Your so right, my apologies. I fished the MRE I had for lunch out of the trash and 1500 calories it is. I recall the National Guard MRE’s had a chocolate bar that had 1000 calories by itself and maybe that confused me.
The vegetarian MRE was good though. Manicotti in Marsala sauce, peanut butter and crackers, dry roasted salted peanuts and almond cake.
One thing I do like about the MRe’s is they are toally self contained. I used the heater today (and usually do because they are fun), and it was steaming hot. The drink (powdered orange) was pretty horrible. I skipped it today.
I love MREs, and like I said, somewhere in the 1980s I too thought that they were about 3,000 calories.
Something that I do know about them is that they last much longer than the recommended chart for “guaranteed freshness”.
After worst case storage conditions in desert heat in the trunk, and way (way) past three years etc, the candy may be mushy and the gum maybe be chalky, but the important foods and the coffee and such are still plenty edible.
I have never seen a “puffy” MRE, but my understanding is that if you find one, then destroy it like you would a puffy canned food.