The freeze dried meals, especially the more boutique ones now, can be quite expensive when you are talking a multi day backpack hunt.
For several years now, I have been making my own meals, and preparing most of my camping food at home, from scratch. I’ve been doing this for health reasons, not cost reasons. However, my guess is it would be way cheaper than buying prepared meals.
For breakfasts, I have 2 packets of oatmeal, with dried butter, dried blueberries, hemp seeds, peanut butter powder, and sometimes a scoop of protein powder. This comes out to 600-700 calories and I adjust based on my caloric needs.
For snacks, I will homemade jerky, dried fruit and nuts.
I make my own “granola bars” by mixing nuts, seeds, dates, dark chocolate and dried fruit. Throw that all in a food processor and press out into bars that are super calorie dense and healthy.
Lunches are typically peanut butter on a bagel, or a packet of tuna or salmon on a bagel.
For dinner, I dehydrate my own meals. You can even dehydrate leftovers as you get closer to hunting season, and the cost goes down even more. I usually do dedicated batches though, as I’m trying to get high calorie food. But Some of my favorites are venison chili Mac, venison vegetable chili, I make this Indian spice chicken and rice that’s really good, etc. the thing about the dehydrated meals, is that you are in control of the process and the ingredients.
I have high blood pressure that I control by diet and exercise, and I have to keep my sodium intake to a minimum or I have problems. Processed foods and freeze dried foods are extremely high in sodium and I cannot go days on end eating that stuff without my BP spiking.
So long post, but making your own is probably going to be the cheapest route, but you would have to be thinking ahead, buying ingredients in bulk or on sale, etc. and doing it at home.
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