Preparing an Emergency Food Kit with dietary restrictions

[SundayCrepes]

I am trying to figure out how to have an emergency food supply that meets our dietary restrictions: vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free, cane sugar free, and low or no tomatoes. In a true emergency my husband, son and I could eat anything, including (gag) meat. But my little one...who knows what meat is contaminated with. 40% of chicken is injected with broth that contains gluten. Anyone have any ideas on how to have a tub of emergency food? I found this article, but her only restriction is gluten. She doesn't know how easy she has it. http://www.celiac.com/articles/21603/1/How-to-Prepare-a-Gluten-Free-Disaster-Emergency-Kit/Page1.html

Does anyone have any ideas for an emergency food kit?

[mumkimum]

Some ideas (some might have things you need to avoid that I don't realize - sorry):

Cans of beans that can get eaten plain ( ie. I often have canned garbanzos in our kits)

Canned veggies (I'll often have corn or beets which I think are okay cold) - dunno if three bean salad works either, but thats good too

Jar of pickles & or olives (which are high fat/calorie)

Fruit juices (can also get used to soak or cook other foods in)

Dried fruits (can also get soaked in juice to be more filling or fresh-like)

Rice noodles (can get soaked in juice for flavor and eaten cold, or with canned veg)

Dehydrated 'just veggies' or similar

'instant' pre-cooked rice packets (not sure if they have preservatives you can't eat or not?)

Any cooked, canned soup that you can eat (lentil? black bean?)

Tins/bags of nuts

Roasted seaweed

Canned coconut milk (to drink or soak foods in to add calories)

Instant black bean dip or similar (if you can find it and it doesn't have bad ingredients)

Sprouting seeds and simple supplies for sprouting them

Dry polenta/cornmeal (for making porridge)

Jar of honey (or candies/gum that meet your requirements)

I suppose if tuna is reliably gluten-free, canned tuna might be a good addition too (for an emergency, after all) but that's up to you.

I personally keep our 'family' kit in a 5 gallon bucket, and do get full size cans or jars of stuff (that I plan on us all sharing).  But you may want to consider smaller size cans or more individual servings of things to be able to include more stuff or make it slightly more portable.

[catnip]

Some of this is stuff I'd not ordinarily eat, but here is what is in my emergency bucket- I'll star the stuff that might work for you:
2 boxes minute rice (*)
4 cans Amy's mild chili (?) it is dairy and GF, might have too much tomatoes, don't know about sugar
4 cans garbanzo beans (our favorite to eat cold)
12 tubs single serve applesauce(*)
Canned fruit (*) in juice should work for you
2 jars peanut butter
12 servings coffee
Instant fortified oatmeal (not sure if you can buy instant,GF and unsweetened, but a bag of oats just needs 20 minutes soak time in df milk or water to be edible)
Taco shells
2 cans Refried beans
Wild garden hummus (?)
Rice/corn cakes (*)
Amy's soups
Cheap jelly packets saved from restaurants (?) a
Justin's nut butter packs
Noodles and a foil pack of Ragu sauce
Canned corn and green beans
rice crackers
Precooked rice bowls
Foil packed Indian food.
Nuts
Dried fruit
Airborne
Kids multivitamins

[SundayCrepes]

Thanks for the lists, they're very helpful.

I was hoping I could just buy one of those plastic buckets of food that last 20 years, but I'm guessing it's not an option. I don't buy canned/packaged food, but most of that would have to be donated to the food bank on an annual basis. I was hoping to not have to keep spending money, but I fear there's no choice.

[catnip]

http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1227243/supplies-for-the-inevitable-zombie-apocolypse

Here's a thread I made on the subject a while back.

We buy food with an expiration date in at least June of the following year, except crackers, which have best-by dates of about 6 months, and those we just realize might be a little stale if we have to eat them. We restock every April, in time to donate last year's leftovers to the USPS carrier food drive on the second Saturday in May. We keep supplies in 5 gallon buckets with tight fitting lids.

[SundayCrepes]

Thanks. I like the idea of restocking once a year. I could just budget so getting rid of it isn't the end of the world.

[wytchywoman]

I meal planned for my emergency kit  using this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Apocalypse-Chow-Well-When-Power/dp/B001B2HIIS/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327963331&sr=1-1

I really liked it and it is well worth the cost. Not only does it have a variety of recipes using canned and nonperishable goods, but it also has a lot of tips on what to do to prepare for different disasters. The recipes are definitely adaptable and you can substitute what your little one can eat. It is sort of tomato heavy for flavor, but canned beans are a bit salty so I wouldn't think that the recipes would be too bland without the tomatoes.

I also bought one of these and some some butane canisters:

http://www.amazon.com/Deluxe-Butane-Burner-Stove-Free/dp/B000BVC4NY   

which might help increase what you could prepare in an emergency.

[SundayCrepes]

Thank you. I just ordered it. I have amazon prime so it will be here in two days for a total cost of $5.18.

[ahimsamom]

Have you checked out natural news store? They have an ok selection of vegan storables including sprouting seeds, quinoa, chlorella and spirulina, himilayan crystal salt, protein powder, etc.

They also have storable organic packages that include a variety of different foods, but I didn't like some of the things they put in them. I prefer to just buy miscellanious items and put together my own kit.

Here's the link: http://store.naturalnews.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=100432&zenid=cpb96bvenefvm59prag1aplee4

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by ahimsamom 

Have you checked out natural news store? They have an ok selection of vegan storables including sprouting seeds, quinoa, chlorella and spirulina, himilayan crystal salt, protein powder, etc.

They also have storable organic packages that include a variety of different foods, but I didn't like some of the things they put in them. I prefer to just buy miscellanious items and put together my own kit.

Here's the link: http://store.naturalnews.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=100432&zenid=cpb96bvenefvm59prag1aplee4

Thanks. One of my requirements is that the food not require any prep (other than mung beans which I'd add for something fresh.) I want my kids to be able to feed themselves if something happens to all the adults. This is part of why I'm trying to avoid cans--my 6 year old does not have the strength to use a can opener.

I'm thinking of storing it in a suitcase with wheels. If I can get a backpack with wheels at a thrift store, that would be my preference. I want something easily transported.

So far I'm considering:

Justin's Nut Butter Natural Classic Almond Butter 10 Count Squeeze Packs 200 calories

Lara Bars

?seaweed sheets

Fruit leathers or Clif Kid Organic Fruit Rope, Variety Pack, 8 Strawberry, 8 Mixed Berry, 8 Grape, Net Wt. 16.9 Oz. Pack of 24

Blue Diamond Almonds 100 Calories Per Bag

Calbee Snack Salad Snapea Crisps

Apple crushers (apple juice in squeeze bags)

Flat bananas from Trader Joe’s

Coconut oil or cream concentrate

Rice dream 8 ounce boxes

???Oskri Muesli Bar, Gluten Free

???Oskri Granola Bar, Pecans and Raisins

Mung beans in individual ziplock bags. Just add water

Chocolate bars (beet sugar sweetened)

Powdered eggs

Jelly individual

Crunchmaster Mulit-seed Original flavor crackers.

Raisins

Canned olives

baby food in pouches if any taste good

Prepared meals that I can find in pouches

Raw honey

??chia seeds

Multi vitamin

Vitamin D

Vitamin C

Powdered electrolyte replacer without cane sugar

cooked rice in package

[SundayCrepes]

These look good for an emergency kit. Assuming they taste good. http://www.mariocamachofoods.com/public/PouchOlives.aspx

[catnip]

I took a look at a friend's go-kit for her celiac son last night. They are lacto-pesco-vegetarian, but other than a couple of cans of salmon and a box of rice krispy treats that have sugar in them, the food they have in his kit is all in your ok list. It has rice cakes, lots of almond, peanut and sunflower seed butter, a bag of GF quick oats, fruit leather, 2 big bags of dried fruit and nut trail mix, pouches of cooked plain lentils from Trader Joe's, precooked rice, corn chips, applesauce, some gluten-free-vegan-no-refined-sugar cookies from Nana's Cookies, and a good-sized squeeze bottle of honey. This packs all into to a large knapsack. 

One thing that she suggested, is that even if you do not put canned goods in your kit, pack a can opener, since you might find yourself able to obtain safe canned foods from somewhere in the aftermath of a disaster, and someone with a gluten allergy shouldn't risk borrowing a shared one that might introduce contamination into a safe food source. You might just throw a couple of new Swiss Army knives into the bag - that gives you scissors to open pouches, a blade that you know isn't gluten contaminated, and a can opener. A small, lightweight cutting board is a good idea, too.

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by catnip 

I took a look at a friend's go-kit for her celiac son last night. They are lacto-pesco-vegetarian, but other than a couple of cans of salmon and a box of rice krispy treats that have sugar in them, the food they have in his kit is all in your ok list. It has rice cakes, lots of almond, peanut and sunflower seed butter, a bag of GF quick oats, fruit leather, 2 big bags of dried fruit and nut trail mix, pouches of cooked plain lentils from Trader Joe's, precooked rice, corn chips, applesauce, some gluten-free-vegan-no-refined-sugar cookies from Nana's Cookies, and a good-sized squeeze bottle of honey. This packs all into to a large knapsack. 

One thing that she suggested, is that even if you do not put canned goods in your kit, pack a can opener, since you might find yourself able to obtain safe canned foods from somewhere in the aftermath of a disaster, and someone with a gluten allergy shouldn't risk borrowing a shared one that might introduce contamination into a safe food source. You might just throw a couple of new Swiss Army knives into the bag - that gives you scissors to open pouches, a blade that you know isn't gluten contaminated, and a can opener. A small, lightweight cutting board is a good idea, too.

Thanks for doing that, it was really kind. I'd planned on including a can opener because it made sense, but it didn't even occur to me about the contamination part. Our house is pretty "clean" so I never even considered it. I'll definitely look for the Trader Joe's cooked lentils. I didn't know they had them.

[catnip]

The last time that we went camping with them, she had to go into town buy a can opener for their family, because they forgot theirs, and even though all the food we were eating that trip was safe for her son, my can opener might have been contaminated, and we had canned chili and rice planned one night for dinner.