Mess Deck Survival Kit

I got confirmation from Tony that he saw this arrive during their mail delivery this morning so I can finally publish it!


This is care package #6. Had to put a rush on it because they changed the port schedule again and they were coming in sooner and he couldn't tell me when.

DECORATING THE OUTSIDE OF THE BOX:

If you're going to be care packaging, I suggest you invest in a set of alphabet letters (so you can use them as stencils to trace letters onto the outside of the box. I found a pretty good size, they are now quite as tall as the sides of the box. I opened up the box (just cut down one of the corners) I got the idea here (from Jo My Gosh (love her blog!)) and covered the sides with yellow paper. Then, I traced the letters on to blue paper and cut them out. I used tacky glue, because it was the only glue I had, to affix them to the sides. Problem, "survival" wasn't going to fit on one side, it was too many letters. So, I just went on word, chose a font that looked like a stamp kinda and made a line border around it. I made that side a different color because, honestly I ran out of yellow paper and didn't want to go to the store, again!


THE INSIDE OF THE BOX:
microwable items (as in, microwave in this container) such as soup, rice, indian dishes and mac & cheese. I went to the natural foods store and got bulk granola and then I vacuum sealed it. It didn't seem to crush it. It actually feels less like it will be crushed. I also got some of those tuna salad ready-to-eat packets. Another of his faves? Keurig cups! At the Commissary, I found the lion brand (Hawaiian) coffee so I got the regular and a vanilla flavor.

I took to the kitchen and made muffins (in a tin that is supposedly made for brownie bites). These are the recipes I used:

Protein powder power muffins (Make sure you get a protein powder for cooking because heat denatures proteins, read: breaks them down so if you don't get a protein powder that can stand the heat, your protein factor will be not so much.) and

Morning Glory Muffins These were the best consistency and i think it has to do that I used the yolks that were left over from first recipe's whites and it calls for a combo of white and wheat flour. They were the most chewable...the others came out a bit umm...compacted....

I can't remember where I got the 3rd recipe...Anyways, you know I vacuum sealed the muffins...by the way, it squishes them so you probably want to put them in a box or some other container before you vacuum seal them. I used a box from some granola bars I bought. Then I added a stud muffin reference (google: printable stud muffin or stud muffin printable) the search came up with cards so I just pressed the print screen button, opened word, clicked cntrl + v and voila, an image you can resize. Or, you can just right click copy image and paste it in word...less cropping needed.

Now for the mess deck improval part of the package: the sauce packets! I totally stole this idea from here. I don't eat fast food so I thought collecting the various sauce packets would be difficult. Not really. I decided I was just going to walk into places and start grabbing packets. I was near the Nex where there are a cluster of fast food places (it seems military frequent fast food joints...) and I walked in to the Taco Bell. Wait, where is the counter with all the displays of colored hot sauce packets? OMG! Mission Fail. Well, I decided I'd just order something and ask for hot sauce. I hate fast food, literally it makes my stomach hurt so I got a diet coke and asked for some of each hot sauce. The lady didn't even bat an eye, she forked over like 10 packets. Score! Now, the only problem about my crusade is that it was lunch time so places were busy. I walked in to panda express looking for shoyu...none to be seen. I walked out, feeling a little defeated but I was determined. I went over to the Nex mall's food court. I decided that since none of the places had sauces out, I would just explain to them what I was doing. I walked up to the counter and said, "Hi, I just have a question, my husband is deployed and I'm trying to send him a care package with a 'mess deck survival' theme, do you have any sauce packets I could have to send to him?" Totally worked. You know who hooked it up the best? The sushi guy! He had shoyu, ginger, and wasabi! Like, he gave me a ton! I was hungry anyways so I ordered a nigiri sampler. He was even asking me questions about how it was having Tony deployed.