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Curated Meals
Emergency food supplies worth having: the best tinned and shelf-stable foods, and how to make them taste good when the power is off.
By Slightly Anxious
1st July 2026 15 minute read
IN SHORT
Good hot food is vital for morale. Keep a store of quality tinned and shelf-stable meals and plenty of snacks: a few days of biscuits and chocolate will do you far less harm than low spirits.
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Food is probably one of the most important components of surviving a crisis situation. It directly affects your health and wellbeing. Ask anyone who has been in an emergency situation and they will tell you that good hot food is critically important, especially for morale. This is why, we at Slightly Anxious, are continuously focussed on developing the best meals you can possibly eat in a crisis scenario and by that, we mean with no refrigeration.
When we analyse all the different possible crises you could endure, the one common theme is that there is a good chance that you could lose access to food either through empty shelves and/or extortionate prices or through a lack of electricity to power your refrigerator. We also reckon that should this be the case, you probably only have a few days before the fresh food you have in the kitchen runs out and what you have in the fridge and freezer goes off. So what do you do then?
If you are super-prepared you would have a portable power station hooked up to your fridge freezer as soon as the mains electricity went out, but unless you’re dealing with one of the largest models available you will only be delaying the inevitable by less than a day. So your choices are limited to what food you have left in your pantry and what’s in your emergency stockpile and the best there is, is tinned.
Why tinned food deserves another look
At Slightly Anxious we appreciate that the concept of tinned food, for most people, comes with a foreboding sense of doom at the prospect of bland boring food, usually associated with the aged trying to eke out their pensions with their much diminished tastebuds. After considerable research, we found that most British people are right for thinking this because in general, British tinned food seems to stuck in the 1950s and apparently targeted at those without the ability to chew their food. It is a mixture of the recipe choices and the ingredients used.
Fortunately, this seems to be only the situation in the UK for whatever reasons, if you look at the range of tinned food available in Europe and the rest of the world , the quality and range of available meals and ingredients is superior to that found on our supermarket shelves, we would argue. Although tins of basic ingredients from the more expensive supermarkets can be very good if used in the right way and that is one of our main focusses.
But before that, we do need to make it resoundingly clear, if you are in an emergency situation you may very well have to eat food sourced from tins, packets and jars. It will never be as good as fresh ingredients. We’re sorry but that is just a fact of life and you will have to manage expectations. It is also why we recommend stocking alcohol, sweets, treats and snacks. We’re all about making the best of it for the few days of hardship ahead and the food we suggest is definitely some of the best you can get without needing a refrigerator.
Food planning at a glance
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Fresh food lasts only a few days once the fridge is off
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Eggs keep about 10 days out of the fridge: if one floats in water, throw it away
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Our recipe collection has over 100 meals built on tins and jars
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Store plenty of snacks and treats: morale matters
Our curated meals
We don’t supply you with food for your emergency store at Slightly Anxious. It's simply a question of economics. The commission we would earn from being an affiliate, as we are for the other goods we display, would be minimal for tinned food as the unit cost of them is so low. The alternative, to sell them directly also doesn’t add up as the cost of inventory, storage, picking and packing would mean for us to make a profit, we would have to increase the cost of the tins significantly. We want our customers to have the best value and we think the best value is in you sourcing your own tins from supermarkets and specialist stores, they will sell them at far cheaper prices than we can. What we can do is provide you with a curated meal service.
We think that one of the biggest problems with tinned food is that people don’t know what to cook with it. This is because they have probably never had to rely on making meals from tinned food before. This is why we offer a curated meal service. It’s a database of tinned food recipes. You are given the option of entering how many people you will be feeding and for how long. We recommend that you go for 7 days but you might want to try less or more. Then you are given a whole host of tin-based meal options for breakfast and lunch and dinner that come from around the world. You choose your meal plans or it can choose for you. Then it will provide you with the relevant recipes, a shopping list, how much it will cost and best options for buying from. Everything you ned to get properly prepared.
We also feel at Slightly Anxious, that just having good emergency food is not the whole story. We want this to be a chef designed meal that is part of an adventure, like a camping holiday just indoors where its warm and dry. We can supply you with cutlery, crockery and napkins, disposable of course as you don’t want to waste water on washing up. Candelabra and lanterns as safe places to use your candles and tea lights and some battery or wind-up powered devices that will play music to accompany you. If you’re going through an emergency situation, why not make the best of it and have fun meals. We also supply you with the camping stoves to cook it all on.
Favourites from our recipe collection
Our recipe database has over 100 meal ideas based on tinned food, but these are just the beginning and we will be adding to it continuously. So you can raise your spirits in the knowledge that your emergency mealtimes wont just be spam and corned beef, but these will undoubtedly be making an appearance as they are practically delicacies in some countries. Remember, even the most boring tinned foods can be elevated if treated right.
Very on-trend at the moment for foodies and perfect for emergency rations, is tinned fish. This is a very good example of the issue with British tinned food, British tinned fish (with some notable exceptions) is really not that appealing and tends to be found in the shopping baskets of those reminiscing about rationing. Try the tinned fish from Spain and Portugal and you are transported to another taste dimension. Let’s dive in:
Sardines with fusilli pasta in a pecorino, nduja and tomato sauce – this just needs a packet of fusilli pasta, a tin of decent sardines, a jar of nduja, a tin of tomato sauce and some packaged pecorino cheese. You boil the pasta in salted water and in a saucepan fry the nduja until it gains some colour, then add the tomato sauce and cook for a few more minutes, add the sardines and cook while breaking them up. Add some of the pasta water to the sauce, drain the pasta and add it to the sauce, mix vigorously and mix in grated pecorino cheese. Season to taste.
Smoked oysters, crackers and hot sauce – OK this is more of a snack or appetiser, but we guarantee this will blow you away. All you need are the ingredients in the title, take the smoked oysters out of their tin and place and crackers. Allow your dinner guests to add their desired amount of hot sauce (we prefer Louisiana style) and let yourself
Catalan fish stew – this needs sliced onions and garlic which we hope you will either have in the freezer already or have in the pantry, then you will need tinned carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and white beans with two tins of sardines or trout. You throw the onion, garlic, carrots and potatoes in a pan with oil and salt and cook for a few minutes, add some paprika, mixed herbs and season to taste and cook for a few minutes more. Then add wine or beer followed by the tomatoes, crush them up, and beans and let simmer for around 20 minutes. In a separate pan, decant the oil from the tinned fish and let it heat up, then be careful to add the fish without the fillets breaking. Fry until it gets crisp, a few minutes on each side. Ladle the vegetables into a bowl and place the fish on top. Enjoy!
Ideas from around Europe
One of the wonders of you will find with European tinned food is the high quality of main courses available in a tin or jar. Here are a few examples:
From France, they go very big on meat and vegetables in a stew, such as Cassoulet – jars and cans of Toulouse sausage or duck with haricot beans, Choucroute Garnie – cans of sauerkraut with smoked sausage and Lentilles a l’Auvergnate – lentils cooked in goose or pork fat, often with sausages. You also can’t go wrong with Confit de Canard – duck legs cooked in duck fat that just need warming up, pure luxury and good for morale.
The Spanish offer meat and vegetable stews as well with Fabada Asturiana, large, white 'fabada' beans from Northern Spain, flavoured with chorizo, ham and pimentón and Cocido Espanol, which is chickpeas with chorizo, just heat and serve. The Italians, produce pasta sauce in jars, which are a step above their equivalents in the UK. We recommend the brands of Masseria Mirogallo and Rustichella d'Abruzzo who make a variety of tomato based pasta sauces that are an easy way to achieve an almost restaurant-like quality. Take your pick from Ragù alla Bolognese, Sugo all'Amatriciana or Sugo all'Arrabbiata. Just heat and serve on pasta. We would say the pasta of your choice, but the Italians are very particular about which goes with which sauce. We recommend a quick google but we won't tell if you don’t.
Your emergency food storage should come with dry pasta and apart from mixing it with the pasta sauces, you could also try Spaghetti with Colatura & Pistachios – Colatura is an anchovy sauce based on the ancient garum, it is an umami powerhouse. Chop some shelled pistachios and quickly dry fry them. Boil unsalted water and cook the spaghetti- you don’t need salt because of the anchovy. Add olive oil to a frying pan and sauté sliced garlic, when golden add the pasta and some of its water. Cook until the sauce gets creamy. Add the pistachios and the Colatura. You will be amazed.
Germany can offer copious amounts more sauerkraut than the choucroute of France. It also has as a regional delicacy from Swabia, Soup Ravioli, which is ravioli parcels filled with pork and spices in a vegetable broth. Just heat in a pan of water. Then there are Knödelinos, which are mini Bavarian potato dumplings, or Schupfnudeln, a South German/Austrian potato and flour noodle which can be served with Weinsauerkraut, fermented white cabbage in wine and as the star of the dish, Sauerbraten, slices of cooked beef in a slightly sour sauce. Other meal options include Königsberger Klopse & Kartoffeln, pork meatballs with potatoes, served in a well‑seasoned caper sauce or Rinderrouladen, beef roulade stuffed with bacon, gherkins and onions in a dark gravy or Kohlroulade, rolled white cabbage with a pork and spices stuffing.
Ideas from Asia
Asia has always supplied the staple is a straitened times pantry with its enormous array of instant ramen, beloved by students everywhere. There is a very good reason for them being sold in their hundreds of billions, they’re cheap, they’re quick, they last forever and they come in such an array of flavours that you will hopefully like at least one of them. We have gone for a selection of flavours from brands that consistently get recommended by instant ramen aficionados (yes, they do exist): Sapporo Ichiban from Japan offer miso, shio, soya sauce and tonkotsu flavours, Samyang from South Korea brings the heat with its Buldak fire chicken range which is spicy or 2x spicy and can come in carbonara or cheese combinations. For a bit more traditional style, Nongshim from South Korea offers its famous Shin Ramyun Noodles which come in spicy or kimchi flavours and their truly outstanding Neoguri Spicy Seafood flavour. Worthy mentions go out to the fabulously expensive, due to it not being sold directly into the UK, Japan’s Ichiran Ramen in Tonkotsu or red broth and Korea’s Ottogi, whose Jin ramen spicy is considered an old school classic. Remember instant noodles can be jazzed up with the addition of extra ingredients like American processed cheese or an egg or even a spoonful of peanut butter.
Asia is obviously at the forefront of cooking technology and as if invented for crisis situations we are fortunate to bring you a range of self-heating meals. With these you don’t even need a heat source or a saucepan as these kits include a pack of chemicals that once water is added, they heat up and create steam that heats your food. It’s completely safe if handled correctly and still a very new technology in the UK. In Japan and China these kits have become an overnight success, especially for people on train journeys who can now experience hot food at their own convenience. These products are still too knew to have been thoroughly reviewed but the ones we have tasted have all been on a taste level similar to instant noodles just with a wider variety of flavours and textures. These packs can include meat, fish and vegetables as well as noodles or rice, dependent on the recipe, that come to life in the steam. We suggest the following brands: China’s Haidilo which offers self-heating hot pot in beef tomato, tomato, tom yum, golden sour vegetable or spicy beef or vegetable flavours. Hong Kong’s Xian Feng who offer pork noodle, braised beef rice, Taiwan braised pork rice, Kung Pao chicken rice and beef noodle flavours. South Korea’s Hai Le Kou brand offer self-heating spicy beef balls, hot and spicy hot pot, spicy hot pot, tomato hot pot and spicy potato vermicelli. We do suggest that our members include some antacid tablets if spicy food can cause issues.
Simple meals from tins and jars
Returning to food made in tins and jars, here are some more easy recipes:
Chicken and mushroom curry – so simple! A tin of mushrooms (or any other vegetable) and a tin of chicken. First sauté onions in a little oil, add curry powder, add the tins and a splash of water. Break it up and heat and serve.
Brazilian inspired stew – this has an interesting twist! add a can of black beans to a saucepan with sliced onion, garlic, tomato puree and paprika. Add a pint of water and crumble in a stock cube, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Add a tin of stewed steak and a tin of mandarins, simmer for a further 30 minutes. Add chilli flakes. Serve.
Black Bean Daal – not just for the vegetarians as this has become a firm favourite for many. Add sliced onions and garlic to a large pot and sauté. Add garam masala, curry powder, ground cinnamon and fennel seeds. Cook for a further 5 minutes. Add tins of black beans, lentils and chopped tomatoes. Cook for a further 5 minutes. Add chicken stock as if to a risotto, adding half first and bringing up to a boil, then simmer and then add bit by bit as the beans begin to dry out. After 45 minutes add coconut milk, stir well and season to taste. Serve.
Patatas Bravas – yes, this is a Spanish tapas and yes, it makes a great appetiser. First make your chilli oil by whisking oil, paprika and chili flakes. Then get a tin of potatoes, cut potatoes in half and put in a frying pan, add chilli oil. Gently cook for about 15 minutes. Season and serve.
Corned or not corned beef chilli – this recipe can use as it source of meat either a can of corned beef or a can of stewed steak, it’s up to you. First, in a saucepan, sauté in a little oil sliced onions and garlic. Then add chopped stewed beef or corned beef and cans of kidney and pinto beans, followed by a can of chopped tomatoes. Stir for a few minutes then add paprika, cumin, red wine and dark chocolate. Continue to stir and once it reaches boiling reduce heat and simmer for a short time. Season to taste and serve.
Tuna and White Bean Salad – beyond simple and perfect for the summer months. Mix tins of tuna and white beans. You can also add a jar of roasted pepper. Add olive oil, wine vinegar, onion powder and dried mixed herbs. Mix, season and serve.
Almost a full English – this is a British breakfast that doesn’t have mushrooms or sausages as they may not be fresh with the fridge off, but if they still look OK throw them in the frying pan and a few minutes later add bacon if you have it, it will last longer than mushrooms and sausages but not forever so make sure it’s not gone off. Eggs can survive for about 10 days out of the fridge but also be wary, put it in a glass of water and if it floats throw it away. What you can depend on is the tinned corned beef and canned potatoes that when chopped and sautéed with sliced onions become a lovely hash to accompany whatever breakfast components that have survived.
Meals from the store cupboard
Meal
Good for
Almost a full English
Breakfast
Tuna and white bean salad
Lunch, no cooking
Chicken and mushroom curry
Dinner
Black bean daal
Dinner, vegetarian
Corned beef chilli
Dinner
Patatas bravas
Tapas or a side
Spicy crab on thick-cut crisps
Snack
Snacks
For snacks to keep you going through the day, you can try these combinations with fancy thick cut crisps, we recommend basic flavours as these toppings will bring all you need:
Tuna niçoise loaded crisps – mix a tin of tuna that you’ve drained of its olive oil, with some capers and sliced cornichons, to which you’ve added a squeeze of mayo mixed with a little Dijon mustard, then apply liberally to your crisps.
Anchovy, roasted peppers & olive tapenade – empty a tin of anchovies, shred pieces of roasted peppers from a jar and scoop out some olive tapenade, mix well and add to a plate of crisps for a punchy Mediterranean flavour.
Spicy crab – mix a tin of white crab meat with some horseradish sauce and a sprinkling of capers and sliced cornichons. Make sure that the crab meat doesn’t get overwhelmed and you will find a perfect concert of flavours.
Spanish mix – take a tin of mussels in the sauce your choice, some olives, anchovies, Iberico ham and cubes of Manchego cheese and spread generously over your crips, preferably Spain’s Bonna a la Vista crisps, which we supply and are considered by some, mostly Spaniards, to be the best in the world.
We recommend that you store a wide range of snacks, some can be healthy, some definitely not. We believe that in the few days that you are suffering the indignity of a crisis situation, there is very little bad that you can do to yourself by what you eat and drink, obviously being sensible. The health implications will be nothing compared to the benefits to the morale of you and your loved ones enjoying good food and if that means you scoff biscuits and chocolate – you just enjoy being you!
Another service we provide when you become a member of Slightly Anxious is we will record when you print off your curated meal plans, recipes and shopping list and calculate the use by dates of the food you will be purchasing. This way, as we hope that you will not have suffered any emergencies, we will contact you a few weeks before the use by date so that you can either eat it or donate it to a food bank and you can resupply your stash in preparation again.
Your to do list is:
1. Decide how many days to plan for: we suggest 7
2. Choose meals your household will actually enjoy
3. Buy the tins, jars and dried staples, and note the use-by dates
4. Add snacks, treats and drinks
5. Store everything together and check dates every few months
6. Keep antacid tablets if you choose spicy instant noodles
The bottom line
We can’t sugar coat it, a crisis situation where you lose the power to keep your refrigerator going is really quite serious. This is going be a cause for concern for you and your loved ones. As a member of Slightly Anxious, you will have the peace of mind to know that you have an emergency store of food that will not only ensure that you won’t go hungry, but will in fact have enjoyable, delicious food that will make these dark days seem just like a family camping holiday with all the advantages of being indoors. We won’t go as far as saying that once the emergency is over and things go back to normal, you will miss your curated emergency meals, but we’re certain that you will think of the food and the memories of eating it rather fondly.
Remember, keep calm and visit us here.
