The Joys of MREs

This morning I am having a lovely (NOT) cup of cappacino -- MRE style. For anyone not familiar with the acronym, MRE stands for "Meals Ready to Eat". It's military field rations, and it's what everyone around here ate a lot of during the first 2-3 weeks back after the storm when the grocery stores were bare. They require no refridgeration and many come with self heating packets that really get hot. Here's a photo example in case you've never had the pleasure.


You never know what you're going to get when you crack open a thick plastic bag that comprises one MRE. The condiments and after meal snack varies from meal to meal, and some of them also have dessert which can be anything from a pack of M&M's to gummy worms. Most of them also have two pieces of Chicklet style gum. I guess that's so soldiers can have nice breath after eating tobasco flavored industrial food. Many of them have tiny little bit of toilet paper in them too. I guess that's for...well, I'd rather not say. We still have a box of unopened MRE's in the garage. They will probably last until the next millenium.

Anyway, we have a container on our kitchen counter filled with miscellaneous little condiments and drink packets that came in the MREs. My favorite condiment is the teeny tiny little bottle of tobasco sauce. It is probably less than half an ounce.

My local grocery store is out of my favorite flavored New Orleans style coffee (surprise), so rather than figure out how to work our coffee machine and drink the Folgers, I found a packet of cappacino mix in our MRE condiment collection. I'm not really an MRE aficionado and have tried to avoid them whenever possible, but it would be a shame to let all these cute little packaged condiments and drink mixes go to waste. So I'm sipping away at my MRE coffee.

I wish I could say it was tasty. ;-)