To go along with a post about DIY buckets, I thought I would share my limited sampling of freeze dried meal brands. Before I start, I will say that my priorities for this type of food is convenience, portability and longevity.
Wise foods, while they have good flavor, you are tied to using pots to cook in, plates or cups to eat from, which means cleaning up.
Backpackers Pantry, I have tried 4 different meals and all were very bland, no flavor. Yick.
Mountain House, I have tried all of their pouch offerings and most are very good. The best thing about the pouches is that you open them, remove the oxygen absorber, add boiling water and stir, seal the pouch and let stand for 7 minutes, stir again and let stand for another 5 minutes, then eat out of the pouch or share in cups. There are a few pouches that use cold water, granola can be cold or hot, chicken salad uses cold water, just bring tortilla skins along. In fact, most of the meals can be eaten burrito-wise in skins if you want to. The breakfast meals with eggs are not for me. The 2 part meals, chicken breast and mashed potatoes, while this meal tastes good, there is more work to prepare. The raspberry crumble and apple crisp desserts are good too.
The pouches, the Pro Pac's are single serving size and are vacuum packed to reduce the size. They are not very durable and can be punctured easily. The normal pouches are very durable and have 2-2.5 servings in them. I have not tried the family pouches. The pouches make good trash containers after the meal. You need a spoon with these, either a long GSI spoon or a long titanium spoon.
Longevity, I do replace pouches in groups as I use them and the pouches I have that were packaged in 2006 taste as good as new production ones. There is a lot of salt in these meals so keep up with proper hydration.
