# Nutritionally Complete Meals - Survival Cooking



## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

If we're going to advise people to store food, I reckon it would help if we told them what kinds of foods to store. Otherwise we're going to see people stockpiling TV dinners, potato chips, and Oreos. Now while I like Oreos as much as the next man, that's not going to keep you alive.

Very few foods contain all of the required vitamins and nutrients essential for human life. However in many cases you can combine 2-3 ingredients and come up with a meal that will satisfy all dietary requirements as well as pack in a heavy calorie punch to provide you with the energy you'll need in your new physically demanding lifestyle.

One example is potatoes and milk. Potatoes contain all the vitamins you need except for vitamin D. Milk contains decent amounts of vitamin D. Eating a big bowl of boiled potatoes every day with about a quart of milk and you're nutritionally secure. No scurvy, no rickets, and you'll maintain positive health. 

What other examples can we come up with?


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## JIL (Aug 25, 2007)

Honey it has a lot of nutrients in it, pre canned beans that you can you're self lots of fibrer and protien, sweet potatoes, peanut butter, survival bread, water filtering system (filter straw for on the move). pine neddle tea for vit C, and the list goes on.....


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

Ah, that's not quite what I mean. What I'm asking is what would you put together and serve your family every night that would be nutritionally complete?

Perhaps venison stew with carrots, potatoes, and lentil beans?


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

I'd make your boiled potatoes and add milk and add a few cooked pinto beans for a cream of bean and potato soup...added protein and fiber and the beans are easy to store. Corn chowder is huge fav. in our house too.

Rice pudding with milk and eggs if you've got some chickens (or powdered eggs) add some blueberries and you got something!

Spruce for tea, rose hips and blueberries are plentiful here.


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

A good meat based vegetable soup with green,yellow,orange and red vegetables as well as potatos. Your famous "eternal" soup. An oriental dish loaded with vegetables over whole grain rice or noodles( meat stretcher). Baked Mac and Cheese with Spam or canned ham(even vienna sausages).


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## JIL (Aug 25, 2007)

beans, wild rice & corn bread,.... egg salad on ground wheat bread,.... peanut butter with honey on wheat bread..... boil the left over turkey carcus and make turkey and dumplings with carrots and celery..... then turn the left overs of that into turkey pot pie adding peas and corn. Is that what you mean?


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

Oh yeah. Now we're cooking.


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## JIL (Aug 25, 2007)

oh and much fresh greens and veggies you can find, also any fruits too.


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## WanderingOak (Jul 12, 2004)

Potatoes have already been mentioned. Other fresh vegetables that keep well at cool (i.e. root-cellar) temperatures include carrots, cabbage, onions, garlic, beets, and turnips. Apples keep well also. Rice, dried beans, split peas, oatmeal, nuts, grits, canned fish, summer sausage, cider vinegar, honey, olive oil and dried fruit also keep well and would be part of a nutritionally complete diet.

If you are talking about getting complete meals from preps, I always have everything above on hand in my kitchen. If they were my 'preps', I would have several pounds of each on hand, and would probably rotate through them on a weekly basis. Oatmeal with nuts and dried fruit for breakfast. Tuna salad either with bread or mixed with cooked rice for lunch. Split pea soup with summer sausage, veggies and rice for supper.


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

tomatoes are also a good thing when it comes to cheap healthy cooking...in add'n to vitamins it will tenderize tough meat...chili, spaghetti sauce (on rice or potatoes if times get tough!)

I also keep the sweet kick in my jar of canned fruit by using a medium or heavy syrup when canning...I'm storing fruit and sugar together....never waste the juice!


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

How about this one Ernie?? Cooking water or the juices from canned fruits and veggies. Save all of these, meat stock can be added to soups, used to cook starches or made into gravy. Vegetable canning juices go in soup. Heavy syrup from commercial canned fruit use to sweeten tea. Fruit juice packed, be sure to drink that juice or use to make jello. Count all these liquid sources into your plans for meals.


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## Kmac15 (May 19, 2007)

When frozen vegetables go on sale, I buy a bunch and dehydrate them. One of my favorite 'all from the pantry' meals is a pot of canned chicken with lots of broth (home canned) with a couple handfuls of dried veggies. Throw on a few biscuit style dumplings and you got a great meal.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Hominy made into cornbread, field peas, collard greens.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

In a nutshell, you need PROTEIN, FAT and CARBS. None of this lo-fat junk. You need protein to rebuild/build tissue, fat for enduring energy and brain function(like keeping warm) and carbs for active energy. Skimp on any one and you are SOL(well, for long enough...).

You get D from the sun too, dont' forget(and that D is "better")

Vitamins--it's good to know about scurvy and where to find C. THere is actually a lot of native plants that have C, so find it for your area.

Rice/barley/wheat and beans/peas make a complete protein.


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

wyld thang said:


> In a nutshell, you need PROTEIN, FAT and CARBS. None of this lo-fat junk. You need protein to rebuild/build tissue, fat for enduring energy and brain function(like keeping warm) and carbs for active energy. Skimp on any one and you are SOL(well, for long enough...).
> 
> You get D from the sun too, dont' forget(and that D is "better")
> 
> ...


I read somewhere that to get your allotment of vitamin D from the sun, you have to spend up to 15 minutes with 80% of your skin exposed. So that basically means at the minimum you are just in shorts.

We had spaghetti the other night using 1/4 pound ground beef and canned beans in a sauce of tomato sauce and paste with Italian herbs and whole wheat spaghetti. All ingredients are easily stored.


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## Jakk (Aug 14, 2008)

I have pickey eating kids. I puree lentils and add them to everything from meatloaf to spaghetti sauce. The spaghetti sauce over rice with a few peppers taste really good.


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## FrontPorch (Mar 27, 2008)

I have a six week menu planned. In a nutshell it's Oatmeal & Fruit for breakfast. Various homemade veggie soups and a sandwich or just some sort of bread for lunch. Weekends could be pancakes or other special "treats". Then the dinners vary daily . Such as:

Beef Stew w/ Dumplings (using canned beef)
Tuna Casserole
Spaghetti w/ Meat sauce
Roast Chicken, potatoes & carrots (we raise our own)
Salmon Patties
Chicken & Dumplings
Ham & Beans
Pork & Beans
Chili
Lots of rice and bean dishes

And the important thing is that we eat like this all the time. You don't want to introduce beans in your diet all of a sudden when the SHIF.


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

I'm thinking along the lines of what we have available at the farm area (where we'd be hopefully) for gleaning/harvest/etc. 

I like the potatoes thing. Add in the occasional smoked sausage for variety and taste.

Plenty of greens around during the growing season, and burdock or dandelion root. Big salad of greens, boiled roots (ewww...but nutritious), 

Oatmeal, surprisingly, has quit a lot of what you need. 

True baked beans can't be beat for fiber, fat, protein, and many nutrients. add a salad and you're pretty much done, I'd think?

The vitamin D from the sun...that's easy if you're working on survival and not hunkered down inside. 

Depending on what's in your local soil, and water, you'll have other needs, yes? I remember out in Seattle, there was NO selenium in the soil/hay and we had to supplement for the horses.


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## Loquisimo (Nov 14, 2009)

Spam is nutritious, and the new flavored Spam they have, such as "hickory smoked", masks the unpleasant taste. Right now I'm eating protein (as fatty meat) in the morning and carbs in the evening. I have always needed protein in the morning. The traditional "farmer's diet", which gives you carbs in the morning and protein in the evening, is actually the reverse of what some people should do. People in southern Europe tend to eat large lunches, but in the north, where American culture comes from, lunch is light, probably because farmers couldn't afford to take a couple hours off in the afternoon. I believe it's important, if you're a homesteader, to keep animals with fatty meat around, or keep a milk bearing animal. Beans and rice may make a complete protein, but it doesn't give you the fat you need. Poultry is lean meat. Rabbits I believe would qualify. I think rabbit meat will be in demand after SHTF, as will venison, since cow meat will be scarce and people won't be getting enough fat.


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Rabbit is extremely lean meat. so lean, in fact, that it needs extra moisture to cook...even the wild critters. Home raised chicken isn't as lean as the ones from the store, btw. Quite often there will be a nice layer of fat around the back or up front. The meat is a lot more dense, too.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

FrontPorch said:


> I have a six week menu planned. In a nutshell it's Oatmeal & Fruit for breakfast. Various homemade veggie soups and a sandwich or just some sort of bread for lunch. Weekends could be pancakes or other special "treats". Then the dinners vary daily . Such as:
> 
> Beef Stew w/ Dumplings (using canned beef)
> Tuna Casserole
> ...


In order to actually gauge the effectiveness of your nutritionally complete menu I will need to eat dinner for a week at your place. Mind if I bring all the kids? A few free meals down their pie-holes would do wonders for my food budget.


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## megafatcat (Jun 30, 2009)

Pinto beans and corn tortillas have everything you need except variety.


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## raybait1 (Sep 30, 2006)

I make a dish that I believe would qualify as complete, and uses easily stored items. Its basically chicken and rice with a tomato and okra sauce. Spice it up with typical cajun spices, garlic and cayenne pepper.


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Pemmican. Properly made, with fat, protein, fruit (cranberries, blueberries, raspberries). Lean meat (rabbit/deer/whatever), bone marrow for the fat. Perfect nutrition. easy to keep. easy to transport. It's one of those things that I made years ago as a "whoohoo! I can make pemmican" and haven't made since  

As I recall, you can take your "cake" of pemmican and break it up into boiling water and have a type of stew that's pretty good.


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## FrontPorch (Mar 27, 2008)

Ernie said:


> In order to actually gauge the effectiveness of your nutritionally complete menu I will need to eat dinner for a week at your place. Mind if I bring all the kids? A few free meals down their pie-holes would do wonders for my food budget.


LOL, come on over, the more the merrier in my book. Just keep in mind, while I _do_ cook, I _don't _clean up. That would be your job.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

A small price to pay!

My wife is kind of the same way. If she cooks, she refuses to clean. However when I cook she doesn't mind cleaning. It's like she'll do one or the other but not both. Can't say I blame her. Usually I just task one of the kids to clean, though their level of sanitation is below standard.


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## Txsteader (Aug 22, 2005)

Beans are nutritional powerhouses; protein, calcium, iron, B vitamins, fiber. They can be cooked as is, added to soups/stews, made into 'burger' patties, pureed into dips.

Nuts provide protein AND needed fat. Cooking oils also provide fat.


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## swamp man (Dec 25, 2005)

Hears The Water said:


> Or the S might literally HTF....


Yeah, or your pants.

Lentils are especially likely to bring about a colonic mutiny of you ain't used to them.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

Ernie said:


> A small price to pay!
> 
> My wife is kind of the same way. If she cooks, she refuses to clean. However when I cook she doesn't mind cleaning. It's like she'll do one or the other but not both. Can't say I blame her. Usually I just task one of the kids to clean, though their level of sanitation is below standard.


wow! call me Cinderella, I cook AND clean :nana:


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

wyld thang said:


> wow! call me Cinderella, I cook AND clean :nana:


Yeah me too...

(husband and son came home from deer camp empty handed of meat but full of laundry and dishes and gear and guns to put away...I mean I put away and washed while they cut up a tree and some big limbs that fell during high wind Sat.:grit

Delmonico, mashed taters and broc. for dinner with gravy and pie for dessert and beers along the way...:nono:

I'm gonna marry a good housewife in my next life!!!!

Good thing I've raised some beef and chevon...and chicken and bunny when I'm not cooking or cleaning because there isn't a bit of venison!!:shrug:


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## whiskeylivewire (May 27, 2009)

Just to throw this out there...

The man read a survival book once and it said that people could starve if they ate only venison as a protein because of the lack of fat. The best critter to eat? Raccoon. High in fat and protein, I have yet to try it, the man says it's tasty if you cook it right...


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## megafatcat (Jun 30, 2009)

It is, but I will trade pound for pound for venison.


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

Not sure it qualifies as food that can be stored, but right now I am eating a soup made of homemade chicken stock, whole wheat spaghetti noodles, mushrooms, cilantro, garlic, and two poached eggs. It's seasoned with some chili pepper, salt, pepper, and ginger powder; as I was shooting for an Asian taste. According to Nourishing Traditions broth is one of the most nutritious things you can eat.


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## NoClue (Jan 22, 2007)

I've been experimenting with this, trying to develop a subsistence menu. The results are skewed toward my personal preferences, but the basic formula I've come up with is


a grain in some form (I prefer rice) + a legume (peas, beans, etc.) in some form + butter or oil + broth + meat and/or cheese

At least one meal per day, add a leafy vegetable, and throw in any other vegetables available and appropriate.

Potatoes can be substituted for the grain some of the time. Other forms the grains can take are pasta, or bread. I tend to prefer whole grains, but I also mostly eat rice.

The legumes I like are green peas (fresh or dry), black-eyed peas, pintos, black beans, cannelini beans, and lentils.

Using broth doesn't necessarily mean soup - you can cook the rice or other grains in the broth and the liquid will be absorbed, just make sure you get the left over bits into your meal, or reduce the broth down with fat and flour to make a gravy.

Other vegetables I use frequently are onions, garlic, jalapenos, tomatoes, artichokes, green beans, cucumbers, and carrots.

I don't actually eat that much meat anymore, usually only one meal per day. Mushrooms can be a good substitute or place holder.

Seasonings are important to remember. I'm kind of unusual in that I can eat the same basic meal three times per day for weeks at a time without getting bored. it doesn't really seem the same meal to me though because I change the seasonings.


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## FrontPorch (Mar 27, 2008)

Ernie said:


> A small price to pay!
> It's like she'll do one or the other but not both. Can't say I blame her.


That's exactly how it works here.


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## michelleIL (Aug 29, 2004)

Ernie said:


> A small price to pay!
> 
> My wife is kind of the same way. If she cooks, she refuses to clean. However when I cook she doesn't mind cleaning. It's like she'll do one or the other but not both. Can't say I blame her. Usually I just task one of the kids to clean, though their level of sanitation is below standard.


I believe in putting the least effort into making a meal. I prefer things that bake or things that simmer on the stove. None of this standing over the stove. Working recipes get left for days when nothing is going on...Like bread. That will happen only on days off.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Don't forget sprouting wheat or beans add nutritional value, including Vitamin C and is very easy to do.


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

I was looking at my can of diced green peppers(dehydrated) and was surprised that they have 50% daily Vit. C.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

My standard, which may or may not be healthy (I don't count calories or nutrition) is to have oatmeal for breakfast, pinto beans w/ cornbread, fried potatoes w/onions, & gravy for dinner, and leftovers for supper. 

Lots of people might get tired of it, but I grew up eating that menu sometimes 6 days a week. We'd have fried chicken on Sunday, then go back to the same menu for another 6 days. It didn't get old like you'd think it would. To this day, it's one of my favorite meals. 

For variation you could bake biscuits to go with the gravy, crumble cornbread into a glass of milk, bean burritos, add cocoa to the gravy to make chocolate gravy biscuit sandwiches, by adding different spices you could flavor the cornbread for Italian/Mexican/American/other styles. Add some meat & chili powder to turn a pot of beans into a pot of chili con carny. 

It's very easy to store oatmeal in 6 gallon buckets, same with beans, cornmeal, & wheat. Having a tin of lard & a milk goat expands the possibilities enormously. Add a few chickens and you can prepare a feast.


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## sgl42 (Jan 20, 2004)

these two blog entries talk about the general patterns that meals in many countries around the world eat. most are based on some variation of a grain and a legume, which provides a complete protein. incredible variation is possible within this, both by changing the grain or legume, or by changing the form of the grain. eg, rolled oats can be a breakfast cereal, or oat flour can be added to bread. bread can be a bun, or a tortilla, or pita bread. you also have variation on the sauces and spices you put on top too. the following 2 blog posts do a good job of showing these general patterns, and giving specific examples. should be plenty of food for thought:

Variations on a Theme I - Food Patterns

Variations on a Theme II - Meal Patterns

for my meals:
breakfast: most often tea and home-ground whole-wheat cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese. (i make a big batch, and freeze)

dinners: 
* most often fried brown rice. protein varies from egg, to slice of bacon, to a sausage link, to lentils or black beans; toss in 2-3 of whatever veggies are in season at the farmers market -- kale, beet greens, cabbage, carrots, celery, swiss chard, ... i can eat the "same" meal of fried rice 5 days in a row and it's different every night because what i throw in is different.

for other meals, i usually make large batches of things, put the extra in 3-5 quart mason jars, and eat the same thing for most of the next week. but i don't get bored with it, because it'll be so long before i eat that same thing after it's finished. i'm just finishing up 5 quarts of potato broccoli soup. it's been several months since i've had potato soup of any kind, so i've missed it. and i haven't had any black bean chilli in several months, and looking forward to having that soon. and split pea and sausage is great, but haven't had it in a while. and thai curries. so each month, i end up make 4-6 big batches of something, and eating that for many of the meals, and then it's several months before i get back to that same particular combination. along the way, i've got a few home-made frozen pizza crusts, pasta and store-bought pasta sauce, and various other things to mix it up within the week or within the month. i don't get bored, and there's always plenty of things i'm looking forward to have soon.

--sgl


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

Stuffed Green pepper, Yum! Use your favorite beans and rice add in garden tomatoes (and anything else) and seasoning (your choice). Don't forget to hit your herb garden and grab some chives and parsley. Once cooked/steamed put it under the broiler with a bit of cheese on top and let that melt.


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## NoClue (Jan 22, 2007)

Thanks sgl, those were interesting and informative links.


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## Gianni (Dec 9, 2009)

That is an interesting concept. Nutritional needs have only been around the last 100 years or so. Before the 1890's we had no choice in resaurants, no concept of "breakfast foods" we just ate what was available. No wonder people were shorter, smaller and lived shorter lives. Biscuts or bread, eggs with chicken and rabbit meats along with beans and greens should meet most of our nutritional needs.


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## Aintlifegrand (Jun 3, 2005)

Store or grow nuts, wheat, blueberries, and goat milk..

Nutbutter toast provides protein, fats, carbs for fuel topped with blueberry butter ( blueberry serving for one is 33% of Vit C requirements).. drink the berry juice from making the butter add some goat yogurt and make a nutritional smoothie.. add a glass of goats milk..and I think you are perfectly balanced..or make a cheese and blueberry desert..blueberry, nuts on top of a wheat cereal topped with milk...wheat crackers with cheese... endless... Proteins, carbs, and fats.

Store PB or grow nuts grow a few Blueberry bushes and have a goat or two and ( just for fun add a half dozen chicks)... I think you could live forever..

Nuts, Blueberries, Wheat and Milk


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## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

You can add a teaspoon of crushed eggshells to each quart of saurkraut to up the calcium content. That and potatoes would stave off starving. I'll ask my Dad about some of the Romany foods. My ancestors had very little in the way of public support (not talking welfare programs) and they all lived to a ripe old age.


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## ovsfarm (Jan 14, 2003)

If it were truly a SHTF situation, where for some reason you couldn't hunt and had access to only limited supplies, here is a break down of the proteins/essential amino acids needed for life.
http://www.vegsoc.org/info/protein.html

One of the neat things I have read about in my paleo research involves how the prehistoric Indians extracted the nutrients from nuts without actually having to pick all the nut meats loose from the shells. They would line a fire-hardened pit with a cured deer skin and fill it with water. Then they would crush some nuts and pour meat, shells, and all into the water. Next, they would heat some basalt rocks in the campfire and toss them into the "basin", which brings the water to a quick boil. The oils and many nut nutrients will leach out of the nuts and float on the top, becoming a milky broth sometimes referred to in the old accounts as nutmilk. That can be ladled off and used as a drink or a broth for meal or flour.

I haven't tried this myself yet, but plan to attend a seminar in the spring in northern KY where experts will teach this process. The proteins and fats from the nuts could be combined with the carbohydrates of plants and make a full enough protein complex to keep someone alive for a good, long while. Of course, adding in some greens or fruit would only improve the situation.


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

the sad thing about is SHTF is meat would be the first scarce thing. Id go with the beans/rice cornbread/greens idea, trying to make it taste good for my family


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

That's the great thing about rabbits - they reproduce quickly and quietly and eat things that can be cut from fields. We'd always have meat unless some disease got them. But it's nice to have beans and rice to back that plan up.


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## IndyGardenGal (Apr 5, 2009)

I love beans and pita bread. I make homemade pita bread (it's so easy), and slap some garlic hummus on it. I then add meat and or veggies, and it's a meal.


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## ACountryMomma (Aug 10, 2008)

Omlettes with onions, bell peppers & goat cheese (we've got the chickens & goats).
Venison stew made with carrots, potatoes, tomatoes & onions.
Pheasant or chicken slow cooked in onion gravy with rice and green beans (good source of iron).
Rosehips and bell peppers are good vit c source - and multiflora roses are everywhere in our part of the country. Rosehip tea anyone?

Just need help convincing my hog hating husband to let me start raising a few pigs - Meat & fat for cooking and even some fat for soap making.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

Why would anyone eat rosehips when they could eat saeurkraut?


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Ernie said:


> Why would anyone eat rosehips when they could eat saeurkraut?


Blech, Ernie! Why would anyone eat sauerkraut when they could eat rosehips? LOL


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## gracie88 (May 29, 2007)

Here's my new favorite fast food - diced potatoes, onions, sausage fried together, stir in sauerkraut when potatoes are done. All easy to grow/store veggies, reasonably balanced, no rose hips, and sausage (which is a great reason to raise pigs )

*back to lurking*


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## ACountryMomma (Aug 10, 2008)

Gotta agree with ManyGoats... Sauerkraut is not my cup of tea!  Gracie - Sausage is a great reason to raise pigs, without the kraut... even my husband won't eat it.


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## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

My mom grew up in the 30's depression era. She said everyday they ate either brown beans, potatoes, and cornbread as the main part of the meal. That's what they grew best in the summer gardens, so that's what they had a lot of.


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## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

Cat, the other white meat! Very lean and can also carry parasites. Cook well. I believe I'm off topic.


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