As I wrote my Stockpiling Groceries 101 post yesterday, I shared how there are numerous items that I stock up on throughout the year. I’ve been thinking a lot about the many benefits of stockpiling and preparedness, besides the obvious of saving thousands of dollars, and thought it would be an interesting question to post to you all this Tuesday.
Can I just say that my favorite part of the blog week is reading all your comments on my Tasty Tuesday Parade of Food posts. Last week’s answers to, “What is the Weirdest Thing You’ve ever eaten” was so entertaining to read, and I know that this week’s responses will be interesting and insightful.
This is a two part question.
1.) If you knew there was going to be a period of time when all grocery stores would be closed and you wouldn’t be able to buy anything for a few weeks, what items would you stock up on? What are those few food products that you just “have to have?”
2.) What recipe is your “Go To” meal – meaning that one meal where at any time, you always have the ingredients on hand to fix in a pinch? I’m really anxious to read this one because I would love to stock pile a few of those ingredients from your creativity.
Simple Rules for Tasty Tuesday Parade of Foods – If you’re joining in with a recipe link, two simple requests. As always, Please link directly to your recipe post and not your blog URL, so that everyone can find the recipe months from now.
Also, link back here so that everyone can join in the fun. It’s just common courtesy of blog carnivals.
Don’t forget to support your fellow bloggers by checking out some of their amazing recipes…be inspired by others.
Hmm… the grocery store question will take some thought. As for my “go to” meal, I think it varies somewhat with the season.
In the summer, I always have the ingredients for taco salad on hand: lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans (black or pinto or refried), salsa, cheese, and tortilla chips. Dinner in a flash.
In the winter, I have the ingredients for pasta and sauce on hand at all times.
Looking forward to reading others’ suggestions!
If they were just closed down for a few weeks, I would say beans and tortillas. They are quick, nourishing and easy and don’t take a long time to prepare. I would have to get a lot of yogurt too!!
I have a chipotle bean burrito that is my favorite. My husband likes more meat but I could just eat beans.
Of course, I would need to stockpile waffles and pancake mix for the kids. That’s all they want to eat. 🙂
My go to meal in the summer is grilled chicken and then I make sides from what is growing in the garden or what I received that week from our CSA. Like Barb, our winter go to meal usually contains some sort of pasta, but I also make frittatas in a pinch.
From the grocery store, I would stock up on tortillas, beans, cheese, chicken to make quesadillas and tacos.
Thanks for the carnival.
Hmm, I’m not sure what a favorite go to meal.. Tomato soup and grilled cheese? Tacos?
Thank you for hosting this yummy meme! 😀 It helps me get my menu planning done each week.
I must always have cereal on hand. (It has become my favorite late night snack). As for my go-to meal, I would have to say eggs. I make egg casseroles, scrambled eggs, sunny side-up eggs, hard -boiled egss, quiche…can you tell we like breakfast foods at my house:)
I would stock up on cheese, coffee (!), chicken, sausage, dried fruits and oil. I buy all of our baking goods and dried beans in bulk so we would be set on oatmeal and any form of bread product. We usually have a garden that produces our veggies, so we wouldn’t need them, either. And we purchased half a beef this year, and we are stocked with venison–so we mostly just need chicken to round it all out.
My go to meals are Mexican in any form, and spaghetti. However, Chinese fare is getting right up there. 😉
HAVE TO HAVE – we must have an abundant supply of frozen pizzas or my DH would have a mental breakdown! Oh and ice cream as well – that is our form of Prozac. 🙂
GO TO MEAL – If I have not planned our taken anything out of the freezer to thaw, ‘breakfast for dinner’ is my back-up plan. And that can range from eggs, sausage, fried potatoes, and toast to cereal or pancakes & sausage. Muffins, bacon, and fruit. Oatmeal & sausage, fried egg sandwiches – there are so many variations!!
My go to meal is always pasta. It is easy and my kids love it! As for stockpiling, I don’t really have a favorite thing to stockpile, but I usually end up stockpiling cereal, cake mixes, ground beef, pasta, and salad dressing.
Toni
What do I stock pile? Ground beef. I buy it in 10 pound tubes, divide it into 1 pound pakages, freeze it ( after flattening it….a favorite activity of my daughter) , store it in standing up after it’s frozen in a cheap-o plastic bin. I normally have at least 13 pounds of the stuff in the freezer.
My go to meals? Meatloaf ( naturally)…..spaghetti and homemade sauce….chicken enchilidas. I make the sauce ahead and freeze it. I didn’t realize how much my kids liked homemade sauce until I bought a jar and used it. Nothing nice was said about that sauce. This year I hope to make apple sauce and freeze it. My two yr. old is addicted to it. Now if I could figure out how to stockpile and freeze Pioneer Woman’s Apple Dumplings….all would be right in the world.
For myself, I would stockpile cottage cheese and yogurt. When I had 3 teenage boys that were playing football and basketball daily, huge Idaho potatoes. I would make vats of ranch dressing and bake about 9 potatoes each day for when they arrived home after practice and games. It was the perfect “after school snack,” filling them up and then at dinner time I had enough food for 4 more of us!!!!
Thanks for the party and your bread looks fabulous!
Living in South Carolina, we are faced with this when tropical storms or hurricanes hit. The items that I would (and do) stock up on are water, items that do not require refrigeration and items that do not have to be cooked or that could be cooked utilizing very little gas from our grill. Canned meats are always a blessing as are dried beans. Oh and peanut butter! Lots and lots and lots of peanut butter and jelly! I remember in the late 1980’s when Hurricane Hugo hit, dried cereal was such a treat. You could eat it with milk or dry for breakfast or snacks… Oatmeal was an easy fix, too. We ate a million PB&Js and we had a lot of fresh fruit. Watermelon and oranges seemed to do the best with the temperatures as high as they were… I also remember some convenience foods such as canned food… I think we had our fair share of canned spaghetti and meatballs and beef stew. Ha Ha We utilized “dry ice’ to keep our meats cool, so the idea of “bulk cooking” was introduced in my life during Hugo when we did just that. We took all of our meats and cooked them at once on the grill. It was more sanitary to store cooked meats in zipper bags than raw meats that must remain frozen. I remember at 9 years old being told that raw meat posed a threat of thawing too soon and could drain, contaminating other foods. ewe. I could go on forever about Hugo and our creativity when it came to survival. LOL
The meals that we always have items for actually lack creativity. Ha Ha Some of our favorite easy dinners are Breakfast for Dinner, Tortilla Pizzas (for the kiddos), Pastas such as spaghetti or chicken alfredo, chicken noodle soup or chicken n’ dumplins and chicken and sausage bog… (Can you tell I precook a lot of chicken? hehe) All of those recipes require the most basic staple items and we almost always have one of these meals each week! 🙂
XOXO
Kassandra – you definitely learned it through the school of hard knocks. We got the effects of Hugo here as well with tornadoes whipping through our subdivision, destroying a few homes, but nothing like what the coast received. We were only without power for a day or two.
@Jens, There were some hard lessons learned, but some of my best childhood memories were from those weeks. I’ve never witnessed the coming together of people from all different walks of life like I witnessed that fall. It was a tragic, but amazing experience.
What do I stockpile? Cereal, hamburger, chicken, dried pasta. Except for the cereal, I can usually come up with a meal using those ingredients.
My go to meals…tacos, meat loaf, chili (in the Winter) and my Refrigerator Stew recipe. The last two always go in my slow cooker!
I have to have milk, flour and eggs on hand so those would be my items to stockpile. My go to recipe is pasta with pesto because it is easy to keep pasta on hand and I always have a jar of pesto in the cupboard. From there you can add just about anything you have in the fridge – from a bit of bacon, chicken or shrimp to some mushrooms and peas or other veggies. Thanks for hosting!
Hey, Jen, I’m sharing my mom’s each peach cobbler today. Quick & delish, perfect for those peaches that are still coming in.
My go to meal is probably a frittata. If I’m down to a few things, I usually have some eggs, cheese & a few canned or frozen veggies to throw in, along with some diced potatoes to make a pretty good impromptu meal.
Ok, Rhoda – what am I thinking? I rarely ever make frittata and I definitely need to..thanks for the reminder. 🙂
We have to have cereal on hand. Although I try to feed my boys a warm breakfast on most mornings, there are those mornings when its just not going to happen so its nice to have Cheerios as a back up. Its the only cereal my boys eat…never had anything else!
My go-to meal is the Turkey Meatloaf I linked today. I usually have all the ingredients on hand….its healthy and its a favorite of everyone.
This is my first Tasty Tuesday post!
We stock up on pasta, chicken, canned soups, and all baking products. With only three people in the house, it’s usually not a good investment to stock up on a lot things because they’ll go bad before we can eat them, but I do try to save money and stock up on things I know we’ll eat.
My go-to meals are always some sort of pasta. I always keep artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, and mushrooms on hand so I can toss that with pasta, maybe some sauteed chicken, and plenty of olive oil and garlic. Whenever we make tomato sauce, we make big batches and freeze it, so that’s on hand for meals in a pinch as well.
So thrilled you joined us, Elizabeth. Grab a cup of coffee and find some great recipes and hopefully we’ll send some new friends your way as well. 🙂
Hmmm…my go to meal is usually grilled chicken and veggies, since I always have those.
I’d probably stock up on potatoes, rice, veggies….
I would make sure I had all my spices, eggs, flour and sugar. Those don’t take refrigeration to store and I could make many different things with them.
My go to meal is either pasta w/some type of homemade sauce or chicken and rice casserole. Both allow me to use whatever I have on hand.
Potatoes. Potatoes. Potatoes.
Our go-to meal is always Pasta and grilled chicken. Or baked potatoes.
I would have oatmeal … and peanut butter. Fiber and protein and easy to eat in a pinch.
And my go to meal would be pasta, tomato sauce, served with whatever bread I can pull out of my hat and a veggie. 🙂
My stockpile and go to meal are the same! Cereal, cereal, cereal! I could eat that for every meal and I always keep about 6 in the cabinet to choose from. I usually have extras in the storage cabinet when someone goes on sale for a good price. Can’t live without it!
Foods I’d stockpile: for protein, I’d go with chicken (frozen boneless thighs & breasts) and ground beef because so many meals that can be made with those meats. I’d also buy a lot of pasta, rice, potatoes, cheddar cheese, peanut butter, honey, and frozen veggies if fresh weren’t available.
I frequently make stir-fries based on the veggies and meat (chicken, beef, pork) that I have on hand. When served with steamed rice, it makes a great meal that my whole family loves!
1. I’d stock up on flour, butter, rice, pasta, canned tomatoes, canned green beans (’cause that’s the only way my hubby eats them) and frozen corn, peas, broccoli. Chicken, tuna fish and maybe ground beef.
2. Our favorite things are Tex Mex and Country food. So we’d eat either Southwestern Chicken and Rice Skillet (a recipe from my husband’s ex-sister-in-law) or Chicken and Rice Casserole. Those are out go-to meals.
1. I would stock up on beans, rice, salsa, cheese, tortillas and chicken. I love mexican food and could manage quite a few different meals out of that.
2. My go-to meal is pasta with pesto and chopped up veggies (whatever is laying around or frozen). While it’s not my favorite, it’s quick, easy and reasonably healthy. I have enough pesto in my freezer to feed an army!
I usually stock up peanut butter, cheese, tuna, pasta, and apples to go along with the homemade bread I have in the freezer and canned/frozen garden items.
We have two go-to meals: pasta made with homemade frozen sauce and soft tacos/burritos/nachos. They make everyone happy.
I have to say I do not have anything I can go to in a hurry in my freezer! Mealtime is one of my least favorite times of the day. I get tired of trying to think of something different to cook. I would love to win the 3 months prize!! I have heard of it & everyone seems to really like it! I would love to try it! Thanks.
I would stockpile the ingredients for Honey Baked Lentils, my go-to meal whenever the weather is cool enough to use the oven. I love that recipe because it takes just a few minutes to mix up from cheap, shelf-stable ingredients; then you stick it in the oven and go do something else! But it’s delicious, it’s nutritious, it reheats well, it’s great for potlucks…I just love it!
I’d also stockpile pasta and sauce, cereal (especially Grape-nuts, my son’s and my favorite) and milk, quick oats, raisins, canned beans, and a few pounds of assorted frozen vegetables.