Prepping is something fairly new to my family. we have only been doing it for about 6 months now, but it is something that we will continue for the rest of our lives. As a couponer, we are able to stockpile years and years worth of toiletries and paper products for a fairly low price. The issue comes with long term food storage.

There is just so many cans of Spaghetti-O’s you can buy before you go “UGH, I will NEVER eat this crap!” Don’t get me wrong, if the time comes that we have no other option, I will be very thankful for our canned foods and Raman Noodles, but they don’t last as long as I would hope either. While we keep our stockpile rotated, and make sure to eat things before they expire, we decided that our current stockpile just isn’t going to cut it for the long haul and began looking for different options.

As many of you know, we aren’t the richest family ever, and we do receive Food Stamps, so that posed an issue for us, since money is tight. When I saw Mountain House foods in the camping section of our local Walmart, I had to buy one for a couple different reasons. One, to see how it tasted; and two, to see if it qualified to be bought with Food Stamps. I was prepared to pay cash for it, since we were only getting one bag, but it DID go through on our Food Stamps, so my plan is to try to coupon a little better so we can allot some of our food budget to prepping food.

We tried the Lasagna with Meat Sauce, thinking it would taste like Beefaroni, but worth trying once anyway. It was FANTASTIC! It was just like homemade, but without the look of a square piece of lasagna; it was Beefaroni looking in that aspect, but the taste was amazing! We promptly went back ad bought 4 more bags to put into storage. My husband isn’t into sweets so much, but we have six kids, so I also had to try their Ice Cream Sandwich. Again, tasted just like a regular ice cream sandwich, minus the cold that bothers my teeth anyway. The lasagna was $7.39 and I think I could feed 2 from 1 pouch, so $3.69 per person. That isn’t horrible, but not fantastic either. The ice cream sandwich, on the other hand, was just over $2, and not really reasonable, as far as price goes. I may pick up some more, but I am not sure how many of those we can feasibly stockpile.

I don’t want to just go any buy a huge bucket of food though, not until we try them. I have eaten Army supplied MREs and I wouldn’t want to be stuck with those for the rest of my life, so being able to try out a food before buying in bulk is a huge thing for me. When I saw that Wise Foods was advertising a FREE sample on Doomsday Preppers, I signed up for a pack right away. I want options, and Wise Foods looked like they had a far better variety in flavors than Mountain House did.

I filled out the form on their site for my sample. They emailed me with a couple questions and sent out my sample after I responded. I got my sample of Creamy pasta and Vegetable Rotini in today and hubs and I tested it out. Unlike Mountain House, where you add boiling water to the package, then use the ziplock feature on the bag to seal it while it does it’s thing; Wise Foods are opened and added to the pot of boiling water to cook. This makes cleanup a bit more complicated, since I now have to wash a pot and a fork, instead of just a fork.

The flavor was good, but I have a gluten intolerance, and they don’t make a gluten-free option yet. From the sounds on their facebook page, it may happen in the future though. Mountain House does offer a Gluten-Free option though, as well as Low Sodium and Vegetarian.

Both will be able to be stored for up to 25 years, without damaging quality, so that is a huge plus. I can’t say that I have a favorite yet because, again, they both offer different flavor options, and I wouldn’t want to be stuck with only a few flavors/meals for the rest of life. I am pretty sure that I will get some of each, in bulk, and store them in case of emergency.

You can request a FREE SAMPLE of Wise Foods too, just head over to their site and request one!