For Florida residents, a power outage is a regular fact of life. Between hurricanes and tropical storms, massive amounts of lightning and the age of some utility systems, Floridians rarely go through a year without losing power at least some of the time. Savvy residents do some form of preparation in case of electrical emergencies. Depending on how long the power is out, you may be fine with some bread and peanut butter, or you may need to use more elaborate methods. Planning ahead for all these circumstances is the only way to make sure your family (and, face it, your neighbors) gets a good meal during an extended power outage.
A Few Hours
If the power is out for an afternoon or half the day, food preparation isn’t going to be much of a problem. Most people can go on with their same meal plans for breakfast or lunch, switching from soup to sandwiches, if need be. Salads, fruit, bread, cheese, nut butters and jelly or honey, and tuna fish are all foods that you can quickly and easily fix without power in your kitchen. Keep the menu simple and use the cold perishable foods first, just in case you’re stuck during a prolonged period without power.
Extended Time
If the power outage lasts most of the day or longer, you’re going to have to start dealing with the cold and frozen food you have on hand. Almost every Floridian has some type of barbecue grill, so unless a storm is still raging outside it’s smart to cook up a good portion of the meat you have on hand. Cooking it will extend its life a little longer, giving you and the neighbors a chance to eat a feast instead of throwing out a lot of garbage. Fresh vegetables cook great in foil packets or on skewers, making that grill do double duty for both the meat and vegetable courses.
If the power is out and you don’t have a freezer full of food, you can still use a barbecue grill to cook basic stored supplies. Anything that cooks on top of the stove will cook on the grill. Fill a pot with soup and heat it on the grill, heat refried beans for vegetarian nachos, or make pasta and use the last of your fresh vegetables in a salad on the side.
The Smarter Way
Instead of worrying about food going bad in the refrigerator and feeding your family an all-barbecued diet for days on end, installing a home standby generator will solve all these problems before they even start. With a whole-home generator, you may not even know when the power goes out in the rest of the city. Your backup power supply will click on as soon as the electrical power goes out, so you’ll rarely suffer any loss of power.
Speak with your residential electrical contractor when you remodel or decide to install a whole-home generator. The size of your home and the amount of power you’ll need will determine the size of your future generator. Smaller units will power a few lights, your refrigerator, a microwave, and a few smaller appliances. If you want to go for complete coverage, larger units will run everything the power company does with virtually no change in your lifestyle. Your frozen food will stay frozen, refrigerated food will stay cold, and you can cook any meal you normally would without any compromises at all. Instead of having a virtual campout in your living room, you’ll enjoy your normal life when you have a home standby generator just waiting for a power emergency to kick in.
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