Classic Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

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)

I’ve tried many freeze-dried meals while backpacking and camping, but the Mountain House Beef Lasagna stands out as one of the best. It’s honestly surprising how delicious it is considering how incredibly easy it is to prepare. All you need to do is pour hot water into the pouch, wait, and enjoy. Yet the result tastes far closer to a homemade meal than typical trail food. The first thing that impressed me was the texture of the pasta. Instead of being mushy like many freeze-dried meals, the noodles rehydrate beautifully and retain a pleasant bite. The sauce is rich and flavorful, with a great balance of tomato acidity, beef savoriness, and a noticeable cheesy undertone. The overall taste is comforting and satisfying — exactly what you want after a long day on the trail. Another major plus is the convenience. The pouch serves as the bowl, which means no dishes to wash and minimal cleanup. When you’re tired at camp or trying to conserve water, this convenience makes all the difference. Although the package says “2 servings,” it works perfectly as a hearty single meal or a generous dish to share. The portion size is substantial and leaves you feeling full and energized. This is a freeze-dried meal I would happily keep not only for camping trips but also as an emergency food supply at home. The combination of taste, simplicity, and reliability makes it an easy five-star product. Highly recommended for backpackers, campers, or anyone looking for a quick, delicious, and dependable meal option.

Great tasting freeze dried meal and one of my favorites. I always add a little more boiling water to any one of my freeze dried meals and add an El Pinto Green Hot Chile 4 ounce sauce container too! I usually wait 10 minutes longer than the time suggested on any of the food packages, so that all ingredients become thoroughly hydrated. I mix every 10 minutes and if you can keep it insulated to maintain the heat, it's better for you and your meal. Bon appetit!! ps. Don't be afraid to add your own flavor enhancing spices...

Why did you pick this product vs others?: when I was in college, I, “accidentally” found my way into an old Cold War bomb shelter. There were lots of freeze dried meals, so I liberated a few, being a poor college student. After eating a couple of them, I decided that it would actually be better to die in a nuclear holocaust than to have to survive on those things. fast forward to 2025. I’ve tried a whole bunch of camping meals by many different manufacturers and they all have left me wanting for a variety of reasons. Either the food was bland or it was just disgusting or the packaging was bad. I heard that this brand was supposed to be really good. A friend of mine who is a nurse sent me a text message one night saying that she was hungry but the cafeteria was closed and nobody would deliver food that late. I sent her four of these meals, all different, and suggested that she keep one in her bag and one in her car for just such an occasion. She told me that they were delicious. I bought a bunch of them for myself and I have to agree. These meals are wayyyyy better than anything I’ve ever tried. They have great flavor, great texture and are substantial in size. The packaging is awesome. It is thick, heavy material with a zip lock that really holds in the moisture. This is important for two reasons. I add the hot water, seal the bag and let it sit for five minutes and then I turn it over upside down for another five minutes so that the remaining water drains down to the top of the bag and hydrates everything up there. I have yet to have a single drop leak out. Really a great value for the money at 10 bucks. I keep them around for those situations where I’m working at 2 o’clock in the morning and I am really hungry, but don’t want to take the time to make food. I can get a great meal in 10 minutes.

I haven't had freeze dried food since my backpacking days in another life back in the 70s so I got this to see how it tastes now. Back then I seem to remember freeze dried foods being packaged in plastic bags that didn't really keep them fresh. This meal is packed in a heavy aluminum foil envelope with an internal zipper to use while rehydrating it and is packaged with a sachet of some kind of oxygen absorber. My absorber sachet was very solid indicating it had absorbed as much oxygen as it could. There was no indication of loss if integrity of the foil envelope. The meal tasted fresh. I bought it at the end of 2023, it appears to have been packaged in 2023, and had a best by date of June 2053. All of the ingredients maintained their individual flavors and the meal tasted good. The envelope contained two servings and I ate them both as I would have when solo backpacking. There was a bit more bulk there than I needed but a single serving probably would not have been enough, and all I had done was lay around all day reading. I remember in my canoeing life making a month long wilderness trip where we were all hungry every day, and we had been paddling every weekend leading up to the trip, eating the meals we were taking with us. But it is easy to ignore being a little hungry Saturday night when you know you will have access to all of the food you could want when you get home Sunday night. If I were backpacking I don't think one serving of the meal would be enough for me. And I am not a big eater. Preparation is so easy when you read about it on the package but it is different when you try to do it. I boiled more water than I needed and used a for real 1/3 cup measuring cup to scoop it out of the pot. But I could only scoop up about half a 1/3 cup at a time. By the time I had the required 1-1/3 cup of water in there most of it had already been absorbed and there was very little left to wet the part of the meal in the corners of the envelope. Stirring in the envelope with the usual camping soup spoon is not easy. So when I got to eating the meal I found there were portions of it that were not adequately hydrated and these were generally surrounding chunks of meat. Eating the entire meal I got 33% of my allowed cholesterol and 74% of my allowed salt, both of which I am supposed to avoid, and 72% of my recommended protein. There isn't much on the ingredients list that you can't pronounce or takes up an entire line. This is not a cheap way to eat, but if you have to carry your food on your back all day it seems like a necessary evil. But if you are a through hiker what do you do with all of the empty envelopes. Full or empty those envelopes will take up a lot of space in a backpack. And you have to carry adequate water to hydrate yourself and all your meals until you get to the next water source.