All of the above [the last post http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/bob-food/ ] can be eaten on the run without cooking or heating. The following needs to be cooked for best use.

Ramen noodle soup comes in packages that contain 2 servings – sure it does and the tooth fairy is fake too.- each serving is 190 calories [so the package actually contains 380 calories]. 5 packages a day gets you about 1900 calories. The best way that I have found to cook this is to break the noodle puck into quarters into a canteen cup, add the flvor packet, water to cover. If available and desired add table spoon each of dry carrots, onions and maybe garlic. Bring to a simmer stirring often, by now your meal is ready. Cooking it this way saves fuel and time. This also encourages you to consume more fluids which your body needs. A friend years ago subsisted on ramen noodles and chicken patties for 2 years.

Home made Rice packets aka rice a roni. ½ cup rice [or brown rice] 1 tablespoon each of dry carrots, onions and instant beans. Seasonings to taste. Store in a snack sized baggy until ready to cook. Add packet to 1.5 cups water in a canteen cup and place covered on to fire, bring to boil x 5 – 10 minutes set near fire to finish cooking, stir and eat. This is about 400 calories. IF you have some jerky or other meat you can add some to this meal if you want.

You can buy or make similar meal packages like Knorr sides or great value brand. These provide between 400 – 500 calories per package as is. Follow the directions. Cost is about $1.00 each.

This covers rice and pasta; potatoes go good for this application too.

Seasonings which may come in handy are the normal ones of salt, pepper and ketchup. Grated parmesan cheese, salt free seasoning kinda like Mrs Dash, Chili powder are all great and each one costs $1.00 from Dollar Tree.

There is another school of thought for short term and bug out bags. This school of thought goes that the most important thing for the short term is calories. . Basically fuel to keep you going. On the one hand it is nice to have ‘normal’ types of food. This more normal food typically requires cooking or at least warming up. If on the other hand you are on the run [which is more likely going to be the case] you will need things that you can consume as is, weather walking or driving without cooking nor heating.

Examples of such foods include Austin cheese crackers with peanut butter, at 1. 38 OZ with 190 calories per 6 cracker package which is one serving. 3 packages per ‘meal’, gives you 570 calories per meal. So you will need between 9 & 12 packages a day if this were the only food you had with you. At the time of this writing Wal-Mart had a bulk pack of 27 packages [or servings] for under $6.00.

Pop tarts [especially Strawberry] are great ;] each foil pack has 2 tarts. Each tart is 200 calories so each package from the store has six tarts and 1,200 calories. As of a few years ago watching a documentary about efficient companies in this episode Wal-Mart was the example. They have statistics on sales so they can send supplies which are in demand. They also monitor the weather and prior to hurricanes hitting they send extra pop tarts [strawberry] to the areas as those in high demand. Pop tarts would make a great desert item. Each package is $1.00 at Dollar Tree.

Cookies – Lance Lem-O lunch cookies for this example come 4 cookies per packet, 6 packets per package from the store. Each packet of 4 cookies is 150 calories. These would make a good desert item. Each package is $1.00 at Dollar Tree.

Dry roasted peanuts – salted, 7.5 OZ jars have ‘about 8’ servings of 1 oz each – so really 7 servings per jar. Each serving is 160 calories X 7 = 1,120. you would need 6 jars for your 3 day supply if this were the only food you had. Dollar Tree had this at $1.00 per jar.

Granola bars. In this example Quaker variety pack is discussed. There 8 bars / servings per box from the store. Each bar is about 100 calories. They make good desert bars.

Most kids will be mostly happy eating all this stuff.

Years ago one of the guys that I worked search and rescue with used nothing but saltine crackers as his food supply. Think back to the War of Northern Aggression, Yankees refer to this as the Civil War ;] back in those days “hard Tack” was a normal field ration. Of course most of those ‘kids’ knew how to hunt and forage wild food. Another guy carried kibbles N bits for his food.

Calorie count during a SHTF situation, your need for calories can go from a normal world need of 1,600 to 2,000 calories a day to over 6,000 a day. WHAT !?!? Six thousand calories a day!?… YUP! And even at 6,000 + calories a day you can lose weight. Soldiers, expedition mountain climbers, and walking to the North or South pole are some examples from contemporary life.