wastelandsurvivalguide

[wastelandsurvivalguide]

Part 3: Cooking Nothing

The number one best ingredient in the nomadic kitchen is creativity and resourcefulness. Take the 3 base ingredients that I choose to use for almost every meal: ground beef, onions, and garlic. There is an almost infinite amount of ways to shake these three ingredients up. Add some to a can of chili for a super hearty bowl. Fry up a hamburger steak with some grilled onions. Of course, there's the aisles and aisles of Hambuger Helper meals that only require water and meat. You might find yourself adventuring more and more into the spice aisles of the world, but that is really the only way to keep things fresh on such a limited bunch of food.

The number one ground beef dish for traveling would probably have to be the lowly patty melt. Two slices of toasted bread, a burger patty, some cheese, and traditionally some thousand island dressing. It's cheap, simple, quick, and there's a reason Steak n' Shake has made a fortune selling these for years.

Another good way to use ground beef is to make something akin to a shepherd's pie but without the pie. Mix up some ground beef, canned vegetables, and a little butter and flower together and after about 5 minutes you have a delicious hot meal that hits all the major food groups. Just because you're on the move definitely doesn't mean you have to eat only out of cans and microwaved meals.

If traveling in a van, it is assumed you would have some sort of cooler or refrigeration technique. This doesn't have to be anything fancier than a good quality icebox. If you are smart and keep up on single serving meals, then a single pound of ground beef could last you for a couple days at a time. This concept gets considerably easier for the Tiny House crowd, as those individuals usually have more amenities and luxuries than those of us on the road. Refrigeration is probably the greatest culinary invention and will safe your life one day. Eggs, by the way, can keep up to a month in the refrigerator (if not longer). When we start adding in access to an actual freezer, the sky's the limit.

But we don't usually get to keep freezers in vans, now do we?

So then what? I'll tell you. The name of the game is to only grocery shop a few days at a time. It might sound tedious, but the end result would almost completely eliminate any food waste you might have had by trying to have a larger shopping trip. Why spend your precious and scare money on something you won't even be able to enjoy? It happens to the best of us though; you can't win every single battle. Either way, consumption and waste should always be at the front of your mind. The less waste you can produce in this world, the more it benefits the environment and helps the Earth get back to where she needs to be.

If possible, it's always best to source produce and meats from local farmer's markets and butcher shops, but these places also tend to be higher priced (rightfully so, as you can tell directly where your food came from) so there is never anything wrong with going to the supermarket for groceries. The important thing is that you stay eating and drinking comfortably throughout your adventures.

[wastelandsurvivalguide]

Part 2: The First Grocery Trip

Today, I find myself having to make the crucial first grocery trip everyone has to make when starting their life over. While it must remain simple and cheap, there is no reason to have to eat like you're in jail. Firstly, grilled PBJ sandwiches taste far better than uncooked ones. That is the basis of this operation here: It doesn't have to be super complex but it has to be warm and filling. Hot food is better for you, this is just a fact of life. When proceeding to the store for your first nomadic shopping trip, you have to keep some things in mind. First off is finances. It's entirely possible that you don't exactly have a lot of extra cash right now, and that's okay. The key is to keep basic essentials on hand always and use those to spruce up the boring stuff. The first thing you need is salt, pepper, and basic spices. This doesn't have to get super fancy or expensive, but it will definitely help you start turning canned dinners into cheap gourmet eats. Garlic and Onion powders are instant flavor bombs you can add into almost everything. Another couple good spices are seasoning mixes such as Tony Catcherie's and Chef Cavander's. These spice blends will comfortably mix and pair with almost any food you cook, instantly elevating their flavor.

So we've addressed flavoring the food, but what exactly are we going to be eating? Assuming you have access to a fridge, you can pick a meat like ground beef and begin arranging dinners off this. Ground beef, vegetables, and seasonings sounds like a basic meal but I assure you, it's far more filling than ramen noodles. Potatoes are a great vegetable to keep lying around because they're filling, keep forever, and if you're savvy (and keep reading on in this guide) you can even use old potatoes to grow new potatoes. However, if you don't have the means or space to keep fresh potatoes, Instamash is your best friend. With a little bit of milk or water, salt, pepper, and some butter, you will instantly have a poorman's meal that will fill you up and keep you going. Another good tool in the pantry is canned everything. Canned veggies can be added to one-skillet mixes like a Shepherd's Pie kind of dish, or eaten alone just cooked and seasoned. Canned meals like spaghetti and ravioli are also very good quick meals to eat as they don't require any prep except for cook time. The key is to take the bare minimum you have access to and learn how to combine different random foods to create something you don't hate eating together. Sure, it's always going to be nicer and easier to go out to a restaurant, but it's also a lot more expensive. The goal of this section is the encourage you to stretch your food budget as far as possible so that you don't ever have to worry about it.

So we've talked about sandwiches, the importance of hot food, instamash, and canned soup. That's already a pretty good basis to keep us alive, but let's go a little bit deeper. Canned corn beef hash, a couple eggs, and some toast will definitely bring you back from the dead in a heartbeat. If you have access to refrigeration, some ground beef will instantly open up a whole new world of good eats for you. Most of cooking, mind you, is just combining meat, vegetables, and usually involving some kind of sauce. If you keep this in mind, the sky's the limit. Most pasta dishes are pasta, meat, and sauce. If you have the budget to get jars of whatever your personal favorite sauce is, you can add water and a little flour to make the jar last almost twice as long. As long as you keep your pantry small, go grocery once per week, and use your perishable items first, you will be more than fine. If you have access to refrigeration, ground beef and hotdogs are the two cheapest methods of adding a meat of some kind to your foods. You could always add a chili sauce can for "meat", but nothing will ever be better than it being fresh cooked.

It's always a good idea to have snacks on hand for inbetween meals. Whether its some crackers, cookies, whatever tickles your fancy, it never EVER hurts to have quick food on hand. This keeps you from having to waste an entire meal in a situation where you might just be moderately hungry. You can get creative with your snacks as well; taking a single piece of bread or a tortilla and making a peanut butter and jelly roll up is a good quick snack. Ironically, mayo and bread is also a tasty snack that you can easily throw together in a pinch. The sky is the limit on what you can cook, it just depends on what you want to eat and how creative you're willing to be to get that meal!

Another good way to get ideas for meals is through old cookbooks, especially from times of economic hardship. These books will be filled to the brim with tried and tested meals to help you get through even the toughest of times. Write down a couple recipes every time you see one and soon enough you'll have your own cookbook.

Foods that are instantly filling and can be used as a "base" for your cooking are pastas, rice, and potatoes. These are easy and filling carbs that can "do most of the work" so-to-speak. These will help make your dishes stretch in your stomach as these filler ingredients help to take up space. A meal can definitely be completely different just by serving it with rice or bread.

Tomorrow I set out to gather the last bit of household essentials for myself (such as a bowl or two and a towel) and my initial shopping trip. It kind of looks like this: Bread, Eggs, Milk, Cheese, Butter, Spices, Canned Soups, Peanut Butter, Jelly, Instamash, Canned Beans and Vegetables, Saltine Crackers, Teabags, Oatmeal, Sugar, Maple Syrup, and potentially some fruit or berries for some sweetness. You don't need a whole lot, just enough to keep a healthy variety in your life.

[wastelandsurvivalguide]

Part One: The Bare Essentials

Before you can start talking about survival, you have to understand the absolute bare necessities of it. At its core, all you REALLY TRULY NEED to survive is food, water, and warm shelter. If those three boxes are checked, you will not merely die from lack of resources. Of course, nobody wants to only have the absolute bare minimum, but using those three categories we can construct a basic list of things that are essential to keep on your person at all times. This list is in no particular order, but there is probably a reason these items came to me in the order they did.

Number One: The Cast Iron Skillet

A cast iron skillet is your best friend. It can go everywhere, it can be used for everything, and it's damn easy to clean. Granted, there is a slight learning curve if you're used to modern aluminum cookware, but once you get the hang of it you will quickly understand why everyone has an obsession with these things. This will be your primary method of cooking, because you can cook literally anything in it. Guard it with your life.

Number Two: A Few Pots

Continuing off the cooking theme, you're going to need some sort of pot to cook soups and sauces in. Ideally, this will be a largeish soup stockpot, and two normal saucepans. The majority of your cookware, except for the cast iron, could theoretically fit inside and be stored in your stockpot for storage purposes.

Number Three: The Knife Talk

There are two schools of thought when it comes to cooking knives. The first is that one really good knife is all you need for practically any situation. The other school is that you cant afford one really good one so you need a few small ones. In this case,one chef knife, one pairing knife, and a steak knife should be most everything that you need to function. It is always better to have less and learn to use the tools you have to the best of their ability.

Number Four: The Table for a Nomad

When traveling or living a simple life, there are a couple rules that are good to follow for keeping tableware. One plate is really all you need. Two bowls is a must, as soup is always better with a friend. You should keep four cups on hand so that you can share a drink with everyone you see. Two spoons (for the soup, of course), a knife, a fork, and some napkins for eating and you have yourself a complete dinner set for the traveling American.

Number Five: The Tools for Cooking

In addition to the things you cook IN, you also need the things to cook WITH. A spatula, a wooden spoon, some tongs, a set of good chopsticks, a ladle, and a good can opener will go a long way in the small travel kitchen.

Number Six: A Handful of Washcloths

These will function as your paper towels, your goto cleaning rags. You never know when you're going to need to wipe something off.

Number Seven: Two Water Jugs

Two decent sized containers for carrying and storing water is a must. Whether its used for drinking or cleaning, it is always a good idea to have access to water quickly on hand.

Number Eight: The Lowly Washboard

Okay, time for a rant. I know most people who live in houses have the luxury of owning a washer and dryer and in fact, probably didnt necessarily have to pay for it either. Doing laundry is as simple as paying for detergent and running the load, no thoughts needed. Some of us have learned the hard way that Laundromats are far, far too expensive to maintain laundry at. This leads us to the washboard. Before the invention of the washing machine, this was the only way you COULD wash your clothes! Its simple, effective, and the most gentle way to ensure your clothes last a long time.

Number Nine: The Clothesline

How do you expect to wash your clothes and not dry them? A clothesline can be put up mostly anywhere as long as you can get some space between the clothes and rows for airflow. Within a day or two, your clothes will be perfectly clean, soft, and dry!

Number Ten: Mortar and Pestle

The most underrated kitchen tool is the mortar and pestle. You can literally reduce anything to a mash or a powder in seconds with the right method. Its a blender without the need for blending things. They come in all sizes, so just get one that works the best for whatever you need!

Number Eleven: A Washtub

This can be a literal bucket, a sink, a bathtub, a river, just somewhere to hold the water that you're using to wash your clothes.

Number Twelve: Always Know where Your Towel Is

According to the Hitchhiker's Guide, the towel is the single most important item someone could keep in their inventory on their adventures. Honestly, I couldn't agree more. It can be a scarf, a blanket, a cover, a tent, there are infinite uses for a towel.

Number Thirteen: A Wooden Cutting Board

A wooden cutting board is really just a portable lap table. Any time you sit down, if you have your cutting board in your lap its and instant table. Not only that, wooden cutting boards are super sturdy and tend to last forever.

Number Fourteen: The Library

It's always a good idea to have some good books on hand. Whether they're stories, instructional books, gardening books, any type of reading is going to help keep you sharp out there in the world. The more you read, the more you know, and nothing is more valuable than knowledge.

Number Fifteen: Cassette Tapes

Cassette tapes are the best form of physical media. It's always a good idea to keep some of your favorites on hand as well as some blanks for making mixtapes. If you have a good enough tape player, it will probably last you longer than any iPod or MP3 player on the market today. Why live in silence, tapes exist!

Number Sixteen: The Pen and Paper

You might need to write directions, a note, a shopping list, you never know what you might need a pen and paper for. It's always best to keep a couple sets on hand, but as long as you always have access to paper and a pen you will be fine.

Number Seventeen: A Set of Tools

This doesn't have to be a giant wall to wall rack of expensive tools. This can be as simple as a car kit, a ratchet set, a wrench set, and other odds and ends like pliers, a hammer, and screwdrivers.

Number Eighteen: A fire Kit

A fire kit contains everything you need to start a fire in the wilderness. It should have an axe or hatchet, a fixed blade knife, twine and kindling, waterproof strike-anywhere matches, cheater sticks (the instant-light firestarters), and a good quality zippo with spare fuel. A fire can keep you warm all night, will let you cook food and warm up drinks, and will keep predators away due to the light it gives off. This is the best way to make sure you always have the ability to start a fire.

Number Nineteen: A Good Imagination

How do you expect to get anywhere without using your brain a little bit? You're never going to have 100% of everything you need at any given point, so the name of the game is to improvise whenever you have to. It's never a matter of "I can't", but "I haven't figured it out yet".

These are, in my opnion, the basic necessities to keep yourself alive. Whether you live in a van, a house, on horseback, or on foot, having these basic tools and items will make sure you have the basic basic needs of survival covered. You have a way to cook food and clean up after yourself. You have a method of staying warm, and a way to wash your clothes. You could feasibly stop here and use common sense to hack it through the wilderness, but I highly suggest you read more and more of this book so that you don't accidentally kill yourself being too headstrong.

These things are the stepping stones, and this is the basic kit we will be working out of on the road here. These are the backbone of the adventure and part of the quest is making sure these items stay in good condition because they are going to be used a LOT.

[wastelandsurvivalguide]

Foreword

Welcome to the Wasteland Survival Guide. This is a living, breathing, constantly changing book that has an intention. That goal is to help keep every single one of you out there alive and safe no matter what situation you find yourself stuck in. From fixing basic repairs on your average motor vehicle to organizing a self-sufficient commune, this book should have a little bit of anything and everything. A survival guide in its truest sense, it begins with the absolute basics; the bare minimum that you need to survive and keep yourself alive. From there, we follow the path of The Reverend as he himself learns the lessons that you will be able to learn from yourself. The guide is less of a traditional guide, more of a journal of adventure if you will. Someone once told me that the only difference between Science and Screwing Around is whether or not you write it down. Well, professor, this would be considered science in your eyes. Come with me as I travel America and find out just how to survive in this dire wasteland.

Much love to you all,

The Reverend.