Vegetarian MREs
Well, these should make camping a little more interesting. Based on the descriptions they appear to be from menu year 2006. These are designed to provide 1250 kcal (Calories, as we know them) per meal and taste good enough that they don’t degrade morale. The last time I ate an MRE was in the mid-80s when my dad brought one back from either Panama or Honduras (wherever he was deployed at the time) and I ate a cold patty of what was essentially spam. I always really did like the dehydrated fruit, though.
I suspect these will be better, with the two menus as follows:
(Left) MENU NO. 14: VEGETABLE MANICOTTI
Vegetable Manicotti, Pound Cake, Wet Pack Fruit, Peanut Butter, Crackers, Cocoa (Hazelnut), Hot Sauce, Accessory Packet B, Spoon, Flameless Heater, Hot Beverage Bag
(Right) MENU NO. 12: VEGGIE BURGER WITH BBQ SAUCE
Veggie Burger w/BBQ Sauce, Dried Fruit, Chocolate Banana Muffin Top, Wheat Snack Bread (2), Potato Sticks, Beverage Base (CHO Fortified), Hot Sauce, Accessory Packet B, Spoon, Flameless Heater, Hot Beverage Bag
Of course, ACCESSORY PACK B contains:
Tea (Instant w/ Sweetener & Lemon Flavor), Salt, Chewing Gum, Matches, Toilet Tissue, Hand Cleaner
I don’t expect them to be good, but I think they’ll at least be decent. Unless I intend to eat about a gallon of soup, four Tasty Bite entrees, a pound of oat bran, and a pound of dried blueberries on top of these MREs I’ve way over-packed food wise for camping. That’s okay, at least there will be variety. It all fit within a pretty small box, anyway.
More info on MREs and other pre-packaged military rations from all around the world can be found here. By the way, it’s worthwhile for you to order a few cases of civilian MREs for survival food.
In a disaster situation two cases would safely feed you for two weeks, and the waterproof-ness ensures they will last through some pretty awful weather. The only down side is that, unlike the ones pictuerd above, the civilian ones don’t contain the heaters in the pouch.
Actually, the AmeriQual civilian MREs do have heaters – they just use a different style which is less reactive than the military ones.
Sorry, yes. I should have mentioned that about salt water activated bits…
From what I was reading here it’s possible to get Sopakco Sur-Pak meals with the water heaters. I presume they are just shipped by ground then. It’s too bad that they are one of the lowest calorie and highest cost bundles.
mmm. MREs take me back to wonderful backpacking adventures camping in the backcountry.
At the end of a day of hiking and exploring they may as well be gourmet.
I always over-pack the food when camping with the car on-site. It is nice to have variety, and as the days activity levels can vary, and the weather can surprise you, it is nice to have choices.
After all the hurricanes in South Florida in 04 my parents were given an MRE survival kit by one of the groups roaming around the neighborhoods without power. It had mostly dried fruit, stuff like that, but it DID have the chemically heated canned beans. We’re saving them for the next time a hurricane knocks out our power.
Just be careful, they do go bad… The cooler they are stored the longer they last, but I think at room temp they are only good for six or eight years.
Thanks, i’ll be sure to keep ’em in the fridge in that case. And transfer them to a cooler in the event of an outage, before we eat them.
Have a good time on your camping trip: I so envy people who can camp in places with real weather and topography., For all the ‘River of Grass’ shit the Everglades are really just a very large area of standing water with lots of horrible submerged things lurking about. In addition to the heat.
Hehe, thanks, but Michigan? There’s some nice places, and I guess it’s good for all around midwestern-type outdoors-y stuff, but it sure seems a bit dull at times. Maybe it’s just because I’ve lived here forever. ;)
Oh, and we’ve got 5-6 hours of driving ahead of us.
I guess I think of places up north as always being hill-y for some reason, if not mountainous.
Either way, enjoy!
I’m sorry, but the thought of eating that kind of stuff as a choice doesn’t appeal to me at all. Camping is all about junk food and as much beer that you can fit in the trunk.
Actually I once hiked Flat Top mountain in the rockys (around 12,000ft) with a 12 pack strapped to the top of my pack. There’s nothing like tying a rope to a 12 pack and cooling it in a mountain stream. Plus the bears don’t bother it. ;-)
I actually quite like the Veggie Burger w/BBQ Sauce. It’s something about the texture.
i lied
LOL.. these don’t look the least bit familiar to me.. :P