Backpacking Meals Advice

[archeranthony]

Thanks for all the great tips. I will have to say I really enjoyed the mountain house beef stroganoff too lol. I cooked some up in my back yard with my jet boil just playing around and making sure I know how everything works/taste before I get miles deep and hate life because I didn?t try it at home where I can just throw it away


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[Fink]

Here is a copy of my file on the ones I've tried

Mountain house meal review

GOOD
-Chicken breast w/ rib meat
DISCONTINUED-Chicken fajita filling (added some cheese and on tortillas, Great! Also would be good w/ rice)
-Chicken & noodles (darn good by itself, or a real filling meal over mashed taters.)
-SW breakfast hash
-breakfast skillet
-apple crisp ?not to bad, to filling for just a side maybe a good breakfast.
-biscuits and gravy ? 2 serving very filling, quick rehydration at 9 min. Pretty decent taste

OK
lasagna
beef stew (good w/ extra burger)
chicken teriyaki
Macaroini & cheese was decent, noodles were a little hard. Lots of extra cheese that could be used on mashed taters or something.
Sweet & sour pork and rice best of the ones I ranked decent, good flavor pork doesn?t rehydrate as well as chicken. Beef either.


BAD
-Beef stroganoff

Lol, Beef stroganoff was my favorite, followed by chili mac, beef stew, mac and cheese, and lasagna. I hated anything with chicken in it.
I've found that on the freeze dried meals, I prefer as little 'meat' as possible, and preferably only ground burger. I've found it's easier for me to eat any of the veggie options, and anything with just burger in it. Texture is really important to me, even when I'm starving... And I just can't get behind the texture of the freeze dried chicken.

 

[tdcour]

I've gotten where I make my own meals. I'll pack a mtn house chili mac for the first day, then reuse that container and rehydrate my own meals after that. I do stuff like chili, chicken and mashed potatoes, "dirty rice" with ground venison, ground venison and mashed potatoes, and some other stuff. Nothing too fancy. I like the chicken teriyaki by mtn house as well.

My typical day goes like this:

Breakfast:
oatmeal, protein powder, dehydrated strawberries, and chocolate chips mixed together for breakfast. Vacuum sealed, just add water.
Morning Snack:
ProBar meal, granola bar, protein bar, or Clif bar
Lunch:
butthole sandwich or tortillas, meat packet (tuna, chicken, salmon), jerky, and peanut M&Ms
Afternoon Snack:
Snickers bar, trail mix, and gatorade single serve packet
Dinner:
dehydrated meal as listed above, tea, and maybe a small sweet something for dessert.

I'm running about 2600 calories with this setup and lose 8-10 pounds when I backpack hunt for a week each year. I don't really have 10 pounds to lose, but still do. I just can't bring myself to eat much more than that being on the go so much. Getting more calories at lunch would help, but I don't like big lunches. I try to bring rotations of snacks and evening meals as the same protein bar or cliff bar gets really old really quick for me. Breakfast and lunch for some reason I don't need to change often.

 

[Alaskabound2016]

Mountain House Chili Mac for dinner and Biscuits and Gravy for breakfast! Best flavors IMO!

 

[mcseal2]

I never felt like their beef rehydrated as well as the chicken for me. Even putting the meal packet in a mylar envelope I got through Hawk Vittles it just didn't seem like it ever got all the way rehydrated. Maybe I'm just to picky on my beef eating the home raised stuff all the time. I figure chicken is only supposed to taste so good, beef is supposed to be awesome!

I love beef stroganoff made at home, maybe I need to give it another shot after hearing all your reports.

 

[taskswap]

Never going to be like home-made. Still better than ramen or cold food.

To be honest, half my reason is sheer laziness. When I'm tired from a long day I just don't want to deal with long meal prep, cleaning pots, and bulky/messy trash that attracts critters. If I can just boil water, add it to a bag, eat, clean one spoon, and the whole thing zip-locs back up to keep the mess down? Sold.

 

[Jacack1]

Little more money but the packit gourmet are very good also. I do like mountain house but can’t do them many days in a row without some serious digestive issues

 

[Bonecollector]

Never going to be like home-made. Still better than ramen or cold food.

To be honest, half my reason is sheer laziness. When I'm tired from a long day I just don't want to deal with long meal prep, cleaning pots, and bulky/messy trash that attracts critters. If I can just boil water, add it to a bag, eat, clean one spoon, and the whole thing zip-locs back up to keep the mess down? Sold.

This!
I am up well before dawn (no that is not my lady friend) and hiking back to camp after dark. I am tired and hungry. I want something hot and quick so I can get some rest to do it all over again... once again before dawn.

ps. Before anyone says it: That is what she said! [emoji2957]


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[Prerylyon]

My pedestrian hunting meals-like Scott said though earlier in the thread-its important to think about calories needed-saw an interesting documentary about the guys that made it 1st to the south pole back in the day-arguably they beat the other team partially due to better nutritional planning:

Breakfast:

Instant oatmeal
Coffee or tea
Dried fruit
Jay-Jays fried cherry pie

Lunch:

Summer sausage or sardines or herring
Crackers
Cheese sticks
Dried fruit
Granola bar

Supper:

Ramen soup
Summer sausage
Cheese sticks
Dried veggies
Hot tea

Snacks:

Dried fruit
GORP
Almond joys (personal size)
Water

Its not real interesting, but its cheap, fairly light, and works for me. [emoji2]

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[mcseal2]

For my AK moose hunt I had each day's food in a gallon ziplock. I made an Excel spreadsheet that showed the weight and calories of each item. I used that to help plan each day's bag. I tried to shoot for 3000 calories per day while keeping weight down. Except on the days we packed moose I didn't eat everything each day. I thought that was a good deal on an AK hunt though, having more food each day than I ate gave me more of a surplus if we got weathered in for extra days. It's easy for me to not eat enough when I'm pushing myself hard each day so I try to keep fueled up with stuff I'll eat.

The beef stick and cheese packets hit the spot after several days of freeze dried stuff. Payday bars, rice krispy treats, beef jerky, Sweet & salty single serving snack packets, honey roasted peanuts, moon cheese, these are some of the snacks I use. Not really stuff I eat at home, but stuff that I'll actually get ate while hunting. Cliff bars, protein bars, and all that will just sit in my pack and I'll talk myself out of choking one down. When I do eat a Cliff bar a piece of jerky after helps get the taste out of my mouth. The tiny pieces of jerky from the bottom of the bag make beef Ramen better to my taste buds too.

The Wilderness Athlete drink powders are something I've become a believer in. A hydrate and recover each day before bed, maybe another in the morning after a long day. During the afternoon lull in game activity a energy and focus can help me keep glassing effectively instead of fighting sleep.

Anyway, that's some stuff that works for me. Might not work for you.

 

[kidoggy]

corn biscuits and beef jerky will keep ya going for days. learn what berries and plants are edible in the area.

bugs are a great source of protein.

 

[tdcour]

Best piece of advice some keep saying but not actually saying is that you need to find something you will actually eat when you are back there. Counting calories, protien, fat, carbs, weight and all that is fine, but it does no good if you won't actually eat what you brought. I'd say most, if not all of us, have been there before and still get there to a certain extent. My dad found that out last year with too many protein bars and such.

Step 1: Figure out what you can/will eat back there
Step 2: Get the right amount of calories and macros
Step 3: Try to shave weight on your food so it isn't so heavy.

Those are my thoughts anyway