Chocolate

Yup! I'm devoting an entire blog post to CHOCOLATE!

Why? Because it is serious survival food. Really!

True, we are talking about dark chocolate not a Mr. Goodbar. Dark chocolate is good for your heart. It is rich in phenols and flavonoids that help maintain blood pressure and keep your arteries healthy. Limit yourself to about half an ounce per day since it is high in calories. And look for at least 70% cacao content to get the highest percentage of antioxidants.

Most of you probably knew that. Chocolate lovers will grab on to any information that justifies their addiction. But there are other health benefits to chocolate you may not be aware of.

Believe it or not, dark chocolate may help fight diabetes. Those same phenols and flavonoids that protect your heart also improve insulin sensitivity. Again, the higher the concentration of cacao, the better the results. 

Dark chocolate may also ease diarrhea. Yup! It's those flavonoids. They work by binding to and inhibiting a protein that regulates fluid secretion in the small intestine.

Foods rich in antioxidants and polyphenols may also help treat and prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs). And dark chocolate is rich in antioxidants. So the next time you have a UTI, consider snacking on some dark chocolate.

Chocolate can also help fight stress and depression. It's a comfort food. Look for chocolate made with real cocoa butter. The cocoa butter is what contains the beneficial antioxidants. 

Did you know that dark chocolate can actually help fight tooth decay? I know...right? Chocolate? Doesn't that give you cavities? Well it appears that the tannins in chocolate help stop bacteria from sticking to your teeth and the phenols limit oral bacteria. Again, we are talking about DARK chocolate. Milk chocolate is much higher in sugar which can indeed lead to tooth decay. 

Oh, and guys...chocolate contains L-arginine, an amino acid that can be a natural sex-enhancer (aphrodisiac). (PSSST....Ladies. It works for you too!)

Still not ready to add chocolate to your emergency rations? How about this? It's one more thing you can use to barter. I know I'd happily trade a kid or two for some chocolate. (Just kidding.) But I would accept quality dark chocolate in exchange for other goods or services. So would many others. 

Chocolate doesn't have an exceptionally long shelf life. But storing it in airtight jars will help. What chocolate should you consider adding to your supplies? Here are my recommendations:

1. Baker's Premium Unsweetened Chocolate Baking Bar: This is pure unsweetened chocolate with absolutely no sugar. It's great for baking. Baker's Premium Semi Sweet Chocolate Baking Bar is also good for baking and cooking, but it is sweeter so some may find it good for snacking. 

2. Hershey's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Chips: These melt quickly so they are great for cooking. Plus a handful of chocolate chips can be a good quick snack. Mix them with some nuts and dried cranberries for a quick and easy healthy snack.

3. Hershey's Cocoa: One of my happiest memories is making real hot cocoa over the campfire on fishing trips with my uncle and grandpa. This is real cocoa powder that can be used for baking, cooking, beverages, smoothies and many other uses. It is so much better than that instant stuff... and because it's real, it has all the health bennies. 

4. PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter (With Chocolate): All the benefits of PB and chocolate in powdered form. Use it in baked goods and protein shakes. I have friends tell me they mix it with water and it makes a decent spread for PB sandwiches. I have not tried that. I'll stick to my Crazy Richard's Peanut Butter!

5. Navitas Organics Raw Cacao Nibs: Like sprinkles only healthier. Because you can never have too many sprinkles! These come plain 100% natural cacao or sweetened if you need a little sugar added. Either way, they are my go-to chocolate staple.

A Real Life Lesson

Let me share with you how quickly a series of small events can quickly cascade into an "OH S**T" event.

My last post talked about cascading events. Well, I forgot to mention that cascading events don't have to be monumental disasters. A series of small things, all coming together, can also be bad...really bad

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It started in February with "Arkansas Snowmageddon 2021". Between the massive snowstorm and the subzero temperatures, we didn't get out for a few days. -25 is COLD! I'm not going out in that if I don't have to. We lost heat. We lost internet. Thank goodness we didn't completely lose power. We weathered the storm pretty well and patted ourselves on the back for being so well prepared. 

Because we didn't go into town for groceries, the cupboards were looking a little bare by the time we made our first shopping trip. Here's where the first little blip happened. Ours weren't the only shelves bare. Trucks couldn't get through. Stores were already struggling to keep stocked due to the pandemic. Now it was worse. We couldn't get everything on our list. We bought what we could and didn't worry about it. All in all, the storm hadn't impacted us that much. We were pretty pleased. We'd get everything next trip.

Except we didn't. The stores were still out of stock themselves. A minor inconvenience though. I'd go to one of the other stores in town. Granted, prices were a bit higher there, but they always had what I needed if I was willing to pay for it. Again, we bought what we could and decided we would pay the higher prices next week if we had to.

Then the utility bills came in. We were a bit...I don't want to say worried...curious I guess is more the word...to see what they would be. We had let faucets drip to keep pipes from freezing and used the space heaters several times to keep rooms warm. We expected an increase in both the water and electric bills. So we were pleasantly surprised to find that although they did increase, it was not as much as we were expecting. Once again, we patted ourselves on the back for coming through so nicely. Granted, we were having trouble purchasing some of the groceries we wanted, but no big deal. We were good.

And then blip #2 occurred. We both got sick. We are still not sure if it was a reaction to the vaccine which we had both recently received. Or the actual flu. All we know is neither of us felt like making the drive into town to shop. And a week without the hubs going to work meant a week with no paycheck for him. It was now going on a month since I had last purchased our entire shopping list.

After about a week, we started feeling better. We were glad, grateful that all the irritations now seemed to be behind us and we could get back to normal.

And then blip #3 hit. We had been out running errands only to come home to find two completely unexpected things. Another big electric bill. And a note from the water company saying they suspected we had a leak. 

We had planned and budgeted for one larger electric bill, not two. And when the first water bill after the storm wasn't that bad, we figured we had managed to prevent pipes from freezing and bursting. Wrong...on both counts. 

While the electric bill was unexpected, our attention was more focused on the note from the water company. It had been a month since the storm. If the pipe had been leaking the entire time, we could be in for one heck of a bill. And that didn't even include the cost to repair the pipe. We quickly got to work looking for the leak inside the house and basement. 

Unfortunately, that just confirmed our worst fears. The leak was in an underground pipe. We would have to call a plumber.

Which brings us to blip #4. Despite the fact that it had been a month since the storm, every plumber we contacted was booked up solid. It would be at least a week, maybe two, before they could even send someone out to look for the leak.

This is a true story. We were out of some essential food and household items. The electric bills put a big dent in our budget. And we had a choice to make about the water. We could either turn the water off and do without for a week or two. Or we could just let it run and cause an even bigger blow to our budget. Any of these things on their own could have been a problem. Together...they could have been a BIG problem. 

Except....

We are prepared for emergencies. Empty grocery store shelves or unable to go to town for groceries? No problem. We simply dipped into our emergency supplies. We knew stores would eventually catch up and we would replenish when they did. And when we felt well enough to go into town, hopefully we could get everything we needed. (I get asked all the time. Why not just have groceries delivered? We live outside of town on a private dirt road. We like it there. It has lots of bennies. Unfortunately things like plowed roads during record storms, or pizza and grocery delivery are not among them. I'm grateful to get my mail on a somewhat regular basis.)

Lost paycheck? That's okay. We have multiple income streams. Maybe he wasn't going to work, but our home businesses kept the cash flowing. So instead of worrying about missing work, he could focus on his health.

Big unexpected bills and repairs? No big deal. We have an emergency fund just for things like this. We paid the bills, fixed the pipe, and are now putting money back into our emergency fund to replace what we spent.

No water? Annoying but not a crisis. We filled our emergency water jugs and then turned the water off. We turned it on for a couple of hours twice a day for showers and bathrooms. The rest of the time we used our bottled water and emergency water jugs. This did cause our water bill to be bigger than if we had turned it off completely, but we decided being able to keep clean was more important to us than extra money on the bill. Could we have gone completely without turning it back on? Yes. We had enough water on hand for both of us for more than 2 weeks. 

This is why I have jumped on the prepper blog bandwagon. When most people think of prepping, they think of doomsday scenarios. The Zombie Apocalypse. Major natural disasters. But few stop to think how just one blip to your everyday routine can have huge repercussions. None of the events of these last few months were catastrophes. But any one of them by themselves could have had a serious impact on our lives. Together, they could have caused major problems for months to come. 

No food and no water impacts your health which can cause unexpected medical bills. Big unexpected bills and repairs can take money from other things. No paycheck makes it that much harder to meet those obligations. It could have been bad...really bad. 

But because we were ready, all it did to us was cause some annoying inconveniences and give me a story to tell.

P.S. The water jug in the picture is the one I use. If you want to know more about it, it's available on Amazon. Here's the link.