Have you tried My Patriot Supply food? Ready Hour/Augason/misc., another new update 8/26/26! (Page 2 of 6)
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I would LOVE to take you up on that, but I haven't seen a Ready Hour pizza for sale on MPS yet - I'll double check. Aaaaand, edit to say, I AM wrong...but DAYUM that is expensive! $97 for 6, 10" cheese pizzas.... https://mypatriotsupply.com/products/survival-pizza?variant=39994080526429 |
Great reviews. I will be honest in that I have never heard of that brand before. I will have to check them out. BTW, the freeze dried fruit from Emergency Essentials is outstanding. My wife really likes the strawberry slices. So far we have used them in oatmeal, cereal and adult beverages.
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Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Originally Posted By GTLandser: So basically their buckets (presumably the best value) are around 1/3 of one cent per calorie? That seems decent I guess, considering you get all the packaging and an industrial, controlled process. Are there other items for which it makes more sense to have your own freeze drier? My wife wants a freeze drier for us, but I have no idea what one would cost, and I have no idea how to use one. |
Breakfast.   Oh, great, have to dig for the oxygen absorber.  Looks like Strawberry Quik, for those of you old enough to remember that stuff.  Thickened up nicely.  Looks better than it tastes, to be honest. It wasn't bad, per se, but bland. We needed to add sugar and butter, (Ready Hour does have dehydrated butter, no not really interested right now), and it might have been interesting to add some of the RH dehydrated Strawberries to add to it, but sugar was the number one needed item.  When they say this feeds 8, they are NOT kidding! We had two big bowls of it, and there is a lot of leftovers. One thing RH does is provide a resealable bag, BUT not instructions on how to reduce the portions to only make what you want right now. Is all guesswork.  The wife unit and I rate this as a solid..."not baaaaad"... Edited to add - I refrigerated the left overs, thinking why not, that's a lot of food. Well, I haven't had any cream of wheat products in a LONG time, s many this is normal and I screwed up, dunno - the stuff turned into a solid gelatinous mass. Reheating didn't get it back to where it was supposed to be and the taste/texture was much worse. So, into the garbage it goes. I suggested to the jobber that they improve the cooking directions to add "if serving 2 people use this much mix with this much water" type of stuff. Edited again to add that I gave away the rest of the box of this stuff to people with larger families, who might eat all of it at once. Apparently they ALL decided to stash it - nobody said anything about the stuff. |
I was bored, decided to do another one.  It has to be hard to screw this one up. Will I be the one...  Enough room to mix it in the bag, if needed...I don't need to.  1.75 quart bowl. 1.5 cups warm water. 3 shots of tequila. OK, just kidding, only two shots of tequila.  Mixed smooth easily, even just using a spoon.  Cheating with muffin cups, left over from another long ago failed experiment.  There has to be a trick to this, because I suck at it.  Taking no chances  That doesn't look too bad! Minus the burned spots, of course...  I handed one off this plate to the wife unit to try - after she ate the first one she seized control of the plate. I got one little half...Honestly these were pretty darn good with just butter. Then she said how well these would go with chili and I said..."Beans or no beans?" And that, Yer Honor, is when the fight started...   Edit to add, after trying to have the Strawberry Flavored Creamy Wheat for breakfast, (see edited post above), I decided to heat up some corn bread with butter, simple breakfast fare. They were great. I had mine with butter, she had hers with honey. This stuff I will probably buy a #10 can of to stash. |
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Just bumping this again, to solicit feedback from anybody who has ever had a freeze dryer or dehydrator. Or pressure canner, for that matter! I don't have one of either type, but I am always interested to learn what others have discovered by personal experience. Also, super thanks to OP for posting their honest feedback for the Patriot Supply stuff. It sucks to go on Amazon these days and try to sift through so much GARBAGE marketing, fake reviews, and other online shopping nonsense. Just as a little teaser, let's hear what Travis Haley had to say recently about the ways of the world. Self-reliance pitch from about the 7:30 mark. Think on this my dudes.  THE IRAQ WAR : PUPPETS & PUPPETMASTERS - BATTLE OF NAJAF - TRAVIS HALEY |
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No worries, this is educational and fun, mostly, really surprised how good most of them really are. My mother-in-law, (the saint), took the rest of the cornbread, and she liked them. Hard to impress a grandma with food. I had to take a break for a minute, but there are others I am going to try out. Travellers Stew might be next, but it might not - it's heavy in lentils, and lentils make me fart. |
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Thanks for posting all this. It's a fantastic post. I've been wanting to add freeze dried food to really up my food storage and was going to get a lot of MH, but looking at the website Ready Hour comes out to about $6-8 per packet. That's a pretty good deal considering the taste you mentioned and the serving sizes. I recently made a large purchase form the LDS food prep facility near me. And while the prices are great, there are very limited menu options. I'm really interested in the ready hour diced beef. |
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There are some others I want to try out that are only available in the #10 cans. The case packs, at least you have the other packages to last forever, but when you pop open a #10 can, you started the one year clock. Of course, nothing stopping me from buying MORE of the stuff...except money. But a lot of it really is cheaper than people think.
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There is something very weird going on here... Oh, a recipe is on the back of the Black Bean Burger Mix can? And I have all the ingredients?  Will this work? What do we have to work with?  C'mon, how else am I going to work the Rice one in? Hey, guys, it's...rice. Plain white rice...yay. So, here it is.  Ingredients, in case you want to know.  That is some weird looking stuff, right there. And something not really talked about on the can...  The bouillon mix that goes with the Travelers Stew...but we won't be using that tonight. 
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Oh. Yeah. Rice. Mix rice and Travelers Stew as directed...gee, that looks swell...really...  Boiling and covered for 20 minutes.  So, lets move to the last component, the Black Bean Burger Mix, 1/2 cup and 1/.2 cup water. It says to crumble it up after it rehydrates...that doesn't look "crumbleable"...  So I added a couple of "pinches" of mix, stirred and sat until rehydrated. Not a HUGE improvement.  Slapped in a preheated pan.  Well, I guess that is working...OK. 
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So, now what? Fold the fried Black bean Mix into the rice and veggies.  That looks...odd...my wife was weirded out with the elbow macaroni.  We both said the same thing after the first bite - "Bland". Heavy meal, lots of carbs, but bland. So, I call on two of my favorite cooking assistants.  Yes, one says salt and the other says Less Sodium, I get the disconnect. However, after a healthy dollop was added, the stuff became quite good. No, I didn't overpower the mix with the goop, just enough to, I don't know, turn the power on. Final vote, not bad IF you have some spices to go with it. It's to give you max carbs, I think. One thing I am seeing as I am doing this - do NOT leave out basic spices in whatever you are stashing away. I highly recommend The Blend. Now that I opened that can, I guess I'll have to try the Travelers Stew they way they want it done. Just taking a little side trip! |
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Originally Posted By GTLandser: Just bumping this again, to solicit feedback from anybody who has ever had a freeze dryer or dehydrator. Or pressure canner, for that matter! I don't have one of either type, but I am always interested to learn what others have discovered by personal experience. Snip… I don’t have a freeze dryer, but I am told they are far superior to a dehydrator for very long term storage, although the quantities you can process at one time are generally smaller. I have made extensive use of a corsori dehydrator and am very pleased with it. Lots of fruit, veggies, eggs, and some jerky. Once dehydrated, I vacuum seal them up in 1 servings sizes with a Food Saver and store in a plastic tub at rooms temperature. I know they won’t keep for 20 to 30 years like freeze dried foods. But I just rotate them out at a year or two so they never have a chance to go bad. The packaged meals discussed above seem really good. Don’t discount the amount of time and electricity it will cost you to process your own foods. Unless you have plenty of time on your hands, purchasing packaged like these will likely be your best option. Quality dehydrators are a couple of hundred dollars. Freeze Dryers are in the thousands. I have used a pressure canner too. I don’t use it much because it takes a sizable commitment in time to run a batch. It really makes a lot of sense if you’re canning your own garden. My brother does that with his big garden and has all the kids and friends come help in exchange for some of the food. They make a big afternoon out of it. But for small quantities and casual use by myself, it doesn’t get a lot of use. |
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Originally Posted By armoredman: I was bored, decided to do another one. https://i.imgur.com/tWgj5KA.jpg It has to be hard to screw this one up. Will I be the one... https://i.imgur.com/BMr5boZ.jpg Enough room to mix it in the bag, if needed...I don't need to. https://i.imgur.com/LdP0kXy.jpg 1.75 quart bowl. 1.5 cups warm water. 3 shots of tequila. OK, just kidding, only two shots of tequila. https://i.imgur.com/82hqwy4.jpg Mixed smooth easily, even just using a spoon. https://i.imgur.com/OU5ZKmq.jpg Cheating with muffin cups, left over from another long ago failed experiment. https://i.imgur.com/50Pz1ee.jpg There has to be a trick to this, because I suck at it. https://i.imgur.com/6RtscN4.jpg Taking no chances https://i.imgur.com/nFnFB13.jpg That doesn't look too bad! Minus the burned spots, of course... https://i.imgur.com/8GEpfob.jpg I handed one off this plate to the wife unit to try - after she ate the first one she seized control of the plate. I got one little half...Honestly these were pretty darn good with just butter. Then she said how well these would go with chili and I said..."Beans or no beans?" And that, Yer Honor, is when the fight started... https://i.imgur.com/9ODA2tG.jpg Edit to add, after trying to have the Strawberry Flavored Creamy Wheat for breakfast, (see edited post above), I decided to heat up some corn bread with butter, simple breakfast fare. They were great. I had mine with butter, she had hers with honey. This stuff I will probably buy a #10 can of to stash. Originally Posted By armoredman: I was bored, decided to do another one. https://i.imgur.com/tWgj5KA.jpg It has to be hard to screw this one up. Will I be the one... https://i.imgur.com/BMr5boZ.jpg Enough room to mix it in the bag, if needed...I don't need to. https://i.imgur.com/LdP0kXy.jpg 1.75 quart bowl. 1.5 cups warm water. 3 shots of tequila. OK, just kidding, only two shots of tequila. https://i.imgur.com/82hqwy4.jpg Mixed smooth easily, even just using a spoon. https://i.imgur.com/OU5ZKmq.jpg Cheating with muffin cups, left over from another long ago failed experiment. https://i.imgur.com/50Pz1ee.jpg There has to be a trick to this, because I suck at it. https://i.imgur.com/6RtscN4.jpg Taking no chances https://i.imgur.com/nFnFB13.jpg That doesn't look too bad! Minus the burned spots, of course... https://i.imgur.com/8GEpfob.jpg I handed one off this plate to the wife unit to try - after she ate the first one she seized control of the plate. I got one little half...Honestly these were pretty darn good with just butter. Then she said how well these would go with chili and I said..."Beans or no beans?" And that, Yer Honor, is when the fight started... https://i.imgur.com/9ODA2tG.jpg Edit to add, after trying to have the Strawberry Flavored Creamy Wheat for breakfast, (see edited post above), I decided to heat up some corn bread with butter, simple breakfast fare. They were great. I had mine with butter, she had hers with honey. This stuff I will probably buy a #10 can of to stash. I handed one off this plate to the wife unit to try - after she ate the first one she seized control of the plate. I got one little half...Honestly these were pretty darn good with just butter. Then she said how well these would go with chili and I said..."Beans or no beans?" And that, Yer Honor, is when the fight started... Attached File I'm getting some of that. I love cornbread and pinto beans
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I've tried the potato soup. I was really good. But I had to boil it quite a while to get the little potato chunks soft. The Creamy Alfredo Pasta was really good. Wife loved it a lot. This is a great post. Buying more. I want to add freezer dried Mears to my stock pile. Plus I read you can buy mylar bags with 02 absorbers and store rice, floor ect in them for 15 years or more. I need to find an effective way to distill salt water and remove all impurities also. |
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Originally Posted By Sandbowl1980: I've tried the potato soup. I was really good. But I had to boil it quite a while to get the little potato chunks soft. The Creamy Alfredo Pasta was really good. Wife loved it a lot. This is a great post. Buying more. I want to add freezer dried Mears to my stock pile. Plus I read you can buy mylar bags with 02 absorbers and store rice, floor ect in them for 15 years or more. I need to find an effective way to distill salt water and remove all impurities also. The Potato Cheddar Soup or the Homestyle Potato Soup? The first only comes in #10 cans and the second comes in pouch or can, which is weird. Speaking of which, anyone notice that the Travelers Stew only comes in a #10 can...which is really inconvenient to "travel" with? More on that later. Friends, I very much appreciate the kind words - I don't think Ready Hour or My patriot Supply will be doing any assisting since I am giving 100% honest reviews. Besides, this is fun. 
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Originally Posted By armoredman: The Potato Cheddar Soup or the Homestyle Potato Soup? The first only comes in #10 cans and the second comes in pouch or can, which is weird. Speaking of which, anyone notice that the Travelers Stew only comes in a #10 can...which is really inconvenient to "travel" with? More on that later. Friends, I very much appreciate the kind words - I don't think Ready Hour or My patriot Supply will be doing any assisting since I am giving 100% honest reviews. Besides, this is fun.  If you want IM me your address. I will send an assortment of different brands you can test. We are all enjoying your effort in the testing. |
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Well, now how could I say no to that? But SPEAKING of Travelers' Stew...here we go!  Notice something that is conspicuously absent on the other packages I've shown - directions to make smaller amounts,  So, I'll make two cups, enough for me and my poor long suffering wife to try this one out. Here we have everything ready...  I read the directions...this seems whisky...  Call me a whisk taker!  Not chancing the times again,  Simmer away, little grains and macaroni...until...  Be careful of what pot you use - this stuck like glue to the bottom of my old pot after simmering for 25 minutes. Doesn't look bad at all...  Bland!!! Had to add another amigo to the mix. Did they make this for retirees from Minnesota? I can say that - I have/had relatives up there, and they think Gazpatcho is spicy...  I suspect this was one of RH first mixes. It has everything you need for a survival/emergency food, except bold taste. Lots of calories, grains, etc. However, again, once a little zip was loaded in we cleared our plates, texture was good. Then again, I was born and raised in the Desert Southwest, and was eating Mexican food while still a toddler. For a Northener, it might be just fine as is. As for me and my house, we will serve the hot sauce with the dish. |
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FYI Costco seems to be having their annual $20 off cases of Mountain House variety pack of pouches. (79.99). Only available online here but if you are following this thread... https://www.costco.com/mountain-house-emergency-meal-kit-15-pouch-assortment-(28-total-servings).product.100642273.html |
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Originally Posted By The_Beer_Slayer: if you plan t stock this in qty for actuall preps you are better off buying your own freeze dryer. So far I have a couple hundred bucks sunk into this effort, and this stuff was purchased over a period of time in small chunks. The smallest freeze dryer I found actually in stock with a quick Google search is $2,600, and that's the countertop small version from HarvestRight. I cannot justify that expense right now, as I do have some other expenses - I am also learning to make my own black powder. However, it is a great idea if you can do it. Until then I try to make sure we have something put aside for bad times. |
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Originally Posted By RR_Broccoli: FYI Costco seems to be having their annual $20 off cases of Mountain House variety pack of pouches. (79.99). Only available online here but if you are following this thread... https://www.costco.com/mountain-house-emergency-meal-kit-15-pouch-assortment-(28-total-servings).product.100642273.html |
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When I go back to work from FMLA, I probably will slow down on these a bit. However, this IS fun and mostly tasty. Next in the lineup is something else I couldn't find in the case pouches...so I have one year from today to eat it all. No problem.  Directions SEEM easy enough...  Looks like egg powder, or dry corn chowder.  Those sneaky so-and-sos, they put TWO oxygen absorbers in here!  Hail, hail, the gangs all here. You guys are probably COMPLETELY sick of seeing my stove, but it's only a year old and it works great.  This stuff splorts all over the place! Also, the water is NOT enough, I added another 1/4 cup just to try to stay close to the recipe...  Hmm, looks good enough.  Two cups of water, two bowls of soup...seriously, much more like a potato version of mac and cheese. Also, those are bigger bowls.  A part of this unbalanced, unhealthy all American dinner including naked Cheddar brats and homemade wheat bread. Yes, it didn't rise enough - it's only the 3rd loaf I've ever cooked in the oven.  Final takeaways - water. Needs a half or a whole extra cup of water to be soup. The taste was reminiscent of the better mac and cheese stuff, (higher than WalMart or Safeway, lower than Grandma's home style stuff), but needed no flavoring or seasonings whatsoever. I was quite pleased. The wife agreed on the water issue, but to her it was far too salty. I didn't think so, but in the interest of fairness, both opinions are presented. Flavor was good, texture was good, 100% will make this again, but with 1.5 times water...and I think I'll add some fresh mushrooms. Hey, to keep with the spirit of this thing, in YOUR area of operations you might have fresh mushrooms growing...the ones you eat, not the ones to get high...or both...  Edit to add months later, (after I figured out where I screwed up), I still have a bowl of this every so often, good, tasty stuff. |
And the mystery is SOLVED! The recipe was not at fault, it was the loose nut behind the spoon! While we were looking at the pictures, it became painfully obvious that because I was doing three things at once, I got my numbers turned around. It is 1/2 cup of mix to 2.5 cups of water, not 1.25 cups of mix to 2 cups of water. So, I screwed it up, NOT the manufacturer...betcha money it's a LOT better the right way. So, we will call the above recipe, "How to turn potato cheddar soup into potato cheddar mac and cheese". Oops...  
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You are most welcome, I'm having fun doing this, too. BTW, the reason I did not delete the whole string above when I discovered I was the screw-up is two fold. One, people make mistakes, and in highly emotional and stressful events like, oh, survival in weird times, better to see it here and know what to avoid. Second, my ego is not too big to poke fun at myself for a goofup. Ask my staff - I'll be the first person to say, "well, I jacked that up, anyone got any ideas?" |
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Call me crazy, but I think really thick cheesy potato goop would be more enjoyable than thinner potato soup. Assuming of course, that the extra water wasn't of critical importance to the person consuming it during emergencies. Reminds me of cheese grits! Now add shrimp or crab meat, and that would be delicious under any circumstances! Side note: if bread isn't working out quite right for you, try making your own naan. Super simple and fluffy and bubbly like pizza dough. That's one thing I would like to see these food companies branch out into...what if they had a variety pack of freeze dried international foods? Variety could expand their customer base, and variety could be an important psychological factor for survival food. |
Among our chief weapons are...
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Well, not a title I ever expected on my tombstone... I did the smallest batch for breakfast, since I hate leaving a job half done. Reducing heat to medium still had the mix boil off a lot of water. I did add some diced baby bellas to the mix. Attached File Thick soup, still tastes great. Added shrooms at the last 5 minutes, not sure if it helped anything or not. Still a solid winner to me. |
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My wife picked this one out from the care package to try tonight, as a side dish for another thing I have never tried - "brisket in a bag". OK, lets do this! I have seen and bought Readywise back in the day, but apparently they have branched out into some new stuff. This one looks interesting.  Now, to keep this SEMI-legit I will follow the instructions and do the whole "cook in the bag" thing...kinda like the brisket, right? See the theme, eh, eh, eh? Snicker, snort.   If you want the answers to the riddles, I did read the bottom of the bag, and they ARE as bad as you think they are. Well, well, well, there is that ever present oxygen absorber...I think they all get them from the same guys.  OK, two cups of boiling water fresh from the microwave...yes, the whisk is to mix with. I discovered later that was NOT a really good idea. Spoon better. 'Nuff said.  Sealed it up and set the phone timer for 15 minutes - the oven timer was busy with da beef. And voila!...ah, well, um, "wall lah"? That looks odd.  OK, after being restirred with the spoon, this time, it looks a lot better...better than the beef! (That was good, but really peppery). The noodles needed NO extra spices or flavorings, could taste the sweet faintly with the spicey, nice pairing. If you are a Northerner who thinks black pepper is really spicy, ya'll might wanna avoid this one. But my wife and I enjoyed it, not too shabby at all, well done, ReadyWise. Easy cleanup, that's for certain! 
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BTW, dessert was in a bag, too. Found this local today. Very dry, but tasty little lumps. Very expensive for what you get, but cookie bites that last five years ain't a bad thing. Attached File Speaking of that, I couldn't find the expiration date on the ReadyWise bag, weird, but not bad. |
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Originally Posted By armoredman: BTW, dessert was in a bag, too. Found this local today. Very dry, but tasty little lumps. Very expensive for what you get, but cookie bites that last five years ain't a bad thing. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/360589/20230505_184548_jpg-2807177.JPG Speaking of that, I couldn't find the expiration date on the ReadyWise bag, weird, but not bad. Those look like the hunks of cookie dough you get in cookie dough ice cream! |
LET'S GO BRANDON.
I have to go back to work, and there is something in that nice care package that I would not have likely bought myself, but it comes in VERY handy now. This is survival coffee.  It's instant coffee. I have no idea how long regular instant coffee will survive in the standard glass or plastic container, but this one is good for 30 years.  I broke out one of my older coffee cups, - this one was gifted to me in my armored trucking days...when my partner discovered that stopping for a bean burrito lunch at Taco Bell meant the rest of the day was "foul" - you can't roll down the windows!  It's really hard to hype this up - it's like every version I've ever had, which hasn't been in a while...so, I think this counts as a rounded teaspoon.  WHOA!  This stuff is black as a Democrat's heart and as bitter as a 20 year divorce! I am also not going to sleep for about 24 hours, I think. On the other hand, I did have some creamer on hand which really helped. The one thing this reminded me of was that scene in "Alas, Babylon", where our hero remembered his "iron rations", which he had forgotten had a 6 ounce jar of instant coffee, which, of course, everyone had run out of months before. If you haven't read this book...do so. Final grade is about the same as any other instant coffee, about 5 out of 10 with creamer, and a solid 1 out of 10 without. Full disclosure - my wife has gotten me into the fru-fru coffee from Dutch Brothers of the last years and a half, so my taste buds have..."changed" from my Navy coffee days. This would have fit right in on the Mess Deck. I will probably take it to work, so if ANYONE starts to nod off...heh, heh, I have a solution.
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I didn’t feel like cooking a couple weeks ago so I made this. It was very good. Attached File |