Cheap backpacking meals/meal starters

[colonel00]

So I am sitting here at work, can't get away for a lunch so I open my drawer and grab one of my backup meals. I usually keep a couple microwavable meals in my desk and this one is a Betty Crocker noodle bowl thing. Nothing really great but not too shabby as a quick filler meal. It has 350 calories and cost me a whole dollar at Big Lots. It got me thinking that I could grab two of these, put the contents into a quart ziplock and have a solid meal for the trail for $2. Now, the instructions for this had me fill the bowl up with water and nuke for 4 minutes but I would think adding boiling water to a pouch and letting it sit would get the same results. I will have to do some testing and report back.

Anyone else try to convert these types of meals into backpacking meals?

 

[MOHunter]

Good idea. Interested to hear the results.

 

[colonel00]

I will have to see if I still have some dehydrated meats at home from my last round of meal making. I am thinking that adding some beef or ground turkey to this or even chicken could be really good. Maybe get really fancy with dehydrated tomatoes that rehydrate to taste like sun-dried tomatoes and some mushrooms...

Also, as a bonus you can rinse out the bowl and have a disposable bowl to eat out of that weighs nothing.

 

[Becca]

Interesting idea Brad. We do instant potatoes and ramen noodles a lot in the field,stir in a foil packet of chicken or tuna and some freeze dried veggies. I like a hot meal midday when it's cold and rainy....

 

[unm1136]

Interesting idea Brad. We do instant potatoes and ramen noodles a lot in the field,stir in a foil packet of chicken or tuna and some freeze dried veggies. I like a hot meal midday when it's cold and rainy....

I like to do the same thing, but I like to add WAY more water than is necessary. I find that a thinner soup consistency fills me up better volume wise, takes a little more time to eat, replenishes water, and Soup is Good Food!

The back country chef recommends just buying a bag frozen mixed veg and tossing it in your dehydrator. From my testing, it seems to work OK. May try to add Fruit Fresh, or plain ol' ascorbic acid to the the mix for color, and the fact that drying destroys bunches of vitamin c.

pat

 

[colonel00]

Yeah, I have taken a bunch of tips from the backpacking chef or whatever the site was. I also liked the tip about adding breadcrumbs to ground meat before dehydrating to help it rehydrate better. Seemed to work well. I really liked the "barks" and the chili was pretty good too.

 

[amp713]

And i bet that if you toyed with it the taste would be better than a MTN HOUSE

 

[Hunt'nFish]

Brad, I've been using the Knorr brand meals "Rice & Pasta Sides" (which are basically the same thing).
http://www.knorr.com/product/category/245726/sides
The fettuccini pasta sides cook the fastest. They're serving sized for two, but I'll easily eat one. If I plan to use it to feed two, I'll add a pkg of foil pack chicken.

Another quick cheap store bought meal is the Nissin Teriyaki Beef Flavor Chow Mein, repackaged into zip-locks like you suggest. I'll also routinely add some dried teriyaki beef jerky and a teaspoon of protein powder to the mix as well.
Hunt'nFish

 

[colonel00]

Yep, we have had the pasta sides before. Oddly I don't remember them being of the Knorr brand but I really don't pay that much attention.

Swung by Big Lots again today and stocked up to do some experimenting. I scored all of this along with a few other items for $36. For those keeping score at home, that is 19 bowl-o-noodles, three boxes of mac and cheese - Goldfish as a bonus , three packs of tuna and the spicy soup mix. Not in the photo was a can of Easy Cheese (don't judge me ) and a couple other canned items. I plan to use the olive oil mayo to test with and then I can get condiment packets of it from Panera I think. Anyway, got to love Big Lots. Now it is time to test some of these out to see how they might work as a backpacking meal.

 

[colonel00]

So I did a little playing around this evening and decided to give one of these a whirl. I only had the tuna packets on hand so I figured tuna mac would be good.

I started with two bowls and the tuna

Combined the contents of the bowls into a quart freezer bag. I like the freezer bags because they are a little thicker to handle when there is hot water.

All together this meal comes in at 9.55oz.

After I emptied the bowl contents into the bag, I filled the bowls to the recommended lines and measured how much water it took. It was roughly a cup and a third and figuring the space the noodles and powder took, I decided to go with 2 cups of water total. So, trying to keep it like a fair test, I boiled up some water in the Reactor.

 

[colonel00]

The freezer bag went into my DIY Reflectix pouch

Once the water was boiling it was poured into the bag and mixed around a bit.

Then I just clipped it closed and left it for 10-12 minutes

Once done, it had mixed pretty well and just about all of the pasta was tender and ready.

 

[colonel00]

I reused one of the bowls and added a little pepper from my little spice container. Overall, not bad at all. For $3 I have a pretty good meal. I will have to go look and see what the nutritional info is for all three of these.

Overall:

850 Calories
15g Fat
5g Saturated Fat
4g Trans Fat
2270mg Sodium
775mg Potassium
118g Carbs
34g Protein

Compared to a MH Mac & Cheese meal at $7 or more (yes I know they are different meals but it was a convenient one to look at)

960 Calories
45g Fat
21g Saturated
1.5g Trans
2040mg Sodium
--- Potassium
93g Carbs
39g Protein


Oh, and the bowl weighs .6oz in case you want to pack a couple along so you aren't always eating out of bags.

 

[mtswampfox]

Looks good but the sodium level seems outrageous. Maybe im reading it wrong.

 

[colonel00]

Yeah, the sodium content is very high. Even the "Low Sodium" MH meals like the chicken alfredo has 801mg if you eat the whole bag which is 3 servings. My numbers may be a little off but I think 2300-2400mg is a full daily allowance (based on a 2000 calorie scale).

One thing I can add though is I will be trying this again with some of the other flavors and chicken. I probably won't go with two bowls of pasta and that will cut the sodium drastically but it will also cut out a bunch of the rest of the stuff too. Here soon I should have my garden up and growing and I plan to dehydrate tomatoes, peppers and other goodies that I can mix in to make the meal more fulfilling while cutting back on some of the less desirables.

 

[JoshTX]

Great post. Thanks for the write up!

I sometimes will by the "Taste of Thai" noodle boxes. They come with the traditional Thai noodles that have to be boiled. I deep-six those and replace with Ramen. What I'm really after in the thai boxes, is the sauce packets, dehydrated veggies and sesame seeds. I'll toss the ramen in the freezer ziploc along with the various packets. When it's time to eat, I'll empty the contents of the packets into the ziploc along with the requisite amount of water and add tuna or chicken. 10-15 in the coozy and I'm off to the races. If you like Thai, it's pretty good.

 

[amp713]

Really liking this post.... Def hope you keep posting your different set ups. I wouldnt mind getting away from the standard dehydrated meals.... Also what did you make your reflector bag out of?

 

[colonel00]

Great post. Thanks for the write up!

I sometimes will by the "Taste of Thai" noodle boxes. They come with the traditional Thai noodles that have to be boiled. I deep-six those and replace with Ramen. What I'm really after in the thai boxes, is the sauce packets, dehydrated veggies and sesame seeds. I'll toss the ramen in the freezer ziploc along with the various packets. When it's time to eat, I'll empty the contents of the packets into the ziploc along with the requisite amount of water and add tuna or chicken. 10-15 in the coozy and I'm off to the races. If you like Thai, it's pretty good.

Good suggestion. I have a couple of the Asian meals that I will try out too.

Really liking this post.... Def hope you keep posting your different set ups. I wouldnt mind getting away from the standard dehydrated meals.... Also what did you make your reflector bag out of?

It is called Reflectix and can be found at Lowe's or Home Depot. Check out this thread here and shoot me a PM if you want some.

http://www.rokslide.com/forums/showthread.php?9451-DIY-Reflectix-Pouch&highlight=reflectix

 

[JoshTX]

Also what did you make your reflector bag out of?

Not the OP but I bought an windshield sunscreen for a large truck for like $10 and traced/cut out the coozy shape. I got, I believe, 6 coozy's out of it (for a family of 5). I used duct tape for the seams and a piece of velcro for the lid. Works like a champ.

 

[Jdog]

Nice to see some new options--after 11 yrs of Mtn House on hunts I had to start changing things up a bit a few years ago.

I have reverted to bringing a bag of bagels, some fresh sliced smoked salami and cheese for sandwhiches and switching a lot towards HAWK Vittles dehydrated meals.

I am willing to add a couple extra pounds for real food...the Mtn House just all tastes the same now.

 

[Jdog]

Here was a daily sample from last year's sheep hunt...