Good sopurce for MRE's?

Real Food A Real Good Idea
MRE’s are fine for their intended use, but make lousy camping grub. There has been some good advice here.

  1. Break 'em into their componets. They are surprising heavy and take up more room than you expect.
  2. Get the Texas Pete’s Hot Sauce if you want…but they come pre-packed with a small bottle of Tabasco brand.
  3. Get real food from the supermarket. Throw away its excess packaging. Read the instructions before buying. Some require butter, egg or other thing you may not want to pack. Some need only a little water. Buy a water filter if you don’t want to pack in a lot of water. Pick up some Gatorade powder while you’re at it.
  4. Cook something, freeze it in single-serving plastic freezer bags and use it instead of ice in your cooler. Works great for stew, chilli, mac & cheese, soups, spaghetti sauce with meatballs and chicken & gravey.
  5. Camp near restaurants.

What is wrong with me?
I like MREs. If I’m hauling them in my canoe, I don’t really care if they weigh a little more. The only thing I don’t like is the amount of trash I have to haul out. Thanks for the links.

LOL!
hadn’t heard that one yet!



MRE’s are tolerable in a pinch - but the best part IMHO is the chemical (just add water) heating system



a hot meal in 60 seconds on a cold rainy day is a good deal even if it is an MRE :slight_smile:

I suspect
I suspect it’s just another case of Bitc-ing on the cook, army rations. I’ve eaten MRE’s on canoe trips and find them a good, filling meal.



I used to carry one MRE with a heater pack on long trips for that inevitable evening when I’m too tired to cook.

Taste good to me!!!
I’m a pretty picky eater and most MREs taste just fine.Check with most people that have eaten them and don’t like them, they had them 25 yrs ago! I get them from a Natl. Grd. friend and have used the entree ( and some sides) during Adventure races. You know how good stuff is when you’re hungry!!!

Sportsman’s Stores
You don’t have any sports type stores like REI or any outdoor stores that sell stuff like Mountain House deydrated camping foods? They sell two packaging types. One where the air is sucked out and one where it’s not.



I like the potatoes w/cheddar & broccoli being mostly a vegetarian. The pasta primavera isn’t bad. My husband liked one of the chicken ones & chili mac. You can also bring spices to make them taste better.



Lipton does make the side dishes, but still requires 7 minutes or more of cooking and then you have to clean a pot.



I found dehydrated foods in some store I didn’t expect to find them in, maybe it was Walmart??? Also, just look around grocery stores for things that don’t need to be heated like Chicken of the Sea makes soft pack tuna and salmon steak in a honey bbq glaze that’s cooked. Hard cheese w/some crackers and an apple is good or just the cheese, again, light and high in calories.



A hiker’s friend, peanut butter. Doesn’t weight much, but has a lot of calories. There’s jerky. I bring hummus camping, heavy, but will stay okay in warm weather. Grocery stores do sell stuff like that where it’s dehydrated if you’re into beans.



If you are totally disgusted w/dehydrated foods and use them or need them a lot, you can always dehydrate your own food.



-Capri

Hurricane
I still have about 50 from that I picked up from places around Lake Charles. They were handing them out becaus hurricane Rita was supposed to hit pretty bad here.

Katrina Food
A friend of mine had a few he got from his folks that lived in Slidell, LA during Katrina. They had gotten their’s from the national guard during the evacuations and re-entries.

Boil in bag
There is all sorts of boil-in-bag meals in regular supermarkets these days.



Rice-a-roni, Zatarins, Indian and Asian stuff.



Hormel has some packaged meals like beef stroganof, brisket and taters, salisbury steak and such that are designed for the microwave, but can be boiled in the package.


If you gotta have them - -
www.sportsmansguide.com has them along with Mountain house and some other stuff.



MRE’s in my book go in a cookie/popcorn tin in the truck of the car in case of an emergency - - like stuck out in know where in a snow storm.



beyond that forgetaboutem.

2 schools of thought…
Well, it appears that there are definitely 2 schools of thought on the 'ole MRE’s…folks either love or hate them!



Thanks for everyone’s thought and suggestions.

People who love them
are very often people who’ve never had to eat them regularly, as in every day for a week or more at a time. And a word of advice if you do that: depending on which ones you eat, they can either become a “gift that keeps on giving” or no “gift” at all, if you know what I mean :).



I have a few in my truck for emergencies that I saved from Katrina. They left huge stacks of them in some of the Red Cross aid stations - the only people who seemed to want them were the construction workers and contractors who used them to feed their crews. They’re better now than they were circa 1980’s, but there are better alternatives available these days.