shopping my pantry for a 72 hour trip (and an intro to preparedness, Sarah-style)

I’m at my family’s New Hampshire house this weekend for a brief, last-minute trip to visit my brother & his girlfriend and then have the house to myself for a lil work retreat (I procrastinated this blog post, the website edits that preceded it, and the newsletter I’ll share it with ALL DAY). I wasn’t sure if I make it up here this weekend because of the lil snowstorm we had Wednesday night, but the fact that I didn’t have to go out or stop on the way for any supplies was a big motivator in loading up my car and heading out Thursday!

Preparedness can mean a lot of different things, but for me it mostly means having enough food, coffee, candles, and crafts to last at least 2 weeks no matter where I am or what I’m doing. I preserve lots of food throughout the growing season, buy most of my dry goods in bulk, and keep my freezer stocked with protein so that I can feel prepared in my food storage. I hoard candles & craft supplies so that’s just never going to be an issue, lbr. This preparedness keeps my anxiety at bay when I am home or traveling, especially through inclement weather, because I can pack my lil subie with all the things I might need for many possible scenarios. For this weekend, all I needed was work supplies, wool socks & lotsa layers, and food!!

Here is what I pulled out of my pantry and freezer Thursday morning, and below I’ll detail the meals I planned & made with these supplies:

So, clockwise from top left and spiraling inwards, we have a bag of Thrive market quick oats (with flax, chia, and hemp seeds), a jar each of dried zucchini and kale, a bag of Trader Joe’s rigatoni, frozen tomato paste & frozen roasted tomatoes with garlic, provolone cheese slices, a to-go container with both italian and breakfast sausages (frozen), another to-go container with eggs and a bag of cheddar cheese, dog treats, a jar of pickled beets, a jar of serviceberry preserves, ground coffee & some herbal tea in jars, my ~meds~, a can of dolmas, 4 of my perfect chocolate chip cookies, a few bags of raspberry leaf tea, a jar of home canned tomato sauce, and several onions!

My meal plan, using all these ingredients and knowing that there is definitely olive oil, salt & pepper, and butter at the house, as well as at least another pint of tomato sauce in the freezer…

Thursday post-arrival/pre dinner snax: dolmas, pickled beets, cheddar cheese curds

Thursday dinner: pasta with italian sausage, onion, all those tomato sauce/paste/bits, a little bit of dried kale & zucchini as not-so-hidden vegetables, and provolone— I made it in a cast iron and then baked it at 375 for 20 or so minutes to turn it into a pasta bake. It was an absolutely poor gal’s baked ziti but pretty damn delicious nonetheless!

Friday breakfast: oatmeal with serviceberry preserves! & lots of coffee

Friday lunch: snax or leftovers — I ended up eating a loaded potato bun from Shirley, which was not pictured above but did make it into my bag of food to bring up.

Friday snax: cookies, cheddar cheese curds, more coffee, seltzer

Friday dinner: leftover pasta & herbal tea

Saturday breakfast: leftover oatmeal, breakfast sausage, a couple eggs

Saturday snax/lunch, depending on when I leave: leftover pasta, or more dolmas & pickled beets

I will bring home the preserves I don’t finish so that they don’t linger in the fridge here, and the dry goods will go back to my pantry at home. This is how I meal plan and bring food pretty much any time I travel, as all of my travel is by car to stay with friends or family in their homes or a rental cabin type place. I love being able to bring my prepared pantry with me wherever I go, to cook meals for friends and family with food I grew and canned and planned so carefully for. That is true nourishment, and what I plan to share more with you here.

Please let me know how you liked this & if you would like to see more examples of preparedness and meal planning from me!