TexasBoard

9 Recipes to make your MREs actually taste delicious
by Logan Nye, originally posted here.

Meals, Ready to Eat make field life significantly more comfortable for today’s troops than grandpa had it, but they’re still not exactly good. And, since there are only 24 recipes per year, even the good ones can get old fast. Luckily, Pvt. Snuffy has enough ingenuity to take MRE components and turn them into good food. Here are 9 of the best recipes we’ve found. (We’ve limited the recipes to those which can be made with only current MRE components.)

Entrees
1. Tex-Mex stew

Ingredients:

Jalapeño pepper jack beef patty (can substitute beef stew)
Cheese spread
Hot sauce
Toasted corn kernels or crackers (optional)

Instructions:

Cut patty into small squares and add cheese. Add 3-4 oz. of water (reduce water if using beef stew) and mix. Works best if heated in metal container (canteen cup) over an open flame. Adding ingredients to hot beverage bag and heating with chemical pad will work in a pinch. Serve with toasted corn kernels or crackers.

2. Pot luck pie

Ingredients:

Beef stew
Cheese spread
Crackers
Hot Sauce

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients but crackers. Crumble crackers over top. Mixes and tastes best if warmed before mixing.

3. Asian Beef Bowl
Ingredients:

Asian beef strips
Garlic mashed potatoes
Cheese spread
Hot sauce

Instructions:

Mix well. Mixes and tastes best if warmed before mixing.

4. Loaded Baked Potato
Ingredients:

Garlic mashed potatoes
Bacon cheese spread
Hot sauce
Crackers (or vegetable crackers)
Salt (optional)

Instructions:

Mix everything but the crackers. Crumble crackers and sprinkle over the top. Mixes more easily and tastes better if heated.

Deserts
5. Apple/Pear crumble
Ingredients:

Spiced apples (or pears)
Crushed oatmeal cookie (or patriotic sugar cookies)
Creamer

Instructions:

Add creamer to the spiced fruit. Crush the cookie to a powder and sprinkle over the mixture. Best when served hot.

6. Ranger pudding

Ingredients:

Cocoa Beverage Powder
Creamer
Water
Additional flavoring (PB, electrolyte powder, coffee)

Instructions:

Combine creamer, cocoa powder, and your additional flavoring in a pouch. Add a small amount of water and mix. Continue adding small amounts of water until the mix takes on desired consistency. For more sustenance, add throughly crumbled crackers.

7. Momma’s pudding
Ingredients:

Vanilla dairyshake powder
Beverage powder of desired flavor (coffee, orange, etc.)
Creamer
Sugar (optional)

Instructions:

Mix dairyshake, sugar, and beverage powder. Add water until mix achieves desired consistency.

8. General Patton’s Parfait
Ingredients:

Momma’s pudding/Ranger pudding
Crackers/Patriotic sugar cookies
Spiced apples (or pears)
Nuts

Instructions:

Make either pudding as described above. Layer pudding with crumbled crackers/cookies, nuts, and spiced fruit. To make other diners jealous, do so in a hot beverage bag so they can see how awesome your dinner is.

9. Frosting/Ranger cake

Ingredients:

Vanilla dairyshake
Additional flavoring (PB, electrolyte powder, coffee)
Sugar

Instructions:

Mix powder and flavoring with sparse amounts of water. Add water slowly until the mixture achieves the desired consistency. Spread on pound cake to create Ranger cake.

See? MREs can be amazing!

1. Non-Alcoholic Sangria

INGREDIENTS:

* 2 cups boiling water
* 2 black tea bags (or 2 teaspoons loose-leaf tea in an infuser; decaf tea is fine)
* 2 cinnamon sticks
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar
* 3 cups pomegranate juice
* 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
* 1 medium orange, sliced into thin rounds
* 1 medium lemon, sliced into thin rounds
* 1 medium lime, sliced into thin rounds
* 1 medium apple, cored and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
* 3 cups cold sparkling water or club soda

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Pour the boiling water over tea bags and cinnamon sticks and steep for 5 minutes. Discard tea bags and stir in sugar to dissolve.
2. In a large jar or pitcher, combine tea, cinnamon sticks, pomegranate juice, orange juice, orange, lemon, lime, and apple. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour and preferably overnight.
3. Just before serving, stir in sparkling water. Serve in glasses over ice.

2. Thanksgiving Punch for a Crowd

INGREDIENTS:

You only need 3 simple ingredients to get started. The beauty behind this fall punch recipe is that you can play with the ingredients to reach a level of flavor that you prefer. Or mix in sliced apples or fresh cranberries. So easy and delicious!

Apple cider: This is the base of the punch. You can make homemade apple cider or buy it premade. You’ll need 2 gallons.

Caramel syrup: Gives it a rich, caramel flavor. The punch will taste like a caramel apple in drink form!

Pumpkin pie spice: Adds those warm and comforting fall spices. You can make your own pumpkin pie spice at home with a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves.

INSTRUCTIONS:

How to make Thanksgiving punch:

1. POUR the apple cider into the drink dispenser (all but 1/4 of the 2 gallons). Next pour in the entire bottle of caramel syrup.

2. STIR in the pumpkin pie spice. You can add as much or as little as you want. I’m usually a little heavy handed. :) The spice has a tendency to float to the top, so just make sure to give it a good stir again before serving.

3. SERVE the punch chilled, at room temperature or warm.

3. 3 Ingredient Candy Corn Punch

INGREDIENTS:

* ⅓ of the glass pineapple tidbits make sure they are cold!
* ⅓ of the glass orange soda you can use orange juice, if you prefer
* dollup whipped cream
* candy corn

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Fill the glass about ⅓ full with cold pineapple tidbits

2. Pour orange soda on top of the pineapple until the glass is about ⅔ full

3. Dollup a scoop of whipped cream (or ice cream) on top.

4. Don't forget to top with a candy corn!

4. Apple Cider Floats

INGREDIENTS:

* Sparkling Apple Cider
* Fresh Local Apple Cider
* French Vanilla Ice Cream
* Whipped Cream – Optional
* Apple Slice – Optional
* Ground Cinnamon – Optional
* Cinnamon Stick – Optional
* Caramel Sauce – Optional

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Scoop ice cream into a cup & pour equal parts sparkling apple cider & fresh local apple cider.

2. Top with whipped cream, an apple slice, a sprinkle of ground cinnamon, a cinnamon stick, & caramel sauce.

3. Enjoy!

NOTES:

If you freeze your cup for at least 30 minutes your drink will stay cold longer & won’t melt as quickly.

5. Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 frozen banana
* 1/2 cup (120g) vanilla Greek yogurt*
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice*
* 1/2 cup (120ml) skim milk*
* 2 Tablespoons (30ml) pure maple syrup
* 2/3 cup (150g) pumpkin puree
* 1 cup ice cubes

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Make sure you have a strong, powerful blender.

2. Add all of the ingredients to the blender in the order listed. Blend on high for at least 3 minutes or until smooth. Stop and scrape down the sides of the blender as needed.

3. Add more milk to thin out if it’s too thick or add a couple more ice cubes for a thicker texture if desired. Taste, then add more spices if desired.

NOTES:

Yogurt: We usually use vanilla Greek yogurt in this recipe. Feel free to use regular (non-Greek) vanilla or plain Greek yogurt instead.
Spices: Instead of prepared pumpkin pie spice, try adding a pinch of ground nutmeg, ground cloves, ground ginger, and/or more cinnamon to taste.
Milk: We usually use skim milk. Coconut milk, almond milk, or other non dairy milks or cow’s milk are fine replacements.
Pumpkin: Use homemade or canned pumpkin puree in this smoothie– not canned pumpkin pie filling. If you have extra to use up, here’s what you can make with leftover pumpkin puree.
Real maple syrup: For best taste, use pure maple syrup, not breakfast syrup.

6. Pumpkin Spice White Hot Chocolate

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 cup of heavy cream

* 2 cups of milk – I used skim milk

* 1 cup of good quality white chocolate chips, Ghirardelli recommended

* 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

* 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin spice

* Whipped cream and additional pumpkin spice to sprinkle on top.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat cream and milk in a pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until hot but not boiling.

2. In a medium sized bowl, pour heated cream and milk over white chocolate chips. Stir until chips are melted.

3. Add vanilla extract and pumpkin spice.

4. Top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of pumpkin spice.

NOTES:

Keep a close eye on the milk and cream mixture – once it is hot, turn off the flame. It doesn’t need to come to a boil.

Use good quality white chocolate chips or chopped white chocolate. The flavor and sweetness of white chocolate really varies. I have found the Ghirardelli white chocolate chips to have the best taste and have been able to find them at almost every grocery store.

El Muerto: A Texas Ghost Story retold by S.E. Schlosser

After getting the lay of the land, so to speak, frontier man Bigfoot Wallace moved from Austin to San Antonio, which was considered the extreme edge of the frontier, to sign up as a Texas Ranger under Jack Hayes. In them days, Texas was as wild as the west could get. There was danger from the south from the Mexicans, danger to the wet and north from the wild frontier filled with Indians and desperados, and to the east the settlements still had problems with the Cherokee Nation. General Sam Houston himself had appointed young Captain Hays, a hero from the battle of Plum Creek, to raise a company of Rangers to defend San Antonio. Hayes had high standards for his men. They were the best fighters in the west, and they had to be, considerin’ the fact that they were often outnumbered fifty to one. A man had to have courage, good character, good riding and shooting skills and a horse worth a hundred dollars to be considered for the job. Captain Hayes knew all about Bigfoot Wallace and signed him on the spot.

So armed with Colt pistol and a Bowie knife, Texas Ranger Bigfoot Wallace once more took on the Wild West, and quickly made his mark on Texas folklore. In them days, the Rangers tended to handle stock theft at the end of the rope, so to speak, stringing up the bandits, forcing a confession out of them, and then leaving the bodies swaying in the wind to deter other outlaws. Only it didn’t work, and the bandits kept right on stealing, sometimes passing right under the bodies of their fellow outlaws to do it.

Now Bigfoot’s fellow Ranger, Creed Taylor, had a big spread lay west of San Antonio, in the cedar hills clear on the edge of Comanche territory, and he was constantly losing stock to bandits and Indian raids. The last straw came for Taylor the day famous Mexican raider and cattle thief Vidal and his gang rounded up a bunch of horses from his ranch and took them south toward Mexico. Most of the Rangers were heading north to pursue some Comanche’s out on a raid, but Taylor and a friend went immediately in pursuit of the thief, and when they bumped into Wallace just below Uvalde, he joined them.

Bigfoot was always ready to hunt horse thieves and desperados, especially those of Mexican descent, never forgetting what happened to his brother at Goliad. Bigfoot decided it was time to put an end to Vidal’s gang once and for all. He would track the wiry Mexican bandit to earth. The three men located the camp where the horse thief and his gang lay sleeping, and snuck in from downwind, so as not to alert the horses. Vidal was wanted dead or alive, so all the thieves were shot and killed in the gunfight that followed.

That was when Wallace got an idea. Obviously, hanging horse thieves hadn’t gotten the message across to the outlaws raiding the ranches of the good folk of Texas. Perhaps a more drastic example of frontier justice would do the trick. Severing Vidal’s head from his body, Bigfoot and his fellow Ranger tied the body to the saddle of the wildest mustang in the stolen herd and secured the severed head to the saddle horn so that it would bounce and flop around with every step taken by the mustang. Then Wallace gave a shout and sent the horse running away with its headless, dead rider, hoping the gruesome sight would deter future cattle thieves.

What he managed to do was frighten everyone in South Texas. Folks would be peacefully walking down the road of an evening when a terrible headless rider would gallop pass on a midnight black stallion with serape blowing in the wind and severed head bounding on the saddle horn beneath its sombrero. Nothing could deter the terrible specter – not bullets, not arrows, not spears. It was years before a posse of cowboys finally grew brave enough to bushwhack the horse and release the withered corpse from its back.

But on moonless nights, the ghost of El Muerto continues to ride across South Texas to this day with his long black serape blowing in the wind and his severed head bumping on the saddle beside him.

The Black Cat's Message: A Texas Halloween Story Excerpted from Spooky Southwest, Retold by S.E. Schlosser

I came home late one night after work and found my wife Ethel puttering about the kitchen with a big yellow cat at her heels.

“And who is this?” I asked jovially.

“This is our new cat,” said Ethel, giving me a hug and a kiss to welcome me home. “She just appeared at the kitchen door and wanted to come in. None of the neighbors know where she came from, so I guess she’s ours. It will be nice to have some company around the house.”

I bent down and scratched the yellow cat under the chin. She purred and stretched.

“Well, I think our income can stretch far enough to feed three,” I said.

My son had taken over my job at the mercantile and my wife and I were enjoying a leisurely old age. I liked to keep busy though, and so I spent a few hours every day cutting and hauling wood to be used at the mill.

I went out to milk the cow, and when I came back in, Ethel gave the cat some cream in a saucer.

We sat on the porch after dinner, and the cat sat with us.

“You are a very nice kitty,” I said to her. She purred loudly.

“Donald,” Ethel said. She sounded worried. I turned to look at her. “The neighbors acted rather oddly when I told them about the cat. They seemed to think she was a ghost or a witch of some sort, transformed into a cat. They told me to get rid of her.”

“A witch?” I asked, and laughed heartily. “Are you a witch, little cat?”

The cat yawned and stretched. Reluctantly, Ethel started to laugh with me. It seemed such a ludicrous notion. We sat watching the beautiful sunset, and then took ourselves to bed.

The cat quickly became an essential part of our household. She would purr us awake each morning, and would beg for cream when I brought in the morning’s milking. She followed Ethel around supervising her work during the day and would sit by the fire at night while we read aloud.

The days became shorter as autumn approached, and often I would work until nearly sunset, cutting and hauling wood. One night in October, I didn’t finish hauling my last load until dusk. As soon as I had piled the last log, I started down the road, hoping to get home before dark since I had not brought a lantern with me. I rounded a corner and saw a group of black cats standing in the middle of the road. They were nearly invisible in the growing dark.

As I drew nearer, I saw that they were carrying a stretcher between them. I stopped and rubbed my eyes. That was impossible. When I looked again, the stretcher was still there, and there was a little dead cat lying on it.

I was astonished. It must be a trick of the light, I thought. Then one of the cats called out, “Sir, please tell Aunt Kan that Polly Grundy is dead.”

My mouth dropped open in shock. I shook my head hard, not believing my ears. How ridiculous, I thought. Cats don’t talk.

I hurried past the little group, carefully looking the other way. I must be working too hard, I thought. But I couldn’t help wondering who Aunt Kan might be. And why did the cat want me to tell her Polly Grundy was dead? Was Polly Grundy the cat on the stretcher?

Suddenly, I was confronted by a small black cat. It was standing directly in front of me. I stopped and looked down at it. It looked back at me with large green eyes that seemed to glow in the fading light.

“I have a message for Aunt Kan,” the cat said. “Tell her that Polly Grundy is dead.”

The cat stalked passed me and went to join the other cats grouped around the stretcher.

I was completely nonplussed. This was getting very spooky. Talking cats and a dead Polly Grundy. And who was Aunt Kan? I hurried away as fast as I could walk. Around me, the woods were getting darker and darker. I did not want to stay in that wood with a group of talking cats. Not that I really believed the cats had spoken. It was all a strange, waking dream brought on by too much work.

Behind me, the cats gave a strange shriek and called out together: “Old man! Tell Aunt Kan that Polly Grundy is dead!”

I’d had enough. I sprinted for home as fast as I could go, and didn’t stop until I had reached the safety of my porch. I paused to catch my breath. I did not want to explain to Ethel that I was seeing and hearing impossible things. She would dose me with caster oil and call the doctor.

When I was sufficiently composed, I went into the house and tried to act normally. I should have known it wouldn’t work. Ethel and I had been married for thirty years, and she knew me inside and out. She didn’t say anything until after I’d finished the chores. Then she sat me down in front of the fire and brought me my supper. After I’d take a few bites and started to relax, she said, “Tell me all about it, Donald.”

“I don’t want to worry you,” I said, reluctant to talk about what I had seen and heard on the way home.

The yellow cat was lying by the fire. She looked up when she heard my voice, and came to sit by my chair. I offered her a morsel of food, which she accepted daintily.

“I’ll worry more if you don’t tell me,” said Ethel.

“I think maybe something is wrong with my brain,” I said slowly. “While I was walking home, I thought I saw a group of black cats carrying a stretcher with a dead cat on it. Then I thought I heard the cats talking to me. They asked me to tell Aunt Kan that Polly Grundy was dead.”

The yellow cat leapt up onto the window sill. “Polly Grundy is dead?” she cried. “Then I am the Queen of the Witches!”

She switched her tail and the window flew open with a bang. The yellow cat leapt through it and disappeared into the night, never to return.

Ethel had to dump an entire bucket of water over my head to revive me from my faint.

‘The good news,” she told me when I sat up, dripping and swearing because the water was ice cold, “is that you have nothing wrong with your brain. The bad news is that our cat has just left us to become the Queen of the Witches. We’ll have to get another cat.”

“Oh no,” I said immediately. “I’ve had enough of cats.”

We got a dog.

SEDRAN POSTCARDS

Planet Sedra, also known as Orrichon III. A Human Outer Colony Planet located in the Orrichon System.

Greetings From Sedra City (Postcard #1).

Greetings From Sedra City (Postcard #2).

Morning Lake, a lake on the Planet Sedra.

Forest and Bay on the Planet Sedra.