Dried food recommendations

jcurtisis · 01-02-2020, 08:39 AM

Howdy! We are looking for recommendations on types of dried food. We have a 2018 Navion 24D and are planning a big summer trip (Glacier, Yellowstone, Tetons) and are looking to pack in as much food as we can at the start. We saw a YouTube about a couple that did a bus conversion to R.V. and in it they were carrying a lot of dried food from “Harmony House”. Looking for first person lessons learned / loves / likes / dislikes on dried food. Thanks in advance, and HNY!

SLOweather · 01-02-2020, 12:54 PM

Mountain House is another brand.

jcurtisis · 01-02-2020, 01:15 PM

Is Mountain house a brand you use? Any details on taste/cost?

Morich · 01-02-2020, 05:41 PM

Step one might be to know that U-tubers often have one main point in mind. They want folks to watch! That often means they stretch to the limit to get something odd/ different/funny/ silly to show you!
But once one gets past how foolish it would be to fully stock any RV for the full length of a multi-month trip, you can begin to get a bett plan. Freeze dried food is great for what it is designed to do. It is lightweight for backpacks, where we are willing to trade weight for poor quality food. I have only found two items which I am willing to go with and simply meal plan around using them. Other foods like rice, beans and oatmeal make a far better meal for me than any of the freeze dried that I have tried.
The other good use is prepping for emergency use like during a storm but my location is not so remote that I will not be able to get more food within a week and I do have that amount on hand in cans, etc. so I do not need to pay the extreme prices for long term storage.
I would suggest a modified idea. Some food taken along in the form of normal storage items like canned and dry with a couple days of fresh foods. Cheaper and easier to haul in smaller volumes as we are never far from places to restock on food. I think you will find it also tastes much better and you will have a far wider range of choices. Then If/when reaching some place where the assets of freeze dried make it worthwhile, like extended hikes, then have some on hand. Oatmeal, rice, pasta and jerky are my friends when pressed for alternate food.

SLOweather · 01-02-2020, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcurtisis

Is Mountain house a brand you use? Any details on taste/cost?

Living in nuclear plant/earthquake/flood/wildfire country. we have a week's worth of Mountain House for 2 people stashed in the moho in case we have to bug out.

OTOH, you are not traveling to the moon. There are plenty of sources of food on your route, and freeze dried food, as noted, is neither especially inexpensive or great tasting (depending on how hungry you are, and how much you tart it up

).

Having said that, rather than solicit opinions here, I recommend that you go to your local sporting goods/hunting supplies store (Dicks, REI, Big 5, Cabelas, etc) and buy some different menus to try at home before you commit.

Eat it for a week, and get back to us.

Oh, FWIW, 2 weeks of Mountain House for one person MSRP is $314.

https://www.mountainhouse.com/m/product/0089606.html

Assuming "we" = 2 people, that reduces to $314 per week for freeze dried food, or $44.85 per day, or $1,345 per month.

I have never heard of Harmony House, and just checked it out. It looks like all vegan/vegetarian.Their "Beefish stew" (as noted, no meat) is $3.95 to make 2.5 cups, which I think must be 2 servings. A similar size can of Dinty Moore beef stew (20 oz.) is $2.08 on Amazon, and probably in your local store.

Morich · 01-07-2020, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SLOweather

Living in nuclear plant/earthquake/flood/wildfire country. we have a week's worth of Mountain House for 2 people stashed in the moho in case we have to bug out.

OTOH, you are not traveling to the moon. There are plenty of sources of food on your route, and freeze dried food, as noted, is neither especially inexpensive or great tasting (depending on how hungry you are, and how much you tart it up

).

Having said that, rather than solicit opinions here, I recommend that you go to your local sporting goods/hunting supplies store (Dicks, REI, Big 5, Cabelas, etc) and buy some different menus to try at home before you commit.

Eat it for a week, and get back to us.

Oh, FWIW, 2 weeks of Mountain House for one person MSRP is $314.

https://www.mountainhouse.com/m/product/0089606.html

Assuming "we" = 2 people, that reduces to $314 per week for freeze dried food, or $44.85 per day, or $1,345 per month.

I have never heard of Harmony House, and just checked it out. It looks like all vegan/vegetarian.Their "Beefish stew" (as noted, no meat) is $3.95 to make 2.5 cups, which I think must be 2 servings. A similar size can of Dinty Moore beef stew (20 oz.) is $2.08 on Amazon, and probably in your local store.

Good thinking here on trying some before stocking too much. We all have different tastes and it's pretty common for folks to think of food designed for long term as "edible" rather than good! So that means I might have to eat Dinty Moore, if it comes down to that or nothing but for keeping on the shelf and eating as I rotate the stock, I'll go with lots of other stuff first. It's very much a personal choice but given a choice, I will go with stocking things like pasta, beans, and rice and assume I can kill a squirrel to add to it if it does come down to a real crisis.
For road trips? Not going for the canned stew nor the squirrel! Fish? Yes, I'll go there right away!

jcurtisis · 01-07-2020, 09:28 AM

Thanks everyone for your inputs. We weren’t planning on shifting from mostly fresh foods to the “freeze dried” type stuff per se; just curious about how others manage things on longer trips. We had plans with slack time for shopping and laundry, so it sounds like that is what most of you find works just fine. Appreciate the inputs!

SLOweather · 01-07-2020, 11:30 AM

FWIW, I keep a case of MREs in the moho for emergencies, as well. Needs no water or cooking to be ready to eat.

**creativepart** · 01-07-2020, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcurtisis

just curious about how others manage things on longer trips.

We do plenty of 5 and 6 week trips - in fact we leave this Sunday for Arizona with a return of approx Feb 19th.

But we NEVER buy freeze dried or dried foods.

My wife is a 35-yr vegetarian. She premakes and freezes a number of her favorite meal choices. It would be totally against her nature to buy dried foods.

We take about 5-days worth of food mostly fresh for the first week of the trip when we're traveling more. We both keep 2 or 3 (at most) frozen meal options in the freezer as fall backs in "emergencies" not that they are real emergencies.

We're careful to take just about all condiments from home so we don't have to buy them on the road. We stock up on veggies, cheeses, fruits and meats for me. But they have a limited shelf life both at home and on the road.

We love checking out new grocery stores in various new towns along the way. Sometimes they have really surprising options. If not... that's one of the emergencies where we use our fall back food.

We always start our first day with a short 100 mile trip to a favorite State Park. That way we're not rushed on the day we leave and we have a chance to pick up anything major that we forgot. AND... luckily our favorite park for this when we are heading west includes South Llano River SP in Junction, TX. They have a great BBQ place there in an old gas station. So, I always plan on picking up enough on the way through town for dinner that first night, followed by lunch or dinner the next night on the road, too.

There are grocery stores in and around all the places you're traveling. Plus interesting restaurants and take out places for the occasional splurge. ENJOY! These changes to your everyday lifestyle are super rewarding and part of the journey.

One note: if there is something unique that you love that's not generally available everywhere then you should stock up on it before going if possible.

akeagle · 01-07-2020, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SLOweather

FWIW, I keep a case of MREs in the moho for emergencies, as well. Needs no water or cooking to be ready to eat.

I'm retired Air Force and since I had a "cushy" job as an air traffic controller, I didn't have to eat many prepared meals except box lunches from the inflight kitchen, which weren't too bad. Also had a few C-Rations left over from Vietnam - or was it Korea? Anyway, never had any MREs. Our local commissary sells MREs but they cost a lot more than I'm willing to pay.

Fortunately the DW is a genius in the kitchen and with meal planning, preparation, and storage. She learned a lot of her wizardry from Pintrest, YouTube, and other RV-related sources.

A fair amount of time and effort goes into pre-trip planning and preparation, but the bottom line is that she keeps us well fed with a good variety of meals at reasonable cost.

Hicks3456 · 01-08-2020, 04:44 PM

We have a supply of MRE's for emergency, however I could not imagine eating them unless it was an emergency. While they are not terrible they certainly are not the same quality as meals you prepare yourself. They also are very expensive in comparison to going to the grocery.

What we have been experimenting with and is proving to work well in the RV is dehydrated vegetables. Most vegetables you can imagine are available but some we find that work especially well because they store good is spinach, mushrooms and cilantro. Once rehydrated all of these keep their flavor and provide a cost effective way to cook meals. The bigger surprise is the dehydrated food can be kept a long time.

Have not tried dehydrated meats yet.

Blazer · 01-08-2020, 05:24 PM

Nothing wrong with having a plan. MRE's are a possibility but if you can cook/heat up then maybe something else is better.

If you have ever backpacked or been deployed in the military then you will also greatly appreciate grocery stores and fresh food.

Lots of info on the internet.

Here are some ideas then:

1. https://numanna.com/product/family-pack-w-meat/

2. https://buyersguide.org/emergency-fo...90&qs=mountain house food&lp=58975&li=113074&nw=s&nts=1&tdid=5618702

3. https://thesurvivalmom.com/8-tips-fo...al-food-order/

4. https://www.mapquest.com/search/results?query=Grocery Stores, jackson Hole, wy&boundingBox=43.50000532779874,-110.80896377563475,43.46506771539255,-110.72793960571289&page=0

tallmantwo · 01-08-2020, 06:42 PM

Best I recall C-Ration wwII and Korea we ate them in Korea when i was there Combat Engineer's building missile sites 1961

DLH · 01-09-2020, 06:03 AM

Thank you for your time served. Freedom

tallmantwo · 01-09-2020, 06:40 AM

Thank you Sir

Millikenwife · 01-09-2020, 06:47 AM

You do not have to purchase expensive dehydrated meals... you can make your own with a dehydrator. Check out books from your library on this subject or go online and you will find lots of people who do this. It is also a great way to save food at home and prevent food waste.

Wyatt · 03-11-2020, 10:59 PM

I think that having some freeze dried foods in case you have to get out of Dodge in a hurry is a good idea, but I’d just go to a sporting goods store, and since I haven’t backpacked in years, I can’t attest to who has the best.
But at one point in my many lives, I was a chef. So today, when we make some Chili, gumbo, chowder, pasta, stews, or even smoked ribs, the leftover I Vacuseal and we lay them flat in the freezer until they’re frozen so they stack well.
We make whole meals in our sous vide, and also vacuseal those. Best way to reheat any of these is back in the sous vide water bath.
This way you get delicious homemade food in a pinch when you can’t find fresh meats and vegetables along the way, or don’t have the time to cook or grill a full meal.