Beef Stew

I'm officially hooked on not only the convenience, but also the flavor. These aren't overly expensive considering the shelf life, portability, convenience, and yummmm factor. #1 Be sure to follow the instructions for the amount of water to use and remove the dessicant pack that comes sealed inside. The various flavored meals all have different quantity of water required. Too much or too little will result in either soggy or not completely hydrated. #2 After I add hot water out of our instant hot tap which is plenty hot enough, I zip the bag, hold it along the zipped edge, then gently swish it back and forth left to right so the dry goods comes in contact with the hot water. #3 I cover the entire bag including the bottom, sitting upright, with several towels to hold the heat inside while it's hydrating. #4 When you open it to stir and check the hydration, it's not unusual for the meal to be fully hydrated by the time you unzip it to stir but be sure you follow the hydration time and don't rush it. The cooler the water, the longer it will take which is why I cover mine while it's hydrating, to keep it warm and prevent it from cooling too quickly. Paid Thai is one of our faves. It's only a tad spicy and it's got great flavor. We've also tried 5 other flavors and they're all good. The one that seems to have the least flavor is the Adobe flavored which doesn't seem salty enough and lacks robustness, but heck, if you're starving after a day of being out and about, it's a perfectly good meal even without all the salt some of the others contain. I'm sensitive to salt and a lot of foods taste too salty to me but not these. If you want more salt, you can always add it but I love that they don't already come too salty. I haven't had to add anything to any of these bags except the one I just mentioned. You have nothing to lose - try one and if you like it, go place another larger order like I did. I have a shelf full of Pad Thai and a couple other flavors we really like. They're great time-savers since I work from home and tend to not want to leave for food. Price seems comparable to a carry out meal at a Thai restaurant. As for how filling they are, there's enough in the package that by the time I'm done eating, I don't feel like I still need to snack. I'm just a tad beyond feeling full, like I should have stopped eating 5 or 10 bites before I reach the end, but I have no issue polishing off the whole bag in one sitting. I'm going to be a long-time customer of this company and I'm really glad to have found them on social media. Never heard of them before I saw an ad for dehydrated meals. It was Brand X compared to this brand and one of the commenters said they tried both Brand X and this brand and said these were much better so that's why I bought them here.

We bought these freeze dried meals for some storage for emergencies. This is the second one we have tasted and used for dinner. The meal was tasty and easy to prepare. It’s an easy as open pouch, take out and throw away oxygen absorber, pour in 1 1/2 cups of boiling water, stir carefully and reseal pouch. Let stand for 4 mins and eat. Good for 25 years. All nutrition stats are on the back of the pouch. We shared the dinner between two of us and I cooked some extra rice as my husband is a big eater. I made some bread and sides. This is supposed to be 2 serving sizes and the dry mix makes one cup per serving. This is survival and camping food so for a bigger eater we have made sure we have some extra. The rice contains chicken, eggs, green peas, onions and carrots. Mountain House has several different recipes and this one is gluten free. For freeze dried food I believe it’s a good value with a good taste. I would just say if used for emergencies and you have a big eater I would store more meals and make sure you have different foods with different textures. I will happily purchase more of these.

Packaging for this Mountain House meal is just the same as all their other meals extremely rugged and well made. There is absolutely no spice heatwise to this meal but it definitely is extremely tasty. It has a great level of all around nutrients and is very easy and fast to make in under 10 minutes. The noodles were firm yet thoroughly cooked. The sauce was creamy and flavorful in the chicken tasted like it was just prepared prior to dropping into the fettuccine alfredo sauce. There were plenty of pieces of chicken of substantial size in this meal as well. All in all the wife and I both enjoyed it thoroughly and it was a great meal had under the trees in the grass sitting at a picnic table enjoying the outdoors.

I am an avid wilderness backpacker, hiker, camper, and survival enthusiast. Emergency food or lightweight meals are thus a great part of my life, particularly when they can be stored for 30 or more years. Mountain House makes some of my FAVORITE, freeze-dried food. IN SHORT Like many Mountain House food, this Yellow Curry meal tastes excellent, is easy to prepare, and is packed with calories needed for survival or backpacking. As is true with freeze-dried food, they store for decades and make excellent emergency meals. The biggest downsides are the need for access to hot water and the expense: they are not cheap. Nonetheless, I love Mountain House food for on-the-go eating. WHAT IS FREEZE-DRIED FOOD? Whenever I introduce them to my friends, they immediately think of MRE's -- Meals Ready To Eat -- common with the military. I had my first taste of MRE's over 10 years ago and did not like them. The premise was great though: open the MRE and start eating. No cooking necessary. But they usually did not taste good. Perhaps things have changed, but I had never tried them again since. To preserve food without needing refrigeration, there are multiple options: Dehydrating (think beef jerky), baking, smoking, preserving, canning, etc. PROBLEM with those methods? They all change the way the food will taste. Too salty, too dry, too yucky, etc. Then there are some where the food could get warmed by a chemical reaction that you activate with the package, but those are heavy and difficult to dispose of while out in the wilderness. Freeze drying, on the other hand, is a long process whereby the food has its water removed, maintaining its natural composition and keeping its flavor, vitamins, and nutrients. I will cover what that process is like shortly, but the important part to remember is: the taste remains essentially unchanged AND the meal is much lighter to carry around. Have you heard of "Astronaut food"? NASA popularized freeze-dried food with the introduction of icecream that did not need refrigeration. Note: industrial freeze drying could date back as early as the 1800's, but the idea has been attributed as far back as the Incas of the 13th century. FREEZE DRYING PROCESS How does food get freeze-dried? The cooked meal is first frozen, then placed in a chamber where the atmospheric pressure is less than 1 ATM (lower than the natural pressure we experience at sea). Over the next 18-20 hours, the food is heated at a very low temperature, and because the pressure is less than normal, ice skips becoming a liquid and jumps straight to gas. That gas is then sucked out. It requires a lot of energy -- more than the other forms of preservation. The end result: we are left with food that has no water left, and as such, makes it much lighter to carry and more difficult for any micro organism to spoil. For that reason, freeze dried food can be kept for a minimum of 30 years when stored properly in an air-tight, dry, dark place (and a desiccant to absorb any moisture that might be trickling in). To eat (or drink), simply add back water. Now let's look at this Yellow Curry meal. PROS - Great taste and texture as if the meal was (somewhat) freshly made - Easy to prepare: just add hot water, wait up to 10 minutes, then eat straight from the pouch - Long shelf life of over 30 years - Light to carry - Eaten meal leaves only the pouch behind that you can easily carry back to civilization for proper disposal/recycling - Excellent item to have for survival/emergency use - Packs a LOT of calories, enough for 2 people - Gluten free CONS - Packs a LOT of calories and can be too much for a single person - Contains a LOT of salt (63% of daily value at 1,460 mg) --- When backpacking in the wilderness or when surviving, this is not an issue. Salt is actually good for you when working out hard - Needs access to water and fire (to boil it) - Relatively expensive SUMMARY Freeze-dried food is an EXCELLENT way to bring delicious meals on the go for camping, hiking, survival, or office snack. Packed full of calories, they are excellent for those types of activities (maybe not as an office snack if you are watching your weight or blood sugar level). They are long-lasting, easy to store, easy to prepare, and easy to dispose of. Environmentally, they may not be the best option as they take a lot of energy to make, and thus are also relatively costly. This Yellow Curry meal tastes great. OUR MOUNTAIN HOUSE RECOMMENDATIONS My friends and I have been backpacking for a long time and have tried many packable meals and brands. When it comes to freeze-dried food, Mountain House is unanimously our favorite. TIP: adding olive oil can further enhance the flavor! TASTY - Noodles and Chicken - Pasta with Meat Sauce - Chicken with Ribs and Mashed Potatoes (by far our most favorite) --- Tip: Save the mashed potatoes for breakfast or incorporate into another meal. Then add water to the chicken for a delicious pouch of chicken soup. - Chicken a la King - Mac and Cheese (Kraft is cheaper) - Chili Mac with Beef - Beef Stroganoff - Pasta Primavera - Beef Teriyaki with Rice - Chicken Teriyaki with Rice - Chicken Stew --- Contains cubes of potatoes, making this meal quite filling - Lasagna with Meat Sauce - Wheat and Wild Rice - Scrambled Eggs with Bacon - Granola with Milk & Blueberries - Neapolitan Icecream ACCEPTABLE - Lasagna with Meat Sauce - Mexican Style Rice and Beans and Chicken - Spaghetti with Meat Sauce (portion is skimpy)

Good product

Excelente lasagna, pero difícilmente 2 porciones. Para una comida de $500 plus pesos me parece muy cara.

This is the first time I’m trying this. Reviews from others have made me expect a certain sort of quality and taste to the Mountain House brand, and this mac and cheese doesn’t disappoint on that. Pros: 1) Easy to rehydrate - it just needs 325ml of boiling water; 2) Taste is pretty good, although the saltiness of it is higher than my preference. But since I’m planning to have this for my emergency stash and won’t be eating it regularly, I think the salt content is all right for this goal; 3) The cheese thickened into a nice sauce coat instead of being watery; 4) The amount for one pouch seems enough for my husband and me to have a filling meal. Cons: 1) Takes maybe five minutes longer than the suggested timings to get the macaroni to become soft enough to eat, rather than have that slight bit of crunch that indicates the macaroni hasn’t fully rehydrated yet. Note: Maybe adding some chilli flakes would break up the potentially monotonous and too-rich taste of the cheese, but this is simply a personal taste reference. All in all, it’s a good buy and I intend to get more pouches to store.

Product contains MSG in various forms - yeast extract , natural flavors etc. Im highly sensitive to MSG and had to discard the product after seeing the ingredients label. Buyers beware...