Trail Food

[Haveuseen1]

Trail food is a subject that gets beat to death but it is always a good one as far as I am concerned.

In an earlier post I believe it was Cuffs that posted that he liked Enertia trail foods.  I have used them quite a bit and find them quite good.  Well except for that bulgar stuff.  I didnt really care fo that one.  I have also noticed quite a few other companies coming on with good options.  Here are my opinions on trail foods.

Enertia: Good food and easy.
Mountain House: In all fairness the chili mac is good and easy.
Pack it Gourmet: Look great and I have some ordered.  I will give an update once I try them.
Home Prepared Freezer Bag:  nice because I can take what I like, but I cant decide if the time is worth it.
MRE: not bad at all but heavy
Mary Janes:  Never tried them
Alpine Aire: Never tried them
Backpacker Pantry: Never tried them

I am sure I have missed some.  I am willing to try any of them and am willing to buy some of all to do a review.  Any suggestions and I will take on the challenge.

List and lets look at them.

[Cuffs]

Ive tried just about all those listed, and the only one I like is Enertia.  The only (pre-fab) foods that go into my pack are Enertia and whatever I dehydrate at home.

[Mountain Dog]

I like Mountain House, except for their foods with cheese.  The cheese, like in Lasagna and cheese,  attacks plastic spoons and covers the spoon with really thick cheese.  It is very very hard to get off.  You'll spend several minutes scraping the spoon with your teeth or any other firm instrument like finger nails or knife.   Be careful of Backpacker.  Some of it must be cooked (adding hot water is not enough).  MSRs are great for a day hike but they are really heavy for a week on the trail.  I recently tries Alpine Aire and loved it.  It also had a lot less sodium than Mountain House.  I bought it from a "was going to hike" hiker and I do not know where he found it.   I have not seen it in stores around NW Florida.

[Nalgene Ninja]

I'm too cheap to buy the prepackaged stuff.

[ednotmilkman]

Hi haveuseen1,

I'll hit a few licks here at it. Im sure you could read about trail food all weekend on whiteblaze if you wanted to.

I usually go with plain stuff at an ordinary grocery store. Those backpacker meals are a nice, light, $$ luxury, but I only use them after the 3rd day, if I've ordered them ahead, when I get tired of the tuna and instant stuff. I don't remember the brands I've used; they've been OK to me. I'm not a picky eater at all.

tuna in foil pouch, peanut butter&jelly with any bread that packs decent, non-fat dry milk, block cheese
instant carbs : ramen soups, mashed potatoes, mac&cheese, grits, more cereal with granola and less fluff, etc.
dried split peas or lentils (take less time to cook than other beans)
pre-packages trail mix; 1 bag sweet and one salty, or make my own with cereal, raisins, peanuts, cane syrup, whatever is on hand

I don't know a good way to get more inexpensive dried, quick cooking veggies. All the dried veggie soups are, like 95% ramen noodles it looks like to me! I also can't find chicken in the foil pouches around here??

When I get ready to food shop for a long hike, I'll walk down every isle in the store and make notes of how many meals each purchase will give me.  One thing I don't like is instant oatmeal. It's a pain to boil water in the morning, it's not very dense, and the stuff isn't cheap in the pre-sweetened packs.

[Rob]

I've tried several of the "pre-fabs" and the only one I can say that I actually like is the Enertia ( except for the spaghetti, don't like the sauce like substance). Thats why I was really looking into the home made concoctions, and I'm looking forward to trying some of the one's you all recommended in the dehydrating at home thread.

[Graceless]

The freeze dried eggs are ok from here
http://www.thereadystore....hp?subcat=33&load=new  not sur if they are mountain house or not but I can't bring myself to buy anything other than eggs yk?
but I like carrying the weight for the taste myself:)
 I am trying to figure out more trail foods that are less pasta and more substantial.Usin g FBC and baking as well as some fire side cooking:)

[Haveuseen1]

Depending on how long I will be gone I usually eat a commercial meal every other night( a week ).  Or if it is a shorter trip I may eat them every night.  I dont mind them and think they are pretty good.  For lunches I almost always eat home versions like soups, ramen, tuna, chicken, lipton rice/noodle mixes, couscous, etc...  No real reason I do it this way other than it just seems to work out that way.

As far as Sodium in the meals.  In my opinion which is only mine I think that is way overblown.  If I figure up the # of these meals I eat in a year the overall effect I feel is nominal at the best.  I will easily agree that the high sodium is not good for you but neither is fast food, cola, most desserts, fried food, bacon, country ham, etc...

In all fariness the Enertia Stroganoff has 880mg of Sodium and the MH has 990mg.  Most healthy adults daily intake range is 1500mg to 2400mg.  I am in no means picking one brand over another.  I also like gatorade but gatorade has 110mg of sodium per 8oz serving.

[Haveuseen1]

Foil packed foods:

Here in Huntsville we can get the following foil packed meats which are really handy.
Chicken
Tuna and even preflavored tuna
Ham ( this one is pretty nice ) it is made by sweet sue I think.

Found one or all at the following:
Star Market
Publix
Target
Wal Mart
Kroger

[PastorLarryT]

Foil packed foods:

Here in Huntsville we can get the following foil packed meats which are really handy.
Chicken
Tuna and even preflavored tuna
Ham ( this one is pretty nice ) it is made by sweet sue I think.

Found one or all at the following:
Star Market
Publix
Target
Wal Mart
Kroger

I've not noticed those here... will have to look closer.  Thanks for the info Haveuseen1.