DIY Mountain House style meal ideas?- Just add water

[VG SERE]

Anyone roll their own lightweight backpacking meals? I noticed the little Mountain House style plain mylar bags($.25 ea) at in the bulk food section of a local grocery store. Started me thinking about a DIY version of Mountain House. Might be a cool project for my sons Scout pack.

Could do some instant oats, brown sugar, powdered butter/milk, and maybe some freeze dried/ dehydrated fruit pretty easy/ cheap.

Looks like you can get the actual Mountain House stuff in a can for less than half what the bags cost per serving. Kinda cool, as I could dial the size back for kids, or even me. I generally force myself to finish a normal MH meal, cause mamma didn't raise no quitter. So napkin math works out at $4 a pouch vs $8-9. Even less for kid size.


Any other ideas that would be tasty and be "instant", with just hot water?


Other than instant mashed potatoes seems like rice and noodles would require more than just sitting in hot water to cook properly. Never tried it though.

Yes I looked on pinterest, but it was mostly either crazy "gourmet"(complicated) or crazy cheap garbage like ramen. Did see a cool "milkshake" that was Instant breakfast, powdered milk and powdered peanut butter. Might be a cool treat for the kids.

I have vacuum sealer that will seal mylar. I use it once in a blue moon to vacuum pack deer meat(not in mylar, lol).

 

[Java230]

I buy the #10 can MH stuff and break it up. But it doesn't seem to last as long as the true pre packed MH stuff. Oxygen packet less or something maybe? But way better value, and the diced chicken is nice to add some protein to stuff.

DIY is hard as most of the MH is "pre" cooked some. The oatmeal, etc works fine.

 

[Provience]

I buy the #10 can MH stuff and break it up. But it doesn't seem to last as long as the true pre packed MH stuff. Oxygen packet less or something maybe? But way better value, and the diced chicken is nice to add some protein to stuff.

DIY is hard as most of the MH is "pre" cooked some. The oatmeal, etc works fine.

Dry & Dry 10 Gram [30 Packets] Premium Pure & Safe Silica Gel Packets Desiccant Dehumidifier Silica Gel Packs - Food Safe Rechargeable Silica Packets for Moisture Absorber: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

adding some of your own dessicant should help, right?

 

[aczlan]

\n\nDry & Dry 10 Gram [30 Packets] Premium Pure & Safe Silica Gel Packets Desiccant Dehumidifier Silica Gel Packs - Food Safe Rechargeable Silica Packets for Moisture Absorber: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific\n\nadding some of your own dessicant should help, right?

\nIt should, but not as much as an actual oxygen absorber packet.\nI would get something like this: https://www.amazon.com/FreshUS-Oxygen-Absorber-Indiviual-Packets/dp/B07Q87S5MG/?tag=91812054244-20 Note that they have the packets in separate bags so that you only have to open 10 at a time. Once you open a section you only have a few (5-10) minutes before they are useless.\n\nAaron Z\n \n

 

[Guest]

I would suggest both a dessicant pack and an oxygen absorber. Learn to love minute rice and instant gravy mix. Add that to freeze dried meat and veggies and you can make some pretty good stuff. I haven't tried making them with freeze dried noodles yet.

EDIT: I would also purge my bags with CO2 or nitrogen before dropping the oxygen absorbers in, that helps a lot.

 

[VG SERE]

https://www.discountmylarbags.com/5...-gallon-50-oxygen-absorbers-300-cc-250lb-kit/

Air is 80% Nitrogen, if you used the correct sized oxy absorber, you should be good to go.

All I've tried so far is some coffee...

I used a chamber style vacuum sealer. Probably overkill if you're using properly sized oxygen absorbers. I put a "light" vacuum on the bags, they are definitely vacuum packed tight, Don't know why but I worried a full vacuum + oxy absorber would make the bags too tight/rip.

 

[Java230]

Dry & Dry 10 Gram [30 Packets] Premium Pure & Safe Silica Gel Packets Desiccant Dehumidifier Silica Gel Packs - Food Safe Rechargeable Silica Packets for Moisture Absorber: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

adding some of your own dessicant should help, right?

Maybe? Haven't tried. It keeps 6-8 months fine still

 

[Gatorgrizz27]

Lots of guys on Rokslide do it. Basic stuff like spaghetti. The general rule is you need to dehydrate it to the point where it is brittle. You won’t get the shelf life of freeze dried, and the only way to do that is with a freeze dryer (not cheap), but if you just want stuff that’s lightweight, convenient, and will last a couple weeks you can easily DIY it.

https://youtu.be/2Zbt9hsTVjU