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I ate another one of these, and can confirm that boiling water is indeed much the preferred way of heating these. The microwaving made the beans tougher than they already were.

That food is supposed to feed you for a minimum of 3 days. Instead of nuking you could have simply put the pouches in boiling water.
Most of HDR's menus are "bland" for our tatste since is designed for multiple cultural groups in which this could be used as part of humanitarian aid.