MRE Week day 5: sloppy joe

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TGIF!!!!  Back in my school days, the cafeteria used to serve up something special on Fridays... and sloppy joes were definitely a crowd favorite.  So it only seems appropriate that this is the menu I chose for tonight.

Opening up the package reveals the following items:

Main dish: Sloppy joe filling, barbecue sauce with beef

Side dish: Santa Fe style rice and beans

Snack #1: Wheat snack bread

Snack #2: Chocolate chip cookie

Strawberry jam

Beverage powder for lemon-lime flavored drink

Of course the flame-less heater, spoon and seasoning are all included.

After complaining about the repetitive snacks - and especially having drunk orange-flavored drink four days in a row... I finally got a break!  A different colored drink!! Yay!!!

Having learned from the last few days' experience, with two big pouches to heat up today, I decided to fill water to a level over the lines in the plastic bag - pouring in between the two pouches so that the water would come into direct contact with the heater.  Then I laid the whole package flat, instead of having it at an incline.  This sped up the chemical reaction and smoke was billowing out of the bag in no time.  After 15 minutes or so, I took the pouches out and found both of them to be nice and warm.  So that's what it takes to heat two pouches properly...

Sloppy joe with Santa Fe style rice and beans - I love the way the suppliers would do anything to avoid the word "Mexican", which was what these dishes used to be described as.  Nowadays it's "Southwestern style", "Santa Fe style"...  but I digress.  The rice and beans was pretty good!  Obviously there was a noticeable amount of flavor coming from spices like cayenne pepper, but the beans, corn, cheese and what not all came together.  Unlike the "fried rice" yesterday, I would happily eat this on its own.

The sloppy joe itself was no slouch, either!  Very tasty with lots of tomato and some vinegar to provide lots of flavor to the beef.  Spooning the sloppy joe and rice and beans together into my waiting mouth turned out to be pretty enjoyable.

But we mustn't forget about the wine pairing!  All the tomato and beef in sloppy joe calls for a full-bodied wine, and it had to be Vin Rouge.  The minute I saw the label I was sold.  Calling your wine "Vin Rouge" is basically the French equivalent of calling it "Everyday Red"...  It advertised itself as "soft and full bodied" while the back labels described it as "a soft, fruity, easy to drink red wine made from selected grapes".  "Selected" grapes, eh?  So I'm drinking ANOTHER "mystery wine"...  And this came with a composite cork... maybe because the Frenchies can't bring themselves to use a synthetic closure.  For wines at this price range, I'd much rather they used screwcaps...

The wine was kinda soft on the palate.  Ripe nose of stewed prunes, caramel, sweet, definitely oxidized, smelling like the bottle's been stoppered and left overnight after opening.  For HKD 39 a bottle I'll take the Everyday Red instead.

Wheat snack bread with strawberry jam - I guess it's similar to the multigrain snack bread from the other night, but this was slightly fluffier/mushier.

The chocolate chip cookie was the same as the other night.  Huge.

Hey!  Let's not forget my new lime green-colored lemon-lime drink!

I gotta say... After 5 meals, this has got to be the best one so far!  Both the main and the side dish were pretty yummy!  And super filling.  Final tally?  1,140 calories, with 380 calories from fat.  Whoa!  This was the biggest meal so far, too!  So what was that saying about what tastes good must be bad for you (fattening)?