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Post by trinity on Jul 27, 2021 15:22:43 GMT -8
Some of you are budget conscious, and can't imagine spending more than 50 cents on a backpacking meal. You might want to cover your eyes. Personally, I am at a stage in life where I have more income than time, and would rather spend money on decent commercial freeze-dried meals than dehydrate at home. Packit Gourmet and Mary Jane's Farm have long been my staples, but there have been more and more competitors creating delicious meals which, though pricey, are easy to prepare and quite good. Hawk's Vittles and Heather's Choice have some decent offerings. Wild Zora has become one of my go tos, not so much because the meals are that delicious (they're soso), but because they are pretty close to what we eat at home on a daily basis. In this past year, I have tried some meals from Stowaway Gourmet and Next Mile Meals. Below are a few reflections. Next Mile Meals are geared towards the keto crowd. Though I am trying to reduce the carbs in my diet, I am decidedly not on a keto diet. But I thought I'd give these meals a try. I must say, they are delicious, as you might expect from meals that are basically a fat and sodium bomb. I have tried the Italian Beef Marinara and Chicken Broccoli Casserole. Both delicious. But the marinara has 39 grams of fat and 1490 mg of sodium! This just doesn't seem right to me. So, though the meals were quite delicious, I probably won't be making any more purchases from them. Also, the marinara was incredibly cheesy, which made it delicious, but also made cleanup difficult. Stowaway Gourmet, on the other hand, is a company I will continue to send my money to. Their meals are delicious, with more reasonable amounts of fat, if not sodium (hard to avoid high sodium in freeze-dried meals, Mary Jane's Farm being a rare exception). I have had the Wild Boar Bacon Bean Stew, the Bison Beer Black Bean Chili, and the Comerade Doeganoff, all delicious. All of these, other than the Doeganoff, fit pretty well into my current diet (high protein, low in starches). They are expensive, even by freeze-dried meal standards, but I probably don't eat more than a few dozen of these meals in a typical year, so I am willing to splurge. Stowaway Gourmet also makes breakfasts, some of which are well-reviewed. I tried the Berry Yogurt Parfait this past month. It was okay, but I won't be purchasing this item again. The packaging is extremely bulky, and I wasn't that crazy about the breakfast. YMMV.
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Post by Coolkat on Jul 27, 2021 19:30:19 GMT -8
Some of you are budget conscious, and can't imagine spending more than 50 cents on a backpacking meal. You might want to cover your eyes. that would be me but I read it anyway. My problem is spending money on food in general. Even going out to eat with my wife I cringe at dropping at dropping $35. For me the experience isn't worth it. I'd rather save my pennies and spend it on equipment or a new camera lens. But more power to you I get where you're coming from and can't say that I blame you for using these meals. Obvious they exist for people like you And they stay in business so that says a lot.
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Post by bluefish on Jul 28, 2021 14:57:10 GMT -8
I'll look at these new offerings and see if anything whets my appetite/prize my wallet. A side effect, purely market driven and unintentional, is the OG companies like Mountain House have stepped up their game and have a few astonishingly edible choices. I use to liken them to heavily salted oatmeal spiked with cardboard chunks. I still think our cheapo dehydrator turns out some chef quality eats, but it's not always fun to do all the prep.
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Post by nextridgeover on Jul 28, 2021 18:38:43 GMT -8
I too am at the same stage. Time is more valuable at the moment. Rather than drying I buy freeze dried ingredients in bulk and then put the meals together. It's expensive compared to dehydrating, but a little less so than buying meals. I feel I can better control the sodium, protein and carb levels. The big plus is adjusting the portions to fit my days. I often have a smaller dinner knowing I have a single portion of instant vanilla pudding with banana chips and crushed nilla wafers for dessert.
Vacuum seal the hiking years leftover bulk ingredients.
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Jul 29, 2021 5:19:57 GMT -8
I too am at the same stage. Time is more valuable at the moment. Rather than drying I buy freeze dried ingredients in bulk and then put the meals together. It's expensive compared to dehydrating, but a little less so than buying meals. I feel I can better control the sodium, protein and carb levels. The big plus is adjusting the portions to fit my days. I often have a smaller dinner knowing I have a single portion of instant vanilla pudding with banana chips and crushed nilla wafers for dessert. Vacuum seal the hiking years leftover bulk ingredients. I make all my own meals, but definitely use some of the commercial FD ingredients—chicken, for example. I find the sodium level of some commercial meals is so high that they are virtually inedible.
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zeke
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Post by zeke on Jul 29, 2021 16:06:22 GMT -8
I'm not sure why I dislike spending $15 on a BP'ing supper. I certainly don't mind it any other place. It's just this weird obstruction, I guess.
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Jul 29, 2021 20:30:46 GMT -8
I'm not sure why I dislike spending $15 on a BP'ing supper. I certainly don't mind it any other place. It's just this weird obstruction, I guess. I’m more consistent. I hate spending $15 on any meal.
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Post by nextridgeover on Jul 30, 2021 8:28:30 GMT -8
I'm not sure why I dislike spending $15 on a BP'ing supper. I certainly don't mind it any other place. It's just this weird obstruction, I guess. That's because someone else cooks it and then another person brings it to you.
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ErnieW
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Post by ErnieW on Jul 31, 2021 8:40:28 GMT -8
I too am at the same stage. Time is more valuable at the moment. Rather than drying I buy freeze dried ingredients in bulk and then put the meals together. It's expensive compared to dehydrating, but a little less so than buying meals. I feel I can better control the sodium, protein and carb levels. The big plus is adjusting the portions to fit my days. I often have a smaller dinner knowing I have a single portion of instant vanilla pudding with banana chips and crushed nilla wafers for dessert. Vacuum seal the hiking years leftover bulk ingredients. I have been buying #10 cans of Mountain House meals and using my vacuum sealer to repackage in the size I like. A little math is needed for how much water. Ends up a little cheaper too.
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TrailElder
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Post by TrailElder on Aug 23, 2021 4:18:43 GMT -8
Thanks for the reviews, trinity. I'm trying out some different stuff, just picked up some Heather's Choice to try that for the first time. You mention MJF -- have you reviewed them somewhere else? I'm interested in your take. I noticed cweston was all-in on at least some of the options.
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Post by cweston on Aug 23, 2021 6:45:32 GMT -8
MJF is my staple these days, as mentioned. A lot of their meals are fairly aggressively spiced, which I appreciate--i find a lot of FD meals to just be bland (aside from the excessive sodium). My biggest complaint with MJF is that their portions are huge--they label their individual FD meals as "1.5 servings." My appetite tends to be suppressed at elevation, so they're easily more than I can eat. And disposing of uneaten food in bear country is a hassle. I suppose if I were willing to put forth the effort, I could take two of their meals and divide them into three, but then one loses the convenience of the packaging and "mix/eat in the bag." I'm with trinity : I'm a fairly frugal person overall, but I don't eat enough BPing meals in a year to be bothered with worrying much about the cost.
EDIT: I see that Stowaway Gourmet lists their single pouches as "2 servings" in the nutritional data. What's the verdict on this--are they really 2 servings?
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Post by trinity on Aug 23, 2021 6:53:20 GMT -8
TrailElder , I will be interested to hear how you like Heather's Choice. I've tried a few of her meals, and liked them pretty well. I like that her ingredients are ethically sourced, and packaging is minimal. I like MJF a lot. Since I am trying to minimize pasta in my diet, I don't order her stuff as much anymore, but I have found her meals all to be delicious. Her pasta, in particular, is by far the best dehydrated pasta I've ever had, most come out mushy, but hers is always perfectly al dente. Eat your Veggies may be my favorite, also Santa Fe Pasta and Chilimac. I like her packaging, which packs down small and can actually be burned, for those of you who make campfires. Portions are on the small side, so I will sometimes plan on eating her meals towards the beginning of a high-elevation trip, when I occassionally lose my appetite. I find her flavors relatively fresh-tasting for a dehydrated meal, and on the mild side, without being bland. I highly recommend her stuff.
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Post by trinity on Aug 23, 2021 7:00:03 GMT -8
cweston made his post as I was typing mine. Cracks me up that he likes her stuff because it is aggressively spiced, I like it because it is mild, he thinks her portions are too big, I think they are small! Great example of YMMV.
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Post by cweston on Aug 23, 2021 7:02:38 GMT -8
cweston made his post as I was typing mine. Cracks me up that he likes her stuff because it is aggressively spiced, I like it because it is mild, he thinks her portions are too big, I think they are small! Great example of YMMV. LOL. I usually choose the ones in the curry/Indian/Thai family of flavors, as opposed to the milder pasta dishes. I often wonder how I'd feel about the portion size if I were hiking at lower elevation--I think it would make a huge difference.
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Post by trinity on Aug 23, 2021 13:17:40 GMT -8
EDIT: I see that Stowaway Gourmet lists their single pouches as "2 servings" in the nutritional data. What's the verdict on this--are they really 2 servings? Definitely not, at least for me. I'm a pretty big eater.
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