The No-Refrigerator Diet (Published 2013-12-16)
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Introduction
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Many Americans build their food supply around refrigeration. Unfortunately, refrigeration technology is still expensive. New refrigerators typically start at around $500 and cost around $5 per month per month to operate. Alternatively, used refrigerators for the 1980's and 1990's will have a lower opportunity cost associated with them but with an increased operating cost of $15 per month. Fortunately, these known costs as well as other hidden costs can be avoided by just deciding to not use refrigeration. So, in the rest of this article I will try to convince you that avoiding personal refrigeration is desirable, healthy, environmentally friendly, and fiscally responsible.
Philosophy
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* Refrigeration is unnecessary
* Refrigeration promotes waste.
* Refrigeration promotes dependency.
* Refrigeration promotes convenience foods.
Philosophy Explained
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The lower on the food chain that you eat the less you need to depend on refrigeration. Grains, legumes, herbs, and spices have a shelf life of years. Roots, apples, nuts, and raisins have a shelf life of months. Eggs, citrus, and bread have a shelf life of a few days. Thus if you base your diet around these foods you can store large amounts of food in your house at room temperature and not need to worry about it spoiling on you (as food spoilage is one of the hidden costs of refrigeration). Finally, since your Grains, legumes, nuts and fruits are stored at home while your frozen pizzas and ice cream are stored at the super market you are much more likely to cook some from-scratch soup and eat a hand full of trail mix instead of throwing a pizza in the oven and dishing out a bowl of ice cream.
Recipies
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* 'Muesli': Muesli is a great breakfast or snack food. I mix my own muesli and store it in a two-gallon glass jar. The ingredients are four pounds of rolled oats, one pound of ground flax seed, one pound of wheat bran, one pound of sunflower seeds, and one pound of raisins. To cook I simply mix the muesli with some water and then heat it in the microwave.
* 'Lentil-Barley Soup': Lentil-Barley soup makes for a very hearty meal. For storage I mix four pounds of lentils, four pounds of barley, two pounds of split peas, two pounds of chick peas, one pound of brown rice, and one pound of wild rice in a two-gallon glass jar. For cooking I typically put one cup of this mixture in a pressure cooker, add two and a quarter cups of water, one red potato, one onion, one sweet potato, one carrot, some mustard, and any spices that I have on hand. Then cook all this together on low for 13 minutes.
* 'Bean Chili': Bean chili also makes a very hearty meal. For storage I fill a two gallon glass jar with a variety of dried beans. Then for cooking I put one cup of mixed beans and three cups of water in the pressure cooker and cook for 30 minutes. Then I strain and rinse the beans and put them back in a pot. Then I add 10 ounces of tomato paste, one potato, one carrot, one onion, one sweet potato, some water until the consistency is correct, some chili powder, cumin, and crushed red pepper and then heat it up on the stove.
* 'Trail Mix': Trail mix makes a great snack. For storage I fill a two gallon glass jar with four pounds of peanuts, two pounds of almonds, two pounds of raisins, and one pound of unsweetened chocolate chips.
* 'Whey Protein': I typically drink a serving or two of whey protein every day. I figure its like milk but stores better and doesn't need refrigeration. Additionally, it is roughly equivalent in cost to milk on a per gram of protein basis.
Last Remarks
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Of course if I'm at the grocery store I have no qualms about picking up small portions of perishable foods and then eating them before they spoil. I'm also currently working on canning.
Original article at:
http://geo.gs/blog/no_refrigerator_diet.html
