Doug, have you tried dehydrating your own meals, far easier than you would think. You can dehydrate pretty much any stew,casserole,meats that you like and customize your meals to your own tastes. Much cheaper and by far take up less room in your pack.

If you do take store bought meals, just before you go take a pin and pierce the bag of each meal to allow any air to escape and re-seal with a small piece of tape. Air takes up valuable space in a pack on a 5 day trip,lol.