If this has been posted before forgive me. I can't imagine it not being here somewhere but I can't find it by searching so here goes:

What are your opinions on the best food given the following criteria:

• Must be easily purchased in the local market (insert favorite supermarket/grocery store/big box store here)
• Must provide fairly complete nutrition such that it could provide much of a persons needed nutrition if it needed to be consumed daily for an extended period
• Must store well with a good shelf life
• Requires a minimum of preparation to eat (eaten as is or just boiled for example).

The best I can come up with is canned soup. With a variety you must be able to get your basic nutritional needs covered.

Any ideas you long term preparedness pros?

How about Slim Fast Shakes?

I have bought a couple of 25 Kg bags of rice from the Asian supermarket for this purpose. Aparently you can get by quite well on only rice. Of course in a situation where I am eating it every day.................... I may freak out and eat the cat just to get a bit of meat in there.

It is somewhat amazing to me that this topic comes up; as it was truly the #1 question that I had in mind when joining this forum today. It would seem that if some kind of agreement could be reached as to what one could buy/put away at the local store in terms of both nutrition and shelf life...how much further would literally everybody out there be in terms of being even the least bit prepared?

Soups were my first purchases recently (seems like some of the Chunky Selects were at least 2 years); tuna was about the same; packaged almonds were about a year and my California garlic stuffed olives w/chardonnay (bought on sale @ Meijers) were the best at 3 years.

Believe it or not; that is all we actually have stored beyond the normal last resort Mountain House Products and a few MREs...so I am obviously very interested as to the definitive answer(s) here and what items we need to keep an eye out for on sale at our local grocer (even if some of this went on sale regionally; it'd be nice to give each other a heads up on the opportunity).

Thank you very much!

Edit: Just checked the expiration date on our only other item always in stock at larger than average quantities in our house...large bars of Hershey dark chocolate (1 year). Like the olives and a couple bottles of good hooch; excellent for you and pretty darn comforting as well.

By the way, those slimfasts seem like an excellent choice and I'd like to hear more about the proper storage of rice and for how long it is safe to consume afterwards.

Check out: http://www.standeyo.com and http://daretoprepare.com for a great deal of preparation information concerning food storage and for checklists as well.

Wow. That's site's too hardcore for me.

I'm just looking for a solution that doesn't require me to freeze dry/vacuum seal/nitrogen pack/ etc etc etc or mail order special food.

Just a box of food tucked away on the shelf to keep us going for as long as is practical should that be necessary.

IMHO - Dinty Moore Beef Stew

[*]Readily available

[*]Total nutrition - period.

[*]VERY LONG - Because of the neutral ph due to the potatoes, the can is not eaten from the inside out like tomatoe or other acidic products.

[*]It is cooked. It can be eaten without preparation.

Lentils
Dry red beans
Oatmeal
Rice
Peanut butter
Sugar (or honey)
Salt
Lots of spices

This will give you assorted nutrients, calories and a mixture of flavors. Supplement it with pine needle tea ( for vit. C) or other things gleaned from Mothr Nature.

The rice/beans/lentils can be soaked over night to pre-soften them or you can mix them with boiling water in a thermos and let them cook without using lots of fuel.

-Blast

Welcome Newguy!!!

My cut to the bones choice: Peanut butter and saltine crackers. And of course a knife to spread the pb...