Just bought our first MREs -Meals Ready to Eat

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I actually love MRE’s. Grew up on them. My father is military, I’m prior service and my DH is military. We’ve got two cases of MRE’s in our garage. We’ve also got two big rubbermaid totes of bottled water, one can of formula (just in case we’ve got an infant at the time), ensure, pediasure, canned goods, and other pantry items. The other tote has camping gear and supplies to make life just tad more comfortable.

Add a bit of water to the cocoa packet, with the sugar and creamer from the accessories packet, crush a cracker into it and voila… you’ve got chocolate pudding.

The spaghetti always tasted like Chef Boyrdee stuff to me. And beef stew was my all time favorite before the hamslice came out. And I love the jalepeno cheese spread!!!
 
The jalapeno cheese spred is great!! We had MREs when we were assisting dh family that lost everything in Hurricane Rita. Dh teenage cousins, taught me how to warm them up and reccomended which ones tasted the best! The beef stew and chicken tetrazinni are pretty good.👍
 
I got them in the mail today!
I have to tel lyou! I feel better just for having them in my home!
$60 was well worth the peace of mind!
 
OK, I dont know how much MRE’s changed since “back in the day”
But the heating pouches have been known to explode and some have made bombs from them
 
KGM06 said:
OK, I dont know how much MRE’s changed since “back in the day”
But the heating pouches have been known to explode and some have made bombs from them
Click to expand...
:bigyikes: MRE = “Meals Really Explosive”?
 
The first digit on the “serial number” printed on the end flap of the MRE box is the date of manufacture.

Only a single digit. (It should be two digits.)

ANYWAY, last week I ate one (boneless chicken breast … sort of a McNugget … with barbecue sauce) with a “7” as the date.

So that would be either 1977 or 1987 or 1997.

It most likely was 1987.

And, I am pleased to report that I am still alive and here.

Tasted fine.
 
I don’t know why so many people are down on MRE’s most of them are fairly good for pre packaged food. I like the Thai chicken, the veggie manicotti and the beef stew is better than dinty moore, but not as good as AusTex. The jalapeno cheese is great and some of the deserts have a good flavor even if they are a little dry. I do have to admit though that the ones released in the last few years are much better than the ones that were made in the 80s and early 90s. I used to buy the older ones from army surplus when going backpacking. They were still better than the dehydrated food and lighter than canned food though.

Another good idea if you are worried about a potential disaster is to get iodine tablets. With these you can filter almost any water through a cheese cloth into a bottle and then put in the tablets and shake it up and let sit for 45 minutes or so to get potable water without boiling. The taste can take a little getting used to and you might have the runs for a day or two as your body adjusts but iodine tablets are good to have on hand in an emergency.

Or if you have a back up generator, you can get a small Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit (ROWPU), possibly for under $500 with supplies good for I think 2000 gallons. You can check for these on marine aquarium supply sites. Keep in mind that bottled water is only good for a year after that be cautious.

These are just a few ideas, there are many ways to go about preparing for a rainy day. But remember that water is more important than food. The body can go a couple weeks without food, but only a couple of days without water.
 
We always have plenty of dried beans, peas and rice in the pantry. Dried herbs and spices, dehydrated onions can be added for flavor. As long as there is water (and we do keep bottled water around) and fire, we can eat on those.
 
Holy smokes, has a new war started I haven’t heard about?

I never gave it a moments thought, but now that I have I realize that my camping gear has me sitting pretty.

No power? No problem. The Mr. Heater Buddy propane catalytic heater will keep one room in our house toasty for days in subsero outside temps (DynaGlo knockoffs now on Clearance at Home Depot for $35!). Wife like candles, and there’s an oil lamp around here somewhere too for light.

Food? Chest freezer is well insulated, so will keep food cold for days. Normal stock of pasta, tuna, cereal and basics are always handy and my trusty old Coleman white gas stove is always ready to fire up.

Water - Katadyn Hiker microfilter removes all bacteria from any water source. But first theres 40 perfectly good gallons sitting in my basement water heater.

Who needs MREs? We’ll just go camping!
 
I used to carry a few MREs, some bottled water, a blanket, extra clothes and a snow shovel in the winter months when I traveled by car up North. Now, in sunny Texas I just keep extra canned goods at home and rotate through eating and replacing them.

I think that anyone who does not have some emergency plans and supplies is taking a real chance, especially if they have children. It does not take a war for something really bad to happen in a community. I was in Missouri during the massive flooding back in 1993 which was my wake up call.

My family home was in the huge Oklahoma tornado disaster of 1999, so we found out just how things go in a real disaster. You cannot have an open flame until all gas lines are shut off to the area. You will want moist towelettes for hygiene for a bit until you are certain that you won’t need to drink the stored water. You cannot flush without water. You want to have some battery powered lights instead of only the propane lights that require a flame due to aforementioned gas line issue. You also want to have copies of your most important documents in a safe place like a fire proof box in your tornado shelter or whereever it is you will take shelter.

If you don’t have some moral aversion to guns, you will want to have one available to fend off the inevitable looters. (We had friends who had to fight off looters before the police and Nat’l Guard even had time to respond while the funnels were still rolling through!) As we saw with Katrina, we cannot always count on outside help getting somewhere in a reasonable amount of time.
 
We keep the not easily perishables in case of bad weather (ice storms in the winter).
 
I have not read all of the replies so sorry if this advice is a repeat.

My brother, who is in the Army, gave my dad a bunch of MRE to put in his trucks (dad is a farmer and has been stranded in the middle of nowhere a few times due to weather).

Anyway, brother said, when eating MRE’s insure that you drink PLENTY of fluids otherwise you will be constipated. So I would suggest you have plenty of H20 stored up also 😃
 
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