
Creative use of the "Chicken chunks" entrée - this is the MRE included tortillas, government cheese, and main fried in a pan, with some eggs from the fridge :)

Creative use of the "Chicken chunks" entrée - this is the MRE included tortillas, government cheese, and main fried in a pan, with some eggs from the fridge :)
How do you get these?
Also, how expired are they? I tried them once before, but it was expired enough that I didn't trust the meat for more than a taste.
Inspection date 12/2025, there's also a temperature sticker on the MRE box that can be used to verify that they were stored in proper conditions.
Generally these are meant to last a decade under ideal conditions (and the area I live in means the suppliers I buy from are storing these in ideal conditions)
Ebay. They are legal for civilians to purchase and possess but are illegal for service members to sell.
From what little information I have from friends in the DOD, these are often resold by contractors since there's often unused stock at various bases/supply warehouses.
How is this cheaper than just making food yourself?
I compared it against my grocery bill, this is about 50% cheaper by month compared to it. (I'm not particularly frivolous with grocery trips either).
Granted, I live in a very high cost of living area.
I mean item-for-item, have you compared the cost of MREs to making something equivalent from scratch?
Yes. I usually shop for groceries to try to cover a certain amount of days before I have to shop again.
5.50 a day (1 MRE) is a bit cheaper than the usual cost per meal if you averaged out the amount of groceries I use per day and used that as a divisor for the grocery bill.
That being said, if I had enough money I would prefer cooking everything from scratch (and prior to this new broke stretch I was).
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