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One night, I was lurking around here on the forum and decided that I was in the market for some MREs (aren't we all?) and I decided to make a post in the buying/selling/trading forum here on the MREinfo forums asking if anyone had any spare vegetarian MREs that they were willing to sell me. In spite of their bad rap, I really enjoy them, perhaps more than many of the meat ones. Fellow member Travelowl approached me and offered this case to me along with some more recent production vegetarian MREs. So without further ado, let's dive right into some pictures!
I was a bit surprised to see that this case came with only two meals: Cheese Tortellini and Pasta with Vegetables. I'm certainly not complaining due to the rarity of this case, but I thought there were a lot more.

Review of the Cheese Tortellini meal can be found here and the Pasta With Vegetables can be found here.

The first one I decided to dig into was Menu No. 12, Cheese Tortellini.
During this time, it appears Ameriqual didn't wrap the entire contents of the MRE in plastic bagging. For proof, here are the contents of the MRE prior to be poured out. And here's everything laid out The Granola Bar is a Nature Valley Peanut Butter flavored bar. Here's the accessory packet containing:
Iced Tea Drink Mix (Lemon)
Slender Solutions Spiced Cider
Salt
Chewing Gum
Tabasco Sauce
Matches
Toilet Paper
Moist Towelette
The drink mixes were of perfect consistency. The apple sauce was oxidized and tasted very sour. I ate the whole thing regardless and did not feel sick. And here's the full meal, waiting patiently to be devoured. First off, just about everything held up in this meal...kinda sorta. The cheese tortellini smelled and even tasted a lot like today's production cheese tortellini. However, due its age, it had as slight bitter taste. My assumption is that it was the cheese. I decided I wasn't going to eat too much. I'm going to guess that the cheese is probably the same kind used for the cheese spread, so I really didn't want to chance it too far. The applesauce didn't really make it either, as it was discolored and had a strong, borderline alcoholic taste to them. My sweet tooth was a bit out of control tonight, so I ate it anyway. To be completely honest, I felt fine! That's not a recommendation that you do the same.

The granola bar was perfect and tasted exactly like one you'd buy freshly off the store shelf. The crackers and peanut butter were also great and you wouldn't think to guess that they were older than a year or two. The fig bars, as you can likely tell, have aged over time. But they tasted amazing! Even better than fresh Fig Newtons! They had a strong molasses flavoring, kind of like some of the older pound cakes.

And the drinks also tasted amazing. The tea had the perfect balance of a citrus-like lemon flavor mixed with real sugar. The apple cider drink was very sweet and enjoyable. I like it more than the apple cider they put in the MREs today, not to mention the packaging looks far more exciting.

Anyway, so far I've had fairly good luck considering the age of this rations! Next up will be a review of the pasta with vegetables!

SentientTootsieRoll wrote: I was a bit surprised to see that this case came with only two meals: Cheese Tortellini and Pasta with Vegetables. I'm certainly not complaining due to the rarity of this case, but I thought there were a lot more.

The cases always came with two vegetarian meals "only". A 1997 case - wow

I don't know why they don't have those Nature Valley granola bars in there anymore.... you'd think a quality granola bar would be a good staple in any MRE.

Very nice review, thx for sharing. Been working on a 2001 "B" case I recently acquired from a member, and surprised how well those meals have held up aswell. I did a review on the spaghetti last wk.

Woo hoo, thank you so much for posting this! Always wondered what would be found in there! I am glad I resisted the temptation to open that case and left it up to someone who truly appreciates the experience

Now it's time for part three of this review. First, I did an overview of the case and promptly did a review of the Cheese Tortellini meal. Now I will be reviewing Menu No. 11 Pasta With Vegetables.
Here's what this meal contains:
Pasta With Vegetables In Tomato Sauce
Mixed Fruit (TS)
Peanut Butter
Crackers
Pretzels
Snickers Munch Bar
FRH
Spoon
Accessory Packet Containing:
Iced Tea Drink Mix (Lemon)
Slender Solutions Spiced Cider
Salt
Chewing Gum
Tabasco Sauce
Matches
Toilet Paper
Moist Towelette

Here's a good look at all of it's contents. Like the last one, Ameriqual did not compress this in a plastic bag like they do with their current MREs. And for the sake of preservation, here's everything flipped over so you can read the labels on the back. The thermostabilized mixed fruit didn't last. It smelled pretty strong so I decided to pass on it. And here's how everything looks! So how well did everything hold up? For the most part, everything did. The entree tasted a bit sour, and I'm assuming that's because of the aged tomato sauce. Like I said above, the fruit was no longer good so I tossed it. The crackers and peanut butter tasted great, you'd never know it was from 1997. One could guess it was from 2016! The same applies to the pretzels. I was really looking forward to the Munch Bar as I've never had one before. Sadly, as soon as I opened it, a strong aged peanut smell filled the room. I took a small bite of it and it was incredibly bitter and I had to spit it out. The ingredients are surprisingly simple. That must simply be the nature of peanuts. The flameless ration heater worked flawlessly! Granted, I poured the salt from the accessory packet into it, so that likely had a factor in the outcome. The contents of the accessory packet are the same in both meals. Detailed pictures of those are in the beginning of this post. Anyway, thanks a lot for reading everyone! Feel free to post a comment or question if you have one.

housil wrote:The cases always came with two vegetarian meals "only". A 1997 case - wow

Yeah, I was pretty surprised too. That must have been too bad for soldiers who were stuck with this case. I'm no picky eater, but even after eating a few of these rations, I was beginning to get pretty burnt out on them. But that apple cider sure is amazing!

BTemple wrote:I don't know why they don't have those Nature Valley granola bars in there anymore.... you'd think a quality granola bar would be a good staple in any MRE.

Yeah, it does appear that they were short lived. One could only guess why they removed them. Maybe it was to cut costs or maybe to balance out the nutrition somehow.

sourwes wrote:Very nice review, thx for sharing. Been working on a 2001 "B" case I recently acquired from a member, and surprised how well those meals have held up aswell. I did a review on the spaghetti last wk.

Thanks! I'm glad to hear that yours held up pretty well. I love seeing reviews of MREs from the late 90s - early 2000s because they hit closer to home, even though modern MREs aren't too much different. Looking forward to reading it!

Travelowl wrote:Woo hoo, thank you so much for posting this! Always wondered what would be found in there! I am glad I resisted the temptation to open that case and left it up to someone who truly appreciates the experience

You're most welcome, and thank you again for sending me this! I hope you are enjoying your MREs, and hopefully they didn't pack in too many vegetarian meals. This was a really good experience, and I'm glad to add this to my collection. I didn't want to eat the entire case of MREs, so I left a few in the case and resealed it with duct tape. As long as you don't see the duct tape, you'd never know it was opened, that is until you pick it up and realize how light it is.

Cool, thanks for sharing!