What will make beans & rice taste good? What are you stocking that you don't like? Tell us about it.

If you want cheaper recipes...ignore the ones I post on foodie threads. Which I do a lot. The trick to finding cheaper and in all honesty, better recipes.. Skip the epicurious lot and all the higher end sites for foodies. And go to places like this. [link to thelemonbowl.com (secure)]
Go for food truck not high end cuisine. It simply makes more sense. "I'm hungry" does not need to amount to...look at this neat thing. There is a trick.

The 'trick' to cooking is to learn how to deal with what you have at hand. Fuck (pardon my French) recipes. You take what you have and make the best of it. You do not shop for a bunch of dinners. You shop for what is on discount. In other words you are not looking/shopping for a specific dinner, you are buying what's cheap. And then you learn how to cook.

You might learn to appreciate a different cut of beef, or maybe an organ meat.

The recipe comes in later once you have your ingredients. Stock your pantry with spices so you can simmer anything long enough and make it taste good. Or at least palatable. If you are looking at 'holy crap it has all gone to shit' cooking...it is not a bad idea to overstock your spices.

I'm sure there are 'manly men' here who will claim just eat an MRE, and I have a years worth of Mountain House, enough for everyone in my family, I get it. But dealing with, sorry OP, women and children and complexity. You should, as a man, be able to bring home a bit of complexity to the meal.

You all have your areas...here...we have crazy fungi. Dry, powder them, add them (at 16% protein) to every meal. Just fricking grab whatever you know is edible and dry it and add it to everything.

If it doesn't taste good...mince it and add it to what does. I've done 27 ingredient salads with weeds....it was a competition for sure...but you mince the greens, toss them and make a dressing and then all of a sudden your salad is half a meal .

ANd get yourselves some chickens....

These two couples have food supplies but they screw up and are clueless about wild edibles and it then becomes ruinous when disaster strikes.

If you don't know, then ask an old person who most likely will befriend almost anyone.

Umami/glutamates and fat are key. (Bacon happens to have both, which is why it works well in a lot of things. There is supposed to be seaweed that is bacon-y, I'd like to try it sometime.) Red wine, mushrooms, peas, Parmesan cheese, there are many other things that help increase umami in a dish.

Fats are what gives the feeling of being satiated. Often cravings for other things, like desserts/sweets, are actually a craving for more fat.

Lance, what a terrific post! One of your best ever!!!

I'm not so determined to have "cheap" food - I am determined to have plenty of food. That generally means less expensive, to have larger stocks. The easier things to store are generally the cheaper ones, such as rice and beans.

You make perfect sense in not buying to put meals and menus together, but buying to stock and store, then finding ways to put those things together - this is what I am trying to do - and it's about quantity before quality - quality comes on the stove - or the fireplace - or the butane burner - or the wood stove or camp stove or whatever you must cook on by that time. You are perfect at this - at putting things together because you have them, not just because you went and bought them to put together.

What a blessing you are to so many, Lance! You do more for our storage and cooking than any two dozen people put together can do!

Thank you for your wisdom and your uncommon common sense!

If you've been following the news about food shortages and high prices just around the corner, you are wisely stocking food, including beans and rice.

I am doing the same, because beans and rice are cheap, though they won't be for long, and healthy, as well. I just can't stand beans.

So, please tell me your tricks, secrets, hints to make beans and rice actually enjoyable, instead of just a way not to starve.

A wise forager can gather seaweed, periwiwnkles, limpets, mushrooms, rock lichen, berries, grasshoppers, grass seed, maple syrup, white clover blossoms, snails, etc and signifcantly boost the calories. There is free food but most don't know it.

Sofrito and Adobo of course!Thrown in a packet of was in and you're golden!

Young people carry the torch. You folks should not give up and stop being passive.

Do what the hippies did. Band together. Make your own independent communities. Live as a sef-supporting tribe so you own property and have a family and develop independence.

Old people will teach you and leave you alone.

Or instead of 33% then 50% will stay at home.

Little skills like wild edibles and cooking keads to carpentry and electrical work and troubleshooting and welding.

Subscribe to that channel above. That is amazing for simple foods.

Maybe just screw beans...I'm having fun watching this...10 year old youtube.

Go Lentils!

Always remember, bad food is good when you are hungry enough.

Americans are not used to eating lentils but you should start eating them and rotating them. Why? They are easy to rehydrate. You need some easy meals as access to water may be difficult.

Water is heavy. 5 gallons of water is 41.7lbs. Can your wife and child haul that back? Nope. Not over uneven terrain. Do you have a way that someone can do so? Are you unprepared and figure you will wing it? That will fail and gets people dehydrated.

Plus you need to figure out how to clean up every day plus food prep. You figured this out right? You figured out how to wash laundry with no power...right?

Lentils saves you part of this water weight versus hard pinto beans.

Seriously? Please explain.

Back in my nomadic days I would hang 5 gallon buckets of water off each handle of my 10 speed bicycle. I've carried a lot of water in my day and you are correct, most people don't realize the effort that comes from hauling water. It's going to be the great surprise of our coming future.