By Brian Dolge
As I work my way through the process of making up a 72 hour kit/ bug-out bag I thought I would post parts of my work here for others to use as they see fit. As there has been a bit of talk here lately about what to do for long-term compact food I thought I’d start with this part.
Brian’s High-Density High-Calorie Easy-to-Prepare Exceptionally Yummy Infinite(almost)Shelf-Life Readily-Available Food Packets
What more could you ask for? The ingredients are:
| Item | Number Used | Calories/Item | Cost/Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hard Candy | 160 | 20/piece | $1.30/bag | 33/bag, indiv wrapped, assorted |
| Power Bars | 9 | 230/each | $1.35/each | Available at sports stores |
| Granola Bars | 20 | 110 each | $2.20/box | 2/foil pouch, hard, el cheapo |
| Slim Jims | 20 | 50/each | $3.40/box | 12/box |
| Drink Mix Pouch | 4 | 65/each | $5.25/4 | Do It Yourself Mix |
Further Notes
Hard candy is one of the most compact forms of calories available, is stable under most conditions, but provides no vitamins or other nutrients and no feeling of fullness;
Power bars also provide lots of calories in a compact form as well as a decent supply of vitamins, etc. however, they are expensive and taste like condensed peanut butter, I like them, but they get old fast;
Granola bars are bulky but light and provide plenty of roughage for fullness and to keep your lower GI tract in working order;
Slim Jims are my least favorite item, they provide protein, but way too much fat, while fat also adds to the feeling of fullness I worry about it going rancid despite all the preservatives;
The drink mix is half orange Koolaid (with sugar) and half orange Gatorade, enough for 2 quarts of each, mixed well, about 3 fl.oz of powder in each of 4 1 qt. zip-lock bags, this provides calories, electrolytes, and reminds you to drink your fluids. I did not use a protein drink/instant breakfast mix because I have had trouble getting them to mix up properly from powder and I really don’t like the taste/texture or the bowel problems they give me. I used all dry stuff to save weight/volume and to reduce the chance of messy accidents. Obviously you will need H2O to go with this, but that’s another letter.
Everything except the drink mix is ready to unwrap and eat (please don’t litter!). My own kit also contains 1 multi-vitamin per day and 3 fiber laxative/diet pills because I like to keep my vitamins up and I get hungry a lot. All these items were bought in a suburban supermarket (except the Power Bars, which came from a 7-11(or an outdoor store)) at the normal prices. You can probably get them cheaper by the usual methods. I am assuming you have qt. and gal. zip-lock bags and a cup of sugar. If not add the price of those to the following calculations.
Total cost
| 6 bags candy | $1.30 ea= $6.50 |
| 9 Power Bars | $1.35 ea=$12.50 |
| 2 boxes Granola | $2.20 ea =$4.40 |
| 2 boxes Slim Jims | $3.40 ea =$6.80 |
| 1 Drink mix | $5.25 ea =$5.25 (with leftover Gatorade) |
| Total cost of food for 4 days = $35.10 or $8.77 per day (less than a pizza with everything!) | |
Calories
- Total Calories=9540
- Calories/day over 4 days=2435 (plenty for hard work/on-the-run/Disaster clean-up)
- Calories/day over 7 days=1391 (enough to wait out most anything)
Packing and Transportation
The ingredients are spread out among four 1-gal. zip-lock bags:
- 40 pieces candy
- 2 power bars
- 2 pouches granola bars
- 5 Slim Jims
- 1 pouch drink mix in each bag
1 bag gets an extra power bar, 2 get extra granola.
With the air squeezed out each bag weighs about 1.5 lbs. and is about 9 in. long and 3.5 in across. Total: 6 lbs. in a 9×7 squishy rectangle. Very portable.
I would like to hear any comments anyone has on this set-up. I have put in a lot of work/experiment/testing on this, but I’m always eager to learn more.
[Via Captaindaves.com]