People don’t realize this is about survival and not nutrition. You need sustenance. You just don’t want to be hungry. I like your channel bc you share what’s practical and affordable. I am going to vacuum pack MREs this weekend. I got the idea from you. At least 2 for a total of 9 people. So, 18 MREs. 2 for each bag. I have a baby granddaughter who is 1. I’m making hers a little different. Fruit & veggie pouch, Fruit & yogurt pouch, peanut butter ‘to go’ & calcium fortified juice boxes. I appreciate your idea so don’t worry bout the trolls. I had a relative tell me recently ‘I’m just going to trust God.’ I trust God but God also gave us common sense!
Amen to that....why did Joseph interpret pharaoh's dream and tell pharaoh to store 7yrs(?) worth of food then? (Srry about that lol) btw....we might want to prep bibles just incase
Those little chicken packages work very well with a packet of chicken noodle soup. Makes for a more robust meal, and they pack together nicely. And Spam in the can keeps indefinitely. It’s packed in a salt brine and will never go bad if the can stays intact.
the last time you did vid for the homemade mre's I went and got the veetee rice.....it was really good! I made several mre's and added jif peanut butter in the single serve cups and tuna and chicken pouches! thanks for the tips!! very helpful as usual!
Just resub. Trying to remember my old channels. This is a good idea. I try to plan a meal, and look for a new ingredients that go with that. And put them. together. It's fun and a challenge. Thank you, Miss Loretta
I’ve always thought that, surely the standard MRE isn’t consumed in one sitting, it’s A LOT of food. I love this, I recently started trying the MRE packs, but I’ve been making my own forever. Awesome vacuum sealer, I’ll have to check Amazon. Great video 👍🏼
I'm in the process of ordering my Vacuum sealer, and thought I'd see which one you bought, and ask the KPA on it, as it looks like it would really hold up! I can imagine I'm going to be obsessed with vacuum packing EVERYTHING in my pantry!! As for the sachets of sauce, etc, you can collect plastic milkshake straws from your fast food place (I have to buy them as places here now have paper ones!) and fill portions by heating a knife and sealing the ends with whatever you want, even salt & pepper incorporated. Even making a small tube of hand sanitizer and putting it in will ensure proper hygiene. Really love your down to earth approach, which really breaches the US/UK divide. 😁
We used to live on Tough Girl Rd and were both with Front Sight (now defunct & replaced). I really didn't like living there, as I'm from Texas and it's green, lol, and Pahrump is anything but green. I often buy the individual pouches of chicken, tuna, and salmon to add to our MREs. Since my husband is Army (nearing retirement after 37 years and a full-timer right now), I literally go by Warfighter guidelines. It makes packing my homemade much easier. I even made a spreadsheet to make it easy at a glance. God bless & hope this finds you well out in the desert!
This is great! I’m really glad I found your channel. There’s a lot of great ideas on this for someone who’s on a shoestring budget. Great channel and great content.
Here it is about 3 years later. I've been Prepping for many many years and I have cases of MRE's, Freeze Dried Foods, Dehydrated Foods, Home & Store Canned Foods and Fresh Foods. I've made some homemade MRE's also. Even though I don't drink coffee, I put the single serve coffee, hot cocoa and flavored drink mixes in my homemade MRE's along with plastic spoon, salt, sugar, napkin and sealed package of hand sanitizer. M&Ms, Skittles and Tootsie Rolls are nice too. Be safe my friends.
Great idea, but if you want to eat healthier, you can do retort canning. It's done with special bags that replace the mason jars. You need more equipment and that equipment may cost you a few bills, but you will eat smarter and cheaper.
I’ve watched many videos on homemade mres and I’ve drawn the most suggestion from your videos. I put together 6 similar to yours. I added peanutbutter packets and franks red hot sauce packets. I also added a shooter of Crown Royal and a Werthers Original to boost morale.
Thanks, many years ago the Italian MRE had shot of a brandy-like liquor in a plastic bottle. Not a bad idea! That's what I like about making your own, you can customize them any way you want.
Iridium242 actually, 2 of them have E&J. I’m not a big booze drinker in regular life, but if I need to rely on these, I’m going to want a shot at the end of the day. I keep all 6 of them in my line 3 bag. Maybe at some point I’ll do a VR and mention you.
Yep, coronavirus got me here😩... but I really love these MRE videos 🙌🏼You have the best ones!! It’s difficult to find stuff that’s vegan-friendly and those beans seem like a great idea. Thank you
This always the most fun way to do stuff that lasts about a year or so. I personally wanting a Harvest Right Medium so I can really do long term. Cheers
I was sitting here waiting for the hurricane to hit binge watching prepping videos and stumbled across your channel and now I’m a subscriber. Thank you for the great content!
Thanks, and welcome to the channel, I have loads of other prepping videos and prepping/survival product review vids so check out the older ones too for ideas!
Iridium242 I have watched about 20 of your videos love them all .you do a great job of making things simple for people who are on a budget. I’m a subscriber for life. Keep up the great job.
good video, I build my 'MREs' to be 'about 1.5 meals each,if you're really hungry eat it, if not, eat parts of it now, save rest for later..... in about every 3rd or 4th one I add one of those 'starbucks' instant milky coffee thingys... as a treat...
I've been keeping condiments packets for years. I do rotate them out if they start to look or smell. They seem to last forever. TIP: If you do not eat at take out/fast food restaurants but have family and friends that do then get them to save those condiments packets for you. I've been looking for a vacuum sealer mainly for my mobile food business and I was willing to spend a pretty penny on one but I like the one in this video so I might just get it.
i dont mean to be so off topic but does anyone know a way to log back into an Instagram account?? I stupidly lost my login password. I appreciate any assistance you can give me!
@Bruce Apollo Thanks for your reply. I found the site through google and Im in the hacking process now. Takes a while so I will get back to you later with my results.
What a great video. I just found your channel. I purchased heavy duty reusable baggies from amazon. I am a diabetic and eat low carb so I made my own bags. I also got freeze dried veggies and chicken and knorrs chicken cubes. Purchased single serving ghee and olive oil. So I could make chicken vegetable soup. With spam and MRE cheese spread with dehydrated cauliflower I can make low carb Mac and cheese. Then with tuna and salmon foil packs I can mix with a single serve mayo. Jerky is my snack with single servings of raw almonds. There is a brand of electrolytes named sqwencher that does not raise my blood sugars. And of course good ole freeze dried coffee. You can also get Parmesan cheese crisp for the tuna and salmon. I thought I was the only one who made my own emergency meals
Great idea on the home made mre's, have been utilizing this idea for some time. They have worked out great so far during hunting season. Thanks for sharing... ATB
oh man! I'm so hungry right now! LOL Thanks Mr Iridium! Always informative! Don't listen to the trolls. LIke you said, SHTF you eat what is on hand not what is home made in jars unless of course you're at home !
Great ideas once again! I didn't even know Ziploc made sealers. I gotta check it out and get one! I was not interested in shopping at Wal-Mart for a long time. But I'll tell you what, they have the best prices and selection on food so I decided to give them a try. I like to buy little snacks from them and other random things. They also have some cool meat bars by Wild Zora brand. It's a soft, tender, tasty version of jerky. I highly recommend them.
We used to live in Pahrump, and you're right, Walmart is basically the most economical place to shop there. Smith's is great too. If you have the ability to shop at Nellis, I'd advise there as well.
Good one ... new to me ... have always figured BUG IN ... but done with that. Thoughts: Wipes and toiler paper. Dental wipes/floss, every 3rd one? Other "go bags" with ... Matches. Tea Candle? Tiparillo cigar? ("Why not?" ... the world's ending ... be careful with smell ... got it.)
Great video! My wife and I have been making our own as well for the past few years,its nice having wjat you like in them for your own comfort. We did find freeze dried fruit at our local Wal Mart relatively cheap and put in into our meals. We have the food saver vacuum sealer and make our own bags but I will look into the bags you are using too.
That's a cool idea! I started watching the MRE videos a while back through Steve1989MRE. I like that you even thought enough to give the calorie count of each bag too! 👍 Nice!
Vacuum sealing is not the same as canning. If you are thinking of putting a slice of spam in a food saver bag and not refrigerating or freezing it, please don't!
haha thanks, they are knock offs, not real, if they were real they would probably be worth a good deal of money. I got them on Amazon around 18 bucks each!
I did some of these 1.5 years ago and I put slim jim in them I open them a year later and the slim jim was no good and few other things was bad so I need to learn more before I can redo them. I been watching videos and studying so i can redo them. Thanks for sharing with us God bless you my friend
Qeustion how much do you have invested in 1 of those meals? The reason I ask is some of those things I seen you pack cost alot here in California. I have a local military surplus store here that sell MRE for $5 a piece do you think I would be better off buying the MRE or making my own money wise? Thanks again
meals ready to eat, packed with salt so it will last a long time. when I was in they gave us 5 years after date to eat, still good. ready to eat, things that don't need to be cooked. if I had to I could eat dry ramen but that would suck. spam tuna vac packed crakers. nuts go rancid.coffee drink powder and salt good but no cals.
Great Job!! I hope you know that you have me looking all over Walmart now a days. Also that is a good basic vacum sealer, mine has lasted over 3 years sealing everything from food to ammo. The bags are durable and last. Thanks again and have a safe holiday weekend.
What are the pros and cons of something like a can of chicken, versus those pouches? I'm looking at a tyson one which seems to be a fraction of the cost, has 5 times as much chicken inside... My guess is the reason the pouches work better is because they're easier to pack in the bags? Cans might be kind of an odd shape/take up more space?
Dude. You can use TVP. I'm not a vegan but, I was curious. It's not bad in burritos and ramen. You cant really tell the difference. It's relatively cheap and it's light. I'm hyperglycemic so, mine are atleast 1600 calories.
Fantastic Especially with Hurricane Dorian that just went down last week. Everyone should have a few of these homemade kits ready in a backpack. I will say that if you crush that Ramen and put it in a ziplock bag with the corner left open then pack it in with the rest your bags will be thinner and your soup cooks faster. I'd also suggest for everyone to invest in a mess kit from walmart for $5.00 and throw a lighter into it with one of those sporks for $1.98
Internal data cards are much better then writing on the outside. A index card and sharpie will let you put the important info on it like the date packed and the daily value of the contents along with a rotate by date in case some get mixed up in rotation. You are making something that will get moved around and might be going into bad weather so a label that can't ware off or get washed off is always good. Human minds are bad at remembering important info when it is needed so writing it all out now when you can remember it lets you put it inside a protective case for when you need it. You also might hand it to someone else who would have no clue on some of the things so even simple directions can be useful along with any paper you add now can have any blank sides/areas used to record on in the case of an emergency when supplies are harder to get.
I love that you are doing this. I would like it if you had a listing of the foods you use. Our Walmart seems to have troubles stocking their shelves so I order lots online and having the names of some of these products would be so helpful! I am blessed with a freeze dryer so I can put in some home cooked things but I feel like you do n an emergency we just need food to eat.
My thing is many of us may need to adapt our "MRE"s to suit our individual needs. If you are needing to follow special diet requirements, (diabetic, low sodium, low fat, gluten free, food allergies) then you will need to pack your own. Also, when you pack your own you can size it to your needs or situation. If I was going out on an EMA deployment I might lean towards snacks which are caloric dense, but light weight and not requiring heating or extra water.
Here's an adaptation you can do: The Mountain House products. Don't laugh; bear with me here. Open the Mountain House Meal... Pour the contents into a Vacuum Seal Bag... Add a NEW Oxygen Absorber.... Seal the Bag.... Use a Marker to write the instructions on the Vacuum Seal Bag... What you've done here is reduce the space the Mtn. Hse. Entree takes up in your pack by up to FIFTY PERCENT! I happen to have a Titanium Camp Cook set. The Pot holds just over Two Cups of Water. Heat your water to a boil, as normal, open the Vacuum Seal bag, pour the contents into the boiling pot, stir, remove the pot from the heat source, and cover it. Wait the 15 Minutes as normal and boom-you're eating! The reason I do this in my Kit is this way I can have 15 Entree's in my Pack instead of 8! These simple hacks now COULD be the difference between Life and Death later!
@@Iridium242 I was also wondering if you could take the 'Boil'n'bag rice packets Vacuum Seal Them, then mix in the spam or tuna or whatever you prefer along with the Salsa or seasoning pack for a really quick meal?
Love your videos. Always helpful information. Question, I'm thinking about what to pack if you don't have a way to cook, like stranded in a snowstorm. The helpful thing about MREs is the heater. Also, about what is the cost of each vs an mre? Thanks!
They make cheap foldable small stove that will fit in your bag. The average mre cost 14-18 dollars for one. Homemade MREs can cost as little as 7 dollars.
Unfortunately I agree with you on Walmart, but due to their stand on our Constitional 2nd Amendment Rights I can no longer support this retailer and will not spend my hard earned dollars there. But thx for the video.
Yup, I made this before they made the announcement, so I will be greatly curtailing my shopping there as much as I can in this tiny town. Its one of 2 stores we have here. The good part is locally one person on our county commission acted, went to the store and complained and from what I am told as it stands today, they will NOT be enforcing an open carry ban in our store here. Open carry out here is pretty common so they probably knew it would hurt them. Sadly it does nothing about the lack of ammo sales but hey, we have like 7 gun stores in town.
@@Iridium242 walmarts decision to halt certain ammo sales cuts deep here. I live close to a big city and walmart ammo is the cheapest game around. I will have to orderline to get my range time in. Online sales are great but my work schedule doesn't allow me to be present when ups or fedex arrives to sign for my order. Walmart was cheap and convenient...it will be missed but other than that I really don't shop there anyway.
Working on one, however it will be a bit different, going to package some freeze dried eggs and some of those dehydrated hash browns as well, Just want to see how long it will last stored in less than optimal conditions.
Perhaps I’m missing something here. Please enlighten me. Why the need to pack these items like an MRE? They are already in their own containers. Why not just stock up on these items in bulk? Maybe a Rubbermaid tub full for the house. And regular ziplock bags for your BOB? Does this expensive sealer extend the life of the individual products somehow?
You can do that too, this was just a way to make it into a meal sealed up and ready, Also a sealer can give you an air tight water tight environment for your food as well as a trash bag or water collection bag after you are done
@@Iridium242 I’ve always made good use of gallon sized ziplock bags. I know that sealing meats and dry goods extends the life of those items. I was wondering if sealing somehow extended shelf life of the packaged product. I can see the novelty of the sealer, however.
If you are going to be using them in a reasonable time,do you really need to vacum seal them ? If goi g in a backpack I can understand the vacum seal. Shrink it and you have more room. Most of my stuff will be in dry bag,and also vacum sealer won't be avaiable where I'm going,but stores will. Most if not all this food is already cooked and contained,so sealing it isn't vital.
Rather then a meal in a bag have you thought about making a daily/weekly hygiene kit in a sealed bag so you know everything will stay just how it is when you pack it and that items can't be removed as it is sealed? Keeping clean can have a big impact on how you feel in an emergency and can be one of the last thoughts so best to get them made and out of the way as they will have a much longer shelf life then food so you can pack them now for years. The other thought is a sealed bag of parts, oil and a cleaning kit for each firearm you own/carry. something small you can just keep at the bottom of a go bag now as it has no real shelf life so is make and forget about it till you are in an emergency and need to break out the bag/kit.
Thanks for your insight on this subject and others. I subscribed about 3 weeks ago. Haven’t yet seen all of the videos yet. I’ve first did prepping in 1999 for Y2K but stopped after nothing happened, but I want to get back into prepping again. Question about the vacuum sealer, have you had any other issues other than the ones you mentioned on the video with the Zip Lock brand sealer? I’ve been comparing brands this weekend online. So many to choose from. I also want to get one that just seals for protecting important documents and alike. Thanks, Jeff.
No problems with the vac sealer in the video, I got it about 6 months ago and its worked great ever since. It was rather inexpensive as well so it had that going for it. I started prepping at the same time as well, when nothing happened for Y2K I just kept on prepping figuing something some day would happen. I think it all really hit me a few years later on the morning of 9.11. I realized that I was pretty well set if things got worse so then I really stepped it up and kept on prepping!