MRE Menu 20 Is Weird!

 Welcome to a very off topic blog post. Sometimes, I go to the surplus store up the road and buy MREs. Most of them are actually pretty decent, at least for an occasional something different. They're definitely better than a frozen dinner or fast food. I occasionally take them camping, but mostly just eat them when my wife's out. I do most of the cooking, but I don't really like to cook for just myself. Left on my own, if there's no left overs, I'll resort to a can of soup if I really don't want to cook, or (if I sort of do) eggs, toast, maybe some sausage or bacon if its around, a piece of fruit if I'm feeling healthy. With the MRE, you usually get something resembling a three or four course meal, which is a lot more interesting than whatever bachelor-chow I'd relive. 

The usual MRE menu is:

1. Snack: Trail mix, combo-pretzels, etc. I usually have these as an "appetizer" while I make the rest.

2. Bread and Spread: Usually crackers, occasionally tortillas, and cheeze-whiz. Sometimes jelly, peanut butter, etc. Since I'm not in a foxhole or whatever, I usually put the cheese on the cracker/tortilla, pop it in the toaster oven, and make a pseudo-grilled cheese.

3. Entrée: The current official MRE menu has two options. Between the ones I've tried and looking over the menu, I'd say about a half are good, a third are passable, and the rest I try not to get. There's a lot of "Southwest/Mexican Beef/Chicken" all of which are solid. Nothing super exotic, although I think an MRE was the first place I had goulash.

4. Desert: Lots of pound cake and sugar cookies, but you get more interesting stuff like an apple dumpling from time to time.

And then there's usually a little goodie bag with powdered drink mix, candy, freeze dried coffee, etc. My favorites are the ones that come with a bag of "fruit puree." Truly, the American military's greatest invention is squeeze bags of adult baby food. I'm not kidding, I would eat like five a day if I could.

Occasionally, I'll use the snack/cracker/spread in the main course. Any of the tex-mex ones benefit from some cheese spread squeezed in, and some of the thinner stews are improved by cracker/corn nut chunks to thicken them up.

Anyway, tonight I sat down and opened up a 2022 Vintage Menu 20: Italian Sausage with Peppers and Onions in Marinara Sauce. Out comes:

1. Smoked Almonds. Okay, that's a fair snack to munch on while I make the rest.

2. Crackers. Normal.

3. Cheese Spread. Will go on crackers to make grilled cheese. Might mix a little in the sausage.

4. Recovery Trail Mix w/ beef jerky. Kind of weird, with the almonds, but okay.

5. Hot beverage bag (this usually means coffee, but every once in awhile you get luck with hot chocolate).

6. Powdered Lemonade

7. Dried Cranberries. Oh boy, more trail mix!

8. Goodie bag w/ coffee, gum, etc.

So, I dumped the almonds, trail mix, and cranberries together to have some trailmix with my trailmix so I could trailmix while I trailmixed.

Does this meme count as a classic yet?

I went online and confirmed that Menu 20 is, in fact, the trailmix menu.

Weird, reasonably tasty, filling. 3/5 on the MRE scale, which is slightly worse than a 3/5 on the classics scale.

Come back tomorrow when I'll get back to classics. Or maybe I'll be reviewing the best scratch and sniff pens. Who knows!?