Back in the day, there were C rations. Definitely not gourmet, but a pretty good choice when there was no other option. I first experienced them as fire rations while engaging wild fires.

Later in the military, our chow hall in Korea would serve C rats about once a month. We were using up the surplus before they reached expiration dates. Does green mold on your meatloaf count as a vegetable?

In my day, the eleventh general order was to complain about the chow (an easy directive to follow). The military has gone to considerable effort to provide good chow, effort well spent...