Prepper Kit #9 – Cooking Without Power – Simple and Easy!

Do you love cooking?  Or are you a bit more like me and you can cook, but you only really tolerate it?  On my Instagram page, one of the monikers with which I describe myself is “reluctant kitchen engineer.  I don’t like to cook when I have all my conveniences.  Imagine what it’s like when I don’t have all my bells and whistles.  Cooking without power sounds like it can require a whole new level of tenacity, but join me as I make it easy and fun!

Unfortunately (in my book) we cook every day in one form or another, whether it’s throwing something into the microwave or creating a gourmet dinner.  And because we cook daily, we have tools that we use ALL-THE-TIME to cook.  I prefer my crockpot.  Others will throw dinner in the oven.  Instant pots are all the rage right now, and yea they can be really handy.  I know some people who will use a toaster oven more than they’ll use an oven.  The number of ways to cook something is really vast, but almost all of them have one thing in common – they require electricity.

The whole point to putting together a cooking kit is…

so that you can cook when the electricity goes out.

So what tools can we use to cook during a power outage?  They are cool and really low tech.

(1) The almighty hot dog fork

I know it sounds funny, but if you have a fireplace and you use firewood and NOT wood sold in stores that comes in individually sealed log-shaped bags.  If you intend to cook over a fire, you can’t use those to cook over.

Hot dogs and marshmallows

Say it with me, “Well, duh!”  Yea, cook a hot dog on a hot dog fork – and yea, let’s throw marshmallows in that same category.  You can also wrap something like a crescent roll around a hot dog and roast them both together.

Bacon 

Bacon can be cooked on a hot dog fork.  You can thread the bacon back and forth on the hot dog fork and cook it over the fire.

Eggs

Now, this sounds really funny, but it’s actually ingenious!  If you have an orange and you can peel the orange with a whole side of the peel intact,  you can take the peel and use the hot dog fork to pierce both sides of the orange.  You can then COOK an EGG in the orange!

Biscuits

If you make biscuits you can use a hot dog fork and pierce the biscuit in two places.  You can cook the biscuit over the fire.

Bread

Bread can be cooked the same way.  Poke it in two places and toast it over the fire.

Shish kabobs

You can cook any kind of meat and vegetables cut into small segments and roast them over the fire using hot dog forks.

Mini Grilled Sandwiches

Cut pieces of bread into 2 or 4 pieces depending on the size of the bread and make yourself a sandwich.  Skewer the sandwich all the way through and toast it over your fire.

(2) Pie Irons 

I’ve mentioned Pie Irons before.  If you have bread and toppings (either sweet or savory) you can make “pies” with these pie irons. All pie iron recipes start this way: get your pie iron really hot, spray it with non-stick spray, place a piece of bread in the bottom pie iron, once your toppings are in you place another piece of bread on top and close the pie iron.  Cook over the fire until the outside is crispy.

Pizza Pie

Place pizza sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni or sausage on top of the bottom piece of bread.

Grilled Ham and Cheese Pie

Several slices of ham and at least one slice of cheese

Chicken Pot Pie

Use a canned, chunky, and thick “Chicken pot pie” soup on top of the first piece of bread.

Grilled PB&J

In this case, put the peanut butter and jelly on the bread before you put the bread on the pie iron.

Cheeseburger pie

Add ground beef, cheese, ketchup, mustard, and pickles

Fruit Pie

Simply use a fruit pie filling between your two pieces of bread.

S’mores pie

Chocolate chips and mini marshmallows

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Add 1-2 pieces of refrigerated cookie dough between your pieces of bread.

(3) Stove top (Put Matches in Your Cooking Kit)

If you have a gas stove and matches, you have a way to heat food without using a fireplace.  Most gas stoves have an electronic lighting element, but this can be taken care of by turning on the gas, lighting a match, and holding it near the burner you’ve turned on.

(4) Butane stove and Butane Canisters

We keep a butane stove with our kitchen preps.  If for some reason we were out of both gas and electricity, we would have a fallback method to heat our food.

(5) Thermal Cooker

This is the “ace up my sleeve!”  So if you have a way to heat water, then you have a crockpot and can cook almost anything!  With a Thermal Cooker, you heat the liquid to boiling, put the lid on the stainless steel pot and insert it into the shell portion.  The lid locks and it will insulate the item in the Saratoga Jack and cook it all day long!  You can cook multiple items in a Saratoga Jack with the multiple stackable pans that are included.

(6) Mandolin and Cut Proof Glove

If you need to slice anything and you don’t have power, having a mandolin is important.  Having a cut-proof glove is imperative.

(7)  Manual Food Processor

I LOVE my manual food processor so much that it stays in my kitchen all the time!  I prefer it to powered ones.  It’s easy to clean up, it works really well!  It can pulverize carrots in a heartbeat.

(8) Manual Egg Beaters 

I love using manual egg beaters as a manual mixer.  It makes electricity-free cooking so much easier!  It doesn’t work as well as a Kitchen Aid, but it in a pinch it will do to mix most things, even for creaming butter together with sugar.

What About You?

Do you have any other items that you would include in a kitchen kit for when the power goes out?  Leave a comment below, and let us know so we can all be more prepared.

Together lets Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome

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