Friday, July 24, 2009

Romantic candle light dinner with army rations

When Nathan offered to make dinner the other night, I was so elated that it didn't matter to me what we were going to eat. Somewhere along his busy work day, Nathan had come across some army rations and was so excited that he immediately bust into the ration package to explore it's contents. He had come home with a few options of breakfast, lunch & dinner. They all tried very hard to appear much more extravagant then what the preserved packages inside actually were. This option below was a "Lunch Menu No. 2", Mmm already sounds delicious. Then it goes on to list that it's a "Beef Macaroni Chinese Style", whatever that is. It does sounds like the army came up with that idea, lets just mix whatever is leftover together.

The contents of the ration box below includes:
1 Package of SCRUMPTIOUS beef Macaroni Chinese Style, 1 Package of apple sauce, spoon, salt, pepper, wetnap, Chiclets (yes, the army wants you...to have fresh breath), one Worthers original (thank god, I mean what would you do after dinner if you didn't have a Worthers? Subsequently I passed on my mine because it was in Christmas wrapping), everything you need for tea and coffee, jam, peanut butter, a packet of bread, napkins, juice chrystals, one plastic bag cup used for hot and cold beverages, a chocolate bar (sorry, not shown in photo because someone ate it in the 10 seconds it took to open the package and set up this photo), and lets not forget 1 "How do you rate this meal" survey.

Here Nathan is hard at work with the meal preparation. Packages need to be boiled.

Nathan also made us drinks from the flavored crystal packets in the cups that come along with the rations. Even though we were home, within reasonable reach of real cups, it was important to experience everything. Yes, I drank out of this Ziploc bag below, and yes it was very challenging. Remember though, I'm not complaining, because Nathan prepared everything

I decided to go with spaghetti and meatballs, and can honestly say it wasn't bad. A little like zoodles. The brick of bread there was another story. It just didn't seem right to eat bread that was probably older then Ezri.
Nathan went with a chicken in a sauce and mashed potatoes. The potatoes where a powder to begin with and the instructions noted that you could add in the coffee mate packet to intensify the creaminess. So. Gross. Especially because he didn't mix it up really well and when I went to try a bite (try everything once I say), it was completely powdery.
Found directly under "bread", "Do Not Eat". Exactly. Sure, they mean don't eat the package, I guess in a crunch those army guys get really hungry. My theory is that if your hungry enough to think about eating the package, your probably too hungry to read.After consuming two meals, breakfast & dinner in ration form in one day, Nathan didn't feel so great. That was the end of the rations in our house.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks scrumptious. I ended up with a few odds and ends from some army rat packs when I lived in Saskatchewan and brought them along with me to Nunavut. Included in this was a packet of bread just like you had. I'm not sure what its shelf life is but I've had some after its been stored for 5-6 years and suffered no ills effects. I'm sure the bread could double as a floatation device in a pinch or it could plug a gap in a quinzee.

The meals are pretty filling if not glamorous. It looks like the menu has expanded somewhat since I was in the Reserves since I've never heard of Beef Macaroni Chinese Style. Seems yummy enough though.

Adam Snider said...

I've heard on numerous occasions that Canadian MREs are among the best tasting in the world. From the look of those pictures, I can't imagine how awful the MREs from OTHER countries must taste! Those don't look too appealing!

The weird hard bread kind of looks like Newfoundland hard bread. That's about the only bread I know of that would have a long shelf life, so maybe it's the same stuff?

Tara Muise said...

That is absolutely hilarious...oh, and the juice bag looked suspiciously like a pee-bag one would find in a hospital (please excuses the non-tech terms). Bon appetit!

Jen Mader said...

hahaha I can so relate. After the Rangers completed some arctic sovereignty patrols they left behind some of those rations and Matthew and I tried them and cooked them up, lol. One time it had been months since our one and only store had been out of chocolate bars. I was pregnant and dying for chocolate so a ranger that was in town went into the storage shed and opened a TON of boxes of rations and took out all the chocolate bars and gave them to me. I was eating the bars for breakfast, lunch and dinner for days hahaha.

Jackie S. Quire said...

I don't know how I missed this entry back when you wrote it, but I love it!
I would have been just like Nathan, uber eager to just try them all out, regardless of taste!