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All of the vegetarian military MRE's are delicious. I could eat that cheese tortellini for dinner tonight. But as pointed out above, a MRE case has just two vegetarian choices per case. Good news is that they are the first to go up on Ebay as single meals. Still an expensive way to buy them.
This idea may be more work than you care to do. Instead of buying premade/packaged meals just buy the individual cans of dehydrated vegetables and make up your own food combo's.
there are books available with recipes for putting together your own soup combo's using dry/dehydrated stuff. I've even found recipes online for making gift jars etc. those ideas can be used for everyday use as well as to give as gifts at the holidays.
Most dehydrated items come in #10 cans but they can be divided into smaller portions. Found an article recently on oven canning dry foods for storage, but I don't remember what magazine it was in, at the moment...found it in COUNTRYSIDE mag. SEP/OCT 2011!!
Basically it described filling canning jars , any size you wanted, with dry food items(ie. beans, rice, noodles, dry veggies,flour or whatever), then putting them into the oven and heating them up for about an hour, then removing the jars one by one ,putting lids & rings on them and setting them aside to cool. The jars would seal and the food item could then be put on the shelf for storage without the problems of bugs hatching or moisture getting in to cause spoilage. The article gives all the details.
Even simpler way would be to use a SEAL-A-MEAL unit and package smaller portions of dry foods for storage. Just a thought!
I'm Veg but I ate all meats before and I'm sure any vegetarian would love some beef jerky if they're hungry. I get tempted sometimes but I just don't eat meat because of the GMO and cruelty of the meat companies. I'd have less trouble hunting down an organic animal in the wild if I was hungry.... one thing i look forward to when SHTF, eating meat again.
I stopped eating most of the meat available in grocery stores several years ago, and though the options available for higher quality meats are expensive I'm not sorry for making the switch. It just means eating less meat in general, and I appreciate the higher quality so much more.
I had nearly stopped eating meat altogether after reading about the hormones, antibiotics etc and the way commercial feedlots operated (chicken feathers and chicken poop being fed to cows ick!)...both in the types of food fed to these creatures and the cruelty aspect of it all. I rarely ate eggs for the same reason. Then I started shopping for alternatives, cruelty free, free-range, grass-fed, no antibiotics or hormones. About the only place in my area that carries all of that regularly is Whole Foods, which is pricey. But the quality is a lot higher, the taste is so much better, and I don't feel guilty about eating meat and eggs or dairy products anymore.
For those of you who buy conventionally raised animals/animal products, I don't judge you for your choices. I just made a change for me, and don't expect everyone to live as I do nor make the choices I make. One of the benefits of being in America, we are all free to make our own choices and live as we please! But even choosing to eat as I do, I don't eat an awful lot of meat in general anymore. I am mostly vegetarian, because it is less expensive and because there are so many more vegetarian options available these days. I even occasionally eat vegan, but only when I really like the recipe and not for the ethical reasons vegans choose. I don't think I could ever become a full-on vegan, I like cheese and eggs too much and other forbidden items like honey and good leather shoes, silk and wool clothing, and yes...meat!
There are good jerkies at places like trader joes, some health food stores or natural grocers, and a few places online; just look for 'grass-fed' when you search online because these producers tend to have the highest standards. Of course check the ingredients and even call the place and ask questions if you feel the need to verify. It shouldn't have any nitrates added beyond that in the natural salt used for processing. And natural spice names, not chemical names.
Many store 'jerkies' are frightening, I agree, certainly not something to survive upon.
Making one's own jerky is not that difficult - or so I've been told, haha. That's a project for another year
I'm closer to carnivore than vegan/vegetarian, and I get frustrated at how few of the ready-meals actually contain real meat (most are tvp which causes me extreme health problems). I've found it's much easier to buy long-term storage ingredients and make my own meals with exactly what I want and expect in them. We do practice Meatless Mondays and Fishy Fridays to stretch our food budget and force us to get creative with our food variety.
In any case, I do suggest that you also get dehydrated/freeze-dried ingredients in bulk and make up your own ready-meal combinations if you don't want to cook "from scratch" all the time. There are several companies that offer freeze-dried "instant" beans and grains that are par-boiled before drying, so they cook up really fast. I wouldn't trust a manufacturer's claim of "vegetarian" any more than I'd trust their "all natural" claims unless I'd studied the company and possibly visited their facility. certified Kosher and Halal are the only exceptions, but those aren't necessarily vegetarian... but if a Kosher or Halal food is listed as vegetarian, you can be 99.9% sure there aren't any animal products in there. Ovo-Lacto Vegetarian may be easier to find than pure Vegan though.
Being vegetarian/vegan, I'm sure you're somewhat familiar with taking standard recipes and modifying them to remove/replace the animal products. There are many Make-A-Meal type books available that contain bulk long-term storage "box meal" recipes from shelf-stable ingredients, and I'm sure that many of them could be modified to be vegetarian (of whichever caliber) or vegan with a little experimentation. Check out everydayfoodstorage.net, or do a search on Amazon for "cooking with food storage".
I'm vegetarian. I'm not talking about canned food, like u buy from the grocery store, but ones that come packed in boxes as meals. I visited one brand efoodsdirect which is a site that ships their food. Does anyone know any other brands? I'd like to order a month supply. One that doesn't taste bad or leave u feeling hungry or isn't hard to prepare.
Also a lot of these freeze dried and deydrated foods with 50 year shelf lives strike me as being very expensive and devoid of any nutrition.
I personally wouldn't want to waste my $$ unless I was getting nutrition. What good is the food if after you eat it you still die from malnourishment?
Just filling your stomach with so called 'food" isn't enough.
Some vitamins degrade during cooking and storage; however all the minerals, macronutrients and calories are still there. If you can add fresh foods into your diet when they're in season along with the stored staple foods, you're not in danger of malnutrition. If you're truly concerned, also stock long-life vitamin supplements. With all these foods and supplements, it's best to keep them in rotation so they don't expire and have the highest nutritional value possible... that's why most real-life "preppers" tell you to store what you eat and eat what you store.
I've been eat 85% shelf stable long-term storage foods for over 2 years now (off-grid, no fridge, short growing period) and all my quarterly blood work has come back just fine. The only tricky one is Vitamin C in the winter... so I stock up on a ton of berries and rose hips when they're in season and dry them, and eat lots of cold stored potatoes and cabbage (esp. kraut). Vitamin D can be a problem in the winter because of the lack of sunlight (less than 2 hours), but I manage that with extra fish and animal products. Most folks don't live in our extreme climate, so could easily eat fresh at least twice as long as we can... having stored food in their case means that they're sure to have enough calories and protein to maintain good energy and body condition during the lean months.
Missing, do you have white pine trees? The new this years growth is loaded with vit C. Other conifers do to. When I get a cold, I will make up 1 oz of new growth in a hot steaming cup of water, and add honey. Seems to work pretty well.
We have white (and black) spruce up here, and both make for fairly decent needle tea. We do harvest new growth in the early summer, dry it, and keep it in our herbal stores to use during winter. The vit C is somewhat reduced by drying and storage, but it still packs a punch for a few months. Our anti-cold remedy tea is a pinch of needles, a couple crushed rose hips, a few Labrador tea leaves, a dollop of cranberry syrup, some honey and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
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But even choosing to eat as I do, I don't eat an awful lot of meat in general anymore. I am mostly vegetarian, because it is less expensive and because there are so many more vegetarian options available these days. I even occasionally eat vegan, but only when I really like the recipe and not for the ethical reasons vegans choose. I don't think I could ever become a full-on vegan, I like cheese and eggs too much and other forbidden items like honey and good leather shoes, silk and wool clothing, and yes...meat!
