All You Can Feed On

Make Meal Planning Easy

One of the best investments in our future is to feed our kids right. The next best investment—feed yourself right. Understanding how eating choices affect health, quality of life and future is analogous to financial planners' simple view of investing—contribute now and you'll reap the benefits long term. 

Our "fast food" and hectic lifestyle supports eating on the go but they do not support health. A recent national magazine brought this point to heart. Americans are collectively more than 5 billion pounds overweight with nearly 70% of our population overweight or obese.

Eating for health does not mean driving up to a fast-food window, eating your brown bag meal within minutes, gulping it down while driving and talking on your cell phone, hoping you'll make it to the kids' game on time. Sound familiar? What it does mean is taking the time to plan, prepare, and savor the benefits of your knowledge and investment, and focus on food and the act of eating as a fundamental aspect of well-being. 

Planning healthy meals involves a few basic rules that everyone in the family should learn. Considerations should include the amount of time available for meal planning and preparation, family likes and dislikes, and choosing from a variety of foods to meet you and your family's nutritional needs.

The first step in providing healthy meals for you and your family is making the process simple and easy. The days of reading through cookbooks for fresh meal ideas or experimenting with new recipes are foreign to most of us—we are just too busy. The focus should be on the balance and variety of proper nutrients that will support our busy and stressful lifestyles and promote optimal health. This is where we can help!

You can choose from a number of healthy and delicious meal plans to suit your needs  Eat   like a pampered celebrity at surprisingly reasonable prices with heart healthy meals delivered weekly to your door!  

• Family Favorites. Each week our chefs create a delicious four entree menu complete with one to two side dishes and whole grain rolls to compliment the main course. Kid-tested and Mom Approved, each weekly menu is always delivered fresh and never frozen and ready in minutes. Who says there is no time to sit down to a great family dinner at home?

• Couples On The Go. You can make time for relaxed, gourmet dining at home every night of the week. Plus there is no extensive shopping for groceries that often gets thrown out after they spoil, (yuck) or piles of dirty dishes to clean up.

• Busy Singles. Sometimes there just isn't enough time to eat well at home. That's why we created this plan with you in mind. You can relax after a hard day and refuel your body with the finest and freshest meals available. Your busy singles plan keeps you well fed with minimal effort and time. You demand the best and we deliver it without wasting a minute of your precious time.

• Lunch and Dinner. Each week we prepare another guilt- free gourmet menu that features three hot lunch entrees, and two composed salads, plus five dinner entrees from our Busy Singles menu. Let our chef’s pamper you with affordable, heart-healthy, lunches and dinners during your busy work week and you’ll wonder how you managed before without us!

• Dinner Only. Perfect as a sampler or when you only need a few nights of pampering. Five individually packaged dinners consisting of a single serving of the five weekly entrees from the Couples on the Go menu are included in this package.

Meal planning doesn't have to be overwhelming and something foreign to us or our children. Learning and teaching our children the role food plays in our health, is one of the greatest contributions you can make in their investment for health.

Let Personal Chef To Go be your meal planner and investor in the health of your family!

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8 Great Reasons For Family Dinner Time

As a new Stepmom to a 5 year old, one of the things I believe in whole-heartedly is Family Dinner Time. We may not have the fanciest dinners each night, and at times, we wind up munching on plain 'ole pasta with marinara sauce plus a steamed vegetable. Setting the table can also be also a mish mosh of "you get the plates", "and hey, I need a cup", or "you with the face. how 'bout a fork", but, regardless of the meal or the structure of how the table comes together - WE come together.

In researching for this article, I was amazed to find that many families don’t eat dinner together – or any meal for that matter. Soccer practices, dance rehearsals, playdates, and other scheduling conflicts make family mealtime seem like a thing of the past. Suddenly, we're feeding our kids breakfast bars during the morning commute, sneaking 100-calorie packs at our desks, and grabbing dinner at the drive-thru window.

Despite the feeling that there's no time for such luxuries, 59% of families report eating dinner together at least five times a week -- an increase from only 47% in 1998, according to the Importance of Family Dinner IV, a report from the The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University revealed what a big difference family meals make in your children’s lives.

Supper can be a stress reliever

Believe it or not, if you have a demanding job, finding time to eat with your family may actually leave you feeling less stressed.

In 2008, researchers at Brigham Young University conducted a study of IBM workers and found that sitting down to a family meal helped working moms reduce the tension and strain from long hours at the office. (Interestingly, the effect wasn't as pronounced among dads.) Alas, the study didn't take into account the stress of rushing to get out of the office, picking up the kids, and getting a meal on the table.

It's the perfect setting for new foods

A family meal is the perfect opportunity for parents to expose children to different foods and expand their tastes.

In a 2003 study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, children were offered some pieces of sweet red pepper and asked to rate how much they liked it. Then, each day for the next eight school days, they were invited to eat as much of the pepper as they wanted. On the final day, the kids were again asked to rate how much they liked it.

By the end of the experiment, the children rated the pepper more highly and were eating more of it -- even more so than another group of children who were offered a reward for eating the pepper. These results suggest that a little more exposure and a little less "You can leave the table once you finish your broccoli!" will teach kids to enjoy new foods, even if they don't like them at first.

Kids might learn to love their veggies

A 2000 survey found that the 9- to 14-year-olds who ate dinner with their families most frequently ate more fruits and vegetables and less soda and fried foods. Their diets also had higher amounts of many key nutrients, like calcium, iron, and fiber.

Family dinners allow for both "discussions of nutrition [and] provision of healthful foods," says Matthew W. Gillman, M.D., the survey's lead researcher and the director of the Obesity Prevention Program at the Harvard Medical School.

Healthy meals mean healthy kids

Studies have shown that kids who eat with their families frequently are less likely to get depressed, consider suicide, and develop an eating disorder. They are also more likely to delay sex and to report that their parents are proud of them. When a child is feeling down or depressed, family dinner can act as an intervention.

This is especially true of eating disorders, says Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health, who has studied the impact of family meal patterns on adolescents. "If a child eats with his or her parents on a regular basis, problems will be identified earlier on," she says.

Family dinners help kids "just say no"

Eating family dinners at least five times a week drastically lowers a teen's chance of smoking, drinking, and using drugs. Teens who have fewer than three family dinners a week are 3.5 times more likely to have abused prescription drugs and to have used illegal drugs other than marijuana, three times more likely to have used marijuana, more than 2.5 times more likely to have smoked cigarettes, and 1.5 times more likely to have tried alcohol, according to the CASA report.

"While substance abuse can strike any family, regardless of ethnicity, affluence, age, or gender, the parental engagement fostered at the dinner table can be a simple, effective tool to help prevent [it]," says Elizabeth Planet, one of the report's researchers, and the center's vice president and director of special projects.

It’s not neccesarily the food that’s served during dinner but rather the conversation. Three in four teens reported that they talk about what’s going on in their lives during dinner. The teens interviewed agreed that when they talk to their parents about their daily events, they’re less likely to smoke, drink and use marijuana.

Better food, better report card

Of teens who eat with their family fewer than three times a week, 20% get C's or lower on their report cards, according to the CASA report. Only 9% of teens who eat frequently with their families do this poorly in school.

Family meals give children an opportunity to have conversations with adults, as well as to pick up on how adults are using words with each other, which may explain why family dinnertime is also thought to build a child's vocabulary.

Family Ties

Dinner is a family ritual that kids look forward to. It gives parents the opportunity to model good behavior and encourage their kids in their daily tasks. It also helps create strong bonds within in the family. Teens that frequently eat family dinners are almost three times as likely to say they have an excellent relationship with their mom and three times likelier to say they have an excellent relationship with their dad. One study also found that teen girls who eat family meals regularly had better body images.

Family Day

In 2001 CASA (The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse) created Family Day—A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children. It’s celebrated on the fourth Monday in September and serves as a reminder to the importance of family dinners.

Family Dinners On The Go

It's heartening to see that people are rediscovering the age-old joys of at home meals shared with family and friends, even amid busy lives and schedules. Go ahead and invite your family and friends over for dinner. From our wonderful Family Favorites selections,  to our delicious Dinner Only selections or our Couples On The Go of spectacular chef-prepared individual entrees, Personal Chef To Go will help you prepare a meal that will ignite all taste buds and make your family dinner time nourishing, relaxed and memorable in spite of your busy schedules. 

What about you? Do you insist on family meals times, or do the logistics of modern life just not allow it?

15 Things To Be Grateful For This Thanksgiving

It's that wonderful time of the year where we sit down, enjoy some turkey and take account for all the things we are thankful for is fast approaching. Let us help you start a thankful brainstorm with these 15 things to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. We know this list is not exhaustive, so let us know what else you are thankful for in the comments below!

 15 Food

Some have and overabundance of it, others barely have enough to live (sadly, some even die without any). So if you have some of it, guess what, you have something to be grateful for.

14 Water

You can live a while without food, but you can’t live for long without water.

13 Military

Most people don’t like war. Unfortunately, events happen that create wars. In these situations, our military protects our homelands and our interests. They lay down their lives for those who don’t even know them.

12 Nature

There are so many benefits we receive from nature such as oxygen; trees for construction materials, paper, and furniture; and medicine. This is by no means exhaustive, but you can start to see that we indeed need to be grateful for the natural world.

11 Mistakes

You read that right. We need to be grateful for our mistakes for they serve a huge purpose in our development. Phyllis Theroux put it this way “Mistakes are the usual bridge between inexperience and wisdom”.

10 Laughter

Not only does laughter make people happy, it also makes them healthier. In fact, if you need convincing as to the value of laughter, check out 25 Reasons To Laugh.

9 Love

Love can be a two edge sword. But to live without love, is really not living. It doesn’t have to be a romantic love. But that sacrificial devotion to someone else’s well being is something that we should all be grateful for.

8 Influences

These can be teachers, pastors, coaches, or anyone who cares about you enough to not be afraid to tell you the truth no matter how much it hurts.

7 Pets

Yes pets. Whether you own one or not, our civilization owes a huge debt to these amazing animals. Not only are they good for our immediate health, but arguably, our survival as a human race has been dependent on the domestication of dogs and cats.

6 Physique

All physiques are different and we do a disservice to ourselves when we compare them. So what if so-and-so has big muscles and you don’t? Life is not about muscles or lack thereof. So be grateful for your physique and learn to love yourself so that in turn, you may love others.

5 Work

It’s easy to complain about a boss or a work environment. But remember; there are some people who would love to have a job yet find themselves unable to enter the work force.

4 Friends

C.S. Lewis once said “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” It’s a sad and lonely life to live without friends.

3 Family

Some could argue this point. However, there are many people who wish they had a family, yet find themselves lacking one. If you are one of the fortunate ones who can claim to have a family; rejoice and be grateful.

2 Parents

Some are fortunate to have some great parent, others are not so fortunate. Regardless of your fortune, the fact remains that you are alive. If it wasn’t for your parent’s involvement, you wouldn’t be.

1 Yourself

There is no one else like you and this world would not be the same without you in it. So be grateful for yourself. Look in the mirror and be thankful that you are who you are. As I once heard someone say “If people knew who they truly were, they would not want to be anybody else”.

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Mindful Thanksgiving Eating

Mindful eating is a term that gets thrown around a lot. Sure, I know that I shouldn’t inhale my pizza at warp speed or plop myself in front of the TV with a bag of chips. But as the holidays (and the stress that comes with them) approach, my knowledge of mindful eating goes out the window. Three hours into stuffing my face with Thanksgiving dinner, I can barely button my pants.

So, in a conscious effort to cut back on the pumpkin pie, I’m reminding myself of the principles of mindful eating. No better time to appreciate my meal and savor the experience like Thanksgiving. The Center of Mindful Eating gives tips on how to make eating a positive and nourishing experience. Here’s how:

• Be aware of the positive and nurturing opportunities available through eating and preparing food.

 

• Choose to eat food that is both pleasing to you and nourishing to your body by using all your senses to explore, savor, and taste.

• Acknowledge your responses to food (likes, neutral, or dislikes) without judgment.

• Recognize physical hunger and satiety cues, and let them guide your decision to start (and stop) eating.

I’m glad to have the reminder of how to mindfully eat. Thanksgiving isn’t the only time I eat on auto-pilot–on more than one occasion have I realized I’ve eaten an entire bag of cookies without noticing I’m full. This Thanksgiving, I’m planning on slowing way down during the meal, so that I can enjoy the people around the table more than the mashed potatoes.

How are you spending your Thanksgiving holiday? Are you as nervous as I am for the free-for-all at the dinner table? What are your tips to keep from overeating?

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10 Steps To A Stress Free Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a little bit of  chaos. There are so many dishes, so many people, and so many cherished family traditions that must be upheld it would be pretty strange if the day didn’t have its fair share of drama. 

Personal Chef To Go takes the stress out of preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday. If you’ve ever had family, extended family, in-laws and close friends to your house for a Thanksgiving dinner, you know what it’s like to prepare a huge holiday meal. You spend days and days shopping and preparing so finding time to cook a healthy meal for your family at the end of a busy day is challenging at best. 

Let Personal Chef To Go Help 

For anyone that’s ever spent weeks preparing and shopping, cooking and seasoning, cleaning and scrubbing in the weeks before the Thanksgiving, our convenient food delivery service is just for you. All of our fresh meals are pre-cooked, ready for eating and delivered right to your door. Simply heat them in the microwave or oven, and enjoy a healthy, well-balanced, complete  meal in less than five minutes. 

Thanksgiving food is one of the best parts about Thanksgiving, but it is first and foremost about the people you love. Make sure your Thanksgiving to-do list includes an order of meals from any one or our menus for delivery by Nov 17th.

Perfect for last minute drop-ins, they take up very little space in the fridge and will stay fresh well past Thanksgiving.  Spend more time with your loved ones this Thanksgiving and less time out shopping, fighting crowds and with your kitchen. Forget greasy take-out this year, stay in with Personal Chef To Go! 

10 Step Thanksgiving Sanity Plan

1. Clear out your fridge. You’re going to be filling it up again pretty soon, so now is a good time to eat the best leftovers and toss the rest.
2. Start thawing your turkey: The safest place to do this is in the fridge—aren’t you glad you’ve already cleared it out?
3. Make your pie crusts. Roll them out and freeze them flat between sheets of parchment paper in resealable plastic bags until needed. They’ll defrost quickly.
4. Check your recipes. Make sure you have all the ingredients and equipment needed. Make a list of what you still need.
5. Go shopping. The crowds will be insane the day before Thanksgiving, so get as much as you possibly can now.
6. Stock up on wine, beer, and non-alcoholic drinks—and make sure you have plenty of ice.
7. Check your serving pieces. Do you have enough platters, bowls, and serving spoons and forks?
8. Do as much prep work as you can: Make salad dressings; chop onions and celery and store in resealable plastic bags in the fridge; top and tail green beans; make stock for gravy with purchased turkey wings.
9. Make the cranberry sauce. Hint: The recipe on the back of the bag is great. Just add a pinch of salt to bring out the cranberries’ full tangy flavor.  A splash of port isn’t too bad, either.
10. If you have guests who are bringing food, call them now and find out exactly what they’re bringing, whether they’ll need counter space and tools to finish prepping, and how much oven time their dish requires. You may need to make a few minor alterations to the menu at this point so you don’t have complete and total kitchen chaos right before the big meal.

 

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4 Foolproof Steps To Healthy Winter Nutrition

When winter days are cold, and you want to warm up fast, a bowl of cream soup or stew can
certainly be appealing. But there is no excuse to throw all your healthy eating habits out the window just because it's dark and cold outside!

Winter Nutrition Guide: 4 Foolproof Steps

1. Eat high-quality carbs
   Listen to your cravings - there is a reason for them! In the winter, with fewer sunny hours, your stored serotonin (the "feel-good" brain chemical) starts to decline. Your cravings for carbohydrate-loaded comfort foods are your body's cries for more serotonin. But be careful when choosing carbohydrates to boost serotonin! Opt for nutritious whole grains and choose high-quality carbs such as sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and squashes.
   
   
2. Love seasonal produce
   Winter produce may not be as exciting and colorful as summer berries, but there are still many healthy choices available. Work seasonal produce such as pomegranates, cranberries, citrus fruits, purple grapes, and orange root vegetables into your meals. You'll not only add color to your plate, you'll pack in some serious nutrition punch.
   
   
3. Consider Vitamin D supplements
   If you live in the northern hemisphere or wear sunscreen all the time, consider taking Vitamin D supplements. Numerous studies have shown that oral intake of 1000 IU Vitamin D can reduce the risk of colon, breast, and ovarian cancers by as much as 50 percent. Vitamin D can be found in fortified dairy products, fatty fish, and egg yolks. But reaching the recommended level through food alone is rather difficult. Therefore, the Canadian Cancer Society recommends that all adults take Vitamin D supplements every day during the fall and winter seasons. Be sure to speak to your doctor before starting any supplementation.
   
   
4. Nourish your cold
   Despite numerous claims you may have heard, no diet remedy or supplement has scientifically proved effective at preventing cold and flu. However, studies have shown that 1,000 mg of Vitamin C supplements may make your cold milder and shorten it by half a day. In addition, there's a promising perk for yogurt lovers! A German study found that probiotics (as found in yogurt with active culture) may shorten your cold episode by almost two days. So keep on eating those "friendly" bugs!

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Thanks And Gratitude

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” – Meister Eckhart

Many of us have daily practices and rituals to offer our thanks and gratitude whether it's two minutes or ten. We thank our friends and loved ones, for all they do for us. We thank strangers who’ve shown us little acts of kindness. We thank God, for the life he’s given us. We thank people around the world for the things they’ve done to make it a better place. We also try to thank ourselves, for things that we’ve done (it’s important to recognize your own accomplishments).

What do we at Personal Chef To Go we give thanks for? It varies every day. We thank all of you for support you give us; for the all the talk and good you say about Personal Chef To Go, for the constructive criticism you give us that has made our service to you better, for the time you give us by just reading this newsletter or visiting our blog when you have the chance and liking us on Facebook or re-tweeting on Twitter.

The thing is, simple acts of gratitude don’t cost you much but they can make a huge imapct on our lives.

Why should that be? Why should the simple act of thinking about who and what we're grateful for make such a big difference in our lives? Here are just a few reasons:

• Because it reminds you of the positive things in your life. It makes you happy about the people in your life, whether they’re loved ones or just a stranger you met who was kind to you in some ways.
• Because it turns bad things into good things. Having problems at work? Be grateful you have work. Be grateful you have challenges, and that life isn’t boring. Be grateful that you can learn from these challenges. Be thankful they make you a stronger person.
• Because it reminds you of what’s important. It’s hard to complain about the little things when you give thanks that your children are alive and healthy. It’s hard to get stressed out over paying bills when you are grateful there is a roof over your head.
• Because it reminds you to thank others. I’ll talk about this more below, but the simple act of saying “thank you” to someone can make a big difference in that person’s life. Calling them, emailing them, stopping by to say thank you … just taking that minute out of your life to tell them why you are grateful toward them is important to them. People like being appreciated for who they are and what they do. It costs you little, but makes someone else happy. And making someone else happy will make you happy.

 

Be Thankful 

Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don’t know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you’re tired and weary
Because it means you’ve made a difference.

It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.

GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.

~ Author Unknown ~

 

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More Time For Fun & Less Time In The Kitchen

It's Easy With Personal Chef To Go This Holiday Season!

 

Did you know you can spend more time with family and less time in the kitchen this holiday season with our chef-prepared, fresh, and never frozen, favorites that are sure to please everyone at your table?

 

Perfect for the Holidays, why not make it simple and easy with a gift card? To celebrate, Personal Chef To Go is offering you 20% off on your next gift card purchase when you spend a minimum of $50 from now until the New Year!  Choose from either an  E-card or a Mailed Gift Card, enter "Take20" at checkout and place your order now! 

 

Here's how it works: An average meal plan with shipping comes to about $140.00. Simply order a $50 or more Gift or E-card, enter "Take 20" at checkout, and we'll automatically deduct 20% from each $50 increment until December 31, 2012! The added value will be applied to the gift card AFTER the paid  gift or e-card order is received, and not at the time of checkout. We'll send a confirmation of the new gift card amount via email to you and your recipient once the order is received and processed.

 

Whether you're planning Holiday shopping trips or your festivities, let our chefs prepare your meals and relax knowing we are taking care of you.  Give the gift of delicious and healthy chef-prepared meals that will pamper and please anyone on your holiday gift list! Just click and go! It's that simple to enjoy your holidays to the fullest with Personal Chef To Go!

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‘Twas the night before THANKSGIVING...what's for dinner?

Thanksgiving is coming but don’t panic, we are here to help!

Personal Chef To Go is at your service to make your holiday season magnificent and memorable for your family and guests.

Release yourself from a little holiday stress the night before Thanksgiving, while treating your family, guests and yourself, to some delicious food from Personal Chef to Go!  So skip the pizza delivery on Wednesday, or a crowded restaurant, and enjoy some delicious and nutritious meals at home instead.

Look over our web site  and we will be pleased to discuss your needs and assist you in ordering the perfect meal plan for your holiday needs. Your order will be delivered fresh to your door the week of Thanksgiving. Enter code “Stress Free” at check out and save 10% !

Orders must be received by Monday, November 12^th, to ensure delivery Thanksgiving week.

 Ten Step Thanksgiving Sanity Plan 

1. Clear out your fridge. You’re going to be filling it up again, so now is a good time to eat the best leftovers and toss the rest.
2. Start thawing your turkey: The safest place to do this is in the fridge—aren’t you glad you’ve already cleared it out?
3. Make your pie crusts. Roll them out and freeze them flat between sheets of parchment paper in resalable plastic bags until needed. They’ll defrost quickly.
4. Check your recipes. Make sure you have all the ingredients and equipment needed. Make a list of what you still need.
5. Go shopping.  Get as much as you possibly can now.
6. Stock up on wine, beer, and non-alcoholic drinks—and make sure you have plenty of ice.
7. Check your serving pieces. Do you have enough platters, bowls, serving spoons and forks?
8. Do as much prep work as you can: Make salad dressings; chop onions, celery and store in resalable plastic bags in the fridge; top and tail green beans; make stock for gravy with turkey wings.
9. Make the cranberry sauce. Hint: The recipe on the back of the bag is great. Just add a pinch of salt to bring out the cranberries’ full tangy flavour.  A splash of port isn’t too bad, either.
10. have guests who are bringing food, call them now and find out exactly what they’re bringing, whether they’ll need counter space and tools to finish prepping, and how much oven time their dish requires.

Don’t fight the crowds on the night before your big event; treat your family, guests, and yourself, to one of our delicious, nutritious meals.

Download Our Thanksgiving Flyer (211.5K)

Food Safety in Hurricanes and Floods

When you lose power — whether it’s from flooding, high winds or another disaster — food safety can be an issue. The longer the power is out, the more likely your food is to spoil, but knowing how to protect your food and determine if it’s safe to eat will help minimize the risk of foodborne illness.Safety and sufficient rations should be your primary concern in a hurricane, flood or tornado but that doesn't mean you can't also eat well.

First off, here's what FEMA - the Federal Emergency Management Management Agency  - says people should have on hand, in addition to a manual can opener and one gallon of water per adult and per pet each day, with a three-day minimum supply:

Store at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food. Select foods that require no refrigeration, preparation or cooking and little or no water. If you must heat food, pack a can of sterno. Select food items that are compact and lightweight. Avoid foods that will make you thirsty. Choose salt-free crackers, whole grain cereals, and canned foods with high liquid content.

• Ready-to-eat canned meats, fruits and vegetables
• Canned juices, milk, soup (if powdered, store extra water)
• Staples–sugar, salt, pepper
• High energy foods–peanut butter, jelly, crackers, granola bars, trail mix
• Vitamins
• Foods for infants, elderly persons or persons with special dietary needs
• Comfort/stress foods–cookies, hard candy, sweetened cereals, lollipops, instant coffee, tea bags

Should your home happen to lose power for any length of time, as often happens in a hurricane, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) offers the following recommendations to determine if your food is safe and how to keep it as such:

• Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to maintain the cold temperature.
• The refrigerator will keep food safely cold for about 4 hours if it is unopened. A full freezer will hold the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) and the door remains closed.
• Discard refrigerated perishable food such as meat, poultry, fish, soft cheeses, milk, eggs, leftovers and deli items after 4 hours without power.
• Food may be safely refrozen if it still contains ice crystals or is at 40°F or below when checked with a food thermometer.
• Obtain dry or block ice to keep your refrigerator and freezer as cold as possible if the power is going to be out for a prolonged period of time. Fifty pounds of dry ice should hold an 18-cubic-foot full freezer for 2 days.
• If the power has been out for several days, check the temperature of the freezer with an appliance thermometer. If the appliance thermometer reads 40°F or below, the food is safe to refreeze.
• If a thermometer has not been kept in the freezer, check each package of food to determine its safety. If the food still contains ice crystals, the food is safe.
• Discard any food that is not in a waterproof container if there is any chance that it has come into contact with flood water. Discard wooden cutting boards, plastic utensils, baby bottle nipples and pacifiers.
• Thoroughly wash all metal pans, ceramic dishes and utensils that came in contact with flood water with hot soapy water and sanitize by boiling them in clean water or by immersing them for 15 minutes in a solution of 1 tablespoon of unscented, liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of drinking water.
• Undamaged, commercially prepared foods in all-metal cans and retort pouches (for example, flexible, shelf-stable juice or seafood pouches) can be saved.
• Use bottled water that has not been exposed to flood waters. If bottled water is not available, tap water can be boiled for safety.

The FSIS also emphasizes "When in doubt, throw it out." A taste-test is counterintuitive.

Keep your medicine safe

Got that? Now let's zest it up.

If you're at home and the power goes out, it's an excellent opportunity to race to the fridge and gobble up whatever pre-cooked meats and cheeses are at the ready. Transfer whatever you can't eat to the freezer to buy yourself a little more time, and make sure to have a cooler or two stocked with cold packs - whether you're at home or on the road.

Now is not the time to take chances, so make sure you've got a food thermometer on hand - as well as a way to disinfect it between uses. Visualize what you want from the fridge or freezer before you open the door. Things can get warmer, but you can't get that cold back.

Once the storm has safely passed and winds and rain have died down, now might be an excellent time to grill that meat that's just thawed out from your freezer. Visualize your usual process, from marinating and rubbing, to basting, flipping, carrying and prepping back in the kitchen - as well as all your hand and equipment washing - and make sure you've got enough soap and water for each of those instances, in addition to any you'd usually have on hand to quench flare-ups and fires.

Just batten down the hatches for the arrival of all the neighbors who may catch a whiff and come over with rumbling stomachs. If they ask what they can bring, tell them, "Your own plate, silverware, glass and napkin - and a promise you'll take them when you go."

Mayonnaise may adorn your sandwiches and tuna or chicken salads at the outset, and pre-sealed packets aren't a bad way to go, but after a few hours, mustard is a better safety bet. Avoid flavor fatigue by assembling a sampler pack of yellow, Dijon, deli, whole grain, flavored and honey mustards. Per the good folks at French's Mustard, "There are no ingredients in mustard that spoil. "Refrigerate After Opening" is not required for food safety–we only recommended you do so to maintain optimal product flavor."

Peanut butter is another excellent bet, but it too can get monotonous. Put a portion into a small bowl or plastic container and play around with spice mix-ins like cumin, cinnamon, hot sauce, paprika, Chinese five-spice or curry spices. It's dandy on bread, crackers (you did remember to stock up on crackers, right?) or raw vegetables; just don't make your blend too hot or salty if water and other beverages are still in short supply. If peanuts aren't your bag, pop a can of chickpeas, mash them up and gussy 'em up.

About those raw vegetables - you're not locked in to the ho-hum trinity of carrots, celery and cauliflower. Corn that's been cut off the cob is sweet, crisp and delicious raw. So is okra, zucchini and plenty other vegetables you might never think to chomp into without cooking. Plan ahead and wash them off now, so they're at the ready when you want to get your disaster snack on.

And booze. You probably shouldn't be drinking right now, but that might not stop you.

Red wine is an obvious choice, but if only white will do, stash your bottles in the fridge now before the power goes out. Should you anticipate things getting dire or dull, slip the inner plastic bag from your favorite boxed wine (Shhhh! It's okay!) Under normal circumstances, we would not suggest treating your wine in such a fashion, but this ain't the Loire Valley in stomping season. You haven't had running water in two days and a nice, cool glass of something that isn't bottled tap water might go down nicely.

Prepare lidded pitchers of cocktails now and put them in the fridge. Freeze small plastic, freezer-friendly lidded storage containers of water or ice cubes made of your favorite juice, mixed with fruit like strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. When it's time to serve, drop the container into the pitcher for dilution-free cooling, or let the juice cubes and fruit melt into the drink.

Last, but not at all least - make coffee NOW and chill or freeze it. Make coffee ice cubes if need be, and consider using melting ice cream or canned, condensed milk to sweeten or lighten your drink. Alternately, you can bone up on your cold brew technique. There's no reason you should have to face a storm's aftermath with a caffeine headache.

 

For more information, see:

 

• What Consumers Need to Know About Food and Water Safety During Hurricanes, Power Outages, and Floods (FDA)
• Key Tips for Power Outages (FDA)
• Hurricanes: Health and Safety (FDA) 
• Food Safety In an Emergency (FoodSafety.gov)
• Hurricane Preparedness (HHS)