Seven Day Challenge - Day 5

I told you it was coming! No power cooking day! Just this morning I was heating up some homemade instant oatmeal in the microwave (how lame, because I could just heat up water...) and thinking I bet today's the day for powerless cooking. I must have a 6th sense for this or something, because I was totally right. So, the oatmeal was a powerless cooking appropriate meal, I just took a shortcut. :-) For the rest of the day we had leftover tuna fish sandwiches, and for dinner we had campfire burritos! Mmmm! They were so good! We cooked the meat and the rice separately on the fire using our volcano stove and then mixed the meat and rice, salsa, cheese and black beans all together and filled the tortilla shells. Then we wrapped the burritos in foil and cooked them over coals for about 3 minutes on each side. They turned out awesome!

Welcome to the 7 Day Challenge. For 7 days, we are testing our Emergency Preparedness and Food Storage Plans. Each day will bring a NEW mock emergency, or situation that will test at least one of the reasons “WHY” we strive to be prepared! REMEMBER: No going to a store, or spending any money for the entire 7 days! And please feel free to adapt the scenarios to fit your own family and situation.

Food Storage Made Easy

Seven Day Challenge – Day 5 (Sunday)

~ Every Day Emergency ~

Power Failure

A drunk driver struck a power line near your house today. Power is out in your entire neighborhood all day long. You must cook meals for your family using no electricity, and make a NICE Sunday dinner! You must also entertain yourself (and your family members) without electronics (the HORROR).

Goal: Practice living without electricity

Today’s Tasks:

• Cook all three meals without electricity
• Make a NICE Sunday dinner from scratch (no opening up a can of ravioli)
• Do something FUN that doesn’t involve power
• Do an inventory of your fuel storage, how many meals can you cook with the fuel you have stored?
• Review one of our powerless cooking classes (online class or recorded live class)
• SHARING TIME: What tools/fuel did you use to cook without power today? Share a picture or description on our Facebook page or on the blog comments!

Realistically, if we were without power we would lose our water because our well pump is powered by electricity which would stink! I fixed my kids oatmeal this morning (homemade instant) in the microwave (oops!), but to do it without power I would have used either our volcano stove or our butane camp stove to heat up the water. Luckily I found a kettle at the thrift store a month or so ago! 

Need to Buy: A generator! I have my eye on a Goal Zero Generator. We also need dutch oven with legs and lid, more InstaFire fuel (5 gal. bucket), outdoor cooking utensils for cast iron, a hook for lifting lids and grills. 

Need to Do: Pull dead wood from our 1/3 acre forest, chop it up and stack it in the lee of the shed. (Right now we just have a huge pile of dead branches. It's a pain every time we want to have a campfire!)

Need to Learn: More outdoor cooking recipes! I also need to up my coal-fire cooking skills. It's been a long time since I did hearth cooking at Conner Prairie and I am really rusty. 

This challenge was great, because it really brought out the glaring, gaping holes in our supplies and skills when it comes to powerless cooking. My goal is eventually to work up to doing one powerless cooking meal a week. Right now, maybe every other week since my husband is in school. 

P.S. If you're interested in a volcano stove (they are so awesome!), I'd recommend you'd get one from Emergency Essentials during Black Friday after Thanksgiving. They have them for an awesome sale!