By Daisy Luther
Does your health require a diet that is low in sugar and carbohydrates but high in protein? If that’s the case, you may have found that building a low-carb prepper stockpile is pretty difficult. After all, “beans and rice” is the prepper standby. And those buckets of food? Forget it if you’re watching carbs. The meals are all based on rice, pasta, and potatoes.
So how do you create pantry full of freeze-dried food for a low-carb prepper?
Why people are eating lower carbohydrate diets
There are many health concerns that require a diet that is high in protein and low in carbohydrates. To name a few:
- Diabetes
- Arthritis
- Cardiovascular disease
- Metabolic Syndrome
- Obesity
- Colitis/Irritable bowel syndrome
The list goes on and on. Some folks simply feel better when they lower their starch and sugar intake.
Regardless of the reason that you’ve chosen a low-carb lifestyle, going off it abruptly could result in gastrointestinal distress, a recurrence of symptoms, bloating, sluggishness, and joint pain. An emergency would be the worst possible time to deal with that.
Here’s how to build your own low-carb prepper food supply.
At this point, there aren’t really any buckets of food that will meet your needs, so you’ll have to choose an “ala carte” style supply by ordering specific freeze dried foods. A diet of protein, vegetables, and fruit is ideal.
Protein:
- Beef
- Chicken
- Meat combo bucket
- Whole eggs
- Milk (This may be too high-carb for some diets)
Vegetables:
- Tomato Powder
- Broccoli
- Asparagus
- Green Beans
- Carrots (this may be too high carb for sensitive people)
- Chopped Onion
Fruits:
Some people on lower carb diets restrict fruits, while others consider them “good” carbs. Here are some freeze-dried fruit options.
What would a low-carb prepper menu look like?
Using the foods above to create meals during an emergency might look something like this:
Breakfast:
- Scrambled eggs
- Fruit salad
or
- Frittata made with eggs, broccoli, and onion
Lunch/Dinner meals:
Storing tasty spices and seasonings will be the key to making delicious meals.
- Chicken, pineapple, and broccoli stir-fry with Chinese seasonings
- Soup made with beef, tomato powder, green beans, carrots, and onion with Italian seasonings
- Beef and asparagus with savory seasonings
- Beef with marinara sauce (made from tomato powder and Italian seasonings) over a bed of your favorite veggies
- Chicken, carrots, and green beans in a creamy curry sauce made with milk powder
As we get new meats and veggies in, I’ll add ideas to the list. The key is to creatively mix the items you have access to in order to closely mirror the way you normally eat.
If the rest of your family eats carbs, potatoes, rice, and pasta can be added to the meals above to keep everyone well-nourished.
Do you have any other low carb meal ideas using the foods above?
Share them in the comments section. Also, what do you store for your low-carb preps?
Thank you Daisy. I’ve type 2 diabetes plus hypothyroidism. Both need low carb as well as low fat. I’ll go over you list and as I come up with additions, I’ll send them in.
Daisy, did you see this article?
“Climate Madness & Keeping Warm as the World Cools”
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/08/mark-sircus/climate-madness/
I was wondering what your take on it is. If this article rings true, and if we’re going to be getting colder with a mini ice age starting in 15 years, it might be wise to at least think about preparing for it… (imo).
I didn’t know how else to get this to you and hope you see it.
Thanks,
Dave
We have food allergies and intolerances as well as genetic predispositions to chronic illnesses so…
We keep freeze dried meats, cheeses, fruit, and veg that everyone will eat. We also keep cans of butter (red feather) and coconut oil for fats. Because we have little kiddos, we also have brown rice, quinoa, and wheat berries for healthy carbs. Bulk seasonings, spices, flavorings, sauces, and sweeteners round it all out.
It is quite difficult to keep a prepper food pantry with lots of food issues, but we enjoy cooking and baking so it works for us.
I have been using turnips, caulifower and radish to replace rice, noodles and potatoes. They can be riced, shredded, cubed, mashed etc. The turnips and radishes grow quickly, so I always have seeds on hand. The turnips make great spaghetti and lasagne noodles. I just boil them in water after spiralizing. They can also be dehydrated or freeze-dried for future use.
So the meats you have listed would it be better to can them or freeze dry. ? My mom use to can a lot of veg. soup cant remember if it had meat in it. The book I checked out at local library said freeze dried foods did not last long.??? very confused please help.!.
Hi Daisy, I have some questions.
How many individual bags of chicken and beef are included In the 158 Serving Freeze Dried Chicken, Beef and Entree Combo Bucket? The description says 32 pouches but doesn’t break it down. Also, what do the entree’s consist of? The pictures show a variety of things.
Are the eggs dried or freeze dried? The package says dried, the description says freeze dried. Same question for the onions.
Is the milk powder from whole milk, 2%, 1% or non-fat? Also, is it from rBGH free cows?
Great advice for those of us to try to be as carb free as possible. Thanks!
We’ve been eating lower carb this summer and I used our plentiful fresh zucchini to make lasagna. I used my mandolin to slice it thin and layer it in place of pasta.
Summer will be the easiest time to eat low carb simply because of the fresh veggies. We ate zucchini almost everyday. I made zucchini boats with all kinds of fillings and flavors – taco, Italian, mushrooms Swiss, buffalo chicken, sausage pizza and Asian.
My husband likes chicken, tuna and egg salad. I have stocked mayo but also have a couple recipes for homemade mayo. We also have chickens.
While I don’t really understand low-carb diets, something that is shown to help many people is to decrease sugar and increase ‘healthy’ fats, such as the fats found in butter, meat and milk. If you are interested, try preserving your own canned fat for flavouring and as a thickener.
As for additions to this list, nowadays you can get a whole myriad of low-carb products from health food stores. Just be careful of extra sugar (which is loaded with carbs).
Firm cheeses like cheddar, mozarella, etc. are totally freeezable (moist ones like cream cheese can be frozen but must be reblended or used in baking.) Yogurt can be frozen, as can eggs- just crack each one into an ice cibe tray slot (note: thaw and stir before use.)
I keep a 90-serving jar of “red” (fruits and berries) drink and another 90-serving jar of “green” (vegetables) drink. Only about 3 grams of sugar per tablespoon. Each tablespoon nutritionally equals 5 servings of fruit&berries or veg. It is way cheaper than trying to buy freezedried, and way less sugar than whole fruit. There are hundreds of brands of red and green drinks on amazon or check health food stores. I also keep protein powder. While powders wont meet caloric needs, they will cover nutritional needs, and are low/no sugar. Lastly I stock 3 healthy oils, coconut, avocado and olive.
I recently found that i have been diabetic for awhile. Now on a no sugar low carb diet. I feel great! Stocking food is a concern of mine. I have found that I feel well with a lot of ethnic foods. Indian food is tasty, uses a lot of beans and vegetables and chicken. I just don’t eat rice anymore. I love Indian spices. But there are other ethnic foods such as Thai, skip the rice, that are great provided there is no added sugar. Anyway, point being that beans are great to store as well as canned meat. Some people use a freezer and keeping a garden is a great idea.
Thank-you for this article Daisy. I would love to see more on this subject, as I am trying to get more ideas for meals and food storage. I am also interested in gardening as a food source , indoors and out. Would like to gather information on these subjects.
I have picky eaters. One won’t do condiments other than maple syrup on pancakes (really, no ketchup, mustard, mayo..ect) and most of the family is seriously physically unable to digest dairy, and the 2nd one thinks every meal should be meat and potatoes buried in gravy (or take out food), and the 3rd one is seriously addicted to sugary drinks and Monster, which she has to sneak because I don’t allow it, but will eat just about any vege I steam with a touch of butter and salt. I was raised with 2 options, eat what’s served or don’t eat. I will survive just fine, as my doc and me laugh about, I eat the food of the rabbit in the volume of the horse. 🙂 Everyone in the house eats meat. I need to come up with a “2 year pantry” list to start building up– and it has to be done on a seriously already stretched budget. Any help? Links would be good. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Hi, Deanna. I’m not sure if you’ve read my book, The Pantry Primer, but it may help. It’s all about healthful food (that your family will actually eat) on a budget. It’s based on a one-year supply, but there’s no reason you couldn’t just double the amounts. 🙂
Here’s a link. https://amzn.to/2K9TFOR
I follow your blog because of the name…Organic Prepper, however, the items you are promoting in blog post above are not organic. Do you have any organic sources for these items (for long term storage)?
Unfortunately, for long-term storage, no one (of whom I’m aware) has made these with organic foods. The top quality I can find is non-GMO, which I’ve presented here.
For those of us who want to remain strictly organic, the options are bulk organic grains and home-preserved fruits, veggies, and meats.
Thank you Daisy. That is the conclusion I had come to also, but I keep checking your site hoping someone has created these products. I love your site. Thank you for the time you put into providing us with such valuable information.
I have to stay LC for my health. LC means eggs and lettuce are a staple, but for prepping, pretty bad. You can buy powdered eggs and bacon bits, but you can also make LC hot cereal with half and half of flax seed and oat bran. Boil with water until desired texture and serve with cinnamon and cream, powdered, that is. You can even buy powdered butter. For lunch, soup, or some kind of canned meat salad- tuna, salmon, or chicken. Buy lots of canned chicken, also canned beef. Serve with canned vegetables, low carb, of course, for dinner. Stock up on LC dried soybeans, both black and yellow, and some TVP. For a treat, throw in cocoa.
I forgot to add cheese! Of course, powdered parmesan keeps nest, but boxed velveeta keeps a long time also, and any cheese wrapped in wax. Peanut butter, jarred or powdered, and nuts and seeds make great snacks.