Customer Reviews

Mountain House® Best Sellers Kit

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This kit contains the freeze dried food house's most popular products: One breakfast (scrambled eggs with ham), four entrees (beef stroganoff, lasagna, chicken teriyaki, and beef stew), and one dessert (raspberry crumble). Each comes in their own individual, self sealing plastic/foil pouch, the scrambled eggs pouch measuring 7" x 8", the others 8" x 9.5". All the pouches are 5 ounces or less (except for the crumble, which is 5.15) and each is very sturdy and wide enough at the bottom that they can stand upright on flat surfaces on their own. They are also quite colorful, with attractive artwork, and the contents, ingredients (with a separate line relisting items that might be of dietary concern to some, like soy or wheat), nutritional information, and instructions clearly printed on the outside. The preparation proceedure for each pouch (except the crumble) is the same: Tear off the top of the pouch at the pre-cut notch, discard the oxygen absorbing packet within, pour the appropriate amount of boiling water inside, stir, seal the pouch, then wait the indicated number of minutes before eating. The instructions say you can eat the contents out of the pouch, thereby avoiding the need to wash dishes; but I found it more convenient to dump the reconstituted meal out on a plate...

- Scrambled Eggs with ham (serves one) - The serving size was quite sufficient for one. The ham bits were chewier than normal ham, and the eggs (with red and green pepper bits embedded) were a bit mushy. But the taste was quite good, and although there was some lingering aftertaste it wasn't unpleasant.
- Beef stroganoff with noodles (serves two) - The serving size was a bit small for two, particularly two engaging in physical activity like hiking long distances or strenuous work. But more than enough for one. The texture of the noodles and meat were good, and I found the taste comperable to if not better than non-freeze dried stroganoff you'd get from a box or a frozen entree. Although perhaps a touch bland.
- Beef stew (sterves two) - With respect to the serving size, similar concerns and conclusions as the stroganoff. The meat, potatoes, and vegetables were slightly tougher than I expected; they may not have fully rehydrated, although I used the specified amount of water and waited the correct length of time before eating. The taste was fine, if a little dull, and the stew seemed more filling than the stroganoff.
- Lasagna with meat sauce (serves two) - As usual, too much for one, not quite enough for two. The texture and taste were very good, although I couldn't taste any meat in the meat sauce, the strength of the tomato sauce drowned it out.
- Chicken teriyaki with rice (serves two) - A bit more in this pouch than the others, I think there'd be enough for two. The texture of the rice and teriyaki were very good and the taste was excellent, with hints of mushroom and peppers.
- Raspberry Crumble (serves four) - Actually this probably does serve four, it was rich enough so the small portions were still satisfying. The preparation proceedure was different for this pouch: Tearing off the top reveals two bags, one full of chocolate cookie crumbs, the other with freeze dried raspberry sauce. You open the sauce bag, pour it into the pouch, then reconstitute the same as the other pouches. After 'cooking', mix with the cookie crumbs, and serve. Texture wise the crumble was quite thick and sticky, with a tendancy to get on everything. Taste-wise, I don't like raspberry, so I can't really judge, but the cookie crumbs were good. The crumble gave me a mild case of indigestion..

All the contents of this kit are very tasty, light weight, extremely convenient , and have a long shelf life; as such they're good for camping or emergency use. They're also a bit high in sodium (MH says they expect the people using their products to be engaged in heavy exercise and need to have salt replaced). But the kit itself is an excellent introduction to Mountain House products, and/or a convenient way to stock up on these six items. Doesn't save much on price, though.

So far, I have tried the beef stew, beef stroganoff, chicken teriyaki, lasagna w/ meat sauce, and eggs w/ ham. Preparation was extremely easy and just like they say: tear open the pouch, throw away the oxygen absorber packet, pour the specified amount of boiling water into the pouch, stir, close the pouch, let it sit for several minutes, stir again, and eat. (In the case of the eggs, there will be a little excess water to pour off.)

Quality was comparable to typical frozen dinners (except that you don't need a freezer nor a microwave, and you can store these for years without worry of freezer burn). Similarly, the size of a "serving" is comparable to typical frozen dinners. If you are satisfied by a meal consisting of about 10 oz. of food, then the packets which say they serve 2 will really serve 2 because they make about 21 oz. The pouches are comfortable to hold by the sides, and they are just wide enough that you can eat from them, but of course 2 people can't be eating out of them at the same time. It's definitely better to pour the food out. Possibly the reason that Mountain House encourages eating from the pouch is that when you pour the prepared mixture out, it tends not to look terribly appealing. Then again, if you hoping for attractive presentation, you should be looking for a restaurant.

Nutritional information was very clear and also fairly reasonable. This is definitely not low-cal nor low-fat, but still much healthier than fast-food burgers. As with most prepared foods that have any flavor, sodium tends to be a tad high but not as high as I had feared.

Some tips: The "sauciness" of these entrees is fairly heavy, so I stretched the chicken teriyaki by adding some more instant rice which I prepared separately. Flavor remained good and it turned 2 modest servings into 2 generous servings. With the lasagna, the sauce will thicken if you let it sit a little longer, but use plasticware because the cheese tends to cling very tightly to silverware as the sauce cools.

This kit was a great way to get acquainted with Mountain House. I was a little disappointed that they only included 1 packet of the eggs, because everything else could serve 2. Perhaps if you took some English muffins and jam along, you could split the eggs between 2 people and have a decent breakfast, but it would have been nicer to have 2 packets in the kit.

I had purchased this kit for my first weekend backpacking trip. It seemed to be just enough food for two people to share for one weekend.

All of the food was good, the best were the beef stew, beef stroganoff, and lasanga. Heck we were even impressed by the raspberry crumble dessert. The chicken was a bit too salty for my taste but it wasn't bad.

My only complaint is that the breakfast should have been a two-person serving, the eggs were pretty darn good...just make sure you let them cook long enough; I think we were too hasty because they still tasted a bit like cardboard still.

Overall I couldn't be happier with my decision, it really was the perfect amount of food for us and it tasted great.

We purchased the best seller's kit to take on our trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, obviously we were looking for lightweight and simple to cook food and this fit the bill! We didn't know what we were in for but were willing to make do with whatever because we needed to eat. Boy, were we in for a surprise! We started with the Chicken Teriyaki for lunch and we were both pleasantly surprised. It tasted very good! Next we had the Beef Stew which was EVEN better! The lasagna was next which was our least favorite but still quite edible. The eggs with ham for breakfast were pretty decent, a little runny but I didn't read the part to dump out the extra water. We finished with the Beef Stroganoff which, once again, was very good! All and all I'd highly recommend these meals for any camping trip or for something simple to keep around the house. I looked at the ingredients on the back and they are all natural with very limited calories. There is a lot of sodium but that's about it. As with other reviews, I agree to keep it sealed for at least 10 minutes before opening, maybe even longer. It gives the water more chance to be absorbed. Also, you could probably get away with a little bit less water. Try them out, you won't be sorry.

What I like about these meals: they can last up to ten years. What I do not like is that they are costly: $7 for a 4.5 oz of dried food. Not something a regular budget camper can afford to eat throughout the day. 2nd, most of these meals have very high sodium content. Some as much as over 2000 mg for only one small pouch like the beef stew for example. Eat two of these and you're overdosing on salt. That will put additional work on kidneys and the body needs more water. I will only use these meals as a "last case scenario". For regular camping, outdoor food, I prefer to take canned stuff with low sodium content like some canned soups which don't even need water to begin with.

I was looking for awhile for the perfect christmas gift for the outdoors type and I struck gold with this one. Showed up on time and in perfect condition.

I bought this for a 4 day backpacking trip and none of the meals dissapointed. Although I did wind up buying some extra breakfast meals separately (scrambled egg with bacon), it was plenty for one hungry person. Unless you have a healthy appetite, the meals that serve 2 may be a bit much for one person, but they were just enough to leave me feeling 'full' without that 'roll-me-outta-here' feeling. If you're truly hiking long distances between campsites, you should definitely burn off those extra calories.
The quality of the meals was very superior and everything looked, smelled and tasted fresh and delicious. Psychologically, it's a real mood-lifter and it gives you something good to look forward to at the end of a long day in the trail. I will use Mountain House meals again in future trips, although i'll likely consider the Mountain House vacuum-packed PRO packs next time, to save more space in my pack.

Good food and the price is wright we take it with us when we go camping easy to take.