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I have never used mountain house backpack meals but will in the future. Please give me your input on the best tasting meals and the ones to avoid.
Thanks

I've used all of the freeze-dried brands and Mountain House is the least disgusting of the bunch. I have a sweet tooth, so I like the Sweet & Sour Pork and Terryaki Chicken. Avoid the salisbury steak pattys. Remember to buy only the "no cook" offerings and also that an entre' that is supposed to feed two actually is only enough for one adult.

A long time ago, I and my two children backpacked down the Escalante Canyon from the town of Escalante to Calf Creek and we had some Alpinaire freeze-dried and it was terrible, so we gave it to the dog. It tasted so bad that even the dog wouldn't eat it.

Beef Stroganoff is my favorite MH meal. However, we dumped all the MH dehyd meals this year for our backpack elk hunt and only took Knorr rice and pasta dishes and supplemented with foil packaged Bumble Bee chicken and Tyson chicken chuncks. I don't think I'll ever go back. it's a little heavier, but not much and is sooooo much better. Some of the Knorr dishes, such as fettecini alfredo, require milk to be added so we just repacked in freezer bags and added powdered milk to the mix before we left.

http://walmart.triaddigital.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid13370.aspx

My favorites are the beef stroganoff, beef stew and the chicken and rice terriaki. Don't bother with the with their breakfast...

I actually like their eggs and bacon breakfasts ... add a packet of ketchup and you're good to go!! I lik'em on cold mornings with my instant coffee. Makes for a nice day starter.

I've only had the dinner entrees. I could go a week or two alternating Beef Stroganoff and Turkey Tettrazini.

My favorite is beef and potatos with onions (or something like that). I also like stroganoff and turkey tetrazini. As far as the dinners go none of them are bad and I think I've eaten all of them. I will not eat spaghetti though (just because my daughter threw it up all over the ground just outside the tent on her first ever backpacking trip - she was nervous so nothing was wrong with the food, but the memory of scraping up spaghetti throw up with a rock by the light of my headlamp is enough to not want to eat it again. A second-and-a-half earlier and it'd been all over inside the tent).

Anyway, sorry for the diversion. I think the eggs are nasty and the blueberry and granola is too sweet so I stay away from their breakfasts. But their dinners are great.

They make the propacks that are really compact (i.e. all the air removed from the package) which they say is a single serving. I buy the regular ("2 serving") meals (which are usually cheaper than the propacks), make a small pin hole near the top and squeeze all the air out (I do this as I am packing) and place a small piece of tape over the pin hole to make them smaller. I find the regular ("2 serving") size to be just right for 1 person, especially after a hard day on the trail. My favorite thing about them is that I dump boiling water in the pouch and eat from the pouch so there is no cleanup other than my spoon and I can usually lick that nearly as clean as it needs to be.

I like the spaghetti the best. Get tired of turkey tettrazini
(or whatever it is) and absolutely avoid anything vegetarian. If I'm hunting, why am I eating vegetarian anyway? I think the instant scrambled eggs & bacon sure beat instant oatmeal when you're on a 3 week sheep hunt too.
Anyway, the way we do it is to order our food in bulk (#10 cans). We then break down meals and place the food in a quart ziplock bag. All meals for 1 day - breakfast, lunch & dinner each go into a quart ziplock. We then place a breakfast, lunch & dinner into a 1 gallon ziplock. In the morning, we just pull out one of the gallon ziplocks and voila, meals for the day. On top of that, all of our meals are prepared & eaten out of their respective ziplock. Ready for dinner? Just boil up some water & pour it into the ziplock. Partially seal the bag & let set. Eat out of the bag.
The bulk foods are much cheaper even with freight than the individual ones and when repackaged the way we do, are much less bulky and you can adjust the amount to satisfy your appetite. I realize most of you don't go on extended trips as we do but you might still consider our method. Hope this helps some.
Bear in Fairbanks

+1 but add the turkey tetrazzini.

I like the beef patty and mashed taters with onions, grilled chicken with mashed taters, spaghetti with beef, beef and taters, mac and cheese, and wild rice and mushroom pilaf. The granola breakfast' are good but you could buy granola by the lb and add dehydrated milk and it would be the same thing, though I prefer coffee and granola bars for breakfast, can't stand oatmeal either. They make the packages to big IMO so I cut about 3 inches or so off then fold it over and tape it closed, I do this to save a little weight. You could also buy the ProPak which is vacuum sealed to help you with space in your pack but they only offer them in 8 different flavors, of which only 2 I like.

As you can see, some points are constant, some not.

I LOVE the Sweet and Sour pork.

I hate the ChiliMAc. My Son LOVES it.

You gotta give 'em a try.

BMT

I love me some chili mac

Backpackers Pantry has some interesting and tasty offerings as well like Chicken and dumplings and Kung Pao chicken are two that I like.

Get a variety of different types of meals like chicken, beef, pastas etc. That way they wont all start tasting like the same thing.

KC

The lasagna is tolerable. While elk hunting this year, we had a base camp we ended up at each night so we could re-stock the supplies. My favorite lunch for the week was a single/double serving of tuna with mustard and mayo added that we clipped from fast food places on the way in. Have some single serve peanut butter on a cliff bar and wash it down with a bottle of water mixed with gatorade and Emergen C. Pretty much covered all the bases. Plenty of protein, filled you up and stuck with you till dinner. Might be a tad on the heavy side if you had to pack 5 days worth. also had some trail mix that went down well on the side.

Chicken noodles is a fine way to fly also. Beef stew wasn't bad. Hell, ain't too many of them bad after hiking around the mtns all day.

I tend to reach for the Sweet and Sour Pork with rice....always 2 person. They're all pretty good though.

Don't forget to take out the little "freshness" pack before adding your water. I don't know how many times I've been digging in there for a scoop or stirring my meal and I run into that damn little pack.

I'm sure a couple of you know what I'm talking about.

They're all pretty good. The only one I won't ever buy again is the chicken breast and mashed potatoes. Just too involved to cook. The one thing I do suggest is grabbing a few packets of crushed red pepper flakes from a pizza joint or gas station. Kicks up the seasoning just right IMO.

Most are pretty good. I generally choose the higher calorie meals. The one I won't be trying again is the Jamaican style chicken and rice. Icky. I could probably go a couple of weeks just alternating beef stroganoff and turkey tetrazzini. I don't care for the lasagna simply because you just about need sandpaper to get the cheese off your spoon when you're done.

There are several other options available. These are all a little heavier than freeze-dried and they require some cleanup, but they taste a whole lot better than freeze-dried.

Like Browtine mentioned, Knorr and Lypton both make dehydrated caserole mixes to which you can add chicken or ham. Velveeta Shells & Cheese is another option. I've also mixed some Mexicali Rose dehydrated refried beans with Minute Rice (boil-in-bag) and then put that on tortillas to make a tolerable burrito. Some dehydrated salsa mix makes it almost good. Don't forget Cup-O-Noodles. The broth is really good at the end of a long day when you have to rehydrate.

I've eaten so much instant oatmeal that just to think of it is unpleasant. But I still use it ocasionally because it is just so practical and easy. For breakfast, I have used Bisquik Shake & Pour pancakes with freeze-dried syrup. The freeze-dried syrup is more work than it's worth so now I just use some of those restaurant jelly packets. I also make an adequate aproximation of biscuits & gravy with a bag of Country Time Gravey mix (with sausage) and some bread rolls. Freeze-dried eggs can be made tolerable with some dehydrated salsa mix and turkey bacon bits. Today, I saw some Mountain House eggs with ham and red & green peppers. I'm going to give that a try.

KC

www.kifaruforums.net/showthread.php?t=15823&highlight=homemade

I've always use the MH meals too. Thought I might try some of these homemade dehydrated meals as another option. Let me know how they work for you if you decide to try as well.

PASTA PRIMAVERA.