In the waning days of December, I wanted to have spaghetti, but I didn’t have any sauce on-hand to a make it. So, I thought to open one of the Italian-themed MREs in the B Case (packed 3/22 with 3/25 inspection date) that I opened recently to mix with some noodles that I had in the cabinet. Here’s Menu 20: Italian Sausage with Pepper and Onions in Marinara Sauce.
After opening the outer protective bag, all of the contents are tightly wrapped in a thinner plastic bag.
The contents of the MRE included the following going clockwise from the upper left:
- Italian Sausage with Peppers and Onions in Marinara Sauce
- Cardboard entree info card/sleeve
- Trail Mix, Recovery with Beef Jerky
- Spoon
- Accessory Pack
- Beverage Base Orange Type III
- Water-activated heater
- Hot beverage drink pouch
- Cheese Spread
- Crackers
- Dry Roasted Peanuts
- Cranberries (Osmotic)
The accessory pack included these items clockwise from the upper left:
- Bill’s Brew Freeze Dried Coffee
- Zero Calorie Sweetner
- TP
- Sugar
- Iodized Salt
- Chewing Gum
- Moist Towelette
- Creamer, Non-Dairy
For dinner that night, I cooked a small pot of Barilla Whole Grain Spaghetti noodles for 7 minutes.
Then, I poured out the Italian sausage entree into a large bowl and microwaved it for 60 seconds.
And added the cooked noodles and some crushed red pepper to make it spicier (after tasting the sauce first).
To supplement my meal, I ate the trail mix before thinking to take a picture of it. It was my first time having this particular kind of “recovery” trail mix in an MRE. It contained almonds, beef jerky chunks, and cranberries. It tasted good, but also a little interesting, perhaps due to the mixing of salty and sweet flavors.
In the field, you can crush up your crackers and add them to the Italian sausage. For that matter, you can add the cheese spread, too. Since I had noodles and I wanted spaghetti, I went that direction instead of using only what was in the MRE. That’s the thing about enjoying MREs–you can mix-and-match them with what you have on-hand and what you find in between different menu pouches.
