Need a little help figuring out how much is six months

[JPH]

Ok I have my rotating stock of normal food, I have what I can store of the rice and beans I even have some MREs for E&E.  What I don’t have is the Mountain House #10 cans to go with the rice and beans.

To each his own, but this is what I want, I just don’t know how to figure out how much I need….

I only have to feed my wife and myself right now, I want six months of rice and beans AND six months of freeze dried meats/vegetables/etc. to got with the rice and beans.

So how do I figure out how many cans of main courses and how many cans of sides or vegetables I need for complete that.  Also what about amounts of milk, butter, oil, seasonings and condiments?

For the rice, beans, #10 cans combo I am only talking about lunch and dinner for 6 months without my garden or hunting to supplement, that way no mater what I have a base of six… but with my other food stores, my garden, hunting, and the like I will have my year.

[fred.greek]

As a really primitive approach, look at the total number of calories in each of your containers, and work up a total for what you have...

As a starting point, consider 2,000 calories per day for a person who is NOT doing physical labor, and who already has some spare calories around the middle...

[mash]

I was going to just answer with a smart-a$$ "half as long as one year JPH" 

but I had to add - don't forget to throw in some sweets and something special for variety, doesn't have to be much but it will make a huge difference.

Also pasta and sauce store for years, does not cost much to stock up on, you can buy a case or 2 on sale...

[mash]

here's one calculator from the LDS site, there are plenty others if you do a google search for "food storage calculator"

http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm

[JPH]

but I had to add - don't forget to throw in some sweets and something special for variety, doesn't have to be much but it will make a huge difference.

Of course, I have some puddings set back already, but I plan to add to that, hard candy, supplies to make baked goods. It all in the plan and some of it is on the shelf already.

Also pasta and sauce store for years, does not cost much to stock up on, you can buy a case or 2 on sale...

Roger that, I have fair amount now and I just went to look at the wifes weekend shoping list and she has more on the list for our trip to Sam's this weekend.

Ok so "living the life you want, if times get hard, or even if they don't"  A very normal dinner for us is to fix a cup of brown rice, a cup to a cup and a half frozen broccoli, and one large stake. Then my wife and I split it all.  Sometimes we have a little rice or veggies left over

On any given day you can replace stake with pork chop or fish, brown rice with white, broccoli with Californian mix veggies or asparagus... I think you get the point, also my wife has half a dozen casserole style dishes that use rice   

So let me restate what I need... I need six months of things to go on and next to my rice for two people.  I just don't know how to judge freeze dried #10 cans?

For anyone who is wondering why...  Because I am in the army, we are in an apartment right now, and even though Texas is my next duty station we have never lived in Texas before so we will be renting for a bit until we find a place to buy.  So I have a lot of instability in life right now, at anytime during the next 1-2 years we could find ourselves with a near empty freezer and fridge due to a move or deployment or who knows.

Therefore I want six months of bomb proof food as the foundation to the rest of my preps.

Any and all help is appreciated...

[Sandman]

Personally, I use total calories + serving counts. My goal is to achieve 2000 calories per day for each adult, and 1000 calories a day for each child. And almost every product has a serving size + total servings listed. You can even look these up with the FDA. Today, they are starting to use actual measurements for servings, but you can convert older serving sizes to actual measurements. So figure out your calorie (& protein) needs (or if you are really picky, also include your salt, potassium, and fat needs) and determine how many servings of foods you like to eat will fit the bill per meal x total meals & snacks per day. I like the idea of 4 servings per meal + 3 meals per day + 2 additional snacks per day. (1 slice of homemade bread is always 1 serving included in each meal for me; so it's really 3 servings + 1 slice of bread) I think this will often achieve my personal 2000 calorie per day goal. And if I plan my meals well, it should also achieve the needed fat & complete protein requirements.

Despite in some cases where I have to use #10 cans, I prefer not to use them as you have to use the food up once opened before it goes bad. When I bought a supply of food that came in the #10 cans, I discovered that for some items, there was only 1 can that was supposed to be used throughout the duration of the food provision time window. It's just not realistic to spread out the food from such a can for long periods of time. How long will a #10 can of powdered margarine need to last one person?, probably a long time. Will it last that long after opening in the summer if no refrigeration is available? Probably not long enough.

However, I think I have found something that will help: Some grocery stores carry zip-lock baggies with vacuum valves in them. They are made to vacu-seal them with either a battery-powered handheld vacuum pump, OR a hand-operated vacuum pump that looks a lot like a small bicycle hand-pump. I like to vacuum seal dry goods for long-term storage, SO I've stocked up with a battery-powered pump, a hand pump, and several bags. Now, when I crack open a #10 can, I use what I need, and vacuum seal the rest with my normal sealer. And if I lose AC power, I'll use the battery-pump. And if I lose my AA battery-12VDC charger-solar panel system I currently use for battery-powered camp items, then I'll break out the hand pump. So, it looks like the #10 can food longevity problem is now solved.