Well that's very kind of you, but our menu changes annually because we get tired of the same old crap. :-> It's similar to ironraven's list, which is why I like his list, of course. From my point of view our advantage is not that we have a list but that we have the experience from an annual trip where we had to bring every thing we need and live with the results. That's what will happen after the big earthquake or pandemic when we either are stranded or have to isolate ourselves.

Neither of us has any cooking skills, so we don't rely on going to the pantry (or bug in box), seeing what we've got and coming up with a meal - We do one menu for each meal, then we buy based on the menus. Then we put the contents for each meal in a plastic bag with the recipe for that meal. It's way over-organized for real life, but it's amazing how aggravating it is trying to search through a box in a hot van in 100 degree heat for the hearts of palm. Having each meal in its own bag with the recipe saves marriages and mayhem when you're under stress. We rotate out of our bug in box to the Burn box, so nothing gets stale (and we camp other times during the year, so we actually use our menus pretty much year round).

I realize there are lots of people who can go to their pantry, see 5 lbs of flour, a can of soup, three sticks of beef jerky and come up with a gourmet meal. Louise and I have no clue, so we pick recipes we like, substitute canned chicken for whatever cooked chicken was called for (or canned beef or whatever), and off we go.

And I think that's the key to a real survival situation: we've got familiar recipes we know how to cook, and everything we need is right there in the bag.

Seriously, if I were in a survival situation and I opened up the box and there's a bag of white flour, a bag of wheat flour, a bag of corn meal, a bag of corn flour, a bag of rice, and a bag of elbow macaroni, I'd have no clue what to do with it. (Well, if you throw a teaspoon or so of flour on an open flame you get fun sparks and fire, but macaroni just chars, so that's no fun at all.)