Going backpacking for 4 days with my boys (who hate veggies, including onions). What are the best Mountain House meals, in your opinion?

TIA

Spaghetti with meat sauce, and beef Stroganoff IMO. Not a lot of calories in there so if you can supplement with a little nalgene bottle of olive oil, that's the way to go.

chicken teriyaki.

Beef stroganoff and chili (depending on your definition of veggies).

I like the chili mac - can always take a block or two of cheese to cut up in it too!

Lasagna, chicken breast and mashed potatoes, and chicken a la king. Best breakfast is their granola with blueberries and milk.

Yep, if you eat the chili mac you'll be cuttin the cheese all right...

Beef stew, spaghetti, chili mac, chicken teriyaki.

Best and Mountain House, isn't that an oxymoron?:)

Lasagne, or sweet & sour pork

totally a personal thing as to bests... like any food.

Wife goes for chicken and rice. None of them bother me. But then again most MREs don't bother me either.

sweet and sour chicken and the scrambled eggs with bacon!

They simply get the job done so this year I went by most calories. Mac and cheese at the top with 960, taking some chicken in foil to go with those.

Next is Chicken ala King at 840, boosted by a side of Idahoan instant potatoes (400).

Sweet and sour pork is 725. Taters also.

After that chicken fried rice and beef strogonof at 650 and the others at 575. Beef stew is only 475, no wonder I lost so much weight those trips.

I take olive oil for calories and southwest spice for zest too. That meal before getting in the sack is important after chasing around the hills all day.

Chili Mac. I've crumbled saltines on top of some of the mountain house meals to add some calories.

Beef Stroganoff, Lasagna, Spaghetti in Meat Sauce, Chili Mac.

Chili Mac, Spaghetti in Meat Sauce, Lasagna...

There are other brands out there. Are you deliberately limiting it to Mountain House?

If so, Beef Stroganoff and Lasagna are the two I tolerate the best.

Thanks everyone for the input.

Mountain House is the only brand I see in the stores here, which is why I asked about that brand.

I'm taking some fishing gear, so I hope to supplement with some fresh Brook Trout.

I would be interested in suggestions for brands that are better than Mountain House.... I order most stuff online anyway.

I've had good luck with Alpine Aire and Backpacker's Pantry. IMO/E no one brand is better than the other. I've had good luck just getting what sounds good and going with it. I do make sure to look at the prep instructions. I don't like the ones where you have to hydrate this, pull it out, then do this one, and mix them together.

Just got back from a trip to the White Clouds. Beef stroganoff is good. The chili mac is good, but you'll have a looong reminder of it. The breakfast skillet is pretty good too. The chicken and rice is better than expected. I took a couple of red pepper packets left over from Dominoes and that helped it out nicely.

That Airelane Aire or WTF it's called has some good stuff. Pepper Steak. Chicken Burrito Bowl. Beef Burrito Bowl.




Travis

Yep! Eat the pizza on the drive there and toss the pepper packets in the food bag.

My sons and I love the blueberries & granola as well as eggs & bacon for breakfasts.

The beef stroganoff and teriyaki chicken & rice are great for lunch.

Backpackers pantry has great Thai stuff.

MH Pasta Primivera. Just don't tell the kids about the veggies in it. Raspberry crumble for dessert.

Can't say what is 'best', but the 2 best are beef strokemeoff and turkey tittierzini.

Lasagna is good and as a bonus you get free glue to repair your tent, waders, raft, boots, etc...

Word on the street is that it is good for Supercub fabric, but not yet STC'd for landing gear.

That's no joke on the lasagne. Got to clean that spoon immediately unless you want orange cement on it. :-)

But it sure does taste good.

Backpacker's Pantry is pretty good stuff.

I liked the salmon pesto pasta, supplemented with some olive oil and an extra foil pack of salmon.

The Katmandu curry was also good. My buddy jazzed it up with extra spices. I think it would be a little bland without the help.

I like most of the MH options. Not real fond of the "ice cream". The scrambled eggs are surprisingly good.

Most of the Italian-esque options with pasta and tomato sauce are pretty decent. Chili-mac is good. I really hate to say beef strokin'-off is edible. Stew is good. The chicken stuff is mostly good.

It's mostly pretty bland. The Italian-esque stuff gets better with a shot of grated parmesan. It's all better with a good dose of pepper and garlic salt, only for some reason, with MH, garlic salt gives me AWFUL acid reflux .. not much else does. Needs to be eaten about 3:30 in the afternoon, then another 2 miles o' hiking done to stomp it into submission.

If Backpackers Pantry is the other brand Sportsman's Warehouse carries, I don't like it. Someone else, Coleman maybe, makes some vegetarian freeze dried stuff. It's pretty nasty. Beans and rice, if the beans don't soak up and soften, means fart-powered buckshot a while later. Not good.

Beef Stogahoff

I imported a heap of MH from Campsaver in the US to Australia, for my Sambar hunting expeditions. I haven't had a bad one but really like lasagne and beef stew. Granola and blueberries was good too.

Cheers

I agree.. in that order as well.

Beef Stew, Beef Stroganoff, and the eggs and bacon were a surprise. Backpackers Pantry Thai stuff is decent.

Hard to beat old school ramen, unless you don't like to swell up like a tick.

Scrambled eggs served as sort of a soup

Personally, there are several meals I find much less expensive (like $1) , that are almost as easy and just as good