Even look at baby food for emergencies. Keep sterno cans handy. Some last over 2 hours. You can heat up things with them and also help with heat. Dried milk if you are milk drinkers and cereal eaters. Those ready pastas are disgusting and expensive. I would never buy them again. Of course, a generator is nice to have for the whole house. But a solar-powered one? Are you counting on the sun being out? If you get outages a lot, get a generator for the house. I was without power for 5 days. That meant everything was off, including gas pumps. One store had limited power because they had a generator. Shelves were almost bare. We had sternos on hand to cook on. We had hot water that was gas. At the time, we had an electric stove that did not work. This was a cold month. Can you image if we were all electric. LOL
I never heard of Geneverse solar generators, but I love the idea. Thanks for the information!