Prepper Food Rationing and Stretching Food Supplies

[quintessentone]

I've decided to follow the advice of some preppers and buy high fat/sugar laden food supplies, which most dieticians tell us to avoid, to promote fat/energy storage should TSHTF along with food staples, such as rice, beans, canned fish and chicken.

I now need to learn how to combine these foods to stretch them out but still getting the required calories needed per day, depending upon one's activity levels.

This is what LLM offers as to caloric intake per day:

"Minimum survival intake ranges from 1,200 to 1,500 calories per day, which is sufficient to prevent immediate starvation but may lead to muscle wasting and reduced functionality if maintained long-term.  Comfortable maintenance typically requires 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day for average adults, with higher needs for those engaged in strenuous physical labor. 
Caloric Requirements by Activity Level

• Sedentary/Minimal Activity: 1,200–1,500 calories is the bare minimum for basic bodily functions; this level results in gradual weight loss and reduced energy. 
  
• Light Activity: 2,000–2,400 calories is generally recommended for adult females, while 2,500–2,800 calories is standard for adult males to maintain weight during light daily tasks. 
  
• Strenuous Labor: Individuals performing heavy work, such as chopping wood or gardening, may require 3,000 to 4,000+ calories to prevent rapid muscle depletion and exhaustion. 
  

Planning Considerations

• Individual Variance: Needs vary significantly based on age, gender, body weight, and health conditions; heavier individuals have more stored energy reserves but may require more calories for movement. 
  
• Nutritional Balance: Beyond total calories, ensuring adequate protein, vitamins, and minerals is critical to prevent deficiency diseases and preserve muscle mass during scarcity. 
  
• Storage Math: For long-term preparedness, plan for 60,000 calories per person per month (at 2,000/day) or 730,000 calories per year to ensure sustainable survival without rapid depletion of supplies."
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  Should I be making soups and stews so as to combine and stretch the ingredients to not only provide everyone with everything their bodies need but to also stretch the food resources as far as I can?
  
  I have also been studying native edible weeds and plants here and I could easily incorporate them into the stewing pot as well.
  
  In a survival situation, guesswork or a hit or miss diet can have devasting effects on the body especially where men will need to do the harder physical labor or hunting for meat.
  
  I would like to know how you would approach management of food resources and/or preparing meals when or if TSHTF.
  

[ANNEE]

I’ve read rice is not a great main staple because it requires a lot of water to be edible. 

Don’t remember what was suggested instead.

[Tecate]

Some friends and I decided to try an “Eternal Soup” or stew, where you add as you go and you keep it warm/on a simmer. It worked well as we foraged, hunted and added water. We cooked all the meat separately and then added it.

Tecate

[ANNEE]

Some friends and I decided to try an “Eternal Soup” or stew, where you add as you go and you keep it warm/on a simmer. It worked well as we foraged, hunted and added water. We cooked all the meat separately and then added it.

Tecate

Have you heard this nursery rhyme?  

"Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old" is a famous English nursery rhyme referring to a thick, yellow soup or pudding made from boiled, dried yellow split peas. 
Wikipedia +1

• Meaning: The rhyme refers to a tradition where a pot of pease pottage (stew) was kept simmering on the stove for days at a time.
  
• "Nine Days Old": It describes the practice of adding new ingredients (vegetables, meat scraps, or bones) to the same pot daily, creating a perpetual stew that might stay in the pot for over a week.
  
• The Rhyme: "Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold, pease porridge in the pot, nine days old".
  

[quintessentone]

I’ve read rice is not a great main staple because it requires a lot of water to be edible. 

Don’t remember what was suggested instead.

I read that brown rice will go rancid quickly because it has retains the bran and germ which have natural oils in it, whereas white rice does not. 

I suppose it would be a big concern to those that don't have access to water. I have access so I am storing a lot of white rice, which if I cook it slowly on lower heat, I find I can use less water.

The only alternative I can think of would be canned rice products. I've never seen canned rice where I live, but you are in Cali and closer to Mexico, so have you ever seen canned rice in your stores there?

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"Yes, rice is commercially canned, though it is less common than canned beans. Canned rice products generally fall into two categories: prepared, ready-to-eat varieties (such as La Preferida Spanish Rice or Canoe Cooked Wild Rice) which are seasoned and fully cooked, and uncooked, long-term storage rice (such as Future Essentials) which is vacuum-sealed in cans for emergency preparedness with a shelf life of up to 25 years"

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[quintessentone]

Some friends and I decided to try an “Eternal Soup” or stew, where you add as you go and you keep it warm/on a simmer. It worked well as we foraged, hunted and added water. We cooked all the meat separately and then added it.

Tecate

I probably would not choose to 'keep the pot going' because in my situation, fuel may become scarce so I may be forced to cook a lot of food all at once, then put it in mason jars for longer storage time. Although if my community joined together here, then fuel for cooking would then become less of a concern if there were dedicated cooks, cooking for everyone. Having a centralized kitchen, so to speak, would use all resources more efficiently for the entire community, I would think.

[quintessentone]

Have you heard this nursery rhyme?  

"Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old" is a famous English nursery rhyme referring to a thick, yellow soup or pudding made from boiled, dried yellow split peas. 
Wikipedia +1

• Meaning: The rhyme refers to a tradition where a pot of pease pottage (stew) was kept simmering on the stove for days at a time.
  
• "Nine Days Old": It describes the practice of adding new ingredients (vegetables, meat scraps, or bones) to the same pot daily, creating a perpetual stew that might stay in the pot for over a week.
  
• The Rhyme: "Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold, pease porridge in the pot, nine days old".
  

Did you ever watch that Lizzie Borden movie where, I believe, the mutton stew leftover in a pot went bad due bacterial overload due to a heat wave and the entire family fell ill - maybe that and her tyrannical father is what drove her mad - let that be a lesson to all of us? That part in the movie depicted perhaps a myth about food being left in a pot for long periods of time and then one was expected to eat of it. Although people do store food in natural clay pots which has proven to prolong food storage of certain types of food, such as fruit and veggies.

[ArMaP]

I’ve read rice is not a great main staple because it requires a lot of water to be edible. 

Don’t remember what was suggested instead.

Water to cook rice? I use the usual "twice the rice volume".

[ANNEE]

Did you ever watch that Lizzie Borden movie where, I believe, the mutton stew leftover in a pot went bad due bacterial overload due to a heat wave and the entire family fell ill - maybe that and her tyrannical father is what drove her mad - let that be a lesson to all of us? That part in the movie depicted perhaps a myth about food being left in a pot for long periods of time and then one was expected to eat of it. Although people do store food in natural clay pots which has proven to prolong food storage of certain types of food, such as fruit and veggies.

Don't remember that -- but I'm adament about my food.  Had food poisoning too many times.

I'm not a good housekeeper -- prefer the lived in feel.

However -- when it comes to my fridge -- get out of my way.

I keep a marker and freezer tape next to my fridge.  You open anything or store anything -- I better see an opening date on it.  Nothing stays longer than a week -- 3 days for some things.

[ANNEE]

Water to cook rice? I use the usual "twice the rice volume".

Just something I read somewhere in regards to prepping.

I have bins of rice myself.