Food-time! Part 1 of Many

Any average American family, at least that I've seen, has an ample supply of food in their homes. Sure, you can look at your cupboards or fridge and proclaim that there's nothing to eat, but you're wrong. There's a lot of food there - you just have the luxury of being able to procure something you want more someplace else.

At a rough guess I'd say you probably already have at least 7 to 10 days worth of food to make reasonable enough meals. Beyond that you probably have another week's worth of meals like "canned beets with plain rice on the side" but that's still a meal.

The majority of situations that are likely to occur that would leave you stuck at home likely aren't going to keep you there for much longer than a few days. In the unlikely event that you're stuck at home for an extended period of time and there is no help coming then you might want to have a few extra things.

Don't pick up MRE's or a case of spam (unless you like spam), rather pick up canned foods that you eat normally. For less than fifty bucks you can buy several days to weeks worth of non-perishable food items that you normally use or could easily incorporate into your normal diet. This is important because when a year has passed and you haven't had to dive into your emergency supplies you'll want to rotate out these items so that your supplies are always fresh.

We have an area in our basement dedicated to extra food supplies. It's actually a buffet/hutch that we also store our large cooking tools that we don't frequently use (ie wok, cake pans, etc). This area is cool and dry year round.

MOST IMPORTANT ITEM TO STOCK: A freaking manual can-opener! Electronic can openers are not all the helpful if you don't have power. I suggest that every household should have two manual can openers. Sure you can open a can without a can opener, but why not go spend a couple of bucks and get the right tool to make the job easy?

In future entries regarding food I'll cover putting together meals, cooking without your stove, finding alternate food sources, and more!