HELP! Emergency!

Ok, I have only been vegan for 5 days now. Doing good, BUT, I live in in Louisiana 30 miles from New Orleans. They are forcasting Isaac and say that we may not be able to go anywere for several days. I am planning to go to the store tommorrow to stock up, but being brand new at this i dont now what to get that can be considered non-perishable. I am very new at this and have been doing a lot of stir fry and pastas with veggies. I need to stock up on pantry foods, they are comparing this to katrina right now, with that one we were without electric for a week. If this happens again i would like to know what i should stock up in my pantry that does not have to be cooked, as i have no way of cooking if the power goes out. I go shopping tommorrow, please help, also, just so you know, the only problem i have found in the past 5 days is that i seem to be hungry more. It seems i get hungry every 2 hrs or so, when eating just veggies. I cannot eat apples but can eat applesauce. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Donna

Hi,
Unless - and even if - you have access to a gas primus/stove, maybe you should have a look at our raw food section, think about what kind of canned/dried food which could be good to have, and have a look at Foods that you keep on a regular basis: your shopping list and see if you get any ideas.

This could actually be a good opportunity to check out new things to eat, and more fun that trying to live on only crackers with jam, bread with tartex, or hummus, or chocolate, nuts and apples for a week. (Some may disagree in this! :-) )

Some express meals, like eg. (canned) beans with home made guacamole (you don't need electricty, just use a fork) and nacho chips/salsa/canned corn may be almost as good cold as warm, and can be made in a few minutes.

Various fruits and other plants, if kept as cold as possible, will be OK for many days without being stored in a fridge, especially if you buy them a bit pre-ripe (greenish bananas and tomatoes, hard avocados, carrots...). Then there are bean/chickpea salads, all kinds of 'bars' (granola bars etc), sprouting, nut butters on (crisp) bread(s), cereals with eg rice milk (buy the small units which are stored well until you open them), juices, cookies, raisins/almonds, dried fruits, tapini, grissini, ritz, crisprolls, popcorn, canned pineapple slices...

If you google 'disaster meals', or 'no cook meals', you'll probably find that lots of your findings are vegan. Meat and dairy products don't survive well without electricity, and most people think raws fruit or nuts are better than raw meat anyway.

Your best bet is probably to get a book on vegan raw food asap. Humans have made food without electricity for ten thousands of years. And if you find something useful on internet and want to print it, remember that printing requires electricty!

Another option, if you have a bit of money is to get yourself a gas burner. This is something I've been planning to do myself but haven't found one at a price I'm willing to spend yet.

You could make sandwiches with avocados, all though I've never done it myself. Hummus to eat with veggies or pita bread or any other bread.

A tip my mom gave me (she lives in Puerto Rico so all the hurricanes go there first) was to fill up your ice maker, shove that ice in a bag in the freezer and make more ice. The ice will keep your freezer cold, and you could move ice to the fridge to keep it cold and melt the ice for water. If you did this you could probably keep things like deli slices and mayo and whatever else in the fridge. Then you could eat these first and save the other stuff for later.

Hope Isaac is gentle as he passes by.

This might be late, but rice, beans, grains, and dried fruits/veggies are good to stock up on.

Hi, as with Muvesv I hope this is not too late but this is a site that lists Vegan foods that are ready made (E.G cereals, snacks, tinned soup such as Amy's):
http://www.veganwolf.com/ready_made_vegan_food.htm

Thanks sooo much. . I just am still not used to thinking vegan yet, especially in a crisis I got lots of useful ideas, foods i havent even thought about. Heading to the store now. thanks again!

Donna

Good luck finding all of the supplies that you need! Good thing that a lot of people will ignore the rarer vegan items, like the single serve nut milks lol.

Thanks everybody. i am all stocked up. I couldnt have done it without you guys. During Katrina i ate a lot of ravioli mainly and canned meat and things with cheese. Today i have found a lot of canned veggies that i do like and also alot of veggie soups and bean soups. Crackers, chips and salsa for snacks. I stocked up with plenty of food ALL VEGAN! Thanks to you guys i am fully prepared to remain vegan even in a crisis.

Donna

That's great to hear. Stay safe and keep us posted!

Hope everything goes well Donna