Meal Kit Supply - Another Use

Another good reason to have a few MREs around is in case you have to move. I actually do mean moving...like the entire family. We recently bought a new house, and had a few guys help with the move. Needless to say, after a long day of moving packing boxes out of one place and into another, it didn't take very long for the guys to get hungry. You should have heard the grief that I got when I suggested sampling a few MREs from Meal Kit Supply. Plus, the MREs are easy to find among the boxes. Can you spot them below?

Yeah, pretty easy. No need to stop and cook a meal. Just add water, find a spot to sit, and relax. Four of these pouches fed five hungry guys. Two of my friends had served in the military, and they were surprised at the freshness and quality of these MREs. The guys were impressed with the MREs, and I think I smashed a few misconceptions.

We tried Menu 1,2,7 and 8. The guys ended up sampling a little bit of everything except for those entrees/side dishes that were being carefully guarded. Some of the surprise hits were the Strawberry dairyshake and vegetable lasagna. Now, if the rumors hold true, and they perfect the MRE pizza, that would be an awesome feat. I'm happy to say that none of my friends left hungry or left!

The upside to MREs is that the clean up involves finding a trash bag. Now, how did we get that sleeper sofa through the doorway again?

Keep Right On Prepping - K

Meal Kit Supply MRE Review - Pouch 5

We tried pouch 5 from Meal Kit Supply during our ration heater experiment. I've provided a link, that opens in a new window, for the previous reviews that we have done in the past. Pouch 5 includes: Beef Ravioli, Potato Cheddar Soup, Chocolate Pudding, Crackers, Cheese Spread, and Lemon-Lime Electrolytes Drink.

Nutritional Information:

The complete nutritional information for every pouch, and the items in them, are available here.

Menu 5 includes: 19 oz (1.19 LB)

Beef Ravioli In Meat Sauce
Potato Cheddar Soup
Chocolate Pudding Dessert Powder
Cracker And Cheese Spread
Lemon-Lime Electrolyte Beverage Powder
Instant Coffee, Creamer, & Sugar
Condiments, Spoon, Moist Towelette, Napkin

The Beef Raviolis received the same comments as our earlier review. It was nice to see that the MRE entrees had the same level of consistency, and taste.

After our last review of the electrolyte drink, we decided to reduce the amount of water by an ounce. It did improve the taste and Row, our seven year old, exclaimed that it "tastes just like Gatorade!!!" Red Ant, our four year old, also enjoyed the drink which was kind of surprising. Of course, Mom and Dad would drink this after any long hike, or workout.

Our initial reaction to the unsalted crackers were that they were too bland. We quickly changed our minds with the addition of the cheese spread, and thought that it complimented the cheese spread very well. The cheese spread was noticeably creamier, and had a better cheese flavor than our previous reviews. The freshness from Meal Kit Supply made a huge difference, and the boys were trying to figure out how to stack more cheesy goodness on top of the crackers.  Sweetheart commented that the cheese spread was salty, so the lack of salt on the crackers was a non-issue. The boys also liked the cheese spread more than the crackers.

The potato cheddar soup was also a clear winner with the adults. You can read a more detailed review by clicking the link.

Probably the most anticipated item for us was the chocolate pudding. It was very easy to prepare. Just add the water, fold over the flap, and shake for 60 seconds. I was really surprised at the quality of the instant pudding and overall taste. The pudding would be a highly valued trading commodity in any campsite. My two boys would have licked the inside of the pouch...Okay, what the heck, we let them do it. I probably would have too!

Final Thoughts:

This pouch had a lot of highly rated entrees, and it wouldn't provide many trading opportunities for something else. This is the pouch for chocolate lovers. Hot cocoa and chocolate pudding, what could be better after a hard day of canoeing or backpacking? This pouch is a lot of food [1370 calories] for one person, and could easily be a meal and a snack.   

The favorite drink and food pick for each reviewer:

• Row (7 years old): Lemon-Lime Drink and Cheese Spread

• Red Ant (4 years old): Cocoa and Cheese Spread

• Sweetheart: Cocoa and Potato Soup w/ the Chocolate Pudding running a close second

• K: Lemon-lime Drink and Chocolate Pudding a tie between Oatmeal and Bread w/ jam

Stars:

Beef Ravioli With Meat Sauce  * * * (3)
Potato Cheese Soup * * * (3)
Cheese Spread And Crackers  * * * * (4)
Cocoa Drink * * * * (4)
Chocolate Pudding * * * * (4)
Lemon-Lime Electrolyte Beverage Powder * * * * (4)
Instant Coffee, Creamer, & Sugar * * (2) The boys didn't sample this one

Meal Kit Supply Ration Heater Review

One of Meal Kit Supply selling points is that the ration heater is 22 grams. In one of my earlier posts I said that "The water-activated flameless ration heater is not your standard heater either. It is a heavy duty 22 grams, instead of 11 grams, and will heat up your rations in the coldest of conditions." So, I set out to do an experiment because unlike most backpackers, my friends and I prefer to go outing in the worst of winter conditions.

The water, potato cheddar soup, and beef ravioli from menu 5 were placed in the refrigerator for two days to simulate a constant temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. This helps to control the experiment parameters for future testing.

  

This is the dry component of the ration heater. The outside of the packet is tea bag material, and the powder is finely ground to increase it's surface area, ergo to increase the speed of the chemical reaction to water.

 Notice that the ration heater is about the same size as the pouch, so that the heat is transferred more effeciently.

About an ounce of water was added to the ration heater, and the cold MRE pouches were placed around the heater package. I was surprised at how little water was needed for the heater. I did use a rubber band to hold the pouches closer to the heater, but the package recommends placing a weight on the top of it. I don't think it will make much of a difference. The heater package with the MREs were placed back into the refrigerator to simulate the cold environment. The bundle did its work for 10 minutes as recommended by the instructions.

After ten minutes in the refrigerator, the cheddar potato soup had reached 86 degrees Fahrenheit. 

The beef raviolis reached a temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit. I wasn't really impressed with the result. Perhaps the thicker consistency of the beef raviolis had made a noticeable difference?

I was curious to how hot the ration heater could get, and at 208 degrees, it is just a few degrees shy of the boiling point of water. The cold beef raviolis were wrapped back in the ration heater, rubber banded, and placed back into the refrigerator.

 

After another 10 minutes, the final MRE was brought out of the refrigerator and the reading was 90 degrees Fahrenheit.  The ration heater was slightly hotter than tepid, so I don't think that the beef raviolis were going to get any hotter.

Final Thoughts:

As my first go around with the ration heaters, I can see ways to improve upon my effectiveness with them. This experiment was about the raw data without any modifications to the heating routine. In cold weather environments, I would try to keep the pouches close to the body to warm them to above the air temperature. I also should have taken into account that the chemical reaction of the heater would also be slower, and I should have lengthened the time from the recommended 10 minutes to about 15 minutes. My thinking is that the instructions are for average conditions, and this wasn't your average condition.

The ration heater contains finely powdered iron and magnesium metals, and table salt according to my research, and the added 11 grams is very much needed in cold weather conditions!

In the outdoors, I would also try to maximize my heat retention by placing the ration heater in a extra jacket, clean socks, or other piece of clothing. That way it could insulate the heater from the elements, and hopefully transfer more heat to the MREs. 

Just like any other skill, the more practice at heating MREs with these, the hotter the final temperature can be achieved. The actual application or use is always superior to theories about such application or use.

MRE : The Price

I posted a full review of an MRE pouch from Meal Kit Supply company a few days ago, and Harry Flashman made a comment about value, and MREs. Here's the quote:

 "I'm conflicted about MRE. They are good, wholesome and easy to store. But they cost so much that I think of the food I could just buy at the grocery store with the same money. I compromise by keeping some, but not a huge number. I also make sure my kids have some in their apartment, where they have little space for storage."

I completely agree with Harry. MREs have their place in a prepper's pantry. The core of the debate really boils down to frugality, and the situation in which the MRE will be used. If you are looking for a year's supply of food, then MREs are a poor choice. A quiet day hike through your local nation park, and an MRE is probably not your most frugal choice either. I'd much rather pack a sandwich, chips, fruit, and a bottle of water for lunch.

On the other hand, I've been on a few canoeing trips when on the sixth day, an MRE for dinner was an excellent way to end the day. I've also cached a few MREs when I did week long hikes in the fall, and an MRE or two were nice changes to the menu. You don't have to worry about menu selection, and the food doesn't go bad because it got too hot.

We have a few reasons that we keep MREs at our house. Long term storage of meat for dinner can be problematic, and MREs can expand your menu choices. The brisket is excellent, and the dinner meal can be rounded out with canned vegetables, and Macaroni and cheese.

The desserts will be a welcomed comfort food, and are hard to bake on a camp stove.I have really been impressed with most of the dessert options of the MREs. While they cost almost as much as a cake mix, they are for long term storage, and already prepared. These have always gone over well on the extended backpacking trips, and are fairly lightweight to pack. I can almost guarantee that someone will ask you if you have another in your pack!
 
The portability of the MREs are excellent, as long as you aren't on foot. The MRE pouches, at a little over a pound each, are too heavy for an extended backpacking trip. Plus, there is a lot of packaging from a used MRE. Freeze dried foods are an option for the wealthy, and home dehydrated meals are the cheaper route. I could expand this into some of my backpacking menus, but I'll stay on topic.

For disaster situations and charity, the MRE reigns supreme. The MRE is self contained, except for the water needed for it, and requires no additional equipment to prepare.

In a SHTF scenario, MRE would be a good advantage for stealth. It requires no fire for preparation, and can be ready in ten minutes, or eaten cold. Our suburban plan, is to use MREs once the neighbors start  looking for food, and the exodus from the cities. We don't want to tip our hand about the food that we have stored by preparing it on the propane grill, or the white gas backpacking stove. We estimate that the likely gap will be about two weeks to a month depending on the season of the event.

The debate boils down to finding a proper balance between cost, use, and the situation.

My question is this: Why do you store MREs?

Keep Right On Prepping - K

Meal Kit Supply MRE Review - Pouch 6

This is a first in a series of full MRE pouch reviews from Meal Kit Supply. The time is quite considerable when doing these full reviews, so I'll be trying to complete at least one a month. If time and school allows, then I'll try to squeeze in an extra one here and there. The future also holds a "Meet the Reviewers' post and a new page for Meal Kit Supply reviews. You can also check out their Facebook page, and let them know that we sent you!

Nutritional Information:

The complete nutritional information for every pouch, and the items in them, are available here.

Menu 6 includes: 19 oz (1.19 LB)

Apple Maple Oatmeal
Brown Sugar Toaster Pastry
Wheat Snack Bread & Blackberry Jam
Maple Muffin Top
Orange Electrolyte Beverage Powder
Instant Coffee, Creamer, & Sugar
Condiments, Spoon, Moist Towelette, Napkin

After opening the pouch, the MREs are individually sealed to further protect the freshness and quality of the food. This allows you to save or trade certain dishes.

The water-activated flameless ration heater is not your standard heater either. It is a heavy duty 22 grams, instead of 11 grams, and will heat up your rations in the coldest of conditions.

The orange drink was mixed with the recommended amount of water, and I thought that it would have been better with a little less water.

• Row, the seven year old, likes Tang and thought that it tasted a lot like it.

• Red Ant with Spikes, the four year old, didn't care for the drink. 

• Sweetheart, my lovely wife, didn't really care for it, but she doesn't care for Tang either.

• I compared it to Orange Kool-aid after the ice had begun to melt. A little less water and it would have been much better.

The cocoa was a smash hit!

• Red Ant, the youngest, was the first to take a sip from the mug. After his first taste, he then proceeded to almost chug the hot cocoa. 

• Row liked the hot cocoa just as much, and we had to split the remaining cocoa between the two cups. I'm pretty sure that a family feud was about to start over the remaining cocoa.

• Sweetheart noted the good chocolate smell and liked it. 

• My only thoughts were "creamy chocolate goodness!"

The Toaster Pastry was actually a little bit of a shock. I hadn't planned on seeing a Pop-tart in the MRE. I imagine that it would be nice to see a familiar product during a stressful situation.

Surprisingly, the Pop-tart was in excellent shape and wasn't broken into pieces. The pouch and vacuum sealed package of the Pop-tart won my star, when the Pop-tart emerged in one piece. Through numerous backpacking trips, I have reduced many foods to crumbs before they made it to my plate.

• Sweetheart's comment was that "it tastes just like a Pop-tart!" 

• Red Ant said that "I like it, but not to eat it all." 

• While Row said this: "I gotta tell you. It's cinnamon and I like it!"

• I've never had this flavor and thought that it was very good.

• Row, the seven year old, hasn't had much of a history with oatmeal, but thought that it tasted like the apple pie that they had made in kindergarten.

• Red Ant with Spikes, the four year old, is new to oatmeal and didn't care for the cinnamon and apple variety. He doesn't like cinnamon either.

• Sweetheart was thoroughly impressed with the oatmeal. She thought that it was better than the Quaker brand, and "to me, that's not oatmeal. It tastes like a dessert!"

• I immediately noticed that almost half of the oatmeal was minced apples, about a 40/60 mix. The oatmeal was very comparable to an apple crisp. Needless to say, it was a pleasant surprise.

• Red Ant didn't like the Blackberry jam on the wheat bread. He actually prefers grape jelly, which would have probably been better for the review.
• Row didn't like it either, but he's not a jam person either.
• Sweetheart was impressed with the all natural ingredients in the jam, and noted that the taste was excellent.
• I thought that the blackberry jam was a nice compliment to the wheat bread. The bread has a heavy texture and the jam had a pleasant tartness to it. We opted to leave the butter off the bread since it wasn't in the MRE, and I really didn't miss it. The bread and jam would make for a decent light breakfast if you were in a hurry.

• Sweetheart really liked the maple muffin top the last time it was reviewed, but liked it even more this time. "It smells like a pancake, but had a fresher feel than the earlier sample we tried." The hint of maple was also pleasantly noted.
• Red Ant with Spikes thought that it smelled good, but didn't care for the taste.
• Row's spontaneous comment was that "it would be a good camping pancake...with syrup."
• On my first bite, the freshness was very noticeable compared to another company's maple muffin top that we had reviewed. The maple muffin top could have very well passed for a homemade one, if I hadn't taken it out of the package myself.

The last item that we opened was the condiment pack, and I had joked earlier that the only thing missing was a cup of coffee. Well, you can image my big grin when I saw the packet drop out of the wrapper. While the coffee is instant, it had a good taste and would leave me wanting for another cup of it.

Final Thoughts:

This is a lot of food for one person, and I could easily see this pouch being split between two people. If all of the MRE pouches have this much food, then I could eat just two pouches a day, and still be very happy. This MRE pouch is also self-contained and has everything you need except for the water, and the time to enjoy it. You can also leave the stove at home, because the ration heater is in the pouch too. It didn't really occur to me until writing this review, but this meal is vegetarian. If all vegetarian meals were this satisfying, then I could do more meatless days.The freshness factor was also noticeable, it does make a difference.

The favorite drink and food pick for each reviewer:

• Row: Cocoa and Pop-tart

• Red Ant: Cocoa and Pop-tart

• Sweetheart: Cocoa and oatmeal

• K: Cocoa and a tie between Oatmeal and Bread w/ jam

 

Stars:

Apple Maple Oatmeal * * * (3)
Brown Sugar Toaster Pastry * * * * (4)
Wheat Snack Bread & Blackberry Jam * * (2)
Maple Muffin Top * * * (3)
Orange Electrolyte Beverage Powder * * * (3)
Instant Coffee, Creamer, & Sugar * * (2) The boys didn't sample this one

Sponsor Unveiling: Meal Kit Supply - Delivery Review

I am happy to reveal that our new sponsor for my humble blog is Meal Kit Supply. They have generously provided our family with a full case of their premium MREs in which to do reviews. In exchange, we'll be doing full MRE reviews for our readers. I'll also be placing an ad space onto our blog so that anyone can quickly and easily click onto their website.

Our order was shipped late Saturday evening and it arrived at our house on Thursday evening in good shape.

The twenty-two pound package arrived well packaged with two bands around the box for added strength. The corrugated cardboard box could take a lot of abuse during the entire transportation cycle.

You'll also notice that each box is dated with a Julian Date Code on the bottom for easy food rotation. The first number, the one in the thousands place, corresponds to the last digit of the year that it was manufactured. So, the "3" means 2013. The remaining 3 digits correspond to the day of the year that it was manufactured. These were manufactured on Jan. 18, 2013.

This box of MREs, if stored at 70 degrees F, will have a shelf life until July 18, 2018. The shelf life can be extended beyond that date by lowering the storage temperature. The side of the MRE box gives you a chart based on shelf life versus storage temperatures. I would not recommend storage temperatures below freezing.

These MREs are fully self-contained meals that provide around 1300 calories per package. It is a generally accepted rule that people need at least 1200 calories per day to survive on a starvation diet. Theoretically, this case could feed our family of four for three days in a long term disaster scenario. While I hope to never test this theory, it is nice to know that this case can easily be tossed into the vehicle for an evacuation. The individual meals can also be taken out of the box and stored in small spaces like under the seats and other small areas typically neglected when packing.

I've also provided a link about the recommended daily caloric intake allowance from the USDA for those wanting more information.

These MREs are self contained meals that don't require any additional equipment, but you will need water for the flameless heater and drinks.

There is no wasted space in this box of 12 different meals.

Each MRE menu plan is packaged in a sealed pouch.

Each individual MRE is also date coded like the outside of the box. These were manufactured on Jan. 17, 2013.

The ingredients and nutritional information are also listed on the back of each MRE pouch.

Final Thoughts:

First and foremost, the cost for a case of 12 full MREs is $129.95. I know that it sounds steep, but I'll give you my thoughts. I regularly order MREs from various sources and they are usually about 2 years old when I receive them. I don't know the storage conditions that they were stored, so I really have no idea as to the shelf life that I can expect. Under ideal conditions, I've already lost two-fifths, or 40%, of their shelf life. With this company, I have an excellent idea as to the expected shelf life of my MREs rather than an uncertain two years of storage with another company.

Now for my mathematical breakdown: The entree ($2.75),side dish ($1.80), dessert ($1.50), bread ($1.25), spread ($.60), 2 drink mixes ($1.20), and heater ($1.10) have a combined retail of $10.20 on average. These prices are on the lower end to account for sales and bulk purchases.

Each MRE meal from Meal Kit Supply cost $10.83. So for an added 63 cents you get a prepackaged MRE in a waterproof container with an extra 40%, or two years of added shelf life. Upon closer examination of the pricing, and adding the freshness factor, the Meal Kit Supply is a bargain. But what about the shipping cost? It's already included in the price.

If the $129.95 is still too rich for you, they also have a six meal case that includes an entree, dessert, and drink for $39.95 (free shipping too!) and has around 600 calories per pouch.

Keep Right On Prepping - K