No…I’m not talking about once you’re in bed for the evening! You do you and I’m not passing any judgment on your midnight cereal habits! I’m talking about a far worse situation – when you lose power. After Hurricane Sandy, we were without power for a week, and let me tell you…it was not fun! Thankfully we’re not near the water (the only time people are happy to live away from the water is when there’s a storm), and many people I know had a far worse time than we did, but we were able to eat dinner by candlelight during that week. Now, if you have an electric stove, my advice is go eat out, because thankfully I have gas (another of those statements you don’t hear people say often, ha ha) and I don’t even know what you would do if you only have an electric stove, but hopefully some of this will be useful, and I really hope none of my readers have to use this advice!
By the way, I realize this may have been more helpful if I posted it a few days ago, but the storm season is just beginning, so it may help you be prepared for the next one! And even so, a lot of supermarkets have generators or if you haven’t been damaged and the main problem is that the power’s out, you may be able to get to a store in a less affected area and put some of this into use. Again, going back to my experience with Sandy, we had no power for a week in my area and there were places just a few blocks away that had power the day after the storm. Sadly, I don’t have friends in those places that I could stay with, but I did pick up a few tips. These are handy for any time the power goes out – storms, blackouts, whatever the case may be.
First, realize that most of what you have in your freezer is gone. It is really sad, especially if you have a nice piece of meat you bought on sale or some fresh-caught fish in there, but once the storm is over and regular garbage pickup resumes, it’s going to have to go. If it’s not cold after the storm passes, take something worth saving that still feels frozen all the way through (a frozen roast beef will usually stay frozen for a full day if you haven’t been in and out of the freezer) and grill it! Also, if you have any foods you’ve prepared and frozen that can be heated on the stove top (soup, chili, spaghetti sauce), you can and should use them the day of the storm or the next day.
If you have a gas stove, the stove top will be your best friend, but…make sure you have a candle lighter on hand. Most modern gas stoves use an electric ignition, so when you turn the burner on, gas will come out and you can light the burner with your candle lighter and then use the stove normally, but the stove won’t work if you can’t light the gas. With that said, obviously canned soup is a no-brainer. Pasta and jarred sauce works, too, and remember, your frozen veggies haven’t gone bad just because the freezer went off.
If you have food in the fridge that can be cooked on the stove, that’s perfect for the first day – my bacon cheeseburger salad works to use up defrosted ground beef, bacon, cheese, and lettuce and tomato and salad dressing, as does chili (recipe coming soon). Bear in mind that after the power has been off for about four hours, nothing perishable in your fridge will be good anymore, so this is just for the day you lose power.
Another great thing to have on hand is shelf-stable milk. It freaks me out under normal circumstances to see a carton of milk on the supermarket shelf, but if you don’t have power and you do have shelf-stable milk, a world of convenience foods opens up to you – boxed mac and cheese with tuna, “Noodles and Sauce” with broccoli…there’s a lot you can do. You can even have dessert as long as you’ve got a box of pudding mix and four people to finish it up!
Finally, when you’re doing your storm prep shopping, don’t forget instant coffee! Whether you have a Keurig or rock it old-school with Mr. Coffee, no power = no coffee = grumpy Bear! Being able to heat a pot of water and have some kind of coffee-like substance helps! And if you take milk or flavored creamer, pick up some of those little shelf-stable liquid creamers – it makes the instant coffee a little more bearable!
Hopefully you won’t need this advice, but if you do, hopefully it helps! What are your favorite tips for cooking without power?
Leave a Reply