The 2 things I'm still working on are the spices and getting the potatoes to rehydrate properly. It seems I'm going to have to use my Mandoline to shave them very thin because it seems they are not rehydrating in the center within a reasonable amount of time. Odd as it sounds the potato issue is working out OK because I'm able to manipulate the spices each time I try a new cut of potato.

Try cooking the potatos about half way to being done in a nuker.Then cut them into 1/2"in cubes.Now dehydrate them.For rehydrating them just put them in the pot with water,and the rest of vegatables.They should cook into the stew just fine.Matt

Basically a MRE is a retort cooked entree. That is, the meal is cooked, then put in a vacuum sealed bag, and re-cooked, to pasteurize. Then it is just like a canned food, only in a bag. Same storage requirements, such as cool environment, 2 year max, etc.
The basic requirement for a retort bag is that it will hold up to boiling with the food in it. The sealer bags that come with vacuum sealers are of that quality.
the prepackaged food that are mentioned above, like peanut butter, etc, should be in the secondary pouch, (Like an accessory pouch), and all stuffed in a larger pouch.
Given those parameters, one should be able to come up with some pretty good meals, even if yoiu just make up your own stew, and vacuum and retort cook it.