Hal's Special Dinner for Us

A few weeks ago I was in Kohl's Hal asked if we had plans Sunday Evening & when I answered No told me he needed like $40 by Friday for dinner plans on Sunday. So I agreed and asked him what we were doing. He said "it's a surprise". Now, being the Snobby Tabby I am thinking what could we all possibly do for dinner for a family of 4 for this price. I was assuming some kind of spaghetti fundraiser or something. So I am giving him all kinds of crap about it, and he is not even budging. It is a surprise, you will like it, he says...I am skeptical. A few minutes later this young kid who works for him walks up *whom I had never met, and didn't know who I was*BONUS* and asks Hal, "Hey, did you ever buy any MRE's and try them with your family?" HA! I turned to Hal who looked like he had seen a ghost and said, "THIS IS MY DINNER OUT??" It was hilarious! Trying to pull one over on Tabby...HA.Ha.Ha.HA! The kid apologized to Hal who will likely never let him live it down and I quickly thanked him & shook his hand for letting the cat out of the bag! :) HE HE HE! (I actually really like surprises since I am such a control freak, but...this was funny)

So for the next few days, I roused Hal and picked at him about this special Sunday Evening Feast! Ever since he went on that Military Day he has been telling me he was going to buy some for us to try. He said they were actually quite good and a fun experience.

On the menu:

• Beef Ravioli
• Chicken with Feta
• BBQ Pork Ribs
• Chili Macaroni
• Chicken and Rice

We decided to have a smorgasbord so we could all try everything. I cannot believe how much food they give you. I mean along with your main course: cookies, crackers, trail mix, candy, peanut butter, jelly, bread (which I seriously would buy in the store on purpose it was so good), jerky, coffee, gatorade, kool-aid, cider, mocha, even tiny little tabasco bottles, salt, pepper. You name it, it is in these puppies! They are like 3,000 calories each to sustain our troops in combat. Sometimes this is the only meal they receive during war times. The creepiest part is their daily toilet paper rations and the glycerin gum as I am told the meals can constipate if eaten several days in a row. Yet another reason to thank our troops people!

They were so fun to prepare. They come with this little self heating unit you add like a few tablespoons of water to activate and boy it gets boiling hot almost instantly. You place the main dish in it and in about 10 minutes, dinner is served. They have little bags to mix your drinks in, Hal cheated and grabbed glasses and water bottles. Okay, I was so not even looking forward to eating these. I am NOT a processed food kinda gal. I hate pretty much anything canned or processed, it is terrible for you, it tastes about the same, need I say more? YUCK! Anyway, they were about what you expected. The macaroni and raviolis were like chefboyrdeeish not too bad. The rib was like a mcrib seriously, pretty much just like it. The chicken and rice was like a progresso soup. The chicken and feta which Hal got for me was actually pretty good. It was by far my favorite. It was a chunk of chicken breast which was similar to canned chicken so flaky and as fresh as can be expected. The feta was in a tomato watery base and Hal and the kids couldn't handle it lol! Hal couldn't even look at it as imagine a chunk of chicken breast in a watery feta chunked tomatoish broth. Not too visually appealing. It reeked of Feta, which I enjoyed but I stood alone on that one. Drew and Heather atleast tried it (good job guys!) Haliee and Hal, wouldn't even try. WUSSES!

The verdict: It was better than I expected. Still highly processed and not remotely gourmet. But, in a disaster or in a position of need, these things would be awesome and quite good if fresh was not an option.

The experience: PRICELESS! This was the very most fun I have ever had at dinner. We laughed til we cried, we had SO.MUCH.FUN! Thank you honey, sorry I doubted you! I LOVE YOU for caring about our troops and broadening our horizons! Thanks for making memories for our family! :)