Canned Meat & Meals

Now that we’ve discussed FRESH/Frozen Proteins   Now let’s look at long term proteins stuff that comes in a can..There’s so much more than tuna… although tuna is a great canned protein, along with canned hams, or canned chicken many canned meals/meats that are very suitable for long term storage without getting exotic by going the way of textured vegetable protein.

You need to stock up on the commercially prepared proteins for a couple of reasons; It's easy ~ much more accepted as SURVIVAL food for teens/kids, oh yeah and did I mention it's easy? Commercially canned protein/meals make great quick meals. Peanut butter is also an AWESOME option.  These items you can easily get 3-5 years shelf life  Your store bought canned items need alot of thought.

How many cans of an item does it take to make a meal for everyone who will be eating this item?  Now I would take a day to map out all the options of these types of protein you want to store.  I would do a minimum of 3 years we prefer 5 but that's me personally.  Keep in mind your kids grow and their food needs change. Mac N Cheese counts as a protein in my book, as long as you make enough to fill folks up. Once you figure out which items would fit into your plan, and how many of an item makes a meal ~ map out the variety of meals you'd like to have just like we did with the fresh/frozen protein.  Then calculate for a year:.

Example:

5 kids can eat 4 cans of  Speghettios with meatballs (in our house) thats a kids meal usually a lunch and I don't want them eating that more than once a week. so 4 cans X 52 weeks = 208 cans  (52 kid meals) then move to the next item... Just like we did before what you'll discover is you'll have more than a years supply of meals in store bought stuff just like we ended up with what seemed like extra food in the fresh/frozen calculations ~ but that's because we chose a variety of things so we aren't eating the same thing Over and Over and Over again. And no TVP here (Although you may like tvp)

Hormel has MANY products that are both yummy and add a great variety to your storage.  Hormel Corporation owns a few of our favorite brands I’m sure you can pick out a few fabulous standbys here that belong in your well stocked pantry and since most of us are VISUAL folks here a few pictures to get you thinking....

 These are awesome choices, but there are more out there!  These are just some of our favorites.  There is canned barbecue, Sweet Bee has many yummy options...Remember to take EVERYONE into consideration when picking commercially canned proteins... 

Another great standby are the 29 options from Chef Boyardee Here's two:

Carbs are a BIG deal at the BIG meal of the day that's next on our discussion list.