Testing A Vegan Emergency Kit
Print This Post
When I went out of town last month, I brought along my Vegan Emergency Kit. It served me well.
But what is this kit, you ask?
It’s a selection of easy-to-fix vegan foods, suitable for easy preparation, especially for microwaving. It includes seasonings, foods that need no refrigeration and don’t take much space (like brown rice), snack food for on the road (little applesauce cups, for example), seasoning packets (like for mushroom gravy), vegan broth cubes, and other odds and ends that can be used to turn out a vegan meal wherever I happen to be. My kit ingredients are kept in a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid. For inspiration, I also bring along Vegan A Go-Go, by Sarah Kramer. This cute little book is small enough to fit almost anywhere and can sometimes provide the inspiration I need.
And where was I that I needed this thing?
Well, Los Angeles. Yes, I could buy anything I wanted or needed there. But both my sister and I need to keep costs down and had little time to shop.
I was staying at a friend’s house with my sister. The house where we stayed has a kitchen but it isn’t fully functional, in part because it doesn’t contain basic cooking equipment. Therefore, it resembled in kind a motel room with a microwave and refrigerator.
We had a full schedule and didn’t have much time for lounging and creating fancy dishes, but at one point my sister invited four other people to join us for dinner so that they could meet one another casually. The day of the meal we took to the stores to see what we could put together with our limited supplies and time. And we did it.
We cut up fruit, made a green salad, offered bread from a local bakery, and I made a soup. I used my veggie broth cubes and brown rice along with the fresh vegetables we got at the Farmers’ market, and seasoned with the seasonings I brought along with me. The soup was a hit. I could have done it without my kit but it would have meant getting those extras (broth cubes, rice, seasonings) in quantities larger than we needed and in the end we might instead have opted for soup from a deli.
In the mornings I dug out my organic oatmeal packets and raw sugar (also in the kit), and when we were especially pressed for time I grabbed a McDougall’s soup cup and added hot water.
Even in a land of plenty like Los Angeles I had good reason to have my vegan emergency kit. Do you have yours? What else do you think would be a good addition?
An emergency kit for actual emergencies would include:
- 1st aid kit
- water
- dry beans and rice
- canned fruits and veggies
- vitamins
- clothes, jacket
- flashlight
- radio
- cell phone
But this kind of emergency kit isn’t for actual emergencies, it’s for traveling, right? That kind of kit would include things like:
- salt + pepper, spices
- condiments (mustard, vegan mayo, jelly, etc)
- lightweight + easy meals (oatmeal, TVP, camping foods)
- the vegan passport
- tea bags
It’s like a picnic basket that’s ready to provide or supplement a vegan meal in any situation. You’d keep this “kit” in the back of a car or in your backpack, right?
Yes, it’s for travel and the emergency happens when you can’t get anything to eat where you are. So you take up your handy kit and put something together. It will include full meals (like the Indian dishes, which are flat, easy to store, or the box mixes of red beans and rice) as well as the ingredients that can be used to make a dish with a minimum of other stuff.
And you hit on a few other items in my kit: tea bags, tvp.
Yes, the kit is in the back of the car. I think a smaller version could go into a suitcase.
I am also developing a small cache of food prep items that are not large – a one-burner stove, a microwave steamer, sharp knives, that sort of thing.
I frequently have to figure out something like this when I play chess tournaments and have no access to cooking devices (even microwaves) and am potentially unable to leave the tournament hall for 10+ hours in a row. I generally get a lot of fruit and some granola bars and nuts and sometimes bring along homemade cookies or other desserts. Sometimes I bring a lunchbox with an icepack so that I can get some veggie sushi or something similar that I can eat quickly for lunch.
YAY!
This is such a fantastic idea and I would have never ever thought of it!
I love your idea! When I travel for business I almost never have a microwave so I stock up on fruit, cereal, peanut butter, jelly, bread, and soymilk as my emergency kit; I pack it in my checked luggage, and, aside from a squished chocolate soya, it travels through really well. If I’m on a car trip (say to my aunt’s three hours away), I’ve brought EarthBalance.
Peanut butter and jelly…not a bad addition…
The only trouble I’ve had traveling with food has been when traveling out of the country and dealing with customs. Australia didn’t like the cookies and crackers I brought with me in case of non-veg options. That’s where some planning on Happycow.net can help you find veg-friendly eats.
Yes, Eccentric, foreign travel can raise other issues, including space. It can be tricky.
I would have the books: Peta College Cookbook (cuz all the recipes in it are fast, and uses a microwave or stove to cook ‘em), and Vegan Unplugged. In that book, it actually gives you a 5 day stockpile and the whole book is full of YUMMY, fast, one-pot recipes to cook using anything from a fire, to butane stove, or hotplate or even using your kitchen stove/oven, etc.
Soon, am about to gather my own 5 day vegan emergency food box. Also VERY useful for other reasons than natural disasters, etc. Great to take along on trips, camping out, visiting non-vegans, for times when you’re ill and don’t feel well enough to cook all-out complicated meals, or just lazy and in a hurry
Hope this info helps! 
Michelle
Great tips, Michelle! I need to restock. I have used my kit several times now and did not refill it. I had not heard of Vegan Unplugged but that sounds great and I’m going to get it. Thanks!