Show me your brexit stockpiles cont...

[SparklySneakers]

A thread for sharing details of our stashes: what we have, what we need, good hiding places and all sorts of hints and tips to help prepare for shortages in the event of a no deal brexit.

Not an actual meal plan but I've been doing things like I need x tuna cans per week, x amount of pasta per week.

My dh is a fab cook. (I'm not bad too but it makes him feel good to say he's better than me - he's a neater cook too) I have a good spread of stuff and would hope he can work his magic. We meal plan during the week usually but I don't want to commit us to a particular plan if we have to hunker down for a bit.

Has anyone done a meal plan for the week or two things are likely to be chaos? I confess I've just been buying extra bits and bobs without any real strategic thinking

Only vaguely. I've been trying to even up my ratio of carbs/proteins/veg.

I really need to keep on top of the bread situation. All 4 of us are ill today and the weather is horrendous so no way I'm venturing out for a loaf. I've got multi seed in the freezer but the two younger ones won't eat it. I've plenty of everything else I think. It's just that the little one has been wanting toast for every meal all week as poorly. We are going through a loaf a day 😩

Meal plans. Good idea. Will do that today.

If bread is a big feature of your diet, consider buying a bread maker but the good ones are pricey. Or be prepared to make it yourself in an oven. I have just spent some anniversary vouchers to part pay for a Panasonic. It is ace but pricey as anything. I can make bread by hand but ....

Even without a bread maker, some strong bread flour and yeast are worth having, in case of shortages.

I was tempted by a bread maker a while back. I've got a bread mix in the cupboard along with strong flour and yeast and Paul Hollywood's beads boom but lacking the enthusiasm to bake today.

Yes I think you'd need empty supermarket shelves to give you the impetus

I've lost the will to live with stock piling now.
Somehow I ended up with no sugar in the house! According to my lists there should be 4! I have no idea weather I actually have 4 in the house and i just can't find them or if I just have no sugar.

It seems like I always have something to buy I just want to not need to go shopping.

If I felt less ill I might be tempted. Maybe I'll just give the children the recipe and tell them to have a go.

I've got into a really nice rhythm with my sour dough bread, so it's not taking too much time to think about or do. I'm getting quite fond of my starter. Lunch time or tea time I get it going, prove on the counter til bed. Into the proving basket and the fridge overnight, shove it in the oven at breakfast time.

But that would be far too much faff if ill!

Has anyone done a meal plan for the week or two things are likely to be chaos? I confess I've just been buying extra bits and bobs without any real strategic thinking.

Not really since we would easily have 2-4 weeks worth of normal food in the freezer. We also have cereal and UHT milk. The issue comes for me if things became very difficult e.g. shortages and massive price hikes and we were trying to eke things out over a longer period. Its difficult to store enough decent protein.

As such, my approach has been to buy the things that would keep meals tasting fairly normal such as pasta sauces that the DC like (Lloyd Grossman bolognese sauce features heavily in my store) plus the basics such as the pasta, rice, cous cous etc to provide the starchy carbohydrates. I then can spend the money we have just on protein and fresh veg/fruit.

We have a ridiculous number of fish fingers in our freezer. Might have a fish finger roll for lunch today!

We don't have a meal plan. We'll just eat what we have when we fancy it.

I've been getting a few extras for my mum as shown below. She has in her own stash:
Baked beans (2 small)
Chopped tomatoes (2 small)
Loo roll
Kitchen roll
Anti bacterial spray
Washing up liquid
Laundry detergent
Toiletries
Primula cheese
Meat and fish in the freezer (small freezer)
Veg in freezer
Tinned fruit (3 tins)
Tinned mushy peas (one)
Packet mash (only one)
Biscuits
Chocolate
Sugar
Custard powder
Flours
Tea
Coffee
Soup in freezer
Bottled water
Medication
Water purification tablets

Is there anything obvious missing or anything that might be useful?

She doesn't like oats, curry, anything spicy. She's a pretty traditional eater of meat or fish, veg, potatoes. She'll occasionally eat pasta and rice but once in a blue moon. There's only her in the house so doesn't need lots but I'm worried she doesn't have much in terms of actual meals.

UHT milk or dried milk

Oh can someone tell me in idiot proof terms how to start a sour dough starter.. every time I go online I get a bit lost...

Tinned potatoes? If she's old (like me) she will be pretty used to them as an option.
Does she eat Weetabix or, frankly, any packet cereal. My late mum who was proper old was told by a specialist that these are fortified with vitamins, even the mad sugary ones, so don't rule them out for seniors.
How is she with uht milk or powdered milk? Nido is full fat powdered milk (Amazon) Or most you can get in the supermarket is skimmed powdered milk if she is up for that.
I gave my in-laws a tub of Nido, some fray bentos pies, some tinned veg and potatoes. My mil is brilliant at making chapatis or naan bread - I gave her a bag of chickpea flour for that although she generally uses ordinary plain flour.
I'm older than my dh and they had him when they were quite young so there is only about 17 years between us

I'm sick and tired of stretching a budget out to allow for a few extras. I know I'm lucky to have something to stretch, and the skills to make it go further. But doing the weekly shop and meal plan used to be fun.

Now I'm here with 9 months worth of kids multi vitamins in case prices go so high we can't afford much fruit. It's just so crap. We've been low before, had really rough times, I always managed to get fruit and veg into them though. Last night I got a shock seeing how far frozen veg doesn't stretch. 4 broccoli florets each and one large spoon of peas and the bags look half empty.

The M&S tinned ham is nice (DS and I taste tested one last week), though expensive. Worth it for anyone of a "meat and two veg" preference.

I forgot, she's got UHT milk but not much. And a couple of small tins of M&S meat stuff to make a pie.
I'll get her some cornflakes and special k as she likes those. She's got vitamin tablets too.
She's 79. Have told her tinned spuds mixed with bits and bobs and fried up are nice. She's got vegetable oil too. She's definitely lacking in carbs. I've suggested she dedicate one freezer drawer for potato products.

Not sure if your mum is in "shonky general appetite " which happens with older people. This might be a good chance to chat with her generally and see if she fancies any old favourites which , coincidentally, tend to be shelf stable alternatives. You said custard powder - that is a brilliant one for tarting up a pud.

My mum also had a load of frozen baked potatoes in her freezer for herself and visitors. I think McCain do them.

You can get microwave chips for the freezer as well. One of mum's staples.

Chips and baked beans gives veg, protein and carbs.

Fish pie ready meals are surprisingly nice too. We have eaten a lot of several brands as mum had loads in when she went into a home. At least I do not have to worry about feeding her