Boiling water and cooking rice (long grain, Basmati, Jasmine, pudding, Arborio for Risotto etc), pasta, couscous (pasta), oatmeal and other grains such as bulgar wheat, Quinoa, Barley, dried split peas etc isn't difficult. There are some high quality canned meats, fish and prepared meals available at the local supermarket, some are even Gourmet quality will easily surpass any military food in terms of taste, quality, expense and lack of that chemical goodness found on the MREs list of ingredients. The additional weight of the odd can/tin is sometimes overestimated if it supplements a dried grain, potato or pasta.

You can even get canned 'Black Pudding';

http://www.grantsfoods.com/black-pudding-286g/

Having to force other family members, especially young children, to eat unrecognisable MRE servings could be a problem in a emergency situation.

If your in a bug out situation, raiding the freezer for some steaks, bacon etc and breaking a box of eggs into a Nalgene bottle isn't really going to take more than a couple of minutes anyway to add to what is already in the bug out bag!