What To Do, Just In Case

How to be more Prepared, without becoming a right-wing nutcase?

Everyone has been affected by The Shutdown. Some of us have been knocked flat on our butts by it, scarcely able to understand what happened. Others are reeling, some drunkenly, just barely keeping their sanity as the world turns upside-down around them.

For some of us, this is another kick in the teeth, another devastating kidney punch that has kicked us off the ladder of 'Success' just as we were getting back on it. No one wants to get caught flat-footed again, but not many people want to become Survival Extremists, either.

What is a rational person gonna do, in case this horrendous virus comes back in the fall? Well, assuming that one is just looking ahead for a return of this pandemic in the fall, let's see what one could do - without going full Doomsday Prepper.

I'm gonna make a few assumptions: this virus will come back in October, my readers have a little bit of money and some room for storage, and are willing to learn to cook.

There's a lot of math involved with this, because everyone's situation is gonna be different. First thing is to read up on portion sizes, and figure out what's gonna work for your situation. Then get a few good recipes for soup, because that's the easiest way to cook several meals using dried foods. Get a crock pot, or some kind of slow cooker and learn to use it.

The easiest foods to put away for 'What If?' are dried foods. Since we are talking about food to buy over the summer, for use this fall and winter, shelf-life shouldn't be an issue. All this stuff will last a year as long as mice and bugs don't get in it. It's all something one could eat over the course of a winter, even if things don't go badly, this food doesn't have to go to waste.

Quick rolled oatmeal for breakfast, two big cans of it, raisins to flavor it, or packets of instant flavored oatmeal. More on that in a minute.

Dried peas, beans, barley, rice, soup starter/mixes, powdered beef and chicken broth, ramen, dried egg noodles, dried milk, dried herbs like bay leaf, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, vanilla, and chili powder for dinners. All these need to be in mouse-proof containers, but can be stashed in a tub until needed. I use recycled ice cream containers, and anything else I can get my hands on for this. It doesn't matter what it looks like, slap a label and a date on it, then tuck it into the tub for safekeeping.

Oatmeal in bulk containers needs flavoring. I've found that one packet of cheap instant oatmeal can flavor two cups of plain oatmeal. Just mix it together with water and nuke it according to directions for the bulk oatmeal. The fiber in the oatmeal is good for the digestion, cholesterol, and the carbs are good for energy.

Tissue paper, toilet tissue, laundry detergent, won't fit in a single tub, but pain/fever relieving medication, ant-acids, cold and allergy medicines, whatever your family uses over the course of the winter, will. Just buy an extra generic one, tuck the smaller boxes into the tub with the dried food.

One doesn't have to spend a fortune, just think about it and tuck away an extra bit here and there. I'm assuming money is gonna be tight all summer, so any "prepping" is gonna small scale.

We all know what is in short supply. So this summer pick up an extra one and stash it. Toilet paper, toothpaste, no need to buy a case, just pick up one or two small packages.

I was surprised at the absence of rice in general and brown rice in particular.

We eat a good bit of rice, I keep three or four different rice mixes, so I never thought to stock up on the plain brown rice, because I've got other types in storage. I'm gonna buy a two extra bags for the fall and winter. Just two extra bags, putting it in glass jars and stashing it away. I'm gonna get 5 lbs of white rice, 10 lbs of flour (I bake bread) and 10 lbs of sugar. I will need two large containers, which I don't have at the moment.

The point is to have a extra on hand. However, there's no point in buying things one or one's family won't eat. This is where the extra thought comes in, what and how to cook stuff that the family will eat?

Practice. It's the only way to learn.

Here at Jordan's Croft, I have a pantry. It was the first part of my kitchen that I fell in love with. I keep extras in the pantry. So I have two jars of peanut butter, two jars of jam, four kinds of rice mix, six types of noodles, a case of ramen noodles, an extra bottle of cooking oil, three types of flour, raisins and nuts as well as potatoes, white and sweet, garlic and onions.

We eat a lot of stir-fried foods with either rice or noodles. Years ago I decided that I liked to eat different vegetables stir-fried together instead of just carrots or peas or cabbage. So I just cut up whatever we've got on hand, stir-fry it, put it over either rice or noodles and enjoy.

We really like eating this way. A few staples in the fridge, a bit of rice, some flavorings and dinner!

Anyone can do this. One just needs to find out what works for you and your situation.

How does this work out?

When the store shelves were empty, we still had toilet paper, because there was an extra pack in the guest bathroom. We had everything we needed to make a big pot of beef soup and chicken soup three days later because we had powdered broth, noodles, dried vegetables and herbs, a little bit of beef and a couple chicken thighs stashed in the freezer.

By the the time we were running short, most of the things we really needed were back on the shelves. I needed fresh foods the most, carrots, celery, potatoes, and milk. Frozen vegetables and chicken thighs were enough to keep us eating. We're almost out of oatmeal, but it's back on the shelves, so we are fine. We picked up a small pack of toilet paper one week, and a larger one a week later, never opening the extra pack in the guest bath.

Hope this helps.