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If each of you can eat a can of tuna, then use an entire can as one serving when you’re doing your planning.

      If you use coupons and take advantage of buy-one-get-one-free sales at the grocery store, you can build your emergency supply fairly inexpensively and quickly.

       Meals Ready to Eat (MREs)

      originally created by the military, these are vacuum-packed meals that are ready to eat right out of the package. These can range from single-food meals such as green beans to full meals such as lasagna. In recent years, technology has even advanced to the point where these meals heat themselves via a chemical reaction with just a few spoonfuls of water dropped in the outside layer of the pack. These are great for your bug-out bag because they’re light and generally packed with nutrients and calories.

       Meal-Replacement Bars

      You’ve seen them in the supermarkets and convenience stores, and you’ve probably even had at least one meal-replacement bar in your life. They’re a great food for your bug-out bag because they’re portable, macronutrient-rich, and easy to eat on the run. They also don’t weigh much or take up much space. As with all processed foods, watch the sodium content so they don’t make you thirsty.

       Home-Canned Foods

      Preserving foods via canning has been practiced for centuries, and it simply involves heating the food to a temperature that kills all harmful bacteria and pushes air out of the jar so that harmful bacteria can’t grow inside of the jar. There are three primary ways to can foods: water bath (or boiling water) canning, pressure canning, and dry canning. The first two are by far the most common, but all three methods are reviewed in this book, accompanied by some fabulous recipes.

       Dehydrated Foods

      This process involves removing the water from produce and meats to greatly reduce the rate of spoilage. Once the water is out of the food, it can be dry-canned or vacuum-packed and kept for years without losing much of the nutritional value. You can dehydrate foods fairly easily at home using a food dehydrator that costs very little. But try to get one with heat settings so you can dry foods at the temperatures recommended for best results. Dehydrated foods can be rehydrated in a few hours by soaking the food in water or another liquid.

       Freeze-Dried Foods

      This is a fairly expensive process because of the equipment required, so most people just buy freeze-dried foods. It involves instantly flash-freezing the food so it remains in basically the same nutritional state that it was in prior to being freeze-dried. You lose very little of the nutritional value when you freeze-dry food.

       Vacuum-Packed Foods

      Vacuum-packing involves sealing a food product in plastic that has had all of the air sucked out of it. Spoilage can still occur, however, and if a food required refrigeration prior to being vacuum-packed, it will still need to be refrigerated after vacuum-packing.

      These are the most common methods of preparing foods for long-term storage. Canning and dehydrating will be discussed more in depth over the next several chapters.

Building Your Bug-Out Bag

      If your house was on fire, a flood was coming, or another event requiring you to leave quickly occurred, wouldn’t it be good to have all of your important documents and some emergency items altogether in one spot where you could quickly grab them? Of course it would, and that’s exactly what a bug-out bag is: a bag that’s already packed with vital items and a small supply of food in case you need to “bug out” in a hurry. You may hear this emergency bag referred to by the following names:

       72-hour bag

       GOOD (Get out of Dodge) bag

       Go bag

       PERK (Personal Emergency Relocation Kit) bag

      Regardless of what you call it, there are many different reasons to pack one. The idea originated with military personnel who were accustomed to being called out in a hurry and has been adopted by civilians who believe in being prepared.

       How Do You Decide What to Put in Your Bug-Out Bag?

      What food goes in your bug-out bag depends upon several factors, including:

       What type of event you’re preparing for

       Who’s going to carry it

       How far it will be carried

       Where you’re going to store it

       Geographical needs

      Regardless of these factors, several items should be in every bug-out bag. See the back of the book for a bug-out bag checklist that includes food, water, and some standard items that should be in every bag, plus some optional items such as medications, blankets, pet food, and maps.

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      DECIDING HOW MUCH FOOD AND WATER YOU’LL NEED

      Building your emergency food and water supply may seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. The best way to begin is to ask yourself how many people will be using the supplies when an emergency happens. Government sources such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and most state disaster-preparedness departments recommend a minimum three-day supply of food and water. A week’s worth is a safer estimate, especially if you live in a disaster-prone tornado, earthquake, blizzard, or hurricane area. The following guidelines will help you create a plan.

       Calorie Guidelines

      When you look at commercially prepared food, you’ve surely noticed that there are serving sizes indicated on the containers. You may also have noticed that those servings are often small. If you base your emergency food supply estimations on those serving sizes, you will run out of food faster than expected. Instead, base your stockpile on caloric needs. See the following table for suggested caloric needs. If you need 2,000 calories, your significant other needs 2,000 calories, and your child needs 1,200 calories, then you need to store at least 5,200 calories worth of food per day.

       Macronutrient Guidelines

      When planning your daily caloric needs, be sure to do so with one eye on your macronutrient needs to maintain proper nutrition. That sounds all well and good, but the term macronutrients sounds pretty complicated, right? It’s actually quite simple, though. Macronutrients are just the major nutrients that your body needs to function properly and thrive.

      There are five categories of macronutrients: protein, fat, fiber, carbohydrate, and water, and you need them in certain ratios to remain healthy. Fiber and water are independent nutrients, but protein, fat, and carbs work together to keep you healthy. The table below shows the proper protein, fat, and carb intake percentages for your family.

       Water Guidelines

      You need to drink at least 64 ounces of water per day and include between 20 and 40 grams of fiber per day in your diet, as well. Kids need a little bit less water. Use the following good rule of thumb when determining how much water your body really needs: half of your body weight in ounces. In other words, if you weigh 180 pounds, half of that is 90. You should drink at least 90 ounces of water per day to preserve proper hydration. At a minimum, keep 1 gallon of water on hand per person,

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