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One thing that is important when it comes to survival situations is food. Even a simple power outage can shut down the local grocery store, forcing you to eat what is already in your house. I want to share today our one-month food storage box.
This food gives us peace of mind and assurance that we always have food in the house. When unexpected guests arrive, we know we can pull from our box a delicious, hearty meal. If one of us where to lose our jobs unexpectedly, we could reserve our savings and eat out of the box for a while.
This box includes all shelf stable items, and some that require no cooking, just reheating. Not having to cook means you could in a pinch eat at room temperature without the need for a cook stove or fire or drawing attention to the meal. It may seem silly but cooking a big pot of steaming chili may cause others to lift their noses at the smell and come down to check it out.
Our box is designed for one person to eat comfortably, without rationing, for one month. For us, it means we could eat for 2 weeks, or find space in our apartment for another box. This box currently lives under our end table next to the couch and fits nearly everything. (Water we store elsewhere, learn about our water storage here.)
So how much does it cost? About $140. But we didn't buy it all at once. After the first list was made, every grocery trip we selected 5-6 items to buy and slowly built up our supply.
But what if it expires before I use it, seems like a waste of money? First we created this box around foods we eat every day. So, when we plan chili for dinner in a week, we buy what we need but take the items out of the box and restock with the items we bought. This keeps things rotated and fresh. It also ensures we are stocking the box with things we like and eat regularly. Second, think of it like car insurance. Most months you don't have an accident, don't need repairs but you still pay for insurance. This box is food insurance, most months you won't need it, but will be very happy to have it when you need it. Third, peace of mind is not a waste of time (or money).
So, let's get down to the details, what’s in our box?

Breakfast meals: (38 meals)
- Oatmeal and brown sugar or jam or honey (15)
- Protein powder (15)
- Corned beef hash (8)
- Protein bars and canned fruit (15)
Lunch + Dinner: (56 meals)
- Pasta and tomato sauce (8)
- Easy Chili (16)
- Shepard's Pie (16)
- Tomato Soup (8)
- Mac and cheese (8)
Snacks:
- Ritz and peanut butter (-)

Here with 38 breakfasts and 56 lunch/dinner meals that comes to 94 total meals which is 3 meals a day for 31 days. The recipes are pretty simple.
Oatmeal: (1 serving x 15)
- 1/2 cup oatmeal
- 1/4 cup water (to preference)
- 1 dab of honey, jam or brown sugar
Corned Beef Hash: (2 servings x 4)
- 1 can Corned Beef hash
Protein + Fruit (1 serving x 15)
- 1 protein bar
- 1 fruit cup
Protein Shake (1 serving x 15)
- 1 scoop of powder
- milk or water to preference
Pasta and tomato sauce: (2 serving x 4)
- 1 box pasta
- 1 jar tomato sauce
- sprinkle of Parmesan cheese (for morale)
Easy Chili: (4 servings x 4)
- 1 can black beans
- 1 can baked beans
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 can corn
- 1 packet taco seasoning
- optional canned meat (not included)
- optional rice
Shepard's Pie (4 servings x 4)
- 1 can peas
- 1 can corn
- 1 can gravy
- 1 packet of dried mashed potatoes
- optional canned meat (not included)
- optional rice
Mac and Cheese (1 serving x 4)
- 1 box mac and cheese
Tomato Soup (1 serving x 4)
- 1 can tomato soup
- rice/pasta optional
For variety, try mixing half a can of tomato soup with half a prepared box of mac and cheese. This nice blend changes things up and is still the same amount of servings.
Note: Rice is very easy to make with water and easy to store dry. It has a long shelf life, is packed with calories and fills your stomach. This makes rice a great way to stretch a meal, chili over rice can double the servings of chili. Rice in tomato soup (think Spaghetti-O's) or Shepard's pie can do the same, making your food supply last much longer.
Cooking without Power
Do you have a plan to cook this food without electricity? Say there is a bad wind storm that knocks out power. You have food from your box but some require cooking and some reheating. How do you plan to heat or cook the items in this box?
A good apartment solution is a camp stove. I recommend this Butane Gas camp stove. It is large enough for your standard cooking pots. The Butane Canisters are not easy to find in stores but can be ordered easily from Amazon. (Small propane canisters are also becoming harder to find in camping stores.) Each canister last for 3- 4 hours of burn time. Don't forget to stock up on Butane canisters too! With this link, you can buy 1 canister for about $1. That is a great deal!
One warning with using butane stoves inside: Carbon Monoxide. Get a simple battery powered detector and you will be all set. You could open a window if it's not cold outside.
Want a free printable list ? I will email it to you. Check out the box below.
What other recipes do your family love that are made of shelf-stable ingredients? What would you swap out in this list?
Looking for more great content:

Free Print Out
Do you want this information in a great printer-friendly format? We will include our sample food plan and ideas for how to create your own plan for your family.
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For the mac & cheese you will need to store self stable milk and canned butter or butter powder. Also water for the butter powder
Rose,
That is a good point. Maybe a a can of milk or even coconut milk to mix things up, should be added for making the mac and cheese.
~Lauren
You can also buy box milk(no refrigeration needed till opened) or dry boxed 1%milk (just add water)
Is one can of soup supposed to be 4 servings or one and you need 4 cans?
Concentrated soup is supposed to be two servings per can, so is RTE (ready to eat). I personally would add one can per person of spaghettios or the like, bcz I might be too busy to cook or be low on fuel.
Susan and Lisa,
I usually count 1 can of soup as 1 meal, because I tend to eat the whole can regardless of what the serving size on the back says. Does that help?
~Lauren
Lisa you can also keep jars of dried beef for meat and gravy. As for needing margarine or butter for Mac and cheese, you will survive without it. After surviving hurricane Michael last year, I had laid up in my supplies canned roast and gravy. It was very good over instant rice.
Debbie,
Canned roast and gravy over rice sounds good. Mom always put chili over rice to make the chili stretch further.
~Lauren
the family size can of Campbell sirloin burger over instant rice is a great meal for two
How would you store the un eaten portions?
Susan,
Uneaten portions would likely need to be stored in the fridge or freezer. If the power was out, then this may be an issue. If it is winter, the world is your ice box :). Another option would be to try and find the small can varieties, to reduce the serving size down to what can be eaten in one sitting. There are half-can often available for beans and vegetables, although I have not seen too many half-cans of soup.
Hope that helps, Lauren.
Those left-overs should be eaten by the next person getting hungry. As long as your dish doesn’t have eggs or milk it can be eaten several hours later and not hurt you. I know from experience growing up and present day, left overs are covered and left on the stove. Someone always wants to snack before the next meal. Just think of those leftovers as snack food!!!!
Thank you for assembling this list. My city dwelling family members found it helpful. Also, thank you to all the people who added comments- very some of the ideas I have added into my stock up routine.
Like many other folks commented- I too find that using the: use one, replenish one, system work well to keep supplies stocked.
Thank you for your help. I’m very concerned about long-term. I’ve read about 5 lb. Buckets to store food, but would opening it,spoil the food, such as sugar, rice, flour, etc.especially water is very important. Now if there’s no electricity, the little stoves seem to be a good idea. Thank you very much
I have made my list and am including a few cans of sterno and the tin trays to heat the food.
In your 5 gallon bucket, break down the portions to more manageable size, then vacuum pack that portion down. This way when you open the bucket your don’t potentially ruin the whole bucket
What about peanut butter& Jelly? Goes good on crackers. Also, instead of tomato sauce, why not spaghetti sauce? It does come in cans too. Or get a canning set & can all sorts of things in small jars, including meat
Choose shelf-stable foods that do not require a refrigerator or freezer for storage. Once opened or prepared, many foods no longer are shelf stable.
What size container/ box did you use please. We are in the UK( and some items are quite hard to get hold of on a budget…but we find ways around it.)
Thank you.