Making Your Homemade MRE.

I'm working on 24 hour ration packs for each of our family - Adult, Adult gluten-free, kidsize

Made up of stuff you can get at Coles.

Version 1 was two 200g chocolate blocks- 2200 calories in 400g (grin)

In all seriousness though the first edition of the non-Gluten Free adult one included a 220g half size tin of baked beans and one of those picked rice salads, and added up to 4000cal and 1500g, it's been modified down to about 3400cal and 1100g by taking the beans and pickled salad out. Has 40g fibre in it too - fruit puree and straps, vitawheats, breakky bikkies and a low sugar muesli bar. Taking out the beans meant less sodium too ... still has 7.7g sodium though! Pictures and full list will have to wait til I'm on my laptop tomorrow.

This is the Adult 24 hour ration that we put together - my 8yo helped. It was something interesting to do on the weekend. Weight is just over 1kg


Contents of ration pack:

Breakfast: Oats, 90g fruit puree, two breakfast bars
Lunch: 130g Vitawheats, 95g tuna, muesli bar, salami stick, 2x vegemite (9.6g each), 2xNutella (15g each)
Dinner: 85g Mi Goreng noodles, 125g creamed corn, 30g cup-a-soup mix, 125g chocolate pudding 
Snacks and Sundry: 30g Sesame Snaps, Dried Noodles, 50g Dark Chocolate, 2x5g Fruit Leather straps, protein bar (10g protein!), 2x Hot chocolate, 2x Hydralite, 1xTea, 40g Salted Cashews, Serviettes

It would make sense to swap out hot chocolate for coffee, personal preference. It would have been better to have smaller packs of hardtack - i didn't find what i was looking for, the vitawheats are a rough approximation. 
Taken out of the pack: 220g baked beans, 195g picked rice and fish salad, 50g beef jerky. Not needed for energy, but added about 800mg of salt each - and it already has more than 7700mg all up!! 

You can buy dehydrated beef mince for those packs. Lightweight, a bit pricey but they reconstitute in water quite well. Mrs made a nice casserole out of a pack last trip to the retreat.

I don't know if they are still around, but back in the 80's we used to buy these heavy duty, sealed foil trays (20cmX10cmX4cm approx) with quite decent curry in them. Had everything including chunky meat and veg. They had decent flavour and consistency, and we would heat them just by dropping them on the embers of a very small fire. Wish I could remember the brand.

A tin of campbells pea and ham soup concentrate goes a long way as a meal (for it weight) too. Great in winter but does require a container to cook in.

Does anyone have any other ideas for cheap, lasting but not too heavy BOB food? The ratpack above worked out to about $40 for 24 hours I think - Would it be possible to manage swaps to get it under $20 but still have it interesting, edible cold, and reasonably nutritious... ?

Budget tinned goods? Solves your 'add water' problems...but adds to your weight problem...seems small tinned goods no longer exist in the world of 'pay for 3 and get 2! While stocks last!' Lol...

This week Coles has packs of John West Tuna, Beans, etc for $2.00 Each pack is 220g. VERY tasty!
I agree with condensed milk - all Aus Rat Packs have them - great for a forced march.
Pkt instant noodles?
Cereal sections have Weetbix minis & berries - about $3.00. Light, nutricious & very tasty. Small pkt soft cheese & biscuits - 1 per pky. Home brand are pretty good. Small tin baked beans/ Also, I see Edgell sell 4 x mini tins of corn, 4 bean mix, black beans, and kidney beans. They would be handy to have for the veggie input, and cheap too when on special.
Also, 95g tins tuna & salmon, usually $1 ea when on special.

What kind of climate are you in? That would influence what kind of food you will need or prefer.
Yes... To me that makes a very big difference in what to have in the pack and what will be locally available to use.
XXX
Does anyone have any other ideas for cheap, lasting but not too heavy BOB food? The ratpack above worked out to about $40 for 24 hours I think - Would it be possible to manage swaps to get it under $20 but still have it interesting, edible cold, and reasonably nutritious... ?
Multiple issue thing here to me... First I'm not going to be using this pack for "on foot" use. So weight etc doesn't count to me. Yes.. I do want all the contents to be consumable out of the package. No cooking, heating required. I will keep a packet of something in an inside coat pocket until it is body temp before consumption. Never gave cost much of a thought. Partly because for instance, if a can of complete meal soup is on sale, but is hard to get down, not a good buy to my thinking. Your taste my vary.
XXX
Trying to copy, paste the picture in Twooldblueshoes post #301 above, but can't do it. I have made a number of day rations similar to take with a thermos of tea, 6 liter bottle of water, on the tractor to the bush working fire wood for the full day. Have worked well. (Good job Blueshoes, thumbs up)

To me all items MUST, MUST, be local store available as to have to special order things defeats the point of the effort in my thinking.
My 5 cents of opinion.

Sorry, should've put my money where my mouth is!

Reading numerous, eye-witness accounts, Boer Commando during the Boer War survived on Rusks, Maize Meal, Coffee and Biltong! All lightweight Ration components, they also sometimes hunted game or acquired beef cattle to supplement. In contrast the Commonwealth Troops were loaded down with heavy tin cans, beef on the hoof, field kitchens and a complex, inefficient rationing system that still left many troopers constantly starving and dehydrated for days or weeks on end.

During the Pacific War the US Army created a true Special Forces unit called the “Alamo Scouts” their missions of four and five day (sometimes longer) duration were almost exclusively reconnaissance tasks in the South West Pacific. Inserted by submarine, Catalina or more frequently by PT Boat these teams travelled amazingly light for the length of time they spent in the bush. Frequent reference is made to the simple “fruit & nut mix” they carried almost exclusively in lieu of conventional rations. The modern version of this fruit & nut mix is now known widely as “SCROGGIN”, “GORP” and “Trail Mix” some version of which is used by hikers and climbers the World over!

We can read and learn from many soldier accounts of the universal practice of “Field Stripping” conventional Ration Packs to get rid of all the “useless sh*t”! Saves weight, saves bulk, creates simplicity within their personal fighting system but wastes a lot of money!

Please remember Defence Organisations everywhere including both Public and Private funded regard pre-packaged field rations to be the most expensive, most inefficient way to feed their people. This is why in my opinion it is not a good idea to create a model styled completely on these ration types.

The modern issue US “First Strike” Ration was developed to reduce the weight, complexity, cost, shelf-life issues and packaging found in conventional ration models. The “First Strike” is the type of ration I would suggest emulating if you are going to build this stuff! The UK among others have also recently started to introduce similar ration types.

What if you were to limit your Ration Pack design to say (random) six items, what would you select? How would you package it?