Taste Test: Wise Cheesy Lasagna.
This is from the Wise 60 entree emergency meal bucket for $100+
Glad I opened it. There are not 60 packages, but 30. Each package says, "4 adult servings."
It was average. Nothing spectacular. But filling. Taste wise, its more than you could ask for in an emergency.
Still its no where near four servings worth. I could see two servings for normal people. Me, I ate two thirds, so its an entree and a snack for later. It could have stretched to serve more people if I had rice to serve as well.
After a weekend of testing, I found out several things.
1) you can cook this with cold water.
2) you can nuke it just fine.
3) the freeze dried process is not aromatic at all. Good for when you don't want people knowing that you are eating a decent meal.
My conclusion. Freeze dried is fine for long term storage. But this is something you want to supplement with other sources of food as well, like cans.
and lastly, in an apartment style situation, rice is far better than bread. Its a good supplement for your other meals that can be prepared with cold water. It stores forever. It may be boring, but it can keep you alive and healthy.
Here's a question. Any long term vitamin storage?
Talk to at least 2-3 Pharmacists about this. Go to different drug stores as you want a second and third openion on this.
Some vitamins have an expiration date that is rather odd, I have a bottle of Centrum that has been hiding in back of cupboard for a couple years. Expiration date reads AUG 10. Does this mean they were good until Aug 2010 ? They have not yet begun to fall apart or go powder as Nitro will become powder in 6 months.
Aspirin, Bayer extra strength bought last June will expire on 4/13 Another think about is if the bottles remain unopened will they last longer then those opened.
We be talking complicated chemistry here. Check the expiration date on OTC pain or vitamins. I have no idea what the plastic coating on liquid vitamins is made of, Most instructions read to store in a cool dark place. Does this mean in the refrigerator or in a cellar ??
Some of this OTC is very explicit, NyQuil bought in Dec 2011 has a date of 10/20/14. Does this mean on
10/ 21/ 14 the stuff turns to crap ???
Good luck, in some cases medication and vitamins are more important then food to store and use for barter.
In a bad SHTF, a tube of baby Numb Zit to barter will be worth it's weight in gold for someone with an abscessed tooth. A small tube of or packages of Hemorrhoid suppositories ---People will not be eating normally and those Hemmies are a pain in the butt.
For the females after putting out for food, a bunch of anti yest infection medication. Old fashion Iodine. many uses for that.
Perhaps off topic maybe not. It is said in the old west the one person that had no fear of Indians or robbers were the traveling tinkers. Trade for the Settlers and Indians was their life line. To steal or kill a tinker would mean others avoid that area and without trade for necessity's the people as a whole would suffer.
A few months food for yourself is fine but what to do when the food runs out. Few can trade Aunt Nelly's table lamp for more food, but anything you have from needles and thread to sew up a wound to a bottle of Clorox to sanitize water will keep you fed.
Survival is more then filling your own belly for a short time.
Hubby came across a WW2 flight medical kit fully stocked. Interesting as there were cans of Ether, bottles of some kind of elixir, fishing hooks, fishing lines, a few surgical knives, old rotting rolls of gauze and tape. At one time boxes of water proof matches, a small mirror to signal distress and a couple whistles, tweezers, safety pins and needles and thread. Lots of stuff packed into a small box perhaps 18 "inches by 5-6 " As the kit was over 40 years old at the time and the included maps that we could still read we figured these kits were used in the South Pacific.
Check out the Military stores that sell and auction off no longer needed government property. Some of these medical survival kits are almost brand new and never used. When a base closes down everything goes, broke my heart when I saw winter survival tents for sale at $100 a piece, sleeping bags for Arctic use for $80.00
Only thing I bought was a jet pilots jacket with a wolf trim hood, best jacket I ever bought and the Ex Airforce men I worked came unglued when I wore it--------Where on earth did you get that Jacket ?????
