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Preppers

Food prepping

18 replies

ContSalw · 18/09/2022 21:38

How much food prepping are people doing at the moment? I'm trying to get my food prepping organised.

I'm mostly prepping for the cost of living and possibility of having blackouts so needing to have easy to cook meals.

I'm avoiding freezer prepping, due to cosy of running freezers. And previously ended up not using the frozen stuff as I'm so disorganised.

OP posts:
BlackeyedSusan · 19/09/2022 04:09

Chopped tomatoes/pasata have been mentioned recently on one thread or other. And fizzy drinks.

BrownOrangeRed · 19/09/2022 07:29

I've got a few pasta/rice meals that only require water or milk to cook on the stove and I purchased a camping stove for if the power goes out, they're only small packets and cost 20p so I've managed to gradually stock probably 20+ in my pantry, we've also got a lot of UHT milk/powdered milk as a backup. I've been adding one extra tin of tinned fruit or vegetables each time we do our food shop for the past few months so have got a nice little extra amount in the pantry. Still need to pick up some bottled water and a few packs of my kids favourite snacks which ideally happen to have really long dates on them.

Most of my food prepping is done and I've started working on prepping the house to be as Insulated and cosy as possible, I'm on a budget so have had to get a bit creative

snowballupahill · 19/09/2022 08:22

Just ordered some radtek - which is a foil product to go behind radiators on external walls to make the heating as effective as possible ahead of gas/electric increases.

snowballupahill · 19/09/2022 08:26

Food preps are tricky given the space I have available. I am also looking at possible meals to cook on a camping stove or those that can be re-hydrated with boiling water. I would like to know if I bought a portable battery and plugged in my router would the internet work (we have it supplied on a cable) or will the internet not work for other reasons to do with having a blackout?

TheNoonBell · 19/09/2022 08:29

Rice or pasta for the carbs and tins of stew/curries for the flavour. If you only have one stove ring then boil the pasta/rice first then heat the tin of stew.

If in a hurry then pot rice/noodles are just add water so will warm you up.

To boil water quickly if you have a garden and access to sticks get a kelly kettle.

BlackeyedSusan · 19/09/2022 09:00

Cous cous and mug shots, cup soups, instant custard powder are just add boiling water.

Wonderbag/hay box type thing to keep stuff cooking once heated up.

Bbq would work for cooking stuff and is something that a lot of people have access to.

Tinned curry plus tinned veg plus sachets of rice would all heat through quickly. (Tip the rice into.the curry or boiling water instead of in the microwave)

Kokapetl · 25/09/2022 12:01

The main lesson I learned from pre-covid/brexit prepping is to only prep things that would also be used in normal times. Even when we completely run out of milk, my family will not drink UHT, so there is no point getting it. Tinned green beans were also a bit of a waste. The kids don't really like soup so that wouldn't work for us much, either.

So now, I try to make sure we always have in things that we do actually eat normally but would also be good if we had no power or access to shops. Rice pudding and custard are good for this. They would provide the nutrients lost from not having milk and the DC prefer them cold anyway. They are also happy to eat dry cereal.

Useful things that don't need cooking that we eat anyway:
Tinned sweetcorn, peaches and tomatoes.
Oatcakes and crackers.
Dried fruit.
Nuts.

We do have a camping stove, kellykettle, and a woodburner so could cook some normal things so also pasta, rice, bread flour, potatoes to keep us full plus stocks of normal cooking ingredients like oil, dried herbs etc. We have quite a lot of tins of baked beans with sausages which are quick to heat up and that the kids would happily eat any day.

Prepping for cost of living is partly different because some of this would be about trying to work out what is likely to go up in price and stocking up before the rises. This is very tricky. I bought quite a bit of oil and butter which helped a bit but the amount you'd have to buy to save much money on anything is not really practical.

Growing your own veg is perhaps looking a better investment now. I estimate I'm saving around £200 per year but that's without initial outlay on tools, greenhouse etc because I already have these. I also save a lot of the seed I use. However, I enjoy growing things so it's a fun use of my time and I am also fairly experienced so know what grows well and don't have as many failures. I'd recommend anyone with a garden who likes spinach-type-greens sows some rainbow chard (from seed direct into the ground, it doesn't work from plugs despite shops selling them). If you then let it go to seed it keeps coming up year after year and looks kind of pretty too.

ContSalw · 25/09/2022 15:35

Thanks everyone! I'm def going to look into getting the stuff for behind the radiators upstairs. It's an old stone house, and the rads upstairs are on the outside walls in 2 of the 3 bedrooms. Hopefully that will make a difference.

I've bee getting some extra tins, and keeping to stuff we will use anyway. I've recently been diagnosed with ADHD. And that impacts on how I go mad with prepping, and Brixit prepping involved lots of stuff we didn't use. I ended up giving it away.

I'm going tonsee if the kids will eat the mugshots, and get those for power cuts and emergencies.

OP posts:
indignatio · 25/09/2022 19:09

Hi, could you please detail how/why/what your connection is between ADHD and prepping. I am self diagnosing at present and can appreciate that my response to Brexit et al was more extreme than friends and colleagues, but am still trying to figure out all of this.

ContSalw · 25/09/2022 22:46

I've sent you a PM!

OP posts:
BlackeyedSusan · 30/09/2022 09:08

Autism and prepping too ...

ContSalw · 30/09/2022 18:29

Yep, once I start I just can't stop! Until the next thing!

OP posts:
EdHelpPls · 30/09/2022 18:40

I started trying new foods out on my very fussy kids- variety of noodles, soups, longish life bread like naan, crackers, instant mash (Idahon brand is amazingly delicious. I had bought it before but was so sure it wouldnt taste good I ended up binning it. I tried it this week and now bought a boxful for the food bank as you literally pour in hot water, stir and it's ready in a few mins.)
We didn't like many tinned fruit options so I got a few fruit puree pouches that I could also use in lunchboxes.
I'm only aiming for a few days worth in case of power cuts. Everything needs to need hot water only

Aethelfleda · 02/10/2022 13:55

I prepped the cupboard for Brexit and it ended up being fantastically useful when we all suddenly got Covid!…. but discovered then that every single household will be different in terms of what kids/family eat, as some things just went untouched. Instant mash was thoroughly rejected, as were plasticpacked noodles.
Also some thing don’t matter if they go out of date (tins/dried pasta/sealed tea/coffee). Whereas some of the long life plastic sealed stuff really doesn’t do well (breads, crisps, fruit pots).
So now I just have a general supply pile of the things we use anyway (pasta/rice/tuna/pesto/beans/ketchup/mayo/tea/cleaning stuff) that I top up and rotate every now and then but it’s all just normal stuff that we eat and not “survival rations” or stuff based on someone else’s list.
the poster whose family don’t like UHT: try Marvel/equivalent dehydrated milk tubs. If you make it up by the half pint or pint and chill before you use it, it is much nicer than UHT, as it doesn’t have the same aftertaste.

HoHoHowMuch · 04/10/2022 08:07

If you are prepping for price rises, bear in mind that prices have risen a lot already. I would get a few extra bits every time you shop to spread the cost. For protein, I prefer tinned fish to tinned meat, so there would be no pointin me stocking frankfurters. If you are vegetarians then TVP is shelf stable and peanut butter is filling and lasts well. Flasks are a good idea for power cuts. You can store hot water beforehand if there are planned outages. You can also cook things thst just need heating in them eg add pasta and hot water and leave to cook through.

For UHT milk, I make yoghurt. Just need a spoon of live yoghurt as a starter.

Aethelfleda · 23/10/2022 21:37

I’ve got lots of easy-cook things and second the fill-a-thermos plan. What sounds most likely is planned downtime, so if you know there’s an outage at 6, boiling the kettle at 5.30 then thermosing the leftover water works well.

BiddyPop · 24/10/2022 11:34

I am trying to make sure that we have a few extra options for easy cooking/no cooking this winter compared to most winters. Our hob is gas, and with all the worries in the summer, I got a 1ring induction hob that I can plug into the wall as an alternative, and we also bought ourselves a smaller slow cooker (we had a massive one that needed a large volume so we almost never used it - we've already used the smaller one loads as it works much better for just DH and I!).

This is in addition to the PV solar panels we put on the roof last year (which is no help in an actual outtage but does reduce our bill), making sure we still had gas in the bottle for the gas BBQ (we've used that in the snow plenty of times before quite successfully, it's not just for summer), and my camping cooking options (1 ring suitcase gas stove, kelly kettle and mini charcoal BBQ with some coals) in the shed rather than in the storage unit with the rest of the camping gear. The gas BBQ and camping stuff I always have checked before winter, just in case.

In terms of actual food though, I have things I know we eat normally, just more of them. And a few more convenient options. So while I am very happy to make couscous for morroccan meals with a spoon of veg stock powder, spoon of cumin powder and a few other spices, handful of raisins etc added to plain couscous from the tub on a normal occasion, there are days we're so busy that the pre-packaged "Moroccan couscous" serving 2 people and just needing water works really well - no faff with measuring or finding bottles/jars in the dark etc and only needs boiling water to "cook".

We always have lots of tuna, corn, tomatoes, onions, garlic, pasta, rice, herbs & spices, baking ingredients etc. in my storecupboard. But as life has got more hectic in recent years, I have also got used to keeping a few jars of sauces that I just open and dump into the pot rather than making the sauce from scratch everytime - in a power outtage, that would be my go-to as needing less work in the dark/reduced light, less stress, and less heat/energy needed to cook down each stage. And I have a few packets of microwave rice (can't find the pasta versions in shops anymore) that only need to sit in some boiling water to reheat/finish cooking if no power to microwave, and very thin Chinese noodles that need far less cooking time too. Our big gas BBQ has lots of space and a lid, so we can cook in tinfoil trays/packages, on skewers, or just grill - but it means I can cook an entire meal in the BBQ including baking bread (dough I've made or part-baked rolls I've bought) or making pizza if I wanted. We often do lots of different things at the same time on it.

So really, it's essentially the same as every winter, just a little bit more than usual this year as between inflation rising and the increased likelihood of power outtages, I am trying to be sensibly ready.

Our freezer is pretty full at the moment - because I picked a lot of blackberries locally, DD had a good lot of strawberries that were going uneaten that I blitzed and froze for breakfast smoothies rather than letting them rot, and we've been too busy recently so planned meals were occasionally left undone in favour of fast meals or takeaways and those ingredients frozen. I have used up almost all of my bag of HM crumble mix (we've had a good few apple and blackberry crumbles recently - but that does include 2 single servings already made up and frozen with excess apples I'd peeled), and I am working through my current bag of HM breadcrumbs by adding roasted courgettes with crispy topping to the oven when it's on for other things.

But I keep a drawer full of various types of raw meat (some on offer, some yellow stickers, I always keep a bag of prawns to throw handfuls in to make a quick stirfry to use up odds and sods of veg etc), a few batch cooked meals or leftovers (small amounts of cauli cheese is great for lunches or solo dinners), any bits of stock I have made, etc. And a pack of burger bun-suitable rolls as I nearly always have some burgers (beef, turkey, salmon etc) frozen and that's handy for mid-week easy dinners without running to the shops for the buns. So it is all rotated relatively frequently.

1Dandelion1 · 30/10/2022 11:10

I haven't bought anything we wouldn't normally eat, but the shelf stable things what we like I have bought extras of - for instance we enjoy Colman's tuna pasta bake which are normally purchased on the 4 for £1 deal, so I picked up 8 packets, plus enough pasta, sweetcorn and tuna to make it.

I did the same with other things so I have a back ups for feel good favourites.

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