Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me start off by saying my husband is a prepper. Not an over-the-top prepper, but yes, every family member has a designated "bug-out" bag. We've tried many of these types of dry packed foods (MREs and camping types), so when we saw the chance to try this bucket at a discount in return for me writing this review, of course we agreed. Before you think anything, I did NOT get this bucket for free, and we prepared one of every meal - To give a fair and honest review. So here's what's in the bucket: 3 Teriyaki and Rice packs 3 Chicken Pot Pie packs 4 Loaded Baked Potato Casserole packs 4 Tomato Basil Soup packs 7 Yogurt Flavored Desert Mix packs. Yes, you read that right - There are a total of 17 packs, with only 10 being actual meals. This is why I couldn't rate this at 5 stars. From reading the description, I thought for sure that they would be individual meals, or at least meals designed for only 2 people. Each packet containing an entrée has 4 servings. Now this works out for me, my husband and our two sons, but not for the single person. They would have to split the packets, or make all and try to save some for leftovers, or waste a lot. I would personally split the packets, but then you have to worry about moisture, spilling or mis-measuring. Not ideal. If I put that aside, the food is actually pretty tasty. I'm speaking from experience of eating many similarly packed meals, so no, I'm not expecting 5 star restaurant quality flavor. We had my sister-in-law over for dinner and made one of everything (It was a TON of food), so we had another taste tester in the house. Below are the individual entrée reviews: 1. Tomato Basil Soup. The house favorite of the bucket. My husband had a couple of small bowls of this one. I don't believe we mixed it well enough though, there were little clumps of powder still in it while we were eating. Even so, it was still the favorite for taste in my home. We actually had a conversation about mixing it into thermoses and taking it when we go hiking in the colder months. The only thing I would do different with it would be to boil it longer, and definitely use a whisk instead of just mixing it with a soup spoon. 2. Potato Casserole. My personal favorite. Both my husband and my sister-in-law rated this as their number 2. I can't tell if there are ham or bacon pieces in it, but it's tasty. It actually tastes like a loaded potato soup. It is much more of a soup than a casserole, you really need a bowl and a spoon for it. Again, I might boil it a little longer next time, the ham/bacon chunks were a little chewy - but still tasty. Honestly, if I'm planning on making this while camping (or anything not in a bunker) I would throw some shredded cheddar on top just to add a little kick. Maybe even some green onions! 3. Chicken Pot Pie. This one had mixed reviews. I thought it was fine, husband didn't care for it (but called it "edible"), sister-in-law couldn't eat it. We all agreed that it needed salt and pepper, but my sister-in-law couldn't handle the texture. It was very gooey. This was my toddler's favorite, but he doesn't talk - So I can't tell you why he loved it, just that it disappeared from his plate faster than any other entrée choice. I can tell you that it had a very strong celery flavor, and that might be why I liked it more than everyone else. 4. Teriyaki and Rice. Yuck. There's one in every variety pack, they can't all be perfect. This entrée tasted so much like ginger that my tongue tingled when I was chewing it. I couldn't finish mine. My sister-in-law said she loved ginger and ate a few bites, then admitted that this had way too much. My husband broke out the soy sauce and added a healthy dose, which toned down the ginger quite a bit, but not enough for me to eat any more. He finished his, said with the soy sauce he almost liked it more than the potato casserole. So plan to doctor it a bit, but it isn't all bad. Plus, my toddler ate a pretty good chunk of his portion, so he didn't dislike it! 5. Yogurt. This was unexpected. We thought it would be thick and creamy (you know, like yogurt), but it was very thin. Thinner than the soup entrees. I used cold tap water to mix it with, which seemed to dissolve fine, but I think it might be best served colder. Maybe next time we'll put it in the fridge after mixing. It might thicken that way, I'm not sure. So we split the yogurt of supposedly 8 servings into 3 mugs. It was about 1 1/2 to 2 inches deep per mug - So not much per serving. We all agreed that it smelled amazing, like vanilla cake batter or rich vanilla ice cream. The flavor was less intense, and the aftertaste was a bit chalky. Not a terrible desert-type, but not amazing. It's calories you can get through a straw, and thinner than a milkshake. Could be worse. I'm not sure which was supposed to be the breakfast, but overall the bucket was pretty good. There are still plenty of meals for us to keep in our bunker, and probably use some for camping or hiking trips. And they're good for 25 years, so we have time to eat them!!