No Power Meals

Today I decided to share with everyone my meals for no power. Because our power company here in Southern California has decided that during high wind situations, within the fire season, they will be shutting off our power I thought we might need to come up with a meal plan and different kind of food prep set up for this summer.

Our Santa Ana winds here sometimes can last anywhere from a day to a week long… and our whole house is run on electric as well as our phones and our internet and our lives basically. If there’s no power then in our canyon we have no cell service. So, I had to think of what I can make on our gas grill and even thinking of having a camp fire is NOT and option. Seriously. Just a super bad ideaaaa. That’s basically how you start a wildfire here.

So these are some of the basic ingredients I will have on hand…

Frozen burger patties
Uncooked bacon/ Cooked bacon (Having a baggie of cooked bacon in my refrigerator has been a life saver for us. We use it for salads, pizza toppings, in quick emergency sandwiches. The possibilities for it are endless.)
Frozen hotdogs
Frozen pizzas/ frozen pizza dough
Premade frozen meatballs
Frozen full chicken or breast, legs and thighs (the whole chicken can be cut into smaller pieces after it’s thawed and all can be grilled and used with sauces left in your fridge prepped ahead of time with noodles. Like Thai Peanut Sauce or Lemon Balm Mint Basil Pesto)
Uncooked spaghetti noodles (Uncooked noodles are a great emergency food because they are simple to store, last forever and are easy to cook whenever necessary. All you need is pot of hot to boiling water. Using just hot water the noodles will take longer to cook but when you have no power and can’t leave, food is food at that point.)
Canned/jarred spaghetti sauce
Frozen Mozzarella cheese (Freezing cheese is always a great way to make sure that during a power outage for several days you will have some kind of dairy once it has dethawed which in a CA heat wave can be quicker than you’d expect.)
Frozen bread loaves (because who doesn’t love bread? And once it’s thawed, basically overnight on a counter top, it’s ready for whatever perishables are in your refrigerator i.e. jellies, pesto sauces, cheeses and so on.)
Hotdogs and Hamburger buns (these can be frozen as well. They unthaw pretty quick overnight on the counter.)
Premade coleslaw (This will need to be eaten quick but just having a jar of your favorite coleslaw dressing, a head of cabbage and a bag of carrots can feed multiple people for a night.)
Condiments ie: ketchup, mustard, pickles, mayo, hot sauce, etc.
Potato Chips
Olive Oil
Cut up watermelon (again, you can wait to cut the watermelon till the power goes out or cut half and freeze it to give yourself something to suck on while working in the heat while your AC is gone.)
S’mores ingredients! (You know the drill; marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate bars, and the extras like peanut butter, sprinklers and Nutella.)
Foil pans- they will be super handy and helpful cooking on the grill and they will make cleaning and storage much easier.

Things to make!

Spaghetti with meatballs; boil water on the grill as well as bake the meatballs in the grill. Then you can reheat a bread loaf on the grill as well.

Thawed pizza dough can also be cooked on the grill with a pizza pan. Use the spaghetti sauce as marinara and top with whatever you have on hand or available… garden basil and bacon for example.

Burgers and hotdogs are a given and can be easily cooked on a grill and can be served with the premise coleslaw, chips or fruit cut up you have in the house.

BLTs. If you have the freezer bread thawed and the precooked bacon still around all you need to have on hand is lettuce and tomatoes (which I always have around) and it’s as simple as that.

Grilled chicken and noodles with prepped sauces.

Campfire S’mores Nachos (dessert is always needed in my opinion and it can be a mood changer for the environment. When times are tough and tensions are high sugar tends to break the tension. A simple pleasure and gesture to your neighbor can make a big difference!)

Food Parts you can have Prepped:

Make and freeze breads (Sourdoughs, Banana breads, Brioche, etc.)
Pancakes (Make then ahead of time and put them in a freezer safe bag. Believe me your family will appreciate it.)
Bacon (Bacon is a necessity in our house and having some prepped and cooked in a baggie in the fridge is sometimes a life saver. For quick sandwiches or salad toppings it’s ready to go!)
Ground coffee (if you are a bean person then you’ll have to think ahead.)
Pizza dough (Make it ahead of time and freeze it… this seems to be a common theme for me lately.)

If there is a meal in here I have not done yet I will be adding a link shortly once the post is made. I have been testing out these meals one by one making sure this all actually will work in an emergency setting. You can never be sure when the power will go out and having a meal plan set for such an occasion is a must in my opinion. It will help in so many ways including watching your budget. With the possibility of days without power here it would be costly to say the least to go out for a meal every time.

Do you have other suggestions? Other go to meals when the power outage has hit? Let me know the comments below!

Living. Loving. Meal Prepping.

Emily A G🔌

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