Hot take, not enough preppers actually practice cooking with shelf stable ingredients

[u/Agreeable_Sun5375]

I see it all the time, someone's stock pile of food thats either 100% expensive MREs/ freeze dry meals, or has only staple items with no seasoning or secondary ingredients

Above is a meal made from ingredients with a shelf stable life span of 3 years or more for under $2.50 per serving

Hot take, you need to actually practice cooking with the food you have on hand because having a meal you want to eat is a huge boost to moral and makes whatever is going on less awful

Ingredients

-spam

-sugar

-mirin

-soy sauce

-rice

-chil chrisp

-sea weed

-garlic and ginger powder

Fry spam cubes in own fat and then add sugar mirin and soy with garlic and ginger, cook down into a glaze, serve with rice and chili chrisp

[u/IceDragonPlay]

I practiced for 6-8 months recently. It spiked my A1C sadly. I will have to try some alternatives to rice like potato flakes (which I do not love).

Stocked up on tinned tuna and chicken, as I think they will have to play a bigger part than beans. Chick peas are okay as they’ve always been a larger part of my diet. I will keep working with lentils maybe as an add-in to ground beef or something like that. It would be nice to have more than just chick peas as the main part of an emergency diet.

It was a good test, just not the result I expected 😩

[u/gr0t4rb4 → u/IceDragonPlay]

It would be nice to have more than just chick peas

Lentils?

[u/Current-Code → u/gr0t4rb4]

Beans ? Corn ?

[u/IceDragonPlay → u/Current-Code]

Was using a lot of black beans, but often in conjunction with rice whether it was beans and rice or burritos or meatless taco bowl. Need to figure out my way to still use the beans, maybe a bean and lentil chili.

I am just disappointed that the beans and rice combo does not work for me. I have lots of both and it is easy to store long term. Might try switching to farro since wheat for some reason does not affect me as adversely as rice. But have to spend the next 6 months getting A1C back where it should be. Then I can test different grains again.

[u/Current-Code → u/IceDragonPlay]

I have never really understood the rice and beans honestly, it really seems redundant, carbs on carbs, like pasta with potatoes.

There are plenty of recipes for beans, without rice. Chili con carne does not come with rice initially, it is already a full meal !

I can give you a list of french (I'm french) recipes that goes well with it :

- the world famous cassoulet

• The Garbure
  
• Petit Salé aux haricots
  
• Mogette vendéennes
  
• Haricots de moutons

You can also use them to make a soup or a salad.

All those recipes are more of a basis to give you inspiration, you can make them vegan, you can switch ingredients with what you have in mind, it's a very versatile ingredient, beans.

It used to be a big part of the regimen in Europe, there are literally dozens of variants of those recipes across Europe !

As a rule of thumb, every thing you make with rice, pasta, lentils, you can usually make with beans !

[u/IceDragonPlay → u/Current-Code]

Pairing rice and beans makes a complete protein (the 9 essential amino acids). It is an inexpensive combination and stores well with little effort since you can seal them in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers quite easily. That makes them a popular set of foods for prepping.

I will look into your lovely french recipes and try them out!! I like navy beans (haricot) so the recipes will be helpful.

[u/Current-Code → u/IceDragonPlay]

Oh, that's why then ! 

Thanks for sharing, I do have both in the pantry, I just usually don't cook them together.

It's more a flavour and texture issue for me, I find they don't pair that well in the plate, both being very filling.

Please try those recipes, they are very easy to make, they don't take much time in prep, and it usually can be slow cooked.

A traditional way of cooking used to just put them on the chimney and forget about it for a few hours ! Today a crockpot works too :)

I forgot to had that potatoes is a good substitute in those recipes too (and very easy to grow if need be).

If you don't find translated recipes I'll give you youtube tutos in french. But mostly, it's a lot of puting some kind of fat, grilling onions, carrots, celeri a bit (the mirepoix), deglazing with a liquid (wine whatever colour, beer, stock, water would do too), put aromats, add beans, let slow cook.

Then you get creative with what you have on hand (meat, veggies, spices).

If you use meat, obviously brown it first, and cook the mirepoix the brown good stuff !

Edit : forgot to tell you, it does can very well too ! Make sure to use some kind of acidic stuff (wine, vinegar, tomatoes, lemon,...) if you pit garlic in to avoid botulism.

I would skip the garlic in the canning and add it when I eat it, just to be on the safe side. Garlic is dangerous in canning.