It's been about four years since I last wrote about Shoebox Suppers and all of that time I've held that concept in the back of my mind. This month, with Annabel writing of disaster preparedness as well she might with things the way they are in her country, and our having already experienced our first Tropical depression of the season a whole month earlier than usual, as well as the increased activity of the C word thingy, it seems like a good idea to now revisit the idea of a tiny portion of preparedness work I'd meant to do long ago and get it done as one of my own bits.
So let's revisit the concept of Shoe Box Suppers briefly. I shared my ideas, as did a few readers in these two posts which I also linked last week. The first post is here and there was a follow-up post. I compiled a list last weekend of those ideas I'd shared, and those that others had shared in the comments. I visited the site Lana recommended on those posts, Southern Plate. She calls her meals Bags to Dishes meals. I wrote out all the ones that I wanted to try.
On Pinterest, I found it best to search for 'meals from pantry essentials' or 'pantry shelf meals'. I garnered some good ideas there as well. I have only hit the very tip of this subject with my few gleanings thus far. I have 30 meal ideas. Some for breakfast, some for lunches or dinners, all using pantry staples.
Some of the authors of these posts chose to rely on canned meats and some used frozen cooked meats. Some have long term food storage dehydrated meats and food items they were using. For myself I've tried to think of the canned proteins I have on hand to use in my Shoe Box Suppers and the bulk of what I make when I prepare a Shoe Box meal will be pulled from my pantry. This is what I have at present and that's what I want to concentrate on using.
One thing I appreciated was another author's idea to look long and hard at your household's favorite meals and try to think 'out of the can' in preparing it. I'd like to add some dehydrated vegetables to my pantry but I'm sort of on the borderline about that. One homesteader assured her patrons that dehydrated carrots had superior texture but NO nutritional value over canned ones...I want nutritionally sound meals, not nutritionally dead ones...and I'm not keen on the heavy salt that might be in a fully canned menu of meals for a week or three either. So there are kinks to be worked out and ideas to be explored for sure and information to be found.
There are many companies that offer long term storage dehydrated vegetables in large cans. I don't know if I'm ready to pour money into those. I've said all along I'm far more interested in having a year of food in my home but not so sure I want to start thinking 20-30 years out which is what a lot of those foods are meant to be for.
So I decided, as with all things, to pull my thoughts back to beginning stages and look at how I can use what I have on hand right now to prepare meals. That would be from my pantry supplies. What I can access easily is dehydrated onion and potatoes (flakes and boxes of au gratin potatoes). I don't have to use seasoning packets in foods, necessarily. I can buy celery seed or ground celery and I can dry celery leaves. Of course, there are onion and garlic powders and many herbs and spices to season foods with, including many salt free blends.
Canned vegetables may be bought as low salt varieties but if you are like me, I don't shop at a great number of stores. There are not any salt free options at Aldi where I find the best price on vegetables over all. Rinse them if you want to decrease the salt content and then season using your choice of herbs and spices and seasoning mixes. You can keep salt free broths on hand to use as your liquid in these vegetables when reheating. And forgo the pre packaged seasoning mixes included in packages and create your own. I haven't bought taco seasoning in years.
My plans, starting this month, is to take one day a week and try one of the recipes I've collected thus far. I'll post a picture, give a review, etc., but remember this is based on MY family's taste. If I say that a recipe was a fail for us, it doesn't mean it will be a fail for you. It might be just the sort of thing your family would eat right up.
I'm not a nutritionist but I do urge you all to be aware of how many calories per day your family members require and how the foods you're preparing from your pantry will contribute to those. I don't have children to worry about but if you or someone in your household has a need to maintain a certain weight level, be aware that you will want to insure you are feeding your family enough calories daily to maintain that level. It's never been an issue for me personally but I've known too many who losing five pounds meant an immediate loss of immunity as well. Children most especially need to get enough calories to insure growth so please be aware of family nutritional needs when planning your shoe box meals.
I'm excited to begin this series and hope it will inspire you in keeping a few meals in your pantry that will serve as an emergency supply for storms, supply chain breaks and financial need in the future.
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