Went back to Walmart to build an awesome and cheap homemade MRE. Gear List Trucker's Lunchbox: amzn.to/3x3NRnk Bamboo Sporks: amzn.to/3x5vI8D Mylar Food Storage Bags: amzn.to/3ONV5Sd Amazon Wish List: www.amazon.com...
Having spent 14 years in the Infantry (1993-2007) I had my fair share of MREs. One of the best things that could happen was opening your MRE and finding cocoa powder. I would make what we called "Ranger Pudding" by adding the creamer, and sugar packets and just enough water to make pudding. I would add the coffee packet on occasion for an added boost. If you got peanut butter as well it was a double bonus, throw that in the mix and words can't describe how good it tasted, not to mention the morale boost it gave. Anyway, found your channel about a week ago and cant get enough of your Homemade MRE videos. Think I'll try making some myself, so keep up the good work and I'll keep looking forward to the next video.
In my day we had C Rations. The cans the crackers came in we would convert to a stove. The peanut butter can we would add bug repellent and it burned like canned heat. It was used to make coffee, coco or heat our main ration. Them were the best rations!
A ranger taught me to put the cheese in the heater with your main meal… bro… I would trade my peanut butter for cheese every time. If you don’t melt the cheese and pour it into your main meal, you’re absolutely missing out
Hot jello liquid as a drink! I went to a local Sierra Club meeting years ago and they made backpacker favorites as a meal. Not being famished and overworked I found the hot jello drink a little gross, but could understand how it would be loved when one really needed the calories and the weather cold. Just a thought for an mre.
I'm a teacher that lives out the back of their truck and your videos help me so so much. I feel like I'm eating better because of your videos ❤ thank you
America spends about $14,000 per student per year. If the parents got that money and they could spend it at any educational system they want. You could start your own micro school with 10 students and make $140,000 a year. It is time to rethink the educational system here in America.
I admit to being a tad jealous over your ravioli find. In the past week, we did find an assortment of chef Boyardee products. Pricey here in the Philippines but you can eat these can goods directly out of the can without heating. We have decided to mandate that at least one meal per day be good to go without heating. We will try to have 50% no heat required but as always, we must work with what is available on this side of the pond. Thank you again, DBA, for all the inspiration. Our young troops school emergency 72 hour kits are coming together nicely.
My brother bought one of those 12 volt lunchboxes for me (birthday gift). We used it on a trip to Gallup, NM for his medical appointment to cook sausages for our lunch. The sausages were perfectly cooked. The lunchbox heats at 150f, which is great for reheating foods without burning them. I just got myself a RoadPro Roaster, 12 volt for my birthday this year. Used by RV'ers and truckers. It cooks at 250f for those who could use something to cook for one or two people. I plug it into my StormRock 500w power station. I'd add dried fruit to your MRE and find a way to add dried veggies for fiber.
Maybe instant beverage "Orange bug juice" for plain Water, or a dehydrated coffee sleeve or Tea bag. Hard Cracker for fiber & calories. I didn't see any TP rollup?
Just a thought... maybe the Toasty Cheezits are the "whoops, bake mistake" from making regular Cheezits. Someone on the floor said "Hey, I got an idea to market the waste!" And now the dumpsters don't fill up so fast and which ever VP that stole the workers idea got a big year end bonus. Hhhmmmm, just maybe... 😂 Keep on!
Great video. Having celiac disease & Hypoglycemic, I carry the apple cinnamon pouches, emerald nuts & mini kind bars, so I always have something when I need it.
An H-Mart or a 99 Ranch Market where they specialize in carrying more unique and harder to find Asian food would be a really cool place to make one of these!
The best peppermint mocha I've ever had was just my normal cream and sugar coffee with a Land o' Lakes Mint Coca pack in it its so good. Homemade MREs are an interesting concept I hadn't thought of before
I love cheezits. My favorites are the tabasco, or the white cheddar. My grandma used to make a dessert that had apple sauce, cherries, pineapple, and pecans. Im not sure what else, but i loved that stuff.
Good video. Store brands are produced at the same places that national brands are. The difference is that the producer gets paid then and does not have to wait for a sale. Literally they finish a run of their products, they change labels in the machine and do a run of store brand. Also, your walmart may not carry a product that the manager does not wish to give shelf space too. Have you thought of tryng like your hispanic or asian markets and see what you can find?
My wife used to work as a QC manager in a tomato paste processing plant. The really do change the formulation for every client. Even if it comes off the same production line. Some clients want no peel, some want a certain sweetness/sugar level (brix), some want particular things, so production lines change content. Even if they look the same.
Dude, you take basic crud in a bag look and sound great. You would likely be the most entertaining food critic on earth. Scratch that you already are. Carry on!
The nearest Walmart is 40 miles away and I don't always get time to look for stuff so I appreciate the heads up on new products. The ravioli sounds good. The wife has been drinking the cocoa for ever, she likes their white chocolate. Thanks for the video.
Another excellent video. I''ll definitely be finding some of that ravioli and adding some parm and pepper pizza packets to spice it up a little. Maybe raisins and M&Ms instead of the nuts. I'll also be adding some of the Propel packets for the electrolytes and gonna have to try that coffee and cocoa tip. Blessings!
Thank you for sharing! The applesauce & 100 calorie pack mixture reminded me of a smoothie bowl idea. Also great idea to add the Cheez-its to the ravioli. Everytime someone says something about foil hats, it reminds me to watch Signs again, lol.
Those squishy Apple sauce pouches are great discreet pocket size Alcoholic Spirits (Rum, Whiskey) dispensers 👍 Each one holds about 5 standard shots for you to add to a warm beverage for a night cap 😁
Wow!! I'm so glad I happened across your content. How cool. I've been doing this for years because I bought a pricey 3 month kit about 20 years ago and the food was ok, but it was all simple starchy carbs, salt and sugar, very low protein and fat - and very little variety. Plus, not nearly enough calories if your chopping wood, starting fires, hauling water, etc. So, I started making my own MREs from things available in local stores (mostly). The result is that I'm much happier with my own MREs, they cost a lot less overall, I like everything in them, they are nutritionally balanced, I have a wide variety of foods, and I have several high calorie MREs for extra-hard working days. I'm looking forward to learning from you! Thanks for doing this!
Our local Walmart doesn't have a large food area ... only about 4 aisles. But there's a big Walmart not too far from here that has like a grocery store in the store. I usually avoid it because it's so busy and it takes too long to wonder the the store... I'll have to endeavor to persevere cause that MRE sounded like a winner! Thank you for the video, I appreciate you.
Canning has a basic rule... you go by the ingredient that takes the longest to can. In this case it is the meat. Retort pouches have beef listed in a 2 to 4 ounce pack at 65 mins 10lbs of pressure. 1 pint is 75 mins. You adjust pressure up based on altitude. With those times... it is not possible to have pasta that is not overcooked. I am still getting retort pouches... Dad said I can use his fancy chamber vac. YES!!!
Hi new viewer from Canada. I decided to subscribe even though some of the stores you review we dont have here (we do have Walmart), but its still good info that I could apply to loval retailers. Im guessing the next store might be Costco, or a convenience store
You’re so welcome. You could definitely add supplement packs and a few other things to customize your kit. That’s the best thing about these, you get to make it how YOU want it.
Spent 10 years in central Texas, love HEB. Hunger spices up everything doesn’t it. Ate MREs for a long time, C-rations before MREs. After a few meals, in a row, they all seem to taste the same. Good job with choices and review. Thank you for sharing…from an old, retired vet in east Tennessee.
Love the Land o Lakes Cocoa, haven't found one my family doesn't like. Mr Beast is quite the entrepreneur. Love your honest opinion of his candy bar. ❤
I don’t really do specific diet MREs because I would have to learn a lot about a diet I don’t use and the video wouldn’t interest many people beyond those on the diet. I try to point out when I’m using items that fit certain categories but I don’t really see me doing restricted diet meals.
I shop at HEB and walmart and the latter is definitely geared towards this type of product. HEB doesn't carry as much of the retort-style and doesn't even offer the same products. I like the Filo's walking tamales and the Wild Planet cans of tuna pasta and bean salad. They're expensive but worth it. The dry Knorr pasta meals/sides should be prepared as instructed- pouring boiling water into the pouch does not produce any good results! Always have been fascinated with MRE's but they are expensive, and I think I can source better for cheaper.
Fun video to watch, thanks! Just an idea, if you have mylar bags you could make up your own nut& fruit bags to a size you like more and save money. You could do the same with the Cheez-Its.
I have probably the toughest challenge that I have not yet seen. I don't care where you buy the items, or the total cost. Would you please do a NON-GMO MRE following all your other specific rules.
GMO has been made out to be a huge boogyman and it isn't anywhere near as bad as people think. It has to go through years of testing for allergies and other issues before it's allowed on the market Meanwhile farmers can crossbreed, splice, and selectively breed other crops without regulations. Even blasting seeds with radiation to see what weird mutations crop up doesn't get as much testing as GMO. In fact those mutant seeds can be marketed as GMO free. GMO free is nothing more than fancy marketing to play off people's fears. They often get food recalled as much and often more so than regular food. The biggest issue with "non GMO" food is it has terrible shelf life. I personally avoid most of it for that very reason
I don’t know what markets you have available, but I’d suggest a Latin market. If you were in south Florida, I’d suggest Sedano’s, a local chain, or Fresco, a Latin-centric rebranded offshoot of Winn Dixie. A quick search shows you might have a “super Latina supermarket”? Worth checking maybe?
The program I work at got a bunch of Mr Beast bars donated they were the "DEEZ NUTS" flavor. Kind of like a low rent Heath bar. Maybe you tried it already but I bet Costco would be a heck of a challenge to make an MRE at and not end up spending 40 bajillion dollars.
@@dadbudgetadventures Costco would be interesting but they do not have individual portions. You could just buy group packs of everything but the inventory changes so much that the videos while interesting will be dated in a short time. I am not really sure of the intention of the channel other than showing your process of making home-brewed MREs.
Peanut butter Clif energy bars are my favorite bars. They’re dense and heavy compared to other brands so one of them is the equivalent of 2-4 bars of the others. The chocolate chip ones sometimes taste a little old and some flavors like white chocolate macadamia nut can give a little bit of a gut bomb effect. I love their peanut butter Builder’s bar as well - tastes like a successful army attempt at a candy bar - but because of the outer chocolate layer I have to put them on ice in my water jug in hot weather.
The peanut butter bars from Aldi are a pretty good replacement for Clif bars. I’ve had a lot of people tell me they are pretty much the same and they are cheaper. Having things with no chocolate to melt is great this time of year.
If you decide to do another Dollar Tree MRE, the DT on Kirby-Whitten near Raleigh Lagrange is the best, most organized, and fully stocked DT I’ve seen in the area since before the pandemic.
My friend calls those Gatlinburg caramel apples, Gatlinburg smoked turkey legs. You’d have to ask her but I think that it has to do with both being way overpriced and she lives on the turkey legs at the NC state fair 😂
Tried the candy bar a few weeks back. The chocolate was soft and not very good. Prefer a good old Hershey bar. Have you tried Publix or Target (the Middle Class bougie of America)? Any mom and pop corner grocery stores. Any Winn Dixie stores down your way? You could do theme meals, Tex-Mex, Chinese, Indian cuisine, Back yard BBQ, California Coastal or hearty casserole style. Any way, Mr Dad Budget Adventure keep up the good work. Your videos are entertaining, informative and give me great ideas for my everyday work lunches.
Several (as in maybe twenty or so) years ago at Walmart I found some hot chocolate drinks that were really cool. They were not mixes. They were ready to drink and came in, basically, disposable travel mugs. On the bottom there was a 'button' you pressed when you were ready to drink it. That apparently ruptured some kind of blister pack or tube or something in a seperate chamber at the bottom of the mug, allowing chemicals which were stored there to mix (without getting in the hot chocolate, of course). From there it worked like a FRH so that the drinks were self heating. I only saw them there, maybe, twice and that was probably over the course of not much more than a month. Then they were gone and I have never seen anything like them, since - anywhere. I wonder if it could be a case if a product that worked too well because, for me, at least, they were always too hot to drink when the heater first finished and needed to cool down a little bit. I wonder if someone or more than ine someone burned themselves. It is too bad they aren't commonly available, anymore because the hot chocolate tasted really good and I think they would be good for homemade MREs, camping, etc. Oh, and when I go to Gatlinburg I rarely have room for one of those apples because it is mandatory that I have a sausage with peppers and onions (and mustard) from Fanny Farkles. I also am required (by me) to bring home several slices of the pecan log (the version with cherries, of course) from the Candy Kitchen. Hey, there is a challenge for you - I wonder if it would be possible to build out a homemade MRE from the specialty shops in Gatlinburg.
@@dadbudgetadventures Well, you know, it seems like there might be a camping spot or two in the area. Some private campgrounds and maybe something about a National Park or some such. Speaking of that, for some reason RU-vid put a video about a group or groups of feral people living in the Smokies in my feed a week or so ago. I watched it and the next thing I knew my feed was full of similar videos. No idea if there is really anything to it or not. I've lived in East Tennessee within an hour and a half (sometimes less) of the Smokies for most of my 52 years and am just recently hearing these stories. Still, it might give you a chance to do one of your 'old school' creepy camping videos. Just take plenty of home-made MREs because, at least according to some of the tales, those folks are pretty hungry.
They also had coffee in a self heating can like you were talking about for hot chocolate. I enjoyed them when on vacation and you wanted some hot coffee ☕️. Wish they still made them. I'm not sure but, I think maybe the coffee was from Starbucks?? They would definitely be good in an MRE bag!! 😊
@@fredfinger7092 No 😂 Just trying to make my backpack lighter oh goodness have everything and the kitchen sink germx! 🤣 Have to repack but haven’t tried the packaged meals but would help with making it a lot lighter. Thanks for the helpful info and off to Walmart yet again! I was just there yesterday 😣🤦🏻♀️😂 Have a Excellent day
@@fredfinger7092 True that but 40-50 miles away gets to heavyweight for me! 😂 So at best if I am lucky 10 miles a day puts me at 4-5 days! Then water goes fast then the longer you are out the more energy your body consumes so more water more carbs/proteins! I sooo better be at Home! 🤞🙏😂 I pulled out the can spam and switched to the package meats- a lot lighter plus will last longer with smaller package sizes! I live in Florida so kind of have to be prepared but now to pack for my vehicle yes have things already but got stuck 3 hours from home because of a storm! Thank goodness I had the basics but could have should’ve! Yes working on that now! TY
The best rations I have had is a 24hr one man pack , it was simple but very well thought out , for me any way , had 3 small tins , one of meat ( beef & pasta ) , one fruit & one of fish/Tuna 185g & a very small tin of cheese . You had cracker/cabin bread ,biscuits ceral mix , boiled sweets, chocolate bar , sugar/tea/coffee/coco , cordial , noodles, tube of condensed milk . So the main tins , breakfast was the fruit with biscuits or ceral mix , the only thing to heat would be a hot drink if wanted . Lunch would be Tuna cold straight from tin and diner would be the meat can heated . Only 1 meal really needs to be heated to be NICE .
First time I’ve ever seen your channel. I enjoyed the video! I look forward to seeing some homemade MRIs that are not built like military. But built for deliciousness! What would be your most decadent and lavish build? To convince a spouse, they’re gonna have a good meal? Sincerely.
So glad you’re here! To answer your question, I recently did a video where I introduced my wife and had her help me pick out items for an MRE for 2. Scroll back a few weeks and look for that one.
My grandkids heard you say Mr Beast, they had me running around to 3 Chinamarts as i call them, no candy bars!! Oh well, i tried!😎👍Thank you! Be careful with those applesauce pouches, a lot of them had lead in them, Crazy!!
I honestly agree but when you are really hungry it's gonna taste pretty good. My favorite is still the spaghetti and meat sauce. It's on the sweater side but I like it
We have very different taste. I would have paired white cheddar with hot apple cider. Trade the applesauce for dried prunes. Trade the beast bar for a chick-o-stick.
If you’re ever in western NC you should stop into a couple of the Mast General Store locations to see if you can put together a DBA MRE. If you can’t, you still won’t regret visiting the stores. Bring your wife or she’ll hate you lol Each store has a slightly different inventory (one is LOADED with ‘penny candy’) and I guarantee you’ll love visiting these old time stores.
Nice budget MRE that will definitely fill the belly. I need to watch these videos when I am not hungry. The ravioli got my stomach growling, esp when you mentioned parm and crushed red pepper. Then you crunched up those crackers... yes! I do have (and make up) some MRES (that's the prepper in me), but what a cost savings for those looking to make some meals ahead of time for work shift lunches. Isnt always feasible to pack a fresh lunch, and certainly ordering out sure adds up (looking at $15 easy for fast food). Nice MRE can be eaten at desk, or in my case.. the car. I prefer to not have to eat with others. Ok, off to find some food. 😆 Ooh, finally springing for that lunch box. Every time I see it in your vids I think it is something I should consider. Just added to cart. 👍
@@dadbudgetadventures will look for the Sprouts one. WinCo started in the Pacific NW. They have stores in Tulsa and OKC now. Employee owned and well stocked during the vid.
It's about time for me to make more MREs. I hate Walmart but I guess ill have to try them. Their camping area use to have food as well. In my area. Let's see what they gots
great value brand chili w/beans is the best canned chili dollar for dollar. reasonable price, good flavor, large chunks of mystery meat, and a good ratio of meat to beans.
There is a store a few hours easy of me called Meijer. It is like Walmart and Hy-Vee had a baby. Could give it a try. Wait…have you tried Hy-Vee yet? Those are all over the place.
on the hot cocoa mix, i can get them routinely at my grocery. i tend to mix the flavors. an they are in my winter car bag. on the apple sauce i also go for the cinnamon flavored one. good choice on the nuts. look in your peanutbutter section for individual severings, ethier in cups or envelopes. have skippy on my shelf. now i have a road trip to do to check out your choice for the main. one product that walmart has is 'herefordbeef' products from brazil in retort pouches. they go excellent with the pre-cooked rice products. did one that had quinoa in it. quinoa has a nasty taste by itself. when 'drowned' with arby's sauce the taste was covered up. to make a edible dish. on the candy bar you mention the blooming of the chocolate. i wonder if the truck transporting the candy was during a hot weather period. had some nestle crunch snack bars from halloween 2023 that suffered the same effect. so far i have found only 1 heat tolerlent chocolate bar. Baker's german line up. i can put out any other brand of chocolate on a shelf by the sofa. it will get soft when the heat is on. i put the baking chocolate by baker's it is still solid.
I’ve had some of the Hereford products but I only see one or two varieties at a time in any store. My issue with the single serve peanut butter packs is I have yet to see any with more than a few months shelf life. They would be perfect otherwise.
I bought some Mr Beast bars on clearance at Menards. They were decent, worth the 50 cents each I paid. The peanut butter one is better than the plain one. I love budget videos. Thank you for your honest opinion on things! I laughed so hard at the tin foil hat comment.
I am going to make this comment before you try the Cheezits, Extra toasty are the ones they would normally Trash as overcooked but not burnt to uneatable.
