Pantry meals – ten dinners from one packet and two tins

One Wednesday in April a text pings in from the electricity company: a planned outage because of work on the grid, from four o'clock until late this evening. The six-year-old is standing in the kitchen doorway asking what's for dinner, and the fridge should really stay closed. In the pantry there is a packet of quick-cook macaroni, two tins of chopped tomatoes, a tin of tuna and a tin of sweetcorn. That is a dinner, and it is ready in ten minutes.

This guide is about exactly that moment: ten dinners you can make from things that keep at room temperature, in one pan or a frying pan on the camping stove or over the fire. The order in which to eat the food over a whole week is covered in a crisis menu for one week. Here are the dishes, with amounts for four people, cooking time and how much water they take.

One packet and two tins

All the dishes below are built the same way, and once you know the pattern you do not need recipes:

1. The packet fills you up: quick-cook macaroni, couscous, red lentils, noodles, instant mash, rice or flour.
2. The first tin gives flavour and protein: chopped tomatoes, beans, tuna, sausages, mackerel or coconut milk.
3. The second tin gives something green or sweet: sweetcorn, peas, carrots, mushrooms or pineapple.

On top of that comes the flavour shelf with stock cubes, oil, paprika and a pinch of sugar. It means the same packet and the same tins taste different from day to day. The children can help choose: a seven-year-old who gets to pick one packet and two tins from the store is more likely to eat up what ends up on the plate.

Tip: Stock small tins rather than large ones. Without a fridge, leftovers cannot be kept, and an opened tin should be finished the same day. Four small tins of tuna are better than one big one.

One-pan dinners

1. Tomato pasta with tuna and sweetcorn. The pasta is cooked straight in the tomatoes, and that is the most important trick of the week. Bring two tins of chopped tomatoes, about 6 decilitres of water, a stock cube and a tablespoon of oil to the boil. Tip in 400 grams of quick-cook macaroni, put the lid on and simmer for six to eight minutes. Stir often so nothing sticks. Finally, stir in two tins of tuna and a tin of sweetcorn. Cooked the usual way, the same amount of pasta needs two to three litres of water that is then poured away.

2. Mild bean chilli. Follow chilli con carne but skip the mince and let the beans carry the dish: two tins of kidney beans, a tin of white beans, two tins of chopped tomatoes and a tin of sweetcorn, with a tablespoon of paprika and a teaspoon of cumin. The long simmering time in the recipe is not needed, because the beans are already cooked. Fifteen minutes is enough. Use the liquid from the white beans instead of water, and serve with tortilla wraps. Put the chilli out for the adults.

3. Red lentil soup with coconut. The same lentils as in the lentil stew, but as a soup and without fresh root vegetables. Cook 3 decilitres of red lentils with a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tin of coconut milk, about 8 decilitres of water, two stock cubes and a teaspoon of mild curry powder. After ten to fifteen minutes the lentils have broken down. Stir in a drained tin of carrots at the end. The coconut makes the soup mild, and that is usually what wins the children over.

4. Couscous with chickpeas and raisins. Pour 4 decilitres of boiling water with a dissolved stock cube over 4 decilitres of couscous, put the lid on and wait five minutes. Stir in a tin of rinsed chickpeas, a tin of sweetcorn, a decilitre of raisins and two tablespoons of oil. If fuel is short, the same amount of cold water works, but then the couscous needs half an hour and a stir halfway through. It is the only dish here that manages entirely without a flame.

Tip: Measure the water with the same measure as the grains and pasta. One decilitre of couscous takes one decilitre of water. If you pour by eye, you almost always pour too much, and that is water you may need tomorrow.

5. Sausage stroganoff with tinned sausages. The sausage stroganoff is based on falukorv (a Swedish sausage), cream and yoghurt, all of which need to be kept cold. Switch to two tins of sausages and replace the cream and yoghurt with a decilitre of milk powder whisked into 2 decilitres of water. Tomato purée, paprika, a tin of chopped tomatoes and a tin of mushrooms do the rest. Let the sauce simmer for ten minutes. Cook 400 grams of quick-cook macaroni in about a litre of water and save a cup of the cooking water for the sauce in case it gets too thick.

6. Noodle soup with sweetcorn and peas. Bring 1.5 litres of water to the boil, add four packets of instant noodles and a tin of sweetcorn and a tin of peas with their liquid. After three minutes the soup is ready. Only use half of the seasoning sachets. They are salty, and salty food makes everyone thirsty on a day when the water has to last. If you have eggs left, you can boil them in the same pan first.

7. Creamy mushroom rice. This dish takes the longest on the stove and suits a day when there is enough fuel. Fry 3 decilitres of risotto rice in oil, pour on a litre of stock a little at a time and stir now and then for about 20 minutes. The liquid from a tin of mushrooms becomes part of the stock. Finally, stir in the mushrooms, a tin of peas and a decilitre of milk powder. The rice turns creamy without any cream. The taste is reminiscent of the mushroom soup, but it is more filling.

8. Mackerel in tomato sauce with instant mash. Boil water according to the table on the mash packet, about 6 decilitres for four portions. Swap some of the water for milk powder to make the mash richer. Whisk in the powder, then briefly heat three tins of mackerel in tomato sauce and a tin of peas in the same pan. This is where families tend to split. A child who does not eat fish can have the same mash with tinned sausages.

Frying pan dinners

9. Egg-free mini pancakes. The pancakes need milk and eggs, but you can make them from the store cupboard. Whisk together 4 decilitres of plain flour, a decilitre of milk powder, a teaspoon of baking powder, half a teaspoon of salt, a tablespoon of sugar, about 6 decilitres of water and two tablespoons of oil. Let the batter rest for a quarter of an hour. Without eggs, thin pancakes fall apart, so fry small, slightly thicker mini pancakes in a hot pan. Serve with jam and tinned fruit. Frying takes half an hour in batches, so expect to use more fuel than for a stew.

10. Frying pan pizza. The dough for frying pan pizza is already made from store cupboard ingredients: 6 decilitres of flour, 3 teaspoons of baking powder, a teaspoon of salt, 2 decilitres of water and 4 tablespoons of oil. What is missing is the cheese. Instead, top it with chopped tomatoes, oregano, tuna, sweetcorn and pineapple, and add a piece of hard cheese if there is any left. Let each child build their own pizza. With a lid on the pan and a low heat, each pizza takes about ten minutes. On the barbecue or over the fire outside, it turns into an outdoor evening in the garden. The same dough without topping becomes frying pan bread to go with the soup.

The water and fuel in the dishes

All ten dinners together take about seven litres of water, so less than a litre per dinner on average. That is not much compared with what the family drinks. MCF counts on three to five litres per person per day for drinking, cooking and basic hygiene. How much you need at home, and how to fetch and purify it, is covered in the guide to water preparedness.

Fuel matters more than water. Couscous, noodles and mash only need boiling water, which can just as well come from the Thermos. Lentil soup, chilli and tomato pasta take a quarter of an hour. The mushroom rice, the mini pancakes and the pizza take longest, and they suit the days when there is plenty of gas or spirit. How much a storm cooker or gas stove uses, and where it can stand, is covered in cooking without electricity.

Tip: Anyone who has cooked dinner on a storm cooker by a lake knows that a lid on the pan is half the job. With a lid, the water boils faster and less steam escapes, both up in the mountains and in the kitchen at home.

How to make the dishes the children's own

Children aged two to ten rarely eat anything new on a day when everything else is already different. So cook the pantry meals on an ordinary weekday first, so that the tomato pasta and the mini pancakes are familiar dishes long before they are needed. It is also the best way to keep the store fresh. How to eat from it and top it up is covered in rotating food supply, and how long the tins keep in how long food lasts in the store cupboard.

Season mildly and put strong flavours on the table. A five-year-old who gets to sprinkle their own cheese or sugar on the pancakes gets a say. If you have a child under one, they need their own food, and there is more about that in preparedness with a baby and toddlers.