Freeze-Dried Breakfast Options

For breakfast, Mountain House Granola with Milk and Blueberries is one of the easiest emergency options. It only needs half a cup of cold water, has no soak time, and provides about 500 calories per pouch.

That makes it an ideal emergency breakfast.

For a higher-protein breakfast, Mountain House Breakfast Skillet has about 28 grams of protein and similar calories, but it needs more water, requires boiling water, and has a minimum soak time of about nine minutes. You may want to double that wait time for better hydration.

Simple 2-Week Freeze-Dried Meal Plans

Here are two simple ways to use freeze-dried meals and emergency food bars for one adult.

Lower-Cost Plan

Use:

• One Mountain House pouch per day for dinner
• Four mini SOS bars for breakfast and lunch

That gives about 2,000 calories per day.

For two weeks, that means:

• 14 Mountain House dinners
• Three 3,600-calorie SOS ration two-packs

More Balanced Plan

Use:

• One Mountain House breakfast pouch
• One Mountain House dinner pouch
• Three mini SOS bars for lunch and snacks

For two weeks, that means:

• 14 Mountain House breakfasts
• 14 Mountain House dinners
• Two 3,600-calorie SOS ration two-packs

This version costs more, but it is tastier and more balanced.

To save money, shop around. Mountain House pouches are sometimes discounted through REI, the Mountain House website, Walmart, or Costco. REI may also provide an end-of-year member rebate.

Type 3: Lower-Cost Shelf-Stable Staples

Freeze-dried pouches are convenient, but they can get expensive for a family.

The cheapest approach is to buy extra pantry foods your family already eats, rotate the oldest first, and restock before you run low.

Useful pantry foods can include:

• Cereal
• Granola bars
• Peanut butter
• Canned tuna
• Rice
• Pasta
• Ordinary canned goods

The challenge is that many everyday pantry foods only last months to a few years and require regular rotation.

For busy families, it is easy to use up your everyday pantry foods and not realize your backup supply is low until an earthquake, power outage, or other disruption happens.

That is why my preferred approach is a hybrid system:

Use about half everyday pantry foods your family already eats, and about half very long-lasting emergency foods that can sit for years with less rotation.

That way, you save money with ordinary foods but still have a reliable core of long-lasting emergency food that will be there when you need it.

Keystone Canned Meat

For shelf-stable protein, one of my favorite options is Keystone Meats canned beef, chicken, and pork.

Unopened, they do not need refrigeration, are widely available, and usually have a five-year best-by date.

The ingredients are simple: just meat and salt.

Each 14.5-ounce can has roughly 500 calories and about 90 grams of protein, depending on the meat. That is enough for two to three dinner servings.

For families of four or more, consider the larger 28-ounce cans.

Because Keystone meat is already cooked, you can eat it straight from the can in an emergency. The natural juices are fine to eat, and the white solid fat is safe too. It adds useful calories, though some people may find it harder to tolerate cold.

The meat is better warmed and mixed with rice, lentils, or freeze-dried vegetables.

Store cans in a cool, dry place. Rotate by date, and avoid any cans that are swollen, leaking, badly rusted, deeply dented, or smell wrong when opened.  

Below is an image of how to store canned foods:

Pilot Bread Crackers

A good shelf-stable companion is Future Essentials Pilot Bread Crackers.

They have a 30-year shelf life, and each sealed can has 12 crackers at 100 calories each.

Pilot bread crackers are simple, durable calories that can be eaten with honey for breakfast or with canned meat for dinner.

Honey

Pure honey is one of the rare foods with an effectively indefinite shelf life when kept sealed and dry.

It works well with crackers, oats, and other emergency foods.

Important safety note: honey should never be given to children under one year old.

White Rice in #10 Cans

Another option is specially packaged #10 cans of white rice with a 30-year shelf life.

The tradeoff is that rice requires:

• Cooking
• Water
• Fuel
• Cleanup

If you have backup cooking, adding cooked rice to Mountain House meals can stretch one pouch into two servings and lower the cost per meal.

Rice also makes a better dinner base than Pilot Bread Crackers if you have off-grid cooking.

Freeze-Dried Fruits and Vegetables

To round out emergency dinners, consider #10 cans of freeze-dried fruits and vegetables from brands such as Augason Farms, Nutristore, or Emergency Essentials.

Many have shelf lives around 25 to 30 years, depending on the product.

Freeze-dried fruits and vegetables can improve variety, nutrition, and meal quality. As with most freeze-dried foods, I recommend at least doubling the manufacturer’s suggested cold-soak time.

For dinners, freeze-dried broccoli is a more nutritious choice than peas if you have a way to cook or warm the meal.

Sample No-Cook Shelf-Stable Meal Plan

Here is one example of a shelf-stable, no-cook day for one adult.

Breakfast

• 2 Pilot Bread Crackers
• 1½ tablespoons pure honey
• 1½ servings freeze-dried blueberries, eaten dry or cold-soaked

This comes out to about 380 calories.

Lunch and Snack

• 3 mini SOS emergency food bars

This provides about 1,200 calories.

Dinner Without Cooking

• Cold-soaked freeze-dried peas
• Half a can of Keystone meat
• 3 Pilot Bread Crackers

This comes out to about 640 calories.

Cold Keystone meat may not look great, but it can taste surprisingly good.

Sample Off-Grid Cooking Dinner

If you have an off-grid cooking setup, the meal gets better.

You can cold-soak the peas first, then warm them with Keystone meat by adding both to rice near the end of cooking.

If you can cook, rice makes a better dinner base than Pilot Bread Crackers, and freeze-dried broccoli is a more nutritious choice than peas.

Here is an image of Shelf Stable Meal Plans: