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1) General comments about food
2) Ordinary Food
3) Backup Food
4) Rations
I make no claims about the suitability of this food list. Unfortunately, none of this has yet been reviewed by a professional nutritionist, to see if the diet was balanced and healthy. See also Legal Consideration #18.
I'm of the "Food is Fuel" school. Don't consult this list to find tasty recipes to impress your acquaintances at the next potluck! My idea of a good meal can be summed up as: "Stop, Fill her up, Pay, and Go".
The ideal food would be:
1.2.1) Nutritionally-balanced. You could eat such a food, and only such a food, indefinitely, and not only would you not have any adverse effects, but you would be wonderfully healthy.
1.2.2) Chemically and biologically stable. It would keep indefinitely without any refrigeration.
1.2.3) Bachelor-friendly. It would require no cooking or preparation.
1.2.4) Compact, lightweight and robust. You could stuff plenty of such food in your backpack without making it too heavy, and it would not be damaged by the sometimes rough treatment given to backpacking equipment.
1.2.5) Easily available. You wouldn't have to order your food over the Internet from hyper-specialized shops halfway across the country, since it would be available in every grocery store.
1.2.6) Inexpensive.
A quick glance at Section 1.2 above tells us there is no such thing (as far as I know) as ideal food. For example, one of the most nutritionally-balanced, easily available and inexpensive food is fresh produce, straight from the farm. But that is also one of the least chemically and biologically stable foods.
My current attempt at solving this problem is to separate food into three "levels":
1.3.1) "Ordinary" food. This is food optimized mostly for criteria #1.2.1, #1.2.5 and #1.2.6. In other words, it's what you eat by default. It's just ordinary fresh fruits and vegetables, whole-grain bread, fresh eggs, milk, some meat, etc.
1.3.2) "Backup" food. This is food optimized mostly for criteria #1.2.2, #1.2.1 and #1.2.5. It other words, it's what you eat in your appartment during a minor emergency, like an ice storm or a hurricane that would knock out electricity for a week or so.
1.3.3) Rations. This is food optimized mostly for criteria #1.2.4, #1.2.3 and #1.2.2. In other words, this is what you would eat for very short periods of time, when you are travelling in abnormal conditions (for example, a hiking trip).
The veggie mix. This is as simple as it gets. You just buy one container each of small carrots, cherry tomatoes, sugar peas, green beans, brocoli heads, etc. (You have to adapt, since price and quality of vegetables varies with the season, etc. You can also choose types of vegetables which require little or no processing, if you're lazy). Then you wash and mix them in the dishpan, drain out the water, stick them into a large container, and stick the container in the fridge. One portion is about 500 mL. Normally you make about one batch a week. Also, several recent tests seem to indicate that it's good to make them soak (except the tomatoes, which don't seem to tolerate such treatment well) a few minutes in salty water before draining and packing; that seems to greatly reduce losses (residual salt delays rotting).
Gorp. One part dried raisins, one part unsalted and fried peanuts, two parts Cheerios (TM) or some other, healthier cereal. One portion is about 500 mL.
Breakfast. One portion of fresh fruit (like an orange, or a banana, or a grapefruit, etc.). Egg sandwich (one egg, spoon-mixed with a bit of milk and cooked for one minute in the microwave, and placed between two slices of whole-grain bread). Beverage (normally coffee with milk but no sugar).
No Lunch. (There doesn't seem to be any ill side-effects to this habit. But these days I cheat and take one coffee with two cubes of sugar and real cream! Yummy!)
Supper. One portion of veggie mix. Two weiner sandwiches (just a slice of bread with a weiner, and some condiments). Beverage.
In the bad old days, the rest of my day tended to look like this:
Post-supper. One humungous bag of Toxicos (TM) Varsol-and-Bleach flavored chips and one Liter of Coka-Belcha (TM).
Ante-midnight snack. Family-sized bag of peanut-butter and chocolate-chip cookies.
Little filler-upper before bedtime. Three cans of Spam (TM) and one large bag of Cheeze doodles.
Before, I had meals which kept well, didn't cost too much, and didn't require cooking, by using mostly canned food. Then, to simplify, I integrated the backup food and rations. Therefore, I currently only have MRE's ("Meal, ready-to-eat") made by Meal Kit Supply.
I briefly tried to make my own rations, but it's difficult. Therefore, for the time being I don't have rations, but only backup food. Some day, I'd like to find the equivalent of Lembas bread! (More serious link: High-Energy, Nutrient-Dense Emergency Relief Food Product)
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