Tactical Food Options
 

When attending an endurance style event eventually everyone must eat. I'm interested to see what people bring as a healthy, easy to eat, food source for this. Obviously MRE meals or similar are common, but not everyone will fork out the dough for some, or have them readily available in a pinch. Many bring bags of trail mix, jerky, etc, but it's not easy to eat in quantity if your sitting down for a quick meal, but more of a "keep you going" snack.

So, what do you carry with you, how much and how do you package it? Is it heavy, do you have to eat it cold, etc? Think, you're aren't leaving the game area and you can't bring cooking apparatus into the game. Also, what brands are best, does it taste good, etc.

All those questions are easily wrapped up by forking over a whole 14 dollars for a MRE.

You get whatever flavour sounds good to you and you have food for the day, and a way to cook it in the field. Rather then spending 10-15 bucks on nuts and dried fruit that will just keep you going.....

Not sure why people WOULDNT bring a hot meal kit.

This is a sample of some of the high energy snacks I take during a very long event. I find these very helpful at times, since a hot meal is not always easily prepared. Sometimes, for an 18hr to 30hr event, you may want easy cold cut sandwiches.

ClifBars - Comes in different flavours.
ShotBloks - High in sugar and comes in different flavours as well. Be midful when sharing it to anyone, especially the ones with diabetes.
ProBar - My new favourite! That's a protein bar that looks and taste like, brownie!

If it's a long event with no breaks, subway. If there is a break I get a buddy and I go to a restaurant.

I'm with Stryker in regards to clif bars and bloks. Usually I add 1-2 MRE broken down and a single dehydrated meal for times when cooking is tactically sound.

It depends on what kind of "endurance" event you mean, too. There's having a safe zone and going 24 hours where you can come back and make food, or there's 100% self-sufficiency in the field with no breaks. The latter is where my list applies.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Chewy, granola, protien bars etc for in field, wash down with H20.

If I can return to a deployment area, either MRE or if I am stupid and don't buy in advance, cans of Chef Boyardi Ravioli. Precooked, okay even when cold and pull tab often means i dont need to break the can opener out(still bring it tho) If its a 24 event I do not leave the playing field, just return to base/deployment/spawn/camp/place where we dumped all our shit.

Cliff Bars

24 hours plus, no breaks. Can't you buy MRE meals that don't need cooking? That's what we had at Cold Front II, unless we just ate them cold. lol. The reason I'm asking, is because I ate about six meals in 24 hours, plus jerky and trail mix, plus however much water, etc. also, I never carry anything that isn't totally necessary. That being said, sitting down and eating trail mix and jerky for a meal sucked. Grabbing a handful or two on the go was okay, but eventually I need fuel, period.

Hot meals are important for energy as your body breaks it down much better, and you get warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Cliff bars. Dried Mango. Canned Peaches.

JETBOIL: MEC bought freeze dried food (Mountain House etc...)

These can be made in under 15 minutes. We have literally made them under fire in a fox hole, and on over watch from windows. Setup, cook, eat, and cleaned in under 20 minutes. There is almost no excuse not to do this.

One Mountain House package can EASILY feed 2 people. Have your buddy take your watch, you setup and cook, and eat, take his watch, he eats and cleans.

MRE/IMP is the best bet for no cooking.
For 24 hours I just hippopotamus through vector and fruit bars.
If we have breaks in between I got a bunch of "backpacker's pantry" meals that just need boiling water. Bought a jetboil (Jonas & Brad have one, too), boils water in under a minute. Extremely portable in a ruck. You can also cook in it; I made pad thai with rice in mine in under 5min at home.
But word of advice; carry spice (like cyan pepper) and gasX.
Those meals were GREAT, but I've never had so much gas in my life.

This is truth as fuck. Prepare for DEFCON 1 flatulence.

I usually bring about 10 energy bars (Cliff bars, granola, etc.), about 4-5 apples, 2-3 cans of boyardee/chunky depending on OP length, small candies and at least 6 litres of water.

Those do nothing more for me that I don't already live with.

Room clearing by other means.

Top row from left:

Sea to Summit dry bag with toilet paper, Sea to Summit towel, MSR water filter, Jetboil Flash, green Nalgene bottle, Wildo ultralight mess kit, Woods tent lantern, NV and eyepro

Middle row from left:

Ultralight tent peg mallet, CRKT Ultima, Gerber shovel, spare tent pegs

Bottom row:

Misc. dried foods and MREs

I could totally see carrying a seasoning, what a great idea. I wouldn't use cayenne or something though, too much risk of having to have a long, gassy, runny shit during the op.

I'm like a super spice guy myself. It's not like I can't handle it. Wolver!ne, myself and few of our other buddies eat stuff that'll make people cry, literally. lol. But I don't need to be sitting on a stump half the op. Just in case. lol.

True Story:

Years ago, my neighbor Mike, AV Rep Wolver!ne, and myself, were having some beers and barbecuing. We always cook spicy food, but we're all big white boys, Russian, Saxon, Croatian, etc. our friend Savvy was over too and he's Cambodian/Thai. Anyways, we were bragging about how spicy our food can get sometimes. Savvy, being from Southern Asia, says "my mother cooks stuff that'd make you white boys cry". Anyways, Mike and Zoltan being Russian and Croation respectively, like their Vodka. We'd do shots of Vodka with 3-4 drops of pure capsaicin in it, so a lot. A few drops is enough for a pot of stew that'll melt your face off. So anyways, we told him about this shot and he demanded we all do one. We all took the shot. There was some moaning and crying, an ambulance was involved. Anyways, long story short; white boys: 3, South Asian: 0...

On that note; MRE vs IMP, cost and availability?

I've had no luck finding IMP's at a decent price, let alone seeing many on the market. MRE's however are cheap & plentiful.

cliff bars, meat sticks/dried meat, bag of dried banana/fresh banana, dried apricots, trail mix, nuts, energy gels for runners/hikers, potassium, magnesium, calcium tablets, water, sports drinks.

Depending on how on the go you are, you may not have time to stuff your face, so I usually snack when I have a second to grab a handful. Anything that requires a utensil to eat is too cumbersome for me, unless you're getting a designated meal break or it's in conditions where you can heat the mre and having a hot/warm meal will make a difference in your mood, bringing little bagged out portions of stuff is far more convenient/effective.

The only time I appreciated something hot was nightfall 1, being stuck at the mortar pit for 4 hours in the pouring rain sucked.

Cliff bars + Jet Boiled Mountain house is where its at!

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3882/1...85aa5b5e_b.jpg
*sorry Colin haha*

for extended games I usually bring:

- 4-6 cliff bars
- 2 packages of mountain-house / dehydrated meals but end up only eating around dusk
- power aid
- a can of red bull for the drive home

Not a lot of food but I prefer to limit the amount of times I have to poo in a hole.

Mountain House Lasagna - the nuclear cheese means you won't have to poo for a day or two after eating it!

I'm starting to go heavy on snack foods like trail mix, cliff bars, power gel etc... I also usually bring 1 bottle of poweraide for abit of extra hydration and morale. I used to bring more MRE main meals or dehydrated camping meals and less snacks to eat like I would at home. But then I realized during long events im just eating for energy and morale. I dont have time to cook multiple hot meals so try to rely on snacks and fewer full meals. I also have a life venture leak proof thermal mug which fits in a triple AR mag pouch. Never enter night phase without a hot drink in it!
Cliff bars and other purpose made energy snacks taste better cold than an MRE entree.

Snikers bars fit just right in single pistol mag pouches!

do you like being 350 pounds and having knees bend the wrong way when you run in bush? cause that's a good start.

I'm going to get away from meals at longer games as well, I find my digestion is fucked up between the yo-yo of action and lulls and I do better snacking during the event.

I'm also going to carry a lot more of these things called Buddy Fruits. It's pretty much baby food in a convenient palm-sized pack that's pureed so it's really easy on digestion and decently nutritious. I can have a handful buried in my kit easily for myself and teammates and it shrinks to nothing when consumed so easy to carry out. You can find them at Walmart, they go on sale often and have a good shelf life.

Nothing wrong with the odd chocolate bar during activities, where your body needs the calories. They act as quick energy and at times even an emotional pick-me-up.

Just don't base your field diet purely around snickers bars. It's certainly not a meal

Yeah those are great. Apple sauce + whatever fruit mush. Great for when you crave some furit but can't chance and apple because your hands are covered in grime, year-old paintball scum & heavy metals from whatever factory you're currently in.

Last year I picked myself up a food dehydrator, mostly for fruit but the amount of things you can dehydrate is plentiful.

I've done Chili, my own beef jerky, stew, and various pasta.
I put it in a ziplock bag, throw it in the freeze, grab it when I'm heading off and it's good to go.

Throw it in a mess kit with some water over the fire, or a simple little esbit stove, voila.

The taste with your own dehydrated fruit vs store bought is awesome to boot.

Just don't do 5+ Cliff Bars. Just don't.

...

Unless you want grey poo.

I kick it a little oldschool, For a 24 hour event, 6 landjager dried sausages, some hard rye bread, coffee, bullion cubes, handful of hard candies, 2 dark chocolate bars.

this sounds like a personal experience

greens only diet also makes your poo green... just sayin.

I'll add my vote and say MRE/IMP'S they are a lot of calories in a small space, everything in them (aside from the coffee/drinks) can be eatin without heating/cooking and some of the damn things are actually prety decent tasting when hot. I like the maple sausage and it comes with bacon has browns that are edible too lol. Avoid egg dishes. Prety much anything you can buy in a can (stews n such) will be about the same as your average can version. The beef stew and beens n weiners are good examples of that lol.
Plus they come with coffe/tea snacks like pb or jam and bread/cracker utensils dessert like fruit cup or chocolate bar or a muffin or cookies. Really each one is a days worth of calories with no heating or extra water needed. And if you want to heat them it only takes a few teaspoons of water in a heater pack and you can even heat water in a water bottle for hot drinks, wrap it up in a heater bag it'll be hot in a few min.

What my Mate and I use on backpacking and hiking trips a buddy burner and a small can of canned chili usually Stag chili, that we can add our own seasoning to. Have yet to use these in a airsoft event, but they do work and its nice on colder days and evenings.

+

http://notallowedto.com/wp-content/u...nt-noodles.jpg

=

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/...20140914222749

Instant noodles have zero nutritional value.

Tastes damn good though.

My mobile field kitchen ! Hot water tank , 2x deep friers ,griddle and oven , can feed 200 soldiers at a time !

What he said. Bread, smoked/dried meat and cheese, canned beans maybe. Some coffee. All that food takes a lot less space than ammo :)

You forgot the erbswurst and the tinned porc roast. ;)



cant do withouthttp://www.amazon.ca/CMMG-Tactical-C.../dp/B003RC5FQ2

Definately not carrying cooking supplies. Gotta grab it from a pouch, minimal prep, eat and go. Gotta carry everything with you and stay light. It all sounds good though.

Might want to reconsider that! A hot meal or drink goes a long way on cold rainy day!!! Filling a nalgene with hot water for warmth could be a lifesaver. A jetboil or other backpacking stoves are essential kit. For example my cook kit weighs less than 1lb with fuel....that will get me 9-12 2 cup boils depending on the weather.

I leave the field and buy pizza. Or wings. Or get a big greasy country breakfast.

Good luck with your IMPs. :P

A jetboil is required Kit - Hot Drinks go a long way in the middle of the night.

Don't forget nails, hipsters, and weakness. But only for breakfast

what if you can't leave the field?

Ezbit stove is more compact and lighter

The idea is not to leave the field until game finish. You can eat, sleep and shit, but you've gotta do it during the fight. Shedding a pound here or there is crucial, but having a hot meal can be an attitude changer, just like dry feet. Perhaps have a team ruck, with a planned hot meal at some point.

My truck has built in coolers and enough space for a BBQ. Bacon cheeseburgers!