Food Storage Feast is your inspiration to create delicious, healthy, inexpensive meals using basic food storage items such as grains, beans, canned and freeze-dried goods, and condiments. We’ll teach you to use these, paired with game you hunt, and garden-grown and local produce, to create beautiful meals all year long, in good times and bad.

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Have you ever sat down at the keyboard of a grand piano that you have no clue how to play? A pile of storage food that you don’t know how to cook is as useless as that piano.

What does COVID-19 have to do with music? Not much, but read on…Would you rather be quarantined with a grand piano or buckets of rice and beans?

Ever sat down at the keyboard of a grand piano that you have no clue how to play? A pile of storage food that you don’t know how to cook is as useless as a piano in a life-and-death emergency.

Introduce your lesson with an optional, short summary. You can edit this excerpt in lesson settings.

In January of 2007, a severe ice storm struck a wide swath of North America, from the Rio Grande Valley all the way up into southeastern Canada. Anita Evangelista wrote in Backwoods Home magazine about her experiences at a Wal-Mart in Springfield, Missouri:

In 2001, the government of Argentina had gone far past maxing out their credit, the peso dropped, and the country plunged into economic free-fall. The wealthy fled the country carrying footlockers full of U.S. dollars.

In a crisis, with no food, hunger is your master. When you have a family to feed, that master grows some sharp, ugly fangs. The knowledge that your food won’t last until tomorrow morning will force you to prioritize everything.

Stored food is like money in the bank, only better.

Money is a medium of exchange, but true wealth actually enriches your life with time, options, experiences, freedom, flexibility, and sustenance.

Cooking is a life skill and a survival skill for any scenario. Having food stored will give you a feeling of security, but cooking skills will help you truly enjoy that security after the going gets tough.

Why build up your pantry, and what to fill it with?

So why all this emphasis on the home pantry? As you will see and read, the well-stocked home pantry is one of the easiest and least painful of all investments. It does not require brokers, investment accounts, bank transfers, downside risk, tax consequences or the loss of use of your capital.

I even love the word we use to name the fuel of my morning ritual. Yes, I’ll admit I do have an addition to coffee. However, I’d prefer to call it a love affair, as addiction sounds so, well, dirty and helpless.I love coffee. I dream about coffee. I need coffee. I drink coffee.

There are as many different ideas of a balanced diet as there are preppers, but one thing we have noticed in recent years is the rising popularity of high-protein diets like Atkins, paleo, and ketogenic.

At first glance, low-carb diets such as paleo and keto appear downright incompatible with the traditional staples of the long-term pantry. But those of you who benefit from these diets needn't starve.

Storing fat is one of the most critical strategies most “preppers” miss. Fat is a critical source of satiety and the most important tool in cooking, except for a few instances all foods benefit from or need fat to properly cook.

I’d be remiss not to mention and suggest keeping a high-quality whey protein powder on hand for quick meals or meal replacements. A nice vanilla or chocolate whey protein powder can satiate for hours and it can be made anywhere with just about any liquid such as water, milk, coconut water, etc.

The DIY space is pretty well saturated, too, from the quickie alcohol stoves made from a soda can, to rocket stove designs galore to fit any budget, and as big and elaborate as you can dream.

If your kitchen stove is the electric variety, I’m sorry. They’re too power-hungry and inefficient to power with a generator. (And even when the power is on, electric stoves are just difficult to cook with.)

We all know someone whose preparedness plan goes like this: “When the store shelves are empty, I’ll just go out and shoot a deer.” Simple is good, right? If you’re that person, then go ahead… and you can plan on cooking that deer over a tin-can rocket stove fueled by wood scraps.

Butane burns very clean, which will afford you more flexibility in how you provide the necessary ventilation, and more importantly, it burns hot and fast, meaning you can boil water and cook in a hurry, and soon be free to move on to dealing with other pressing issues in a grid-down situation.

If you live in a climate comfortable for outdoor cooking, a suitcase-style dual-burner liquid fuel (i.e. white gas) camping stove will prove versatile and rugged. I own a vintage Coleman 425 that was a gift from my father-in-law. My wife's family used this stove back in the 1970s on car camping trips, and it still works terrifically.

Small, free-standing induction cooktops can pull something in the ballpark of 1800 watts, and might not seem like a viable option for grid-down cooking. But if you have a generator and the right pots, these are a great option, because they produce no fumes or excess heat, and they’re super fast - a good option for indoor cooking during both the depths of winter and the sweltering highs of summer.

As you can see, I haven’t included any folding multi-tool can rocket stoves with built-in USB chargers. As a chef, and as a dad with a strong drive to keep my kids fed no matter what, the ones above are what I’ve picked to make sure I can do my job regardless of what’s going on in the world around me.

Inexpensive and packed with calories beans, rice, and lentils also offer a wealth of potential recipes as they work well in many different cuisine types and cooking methods. They also store relatively well.

Another bean preparation worth considering in your storage pantry is dried refried bean flakes. They’re almost as quick to prepare as canned refried beans, and they sidestep the hardening problem that can ruin whole dried beans after years in storage.

First, the good: At roughly 22% protein, beans contain more than any other edible seed, and are the absolute cheapest form of protein to buy. Beans also contain a respectable amount of carbohydrates, as well as dietary fiber.

A few stones inevitably seem to end up amongst dried beans, especially smaller ones like black turtle beans, so we tend to spread them on a cookie sheet, one bean deep, and give them a visual once-over for stones under a bright light.

For beans, slow cookers rule. They’re at their best when cooked long and slow. Boiling should be avoided, as it coagulates their proteins, resulting in hard, unpalatable beans.

To facilitate rotation, we recommend stocking up on canned beans in consumer-sized cans (14-32 oz.) by the case from the grocery store (preferably on sale and/or with a case discount) or at club stores like Costco. #10 cans are a bit large unless your family is, too.

Here is a collection of links to read to further your discovery of beans.

Super tasty and "meaty" chili that is fun to make, filling, and certainly very unique.

The lovely flavor of red peppers permeates this entire dish.

Split pea soup is an old-school favorite that is inexpensive and super satisfying, especially on cold fall days.

A simple technique for making your own refried beans.

Rice is the most basic and versatile of all long-term storage foods. Its shelf life, at 20 to 30 years, is among the longest of any food, but the cooking time required is among the shortest.

There are as many varieties of rice as there are stalks in a picture-post-card rice paddy. In Food Storage Feast, we focus on a handful of varieties that hit the sweet spot between nutrition, storability, and flavor.

A culinary mainstay the world over, rice is the most versatile of the commodity crops. From the traditional to the exotic, it excels in dishes both savory and sweet, in Asia, Africa, South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East.

If you have ever re-packaged a lot of bulk food at once for long-term storage, you know how long it takes to do it right, so we consider it a bargain to pay a small premium upfront to not have to deal with repackaging it ourselves.

Like all fried rice this version of Thai Fried Rice has abundant taste and texture and features many vegetables and shelf-stable condiments

So simple but certainly a great rice dish, use any vegetables you have and it's amazing

The most flavorful rice you will ever have, loaded with cilantro, green onions, and garlic. Yum!

Super dish that is loved by almost anyone who has tried it. Makes an amazing meal that is very filling and flavorful.

Simple yet flavorful rice dish perfect on its own or used many other ways like stuffing a bell pepper or in a burrito.

Rich and satisfying dosh of mushroom risotto. The dried porcini mushroom brings an earthy mushroom essence that cant be missed.

Simple dessert with rice, coconut, and raisins.

Very easy and hearty lentil soup with many vegetables.

Such an easy one-pot dish with hearty red lentils, tomato, and a few other simple ingredients with an Indian flair.

Dried potatoes come in many useful forms. The most basic for easy storage are dehydrated flakes, but diced and shredded potatoes are also available in dehydrated form.

Potato flakes offer great versatility in the kitchen, since you can easily fine-tune their final consistency by adjusting the amount of liquid, fat, and seasonings added.

We buy potato flakes from the supermarket any time they’re discounted or buy-one-get-one-free, stocking up on a dozen large boxes at a time.

Simple recipe with potato flakes and cabbage flavored with bacon. Very hearty indeed!

Awesome dish with potato, bacon, and cheese along with chilis, food storage come to life with this dish.

Simple and delicious recipe for potato pancakes.

Wonderful accompaniment to a hearty breakfast.

Simple soup that combines pantry staples with some fresh ingredients to make a satisfying meal.

I’ll show you how to enrich potato flakes nad add a few “chef touches” to make ver inviting mashed potatoes.

An old-school dish featuring salt cod and potatoes that results in British classic.

Simple method to make much better ramen...and avoid that chemical packet.

Super tasty recipe using bitter greens from your garden to simple pasta from your pantry and enjoy a tasty feast!

Spaghetti carbonara is one of the famous 4 Roman pasta dishes. It’s simple and also amazing, it can be made with your stored spaghetti and a few fresh ingredients.

Very simple sauce that yields great flavor and taste.

Simple bread recipe that produces amazing flavor, texture and taste.

Another great bread recipe, a pullman load using whole wheat, makes perfect toast and sandwiches.

Classic French toast recipe made using shelf-stable ingredients.

So simple to make your own tortillas, I'll show you how and you will not want store-bought again!

The sweet & salty corn flavor in these kettle corn pancakes is tremendous and the texture is so luscious you might think it's a dessert!

These to-die-for cornmeal pancakes feature stone ground cornmeal, whole wheat flour plus sour cream creating a rich, amazing pancake.

Amazing breakfast entree usng simple ingredients but crafty technique to have a play on the famous creme brulee dessert.

This delicious and wholesome dessert can be served warm or cold. Delicious flavors of ginger, cinnamon, and corn make this a pretty unique dessert.

This has to be the best cornbread even created, the flavors of butter, salt, and corn are amazing together.

Simple oatmeal dish with holiday flavors and a tasty profile!

Oat Muesli with Fruit & Nuts is a simple breakfast ready in minutes.

Amazing scones using toasted oats with a maple gaze.

Simple yet hearty classic sauce made with Elk instead of beef and pork. Amazing on tip of these buttered noodles.

Got game meat? In this case, some venison becomes an amazing chili. Can be made with deer, elk, antelope, bear , etc.

Salt cod is very versatile and lasts a very long time. This dish featured salt cod and potatoes with a nifty sauce.

One of Thailand's most famous soups! Flavorful, spicy, amazing!

Simle soup perfect for quick meals on cold days.

Very easy appetizer often associated with Super Bowl Sunday made using canned ingredients and a few pantry staples.

Simple pumpkin bread with a sweet maple glaze that is quick and easy to make.

Zesty pork green chili is easily made with freeze-dried ingredients.

So simple to make this broccoli cheddar soup using freeze-dried ingredients.

Freeze-dried meatballs turned into the Swedish classic national dish, Swedish meatballs.

This simple crustless quiche uses free-dried ingredients and states terrific.

A flavorful way to use your freeze dried beef, this Korean-style BBQ is tasty and easy

Simple chicken tacos made using freeze-dried chicken.

Easy, delicious, and comforting, chicken pot pie made using freeze-dried foods is simple and very good.

Use freeze-dried foods and make this delicious lasagna dish

A simple dish that is hearty and easy to make. Freeze-dried foods never tasted so good.

Shepherds pie using some freeze-dried ingredients and potato flakes.

So why all this emphasis on the home pantry? As you will see and read, the well-stocked home pantry is one of the easiest and least painful of all investments. It does not require brokers, investment accounts, bank transfers, downside risk, tax consequences or the loss of use of your capital.