I'm surprised that the civilian version of the veggie MREs are so bad. In my experience, the veggie MREs are some of the best. The pasta is excellent. Some of the worst are the meat dishes, such as those labeled "chunked and formed" which are anything but appetizing. Trying them without the heater is even worse, such as when we were sealed in a military building in FPCON "Delta" just after 9/11, and MREs were distributed to us, but the heaters could not be used as we were indoors and the chemical heater fumes were determined to be hazardous. But that's another story...