How to Make Homemade MREs

Last Updated on August 7, 2024 by Veronica Sparks

Most practical prepping enthusiasts know that having a supply of preserved meals is wise. Making your own MREs, however, is a practical and rewarding endeavor for anyone looking to prepare for emergencies, camping trips, or just wanting to have a stockpile of convenient meals on hand. Homemade MREs can be tailored to your tastes, dietary needs, and budget, making them a versatile addition to your pantry.

Let’s walk through the steps of creating your own MREs and provide some inspiring meal ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks!

What Are MREs?

MREs, or “Meals Ready to Eat,” are self-contained, individual field rations typically used by the military. They are designed to be lightweight, long-lasting, and easy to prepare, often requiring just a bit of water to rehydrate the meal. MREs are perfect for emergency situations like food shortages, evacuations, and unrest. They’re also useful for outdoor adventures like camping and hiking, or any time you need a quick, no-fuss meal.

Benefits of Homemade MREs

Creating homemade MREs comes with several advantages. One big advantage is that you can tailor the contents of each meal to your preferences and dietary needs. Let’s explore some other benefits of homemade MREs!

Reduce Food Waste In Your Home

Homemade MREs allow you to utilize leftover ingredients and avoid throwing away food. By preserving these ingredients, you extend their shelf life and recycle food waste, making your kitchen more efficient and environmentally friendly.

Less Preservatives

Commercial MREs often contain high levels of preservatives to ensure long shelf life. When you make your own MREs, you have control over what goes into your meals, allowing you to avoid excessive preservatives and additives, resulting in healthier options.

However, remember that this means your homemade MREs may not have the long shelf life that commercial MREs have. More on that later!

Cost Savings

Store-bought MREs can be expensive. By creating your own, you can significantly cut costs. Bulk buying and preserving your own food can lead to substantial savings over time. This is especially true if you source ingredients from your home grown vegetable garden or you purchase food when it’s on sale or in season.

Emergency Preparedness

Having a stash of homemade MREs ensures you’re prepared for emergencies. Whether it’s a natural disaster or an unexpected event, these ready-to-eat meals can provide you and your family with the sustenance needed during tough times — even if you find yourself in a situation where you’re traveling in the wilderness.

Related Article: Emergency Stockpile Checklist: Here’s What You’ll Really Need In Case of Power Failure or Crisis

How to Make Your Own MREs

Creating homemade MREs might seem daunting, but it’s quite straightforward once you understand the process. Here are the key steps to get you started on making your own convenient and nutritious preserved meals.

1. Decide on a Preservation Method

Most homemade MREs will have an element of dehydrating food. Choosing between a dehydrator and a freeze dryer, then, is the first step.

Dehydrator Method

Dehydrators are less expensive and easier to use but don’t preserve the food’s texture and nutritional content as well as freeze dryers.

Related Article: How to Build a DIY Solar Dehydrator

Freeze Drying Method

Freeze dryers, on the other hand, can be costly but provide superior preservation, making the food taste fresher and maintain its nutrients better.

2. Gather Your Tools and Materials

In addition to a dehydrator or freeze dryer, you’ll need Mylar bags, oxygen absorbers, a vacuum sealer, and possibly some desiccant packets. These tools and materials ensure your MREs are properly sealed and protected from moisture, oxygen, and pests.

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3. Pick the Right Foods

It’s important to include a balanced mix of proteins, carbohydrates, and vitamins in your MREs. Opt for foods that are nutritious, lightweight, and have a long shelf life. Examples include lean meats, whole grains, legumes, dried fruits, and nuts.

4. Preserve Your Meals

Once you’ve selected your ingredients, the next step is to dehydrate or freeze-dry them. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for your equipment, ensuring that all moisture is removed from the food to maximize its shelf life.

5. Separate and Package

After preserving your food, divide it into portion sizes suitable for individual meals. Use Mylar bags to package the portions, adding an oxygen absorber to each bag before sealing it with a vacuum sealer. This will help prevent spoilage and maintain freshness.

6. Store Properly

Store your homemade MREs in a cool, dark place to maximize their shelf life. Avoid areas with high humidity or temperature fluctuations, such as basements or attics. Proper storage ensures your meals remain edible and safe for longer periods.

Homemade MRE Ideas: Breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and your homemade MREs should reflect that. Here are some delicious and nutritious ideas to get you started.

Related Article: How to Preserve Chicken Eggs: Don’t Let Your Hens’ Hard Work Go to Waste!

Eggs and Turkey Bacon

A classic breakfast combo, eggs paired with turkey bacon makes for a rich breakfast that’s satisfying and will sustain you for hours. You can dehydrate raw scrambled eggs to make a powder that’s shelf stable. You just need silicone or plastic fruit roll sheets to add to your dehydrator tray! Then you’ll need to cook the eggs once you rehydrate them for eating.

Turn your turkey bacon into jerky in your dehydrator and you’ve got a delicious protein-packed breakfast!

Oatmeal with Nuts and Dried Fruits

For this one, you can simply purchase oatmeal packets or separate out steel cut oats, nuts, and dehydrated berries, bananas, or apples into your mylar bags. You can also include individual packets of honey, maple syrup, cinnamon, or brown sugar to flavor your oatmeal with. Just add hot water, and you have a hearty breakfast ready in minutes.

Protein Bars

Homemade protein bars can be tailored to your taste and nutritional needs, and their ingredients are shelf stable. They’re perfect for a quick breakfast on the go!

Cereal or Granola with Powdered Milk

Did you know you can make your own powdered milk in a dehydrator? Again, you just need that silicone fruit roll tray in your dehydrator.

For this breakfast MRE, you’ll combine your favorite cereal or granola with powdered milk for an easy and filling breakfast. Just add water to rehydrate the milk when you’re ready to eat.

Homemade MRE Ideas: Lunch

Lunch should be satisfying and nutritious to keep you going through the day, but they should also be light enough to not weigh you down if you’re on the move. Here are some ideas for homemade MRE lunches.

Soups

Dehydrated soups are lightweight and easy to prepare. Consider dehydrating soups like chicken noodle, vegetable, lentil, or beef and barley for highly nutritious and hearty options.

When you’re dehydrating brothy soups, it’s difficult to dehydrate the broth itself. Many recommend separating the solids from the broth and then adding back in some of the solids and blending the broth. This makes the liquid pastier so you can dehydrate it easily on silicon trays.

Another option is to simply dehydrate the solids, add them to your mylar bags, and then add in some homemade bouillon powder or seasoning packets to flavor the solids and water once it’s rehydrated.

Pair your soup MREs with homeade hardtack bread, a dense cracker-like bread, for a complete and filling meal!

Chili

Chili is another hearty and flavorful option that dehydrates well. It’s packed with protein from the turkey or beef and also contains a good amount of fiber from the beans, making it a great lunch choice. Consider adding in some veggies like onions, peppers, or carrots when you’re cooking the chili, and you’ll also have a serving of nutritious vegetables in your lunch MRE!

To dehydrate chili, simply spread it onto silicon dehydrator inserts and dehydrate it until it’s completely dry and brittle. then, break it up into small pieces and pack it into mylar bags. Avoid grinding it down too small if you like to have some chunkiness to your chili.

Hummus and Crackers

Hummus dehydrates like a dream, and dehydrated hummus rehydrates easily as well. It pairs well with crackers for a satisfying and healthy lunch option that’s also quick and easy to prepare without boiling water.

Consider adding some homemade greens powder into your dehydrated hummus powder for a veggie-packed boost to your dippable MRE lunch!

Tuna Salad and Crackers

Tuna salad can be prepared and dehydrated for an easy MRE lunch. Simply dehydrate the plain tuna as well as veggies like celery and onions — but don’t add mayo or any oil before dehydrating! Place the dried tuna and veggies into a mylar bag and you’ll be able to rehydrate them with boiling water. You can include individual mayo or mustard packets as well as seasonings in your mylar bag for when you’re ready to eat it.

You can also opt for packets of store-bought tuna instead of dehydrating your tuna, which is certainly an easier option. However, those packets don’t last as long in storage as the dehydrated version.

Pack your tuna salad mylar bag with whole grain crackers as well for a balanced and delicious MRE lunch!

Homemade MRE Ideas: Dinner

Dinner MREs should be hearty, filling, and satisfying, providing the necessary nutrients to end your day and sleep well — even when you’re stuck in the wild. Here are some MRE dinner ideas!

Pasta with Veggies and Meat

Dried pasta packs well into mylar bags, and you can also add in dehydrated meats and veggies to create meals like chicken and broccoli pasta or spaghetti with peppers, onions, and meat sauce.

You can prepare the entire pasta dish and dehydrate it, or you can just dehydrate the meats, sauce, and veggies and add dried pasta to the mylar bags.

Beef Roast & Mashed Potatoes

Beef and potatoes is a classic dinner choice that can be easily dehydrated and rehydrated. Prepare the roast as you would for a normal dinner. Then, spread it out onto your dehydrator trays. You’ll have to shred the beef up into small, evenly sized pieces to dehydrate it appropriately.

For dehydrated mashed potatoes, prepare the potatoes without any milk, butter, or oil. This is very important since the potatoes won’t rehydrate well with these ingredients and there’s a higher risk of going rancid. Once cooked and mashed, spread the mashed potatoes onto silicone dehydrator trays and dry them out. Once dry, break up the pieces and grind them down into a powder for better storage and space-saving.

Pack the dehydrated meat and potatoes into separate mylar bags and toss some dehydrated veggies like carrots, celery, and onions into the bag with the beef. Feel free to include a packet of gravy powder to hydrate and pour over your beef and potatoes when you’re ready to eat!

This is a comforting and filling dinner option that’s perfect for your MRE stash.

Chicken and Vegetables with Rice

Chicken, vegetables, and rice make a balanced and nutritious dinner. Dehydrate the chicken and vegetables separately and add them to a mylar bag with dry rice. Once you’re ready to eat this meal, mix everything together and rehydrate with boiling water. You may have to cook the rice a little longer, so you could opt to cook them separately.

Mexican Rice and Beans

Mexican rice and beans are a flavorful and protein-rich dinner option. They dehydrate well and rehydrate quickly, making them ideal for MREs. You can simply pack raw, dried beans and rice into a mylar bag and toss in a seasoning packet of taco or chipotle seasoning. Feel free to add veggies like dehydrated onions, peppers, or carrots to the mix!

Beef Stew

Beef stew is a hearty and warming meal that can be easily preserved through dehydrating. What’s best is that you can also add dehydrated carrots, onions, and celery for a nutritional boost.

Follow a similar process as dehydrating chili, and you’ll have a delicious and filling meal even in the wilderness. It’s perfect for dinner after a long day, providing ample nutrients and satisfaction.

Bonus tip: include a packet of dehydrated mashed potatoes and pour your rehydrated stew over your rehydrated potatoes!

Homemade MRE Ideas: Snacks

If you’re on-the-go in an emergency or crisis situation, you need some fast nutrition. Having a variety of snacks is essential for keeping energy levels up throughout a day of stress, travel, and wilderness living.

Here are some snack ideas for your homemade MREs, most of which require no preparation (except boiling water for the hot beverages):

• Protein bars
• Crackers with nut butter
• Trail mix
• Jerky
• Dehydrated fruit
• Homemade fruit leather
• Instant coffee with instant creamer
• Tea bags
• Hot cocoa packets

Related Article: How to Make Homemade Coffee Creamer

How Long Do Homemade MREs Last?

The shelf life of homemade MREs can vary depending on the preservation method, storage conditions, and the type of food you’re preparing. Generally, dehydrated foods can last anywhere from 6 months to 2 years, while freeze-dried foods can last 5 to 25 years. Proper sealing and storage are crucial to maximizing the shelf life of your homemade MREs.

Tips for Making Homemade MREs

• Label each package with the contents and the date of preparation.
• Rotate your MRE stock regularly by consuming the oldest items and replenishing your stock with newly preserved meals.
• Experiment with different recipes to keep your meals varied and enjoyable.
• Consider including a small amount of cooking oil or some cans of cooking spray in your stockpile for cooking items in pots or pans over a fire.
• Don’t forget about seasoning packets for your MREs for added flavor and palatability. Consider packets of salt and pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.
• Also, stock up on condiments like individual packets of mustard, mayo, ketchup, honey, hot sauce, and barbeque sauce.

Cautions for Homemade MREs

• Ensure all equipment and materials you use are clean and dry to prevent contamination and rot in your prepared MREs.
• Avoid using foods with high-fat content as they can spoil more quickly.
• Check for signs of spoilage prior to consuming any homemade MREs.
• Be mindful of allergies and dietary restrictions when preparing your MREs.
• Store MREs in a cool, dry place. Consider storing them in large, airtight bins away from moisture and temperature fluctuations.

Ready to Make Your Own MREs?

Making homemade MREs is a practical and rewarding way to ensure you have nutritious and convenient meals on hand for any situation. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can create a variety of tasty and long-lasting meals tailored to your needs.

Whether you’re preparing for emergencies, planning a camping trip, or just looking for ways to reduce food waste in your home, homemade MREs offer a versatile and cost-effective solution.

Start today and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with being prepared!