During Basic, AIT, and at sometimes on FTXs, We would be served a meal called a Jimmy Dean. It was usually a small can of Beens and Weenies, a little bag of chips, and a Soylent Green sandwich. They would come on a small tray, sealed in celophane, Oh, and some for of canned drink was included too, typically a welches grape or cranberry juice or what have you. My Question is, Why were they called “Jimmy Deans”? and Why were they composed of nothing but CRAP? (A little sugar, an inedible sandwich, and a whole lot of Sodium)? An MRE certainly had way more nutrition, so why give us that Jimmy Dean thing. 
Somebody please help me to understand. I asked at the time, why, but no one had the answer.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary_of_military_slang#J
jimmy dean
(US Army) In reference to a kind of pre-packaged meal, usually more edible than an MRE but lacks any way of heating the food. Usually contains a can of juice, canned meal or vacuum-packed sandwich, a fruit cup, a peppermint, and sometimes Pringles.
They are cheaper than MREs.
I asked this very thing once and was told that it was because Jimmy Dean held the original contract to provide these meals.
Thanks for the prompt responses guys. Yes I meant that Soylent Green. Just to reference the disgustingness of the meat on the sandwich. If MREs are more expensive, then I guess it makes sense, I’de take an MRE over these any day. I still eat MREs sometimes that I buy at the Army/Navy store. Old habbits die hard I guess. I Googled it but came up empty. Thanks again guys, I can rest easy tonight, with one of my lifes great questions answered. I hate Pringles now, and it’s probably because I think of the nasty taste they leave in your mouth when consumed with Beeny Weenies and grape juice. Jimmy Deans=Suckfeast Extraordinair!:mad::(
The bread in those things tastes like it has formaldehyde in it.
Dis. Gusting
Jimmy Deans,…is…PEOPLE!!!
Worst thing about em is usually the damn things will still be frozen when you get em.
You don’t like Jimmy Deans:eek: Its the best stuff ever;)
Its not like the green gravy they had at Fort Jackson:eek:AACKKK
MREs are delicious. When you eat them for a month straight you obviously get sick of them but I would love to have a couple of cases right now.
Jay
When I was a kid, there was a ditty we used to sing-
Jimmy Dean, pork and beans
gives you gas, super fast
Knock out your wife, kill your kids
make your neighbors flip their lids!
Maybe that’s why they call it “Jimmy Dean”
Yeah I never cared at all for those things. If I knew we would be likely getting them (for range days or something) Id eat beforehand, and then just pick out a couple things…tossed the rest.
I wish mine had canned drinks in them. Nothing worse than sitting around in 100 degree heat and being handed a bag lunch with ambient temperature un-flavored Parmalat drink boxes. It’s ultra pasteurized milk that doesn’t need refrigeration… by the time we got it, it had settled in the boxes into this weird slippery, silly-putty-like white substance, and something that looked like dishwater.
yeah i’ve had a couple of those. they are pretty good. i seem to recall the beef stew being tasty.
The beef stew was indeed tasty. So was the “four fingers of death” when warmed up. The worst one though had to be the bean and rice burrito, otherwise known as “Satan’s skin flap”.
I loved the 4 fingers of death, one of my favorites.
Jay
When you eat them for a year, you get sick of them but never get unsick. Trust me, to this very day I can’t stand the taste of MRE preservatives…
Jimmy Deans and Pizza Pringle chips!!!
I’ve been out for about 7 years so enough time has passed. Plus I tend to romanticize how good they tasted 
Jay
I subsisted on mostly MREs for the better part of a year in 2003, deployed to Iraq. By month six, all MREs tasted the same and I had been through cycle of eating different flavors a few times. I could not eat a main meal, and only a few side items.
Fast forward to 2007-08, called up by the IRR to got to Afghanistan. I figured enough time had passed to safely eat MREs. WRONG! I could not do it, unless I was starving. They still taste like preservatives.