# BOB food...



## doc66 (Apr 13, 2009)

... and what I learned yesterday. 

So I decided that I needed fresh air and took the day to go to the local State Park and do some hiking. Since I had planned on being out for a while, I grabbed some of the MRE parts that I had in my BOB to rotate them. Now I had stripped them down out of the original packaging tossing the outer bag and cardboard and vacuum sealed them to make them more compact. With a day pack, two Nalgen bottles, a book and my favorite pipe, I headed out. After a beautiful mid-morning and into the afternoon of hiking and exploring, I sat down by the river to eat and discovered that in my repacking, I had not put utensils into the mix to eat with. I do have a spork in my BOB, but the BOB was in the truck a few miles away. 

I really didn't want to eat with my fingers. 

In the foods was a piece of the MRE bread. For those of you who have not had the MRE bread, it's edible, just. The best way to eat it is to break it up in small pieces and toss it in the meal to soak up the juices. But since I had no spoon, I decided to use the bread as my spoon. It was just stiff enough to do so, and as the end got soaked, I bit off the "wet" part and kept using it as the spoon. I could have done the same thing with a cracker, and done the same job. I also could have just squeezed the meal from the pack into my mouth, but damn it, I wanted a spoon. 

Also, the MRE heaters; they leak that little gray dust all over the inside of the bag. It still heats, but then it gets all over the outside of the package and you have to wipe off to avoid food contamination. I also remembered that the 15 minutes on the directions only heats up the bottom half of the food. I ended up squeezing the bags contents to mix it up and then putting it back in the bag for another 10 minutes or so. 

MRE's last a long time. This was an Escalloped Potatoes and Ham from a while ago, the bag was green, not brown, but it tasted fine and I've suffer no ill effects. The only real problem I've had recently with my rotating stock was a package of cheddar cheese spread that went bad. I noticed it right away and tossed it before I took a bite. Oh, and one of my chocolate covered brownies had a really chemical taste to it and I didn't finish it either. But for the most part, my rotating of BOB stock has gone well. 

I don't think I'll replace with MRE's again, maybe, I've been experimenting with some off the shelf dried foods to lighten the load, but the really nice thing about the MRE is the self contained heater and that you don't have to have a fire or flame to heat water. 

As most of you know, the BOB is always an on going project and this time, I was able to use products on hand to make up for my lack of being prepared!


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## Canadian (Dec 14, 2008)

I've improvised chop sticks in the past. I'm not a fan of MRE's. Spoons are nice. Harder to improvise than chop sticks.


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## GatorDude (Apr 23, 2009)

Ah...so that's why people get that big honking Swiss Army knife with a built in spork!


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## xj35s (Oct 29, 2008)

no pocket knife? I would have done a quicky whiddled spoon. A little stone for polishing and eat.


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## doc66 (Apr 13, 2009)

I thought all those things as I sat there and watched the MRE heat up. I thought chop sticks, make a spoon and even using my keys. I finally decided to try the bread-as-spoon approach. I had my mini multi-tool with me and discovered that of all the things it had, it did not have a spoon either, or anything spoon-like. 

It was an oops that I am now correcting.


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## mtnmom (Sep 8, 2009)

IMO military MRE's are really great and will be amazing if you have nothing else to eat, but tastewise I am with you - there are better tasting things out there to eat.


There may come a time when we have nothing to add, and we have to grab the packs on the run and then the MREs will be like gold.

My husband took our three kids hiking and bushwhacking for a couple days this fall and they discovered the raspberry crumb desert that Mountain House makes is really great stuff.

They loved it.


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## doc66 (Apr 13, 2009)

I have eaten that as well... I didn't quite get it mixed up enough and had sweet spots in it, but over all really good to eat!


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## sailaway (Mar 12, 2009)

I just added some canned food to my 3 day BOB, Spaghetti, vienna sausages, baked beans and some canned fruit. These are all single portion size cans with peel off lids. The cans can also be heated right over open fire. Total weight added to my BOBwas about 3#s


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

They aren't very healthy but Dinty Moore makes chicken n dumplings and beef stew in a variety of can sizes and they're both REALLY good, IMO.


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## TreeMUPKennel (Jan 29, 2010)

*MRE's*

Had the same problem with some of my stock of MRE's. Like a hit and miss with them. I love the MRE's except a few nasty ones. The chicken and noodles is great. But I use MRE's every yr when I go hunting in the MTN, but the weight of the MRE for a week out there is crazy. So I changed it up and tried the Mountain house meals and there awesome and half the weigth. So I think I'll be rotating and replacen with MH meals.


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## booter (Jan 23, 2010)

*BOB food?*

I live in the Sierra Nevadas' only about an hour from Yosemite Natl. Park, all around where I live is some of the World's finest bouldering/climbing areas to be found. I hang out with & occasionally boulder with World Class Athlete climbers, these guys are burning through some very serious calories per hour, they need the highest caloric intake food items, per the size & weight, when everything they will ever need for that climb, they have to haul up with them. These guys will live for: hard-dry cheeses, hard-dry salami & pepperoni, peanut butter & honey, & high-glucose candy, they aren't concerned with watching their figures because they are burning up every bit of fat/calorie/& protein they consume. In extreme exertion your metabolism kicks into overdrive, this happens at a mental as well as physical level. In the scenario where you have to grab your BOB and run, you will be under stress trying to process the situation on the fly, & with the limits of your pack & space at a premium, you're going to need calories, and to HELL with your cholesterol count, you'll have other things to occupy your mind.


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