How To Make 2000-Calorie Meal Ration Bars That Are Shelf Stable And Actually Taste Good

Ready-made ration bars are available to buy; however, they can be pricey and kind of gross. This emergency ration bar recipe has enough calories and a combination of carbohydrates and protein to last you a whole day.

With 2000 calories per bar, you can nibble on it all day. These are an excellent addition to your preps if you need to bug out, can't go more than a few days without cooking, or just want to have some additional calories with you when hiking or camping. They are easy to pack for any kind of situation to keep your belly full and your energy up.

2000 calories per barPhoto byRichelleg

They are slightly sweet and call for oats, powdered milk, sugar, honey, jello, and water. To eliminate as much water content as possible from the bars, we dry them in an oven or dehydrator for a few hours instead of actually "cooking" them. The less water there is, the longer the shelf life.

Recipe for Emergency Ration Bars

Ingredients:

• Four cups of oats
• Five cups of powdered milk (whole milk has more calories but non-fat has a longer shelf life)
• Two cups of sugar
• Six tablespoons of honey
• Two 3-oz boxes of orange Jello (or whatever flavor you like)
• One cup of water

Powdered milk and oatsPhoto byRichelleg

Directions:

• Set the oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
• In a large bowl, combine the sugar, powdered milk, and oats.
• Combine the water, jello, and honey in a saucepan.
• Bring to a boil; stir continuously
• Pour the Jello mixture on top of the oatmeal mixture. The dough should be crumbly and just moist enough to hold together.
• Using parchment paper, line a 9" by 13" pan and press the dough into it.
• Cut the dough into three large bars before baking
• Bake for about two hours at 200 degrees Fahrenheit, or use your dehydrator to dehydrate for four to six hours.
• After removing the bars from the pan, let them cool completely.

Storage

Keep your bars wrapped in Mylar bags or stored in an airtight container. You can also freeze them.

Calories per bar of Emergency Ration

I split the bars into 3 because that's 2000 calories each. This makes them rather large, but for one person, it is equivalent to a day's worth of calories. Feel free to cut the bars into smaller pieces before baking if they are too difficult for you to manage.

This is how I calculated the number of calories. (Keep in mind that while the total number of calories in various brands of ingredients may vary slightly, they should generally be the same.).

These bars have cocoa powder mixed in the dry milk.Photo byRichelleg

4 cups of oats equal 1200 calories (300 calories each cup).

5 cups of whole milk powder (560 calories a cup) equals 2800 calories.

Two cups sugar equal 1500 calories (750 calories each cup).

Six tablespoons of honey (each containing 70 calories) is 420 calories.

Two jello boxes, 40 each, equal 80 calories.

Six thousand calories total for the entire pan.

Thus, I divided them into three bars to get 2000 calories from this recipe. The completed bars measured around 7 inches in length, 3.5 inches in width, and 1.5 inches in depth. The weight of each bar is roughly one pound.

The bars are slightly crispy and have a pleasant, light flavor.

Great for camping too!Photo byRichelleg

It's one bar per person, per day. Again, keep in mind these aren't regular snack bars. They are crafted to make sure you have enough calories, protein, and carbohydrates per person per day in an emergency situation.

Tips:

In the original recipe, it only calls for three tablespoons of water. After using about a full cup, I discovered that this wasn't nearly enough. The idea is to have a dough that dries quickly enough to stick together without being overly wet. It will be more difficult for the dough to dry out the wetter it is.

Smaller batches are easier to manage because the dough is rather stiff and requires lots of mixing.

Smaller bars, with cranberries and coconut flakesPhoto byRichelleg

Orange Jello is not required! Any flavor of Jello will work, but gelatin-containing Jello is required. If you prefer no flavor, you can use unflavored gelatin. It won't set without the real gelatin.

You can add some more ingredients for flavor, like nuts, chocolate chips, or dried fruit. Your emergency ration bars' shelf life will be shortened by whatever mix-ins you decide to include, according to how long the additional ingredients last.

Ration bars should be kept in mylar or Foodsaver bags. If necessary, you can freeze them after wrapping them in foil and parchment paper.

Citations:

Survival Bars Recipe - Food.com. (2006, April 4). https://www.food.com/recipe/survival-bars-162989