Freeze dried camping food alternatives

[Northwoods]

Apologies for a camping thread here but maybe there are some people in the same boat as me, looking for meals to go hiking

The freeze dried meals in Go Outdoors at £4.50 a pop seem a bit overpriced, they're convenient to eat out of the pouch and not have any washing up but I picked up a packet of Knorr Pastaria Carbonara today for 79p
it wasnt the best carbonara I've ever had but it was certainly edible, it was also a generous portion, (serves 2 it said but really its 1 generous portion)

Anyone have any other recommendations for something really simple and easy to carry ?

 

[mick91]

Dried pastas are my staple usually. These things called mug shots out of B&Ms. Usually take some instant mash with me too

 

[cranmere]

I never buy special "outdoors" dried food, there are plenty of options on the supermarket shelves at a fraction of the cost and often better tasting. Sainsbury's always has a selection of pasta in various sauces (which need boiling up for 5 minutes or so) and couscous which just needs boiling water and a bit of a soak. Dried meat dishes are harder to find but soy protein stuff is quite common on the veggie shelves.

 

[Alan 13~7]

{1} Heinz squeeze & stir soups are perfect back pack food, with fresh baked bread rolls

compact light & very little take home litter, & just one cup to wash.

Or For a more satisfieing meal use as a pasta sauce...
At Home measure & pre pack a little quick cook pasta, some textured vegatable protien a few spices of your choice, into a zip lock bag.

Back pack Garlic & mushroom Pasta in a mug

:~ Boil some water add the pasta, textured vegatable protien and spices. cook pasta as normal, while pasta cooks, place the unopened squeeze & stir soup/sauce still in the packet into a cup of boiled water to heat the sauce, once pasta is cooked, with only a little water from the cup, mix the pre heated soup/sauce in a cup to make a thick sauce drain pasta & add to the sauce. Use the rest of the water from the cup to make some olive drab tea... or alternatively thin the sauce with a little red wine.

other flavours are available but I think the mushroom one is especially tasty with pasta, and again just the mugs to wash.

{2} Golden Wonder Normous noodles.

A man sized lunch & a cup of olive drab Tea, after a walk in the park.

{3} chunky pasta & chorizo soup..

A few carefully chosen ingredients for a tasty evening meal.

:~ Sugar snap peas, potato chopped to small cubes. spring onions, tomatoes, courgette, red & yellow peppers, 3 bird eye chilies, diced chorizo, spices n stuff (garlic pepper, onion salt, tea spoon sugar knorr chicken stock cube & vagie stock cube) pre chop at home put in zip-lock bag ready to cook....
boil for 15~20 minutes
While it's cooking, you can make a brew of olive drab tea (A.K.A. Green tea) & the quick cook pasta, the final ingredient waiting to go in the last 5 minutes or so of cooking....

 

[neoaliphant]

Dried pastas are my staple usually. These things called mug shots out of B&Ms. Usually take some instant mash with me too

I love the B&M chicken mugshots, have them all the time, 3 for £1
a lot of poundshops have them as well.
B&M also have ceral biscuits on offer quite often.

i sometimes get the instant porridge packets when on offer as well.
and the 17p instant custard packets has been a favourite form decades.

but about my favourite bushcraft food is a squeezy tube of condensed milk!

also a lot of chinese supermarkets have small packets of food, i especially like skyflakes, little salty crackers.
they have condensed milk filled ones as well.

 

[Northwoods]

i sometimes get the instant porridge packets when on offer as well.

I tried making my own copying the percentage of ingredients in the branded ones, worked out really well, tasted exactly the same as the Oat burst/Stoats ones (Asda and Oat so Simple Multigrain I found to be inedible!)

cheap standard oats 70%
dried milk powder 30%
+ little brown sugar

not only is it easier to carry but its so much cheaper than buying the pots even when they're on offer!

 

[mick91]

I tried making my own copying the percentage of ingredients in the branded ones, worked out really well, tasted exactly the same as the Oat burst/Stoats ones (Asda and Oat so Simple Multigrain I found to be inedible!)

cheap standard oats 70%
dried milk powder 30%
+ little brown sugar

not only is it easier to carry but its so much cheaper than buying the pots even when they're on offer!

I've done that too, I tend to take little bags of dry mix foods like bannock mix and porridge. I quite fancy a dehydrator too

 

[tartanferret]

I quite like Vesta paella and chow mein. I avoid the beef curry solely because it needs two pans on the go.
Stay clear of the beef rissoto, reminds me of vomit.

The chow mein only requires two pans if you insist on frying the crispy noodles, which i do now and then.

The paella is sometimes in poundland

 

[neoaliphant]

I tried making my own copying the percentage of ingredients in the branded ones, worked out really well, tasted exactly the same as the Oat burst/Stoats ones (Asda and Oat so Simple Multigrain I found to be inedible!)

cheap standard oats 70%
dried milk powder 30%
+ little brown sugar

not only is it easier to carry but its so much cheaper than buying the pots even when they're on offer!

Did you need to do anything to the oats? , ive heard some people have had to blend a portion of the oats to get them to absorb some of the milk

 

[mick91]

Did you need to do anything to the oats? , ive heard some people have had to blend a portion of the oats to get them to absorb some of the milk

No need to do anything if you use boiling water with them they soak it in naturally

 

[Goatboy]

To keep the costs down on expeditions (and general camping) used to hit the local Chinese supermarket. In there you'll find all sorts of dried goods. Vegetables, noodles, fungi, fish, meat & poultry. Also their versions of "Pot Noodles®" are a lot better and have little flavoured oil packets for extra taste & calories. Though some repackaging is sometimes needed. Some stuff you may not recognise but usually find if you ask that the staff are helpfull.
I'm also a big fan of oats; they're not just for breakfast. Add them to soups and stews too. In fact we always had oats added to things like mince growing up to pad out the meat, still do it to this day as I think it improves the taste.
Cous-cous also is a winner as it's fuel efficient to cook, fills you up and is very packable. A handfull added to something like a cup-a-soup type thing turns it into a meal and only takes about 3-6 mins to hydrate itself.
Another thing we did on longer trips was take dried seeds, pulses & grains to sprout on the trip. Some popped into a clear Nalgene® bottle (to act as a mini greenhouse) with some water. Strap to top of rucksack and in a couple of days you have a nutricious, crunchy addition to a meal or a snack. Sprouted grains have a lot of important stuff in them that's usually missing from most dried food.
Aldi/Lidel also do some good but cheap salami type sausages, again adding important fats and flavours to dried food and storing well.
There was a book released a couple of years ago called "Moveable Feasts" which has some pretty good ideas for lightweight eating on the hoof. About £10 if I remember correctly.
Another thing I'll do is collect what I call a "pocket salad" while on the go. Just have a bag or pocket that I'll forage leaves, roots, buds, fruit and fungi into for adding to the evening meal. Again lightening the load and adding vitamins and interest to the food.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[neoaliphant]

ive had some instant noodles from http://www.waiyeehong.com/ next to ikea in Bristol, and made the mistake to add all the flavouring packets, far too spicy/garlicy, but they do provide all the different types of flavourings in their own packets so you can tweak it.
As i mentioned above, the skyflakes are good and they have interesting sweets and cakes, lots of dried fruit, and a lot of the food comes individually wrapped etc.

but for noodles i do prefer Lidls vitasia noodles for 17p