There used to be a section in Marines Magazine called MRE Cookbook. It is a monthly magazine an each issue had different concoctions to make them better. Usually they used ingredients from one MRE, but sometimes you had to do some bartering to get all the right fixin's.

My favorite is the MRE chili. It only took one MRE, the beef steak menu. Chop the beef steak up into small pieces and mix it into the bag of beans that came with it as a side. Pour in the pack of cayenne pepper and empty that tiny little bottle of Tabasco sauce, and you are set. The menu even have wheat crackers included as a snack. The only thing you needed to barter for was some jalapeno cheese, but it was fine with out it and all you have left to barter is your candy anyway.