Food Tasting for Our Grab Bags

 For the kids’ after-school snack yesterday, they sampled some food for their grab bags! 
With all the stress that would come with leaving our home in an emergency, at least we can know that our food is yummy!
I scoured the shelves of Lidl and Aldi, hunting for food that:


Doesn’t expire before a year from now. 
Ok, I ended up choosing some that expired in 10 or 11 months, but I think an extra month or two is flexible when stored in dry, dark places. Most grab bag lists instruct replacing food every 6 months. But let’s be realistic — I’m going to have a hard time keeping up with a 6 month grab bag schedule. There are plenty of food choices that last 12 months. And if you dig in the back of the store shelf, you can often find some food that lasts 1 or 2 months longer than the ones at the front!

Doesn’t require cooking, plates, or cutlery. 
Some people will pack little stoves, lightweight dinnerware, and fire-making tools in  their grab bags. But I’m keeping it simple and less stressful. We can happily eat our room-temperature food with our hands 🙂 Of course, there is something rather fun and comforting about cooking your food over a campfire, and maybe in the future I’ll be ready to add the cooking tools to my grab bag, but for now, I’m keeping it as simple as possible.

Is high calorie. 
We need 2000 calories a day. When our bodies are stressed and burning fuel, we want to ensure that we have enough calories to cope.

Is nutrititous. 
Looking for the fibre and protein contents, wholegrain varieties,  and vitamins. Not worrying about the sugar for these 3 days (except for my diabetic husband).

Is light weight. 
We are going to be carrying this food.

Is easy on the purse strings.

Is tasty. 
That’s why we had a taste-testing session yesterday. If we don’t like it, I’m sure we can find something else that will make our evacuation experience a little easier on the tastebuds. And every year, we are going to eat everything in the grab bag when we rotate the food for new!

So, my kids’ verdict on the grab bag food . . . 
My 9 year old was the only one who liked the dried mangoes.
The unanimous favourite was the Strawberry, Blackberry & Yogurt Breakfast Biscuits, Sondey brand from Lidl. 232 calories for a 2-biscuit pack, 1.8 g Fibre, 3.5 g protein, and this box expires 11 months from purchase date.  £0.89 for a box of 5 x 2-biscuit packs = £0.18 per pack. 

My daughter asked if we would have spoons in the grab bags … then I realised that I included fruit pots, which need spoons! They all loved the fruit — I may have to include a plastic spoon in each grab bag.

(originally published October 2017)

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