MRE Menu 16: Chicken Burrito Bowl

[Mortblanc]

What you are doing there Pete is going back to the old C-rations, except adding modern snack goodies.

But you are probably doing the right thing and bypassing part of the problem with any ration system.

That is the moment you open the pack and look at the contents and say "Oh crap they left out the biscuits!" or even better, "Ham and MFs again! All I have had for three days is Ham and MFs!"

Or the dreaded realization that you are going on ambush tonight and all you had to eat for two days was bennie weinees (sausage and franks to you)! Now that right there will make your body parts pucker!

If you are building a short term get home bag, 48 hours or less, I would not even bother to include what you would call a "main course" or meal. Dump the cans entirely and replace that weight with high energy trail foods. Your goal is to get home not to make a documentary on travel foods for the BBC.

Replace the "need for a hot meal" with good stiff tea blends and extra sweetener. You can even make your snacks do double duty by heating a cup of water and adding a chocolate bar, or even an energy bar to produce a sweetened portage.

Back in the day when "hard tack" was the main food of marching armies the standard of use was stop and make coffee or tea, crack up a piece of hard tack and add it to the hot drink.

Now right here is where the remains of an MRE would be handy. Using an MRE heater you can heat water while on the move. No stopping and no flames, smoke, fire building skills or other fuel sources needed. Drop a small water bottle into the chemical heater and five minutes latter you are having tea.

This is also where all those protein bars and energy bars and pressed sweetened cereal bars come into their own. Along with natural energy snack foods that were spread all over the world just due to the need for what we are discussing all through history.

I am going to make a suggestion at this point. I am going to recommend a high energy, calorie dense food that has been around in the American back-packing community for decades. It is called GORP. It was probably the first thing anyone came up with that resembled "trail mix".

You take a large zip lock bag and add one pound of raisins, one pound of chocolate chips, one pound of peanuts. Mix them all together and hide them from the kids and do not ever under any circumstances give anyone a sample taste. If anyone finds your stash it will be gone in 60 seconds.

The peanuts release long term carbs, huge calories, and sugar while the raisins and chocolate give a quick energy burst and extra sweet flavor that makes eating it a treat. You can eat a handful on the move or sit down and have a snack while resting.

It was a staple of diet on the hiking trails for years before the commercial products came along.

Sitting around and snacking on this stuff is like releasing a calorie bomb into your system. It is best reserved for situations of intense exertion when calorie replacement is the primary goal.

As for the water needs, we have discussed that for decades now. We now have access to some of the best water filters available to mankind and at prices so cheap that not having one in the GHB is not even thinkable.

If one can not afford a "hydration system" then flatten out a 2 liter plastic bottle and stick it in the pack for emergency use. Better yet, start keeping some one liter bottles of water in the boot. Drink the water and reuse the bottle.