FReeper Canteen~Meals Ready To Eat~13 Nov 08

Serving the best Troops, Vets & Military families in the world! | Canteen Crew

[AZamericonnie]

The Freeper Canteen Presents

~Meals Ready To Eat~

The MRE was adopted as the Department of Defense combat ration in 1975. A large-scale production test began in 1978 with delivery in 1981. MRE I (1981) was the first date of pack.

*Recipe*

MRE Recipe
Ingredients:

1 MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat)

Directions:
Open and consume.
Heating optional.
Discard appropriately

During Operation Desert Storm, MREs were eaten by troops for far longer than they were originally intended. Originally intended for 10 days or less, many troops ate them for 60+ days. As a result, three changes were quickly made to supplement the MREs and enhance their acceptability: shelf-stable bread in an MRE pouch was developed, a high-heat-stable chocolate bar was developed that wouldn't melt in the desert heat (this had been attempted before but the bar had a waxy taste and wasn't widely accepted), and flameless ration heaters were developed as a quick and easy method for troops to heat their entrees.

The military makes a few changes to the menus every year so you will find a different menu listing for each year. In general, though, each MRE contains the following:

Entree - the main course, such as Spaghetti or Beef Stew
Side dish - rice, corn, fruit, or mashed potatoes, etc.
Cracker or Bread
Spread - peanut butter, jelly, or cheese spread
Dessert - cookies or pound cakes
Candy - M&Ms, Skittles, or Tootsie Rolls
Beverages - Gatorade-like drink mixes, cocoa, dairy shakes, coffee, tea
Hot sauce or seasoning - in some MREs
Flameless Ration Heater - to heat up the entree
Accessories - spoon, matches, creamer, sugar, salt, chewing gum, toilet paper, etc.
Each MRE provides an average of 1,250 calories (13% protein, 36% fat, and 51% carbohydrates) and 1/3 of the Military Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamins and minerals. A full day's worth of meals would consist of three MREs.

*Recipe*

MRE Nachos
Ingredients:

4 – Packages of crackers
3 – Packages of jalapeño or regular cheese
1 – Main meal of chicken or steak
1 – Package of beans

Directions:

1 – Heat beans. Break crackers into dipping-size pieces and spread out on unfolded, main meal box.
2 – Chop chicken or steak main meal into small pieces.
3 – Once beans are hot, spread over crackers.
Repeat steps for cheese packages and chicken or steak main meal. Add seasoning or Tabasco sauce from accessory packet if necessary. Enjoy.

Some of the early MRE main courses were not very palatable, earning them the nicknames "Mr. E" (mystery), "Meals Rejected by Everyone", "Meals, Rarely Edible", "Meals Rejected by the Enemy", "Morsels, Regurgitated, Eviscerated", "Meal, Ready to Excrete", "Materials Resembling Edibles", and even "Meals Rejected by Ethiopians". Some meals got their own nicknames. For example, the frankfurters, which came sealed in pouches of four, were referred to as "the four fingers of death". Although quality has improved over the years, many of the nicknames have stuck. MREs were often called "Three Lies for the Price of One" - it's not a Meal, it's not Ready, and you can't Eat it

*Recipe*

Ranger pudding

When made with less water, Ranger pudding also can be baked into a brownie (but don’t try it with the new MRE stove, because the chemicals in it aren’t healthy. Use an alternate heat source).
MRE Cocoa beverage mix
Coffee creamer
Water

1. Mix all ingredients in cocoa pouch to the consistency of pudding and enjoy.

If you grew up like a lot of Americans, eating casseroles, Hamburger Helper and lots of prepared foods out of a can or a jar, then an MRE is a completely normal, completely acceptable meal for you. If, on the other hand, you are the sort of person who prefers a salad of mixed greens with essence of cranberries effused in a vinaigrette dressing, along with a filet topped with a caramelized red onion glaze, baby carrots and angel hair pasta on the side, finishing with a strawberry sorbet and mixed fresh berries for dessert, then the MRE menu is unlikely to suit you

~U. S. Army Ranger school diet -58 days to a leaner, meaner you~

~From GulfWar1Vet~

I remember the MRE’s when going out to field exercises in Germany. We had a hot meal one day, but for those two weeks, MRE’s were it. Spaghetti is the best one that you can get get. Heat it up in your tin can and what a feast. Get your cheese and crackers, and hot chocolate mix. Yep, what a grand meal! Chicken a la King can be great, but you have to heat it up. Eating it cold, YUCK! Chocolate bars...Mmm..mmm...good. BUT, you better watch out, for it is a great substitute for Exlax. LOL

The MRE’s of today are so much improved than it was 15-20 yrs ago. But it sure beats being hungry!

~From Radix (Alternative uses for MREs or Fun With Tabasco!)~

MREs include a small bottle of tabasco sauce. For whatever reason, Troops often save them up.

Take the tabasco stash and pour a bunch of them into the MRE heater (instead of water) and throw that heater in a humvee when your friends are sleeping in it. When they wake up the steam reaction from the heater makes the air hot like tobasco sauce. They start coughing.. (like a mild cs chamber) and jump out of the vehicle. You start laughing.....

~From Old Sarge~

I first met Mister E. (MRE’s) in 1985, while on maneuvers at Fort Bliss. The packs back then were the first-generation meals: about fourteen or so choices, hot sauce in every one, dark-brown bags that looked like Hefty Bags.

As the Mister E’s became more available, I began keeping a small stock of them for camping, survival, and emergencies. As my family got older and bigger, I managed to keep at least a case or so at home. Over the last two decades, they’re as much a part of life in uniform as the uniform itself.

~From Mylife~



*The C-Ration Cookbook*



*The Marine Dinner Date - MREs For Your Sweetie* (hysterical!)

~From M1911A1 (Laughter & Tissue Alert!:)~

Meals, Ready to Eat. They had so many names-
Meals, Rejected by Ethiopians
Morale Reducing Elements
And my favorite: Mr. E

They are a lot better now (or at least a couple years ago when I last had one) then they were when they first came out.
The infamous Pork Patty, Dehydrated was amazing. Dry, it had the taste and quality of Moleskin bandages that had been worn on blistered feet for a twenty mile hump, and then baked in the sun. If you added water, the result was the same, except the chewy crunch was enhanced with a slimy, retch-inducing exterior.

One of my fondest memories of dining with MR. E was being issued Chicken Ala King one morning when it was about fifteen degrees outside. The meal had been kept sort of warm in a tent, but when the pouch was opened the cold air hit it and produced a curious effect; congealed globules of fat rose to the top, and seemed to cling to the plastic spoon that was trying to maneuver between them. Yum!

I started my career on C-rations and in later days I would wax nostalgic about the fruit cocktail. “Lads, you could drink the juice from the can!” I would declare, as the young Marines munched on crunchy, dehydrated fruit. I would tell them about Gorilla Cookies, Pound Cake, Beans and ....well, this is a family friendly place, so I won’t use the real names.

One thing I do miss about being retired is the coffee. There was this wonderful concoction that could be made by mixing two coffee packets, a hot chocolate packet and several sugars and creams. Who knew that somebody would open Starbucks and make money on that stuff we stirred up in our canteen cups?

Something about getting your morning Joe from a Mr. Coffee in the kitchen just doesn’t compare to having the last firewatch hand you that wonderful brew in the frosty gloom of Zero-Dark Thirty, as he smiles and says “ ‘Morning, Top!” ‘cause he knows that the PFC wise enough to provide the old grouch that first cup is likely to have a choice assignment that day.

Yes, I remember Mr. E, but when I stop to think about eating that doubtful chow, the memories that really come flooding back are the Marines I broke bread (or Crackers, Saltine with Cheese Spread) with. I may eat better food now, or on rare occasions go to some fancy restaurant with fine decor, but I’ll never have better company at a well set table than I had eating MREs sitting on the ground.

To those Marines I knew, I hoist a Lemon Beverage Powder to you. Semper Fi!

MsBehavin & I had fun talking about & planning this thread & it is a joint effort so send your thank to Ms, B~!

Great thanks to GulfWar1Vet, Old Sarge, Mylife, M1911A1, Radix & Sandrat for contributing testimonials for this thread! *Applause*

[MS.BEHAVIN]

Well, I’ll be!
I found my very first Canteen thread!
It was The Canteen Cook Off!
Great recipes in here!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1579429/posts
Tonk was still with us then..
*sniff*
He and Star were behind the scenes holding my hand!
I miss him so much!
You might want to bookmark that thread
It has almost 1200 posts with great recipes..
Enjoy!

[luvie]

Awwwwwwww.....memory time! It will be bookmarked! *sniff*

[MS.BEHAVIN]

*sniff*
It’s a great keepsake, huh Sis?

[mylife]

I remember dat!

[AZamericonnie]

Actually left work early for some shopping & a special dinner.

Good times but the roads were crazy!

Did someone send a memo that I would be driving today? LOL

Hope your roads to Wally World are clear of driver zombies!:)

[SandRat]

Tabasco and the U.S. military

Tabasco does not openly advertise its history with the U.S. Armed Forces. During the Spanish-American War, John Avery McIlhenny, son of Tabasco's inventor and the second president of McIlhenny Company, served in the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, better known as Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders. His son, Brigadier General Walter Stauffer McIlhenny, USMCR, a World War II veteran and recipient of the Navy Cross, presided over McIlhenny Company from 1949 until his death in 1985. During the Vietnam War, BGen. McIlhenny issued the The Charlie Ration Cookbook. (Charlie ration was slang for the field meal given to troops.) This cookbook came wrapped around a two-ounce bottle of Tabasco sauce in a camouflaged, water-resistant container. It included instructions on how to mix C-rations to make such tasty concoctions as "Combat Canapés" or "Breast of Chicken under Bullets."

The Charlie Ration Cookbook, issued by McIlhenny Company in 1966 for U.S. troops in Vietnam.

It is included in MREs ("Meals Ready to Eat").^[5] During the 1980s, the U.S. military began to include miniature bottles of Tabasco sauce in its MREs. Eventually, miniature bottles of Tabasco sauce were included in two-thirds of all MRE menus. During the same period, McIlhenny Company issued a new military-oriented cookbook using characters from the comic strip Beetle Bailey, titled The Unofficial MRE Cookbook, which it offered free of charge to U.S. Troops. In response to these gestures, service personnel wrote many letters of thanks to McIlhenny Company.

Most recently, U.S. troops in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom used miniature Tabasco bottles to decorate their Christmas trees. Some soldiers used the bottles to make chess sets. Many U.S. troops have returned miniature bottles to McIlhenny Company filled with soil from local camps and bases in Iraq and elsewhere.

McIlhenny Company's relationship with the military extends beyond combat situations. The U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps list over 400 mess halls that offer Tabasco sauce on their tables. In fact, Tabasco sauce is found on the table of every Officer's Mess in the Marine Corps.

Walter Stauffer McIlhenny was a benefactor of the Marine Military Academy. As a result, a bottle of Tabasco sauce can be found on every table in the school's mess hall. McIlhenny was a member of the Academy's General H. M. Smith Foundation, and the school named one of its buildings after him.

[MS.BEHAVIN]

*smooch*
I know!
I have missed you!

[TASMANIANRED]

Evening Meg.. Hug.

[Old Sarge]

OLD SARGE'S CHUCK-WAGON RAMADI-STYLE BAKED BEANS

Two (2) bags of Kingsford charcoal
Two (2) #10 cans of Van Camp's Beans
One (1) 12 oz. bottle of Jim Beam BBQ Sauce
One (1) 1 quart canteen of water

1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tblsp. black pepper
2 tblsp. tabasco sauce (option)

Start fire.
Pour canteen of water into stock pot.
When water begins to boil, pour in beans, BBQ sauce.
Heat for 10 mins.
Add cinnamon, pepper, and tabasco.
Continue heating, stirring frequently and tasting every few minutes until done to taste.

Serves twenty.

[TASMANIANRED]

Evening Sandy.

[TASMANIANRED]

Evening Kathy, Hugs.

[MEG33]

Just put in my old post file..Thanks!

[AZamericonnie]

Thank YOU for helping out dear! *Hugs*

How many days in a row did you have to eat them?

[luvie]

It sure is. I got very nostalgic just reading the first 3
pages!

....and very hungry! LOL!

[MEG33]

Hugs, Taz..How are you this evening?

[luvie]

Very yummy...very inventive!(((((Sarge)))))

[TASMANIANRED]

It’s rainy and cold.

[AZamericonnie]

WooHoo! You found it!

The cinnamon is an interesting twist Sarge!

[MS.BEHAVIN]

Wasn’t that fun, My?
I had a blast with that thread!

[BIGLOOK]

Aloha Luv!

I was searching for a recipe from you... West Texas Speed Bumps on the Half shell, Jack on a shingle or anything to sharpen my appetite after reminiscing of serial numbered fare.