Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm not a survivalist preparing for total economic collapse. I'm a backpacker in search of better tasting, less expensive, and easy to prepare trail food as an alternative to the various MRE-style offerings on the market. After discovering the meals in a jar concept on YouTube and doing some further research on "Chef Tess", I bought this book pre-production because I wanted to adapt the emergency meals concept to my outdoor expeditions. First, as the Honeyville corporate chef, the author makes it quite clear that the purpose of the book is to promote the purchase and exclusive use of Honeyville food products and nearly every ingredient listed has the Honeyville or Chef Tess name on it. OK, fair enough, since that proviso is clearly stated up front. However, some of the ingredients, like dehydrated minced onions, have close cousins that can be found in local mega-food stores. My thoughts follow: Pros: * The book is hard cover with a sturdy spiral ring binding that allows it to lay open flat; a big plus. * The book is well organized. * The photography is gorgeous. * The recipes are very clearly laid out; it would seem to be nearly impossible to screw anything up. * The author does a good job of warning readers to take special care when packaging the real meat products, something that could be overlooked when most of the other ingredients don't require the same level of care in packaging. * The book is faithful to its premise; every recipe presented is a meal in a jar. Cons: * The book is printed in China :-( * The book has a few technical errors. For example, on page 4 the author recommends "5.0 millimeter" mylar storage bags, which would be 1/5 inch thick! Most likely the recommendation should have been for 5 mil storage bags; mil is a standard term for thousandths of an inch, so 5 mil bags would be only 5 thousandths of an inch thick, which is about the thickness of a sheet of notebook paper. Also, the narrative grammar is occasionally awkward or clunky. Fire the editor. * There is no nutritional information on any of the recipes. Many of the recipes are very high in sugar, butter, cheese, sour cream, and pasta, which is OK for short term emergency situations, but the lack of nutritional information makes it difficult for those who have chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, etc., to select meals for preparation that will best help them maintain their health. With nearly every American over the age of 45 suffering from one or more of these conditions, I would like to encourage the development of some recipes more friendly to their control. * The Honeyville ingredients are not inexpensive; don't confuse this book with those that promise to help you lower your food budget. Where this book shines - This book is what you need to prepare "emergency" meals that have a long shelf life. Such provisions are smart provision for natural disasters such as hurricanes (like Andrew in south Florida or Katrina in New Orleans), earthquakes, severe weather (like Sandy in New York), or short term food supply disruptions (like being snowed in). They would also be great when Mommy is under the weather; any kid that can boil water can make one of this meals. These recipes are pretty good, but obviously don't taste quite as good as using 100% fresh ingredients. And in small quantities for one person they don't meet my less expensive than pre-prepared alternatives goal for backpacking. However, if you're making that comparison you're missing the point. This book isn't for how you should eat every day. It's for pretty good meals in a sticky situation where your neighbors are subsisting on cold canned soup, or backpacking in the back country and eating well while your trail buddies are eating MREs and canned tuna. Given those scenarios, the book is well worth the cover price. I have no financial interest in this publication or Honeyville.