food Archives - American Survival Gear

Instant Mashed Potatoes: Awesome Survival Food?

admin — Sun, 18 Aug 2019 21:34:02 +0000

Are instant mashed potatoes a suitable food for survival? Find out as you read the rest of the article!

In this article:

Tasty Mashed Potatoes The Pros The Cons The Bottom Line Mashed Potatoes | Survival Food Pros and Cons Tasty Mashed Potatoes

As many of you may remember from a recent article I wrote titled 21 Home Remedies For Toothache Pain Relief, I just had my wisdom tooth extracted a couple of weeks ago and had to be on a soft food diet for a few days while I healed.

Well, I am back to eating regular foods but not without a new appreciation for a delicious snack that kept my stomach full — instant mashed potatoes.

Being a southern boy, I grew up on my Nana’s best mashed potatoes recipe, so suffice it to say I was a little hesitant to try the instant variety. Now I have had them before as my mother was not the best cook, but the tasteless, chunky gruel that my mother used to serve me should have never been called instant mashed potatoes.

My wife loaded me up with these nifty single-serve portion sizes or Idahoan mashed potatoes. The first bowl had me hooked and each variety I tried was just as good.

The best garlic mashed potatoes with just a touch of extra butter are by far my favorite. Now, what does this have to do with survival?

The Pros

After doing a little research I have found that these pouches and cups of instant mashed potatoes have a fairly long shelf life (roughly 18 months) and I am fairly positive that they would be okay for much longer than that.

It’s extremely lightweight and only requires water to eat even though you are supposed to heat it (and it tastes better heated). I have set a bowl of it out and made it without heat. Obviously, there is something much better about a steaming pile of potato than there is about a room temperature mound of it but it is still flavorful and filling

Idahoan has a good variety of flavors. At roughly $1.00 per package, they are a good investment to get a filling meal or add substance to an otherwise light meal.

The Cons

While the shelf life is fairly long for a bagged food, the actual container is rather flimsy. The microwavable cups have a very vulnerable paper top that will tear easily.

The cost of the cups with a single serving is the same as a 4 serving pouch.

The Bottom Line

At around $1.00 per bag, these are a steal. They provide a quick tasty meal with minimal water. Even a prepper on the tightest budget should be able to make room for these.

Now I have specifically pointed out the Idahoan brand instant mashed potatoes, but I know there are several other brands available. Does anyone else stock up on these or have any alternatives?

I am going to give you a link to these so you can check them out, but if you want them I would much rather you go to your local grocer to pick them up for a lot less. Or if anyone knows an online retailer that sells them cheaper please leave a comment and let me know.

You can also serve these delicious mashed potatoes at home. Check out this video from Rocketboom:

The key points about these instant mashed potatoes are its long shelf life and it only needs water to prepare. When it comes to food in a survival situation, ease of preparation is extremely important considering the potentially limited resources you’ll have.

Either way, these simple mashed potatoes are great for home serving or for survival purposes.

Would you consider instant mashed potatoes for your survival food prepping? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!

UP NEXT:

8 Survival Foods and How To Store Them A Simple Trick to Make Survival Food Last 20 Years Quick, Simple, And Shockingly Delicious Survival Food

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on March 4, 2013, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

Cooking In Cast Iron Cookware

admin — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 19:36:04 +0000

You can probably recall your grandparents using cast iron frying pans and skillets. On Sunday, you were sure to have fried chicken cooked in a cast iron frying pan and some delicious gravy to cover that rice.

There are many pieces of cast iron cookware. Many a fine meals have been prepared in cast iron frying pans and skillets. Cast iron has handles that can endure the heat. When you’re not using your cookware, it is best to grease it down to prevent rust . Cleaning cast iron is rather simple if cleaned while warm. Wash out and towel dry. Storing food in cast iron is not recommended. Moisture can form and cause rust to develop . This could be very harmful.

Cast Iron Cookware : Fry Pans- great for frying chicken or fish Dutch Ovens- Can be used for many purposes. This can be used when camping out or cooking your favorite pot of soup or beans. Cornbread Pan- ideal for cooking cornbread or small pieces of fish. Flat Bottom Square Skillet- used for frying up that bacon or sausage. Country Kettle- makes some great chili, soups and stews. Cast Iron Charcoal Grill – great for grilling on picnics. You can find this cookware at ball games where tailgating is permitted.

Campers use cast iron cookware to prepare their outdoor meals.

Haven’t you ever eaten that fried bacon, eggs and outdoor toast? Catching fish and frying them up outdoors by the creek is awesome. Sporting events , is an excellent place to see cast iron cookware put through a test.

Cast Iron cookware isn’t all that expensive. It does require more maintenance than other cookware. Preserving your cookware is simple.

Keep it clean and greased down.

If your parents and grandparents used cast iron cookware , you can believe that it is durable and can stand the heat. The weight of the cast iron helps to equalize the heat. Cast iron is great for slow cooking .

When selecting your cookware , cast iron is the only one that has multiple uses. Indoor and outdoor usage. Having cast iron cookware will benefit your family for generations to come. Carry your children and grandchildren down to the creek and fry those fish up. Camp out and enjoy the scent of that bacon cooking and that coffee brewing.

Your life will never be the same , once you invest in cast iron cookware. Prepare to hand down your cast iron cookware to your children. It is that durable.

5 Dollar Preps: Wine Cork Fishing Kit

admin — Fri, 03 May 2019 00:10:03 +0000

Here in my house state of Maine, water and its associated lifeforms remain in plentiful supply. I can –– and do –– definitely strategy on capturing fish to emphasize my diet plan in case of emergency situation. Fish are (fairly) simple to capture, and as long as you have simply a smattering of reasonably specialized fishing packages and a dash of knowledge and water-reading capability, the fish-catching procedure can be reliable and basic sufficient to practically ensure you a fish supper in exchange for your efforts. At the base level, unsophisticated fishing is (typically) efficient, does not need the burning up of mass calorie reserves, and can be made use of as a food procurement technique even by the unskilled.

By Drew, contributing author to SHTFblog and Survival Cache

While hooks and other fishing equipment made by whittling sticks or mutilating pop-top cans can work, life is a lot easier with properly-designed fishing device. Real wire fish hooks , split shot sinkers , and swivels are completely fine-tuned to do their desired tasks –– so why not bring them with you in your bug-out bag , glove compartment, or emergency situation set? If you reside in a location that has an abundance of fishable water, there is no factor not to have these tools with you –– they are extremely affordable, use up nearly no area, are extremely light, and are multiple-use as long as they are not lost or harmed beyond repair work.

I wear’’ t desire a full-on deal with box rattling around in my bug-out bag, so I designed a makeshift fishing set that has whatever I require for deal with for set-line bait-fishing, in a little bundle that drifts. Presuming you have a couple standard tools, this package costs almost absolutely nothing and is very simple to tailor and make. Here’’ s what I developed.

Also check out: 5 Dollar Preps: DIY Fire Starter

Though I’’ m sure somebody else can claim being the begetter of this concept or something like it, the concept concerned my head when I saw a stack of white wine corks on the counter after among my spouse’’ s “ lady ’ s nights ” where my ol ’ woman and her ol ’ buddies collect about, beverage white wine, and chatter while I vanish into my man-cave, putter about, and see Clint Eastwood films. I questioned what I might do with this apparently considerably sustainable resource (Girl’’ s Nights ending up being a growing number of popular, it appears), and believed that the light-weight corks would make terrific fishing bobbers because they drift magnificently. The concept progressed from there, and what I propose listed below is the item of my (weak) brain power used to the issue. The idea will likely change even more, (your concepts welcome!) Is incomparably helpful as-is, for my designated short-term SHTF fishing requires . Here’’ s what I did.

I collected the required elements for building and construction and assembly:

.Corks: I like the artificial plastic phony wood corks best for this job, because they wear’’ t break and fall apart as easily as genuine wood cork, particularly when drilling and working them. Drill and drill bits: drill bit sizes will depend upon what you wish to pack inside the cork, however a ¼” ” bit works perfectly for my set’’ s payload. Bench vise: Makes it simple to hold the cork fixed and stable. At the same time, pliers or some other comparable comprehending things might be utilized –– however the vise works finest. Knife: You usually utilize knives to cut things. Preferred fishing deal with –– ensure you have a great variety of decent-sized split shot, hooks, and so on Cup of coffee : necessary for survival. Let The Games Begin.

Step one: get the cork with the bench vise, firmly enough so that the cork doesn’’ t spin around when you drill a hole through it with a high-speed drill bit. Don’’ t stress over over-tightening; any contortions from crushing the cork in the vise typically aren’’ t long-term– simply in case you like your corks in beautiful shape.

Step 2: utilize the drill to make a hole all the method through the center of the cork. Drill in the long instructions. I utilized a ¼” ” drill bit. Precise focusing is not needed, however who requires to have an OCD jerk in the middle of a survival scenario? Do it right, you’’ ll thank me later on.

Step 3: Find a split shot (round line weight) that’’ s simply somewhat bigger than the cork hole you simply made. Things it in the hole to make a friction-fit stopper. Leave simply enough extending out so you can pop the split shot out of the cork with a knife point or other tool. If you drilled a hole bigger than the split shot weights you can discover, you’’ ll need to utilize something else to seal the entire develop.

Step 4: Fill the remainder of the drill-inflicted cork hole with little take on. I packed a couple smaller sized split shot and a couple rotates in mine … though reflecting on it, the swivels are most likely of very little worth for survival fishing, and the interior of the cork would be much better used by bring more split shot for fishing fast-moving water or changing lost equipment.

Step 5: Jam another big split shot in the other end of the cork to keep its contents from falling out. The cork ought to be efficiently sealed up at this moment, with whatever contents you set up in its innards.

Step 6: Take your knife and cut a couple small notches in the cork body. This is entirely optional. I did this to supply a location to connect a line around so I can utilize the cork as a bobber and not need to stress over whatever I utilize for a fishing line slip off.

Step 7: Use the beyond the cork to hold fish hooks of whatever size you’’d like to have with you. I utilized number 6 and number 8 hooks, because the predominance of fish in the location I reside in are trout, perch, and little bass which can be captured more quickly on smaller sized hooks. Big wheel can be captured on smaller sized hooks also –– however if the fish can’’ t fit the hook in its mouth, it’can ’ t be captured– so I typically err on the smaller sized side. You can wind an elastic band around the hooks to keep them tight to the cork body and decrease possibility of them capturing on things.

Step 8: Throw the entire operate in whatever carrying/bag/glove compartment/pocket setup you have in addition to some fishing line and/or paracord and a knife, and rejoice in not needing to attempt to whittle a canyon hook when you wish to fish –– you can dedicate that time to trying to find bait and whacking black flies! You’’ re welcome!

This little set is incomparably personalized within the boundaries of the cork’’ s size. I can see most likely spray-painting the beyond the cork security orange to boost visibilty, or possibly covering it with tinfoil so I might set the line and cork bobber out over night and look for its location with a flashlight once the sun decreases. Heck, you might most likely even thread a couple hooks standing out of the cork body and style a fundamental top-water plug for attempting to capture bass or aggressive pickerel-type fish. Make it yours –– fill it with what you believe works for you and the fish in your location, and attempt it out! I’’d love to get some feedback from you, dear readers, on adjustments and enhancements to by doing this easy, borderline simple survival fishing rig!

Questions? Remarks? Noise off in the remarks listed below!

The post 5 Dollar Preps: Wine Cork Fishing Kit appeared initially on Survival Cache .