Managed to take along a few more of these dehydrated meals to Skookumchuck last weekend, so here's the lowdown.

Outback Oven Pesto Pizza

Flavour: 4.5 *'s
Incredible. We ignored the instructions a little and pressed the dough into the pan and cooked it for a while before adding the topping. Dough was great, and topping was even better. no need for an outback oven either we cooked ours in a frying pan with the matching pot on top.

Price: 3.5 *'s
$5 from MEC. It won't feed two hungry hikers, but it will definately fill up one, so it's not a bad deal.

AlpineAire Mountain Blackberry Cheesecake

Flavour: 3.5 *'s
The "cheesecake" is more of a stiff custard that tastes like cream cheese, but it was good. Not really enough crust, but everything else was good.

Price: 3.5 *'s
$5.25 from MEC. If you had a fairly large dinner this would be a great desert snack for two people.

Backpacker's Pantry Denver Omelette

Flavour: 2 *'s
I'm giving this two stars because my hiking partner dubbed it "not bad" and ate the entire thing. That's because I tasted one bite and spit it out though...guess I'm overly picky.

Price: 3.5 *'s
It wouldn't feed two people, but it's cheap enough that you could bring it along on a solo trip.


----------------------------------------
It's always an adventure with me in tow.

I have had Backpacker's pantry Tomato Basil Pasta with Chipotle adn Turkey as well as Pasta Vegetable Parmesan. They only serve one, even though they say two. I found them a little blan. But they were pretty good. Now when it comes to brownies for the outback oven, there awesome! Expecailly the wicked good brownies!

Harvest Foodworks No-Bake Choco Chew Cookies:

Don't. Just.....don't.

I promise, I won't. [xx(]

BC Tripper

----------------------------------------
It's always an adventure with me in tow.

This is the first time I have read this thread!! How funny.

I really liked the 3 cheese lasagna. I think it was the Natural High Brand too! I thought it was really tasty! Real pieces of melted cheese.

However, the Honey Lime Chicken was so bad I was scared to try anything from them ever again. I have yet to notify MEC about this horrific excuse for a meal. I can't explain enough how gag inducing this crap was. I was really hungry and had planned my food almost exactly so needed to eat it. (But not all of it!!![xx(])

And no, they never are enough for two.

The choc chew no bake cookies were such a disappointment! That photo really makes them look awful. The few bites I had of the mix weren't so bad. Really! Not that I would buy them again though.

Huevos Rancheros: Really good but need to be served with bread or some other good carb to fill you up. Or have cookies as a side dish. Also it takes a lot of time and a lot of stirring to cook them. For me it is too much to have to sit there for 10 mins stirring.

3 bean chilli was really good too. But not if you are sharing a tent!
[}] [:0]

I also like the boil in bag thingies with something that cooks fast. Rice noodles. Brown rice farina. Angel hair pasta. Cous cous.

I want to come up with some more ideas as the price of the special meals is really out there.

I think Harvest Works is too heavy.

Being new to back-packing in general, I erred on the side of caution and just bought a couple of pre-packaged meals...

1. Alpenaire foods "Sierra Chicken" - pretty good, albeit only a light meal for 2 people.
2. Backpackers pantry "Pad Thai" - yuck.
3. Nature's High (or something like that) "Chocolate mousse w/ slivered almonds" - yuck.

The ichiban, however, was fabulous!!

This thread was informative and fun! Thanks for all of the tips on what to buy (or not to buy!) We've only expericened with the Mountain House brand thus far. The breakfast options were limited. You had a choice between eggs & ham, eggs & bacon, and granola with blueberries and milk. DO NOT (unless you are brave) attempt the eggs & anything because those were definately gag inducing. However, the Mountain House Granola with Blueberries &Milk was really good! We are definately bringing it for our next trip. Oh, another good thing about it was that you didn't even have to heat up water. So if you are in a hurry to get started, just add your water and eat it while you hike. The Mountain House Chicken & Rice was my fiance's favorite, I thought it was really good, too.. I don't think he'll eat anything else. He even claims that he'll eat the stuff at home! I like the Beef Stew the best, myself.. but he said he only ate it because he was starving! So I guess it all depends on your own personal taste. Beef Stroganoff was disgusting! We were starving and packed it out with us. Oh, &I thought that the Chili Mac & Beef was great!

[Edited to Add: These were all Mountain House Pro-Pak meals, other than the breakfast options.]

Every now and then, in a weak moment and against all logic, I decide maybe these things have improved to the point that the light weight and convenience of preparation might make them worthwhile. My experiences have always been sufficiently, dramatically bad that it is a long time between attempts. I therefore have sampled very few.

Sidekicks and Knorr Soup mixes are the tried and true bases for dinners. Add small envelopes or tins of meat and/or dried pepperoni and maybe some cheese. Those are good meals which don't leave you poisoning the tent atmosphere for hours afterwards. For a hot breakfast, instant oatmeal makes a good base.

All of the meals sold at MEC are from United States and are FREEZE-DRIED not DEHYDRATED. There is a major difference between the two methods. Typically freeze-dried meals require a) preservatives b) lots of salt and seasoning to mask the bland taste and c) a silica gel packet because the food does not stay dry. Dehydrated meals on the other hand take longer to dehydrate and longer to rehydrate, but the flavour and nutritional value stays the same.

To sum up:
Freeze-drying is a quick and easy method of packaging meals (cheaper to produce)
Dehydrating is a slow and arduous method of packaging meals (more expensive to produce)

MEC does not sell dehydrated meals.

That would have been a great point..... 9 years ago.

Interesting. I quite like the Pad Thai. Nature's High definitely requires a hungry stomach to be palatable.

Me too!!