prog99 wrote:They seem to be a bit low on calories for what you get. (250ish per portion?)
I have found this to be true generally of the bought food pouches. You have to supplement them with other items when you're in the hills and expending several thousand calories a day more than at home.
When canoeing, we have the luxury of carrying fresh ingredients most of the time. However on a couple of 8 day Sweden trips, with over a dozen portages up to 4km, weight is definitely important! My mate bought a dehydrater and a vacuum pack machine, and with the luxury of time to prepare it in advance, dehydrated all the meal ingredients for 4 people for 10 days. This tasted superb, soaking the ingredients as soon as we arrived in camp an hour or two before cooking gave amazing results and we ate like kings with portions we were glad of when tired! All this food, vacuum packed, fit into one large pack. Thats 40 evening meals, 40 breakfasts, 40 lunches, etc.
With the weight saved, we could carry 20 litres of wine instead....
On a smaller scale, using your own dehydrator would work well If you were going often enough to justify it, and had the time to prep it (much longer than it would normally take to cook it!)