I think most of us have MRE’s somewhere in our storage. MRE’s take some getting used to if you just warm it and eat it but I found a page of MRE recipes. Creativity is key when eating MRE’s. Some of these sound interesting and I am going to try them. The cheese sauce seems to come in real handy but here is a recipe for MRE birthday cake. Even bugging out or on the go, one can still make a birthday cake! Field Birthday Cake My boys love cheeseburgers. I think I am going to try this one out and we can alter the recipe to suit our tastes. Cheese Burger Here is a listing of MRE Recipes- MRE Recipes If you have any that you have created or learned, please share.
Tabasco sauce goes a long way to brighten up any MRE entre. If your food preparation time is limited, at least throw in some of that pepper sauce from Avery Island, LA, and you can enjoy the milspec cuisine, as well as minimize any "gastro lock up" potential.
I was in so loooong ago, we had hardtack w/ weevils and salt mule with horse hoof water! Knock the hardtack on a rock until the weevils fall out, eat the weevils and throw away the hardtack! Dunk the salt mule in the hoof print water!
One of my favorites comes from the 1st MRE's that came out. Take the dehydrated sausage patty, rehydrate and heat , cover well with the cheese from the packet, hot sauce if you have it, put it on the cracker , or some pita bread worked well at our AO at the time. For dessert , the Gorilla cookie with the Peanut Butter packet. This was a meal that put the fast food burger joints to shame.
Chicken choke loaf cheese crackers Water 3 Coco packs 6 sugar packs 6 coffee package put in canteen cup heat it up until till your spoon will stand up will keep you going all day long
It kind of not so fondly reminds me of Vietnam era Australian Army one man combat ration packs. One pack contained tinned mini cocktail frankfurts which we called 'little boys".. 1982 MRE Frankfurters 4 Fingers of Death Food Ration Review Oldest Hotdog Ever Eaten It was easy to tell who had been issued that kind of rationpack....they'd be singing, or humming..." little boys are cheap today, cheaper than yesterday' to the tune of a bastardised comic opera aria.
I was only issued C-rats too! From 1942-1943. Not real yummy! The more edible meals we ate straight from the can, with a little crushed chili pepper. The less appetizing meats got mixed with Ramen, again with a healthy dose of crushed red pepper. When most GI's got to Korea a little bit of pepper went a long way, shortly after though we spooned it on thick! The other culinary item on the menu were the small Asian deer that covered the DMZ. The best items in the C's were the pound cake, two per case, and the peaches and fruit cocktail, at one each per case. I've seen a number of fist fights over them!
*You may or may not have all of these ingredients included in your case of MREs* (Note: If recipe calls for mixing in cheese spread it is best to heat the cheese in the packet at the same time you heat the entree, this helps the cheese spread mix more evenly and thoroughly). Note - "Cheese spread" is NOT cheese. It is orange. Pot Luck Pie 1 pouch Beef Stew ½ packet Cheese Spread 4 dashes Hot Sauce (optional) ½ pack Crackers (crumbled) Heat Beef Stew and Cheese Spread in heater Then combine Stew, Cheese, Hot Sauce and top with Cracker crumbles Cheese Burger 1 pack Cheese Spread (does not need heating) 1 pack Snack Wheat Bread 1 pouch Beef Patty (Heated) Hot Sauce (optional) Spread Cheese on Snack Wheat Bread Top with heated Beef Patty Add Hot Sauce to taste Serve open-faced Enchilada Soup 1 pouch heated Beef Enchiladas 1 packet Cheese Spread (heated) 4 ounces heated water (1/6 canteen cup) Hot Sauce to taste Cut Beef Enchiladas into small pieces Add cheese spread, water and hot sauce mix well Loaded Baked Potato 1 package of Mashed Potatoes 1 package of Cheese & Bacon Spread 1 bottle of Hot Sauce 1 package of salt 1 full cracker, crumbled Warm the mashed potatoes as you normally would. Include the cheese pack for easy mixing. Once warm, add the cheese and bacon spread, hot sauce, and salt to taste. When everything is mixed, sprinkle crumbs from the cracker to the mixture and enjoy. MRE Hash 1 pouch Beef Patty (heated) 1 pouch Mashed Potatoes (heated) Hot Sauce to taste 1 packet Cheese Spread, optional (heated) Cut Beef Patty into ½ inch pieces, stir in Potatoes, Hot Sauce and Cheese Spread if desired and mix. Baghdad Chili Ingredients: 1 Grilled Beef Steak package (heated) 1 Western Style Beans package (heated) 1 Package of Crackers 1 Package of Red Pepper Directions: 1. Break Beef Steak into desired chunks then add western style beans. 2. Mix, but do not pour out Beef Steak sauce before mixing. 3. Crush crackers and add them to the dish. 4. And to complete your creation, add red pepper and seasoning from accessory pack to taste. Enjoy. Mocha Frosting 1 pouch of MRE cocoa 1 packet of instant coffee Water as needed Add only enough water to the cocoa mix to resemble frosting. Add coffee granules as you wish to create a mocha flavor. Spread this frosting on such items as MRE pound cake, cookies and crackers. Ranger Pudding Ingredients (consolidated from several MREs): crackers peanut butter hot cocoa coffee sugar Directions: With the package unopened, pulverize the crackers. Peel open the package of crackers about 1/4 to 1/2 inch from edge and tear straight across; this will become the top of the preparation. Pull open the sides of the crackers package such that with the opening on top you have a makeshift cup. Now add the peanut butter then a little water. Stir the crackers in to give it a crunchy pudding consistency. Add the sugar, hot cocoa, and coffee to give it the taste. Add more water if needed, my personal preference was to fill it about 3/4 of the way up with water after adding the entire peanut butter package. ( Thanks G.) Ranger Cookie 1 coffee creamer packet 1 packet of sugar Open both sugar and creamer packet. Add the sugar into the creamer packet, shake it thoroughly, and then fold it up together. Heat the packet over the book of matches until the contents have melted. Let it cool. You should have a caramelized cookie. Chocolate Icing 1 Cocoa Mix 1 Non-Dairy Creamer 1 Sugar Packet Stir in small amounts of water until desired consistency is achieved. Spread icing over pound cakes, crackers or nut cakes. Mousse Pudding 1 Cocoa Mix 1 Creamer Water Slowly add water to get desired consistency. Serve. Coca Mocha 1 packet coca powder base ½ packet instant coffee 8 ounces hot water (1/3 canteen) Combine everything and mix well Your Choice Peanut Butter Cookie Any cookie ½ pack peanut butter Roasted Nuts or M&Ms Spread cookie with peanut butter than put on any topping you want Beef and Mushrooms with Crunchy Potatoes 1 pouch Beef Steak with Mushroom gravy (heated) 1 pouch Potato Sticks Hot Sauce to taste Combine Beef and Mushrooms with Hot Sauce then top With broken up pieces of potato sticks Take a Regular MRE...let's say Beef and Mushrooms * Heat the main entree (Beef & Mushrooms) for 15-20 minutes. Do this by placing the main entree along with the heater w/appropriate level of water (1/3 cup) and place both entree and heater in card board container the main entree came in., set aside. *You must heat the package of rice with 2nd heater! Sandwich the rice package with heaters on both sides and place in cardboard container or plastic MRE package and let sit for 15-20 minutes. .. add hot sauce to main entree .. add 1/2 packet of salt to main entree .. mix all in the Main Entree package and remove excess sauce Place rice on top of paper plate or the exterior of flattened MRE package then cover the rice with main entree. Take a chicken with salsa MRE...heat up the chicken with salsa, and the rice (cheese too). Crunch up the crackers into little bits, than mix it all up with the chicken with salsa. Also, see if you can snag some Jalapeno cheese to go with it. Peanut Butter Pound Cake 1 MRE Cocoa Powder packet 1 MRE creamer packet 1 MRE sugar packet 1 MRE Peanut Butter packet 1 MRE Pound cake (vanilla flavor is best, avoid pineapple or orange) MRE coffee packet (optional) Begin by slicing the pound cake so that you have two flat pieces. Empty the whole packet of peanut butter onto one piece and set it and the other pound cake half aside. Next, mix up the Ranger Pudding (see recipe). If you need the caffeine, then mix in some of the coffee, but not too much. Take this concoction and pour half of it over the piece of pound cake that you've just covered in peanut butter, put the other piece on top, and then pour the other half over it. Cheesy Spaghetti MRE Spaghetti with Meat Sauce Entree (heated) MRE cheese spread (heated) Heat main meal and cheese spread in same stove for at least 10 minutes. Mix together in main meal pouch. Add Tabasco sauce to taste. Garnish with crushed MRE crackers if desired. Beef and Dumplings aka Ranger Stew 1 Beef Stew main meal 1 pack MRE crackers Water Heat main meal for a minimum of 10 minutes. While cooking, crush crackers, while still in package, into a uniform powder. Open package and add a small amount of water to form pasty dough. Form into dumplings. Add dumplings to hot beef stew. Add Tabasco sauce to taste. Cafe Mocha 1 pkg instant coffee 1 pkg hot chocolate mix 1 pkg sugar 1 pkg non-dairy creamer Mix and drink. Peanut Butter Cups 1 pkg peanut butter 1 pkg cocoa mix 1 pkg sugar 1 pkg creamer Water Mix all ingredients together in the Cocoa mix package (or other available package) and only using enough water to get mixture completely mixed (doesn't take much at all) form into cups if desired or use a spoon to eat. Field Birthday Cake MRE Pound Cake, NOT the chocolate one... 1 Package of MRE Crackers 1 Pack of dairy creamer 1 Pack of cocoa mix 1 Pack of MRE Sugar 1 Water and a canteen cup with a spoon to mix 1 Book of matches In the canteen cup mix the cocoa powder, dairy creamer, pack of sugar with some water in a clean canteen cup. Add the various powders as needed to make the icing as thick or thin, as you want. Mix them all together. Then take the Pound Cake (I prefer anything but the chocolate, the brownie works in a pinch but that’s WAY too much chocolate for me) and add the icing on top. Serve the cake on a plate of crackers to prevent drippage. Throw some of the matches on top to act as candles and serve to the birthday-boy / girl. Pudding Variations Mix cocoa powder with sugar and non-dairy creamer to make the ordinary stuff. You can add coffee or cappuccino mix to make it mocha ranger pudding. You can also add Peanut butter and it’s the stuff. If you add to much water you can probably get a milkshake from someone (they're nasty by themselves) and add it until you get a thick pudding. It doesn’t really matter what flavor it is I've mixed strawberry milkshake with it and it tasted good. 1 main course, Beef and mushroom or some variation of it 1 Jalapeno cheese spread* 1 western beans or 1 rice 1 thing of Hot Sauce Heat everything up except the hot sauce and mix it all together in the MRE bag. It looks a little rough but tastes excellent. *Make sure the cheese is heated well so its easier to mix plus it tastes better. You can mix hot cheese with about any main course and it tastes great Beef Patty Goulash Ingredients: 1 Beef Patty (heated) 1 Cracker package 1 Cheese package (heated) 1 Bottle of Tabasco Sauce 1 Package of salt Directions: 1. Crumble Beef Patty 2. Add cheese package and cracker with patty chunks and mix. 3. Add Tabasco sauce, salt to taste and enjoy. Peanut Butter Cookie Fun ½ packet Peanut Butter 1 Cookie 1 Spoon Roasted, Shelled Peanuts Spread Peanut Butter on Cookie and top with nuts. Peanut Butter Brownie ½ packet Peanut Butter 1 Brownie or (cookie) 1 Spoon Roasted, Shelled Peanuts ¼ Packet any Flavor M&M’s Spread Peanut Butter on Brownie or (Cookie) and decorate with nuts and or M&M’s. Philly Cheese Steak MRE Style 1 pouch meatloaf w Gravy (Heated) 1 pack Cheese Spread 1 pack Wheat Snack bread Hot Sauce to taste Combine Meatloaf and Hot Sauce Place Meatloaf on Bread, top with gravy Drizzle Cheese Spread on top Peanut Butter Balls 1 packet Peanut Butter 3 packs Sugar ¾ pouch Crackers, finely crumbled ½ packet Coca Mix Combine Peanut Butter and Sugar; stir in cracker crumbles, mix well Shape mixture into 1-inch balls If needed add few drops of water to make mixture stick together Roll Balls in Coca Mix Minestrone Soup Extra Filling 1 pouch Chicken Breast or Beef Steak or Beef Patty (heated) 1 pouch Minestrone Stew (heated) 6 ounces (1/4 canteen cup) hot water Hot Sauce to taste Crumble meat and mix all ingredients well. Open Face Bean Sandwich 1 pouch Western beans (heated) 1 pouch Wheat Snack bread 1 packet Cheese Spread Hot Sauce to taste Combine Beans and Hot Sauce, spread on Bread Drizzle with Cheese
RANGER Style Ranger Pudding Ingredients: Coco Powder, Water, Sugar, Creamer, Coffee, Cracker Directions: Open the pouch containing the coco powder and slowly add water while siring until your pudding reaches the perfect consistency. I like mine about the thickness of a milk shake. For extra flavor and texture add sugar, creamer, coffee, and crushed crackers. Ranger Pudding can be enjoyed by itself or spread across your favorite side item such as a cracker or an oatmeal bar. Chocolate Cake Ingredients: Ranger Pudding, Peanut Butter, M&M’s, Cracker or Bread Directions: Simply add peanut butter to your Ranger Pudding mix to make a creamy chocolate icing that can be spread across a cracker or MRE bread. Top it off with M&M’s to make a tasty pre-patrol treat. Pop Tart Ingredients: Cracker, Cheese Spread, Fruit Punch Powder Directions: Spread a packet of creamy cheese spread across an MRE cracker. Once the spread reaches the desired cheese thickness, sprinkle your favorite fruit punch powder evenly across the top of the cheese. This recipe will make your fellow survivalists mouths water!