I'm planning a 3-4 day hike (Paddy Buckley round) and fancy travelling super light and simple:
Bivy gear.
Water filter.
Stove.
3 x freeze dry meals/day
Pack of tunnocks/day

I've only ever used Adventure Foods. My favourites being:
Sweet and sour chicken and rice.
Thai chicken and rice
Beef and potato hotpot
Spaghetti carbonara

What other brands would you recommend?
Are the breakfasts any good? Have never tried any.

I use Expedition Food.

There is a berry muesli that’s nice.
Often take a long and add cold water
Is a 1000kcal pouch that makes more cost effective

Sorry. I meant Expedition foods not Adventure Foods.
Have been quite happy with them so far, even when hydrating with cold water. Just wondered if I was missing out on some gems from other brands.

I've found Bla Bland and Summit to Eat veg options really really good.

Cheers.
I've been thinking that veg options would be good. It's always the little chunks of meat that never properly rehydrate, and they don't bring much to the party.

If you want veggie, Tent meals are good - quite a limited choice but compact and in small plastic bags rather than great big foil / plastic packets. You need to carry a bowl of some description to re-hydrate/eat but that makes it a bit more civilised. Add ham, chorizo or smoked sausage for more protein. Breakfasts are really nice and all cheapish too.

Superfine egg noodles with chilli miso soup

Mmmmm. Nice!
My local international shop is a trove of interesting options. They have packs of different types of Bombay mix like stuff. 1000kcal for £2/200g

The dehydrated breakfast meals I find to be really expensive for what's basically porridge plus a few nuts and berries (AKA muesli). We use those Quaker packets of porridge, you get twelve sachets for the same price as one of the branded freeze dried efforts. The sachets are sturdy enough to allow rehydrating with boiling water.

We've used Summit To Eat on a couple of trips. They've veggie and omnivore options and certainly the veggie ones are quite tasty. They used to be relatively reasonable pricewise but like everything they've got a bit spenny these days.

Other options are to grab sachets of couscous, Morrison's "own" costs about 60-80p depending on what they can get away with. You can rehydrate in the sachet so little to no washing up. Add meat/fish/whatever to get some protein. From memory they need about 150ml of water so even a meths stove will soon heat that up.

agree re brekkie

I do
Oats
Desiccated coconut
seeds
Dried fruit
Powdered milk [ soya in my case]
Costs is about £5-£10 for about 1.5kg depending on what dried fruit you use
You can add protein powder if you are that way inclined.
I usually soak overnight if warm or make like its porridge [ which I hate] if cold- can do the same with semolina as well and this cooks quicker and is a sort of pudding or breakfast

Agree re couscous and it can rehydrate with cold water, it just takes longer.

I tried couscous packets. Overwhelmingly bland and stodgy. Frankly, Pot Noodles are nicer, which is a sad state of affairs.

Favourites are Bla Band, LYO or Mountain Trails (mince beef dinner, om nom nom)

I once had a Mountain House chilli mac that had gone rancid despite being well in date, turned me inside out for 3 days in the middle of Knoydart which wasn't ideal, haven't touched them for about 15 years since then.

Not a fan of the Summit to Eat or Firepot meals but haven't tried either again since they first launched.

Shewie wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 11:26 am Favourites are Bla Band, LYO or Mountain Trails (mince beef dinner, om nom nom)

I once had a Mountain House chilli mac that had gone rancid despite being well in date, turned me inside out for 3 days in the middle of Knoydart which wasn't ideal, haven't touched them for about 15 years since then.

Not a fan of the Summit to Eat or Firepot meals but haven't tried either again since they first launched.

I was looking forward to your take on this, thanks Rich

I've had two spag bols from EF turn rancid. Both times I had nothing else to eat for dinner. Bad nights!

Lots of campfires in the EF marketing shots.

What's EF please

Real Turmat are the best I've tried so far..only had the vegan and veggie options tho. Recently been trying the firepot vegan and veggie meals..not bad especially the posh baked beans for breakfast. Big fan of overnight oats but normally eat this about 10am( brew time on site) find I struggle with anything milk based before this time,I prefer bread based items.

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 12:02 am What's EF please

Expedition food was mentioned above, could be them?

Aha, yes... Not R*pha and Education First. Thought they might have branched out... You're so clever

Thanks Simon...

Anyone tried The Protein Works meals as an alternative to the usual suspects?
https://www.theproteinworks.com/product ... supermeals

Cheaper, but need to make up your own pouches, or rehydrate them in the pan, but they look an interesting alternative.
Vegan, if that's your thing.

Another here with Expedition food gone battery acid whilst well in date, seems to be quite common then.

ripio wrote: ↑Fri Oct 13, 2023 5:38 pm Anyone tried The Protein Works meals as an alternative to the usual suspects?
https://www.theproteinworks.com/product ... supermeals

Cheaper, but need to make up your own pouches, or rehydrate them in the pan, but they look an interesting alternative.
Vegan, if that's your thing.

Good find - I've often wondered if anyone did a box / bag / tin of stuff that you could just take a portion out of and there it is! I guess you could store it in the freezer between times.
Cheers

Anyone tried The Protein Works meals as an alternative to the usual suspects?

Just had a nosey at these, 345 calories per meal doesn't sound like much?

Bearlegged wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 12:58 pm

Anyone tried The Protein Works meals as an alternative to the usual suspects?

Just had a nosey at these, 345 calories per meal doesn't sound like much?

No that's true, but not everyone needs 600 calories in their meal. And as this stuff seems to come in tubs you can always take a bit more with you.

As an example, a typical Real Turmat meal contains 438kcal per 100g, compared to 385kcal per 100g for the Protein Works meals.

Quite a lot of the 'outdoor' type freeze dried meals seem to add calories by adding sugar. So I guess these are a lot healthier.... Or you just add to them to bump up the calories