Taste Test Report with Children

WILD_WEASEL · Post by **WILD_WEASEL** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 12:48 pm

Thought I’d pass along a taste test I conducted with my children. Recently I bought a couple of cases of MREs to supplement my emergency food supply, in the event of a earthquake or power outage here in Southern California. My 10 yo son and 7 yo daughter are two of the pickiest eaters I’ve ever known and I wanted to see how they’d do with MREs. For the test I picked menus 18 - Turkey Breast Pot/Gravy and 20 - Spaghetti w/Meat Sauce. I prepared both for the taste test and once plated it was apparent that a single MRE could be split between both my children for a hot meal. They enjoyed the Turkey w/gravy the best, but liked the spaghetti almost as well. Of the bread sides the crackers with peanut butter was their favorite, but again liked the wheat bread with cheese spread. The strawberry instant shake got a just OK rating, while the cherry bug juice was their favorite. I saved the hard candy (Charms) and the cheese pretzels for a later snack and the kids enjoyed these too.

Post by **kman** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 12:58 pm

Hi Wild_Weasel - welcome to the forums!

Thanks for the report. That sounds pretty similar to the report DirtyDave (another forum member) gave about his daughter's favorite MRE - Spaghetti w/ Meat Sauce.

MREs seem like they would make pretty good kid-food. After all, they are made to give troops a taste of food from home. Well...maybe not food like "mama used to cook" - but Spaghetti, Pot Roast, Chicken and Rice - nothing fancy but decent tasting and filling. And certainly nothing like "sauteed snails in buttercream sauce". Ug.

Rey · Post by **Rey** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 12:42 am

I just tried the shake the other day myself the only thing in an mre that I have not liked.

Post by **DIRTYDAVE** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 4:19 am

Hey Wild Weasel, nice to see you in the forums. Great name! Were you a true Wild Weasel in Vietnam by chance?

My daughter loves the chocolate shake, you may want to let them try that one. I never liked strawberry Quik or anything strawberry based as a kid as it has a habit of tasting too artificial. The chocolate powdered drink mixes seem hard for anyone to screw up. I would be willing to bet that they would really prefer the chocolate shake over the vanilla or strawberry. My daughter also enjoyed eating the bev base powder out of a bowl, I mean just the powder...no water! LOL! You know how kids are and in an emergency this would help cut down on water usagae...LOL!

Spaghetti, as kman pointed out, has been my daughters favorite, but she also seem to like most of the meat based ones like the meatloaf and gravy.