Are You Prepared (to Eat Gross Food)??

Over the years, I have slowly accumulated a variety of MREs, and tonight we decided to taste-test a few. There are some sales going on right now, so any flavors that were decent I wanted to go stock up on for emergencies. Chris and I thought we'd turn off the lights and have a fun evening pretending the power was off. Parker would not touch any of the MREs, so I wound up making the kid some chicken nuggets. Kenzie tried three different flavors very bravely, and finally she did settle on cheese tortellini. I was relieved there was one she'd eat! Chris and I tried a couple and remarked, "I guess we'd eat that if we were dying!" which isn't really the highest culinary category. Oh, and Kenzie didn't like having the lights off, that worried her. So we sat around in full-lighting, used the microwave, and basically cheated our way through our MRE trial-run.

Here is the list of MREs we've tried (not all were tried tonight, lest you think we're pigs):

• Almond Pound Cake - good

• Beef in Teriyaki Sauce - okay (probably better with some rice to help the texture)

• Brownie with Chocolate Chips - good

• Cheddar Cheese spread - okay

• Cheddar Pretzels - good (Kenzie wouldn't eat them, but Parker loved them)

• Cheese Tortellini - good with some salt added

• Chicken, Noodles, & Vegetables in Sauce - NO

• Chocolate Peanut Butter - good

• Filled French Toast - NO

• Fried Rice - NO

• Ham & Shrimp Jambalaya - NO

• Hash Browns with Bacon - okay

• Ice Cream Sandwich - okay (a little weird to eat a dry ice cream sandwich, though)

• Marble Pound Cake - good

• Meatloaf - good

• Mexican Corn - NO

• Mexican Macaroni & Cheese - good (I'm starting to wonder if I was pregnant the last time I tried this, because I remembered it as being really tasty, but tonight it was only okay)

• MRE Crackers - good

• Pasta with Vegetables in Alfredo-style Sauce - okay (added lots of salt)

• Strawberry Jam - good

• Strawberry Shake - okay

• Vegetable Crackers - good

• Wheat Snack Bread - good

There you have it. I still have a box with more varieties to try, but I think we're going to need some time to recuperate first. The whole house smells just a little funky with all the things we heated up tonight!