Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

The breaded chicken with pasta shells in tomato sauce is Pretty Damn Good. Im going to have to order a case of those entrees separately.

Showed the girlfriend (hence the Showing The Girlfriend icon) what a dissected MRE looks like. Explained how the heater works, the accessory pack, alternate heat sources, how to open the entree pouches lengthwise instead of crosswise for easier access, etc, etc. Hopefully our lesson in using the MRE heater took because I really dont want to have to crack open another one for a refresher course. Fortunately, the instructions are supposedly 'soldierproof' and are stamped clearly on the heater packaging.

The MRE's arent the end-all for food storage. i certainly wouldnt want to live on them…what they are for is situations where you have to grab something and go, go , go…throw a couple cases in the truck and run like hell…that sort of thing. Or if youre going to be afield for a couple days. They most certainly are not for staying-at-home-during-a-blackout use. Thats what the regular food and freeze-drieds are for.

I still have some cases of MRE's that are over ten years old…and you really can see the evolution of the MRE in there. If you havent been there http://www.mreinfo.com probably has the most detailed and illustrated guide to MRE's out there. Menu plans, shelf life, experiments conducted on MRE's, MRE's from around the workd, etc, etc. Definitely worth looking at.

So I've got enough cases of MRE's now to give me a fairly secure feeling. In fact, I've enough to split my supply in half and keep half at a secondary location, which is always a good idea.