I don’t know if this might work or not… but I keep some “Just add water” pancake mix in the pantry (for my migraine days). I also keep some blueberries in the freezer, so I’ll take a few blueberries heat them for 30 seconds in the microwave. Make Sunshine some blueberry pancakes for dinner, then crawl back into bed. She drowns the pancakes in butter and syrup and is quite happy. I’ve heard it called “Breakfast for Dinner”
Not the healthiest dinners… but it works.
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Further to my previous post about rice bowls - I don’t know if they’re available in the US outside Costco.
Yes, they are. I had a pandemic stash.
I remember getting a badge for emergency preparedness that involved boiling water and using chlorine, cooking with gathered wood, making a fire but we didn’t have to hunt or kill any animals. l would be a vegetarian if I had to do that. My husband confessed that when he caught his first fish from our boat on Cape Cod Bay he wasn’t sure he could bring it home and eat it, but then it spewed a ton of smaller fish onto the deck of of the boat and he lost his reluctance…life at the top of the food chain.
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I was a girl scout way longer then I cared to admit at the time, and what I remember most was the “recipe” for “Blushing Bunny”!
Might be a good addition to your thread!
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Pinning these older threads here
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I grew up in a Scouting family, was a Girl Scout even as a high school senior and got called out and ridiculed by my band director for choosing a scouting event over his concert. Scouts made me self reliant and sure of myself. I’m in my 70s’ now. I have never been in a situation that I don’t think I can overcome. So now I have to accept that I need to think as an old person who can’t go safely down the basement stairs and have to keep a pantry of things to get me through “old and hungry”.
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Quick things for when I’m hungry and don’t want to expend energy:
- English muffins with cheese and/or butter
- Peanut butter and American or Cheddar cheese sandwich
- Tuna sandwich on bread or flour tortilla
- Pretzel chips with cheese
- Flour tortilla and cheese - either nuked until melty or in frying pan if I can muster the effort, serve with salsa or hot sauce
- Same idea but tortilla chips and cheese, nuked until melty for quick nachos, with salsa and sour cream (if I have it on hand)
- Baked potato with whatever seems good in the fridge
So, reading this over, my go to fridge and pantry staples are cheeses, tuna, tortilla and pretzel chips, bread or English muffins, potatoes, butter, and salsa or hot sauce. I also tend to keep Birds Eye frozen vegetables that can be nuked.
My next level up from these are eggs and pasta, if I have just that little bit more effort I am willing to expend. Angel hair cooks in about 4 minutes - add butter, pepper, and grated parm and I’m done.
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I didn’t realize Annie’s made microwavable cups. I used to make their boxed mac and cheese for my kids sometimes if I was going out, but these days I wouldn’t bother just for me. A microwavable cup, on the other hand . . .
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‘White cheddar” and “aged cheddar” - two kinds!
ETA evidently 3 kinds - there’s a deluxe rich and creamy Classic Cheddar, too. Unless it’s been superseded 
ETA2- the classic cheddar has a squeeze tube of cheese sauce. The other ones have a powder packet. I liked the powder ones just fine - I’ll order the squeeze packets in the interest of science. 
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Who’s your dealer, er, I mean source? (Since you have to order them - Amazon? Local store?) Thanks!
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And remember, frozen bagged small vegetables like peas or corn can be used as emergency ice packs. So your freezer becomes a first-aid kit!
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I got my first ones from
Imperfect Foods - source of weekly pandemic boxes of misshapen vegetables. I did order from Amazon, but Instacart shows me they are available at Safeway and Wegmans. I didn’t check further. That tells me they’re widely available.
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Yeah - frozen peas. I used them to ice my shoulder after rotator cuff surgery. Rinse and repeat. That was a bitch 0f pain.
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I was also a girl scout well into high school! My troop was focused on backpacking and “primitive” camping. Looking back, I cannot freaking believe I used to camp outside in the middle of winter. And you best believe I didn’t own a shred of down or a single high-performance article of clothing or gear. Oy!
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“Once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout!”
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“Hobo Stew”, “Walking Salad” and of course, “Somemores” are pretty much what I remember from early Girl Scout cookouts. Later, there was the Dutch oven recipes (casseroles, cakes), the box oven recipes (toasty things and flatbread dishes) and the good old Bean Hole. Those were the days!
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My parents were both involved in Scouts, my mother worked for Girl Scouts when I was living at home. We were a family of six kids, and all of our “vacations” were primitive camping in canvas tents with hand dug latrines - not easy once I started my periods and eventually just told my father I wasn’t going with them. Upper Peninsula of Michigan at the time. But the lessons I learned have served me well - I know I can survive. But I need now to prepare better for hard times because I have physical impairments and can’t do things I used to be able to do. Stairs are a big issue for me.
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I know exactly how you feel. Sixteen years ago I got hit with an autoimmune disease that attacked my muscles, and I almost died, twice. Fortunately I got good drugs, but they only control, not cure, it. I can still manage stairs, but with great care and a handrail, which is an absolute must.
An occupational therapist told me that the best thing to do is to continue to do the things I enjoy doing, so the cooking and baking go on, but with great effort.
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Earlier this year, we got a case of red and white cream of mushroom soup when spouse was in the hospital. Even though I’ve said many nasty things about that product in the past, I started binging on the soup, heated up with water (don’t like very creamy soups) and augmented with chopped canned mushrooms, a dollop of shio koji, and a healthy dash of pepper. Super easy quick dinner. On hiatus during the summer but as soon as the weather turns cool, I’ll be making it again for sure.
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