20 No-Cook Meals You Can Make To Feed Yourself Or Your Family After A Power Outage
Stay safe, stay fed.
If you've lost power after a storm or for any other reason, there are still ways to feed and nourish yourself. Below you'll find no-cook and low-cook recipes and meals you can put together with no electricity or minimal resources.
And if you have meals or recipes that you turn to in these situations, please share them in the comments!
1. Buffalo Chicken Wraps
If you've got Ranch packets (or a similar creamy dressing, like Caesar), mix them with hot sauce to a create a binder for buffalo chicken wraps.
Recipe: Buffalo Chicken Wraps
2. Almond Butter (or Peanut Butter) & Banana Toast
Toaster not actually required for this one — and any nut butter works as the base. You can toss other non-perishable staples (like honey or chia seeds) on top, or make it into a sandwich instead of open-faced.
3. Canned Chicken Salad
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As long as you've got a manual can opener (or pop-top lids), canned chicken or tuna can come in really handy. Here, you can use any shelf-stable condiment to create a binder for the chicken salad.
Recipe: Canned Chicken Salad
4. Easy Overnight Oats
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The absolute easiest way to make overnight oats is to mix rolled oats with water and let it sit out overnight. If you have access to a cooler or fridge, you can also use shelf-stable milk, and let it sit overnight in there.
Recipe: Easy Overnight Oats
5. Canned Corn & Black Beans
For a full meal, pile it into tortillas to make tacos — that also happen to be vegetarian and vegan.
Recipe: Canned Corn & Black Beans
6. Canned Tuna Wrap
Ditch the vegetables if you don't have them — it still works as a no-frills protein + carb option.
Recipe: Canned Tuna Wrap
7. Shortcut Nachos
As this smart blogger rightfully sums up: "room temperature nachos are still nachos." These use canned chicken and jarred salsa — though you can mix and match whatever you have.
Recipe: Shortcut Nachos
8. Mayo-Less White Bean Salad
White beans + canned tuna + lemon + olive oil.
Recipe: Cucumber & Black Bean Salad
9. Zucchini Noodles
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If you have a spiralizer in your kitchen, use it to make no-cook noodles out of whatever veggies you've got — like zucchini or squash. This recipe tops them with Parmesan, which can actually stay out at room temperature for awhile if you don't have a cooler.
Recipe: Zucchini Noodles
10. Hearty Kale Salad
Pair this salad with a sandwich or wrap of choice for a hearty and balanced option that'll keep you full for awhile.
Recipe: Hearty Kale Salad
11. Hummus, Avocado, and Tomato Sandwich
Boost your standard avocado toast with tomatoes, hummus — or both.
12. White Beans on Bread
After canned white beans soak in a marinade of olive oil and lemon, their flavor gets even better. Scoop onto bread or eat 'em solo.
Recipe: White Beans on Bread
13. Greek Tuna Salad
This Greek-inspired salad is a great way to use canned olives and canned tuna. Other shelf-stable items like capers, pickled peppers, or giardiniera would also work.
Recipe: Greek Tuna Salad
14. Blender Gazpacho
If you've got a battery blender, use it to make gazpacho. Despite typically being a summer soup, it still packs a ton of nutrition, is fairly quick to make, and it can be paired with just about anything.
Recipe: Blender Gazpacho
If you’re lucky enough to have some sort of heat source — like a gas stove or grill that you can still light manually, or even a backyard campfire set up — you can still cook during a power outage as long as your ingredients don’t have to be refrigerated. (Or as long as you've got a smaller stash in a cooler.) Here are some options for that:
15. Tomato Soup with White Beans
Just add heat: start with a box or can of plain tomato soup, then add white beans, greens, or sundried tomatoes.
Recipe: Tomato Soup with White Beans
16. Pantry Pasta
This would work with any pasta, not just gnocchi. And what's especially useful about this recipe is that it relies fully on canned non-perishables — like tomato sauce, capers, and olives — to make the base.
Recipe: Pantry Pasta
17. Upgraded Instant Ramen
Bulk up instant ramen by dropping in greens or an egg. A side of hot sauce or chili paste, as always, makes the whole thing even better.
Recipe: Upgraded Instant Ramen
18. Sausage and Potato Foil Packs
If you're able to have meat on hand, pre-cooked sausage is reliable bet. Pair it here with potatoes, and heat everything through on the grill.
Recipe: Sausage and Potato Foil Packs
This breaks down just $1.40 per serving — and most of the ingredients are canned.
20. Heat-And-Eat Stir Fry
Again, if you've got some sort of heat source, you can take advantage of fully-cooked meals that just need to be heated through. The combo above is a Trader Joe's-specific example, but you can mix and match any sort of grain + protein + veg.
Recipe: Heat & Eat Stir Fry