We have never dehydrated meals for the bwca before. Due to the fire ban I am seriously considering it. I ordered some Mylar bags yesterday. What works well on the simple side?

Macaroni with sausage in it?
What else is simple and good?

The freezer bag thread at the top of this forum has some great meal ideas. Lots of meals you can prepare at home, then dehydrate. These meals can be reconstituted just by adding boiling water and letting them sit 10-15 minutes.

Since I do a lot of trips, I have invested in a lot of individual ingredients and build my own meals with freeze-dried vegetables and meats. I also draw a lot of ideas from backpacker meal sites.

I’ve only started seriously dehydrating in the past 2 years and am still making adjustments and learning. I have never used Mylar bags and don’t see the benefit. I either seel my meals in a Seel-a-meal bag, or very often just use zip lock freezer bags. There are also lots of great recipes in the Main Course section above. A member who doesn’t seem to be active anymore by the name of Ripple had a lot of great ones she dehydrated. A couple of my go-to’s to dehydrate are beef stew, chili, and Shepard’s pie. I pretty much use the recipes I would for a batch at home, but try hard to use a lot less olive oil (you want to keep the fat content low) and I tend to make sure any meats are in much smaller cuts to make sure it can dry and rehydrate easier; ground beef will be chopped onto smaller pieces as it cooks and beef for stew sliced in small cuts with large surface areas - not cubes.

Cooking over a fire is fun, but it’s certainly possible to eat very well without a fire. I just finished a ten day trip before the ban, and never once lit a fire - just used my stove.

Knorr Sides. Add foil-packaged tuna or chicken. Seems every store carries them.

i took my nephew out camping last night , at our farm. we made some calzones from scratch. its simple enough, besides the sauce, nothing needs dehydrated. you need 1 package of pizza crust bag mix per person. we used 2 bags of martha white pizza dough mix. stir it together , divide in half, then cut it again. you have 4 balls of dough, 2 for each person. some pepperoni or turkey slim jims and at least 1 mozzeralla cheese stick per calzone. little olive oil in a non stick pot, drop it in. your frying/baking for about 7 minutes each. fry/flip/fry/ flip/ maybe stand it up on its side, along the pot wall. to cook the edge.

i think a normal size can of piauce is enough for 4 people, we used half a can for 2.

mjmkjun: "Knorr Sides. Add foil-packaged tuna or chicken. Seems every store carries them. "

We use Knorr Sides as a base for several of our favorites, but add dehydrated chicken or ham to those meals. At our day's lunch stop, we pull the meat we're planning for dinner, pour some water into its plastic bag, put the plastic bag into a snap-lock container in case the bag leaks, and when we're ready to start dinner prep the meat is nicely rehydrated. Before learning this trick, some of our meals had "crunchy" meat.

TZ

Baked beans and refried beans dehydrate and rehydrate in camp very well.

Simple choices.
Spaghetti
Chili
Stews
Shepard's Pie (instant potatoes separate)
Vegetables
Refried beans, Cheese, and tortillas
Tuna Package in Mac and Cheese
Breakfast cereal with dried milk.

Basically I dehydrate most stews and other low fat foods for rehydrating as well as some select low fat leftovers. I do store most of them in the freezer until I use them, just to keep them from going stale or rancid. I camp quite often, so the leftover route seems to work well for me. You will find normal dehydrating will make normally spiced food a bit bland.

Don’t sleep on the prepackaged freeze dried meals. I shied away from them for years but after hearing positive reviews I finally gave them a shot. The nice thing is they are readily available at REI so you can test them at home before committing. We had the lasagna and chicken burrito bowls from mountain house this year and they were absolutely excellent.

You might be able to create something slightly better but when you consider all you need to do is boil water, pour in bag and eat it becomes a no brainer (at least for our crew). More time fishing, playing cards and relaxing and less time doing dishes and cooking. They will be a staple for us going forward.

Also a meal only weighs 4 oz.

Take a walk through your neighborhood Aldi for ideas.

For example, I often bring a package of their shelf stable tortellini. Not dehydrated, but easy to pack. Add some oil and basil, maybe some cheese and its delicious.

Supermarkets have lots of single bowl meals that just require adding hot water. If you find some you like, just repackage into freezer bags.

Another easy idea is to buy packages of ramen. If you are getting the cheap stuff, throw out the flavor packages, and bring bouillon cubes or dehydrated tomato sauces. I have a Korean supermarket near me. I often buy interesting noodle soup bowls and repackage them into freezer bags. Costco also carries interesting soup bowls, if you don't mind buying in bulk.

And of course, Knorr sides, as previously suggested are great. I will also bring some sort of protein to add to the sides if I don't catch fish.

Almost any of your home cooked meals can be dehydrated. Just limit the oil and cut everything into small pieces.

The only thing that has not rehydrated well for me is smoked sausage (used in gumbo). It remained dry and tough. I guess corn stayed crunchy too.

I have made gumbo / jambalaya (mix rice in before dehydrating), unstuffed peppers, chicken chili, spaghetti sauce, salsa, venison veggie barley soup, a Mexican beef rice dish, sausage for biscuits & gravy, burger for spaghetti, peas. All tasted good when rehydrated, and easier than bringing fresh food to cook.