With Military/DOD issue boxes of MREs costing upwards of $160 these are a much cheaper alternative. Dispite not having a full 12 meals(there are only 10) & no flameless heaters its a real bargan at under $40. Variety could be better. My one major complaint. Nearly every meal I got was dispite the different menu numbers on every bag is all mostly just Vegetable Barley Stew or Rice with Vegitables with Peas in Tomato Sauce as a side. Nearly all of them were the same. Also nearly every snack was crackers with peanut butter & grape jelly except maybe one that had a tortilla. Military MREs at least mix it up with a few that have cheese spread especially the latin meals that include a tortilla & no cracker. I guess for a refugee surviving in a war or disaster torn country they are great for a free meal for them but a few minor changes would make them so much better.

Firstly, all of mine were well within their expiration date and I got 2 of all meals 1-5. For your home emergency kit, these are a great budget option. They were all completely fresh and nothing was stale or poorly packaged.

They're all also vegetarian, but I found the mains to still be super satisfying.

Personally I think they're such a ridiculously good value that I find myself eating one every week or two, spread across the week.

They are very spartan - a tiny bit more than they need to be, IMO. I'd have paid an extra $0.50-$1.00 for them to include a coffee and tea bag (they come with sugar but no beverage) as well as one more package of vegetable crackers or just all that instead of a cookie, since all the mains pair insanely well with the vegetable crackers. The matches work, but suck (but that hardly matters, we aren't living in refugee camps) and the spoon is of good quality, it comes with black pepper and red chili flakes (both of which are very welcome)

The variety is also pretty wanting and very over-heavy on the sweets, which is disappointing since the savory components are genuinely phenomenal - every one came with two unfrosted actual brand-name brown sugar/cinnamon pop tarts (my favorite, so no complaints there) as well as a shortbread cookie, oatmeal cookie, peanut butter and strawberry jam. The savory components are all vegetarian, with two retort pouches and a package of vegetable crackers.

As for the food taste itself, I'll start with the weak points. I don't have a huge sweet tooth, so I was a little disappointed in that part. The poptarts are exactly what you'd expect - Brown sugar/cinnamon is the only flavor I like, so that's great. The oatmeal cookie is very dry and dense but satisfying, not too sweet and the peanut butter helps it a lot. I was a lot less keen on the shortbread cookie, which was also very dry, dense, and not to my taste. It is palatable with the strawberry jam to take up some of the dryness, but it's not satisfying to me at all. The peanut butter and jam themselves are quite good.

Now for the strengths. The savory parts are the real standout. They're all vegetarian, and the portions seem small, but I'm not out fighting a war, so they work out to be absolutely perfect portions. I just had the vegetable barley stew with some triscuits and the oatmeal cookie + peanut butter for dinner since my wife's not home this evening, and I'm super full.

There are only a few different mains too, rice and vegetables, vegetable barley stew, "peas" and tomatoes (Black eye peas), etc. And they are all generally same-y, but with some of the crushed pepper, they've all got a lovely flavor and very satiating. They also all somehow make great dips for tortilla chips or crackers.

And the star of the HDR is the vegetable crackers. I genuinely wish I could buy those things by the case, they're straight up fantastic on their own - not dry, not stale, not bland, but they really elevate the mains with some crunch and more savory flavors. Seriously, I wish I knew where to buy them on their own, I'd never buy chips, saltines or triscuits again. The only downside is that you only get one pack per HDR and both rations really need them, so I wind up supplementing them with a tortilla or aforementioned triscuits.

I didn't notice them being "gassy" like another reviewer mentioned. I like meat, but I think that person might just need more fiber in their daily diet.

I find myself using about one a week on its own, bringing a little collapsible silicone bowl for microwaving the mains and a baggie of crackers or tortilla chips to supplement the vegetable crackers. I'll eat the poptarts if I don't have time to make breakfast, I'll have the cookies if I'm in the university library and studying, and I'll have a main for lunch a couple times a week. I carry my own hot-sauce, so a little of that also livens up the mains. The only way they could be better for this is if the shortbread cookie was replaced with a granola bar or another pack of those crackers (two big cookies a day is just too much), include some kind of beverage like instant coffee and/or tea, and if there was some way to (and this is truly a first world problem) make the retort pouches microwave-safe.

Oh, and the bags they come in are super sturdy and tolerate being knocked around like a champ.

So overall, for under $5 for an entire day's worth of calories, I'm seriously nitpicking. These are solid for camping, good to keep one or two in your car's emergency kit, and worth keeping a couple cases at home for your disaster kit. I find them a great way to have portion control for the occasional meal throughout the week, too. They were a godsend when I worked in the field as a paramedic and sometimes went an entire 12-24hrs without seeing my station.

Seriously though. It's an entire day's worth of pretty wholesome food for $5. The fact that it's edible at all is kind of insane.

Love the food. Be nice if outside of meal told you what it is.

As long as you know you're getting pretty bland vegetarian food, it's good. If you're looking for something shelf stableand affordable it's a good deal. If you want flavor or meat options, look for something else.

I went into this purchase slightly nervous after trying numerous US military MRE's and having enjoyed almost every single one quite a bit. I assumed something destined for distribution at a disaster zone would be quite flavorless and lacking, but I'm happily surprised by what I've tried so far. The mains in the meal packs could definitely use some extra seasoning, but I don't think they absolutely need them to be enjoyed. The sweets in the packs are very enjoyable as well. Definitely recommend for a quick and easy meal, camping, or to keep in your house or car in case of emergencies.