Students from Ms. Nygren’s Food and Travel classes embarked on another culinary adventure last week! They participated in a unique MRE Pizza Challenge organized by Sergeant First Class Joe Sullivan, ORARNG (Oregon National Army Guard) Recruiter.
MREs, or Meals Ready to Eat, are individualized field rations used by the military that contain pre-packaged and fully cooked food items. This challenge required students to incorporate items from the MRE meal kits into their pizza.
To kick off the challenge, the teams began by preparing their pizza dough from scratch. They were then presented with a choice of three different pizza sauces: classic red sauce, savory BBQ sauce, and a creamy white sauce. The cheese was also provided to the students.
The real challenge lay in the toppings, which they had to carefully select from the MRE meal kits. Students had the opportunity to experiment with unique ingredients such as cheese tortellini, chicken, beef raviolini, spinach alfredo, and various others. Students were encouraged to think outside the traditional pizza-topping box to come up with a pizza that was not only unique but tasted well. In addition to the pizza assembling, students paired their meal with a drink that was also sourced from the MRE Kit.
Once the pizzas were assembled and baked, the students presented their meal to a panel of judges. The judging panel included members of the school staff, as well as Sergeant First Class Joe Sullivan and three guardsmen. Among them was an alum, Alex, who had graduated just last year.
The pizzas were judged based on presentation, taste, and use of the ingredients from the MRE kits. Once the judging was complete, the students got to enjoy the rest of their pizza together!