Looking for Info--Homemade "MRE" type meal mix recipes

[John in WI]

Hello Folks.
I've spent the past 5 years (post college years) climbing out of the financial hole the university caused. Got a mountain of stuff behind me, and now working on the future.
I have a decent stash of some very basic foods in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. White rice, some beans and lentils, a bunch of pasta. It's a start--but obviously I won't be able to live on a diet of white rice and plain pasta.

Can someone recommend a source of recipes for something resembling "MRE" meals? I'm talking simple, one pot backpacking food recipes, that would hold up to long term storage in mylar? I have some backpacking food cookbooks, but nobody seems to comment on how long they will hold up in storage. I would like to find a handful of basic, complete recipes that I could bag up, so that one pouch could do 2 meals for 2 people, something along those lines. I'm thinking something like an easy beef stew, chili mac and cheese, some kind of tuna and pasta dish...

I'm hoping this summer to get a much better handle on some long term storage food. As I mentioned, I have about 3 months worth of pasta, rice, and beans. But I'd feel good if I could lay back a couple months of easy 1-pot meals. Something that wouldn't require a ton of fuel to cook, that would provide a good healthy calorie/vitamin/protein source.

Thanks for any resources, or any first person info.

 

[M0del_31]

I can get by eating a lot of rice by adding pre-cooked canned chicken or beef to it. They both come packed with a lot of water but don’t pour it out. Add it to the rice for the salt/seasoning content. The wife can’t stand the smell of canned chicken but that’s because her parents talked her into thinking it smells like cat food. I don’t have cats so I wouldn’t know.

 

[Dani]

You might find this link helpful

https://www.backpackingchef.com/best-backpacking-recipes.html

 

[Proud Prepper]

Pirmacan , check spelling

 

[Mountain Dragon]

Pirmacan , check spelling

Pemmican, in german Pemmikan - old trapper reciepe as i know

 

[Oddcaliber]

You could just get the MRE's or individual items from them. Roughly around $100 per 12 meals in a case. Any decent MRE like food you can find at the supermarket is mostly Spam and tuna. Same package different label. Bon Appetit.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

I have a couple of of the dehydrated kits for a week in my fire evac trailer along with pots and a stove.
Inside the house are 4 crates to get loaded into the trailer if needed and not subject to temperature extremes, Small spice jars, canned goods, vacuumed sealed rice, etc.
I agree with @M0del_31, you can make up some great one pot meals with a cup of rice, a can of veggies, a can of meat, some spices.
I practice just to keep a rotation going.

 

[Dani]

You might find this link helpful

https://www.backpackingchef.com/best-backpacking-recipes.html

There is a lot to explore for this site. Some recipes call for canned items, but those can easily be replaced with either dehydrated or freeze dried items. The sidebar gives other options to explore and even includes your thermos meals. This is a site I have used for years making my own MREs.

 

[Survivor_316]

I like the tinned fish meals like Freshé, but that's not an MRE and they're fairly expensive. Mountain House has good backpacking meals, which are always good for throwing in a pack. If you like to make your own, they really don't last long in my experience. Unless you use all pre-cooked ingredients and then freeze dry, things take different cooking times and moisture levels. Any backpacking meals I made went bad after awhile in storage.

Sorry about hitting enter too early!

 

[lonewolf]

I just buy the commercial backpacking meal packs, have eaten them before and they sustained me over many of my 7 day hiking trips.

 

[rainingcatzanddogs]

MRE's are often pre-cooked. Recently, I have run across a couple of things that are available in the grocery store that fit into that category.
Barilla has packets of heat and eat pastas. Starkist has a pre made tuna fish salad. Uncle Bens has a variety of pre-cooked rice dishes and there are many more examples.

Start at your local grocery store and take some time to peruse the aisles and you will find them.

What I have done for the BOBs, is put all of the ingredients for a meal into a sealed mylar bag (no ox absorber needed)-So for example, a packet of pre cooked pasta, a can of chicken, small can of veggies (mustard, mayo, ketchup or other seasonings) throw them all together and they can be eaten cold or heated.

 

[John in WI]

Thanks for the thoughts. I found a lot of recipes for backpacking food using a dehydrator. I didn't realize that pre-cooked/dehydrated food can re-hydrate much faster than uncooked food. Beans, for example. That was my concern--in a limited energy situation, you don't want to have to simmer something for 2 hours. I found several Instapot recipes that I would like to try. I'm thinking I could do the vegetarian part of the meal at home (dehydrated vegetable producs, with an oxygen absorber, should last a very long time), and then suppliment it with commercially made freeze dried meat.
I'm just trying to think ahead. I have several mylar bags (in buckets, with O2 absorbers) of white rice, pasta, and various beans and lentils. It's a good start and a good suppliment, but living on a diet of plain white rice or pasta would get old quick. I'm just trying to find a lower-budget plan.

 

[Gray-man]

My wife and I can meat in our pressure cooker. Chicken, Beef (ground and chunks), Pork (ground and sausages), Deer. We wanted to have shelf stable meats that doesn’t require refrigeration to add to the pasta, rice, potatoes flakes and other carbohydrates we have in our long term food storage.

We have been canning meats and rotating the stock for several years now and have never experienced any issues. Had seasoned ground beef (added dry taco seasoning while heating it) from 2020 this week over tortilla chips, black olives, peppers, pinions, tomatoes and queso. Thick cilantro salsa on top of it all. Delicious.

When we find good sales on meats we buy it and can it. 80/20 Hamburger was 2.19 lb this week on a 24 hour sale at a local grocer, we bought 20 lbs. Canned 16 pints and made a big pot of cabbage soup with some. Froze the rest.

 

[DrHenley]

Been canning venison stew.
I did a test run a few years ago and let it n sit on the shelf to see how it would hold up. I've been inspecting the jars and the broth was crystal clear and the seals held, so I concluded the test by opening them and eating them. Pretty good actually.
So now I'm canning more. This is geared mainly towards balanced nutrition instead of taste, so I have beans, corn, carrots, whole new potatoes and Vidalia onions with totally lean venison. No oil or fat at all and only salted, no seasoning. I add fat or oil and seasoning when I eat it.
First go round I used quart and half pint jars because that's all I could find at the time. This batch is using pint jars which is just about right for one meal.