Humanitarian Daily Ration MRE Case – 5 US FEMA Emergency rations MRE Varieties - Low Sodium Pre cooked w/Entree, Side Dishes for Hunting, Camping & More, 10 pack, Inspection Date 1/2024 or Better.

Before I opened my first package, I psyched myself up. "There has been a major disaster, I'm stuck here. Stores are all closed or empty. I'm extremely hungry, and I have this emergency food."The bag: Don't take this for granted! It's a very heavy duty, thick plastic, rubbery bag. It's water proof, and doesn't leak. It can be used to capture/store water, or melt snow. You can use it as a bucket. It would also be a very handy emergency toilet. Or just a trash bag. I bet there are dozens of other uses!The accessories: one book of matches, one spoon, and one napkin. If you're like me, you probably don't actually use napkins. But don't throw it away! It can be used as toilet paper, or to start a fire. The spoon is heavy duty with a very long handle. I was trying to think what else you could use it for. It could easily be sharpened against any rock or brick to make a pretty long shiv/knife... The matches are obvious. I would probably wrap them in one of the empty cookie bags, tightly, to keep them safe and dry.The meals: Well, okay, if I wasn't extremely hungry, I would definitely choose something else, maybe McDonald's. It's not exactly a gourmet meal. I opened Menu #1 with the Vegetable Barley Stew and the Lentil Stew. I tried eating them cold, and it wasn't terrible. Lots of flavor, especially after adding some of the crushed red pepper. Definitely tasted better heated up in my fancy microwave. It would be nice if they included heaters, but I understand, because these meals are intentionally cheap. No meat at all, that sucks if you're a carnivore like me.The snacks: Oatmeal cookie was tasty. The vegetarian crackers, there are two big crackers in the package. I didn't like them much, until I put the peanut butter and strawberry jam on them. Afterward, I thought it would be better to have one cracker per meal, and save the PB&J for the other cookies. The shortbread cookie was pretty good.The condiments: Simple stuff. You get salt and pepper, and crushed red pepper. You won't need to add the salt since there is plenty of sodium in the meals already. Unless you have been working and sweating all day, and then you will be very grateful for the extra salt. I'm not a big fan of crushed red pepper, but it definitely added flavor to the meals.Cost: What a great value for calories per dollar!! If you're a beginner prepper or a veteran prepper, you should definitely have several of these boxes (best case scenario, feed them to your annoying relatives or neighbors, while your family eats the good stuff).Complaints: "Menu #1" is stupid, doesn't tell you what's INSIDE. Also, no meat. That really sucks unless your a vegetarian (or you're starving. Then meat or no meat, they're delicious!!)

So I bought a case for emergencies. I cracked one open to try out everything, the lentil stew reminds me of bush beans before they did a recipe change. The crackers really need the salt or peanut butter or both. The shortbread cookie needs the strawberry jam to give it flavour and help it not be so dry. The toaster pastry I am suprised was an actual poptart branded frosting free poptart it was not bad at all, I assume they went with frosting free because the frosting is normally made out of gelatin drived from pork and it therefore is not vegan/vegetarian/kosher or halal. The best thing out of the lot was the fig bar.So armed with that knowledge I decided to crack them all open and use them as a base to make larger ration packs that include an actual breakfast (i.e oatmeal or a breakfast/protein drink mix), drink mixes (i.e tea/coffee, koolaid you get the idea), candy bar, some foil pouches of meat etc. This works for my family and to be fair the stuff is all eatable and at three bucks and five cents per ration pack it makes a great base if you want to add a few bits and make it as good or better then military MREs that are selling at some place around twenty buck for a single full MRE pack.Now if you expect variety don't buy these. Seriously out of 10 packs I got 10 lentil stews (which thank goodness I find them pretty tasty) along with 5 packs each of beans and rice in tomato sauce and pasta with tomatos in sauce. Thankfully 3 packs had 2 fig bars in place of the shortbread cookie (would be great if they could just get the military MRE pound cake to replace the shortbread cookie). I only got plain crackers no vegetable ones which sucks because I was intrested in seeing what those tasted like.So to sum it up somethings quite tasty some bland and or dry, great in case of emergencies and a great base if you want to make larger ration packs with stuff you find on sale or at discount stores that have a far off experation date. Again these are quite cheap when I bought them and therefore made a cheap but decent base to build larger ration packs with, these are really worth the price either way. But again do not buy these if you want variety, don't buy these if you expect a heat source like that of a MRE, dont buy these expecting meat in them either. There is a reason these are so much cheaper then military grade MREs.

Quick run-down: These are cold, calorie dense lentil and bean based vegetarian mush bags with a tolerable amount of spice for flavor. An absolute steal for situations where you can't get food and won't be picky.My family of five made an experiment of trying these out together. The 3 young kids under 5 would only eat one bite of the main courses, they were not fans. The meals are textured like lentils and taste like beans spiced enough to make it palatable. I tried all of the main courses and did not get sick, I have a hard time with onions, garlic, and spices, so that is important.The pop-tarts were squashed, had no frosting, and tasted like a plastic bag. I would recommend bringing your own pop-tarts to the apocalypse.The crackers are perfectly dry and bland, they go well with the strawberry jam. Unfortunately one of my kids is allergic to strawberries so we substituted grape for him.The shortbread cookie is good, a bit dry but somewhat sweet.The peanut butter is good - this is a no-brainer and hard to screw up.The fig newtons were goodThe jam is goodOverall, this is worth having a box to get your family through a few days after your fridge and pantry run out of food in a long disaster. MREs probably taste better, but are 3x as expensive.