MEAT ~ it's what's for dinner!

The largest drawback to buying prepared emergency meal systems besides taste, is calorie count.  Most meals are calculated at or under 1500 calories a day.  This is completely unacceptable for an individual who is under stress and doing extended labor.  Two things you will be doing if the whole world goes sideways!   A grown man of average height and weight needs 2700 calories, while a teenage boy needs 3100 calories to maintain muscle mass and mental aquity under mental and physical stress.

It is my humble opinion that if the whole world goes sideways... it would be stressful and physically challenging! What do you want to eat? Textured Vegetable Protein freeze dried to taste like meat ~ or meat?  I'm betting MEAT.

So 1st you need to decide what you like to eat.
Hamburgers? Steak? Chicken? Bacon?  Pork?

Empty your mind of all preconceived ideas of how to calculate food storage.  Get a pencil and paper and lets get started. We're going to brainstorm about the large meal of the day supper. After the world goes sideways other things may show up like raccoon, squirrel, deer, rabbit but right now,  here are the categories in OUR pre-sideways world protein list:

• Chicken
• Beef
• Pork
• Turkey

Now Starting with CHICKEN:
What do we make out of chicken? How many times a week would we like to eat that item?  Multiply how many times a week I'd like to eat that item a week, by 52 weeks in a year.  Once you have that figured, then multiply by how much you need per meal. Here's my math:

-Fried Chicken  - 52 meals a year ~ 52 FRYER packs needed
-Whole Chicken 1.5 /m~ 18 meals a year ~ 18 whole chickens
-Chicken Breasts 3x wk  156 meals/yr ~312 lbs
-Chicken nuggets (kids) 104 meals/yr~60/meal~6240 Nuggets
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BEEF:
What do we make out of Beef? How many times a week would we like to eat that item? Multiply how many times a week I'd like to eat that item a week, by 52 weeks in a year. Once you have that figured, then multiply by how much you need per meal. Here's my math:

-Hamburgers = 52 meals a yr  156 pounds/yr (520 patties)
-NY Strips - 12 meals a yr  = 96 NY strips (8 steaks/meal)
-roast -12 meals a year - 12 small roasts/yr
-stir fry (skirt steak) 52 meals a year 156 lbs (pkt in 3 lb packs)
-spaghetti 52 meals a yr  104 pounds (2 lb per meal)
-sloppy joe's 52 meals a year  104 pounds (2 lb per meal)
-chili/chili mac 52 meals a year 104 pounds ( 2 lb per meal)
-beef hotdogs - 52 meals a year = 104 packs of hotdogs
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Pork:
Pork Loin - 1/mo ~ 12/year
Pork Chops ~  24 meals/ year ~ 240 chops ~ 10 chops/meal
Ham Steaks ~ 12 meals per year ~  24 Large Ham Steaks
Hams  ~ 4 meals a year ~ 4 medium hams
(we'll work on bacon when we cover breakfasts)
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Turkey:
Whole Turkeys ~ 4 meals per year ~ 4 whole turkeys
Ground Turkey ~ 52 meals ~ 104 pounds
Turkey Breasts ~ 6 meals/yr ~ 6 meals

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Let's take another look at the list.  We created this list looking at each meal and thinking how many times would I want to eat that in a week?  There were no other criteria.  Why? You will be amazed once we add up the number of meals we've just covered.  It will be alot more than we need for a single year.  SO Lets look:

Chicken Meals 330 meals
Beef Meals:  312 meals
Pork Meals: 52 meals
Turkey Meals:  62 meals
Total Meals 762

That  is 2 years of meals you'd be looking forward to having!
This covers the Proteins It's alot to think about.

• What about preserving all this food?
• Where would you store all of this food?
• What if the grid goes down and freezers are thawing?
• We'll address these items tomorrow along with calculating side dishes, lunches and breakfasts

Remember you are the expert on your family!