We’re into our second day of eating nothing but emergency freeze dried food packs. If you recall, last week, we ate nothing but food ration bars for 3 whole days and it was rough.

For contrast, we selected a 72-hour pack of freeze dried emergency food packs from Mountain House, a division of Oregon Freeze Dry, Inc. So, far we’re doing much better. I’m not sure if it’s because we’re getting hot food, or if we’re just a little more prepared for this experience after 3 days last week. I’m leaning towards the hot food making a huge difference in providing some meal normalcy.

Yesterday, I only had two food packs that combined was a little under 800 calories. I didn’t find myself really hungry. Normal activity, but I also had a heck of lot of water to go with my meals, so that might be it.

Today, Sara chose first and she selected the granola pack. Pre-mixed with milk and blueberries. About half a cup of cold water, according to the instructions, but I went with about a cup of boiling water for a hot breakfast.

After that, instructions are the same, some mixing, seal the bag with built in zip-top and 8-10 minutes of sitting time. After that, it smells really good. Just like you’d expect instant oatmeal to be. Poured onto a bowl, and you’ll see really clearly that there are whole blueberries in the cereal, which are a pleasant surprise.

Texture wise, the granola was even a little crunchy and the blueberries were what hot blueberries are like. Soft skin just barely holding in a sticky jam like inside. Everything you’d expect. No problems here.

In fact, overall taste, this has to be the best one so far. The milk powder adds a really nice flavor and creaminess to the overall experience. To me, if you were putting together a camping pack, you might be better off just throwing a bunch of these cereal packs in there.

A whopping 500+ calories in this single meal. Mostly carbs and sugar coming from the granola, milk powder, and blueberries. But, they’re the good kind of carbs though. Balanced with about 20% of your daily fiber and 13% of your daily protein, this is one energy dense food pack. You get a whole smattering of vitamins including C, C, D, and calcium. All good things.

Next came lunch and dinner. Unfortunately, I got tied up running around town today, so only had time for late lunch/early dinner. I got to pick these two and I chose green beans and corn (two separate packs).

Again, the instructions are exactly the same. One cup of boiling water in each pack, stir, seal, and wait 8 minutes. Pour out the excess water and bingo, instant green beans and corn.

I was eager to try this as last week I found myself dying for some veggies or fruit during our 3-day test.

The texture of these two packs are dead on to boiled corn and cut green beans. The familiar green, boiled veggie stalk smell (some say stench) is totally there. The corn, smells and tastes just like corn. The green beans had almost exactly the same texture as frozen green beans.

Nutritionally, the packs were about 200 calories each, with all the familiar vitamins and minerals that you’d expect from veggies. Not a lot of sugar, some carbs, but mostly fibre and protein. Again, all good stuff here.

Turns out, the granola breakfast was more solid than I thought as all I really needed today were these 3 food packs.

So far, I’ve been really impressed and surprised with the quality of Mountain House food packs and I’m glad we bought these instead some other funky food bars. I’ve still got another day of testing to go, but so far, 2/3’s of the way through, I’m really feeling like this just slightly more than $30 3-day food pack is a great investment for an emergency pack or camping needs.

Share on Facebook