Along the lines of the worst meal decisions thread, but specifically, what foods have you brought that you should have left at the grocery store...

For example, I brought some "Cuginos - Chicken Noodle Knockout Soup", "ridiculously delicious" on my last trip. Sure looked good on the package, but I had never tried it. Should have said "ridiculously salty". THAT was a disappointment.

mountainhouse beef stew. i had one left at home, recently threw it away so i wouldnt be tempted to take it along.

i disagree, k...

but for me, i once decided to cook landijagers on the grill... i do not advise... lol. dont really know why they ended up so bad, cause it seemed like a good idea at the time!

After a long day in Quetico from McIntyre Lake through ? Lake, ? Lake, Fishhook Lake, Ted Lake, Milt Lake, Newt Lake, Little Newt Lake, Gardner Bay, Crooked Lake, Bart Lake, Craig Lake, and camping on Robinson Lake, we sat down for a dinner of split pea soup. I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I saw it at our local natural foods co-op, and thought it would be a good meal. Although the flavor was OK, it was not filling enough and left us all digging around for something else to eat and eventually going to be hungry. It was a sorry finish to an otherwise wonderful day.

I haven't given up on the idea of split pea soup all together. I'll just have to make it a little more filling.

Hex

hex- maybe just add a good serving of some pan fry bread or fry up some bacon with the soup, or both. it is nice to have a soup meal pakced, though, for a cold, rainy day.

richmoore strawberry cheesecake. dont do it. it not only had no flavor what-so-ever, but it also had the texture of a wet sponge.

also, chocolate chips dont work well in late july! altough, when they melted throughout the enitre bag of trail mix and then cooled off in the lake, it did make for a pretty tasty trail-made candy bar!

mountain house scramled eggs, YUK! Never again

I AGREE!

The eggs are garbage!

I agree with the eggs and the MH Beef Stew-I'd rather not eat if those are the choices.

Most if not all of the dehy meals in a bag are nasty. The eggs are the worst. Omit Cache foods from that list.

I'd rather not live through the aftermath of Mountain House Mexican Tostada again. YIKES!!!

You know, I am a person who lives to eat. There is nothing I enjoy better than a good meal (if you have looked at my photo you have probably figured that out) and I always respond when there is a thread about a restaurant in the area. Therefore, it constantly surprises me that these threads about how awful the freeze-dried food is, about the bad food choices, etc. never give me any ideas to share.

I don't go to the canoe country to eat. I only get about 10-12 days in the canoe country a year, if I am lucky. As long as I have enough calories to keep my body moving and to not feel bad, I guess I am happy. I have no desire to carry a cooler, or dry ice, or fresh food. Any freeze-dried entree will suffice (I only remember one once that had orzo as its main ingredient that I ended up burying and just going hungry). We can't have Mountain House sausage or beef stew anymore because of the high sodium and Spartan1's diet restrictions, and I miss them. We splurge with the chili mac, and we shouldn't. We have to choose our freeze-dried entrees for the ones with the very lowest sodium content and then "cut" them with extra rice or noodles to add carbs and lower the percentage of sodium-laced sauce. But if we can be there, we don't care.

We do take a dozen fresh eggs and pre-cooked bacon. Once those are gone, we use the BackPackers Pantry Denver Omelette and we like that a lot. I like a hot breakfast and often make bannock or pancakes.

I hate instant coffee at home--wouldn't touch it! Drink it happily on the shores of a misty BWCA lake and think it is delicious. Don't want to bother with coffee grounds. I am sure I would enjoy French press coffee more, but what the heck? I am in the BWCA. Who cares about the quality of the coffee?

I am not bawling anyone out for having high standards as far as food is concerned. If you want to take the best and you have real preferences, I am all for it. And I enjoy reading about your preferences. It just has occurred to me this afternoon that it is quite a strange thing that a real "foodie" like me (just had to go to Weight Watcher for YEARS to take off 65 pounds--I LOVE FOOD!!) can't come up with a single disappointing food product to share in 37 years of canoe-tripping. I don't remember the food at all. And I write it all down in my journal, too. But it doesn't make the memory list.

But keep telling me about your disappointing food products. I am making a list and intend to avoid most of them anyway. :-)

Hexnymph. It one of my dehydrated meals books, a lot of recipes call for the addition of tofu to the dish/soup. If you were to add some soft tofu to the soup and blend thoroughly, it should make it more filling and not detract to much from the flavor. Otherwise you could try some textured vegetable protein.

blaaagh... TVP. That stuff gives me the...well, it keeps me regular :)

We did fry up some bacon but it was only enough to tease us. "Bread" would have helped. We have been recently toying with bisquick on our trips and that has gone well.

Hex

Bisquick sounds like a good plan. Somewhere I have a recipe for Italian Stick Bread. I'll see if I can find it over the weekend. We used it last year and it was a good side dish w/a meal.

Another vote for freeze dried eggs.

K I completely disagree with your mountainhouse beef stew comment, you could have mailed it to me. :)

The only commercial stuff I truly like are Packit Gourmet's meals and Mary Jane Organics (which have very reasonable sodium levels!).

On the split pea soup mention - serve it over rice or couscous as a "sauce" - it will fill a person up that way. The curried lentil soup often sold in bulk next to the sp soup is great that way.

On the other hand I have been lately doing a testing on a number of freeze dried meals/products from Alpine Aire. Hadn't eaten one since 2001. And now I remember why. Yuck!!!! Every one has been one bite, offer it to the kid if he wants it or in the garbage.

i always kinda liked their mountain chili.

Spam.

Freeze dried ice cream YUCK!

stay away from powdered/dried eggs of any kind. they taste like s***!

I always pack at least one extra bag of hashbrowns or instant potatoes so if I blow a meal choice I will not go hungry.

Powered milk tastes burnt, liquid margarine tastes like oil, Mtn house beef stew lets not go there, freeze dried chicken tastes like a sponge, Freeze dried spaghetti sauce is tasteless .

Anybody tried Cache Lake Foods, Good or bad?

GREAT!

Ditto Cache Lake! Another disappointing meal I nearly forgot is the Issued MRE #24. The meat loaf and gravy were NOTHING like Mom's! Traded for Lucky #13 Tortellini.

ya the tortallini is now the best mre comes with tropical skittles and m&m's, field strip the mre's before you go all that extra bulk weighs a lot

I have to agree with the freeze dried ice cream. I think it was neapolitan. That stuff was terrible.

The cache lake stuff is real good. I have sampled many of their menu items.

tony

the eggs that are packaged in a milk carton style,can't remember what they are called but they were nasty

A breakfast with scrambled powdered eggs apparently will attack a 14 year old's system around 10PM. The two boys thought the flatulance was quite hilarious - the dads thought it quite entertaining.

Freeze dried worst experience was some Back Packers Pantry Ginger Teriyaki Stir Fry. The lab didn't even like it. Mountan House Beef Stew actually went over pretty good though - it stays on the list as a backup meal.

10# can of stag chilli

I once brought a 4 oz tub of Just Veggies, which is a mix of dried peas, corn, bell peppers, and tomatoes. I thought that after several days of fried fish, pasta and rice dishes we might be feeling in vegetable deficit. This stuff is probably fine rehydrated in a stew or something, but it was advertised as a delicious crunchy snack eaten right out of the tub. Yuck!

Worst decision that I ever made or even agreed to, was letting a vegetarian who is also allergic to peanuts shop for food. not that there is anything wrong with either of those "ailments" per say, but thank god for the beef jerky I bought on the way up!

Freeze dried ice cream.
Butterscotch schnapps.

potato gnocchi--you find it in the pasta section.it's a dumpling sort of thing and comes soft and ready to heat in a plastic vacuum wrap.i took it many years ago because it looked filling and would keep without having to be cold..i cooked it with hunks of summer sausage--yuk---tastless and a heap of grease. i'm sure if you knew how to really cook it at home with say a whole chicken in a roaster it might be fine,but for camping--too heavy--too bland.