10 family-friendly meals you can make when you lose power

An easy hack for making chicken salad is to use pre-cooked chicken from the grocery store. Rotisserie chicken can be carved up and easily made into chicken salad, or you could use canned chicken.

If the power has just gone out, it's fine to go ahead and use the mayonnaise in your fridge. However, mayonnaise should be kept refrigerated, as should any salads that include it.

If you need to skip the mayonnaise or want to avoid opening the fridge, try using an avocado, instead.

Simply season the canned chicken meat in a bowl with paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper, or add some heat with a splash of Buffalo sauce.

Then, add the chicken to fresh tortillas and top with homemade guacamole and a splash of lime juice.

When you're looking for something filling that's going to feed a whole family, look no further than the deli aisle.

A rotisserie chicken (or two) and sides like store-bought potato salad or pasta salad can make for a hearty meal.

Since the only dressings you'll need are olive oil and balsamic vinegar, you won't need to reach into the fridge for this easy salad.

Simply drain and mix canned black beans, canned corn, and sliced red onion in a bowl. Then, toss it together with a drizzle of lime juice, avocado, fresh cilantro leaves, and seasonings like garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

Serve the salsa with tortilla chips or fill tortillas with it for a vegetarian dinner option.

From cured meats to cheeses and cornichons to olives, charcuterie boards are so fun to eat and make, you might forget about the power being out.

You'll be out of luck if you have an electric grill, but most charcoal or gas grills will still work in a power outage — just make sure you never grill inside an enclosed space.

Gas-stove burners typically use electricity to ignite, but it's also possible to light them manually using a match or lighter. Just take care and make sure the burner is on the lowest heat setting when attempting this.

If you're able to light a burner, the options for cooking in a power outage are almost endless.

If you don't have access to water during a power outage, you can still easily make pasta by filling a pot with water from the grocery store. After your pasta is done cooking, drain it and put it back in the pot with canned pasta sauce.

You can also set the pasta aside and fully cook frozen meatballs in the sauce before adding your pasta back in for an even heartier meal.

Frozen stir-fry kits and heat-and-serve proteins like Trader Joe's orange chicken are great for making an easy dinner without using the oven.

There are many recipes for shakshuka out there, but this simple yet traditional recipe from Lisa Bryan's blog Downshiftology calls for diced onion, red bell pepper, spices, a can of whole peeled tomatoes, and spices.

The eggs are the only ingredients in this shakshuka recipe that need to be refrigerated.

According to the FDA, store-bought eggs are best consumed up to three weeks after purchase and kept in the fridge. The USDA says that eggs can be left out of the fridge for up to two hours.