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I Tried 3 Survival Foods So You Don’t Have To! The Prepper Pantry
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Jul 11, 2025
Are you curious about what survival food actually tastes like? In this video, we dive into the prepper pantry and taste test a variety of popular emergency food supplies! Whether you’re an experienced prepper, outdoor enthusiast, or just starting your emergency preparedness journey, knowing what’s in your food storage—and how it tastes—is essential. From freeze-dried meals to long-term shelf-stable options. Nutrient Survival: https://nutrientsurvival.com 4 Patriots: https://bit.ly/3GFpXDq Valley Food Storage: https://bit.ly/4kwq6a4 Prepared Wanderer AMAZON STORE: https://bit.ly/3Jjs1iO Prepared Wanderer Patches and Stickers: https://thepreparedwanderer.bigcartel.com Prepared Wanderer WEBSITE:
View Video Transcript
0:00
In today's video, we're going to be
0:01
taking a look at the preer pantry and
0:04
doing a taste test of three popular
0:06
brands of pre-made foods. Stick around.
0:11
[Music]
0:18
All right, so the preers pantry. We all
0:22
uh like to buy these pre-made uh food
0:25
options for our pantry. They make life
0:28
so much easier. Uh, but there's a lot of
0:30
different ones out there. And of course,
0:32
everybody on YouTube and on social media
0:35
is promoting the brands that they're
0:36
being paid to promote. And I understand
0:39
that. Um, I've I've worked with Nutrient
0:41
Survival. I've worked a little bit with
0:43
For Patriot, and I've worked with Valley
0:45
Foods. So, these guys sent me this stuff
0:48
um throughout the past few years. And,
0:51
uh, you know, you promote it and then
0:54
you kind of forget about it. Well, I
0:55
thought I would dig through my preps,
0:57
pull these out, and taste test them
1:00
today and just compare them so you guys
1:02
get an idea of at least what I think and
1:04
then also kind of look at uh the
1:07
breakdown of what's in them and um what
1:10
the prep is like on these things. That
1:12
way, if you're out buying this stuff, at
1:14
least you have a little bit of
1:15
information more than just me telling
1:18
you, oh, you need to buy this. So, the
1:20
first one we're going to look at is
1:21
Valley Food Storage. This is their uh
1:24
mac and cheese. And then we're going to
1:27
also be looking at four patriots. This
1:29
is the American
1:32
America's finest mac and cheese. And
1:36
then a brand that um I worked with quite
1:38
a bit last year was Nutrient Survival.
1:41
Now, this is a little bit different.
1:42
This is one of their individual
1:44
uh packets. You can actually I think
1:47
they they were selling these at Walmart
1:48
at one time, but this is just an
1:50
individual serving. perfect for like
1:52
backpacking,
1:54
uh, camping, things like that. But, um,
1:57
it's the only thing that I have from
1:58
Nutrient Survival that would compare
2:00
macaroni and cheese-wise. So, we'll try
2:02
this as well. And, um, I'll just tell
2:04
you my honest thoughts on how these
2:07
things taste. All right, let's get to
2:09
the kitchen and start cooking this
2:11
stuff.
2:15
Now, the first one I wanted to try out
2:17
is from Valley Food Storage. Um, I
2:20
received this from them. It's been a few
2:23
years now. This is their mac and cheese.
2:27
Uh, directions are bring 1 and 1/2 cups
2:31
of water to a boil. Add 1/2 cup of mix
2:34
to boiling water. Stir well. Boil for 2
2:38
minutes. Lower heat to a simmer. Stir
2:40
occasionally to avoid sticking. Cook for
2:42
3 to 5 minutes or until pasta is to your
2:45
liking. Let it cool and enjoy. And the
2:47
ingredients, uh, pretty easy to read. We
2:49
got pasta, mac and cheese powder,
2:52
non-fat milk, cornstarch, butter powder,
2:55
garlic, chicken broth, yeast extract,
2:58
salt, potato flour, spices, yeast
3:00
extract, natural flavor, salt, gar.
3:03
Okay, same stuff. Uh, less than 2% of
3:06
mustard, flour, ground black pepper.
3:08
Contains milk and wheat.
3:11
And this is five servings per pouch. And
3:13
I believe the directions is just for one
3:15
serving. And then we have a net weight
3:17
of 12.5 oz. Um, one serving, which is
3:22
that half cup is 270 calories
3:27
and has 31% sodiums at 710 mg, 48 g of
3:34
total carbohydrates for one serving. So,
3:37
um, not terrible. Uh definitely the
3:41
sodium content is a little high and
3:43
you're going to get that with a lot of
3:44
this these, you know, freeze-dried or
3:48
um bulk type foods. So, let's go ahead
3:51
and cook this one up.
3:55
I know my wife is going to kill me for
3:58
actually including our kitchen
4:02
in a video um cuz she's just going to
4:05
freak out like, "Oh my gosh, our
4:06
kitchen's so dirty." And so I I spent
4:09
some time cleaning the stove, dear, and
4:12
I think it looks good. I think it's
4:14
presentable for video. So we put added
4:16
the 1 and 1/2 cups water. Uh going to
4:19
let that come to a boil. And then we're
4:21
going to add the half2 cup of mix to the
4:24
boiling water and then we're going to
4:25
stir it.
4:28
One thing to note with this valley food
4:31
storage, uh this is a pouch that you can
4:35
rip open. It's got a little tab right
4:37
there. And this is realable since it is
4:40
uh five servings in here. So, I can open
4:42
this, use what I want, and then seal it
4:44
back up. Now, once I open it, of course,
4:47
it's going to
4:49
um diminish pretty quickly. I'm going to
4:51
have to use this um I would think, I
4:54
don't know, within at least the next uh
4:57
2 or 3 weeks. Of course, you always want
4:59
to remove the oxygen absorber.
5:05
Get some of the flavoring off of that.
5:09
And this is what our product looks like.
5:16
Now, here's one issue I've already found
5:19
with this. This has been stored um for a
5:23
couple of years and the cheese
5:27
uh flavoring is all kind of clumped
5:29
together. So, I have to break that up or
5:31
I'm not going to get an even
5:32
distribution of flavor.
5:36
There's our/2 cup of
5:39
mac and cheese.
5:50
Stir that pretty quickly. A lot of
5:52
cheese powder in this. A lot.
5:56
I was really surprised at how much
5:57
cheese powder is in here. I'm going turn
5:59
this down a little bit.
6:06
I never thought when I started a YouTube
6:09
channel that I'd be doing cooking
6:10
videos, but here we are.
6:14
All those years of watching Julia Childs
6:17
as a young man
6:20
is starting to pay off.
6:26
I do love to cook actually. It's um
6:29
probably one of my favorite things to do
6:31
at home is to cook for my family,
6:34
especially holidays, special events.
6:36
Love to barbecue, smoke some meat,
6:39
make some Mexican food on the stove.
6:44
Love all that stuff.
6:47
All right, going to let that boil.
6:53
Better check the directions again just
6:54
to make sure I'm remembering correctly.
6:57
Boil for 2 minutes. Oh, okay. Well, it's
7:00
boiling. I didn't really time it.
7:08
There's kind of a dark
7:10
chunk in there.
7:12
I don't know what that is. That's That's
7:15
kind of suspect because it doesn't look
7:17
like anything else in the macaroni.
7:26
Doesn't appear to be a bug.
7:29
It's um
7:32
looks like it's a piece of a plant. It's
7:34
probably
7:36
the spices ground up and then there's a
7:39
a section that didn't get
7:42
completely ground up,
7:44
almost like a stem or a shell of
7:47
something.
7:54
The noodles are still semi hard even
7:57
after
7:58
5 minutes of boiling. And now I'm really
8:00
losing my liquid. I'm almost thinking
8:02
that I should have just made the whole
8:04
package because there's no way of really
8:07
getting a consistent amount of noodles
8:10
and uh powder.
8:14
So, you end up with kind of a lopsided
8:17
or not, I don't know, very balanced um
8:20
measurement on this stuff. And I'm a
8:24
little disappointed that this the
8:25
noodles aren't even really
8:28
getting that soft. They're still semi-h
8:30
hard and I'm losing
8:32
liquid here pretty quickly.
8:35
There's not much left. So, we're going
8:38
to be eating semi-h hard pasta.
8:46
Now, if there's faults with my cooking,
8:49
you can certainly comment down below and
8:51
let me know what you think. Or you would
8:53
have done it differently. Maybe a
8:54
smaller pot. I don't know. Doing the
8:56
whole package would have been probably
8:59
better.
9:01
This is kind of what we're looking like
9:02
right now. And that pasta is what I
9:06
would call al dente. So, we're going to
9:08
turn that off because it's not going to
9:12
get any better than that. So, there's
9:14
that. All right. So,
9:17
there it is. I mean, it looks good.
9:22
The noodles just aren't cooked all the
9:25
way.
9:35
Good cheesy flavor. Not bad.
9:45
Not overly salty in any way. Pretty
9:48
balanced really.
9:55
[Music]
10:06
It's passable.
10:22
I think kids would probably eat it.
10:26
And that's always important when you're
10:27
prepping for your family is making sure
10:29
you have options that everybody's going
10:31
to like. We all know that kids can be
10:34
pretty picky.
10:36
So, this is the Four Patriots America's
10:39
Finest Mac and Cheese. Um, its
10:42
directions um really only gives you
10:45
directions for the whole package. So,
10:47
I'm going to make the whole package and
10:48
see if that makes a difference. This is
10:49
one pouch.
10:51
Uh, remove oxygen absorber. Stir
10:54
contents into two or stir, excuse me,
10:58
stir contents into three and 2/3 cup
11:01
boiling water. So, I got the water
11:03
started because it's going to take a
11:04
while to get that going. Reduce heat to
11:07
medium. Cook for 20 minutes.
11:10
20 minutes. That's a long time for
11:12
pasta.
11:14
Um,
11:15
so that's one whole pouch. And that's
11:17
they say that's four servings at 260
11:20
calories a serving. So it's 10 less than
11:22
the last one. Sodium is 730. So that's
11:28
pretty much the same.
11:30
And total carbohydrates is 4 and
11:35
um 4.7 g or no 47 g I believe 17% total
11:42
carbohydrates. Uh, the net weight is
11:45
9.74
11:46
ounces. Now, the ingredient list is on
11:49
here. Uh, but it's a little bit harder
11:51
to read. So, we got elbow macaroni.
11:54
Uh,
11:56
some stuff I can't pronounce,
11:58
riboplavin, and folic acid. That's in
12:01
the macaroni. We've got weey. We got
12:03
cheddar cheese.
12:05
Uh pasteurized milk. Salt. Cheese
12:08
culture.
12:10
Buttermilk. Uh cheddar. More cheddar
12:14
cheese. Salt. More salt. More. Oh jeez.
12:17
It just repeats itself. All kinds of
12:19
different cheese flavorings. Basically
12:21
modified food starch, sea salt, yeast
12:24
extract, onion powder, lactic acid, and
12:28
black pepper. So,
12:30
a lot more ingredients in this thing.
12:33
More preservatives it seems than the
12:35
valley
12:38
[Applause]
12:48
oxygen absorber.
12:51
Rid of that.
12:55
So, same kind of deal. The cheese is um
13:00
clumpy
13:02
powder. This has much more of a bright
13:06
orange yellow color.
13:10
And I don't remember seeing food dyes in
13:12
this. I'll have to look again.
13:21
Turn that up a little bit.
13:24
And it says 20 minutes. So, I'm going to
13:26
take that to heart because I think
13:27
that's important. I want that pasta to
13:30
cook.
13:34
Okay. Yeah. So, there is yellow dye in
13:36
here. There's yellow number five
13:38
and yellow number six. And I think
13:40
that's important because to for you guys
13:42
to realize or know that because I think
13:44
in my opinion dyes are unnecessary.
13:49
It's not the way God made food and we
13:51
certainly don't need to add to it.
13:55
We got about 11 and 1/2 minutes left.
13:59
I'm stirring occasionally.
14:02
They set a simmer, but
14:04
you know, it's that macaroni. Once
14:07
again, it's super hard. So, I'm going to
14:09
bring this to a boil for the last 11
14:12
minutes. I really don't see that as
14:14
being a problem.
14:18
Now, while the uh four patriots is
14:21
cooking, cuz that's going to take 20
14:22
minutes, we're going to go ahead and do
14:23
this nutrient survival triple cheese
14:25
mac. Now, like I said, this is a single
14:27
serving. You just add water to this. It
14:31
uh it's a little bit different than the
14:32
other ones because nutrient survival
14:35
um really pushes the whole ideal that
14:38
their food is more loaded with
14:42
nutrients, vitamins, minerals. Um, you
14:46
know, it's soyf free. Uh, it has 40
14:49
essential nutrients. That's what the
14:50
packaging says. No artificial colors,
14:53
flavors, or preservatives.
14:55
And if that's something that you're
14:57
really, you know, keen on, this is maybe
15:01
the way to go. Um, one serving packet is
15:05
340 calories with total fat of 21 grams.
15:09
Uh, protein is 12 gram, cholesterol is
15:12
55 milligrams, sodium is 260.
15:16
And
15:18
the directions, pour triple mac and
15:21
cheese into a bowl and add 1/3 cup of
15:25
boiling water. Stir, cover, and let
15:28
stand for 8 to 10 minutes. So, pretty
15:29
simple.
15:31
And I've used these out in the field.
15:33
They're they're pretty good out in the
15:34
field. Um, but we're going to take taste
15:36
test them again and see what you guys
15:39
think.
15:41
Okay, here's the nutrient survival.
15:45
Pale yellow color, so there's no dyes in
15:47
this. The powder is more consistent.
15:51
It's not clumpy.
15:54
And of course, a third of a cup of water
15:55
boils very, very fast. So
16:00
that's not much water at all.
16:08
that mixed up.
16:10
One thing that I found with this uh
16:12
using this in the field, um it was very
16:15
hard to
16:17
at least for me getting that measurement
16:18
of a third of a cup of water. Um I don't
16:21
carry a lot of measurement stuff with me
16:23
when I'm camping or, you know, out
16:25
bushcrafting or whatever doing videos.
16:30
So, a lot of times I would make this and
16:32
it' be too soupy.
16:35
Okay, this is the nutrient survival.
16:37
Now, I look at that. It's very pale
16:40
yellow. Now, the third of a cup of water
16:44
was not enough. Um, and maybe the
16:46
measurement was off a little bit and
16:47
with the boiling it probably went down.
16:50
So, I actually had to add hot water to
16:52
it and microwave it for like a minute to
16:56
get it hot and to get the moisture
16:58
content right. So, it's actually a good
17:00
consistency.
17:02
Um, and that's like I said that I always
17:04
have a problem in the field because I
17:06
usually end up making it too watery.
17:07
Well, this time on the stove I made it
17:10
too dry. Um, it's very um
17:14
more pasty
17:17
in consistency.
17:19
They're not using elbow macaroni. It's
17:21
more like um like a mini twist kind of
17:24
macaroni.
17:27
Smells pretty good.
17:29
I haven't had this in a while,
17:32
so I'm kind of trying to remember how I
17:34
felt about it when I used to eat it.
17:39
Pretty hot.
17:45
Yeah. Noodles aren't quite done close.
17:54
You see the look on my face? There's
17:55
kind of a weird aftertaste to it. It's
17:57
um
17:59
I don't know.
18:03
It's kind of bland, but it's also has
18:07
just a strange.
18:11
It's not very macaroni and cheeselike.
18:15
Try one of those noodles. See if they're
18:17
getting close.
18:22
Still needs more. Man, these noodles are
18:25
just taking forever to cook. I don't
18:27
know what the deal is.
18:30
It's like the directions on all of them
18:32
are off. Either that or I'm just I'm not
18:34
that good at following directions. I
18:35
don't know.
18:39
One thing to note um is the color. I
18:42
mean, this thing is bright bright yellow
18:45
orange. I mean, it's brighter than craft
18:49
macaroni and cheese dinner, which that
18:51
stuff is just, you know,
18:54
delicious, but probably not the greatest
18:56
thing for you. It's even brighter than
18:59
like Vita's shells and cheese, which has
19:02
a cheese sauce, which probably has a lot
19:04
of yellow dye in it.
19:06
So, I don't know.
19:11
[Music]
19:14
Okay, this is the four patriots. I got
19:17
to tell you, the consistency is I mean,
19:20
it is spot-on.
19:23
It actually looks really good. There's
19:25
no clumps. There's no super, you know,
19:29
thick pasty sauce to it. There's a nice
19:32
sauce to it.
19:34
The color is a little strange because
19:36
it's so bright because I know that's not
19:38
natural. But
19:40
oh wow.
19:43
And another thing that's kind of odd
19:44
about this or just different I guess the
19:47
other two you can actually see the
19:49
spices in it. So like the valley um you
19:52
could see all the chunks of pepper and
19:54
all that stuff. And of course we have
19:56
that one big piece of vegetable or
19:58
whatever it was in it. the nutrient
20:02
survival. You could see the pepper in it
20:04
even though you really couldn't taste
20:06
it. Um, this there is no there's
20:09
nothing. You can't see anything. It is
20:11
just cheese sauce and macaroni. That
20:16
macaroni
20:17
that I've let set a little bit is cooked
20:19
up pretty good.
20:25
That's really good.
20:36
See, that's not bad. That's delicious.
20:46
Now, Four Patriot isn't paying me to say
20:48
that this is the best. They're not. This
20:50
is an independent test. I wanted to
20:52
compare these three because I know these
20:53
are popular on the market and there
20:56
three options that people would
20:57
consider. Um,
21:00
and really I kind of hate to say that
21:02
for Patriot is better than the others
21:04
because um, as a company I really don't
21:06
care for them. They're very promotional,
21:09
very marketing driven. I don't know.
21:11
They
21:13
they sell some stuff that I I don't
21:15
totally agree with. Um, but the food is
21:18
good. And if you have a family, this is
21:20
really important. If you have a family
21:22
and you have kids, you have to have
21:24
stuff that they're going to want to eat.
21:25
And it's going to encourage them to eat
21:27
because you want to make sure that
21:28
they're they're going to be healthy in a
21:30
a situation where you guys are without
21:32
power for weeks on end. You got to get
21:35
the kids to eat. You want to make sure
21:36
that they're they're getting the
21:37
calories they need and it's not just
21:39
junk food. Well, this is not bad.
21:42
Yeah.
21:43
So, there's the three. This is the
21:45
nutrient survival.
21:47
Not very appetizing looking. There's the
21:50
valley a little bit better, but
21:53
you know, it um it it was okay. I
21:57
couldn't get the noodles to cook up. You
21:58
got to cook that whole package. You of
22:00
course see the spices in it like the
22:01
pepper and stuff. And then the four
22:05
patriot like that's classic looking
22:08
macaroni and cheese. Looks pretty good.
22:11
And it tasted really good. So, there we
22:14
go. There's your test. All right, guys.
22:18
I hope you found this video useful. If
22:20
you did, please consider subscribing.
22:23
Um, hit that like button if you like
22:25
this video. Leave a comment down below.
22:27
Tell me what you think about this stuff.
22:29
And as always, thank you so much for
22:31
watching. And we'll see you next time on
22:32
the Prepared Wanderer.
22:38
Very good.
22:41
a couple um
22:44
couple hot dogs or sausages
22:47
uh cooked up with this or a hamburger,
22:50
maybe some spam. I know that stuff isn't
22:51
healthy, but you know, as a meat option
22:54
to go with this.
22:59
I mean, I'd serve this to my family
23:04
at a at a party or a holiday gathering.
23:06
It's not that bad.
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