DYI MREs – Bug Out Bag Meals

Guest post by Bam Bam


I got a food saver yesterday and I have wasted no time putting it to use. The first project was to seal up 25 lbs. of NY Strip that I bought on sale.

The second project, the subject of this article, was to put together some shelf stable meals for our BOBs. The requirements were that the meals had to be nutritiously balanced and significantly cheaper than MREs. And I wanted the foods to be as close to our ordinary diet as possible so we don’t suffer digestive shock.

I got the inexpensive part down—the meals averaged out to about $3.33 per meal (for one person) with the dinners being slightly more expensive than breakfasts or lunches. The nutritious part still needs work. The inexpensive part was achieved largely by shopping at the dollar store and buying things from Publix BOGO.

For example, I purchased Monet crackers at the dollar store for less than half the price of our grocery store—same brand, same size, half price. To improve upon the nutritious part I plan on replacing the processed food with food from my garden that I dehydrate myself. This is going to be my next big step in meal planning—to take the meals in a jar idea to an all-new level.

(It is absolutely true that there is a learning curve to prepping. You start out by buying stuff that you will need. Then you refine your inventory and get into long-term food storage items. Then you actually learn to make/grow the stuff yourself and how to process it for long-term storage.)

I came up with some ideas that are worth sharing. The best breakfast idea I came up with is to put our regular cereal (Honey Bunches of Oats) into a food saver bag, and add dehydrated banana chips (another dollar store find) and two tablespoons of powdered milk. We can just add water to the bag, stir and eat right from the bag. (What I really want to do is learn to make my own granola from Mormon oatmeal, and then make my own trail mix and food saver that.)


Breakfast

The other important breakfast idea was to include Emergen-C Super Orange electrolyte replacement packets. You pour the packets into a cup of water and drink. I live in Florida and it is very easy to get dehydrated and loose electrolytes. I have also included salt and sugar packets in each meal. (This combo is known as “poor man’s Gatoraid.)

Lunch was more of a challenge. I opted to go with foil packs of premade tuna or chicken salad. (I got these on sale at Publix.) Then I placed individual servings of crackers in food saver bags and sealed them up. (Note: If you have a Food Saver you don’t have to buy the expensive pilot crackers for Emergency Essentials—you can buy cheap dollar store crackers and seal them up—no oxygen, no going stale.) The other lunch option was Top Ramen and canned chicken. I would like to get some freeze-dried veggies to add to the mix. (My dehydrator will be going full speed this year.)

For dinners I planned either Bear Creek chili with crackers or Korr Sides. The Korr sides are somewhat nutritious (they at least have green specks that resemble broccoli) but they take 15 minutes to cook. I am thinking that I can improve upon the Korr Sides by dehydrating my own veggies and adding minute rice and a bouillon cube. I have planned on supplementing the Korr Sides with canned chicken.

In the future, I would like to dehydrate my own chicken. I think this would give me more versatility. I have 80 lbs. of Zaycon Food boneless, skinless chicken breast (antibiotic free and hormone free) on the way (for $1.79 lb. – Whoot! Whoot!). I want to try my hand at cooking and dehydrating my own chicken.


Lunch

Each meal is individually vacuum sealed so as to save space. Each meal contains eating utensils, extra napkins, salt and pepper, a drink mix packet and an individually wrapped wet wipe. I have added to the calorie count of meals by adding granola bars, power bars and Cliff bars. The lunches and dinners also have desserts: cookies, candy, chocolate bars, and brownies. I have not included gum in any of the meal bags, as we have gum packed in our BOBs already.

In terms of calories, I have tried to make each meal at least 800 calories. If we do have to bug out (hopefully in the vehicles so we don’t have to carry all this food on our backs), we will likely be under considerable stress. Having plenty of food is a good idea. It is very likely that we will encounter good Christian folk who need help; so having a little extra will be a good thing.

These meals will be supplemented with boxes of water and we have Berkey Sport water filters. If we are traveling by vehicle, we will have cases of water.

A central problem with this meal plan is cooking planning or rather fuel planning. (If we can remain at home, our preferred option, cooking will not be an issue as we have a gas stove and a propane camping stove with extra propane tanks (and the converter necessary to run a camping stove from a large tank of propane). And we have a forest behind our house for long term cooking needs.) If we bug out, cooking will be an issue. I can warm water for the coffee, oatmeal and grits using a candle and a camp cup. I have some fire bricks for cooking that are supposed to last half an hour. But I have not tested these yet. Another possibility is the cat food container stove fueled by alcohol. If we are forced to bug out, I need to come up with a better way to cook the Korr Sides.

Do you all have any recommendations?

Below are the meal bags I have put together: breakfast, lunch and dinner for three days for the two of us. Since diversity is essential, I would love to hear your ideas. What food items do you have in your BOB? How do you plan to cook these items?

Since getting my hands on a food saver, I have come to an appreciation of a whole new level of prepping. Before I got the food saver, our BOBs contained mostly snack foods—peanuts, jerky, granola bars, etc. But I would not want to be around myself if I hadn’t eaten a meal in three days. I don’t think my family would want to be around me either. So my new focus will be on improving the nutrition of our BOB meals. It would be nice to reduce some of the weight as well. I would estimate that our meal bag weighs 25 lbs. I have some 5-gallon buckets that I am going to clean out. I will put our BOB meals in easy-to-carry buckets.

The next step in meal planning will be to pack meals for our dog and our four cats. I think we are going to need a separate BOB for our pets. That is on the “To Do List” for next week. Check list: canned cat food, dry cat food, dog food, dog cookies, and catnip to keep my cats totally stoned out of their minds. LOL

What do you think?

Breakfast

Day 1

  • Oatmeal (3 packets)
  • Granola Bar
  • Yogurt Bar
  • Coffee (Folgers Singles)
  • Sugar packets
  • Electrolyte replacement drink packet (Emergen-C)

Hard candy

Day 2

  • Grits (3 packets)
  • Granola Bar
  • Yogurt Bar
  • Coffee
  • Sugar packets
  • Electrolyte replacement drink packet
  • Hard candy

Day 3

  • Cereal (with banana chips and milk powder)
  • Granola Bar
  • Yogurt Bar
  • Coffee
  • Sugar packets
  • Electrolyte replacement drink packet
  • Hard candy

Lunch

Day 1

  • Tuna salad foil pack
  • Crackers
  • Chicken Noodle Soup (packet)
  • Power bar
  • Raspberry tea packet
  • Hard candy
  • Fun sized chocolate bars

Day 2

  • Chicken salad foil pack
  • Crackers
  • Chicken noodle soup (packet)
  • Power bar
  • Raspberry tea packet
  • Hard candy
  • Fun sized chocolate bars

Day 3

  • Tuna salad foil pack
  • Crackers
  • Top Ramen
  • Lemon aid packet
  • Freeze dried pineapple
  • Power bar
  • Hard candy
  • Fun sized chocolate bars

Dinner

Day 1

  • Korr Sides: Rice and Broccoli
  • Canned chicken
  • Crackers
  • Raspberry tea
  • Fun sized chocolate bars
  • Cookies

Day 2

  • Bear Creek Chili
  • Crackers
  • Beef jerky
  • Raspberry tea packet
  • Fun sized chocolate bars
  • Cookies

Day 3

  • Korr Sides: Noodles and Broccoli
  • Canned chicken
  • Crackers
  • Raspberry tea packet
  • Fun sized chocolate bars
  • Brownies

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via :  thesurvivalistblog


Save pagePDF pageEmail pagePrint page

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *