I decided to have the All Day Breakfast on a morning I had planned to go swimming, figuring it would keep me going. I hadn't used one of these self heating packs before, so was interested in seeing how it worked and whether it would be effective. For anyone else who hasn't seen one, I will give a quick description for you. The heating element (which reminds me of one of those microwavable heat packs) comes in a clear bag; once you have opened this bag you place the foil meal inside with the heater. You then add 40ml of water, fold over the flap and leave on a cold hard surface for 10-12 minutes. The heater activates with a fizz and heats up very rapidly. When I came to open the breakfast I was impressed by how thoroughly the meal had been heated. The heater does stay hot for about 40 minutes after use so care would need to be taken with this. But otherwise I was very impressed.
The Breakfast itself is sold as "Beans in rich tomato sauce with succulent Pork sausages, diced Smokey Bacon and Omelette". What you get is akin to the tinned ones you get from the supermarket. Anyone who has had a ration breakfast will recognise what this is, although to a higher standard as I did not find a single bean skin unlike all the issue ones I have had. The meal had a weight of 300g and a calorie content of 405kcal but it did not FEEL sufficient. I left it at that and went out, but within an hour I was hungry again, before I had even done any exercise, so I would probably have had some bread or something to bulk it out some. The taste was as good as any of the tinned or rat ones I have had so no complaints there.
The main meal and dessert I had after I had taken the family out on a hilly walk through a forest park, so mildly exercised I set up my stove and started boiling. The main meal of Sausage Casserole needs a lot of heating; it was still lukewarm when I ate it. With this you receive 3 sausages, with Potato slices, Carrots, onions and Peas in gravy. This was tasty and the sausages were a decent quality and consistency, the gravy was nice and it smelled like real food. Again the meal weighs 300g but the calorie count is 360kcal. Once more the meal does not look or feel substantial enough and really seems more of a snack.
The dessert heated well and smelt great, looked a little unappetising but tasted good. Really brought to mind the old tinned sponges my mum used to get. This weighed in at 200g with a calorie count of 416kcal. I wasn't expecting a huge quantity of this so was not disappointed.
One thing I noticed after heating the dessert (I had used the same water for main meal as well, like I would in the field) was a scummy layer on the water and clinging to the packet, now usually I would have made a brew from the left over water, but I really would not have wanted to with this. Don't know whether it was a one-off as I have not seen this before.
On the whole the food was pretty good, the taste and aroma was appealing, the self heating pack works a treat, the only downer is that you do not feel like you have had enough.
Latest Reviews
vBulletin Message