1st case

[MREK]

I just got my 1st 12 MREs
Case A, menus 1-12 http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/menus-xxxii-2012.html.

How would you rate the 2 vegetarian meal entreés - menu #11 (Vegetable Lasagna) & menu #12 (Spicy Penne Pasta) compared to the other 10?

[rattattoo]

The Spicy Penne Pasta is not bad at all. The faux-sausage tidbits are really quite "meatish"... and plentiful.
AND... It has the Chocolate Banana Muffin Top, which sounds pretty good on its own. The earlier rats that I had came with the 'Oorah Bar, and it kind of made up for the fact the the rat was "vegetarian".
I don't think you'll be disappointed in it.
All in all, that's a pretty decent case. I am especially fond of the #7... wickhud tasty!

[MREK]

I watched a YouTube video review of the Vegetable Lasagna and am going to try it tomorrow.
For 2 reasons - it doesn't include a hot beverage bag and seemed the least appealing of the 12 meals.

It looks like when the B accessory packet is included with a meal there is no hot beverage bag.

[Hair-FIN]

Funny, I remember when I got my first Mre case it was vegetable lasagna that I tried first. One that I think was least appealing...
But it was ok!

[dirtbag]

IMHO , CCC is the worst (Country Captain Chicken)
Makes me gag just thinking about it...

[MREK]

The Vegetable Lasagna was tasty enough but I don't associate beans with Lasagna.
After I had eaten about half of it I added all the hot (not all that hot) sauce to what was left.
Next time I'll add the hot sauce from the get go.

The wet pack fruit was pears and the beverage in the B accessory packet was lemonade.

Even though I read the directions carefully I must have done something wrong with the FRH because after 18 minutes the the entreé wasn't very warm
I suspected there would be a learning curve.

[RockyRaab]

Are those meals produced in 2012, or with an inspect date of 2012? FRHs gradually lose their "oomph" and after about five years, are pretty weak. Even if your meals were packed in 2012, the FRH could be older - and close to the end of their useful life.

[MREK]

The entreé and the pears were packaged 2012. I didn't check the other items.

I put a bunch of water in the FRH later and from doing that the top 2 sections of the 4 heater sections started producing heat.
So I guess the top 2 sections didn't get wet enough.

Next time I'm going to add enough water to go a bit above the fill lines to see if that helps.

[Woodland]

The Veggie Lasagna is among the best entrees.I love it
Spicy Penne is also good but not filling.Like a snack.I had two and saved them for the time that I call "I'm not hungry but I could eat something..." time
I have the same experience with the FRHs. When I activate the heater I always make sure that all 4 sections get wet but most of the time the lower 2 sections are very hot and the upper 2 are only lukewarm (from 2011 and 2012 packed MREs) I don't even use a "rock or something" so that the water can wet the heater evenly. Maybe I should activate the heater first and slide the mre into the heater bag when all 4 sections are working properly...
I have some extra heaters and I thought I could try to put two heaters into one pouch (like a sandwich, entree pouch between two heaters) with some extra water or add two extra sections from a second heater...it's cold out there and a hot meal is better...

[RockyRaab]

I've stopped trying to get the meal into the FRH. I slide the food and the FRH into a box or sleeve, and then add the water. I also lay the whole thing flat, with the FRH on the bottom. Seems to work a lot better - and there's no black crud on the food packet, either. You can even warm a side or hot drink bag and the entree with the FRH bag sandwiched between them and all three wrapped up in something like a towel - all three won't go into a cardboard sleeve.