5 Tips for Setting Up Your Family’s Bug-Out Food Menu

Written by on in Bugging Out, Preparing Our Strategy

After most weddings and funerals, we eat a meal.  When a couple is celebrating an anniversary, going out to eat is oftentimes part of the celebration.  I don’t know about at your house, but at our house, the entire family goes out to eat for birthdays.  Mother’s Day and Father’s day?  Yep!  We go out to eat then too.  As a culture, food is such an integral part of who we are.  It serves a much greater purpose than just fueling our bodies.  And when we create a bug-out food menu, it’s likely not a celebration, we can try to make sure that we include favorite things somewhere on our menu to remind us that even in difficult times, there are still things for which we can be thankful.

In the last two posts in this series on Bug-out bags, we’ve talked about our Semi-Annual Bug-Out-Bag Check and Swap Out.  We’ve discussed whether or not we Should Upgrade Our Equipment.  There’s been a post on the Five Criteria for Bug-out Bag Food for the Family.  And last week, we talked about 3 Purposes for Bug-out Bag Food – Two of Which You Likely Never Considered.  

***There are links in this post.  Some of the links may be affiliate links. My promise to you is that I will only recommend the most economical version of the best quality of items to serve you. All of these are the items that I have bought for my own family.  If you click on a link, your price will remain the same.  If you make a purchase, we may make a small commission that aids in the cost of the running of this website.***

5 Tips for Setting Up Your Family’s Bug Out Bag Menu

So today, I’m going to give you tips and tricks.  Even when it comes to setting up our Bug-out Bag’s food, there are things that we can do to make life much easier.

5 Tips for Setting up Your Bug-Out Bag Food Menu1.) Pull out three 3×5 cards – one for each day of your Bug-out bag food menu.

When I begin getting my family’s food around for our bug out bags – just like for my short-term food storage – I begin with a menu.  In this case, it’s a three-day menu on a 3×5 card.  Across the top of the card, I write “Day 1,”  “Day 2,”  and “Day 3” each in their own column.  From there – I will decide on the foods that I want to feed my family.   To do so, I use the five criteria for bug-out bag food for the family for which meals are going to be listed on this 3×5 card.

2.)  Choose three different breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for each day of your5 Tips for Setting up Your Bug-Out Bag Food Menu bug-out bag food menu.

So having gone over my criteria, what kinds of foods meet these criteria?  There are quite a few options actually.

For breakfasts, I recommend things like . . .

  • Single serve oatmeal packets

Believe it or not, there are so many different varieties – not just flavors as people begin to cater to different dietary needs and wants.  I have found high protein oatmeal packets, organic oatmeal packets, and even steel-cut oatmeal packets.  Several of these check off every box of my criteria!

  • Single-serve prepackaged grits

There are several ways that you can go with grits even.  I’ve found a variety pack of grits.  This has four different kinds of grits, and it’s more economical.  But I’ve also found boxes of the same flavor of grits – and they are still packaged in single-serving packets – like this Country Bacon flavored grits.  YUM!

For lunches, I recommend things like . . .

When it comes to lunches, there are several things that I really enjoy that meet all of my criteria.

But what can you put with these foods to round them out as a meal?

5 Tips for Setting up Your Bug-Out Bag Food Menu3.)  Do Single Servings – except for Dinners for your Bug-out Bag food menu

Dinners is one place that I will often break from the single serving mode.  If you have a decent sized pot and can heat up enough soup or pasta for an entire family, I recommend family dinner meals for convenience.

If you want to make dinners easy, I’d go with soups, and you have so many choices from which to decide:

If you don’t want soups, there are also easy one pot pasta meals like

4.)  Don’t forget snacks as part of your Bug-out Bag food menu 5 Tips for Setting up Your Bug-Out Bag Food Menu

If you are more active than usual, several times during the day, one or more of your kids may need a pick-me-up.  Even if your not more active than usual, sometimes having snacks on hand simply bolsters morale.  Having different kinds of snacks on hand can be an encouragement to you or your kids.

5 Tips for Setting up Your Bug-Out Bag Food Menu5.)  Drinks can spice things up for make them special when added to your Bug-out food menu.

Sure, if you bring water bottles, you can just drink them.  I don’t know about you, but sometimes plain water upsets my stomach.  In cases like that, there are other options that work great with water bottles.  These include:

So as you build your family’s bug-out bag menu, make sure that you are hitting all five of these bases.  Next week, after you’ve been able to create your menu and start purchasing your Bug-out bag food, we’ll talk about how to set up the foods in your bug out bags.

What About You?

What foods do you absolutely need to have in your bug-out bag?  Do you have any other suggestions for shelf-stable foods that are easily cooked?  Please share your thoughts in the comments so that we can all be better prepared.

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