# Homemade MRE's



## cazetofamo (Mar 18, 2012)

Does anyone have some pointers on making homemade mre's?? I appreciate all input.


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

I have made several batches of homemade MRE's and posted a thread about it back in January. My focus was longevity, taste and practicality (in that order). I found that I could buy freeze dried soup mixes for cheap then repackage/repurpose them as meals. I also discovered that you can get plastic utensils, wet wipes, salt, pepper, etc. for free at convenience stores, fast food places and food courts (although I did buy some too). Good luck.


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## twiggie (Jan 3, 2009)

I have made a few. I take a gallon size FoodSaver bag and add pretty much whatever seems like a good idea amounting to at least 2000 calories. I'll use pouches of tuna or tins of sardines or chicken, in some I have pizza crust mix for a quick bread others get freeze dried soup mix or instant potatoes, I have some of those folgers instant coffee pack or hot chocolate and kool aid. I took some plastic utensils wrapped in a couple paper towels then wrapped in a goodly amount of toilet paper. There's always some sort of sweet in them, a few lifesavers or some cookies, maybe a chocolate. I figure one of those bags will feed me for a day or if my family is with me we can split a bag for a single meal. It might get boring to eat the same sort of thing day in and out but with a few of those in my BOB I will at least have food covered for a few days.


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## Huntmaster (Dec 8, 2012)

Hey!! I just got a foodsaver and was thinking about this too! If you put pre-made food like cookies, etc. How long will the "mre" last?


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## kappydell (Nov 27, 2011)

I found some home-made MRE type meals in several recipe books designed for backpackers: "The Backpacker Gourmet" was excellent. One of my favorites was to pack some Minute Rice, bouillon powder, dehydrated veggies (from the bulk spice section, sold as 'soup veggies') along with a separate packet of seasonings mixed with cornstarch for thickening the sauce, once cooking was done. Yes, I know the Minute rice was of questionable nutritive value, but this is designed for fast rehydration with hot water, in a bug out bag. You can also dehydrate canned beans (rinse first) and mix them with plain old white rice for home-style beans & rice combos. The dehydrated beans re-hydrate in the 20 min rice takes to cook. Add a separate seasoning or sauce packet. 
Look for the SOS mix recipe collection from the University of Utah (on the internet) for lots of good 'instant' type foods from the same basic sauce mix. (SOS in this case stands for 'soup or sauce'). Home-made MREs from home-dehydrated foods will not last as long as the commercial kinds - most sources say about a year (a little longer in cooler storage). I just rotate the ones in my BOB with fresh ones every 6 months and eat the ones I remove. That both gives me practice in making them up, it also allows me to taste-test and tweak the seasonings. The new pouches of tuna mix very nicely with the instant rice blends...I really liked 'spanish rice with tuna' for example. Just pick instant rice (or noodle) mixes that require additives that also store well. Instant milk for fresh milk makes an acceptable MRE...but something that requires large additions of butter or margarine (for example) will require tweaking and substituting butter buds or powdered butter or margarine to substitute for them. The texture will be different when you use water instead of oil to reconstitute. (I did not mind the less-creamy texture, as long as the flavor was there.) There are many 'home-made' mix recipes available on the internet that go along way to making your home-made MREs more palatable...some gravy mix, for example, added to a rice, veggie and TVP blend makes them almost home-y. Also be sure to taste test any TVP you might think of using...some are passable, some are awful.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

This is best posted under the sales section NOT in a thread where a REAL answer is required.


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

> We are veterans, fathers, husbands, and sons


Where are all your women at? I won't buy from some sexist organization! 

I presume that rather than going about things the right way, these "guys" apparently decided to just spam a few threads. That will go over like a turd in a punch bowl.


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## cazetofamo (Mar 18, 2012)

Yea, isn't there some kind of a rule about that?


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

cazetofamo said:


> Yea, isn't there some kind of a rule about that?


Report the post to the mods.


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

Taken care of. Thanks folks.


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## swjohnsey (Jan 21, 2013)

The role played by MRE can be done much better by stuff you can buy in the grocery store. The military doesn't have to worry about price or weight. Two MREs will give you about 2,500 calories at 3 lbs weitht. You can easily get about 4,800 calories for the same 3 lbs in the grocer store. If you just eat peanut butter you can get 8,000 calories for the same 3 lbs.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*Call me wierd, but...*

I have never been in the military and have never eaten a "real" MRE. I think MRE means Meals Ready to Eat. I think of guys in the field opening up a package and with heating pouch, warming it up, then eating it.

I don't think of the ingredients to mix up a meal. I would call that a Meal Ready to Cook. Or, a meal mix. I have no problem with those, and have seen them done in jars and in bags, but everytime I read these called MRE's, I think it is mislabeled. I think the concept is great.

Call me weird. Is there a term that better fits this concept?


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## Onebigelf (Sep 17, 2011)

Don't forget about CousCous. Add boiling water to couscous in a ziplock, seal it and let it sit. In five minutes, presto. Makes for great emergency meals. Add some freeze-dried veggies to the couscous and store it in it's own vacuum pouch and it keeps long term beautifully. I like to cut up beef jerky into mine. It rehydrates with the veggies as the couscous cooks. Mmmmm, teriyaki....

John


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## cazetofamo (Mar 18, 2012)

weedygarden said:


> I have never been in the military and have never eaten a "real" MRE. I think MRE means Meals Ready to Eat. I think of guys in the field opening up a package and with heating pouch, warming it up, then eating it.
> 
> I don't think of the ingredients to mix up a meal. I would call that a Meal Ready to Cook. Or, a meal mix. I have no problem with those, and have seen them done in jars and in bags, but everytime I read these called MRE's, I think it is mislabeled. I think the concept is great.
> 
> Call me weird. Is there a term that better fits this concept?


I ate a lot of MREs my second grade year. Hurricane Rita came through and destroyed a lot of homes. The National Guard came in and gave everyone a ton of MREs and water, so i ate on those for a while.


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## Sparky_D (Jun 3, 2013)

I'm getting my ideas from this thread:

http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f36/readiness-meals-19812/

I like the term "readiness meals".


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Sparky_D said:


> I'm getting my ideas from this thread:
> 
> http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f36/readiness-meals-19812/
> 
> I like the term "readiness meals".


Thank you for linking this post. I was trying to find it again.


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