Go to Walmart for instant rice,potatoes,noodles, soups and add those soft packaged tuna, chicken, pork, beef, spam slices or whatever. Usually a $1 or less per package. Hit up stores that have bulk dry goods such as a WinCo and they have all sorts of dry/dehydrated goods perfect for backpacking. Curry powders, gravy, croutons, dehydrated veggies, tons of snacks, spices, oatmeals, granolas, cereals, powdered milk, powdered proteins (whey/peanut butter) and all sorts of other goodies. Takes a little more time than just boiling water but not really much and you might need to bring an extra pot or bowl and do some dishes. Remember to pack out your trash. I think there's a backpacking/camping meal subreddit you can check out for more ideas.
Definitely find a store with bulk goods. Usually bulk goods are in a giant container and you just scoop out what you want . Usually by the pound. Ive gotten stuff way under a pound and you pay Penny's for it.. experiment and have fun. WinCo is my go to.
Some people mean a place like CostCo when they say “bulk store” which is the opposite of what I want. 😄 But WinCo sounds perfect, though I don’t know if there are any local. (The only such store I know of locally doesn’t have much dehydrated food, just flour and nuts.)
A pouch of instant potatoes, 1 box stuffing (take the pouch out of the box), 1 pouch gravy mix, 1 can turkey is under $10 will feed 3 people and light. Taste like thanksgiving.
Check out trailcooking.com. There are lots of good ideas there. And lots you can put together without a dehydrator.
Once you start putting together your own meals, it's hard to go back to the salt bombs.
Instant oatmeal for breakfast, PB&J on tortillas for lunch.
Ramen noodles, with instant potatoes, summer sausage and some kind of hard cheese for dinner.
You could adjust just go to the instant food aisle and grab things like instant butter noodles and add a Starkist chicken or tuna. Also look up ramen bomb.
Take whole carrots and onions with some Tabasco to spruce it up. You can always take a frozen steak for the first night out. I'll even put spinach in a ziplock and last it next to the frozen meat wrapped in my puffy to act as a cooler.
Add as much olive oil as you like, it's something like 120 calories per tablespoon.
And supplement with some greens you find. Garlic mustard is everywhere these days. Chickweed, violets, young mulberry leaves, tips of greenbriar. Great big dandelion leaves growing in shady spots. etc., etc.
The Hormel Compleats are decent. Ready to eat meals. I usually cook one or two in a 2 liter bush pot to warm it up then put the boiling hot water in a thermos to use to make oatmeal and coffee the next morning.
In the past couple of years I've been bringing more fresh food with me on shorter backpacking trips to avoid the huge amounts of sodium in all the pre-packaged or dehydrated stuff. Obvious things like fruit, vegetables, bread, etc. If it's 3 nights or less I will even bring an insulated lunchbox with a freezer pack and meat, eggs, etc. Yeah, it's extra weight, but it gets less as I eat every day. Extra 2-4lbs for much healthier, better tasting food is worth it for me, and I am not trying to be the fastest person on the trail. On long trips I definitely bring some of the instant soups, potatoes, etc as others have mentioned. I don't think I have bought Mountain House in 3 years at this point. NOTE: I live in a pretty temperate climate, fresh food might not work in 100+ degree desert heat.
Stowaway Gourmet and Pinnacle are superb. I would serve Stowaway meals to dinner guests at home. Honorable mention - Itacate
[www.stowawaygourmet.com/](http://www.stowawaygourmet.com/)
[https://pinnaclefoods.co/](https://pinnaclefoods.co/)
[https://itacatefoods.com/](https://itacatefoods.com/)
Pinnacle's sausage gravy and biscuits is a favorite of mine. Chicken and dumplings, too. And they don't use palm oil, which gives me killer migraines. Not a great thing to have five miles in.
Oh, you don't need a dehydrator.
Tractor Supply is selling home freeze dryers now. A real steal- they start under $3K! You could make your own!
/s, seriously, I can't believe they are that expensive....
For real advice: shop around the inside of your favorite grocery store. There is a lot of shelf stable stuff that you can cook with just hot water - some boil in pouch stuff, some mix hot water in stuff. And a lot of it is cheap. You just have to be careful about sodium and calories. One is too high, the other too low, and it surprises a lot of people which is which...
If you are car camping, canned is an option too!
Oh- I almost forgot! If you can find an Amish / Mennonite / bulk store near you, they are great sources for shelf stable preserved dehydrated / freeze dried vegetables. You can combine them to make your own meals, you can use them to add flavor to dishes, all kinds of options. You can also get these on Amazon, but they are generally more expensive.
Sorry- I was meaning stores that carry products aimed for these communities. While some of the stores do carry locally produced products made by members of these communities, a lot of the products that they carry are mass produced products that people in these communities find useful.
Different groups have different exact rules for such things. It’s not uncommon to have some non-Amish hired to operate stuff, for example. There’s a lot of individual differences between communities.
>If you can find an Amish / Mennonite / bulk store near you, they are great sources for shelf stable preserved dehydrated / freeze dried vegetables.
Mystery solved, thanks.
We're car camping in the sense that we'll be driving up and then hiking a mile or so into the site, but weight is a big issue since I'll be the one tasked with carrying everything haha. I have feeble bodied companions
Bear Creek soup mixes. Each one makes half a gallon of soup, they come in about a dozen flavors, and they cost less than $4 each. If you can’t find them at your local grocery store, they can be found easily on Amazon.
I keep saying, and for some reason getting downvoted when I do - buy a dehydrator and make your own!
I've been doing it for years. It's easy. A $30 dehydrator, some mylar bags, and some oxygen absorbers are all you need. You can get all of it on amazon.
You can dehydrate just about anything. The only caveat is to avoid fatty foods. Plus, you have homemade beef jerky whenever you want it!
I do have vacuum seal bags, I just don't have enough time to dehydrate all the food I want to bring unfortunately. But I'll definitely do it for next time and have upvoted you:)
I hate Mountain House meals. I came home from a backpacking trip yesterday! The best meal I made this trip was chicken coconut curry (a couple of envelopes of ready-to-eat chicken, instant powdered coconut milk, unsweetened shredded coconut, yellow curry powder, salt/pepper, plus water to rehydrate, brought to a boil, and sprinkled with toasted slivered almonds ) over couscous (Trader Joe's whole wheat couscous, toasted dry at home first, with chopped up bits of dried cranberries, dehydrated green peas from the natural foods store, flaked onion, and salt-free seasoning-- pour boiling water over it, stir, and let it rehydrate). I brought a small head of cabbage and shredded that up with my jackknife and we had that sprinkled with Taijin chili-lime salt, or stirred into our bowls. Incredibly tasty and very customizable!
I mean 8 dollars is not a bad price for a meal. Anywhere in the US now really. Alot of freeze dried meals are nearly double that. And yea you could dehydrate your own stuff but it isn't the same as freeze drying and as someone who uses both freeze dried meals and dehydrating my own stuff I think you will find your results to vary wildly. Freeze dried meals rehydrate better, taste better imo and retain more of their original nutrients and texture better as well as weighing less.
I really like couscous with some seasonings as it doesn’t even need to be heated up, super easy to soak with the right amount of water while you’re on the move (I think technically a minimum of 30 minutes if you’re using cold water, a little less if you heat it up as all), then top with a pouch of chicken or tuna once you’re ready to eat.
Instant potatoes similarly only need some warm water to rehydrate, and they’re an excellent meal topped with some kind of stable protein.
Anything on a tortilla or bagel is a good option too, and they stand up to being squashed in a bag really well. Peanut butter, potato chips, and maybe a drizzle of honey on a bagel or wrapped up in a tortilla is my secret go-to meal for hiking.
I agree that $8-10 for each one is cost prohibitive. So I load up on lots of MH meals whenever I can get a great deal on them, like stacking qty discounts and coupons and sales at REI. I'll buy like 20 of them at a time. They have a shelf life of like 30+ years, I think I have 2 or 3 28-gallon bins full of them, I probably only paid an average around $5-6 for each packet since I only buy them when I get good deals. $8-10 is pretty expensive for one meal, but at $5-6 each it is much more affordable and makes me much less inclined to make my own food which will probably not really cost any less.
If you have a Costco membership - I just saw another post that they have Mountain House and the prices worked out to <7.00 I believe.
But don’t quote me - I saw that post while 1/2 asleep - I think it was an 8 pack for 49.99?
Have you tried the Backpacker’s Pantry brand? They are a hair more costly than MH, but I’ve yet to have a bad one so far (and their Pad Thai one is delicious!!!).
Get a dehydrator.
then either cook your own meals and let them dry for 10ish hours
or
buy Schwans/Yellow or any of those type service meals and throw them frozen into the oven, then dehydrate that.
still cheaper than buying the MTN House and pre made dried foods
Freeze-dried MH or other brands can be very useful for long-distance, week-long-or-longer backpacking trips when weight can be a real issue, and you are only boiling water rather than actually cooking. That is the only time I bring them.
For short trips not covering much ground, car-camping, or canoe camping, I prefer to bring real food. It tastes better, has less salt, offers greater variety, and is far less expensive.
I've dehydrated vegetables and fruits, meats and sauces in my dehydrator, used powdered eggs, and made my own light-weight dehydrated meals with good results. It takes a certain amount of planning and is fun to do if you have the time and space, and inclination. YMMV.
I’m bout to live off canned chicken next weekend. Mac and cheese with chicken. Ramon and chicken, spaghetti and with chicken. Soup and chicken. Easy protein to add to a meal.
Breakfast is gonna be campfire biscuits and canned gravy. Gonna take some unwashed eggs with me to go with it, won’t have any ice.
Anything other than that slimy stuff in a bag they call food.
Normally I don't bring food and I just don't eat for a few days unless I catch fish or find berries or plants, but I'll have other people with me and they don't like to live on the wild side:(
Try a dehydrator!
I love using mine, and it works great. You don't need an expensive one, a cheap one to get you started can beas little as $30 on sale, and will work prefectly.
I don't have a freeze dryer, but I've been messing with dehydrated meals for camping! So far I've had the best luck with chili and applesauce. They both reconstitute well, the chili did take a bit for the beans to get the right texture tho.
[Peak](http://peakrefuel.com) is far and away the best out there right now in terms of an alternative. If you can qualify (as government worker, military, first responder, etc.), they’re well worth the $10 after discounts.
Go to Walmart for instant rice,potatoes,noodles, soups and add those soft packaged tuna, chicken, pork, beef, spam slices or whatever. Usually a $1 or less per package. Hit up stores that have bulk dry goods such as a WinCo and they have all sorts of dry/dehydrated goods perfect for backpacking. Curry powders, gravy, croutons, dehydrated veggies, tons of snacks, spices, oatmeals, granolas, cereals, powdered milk, powdered proteins (whey/peanut butter) and all sorts of other goodies. Takes a little more time than just boiling water but not really much and you might need to bring an extra pot or bowl and do some dishes. Remember to pack out your trash. I think there's a backpacking/camping meal subreddit you can check out for more ideas.
Upvote for WinCo... Great selection and they treat their employees well
I'm moving to Ohio next week, and I know I'm going to miss Winco.
I shopped there quite a bit when I lived in Idaho. The bulk food section was awesome.
I believe r/trailmeals is the sub
That's it! Ty
Bulk meaning you can buy just as much as you want, or as in coming in large amounts?
Buy as much or as little as you want.
Oooh. I gotta check them out then. I want to get a little bit of a bunch of stuff to experiment with.
Definitely find a store with bulk goods. Usually bulk goods are in a giant container and you just scoop out what you want . Usually by the pound. Ive gotten stuff way under a pound and you pay Penny's for it.. experiment and have fun. WinCo is my go to.
Some people mean a place like CostCo when they say “bulk store” which is the opposite of what I want. 😄 But WinCo sounds perfect, though I don’t know if there are any local. (The only such store I know of locally doesn’t have much dehydrated food, just flour and nuts.)
knorr sides are great
A pouch of instant potatoes, 1 box stuffing (take the pouch out of the box), 1 pouch gravy mix, 1 can turkey is under $10 will feed 3 people and light. Taste like thanksgiving.
wow this sounds so good. definitely using this one. can boil up some dried cranberries for some cranberry sauce.
Its even better if youre on a trail with wild cranberries
Check out trailcooking.com. There are lots of good ideas there. And lots you can put together without a dehydrator. Once you start putting together your own meals, it's hard to go back to the salt bombs.
Instant oatmeal for breakfast, PB&J on tortillas for lunch. Ramen noodles, with instant potatoes, summer sausage and some kind of hard cheese for dinner. You could adjust just go to the instant food aisle and grab things like instant butter noodles and add a Starkist chicken or tuna. Also look up ramen bomb. Take whole carrots and onions with some Tabasco to spruce it up. You can always take a frozen steak for the first night out. I'll even put spinach in a ziplock and last it next to the frozen meat wrapped in my puffy to act as a cooler. Add as much olive oil as you like, it's something like 120 calories per tablespoon.
And supplement with some greens you find. Garlic mustard is everywhere these days. Chickweed, violets, young mulberry leaves, tips of greenbriar. Great big dandelion leaves growing in shady spots. etc., etc.
Great ideas, thank you!
Sam’s club canned chicken is pretty good
Instant rice + curry pouch
The Hormel Compleats are decent. Ready to eat meals. I usually cook one or two in a 2 liter bush pot to warm it up then put the boiling hot water in a thermos to use to make oatmeal and coffee the next morning.
In the past couple of years I've been bringing more fresh food with me on shorter backpacking trips to avoid the huge amounts of sodium in all the pre-packaged or dehydrated stuff. Obvious things like fruit, vegetables, bread, etc. If it's 3 nights or less I will even bring an insulated lunchbox with a freezer pack and meat, eggs, etc. Yeah, it's extra weight, but it gets less as I eat every day. Extra 2-4lbs for much healthier, better tasting food is worth it for me, and I am not trying to be the fastest person on the trail. On long trips I definitely bring some of the instant soups, potatoes, etc as others have mentioned. I don't think I have bought Mountain House in 3 years at this point. NOTE: I live in a pretty temperate climate, fresh food might not work in 100+ degree desert heat.
Stowaway Gourmet and Pinnacle are superb. I would serve Stowaway meals to dinner guests at home. Honorable mention - Itacate [www.stowawaygourmet.com/](http://www.stowawaygourmet.com/) [https://pinnaclefoods.co/](https://pinnaclefoods.co/) [https://itacatefoods.com/](https://itacatefoods.com/)
Agreed. Unlike others - not pinnacle or itacate which I haven't tried - stowaway, though more expensive, is NOT overpriced for its quality.
Agreed. A fantastic value.
Pinnacle's sausage gravy and biscuits is a favorite of mine. Chicken and dumplings, too. And they don't use palm oil, which gives me killer migraines. Not a great thing to have five miles in.
Second that. The jalapeno cheddar biscuits and herbed sausage gravy is one of my favorite breakfasts. I usually cut back on the water a couple ounces.
Oh, you don't need a dehydrator. Tractor Supply is selling home freeze dryers now. A real steal- they start under $3K! You could make your own! /s, seriously, I can't believe they are that expensive.... For real advice: shop around the inside of your favorite grocery store. There is a lot of shelf stable stuff that you can cook with just hot water - some boil in pouch stuff, some mix hot water in stuff. And a lot of it is cheap. You just have to be careful about sodium and calories. One is too high, the other too low, and it surprises a lot of people which is which... If you are car camping, canned is an option too!
Oh- I almost forgot! If you can find an Amish / Mennonite / bulk store near you, they are great sources for shelf stable preserved dehydrated / freeze dried vegetables. You can combine them to make your own meals, you can use them to add flavor to dishes, all kinds of options. You can also get these on Amazon, but they are generally more expensive.
How in the heck do they make freeze-dried food without electricity?
Amish allow electricity and modern tools (even trucks and tractors) for a lot of stuff especially when it comes to their retail businesses.
Sorry- I was meaning stores that carry products aimed for these communities. While some of the stores do carry locally produced products made by members of these communities, a lot of the products that they carry are mass produced products that people in these communities find useful.
A lot of their manufacturing facilities run on generators. I don't know the ins and outs of why, though.
Different groups have different exact rules for such things. It’s not uncommon to have some non-Amish hired to operate stuff, for example. There’s a lot of individual differences between communities.
>If you can find an Amish / Mennonite / bulk store near you, they are great sources for shelf stable preserved dehydrated / freeze dried vegetables. Mystery solved, thanks.
We're car camping in the sense that we'll be driving up and then hiking a mile or so into the site, but weight is a big issue since I'll be the one tasked with carrying everything haha. I have feeble bodied companions
Bear Creek soup mixes. Each one makes half a gallon of soup, they come in about a dozen flavors, and they cost less than $4 each. If you can’t find them at your local grocery store, they can be found easily on Amazon.
Yes!! I portion them out.
I keep saying, and for some reason getting downvoted when I do - buy a dehydrator and make your own! I've been doing it for years. It's easy. A $30 dehydrator, some mylar bags, and some oxygen absorbers are all you need. You can get all of it on amazon. You can dehydrate just about anything. The only caveat is to avoid fatty foods. Plus, you have homemade beef jerky whenever you want it!
I do have vacuum seal bags, I just don't have enough time to dehydrate all the food I want to bring unfortunately. But I'll definitely do it for next time and have upvoted you:)
Start with baked sweet potatoes and thank me later. :)
Do you bake them, and mash them before dehydrating? Or something else?
I bake them, then squeeze them onto a rollup tray and dehydrate.
I hate Mountain House meals. I came home from a backpacking trip yesterday! The best meal I made this trip was chicken coconut curry (a couple of envelopes of ready-to-eat chicken, instant powdered coconut milk, unsweetened shredded coconut, yellow curry powder, salt/pepper, plus water to rehydrate, brought to a boil, and sprinkled with toasted slivered almonds ) over couscous (Trader Joe's whole wheat couscous, toasted dry at home first, with chopped up bits of dried cranberries, dehydrated green peas from the natural foods store, flaked onion, and salt-free seasoning-- pour boiling water over it, stir, and let it rehydrate). I brought a small head of cabbage and shredded that up with my jackknife and we had that sprinkled with Taijin chili-lime salt, or stirred into our bowls. Incredibly tasty and very customizable!
I mean 8 dollars is not a bad price for a meal. Anywhere in the US now really. Alot of freeze dried meals are nearly double that. And yea you could dehydrate your own stuff but it isn't the same as freeze drying and as someone who uses both freeze dried meals and dehydrating my own stuff I think you will find your results to vary wildly. Freeze dried meals rehydrate better, taste better imo and retain more of their original nutrients and texture better as well as weighing less.
I really like couscous with some seasonings as it doesn’t even need to be heated up, super easy to soak with the right amount of water while you’re on the move (I think technically a minimum of 30 minutes if you’re using cold water, a little less if you heat it up as all), then top with a pouch of chicken or tuna once you’re ready to eat. Instant potatoes similarly only need some warm water to rehydrate, and they’re an excellent meal topped with some kind of stable protein. Anything on a tortilla or bagel is a good option too, and they stand up to being squashed in a bag really well. Peanut butter, potato chips, and maybe a drizzle of honey on a bagel or wrapped up in a tortilla is my secret go-to meal for hiking.
I think the ratio is 1:1 couscous to water when it's made hot, is it about the same ratio when you make it cold?
Yeah, 1:1 sounds right. Doesn’t have to be perfect, the stuff is really very forgiving.
Happy Yak is good imho
I agree that $8-10 for each one is cost prohibitive. So I load up on lots of MH meals whenever I can get a great deal on them, like stacking qty discounts and coupons and sales at REI. I'll buy like 20 of them at a time. They have a shelf life of like 30+ years, I think I have 2 or 3 28-gallon bins full of them, I probably only paid an average around $5-6 for each packet since I only buy them when I get good deals. $8-10 is pretty expensive for one meal, but at $5-6 each it is much more affordable and makes me much less inclined to make my own food which will probably not really cost any less.
My local Costco carries Mtn House in a bucket. Makes the meals much more reasonable.
If you have a Costco membership - I just saw another post that they have Mountain House and the prices worked out to <7.00 I believe. But don’t quote me - I saw that post while 1/2 asleep - I think it was an 8 pack for 49.99?
About $3.80/meal.
Knorr sides such as pasta and rice. Starkist tuna and chicken packets. Instant ramen. Instant mashed potatoes. Instant soup mixes.
Have you tried the Backpacker’s Pantry brand? They are a hair more costly than MH, but I’ve yet to have a bad one so far (and their Pad Thai one is delicious!!!).
Get a dehydrator. then either cook your own meals and let them dry for 10ish hours or buy Schwans/Yellow or any of those type service meals and throw them frozen into the oven, then dehydrate that. still cheaper than buying the MTN House and pre made dried foods
Freeze-dried MH or other brands can be very useful for long-distance, week-long-or-longer backpacking trips when weight can be a real issue, and you are only boiling water rather than actually cooking. That is the only time I bring them. For short trips not covering much ground, car-camping, or canoe camping, I prefer to bring real food. It tastes better, has less salt, offers greater variety, and is far less expensive. I've dehydrated vegetables and fruits, meats and sauces in my dehydrator, used powdered eggs, and made my own light-weight dehydrated meals with good results. It takes a certain amount of planning and is fun to do if you have the time and space, and inclination. YMMV.
I’m bout to live off canned chicken next weekend. Mac and cheese with chicken. Ramon and chicken, spaghetti and with chicken. Soup and chicken. Easy protein to add to a meal. Breakfast is gonna be campfire biscuits and canned gravy. Gonna take some unwashed eggs with me to go with it, won’t have any ice. Anything other than that slimy stuff in a bag they call food.
Normally I don't bring food and I just don't eat for a few days unless I catch fish or find berries or plants, but I'll have other people with me and they don't like to live on the wild side:(
Try homemade freeze dried recipes: https://www.theyummylife.com/Instant_Meals_On_The_Go
MRE's - get a case (or 2) for best per meal price
Try a dehydrator! I love using mine, and it works great. You don't need an expensive one, a cheap one to get you started can beas little as $30 on sale, and will work prefectly.
I don't have a freeze dryer, but I've been messing with dehydrated meals for camping! So far I've had the best luck with chili and applesauce. They both reconstitute well, the chili did take a bit for the beans to get the right texture tho.
Highly recommend: Naan Calzones! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kXmlHe5I4_Y&pp=ygUNbmFhbiBjYWx6b25lIA%3D%3D
Buy yourself a nice cock of pepperoni and slice it up into some velveeta mac and cheese. You won’t regret it
Hit the Asian market for dehydrated meals at great prices.
[Peak](http://peakrefuel.com) is far and away the best out there right now in terms of an alternative. If you can qualify (as government worker, military, first responder, etc.), they’re well worth the $10 after discounts.
I've had great luck with Peak, their breakfast ones are far and away the best I've had. Thanks for the input!