Survival of your Tastebuds...

[enbloc]

I have been actively "prepping" since shortly after 911 and because I have food stores in my preps that I rotate in to my regular diet I have found one very important fact...

Bland food sucks.

So this is just a reminder that ANY spices/herbs/seasonings/sauces that you can have in your "stores" will make that rice/oatmeal/wheat taste much better than plain old salt and pepper.

One of my favorite long-term storage flavors is... Sriracha!

Here is one of my favorite uses for Sriracha sauce.

I cup of fresh or canned green beans in a saute' pan with a little butter cook until al dente' or warm in the case of canned, grind a little black pepper and sea salt then drizzle sriracha to taste. Toss until green beans are fully coated and the sriracha is starting to glaze.
BAM! Never have dull green beans again!

Please feel free to add what you like to "pep" up your food stores!

~Matt

 

[Mountain]

LOL, I am not a fan of canned peas but Mrs. Mountain likes them. I put Sriracha on them.

I have a large bush full of Carolina Reaper peppers. That would spice up any food store.

 

[whatluck]

I love sriracha on my rice

Honey is a winner too.

 

[headednorth]

Sazon, Adobo, Sofrito, Tobasco, little jars that are sort of jellied bullion (mix a little spoonful in boiling water to make a broth, I forget the name), Pastene pepperoncini's, Mrs Dash, minced garlic...

I use chicken or beef broth instead of plain water when making rice to give it a little bit of extra flavor.

Also a co-worker who was in Bosnia when SHTF said he wished they had stored more sugar and salt fwiw.

eta- bullion in a jar is called Superior Taste- Better Than Bullion

 

[enbloc]

Sazon, Adobo, Sofrito,

I love all of these and use them regularly. I have a huge Rice & Bean fetish...

 

[headednorth]

I love all of these and use them regularly. I have a huge Rice & Bean fetish...

Same here. I make up some white rice, dice and saute a half an onion, heat up a can of Goya red beans and sauce and I have at least two meals for a total of like $3-$4 tops. Throw in a bit of leftover chicken or a few shrimp and its even better. Simple, quick and cheap.

 

[enbloc]

I keep cans of beans for "quick access" meal-building, but prefer to use dried in my normal cooking.
I work the cans in as FIFO so that they are never expired and still on my shelf...

 

[SKumar]

Huy Fong also makes an amazing garlic chili paste. Much better than "ketchup-y" sriracha IMO.

 

[greencobra]

Huy Fong also makes an amazing garlic chili paste. Much better than "ketchup-y" sriracha IMO.

i have to agree with this, been using it for a little over a year now. can't get enough and douse everything with it. i use the hot red pepper paste, no garlic. the consistency is more to my liking, too. i don't know what the shelf life is. the asian stores sell 1 gallon jars of the stuff.

 

[Bonesinium]

Yep, that stuff is good. Made some spicy tuna onigiri with it. Mmmm.

 

[Frizzle Fry]

I like salt - it's a preservative and a flavoring agent. Makes you thirsty though, then again, you'll need some water to put out that sriracha fire!

Remember kids... you can season meat with gunpowder.

 

[Tinkermatic]

Chipotle Tobasco.
It’s thicker than regular Tobasco and I put it on darn near everything. Of course you can’t leave out Franks, Cholula and Texas Pete’s. A variety of spice, is the ultimate spice of life.
I second the Huy Fong chili paste, but I tend to cook with it, not use it as a condiment.

 

[Uzi2]

Keep plenty of bullion on hand.

 

[greencobra]

….Huy Fong chili paste, but I tend to cook with it, not use it as a condiment.

yeah, you can tell it's a flavoring most of us are familiar with if you eat spicy chinese food as soon as the lid is removed. general gaos chicken comes to mind. I also use it for cooking but I really like it as a condiment, too. i'll spoon it over anything (within reason). grilled meats like chicken or pork chops and it's replaced a-1 for me on beef. in eggs and stirred into mashed potatoes or plopped on the top of a baked one. i'd prefer it to be hotter and i'm sure there's a version that is somewhere.

 

[dans]

We've been making a green bea

I cup of fresh or canned green beans in a saute' pan with a little butter cook until al dente' or warm in the case of canned, grind a little black pepper and sea salt then drizzle sriracha to taste. Toss until green beans are fully coated and the sriracha is starting to glaze.
BAM! Never have dull green beans again!
~Matt

We've been making a green bean dish with Pico de Gallo for years. My wife doesn't like hot foods so this would be too much for her.

My long term flavor enhancer is just Franks or Tabasco sauce.

 

[snax]

Hillary carries it in her purse, just in case she is whisked away to an underground bunker with the rest of her ilk after they crash the world economies with their NWO bullshit.

 

[clampett]

I'm not into hot spices, I think its in my genes, I'm Irish.
What I have been stocking up on is # 10 cans of chicken and beef gravy. The gravy is in powder form and it has a shelf life of 25 years. This will help living up a bean and rice meal. I buy them when they are on sale at Emergency Essentials for about $10-12 per can.

 

[Fritz the Cat]

I have been actively "prepping" since shortly after 911 and because I have food stores in my preps that I rotate in to my regular diet I have found one very important fact...

Bland food sucks.

So this is just a reminder that ANY spices/herbs/seasonings/sauces that you can have in your "stores" will make that rice/oatmeal/wheat taste much better than plain old salt and pepper.

One of my favorite long-term storage flavors is... Sriracha!

Here is one of my favorite uses for Sriracha sauce.

I cup of fresh or canned green beans in a saute' pan with a little butter cook until al dente' or warm in the case of canned, grind a little black pepper and sea salt then drizzle sriracha to taste. Toss until green beans are fully coated and the sriracha is starting to glaze.
BAM! Never have dull green beans again!

Please feel free to add what you like to "pep" up your food stores!

~Matt

Words to live by. Store what you eat and eat what you store.
My daughter is 5 and is not a fan of "hot". So our green beans are glazed with maple syrup and a bit of garlic and tumeric. I add the Sriracha just to my serving on plate. The Mrs. prefers crushed red peppers. Everybody wins!

 

[enbloc]

Yep. Kids like it sweet! We have a member or two here that harvests and boils down their own homemade Maple Syrup.
Now that is a great "Prepping" skill right there!

Welcome aboard Fritz to you and your family!
~Matt

 

[enbloc]

Some great suggestions here. Thanks!

I'm not into hot spices, I think its in my genes, I'm Irish.

I'm Irish too, but even put Sriracha on my boiled dinner...

 

[daveyburt]

good tip on the chili garlic paste!

Dried red pepper flakes always have plenty of room in my pantry.

Real world data on food burnout: While having some gut issues, I got about two months before the diet of bland chix and rice started making me cranky.

 

[cams]

I steal as many Taco Bell sauce packets as I can each time I go there. I don’t think they really go bad for a while, and can fit a bunch into a ruck pocket pretty weightlessly. I’m easy.

 

[enbloc]

I bet you take the Hotel shampoos too...

 

[enbloc]

Black-Strap Molasses...

I make my own Boston Baked Beans and go through a lot of this Black Gold.
Cool weather today brings the flavor to my lips...
Time to cook!

 

[headednorth]

I keep cans of beans for "quick access" meal-building, but prefer to use dried in my normal cooking.
I work the cans in as FIFO so that they are never expired and still on my shelf...

Did a quick price check today at MB. Goya dried red beans in the bag were $1.69/lb iirc and canned were $0.91/lb. Thought it was strange as I had expected the dried in the bag to be less expensive than the canned.

 

[01906]

Did a quick price check today at MB. Goya dried red beans in the bag were $1.69/lb iirc and canned were $0.91/lb. Thought it was strange as I had expected the dried in the bag to be less expensive than the canned.

They're probably four times as many beans in the bag, versus the can. Not doing the math but you probably end up with 3 to 4 times when hydrated.

 

[headednorth]

They're probably four times as many beans in the bag, versus the can. Not doing the math but you probably end up with 3 to 4 times when hydrated.

There's certainly more beans in the bag, thats why i looked at the unit price vs the price of the product itself. Am I not looking at that the right way?

 

[01906]

With the canned beans you're also paying for the fluid hydrating them and filling the can
So for a recipe that calls for one 15-ounce canof beans, you can cook 3/4 cup (4.5 ounces) of the dried version and be in the ballpark. Conversely, if a recipe calls for 1 cup of dried beans, you'll need to buy two 15-ounce cans to have the 2+ cups worth of cooked beans the recipe will eventually yield

 

[Whiskeywon]

I love all of these and use them regularly. I have a huge Rice & Bean fetish...

See you should meet my 5'0" grandmother who lives with us. She makes fresh sofrito every couple weeks and just watching it is a chore. That being said, boy does it taste so much better than that junk you can buy at the store.

good tip on the chili garlic paste!

Dried red pepper flakes always have plenty of room in my pantry.

Real world data on food burnout: While having some gut issues, I got about two months before the diet of bland chix and rice started making me cranky.

Sounds like the moral of this post. Good food is good, good food with good seasoning is great. Bland food is bad. I was in the hospital once ever and holy hell thank the lord it was only for 10 hours because that food is garbage.

 

[enbloc]

Yumm, Sofrito...