Camping Food Tips & Reviews – Top Best Outdoor Meals – Videos

Camping food and gear should not be complicated. It should be enjoyable but sometimes it is a difficult task for some people. People who don’t go on these adventure trips often could benefit from others who have experience. In this article, we are going to show simple gear like mini-stoves used for cooking food or hot water for the use of dehydrated food. I’m going to cover several brands of dehydrated food, and some other gear I find useful. We focus on the common sense use of products and the use of low-cost solutions.

I tested these meals and gear at the Bandelier National Monument while using the nearby campground, and also on a long trip from the Southwest to the Pacific Northwest. I think having real-world environments makes for better reviews, and I do enjoy making detailed content for you the reader. Moving forward I will do more reviews of dehydrated camping food by several vendors, and just post my honest opinions on the flavor, taste, spicy levels, and more. Please consider using the table of contents to jump to the area of interest. I have a video for each subject or meal I tested on this trip.

This article is updated with additional information each month, and I recommend that you came back here and review the new information. We also need to refer to prices, and price controls impacting how much we can buy. Portion sizes are now changing so please make sure to follow this via the package showing the weight of contents.

Some Frequently Asked Questions

Some Basic Camping Gear For Heating Water

Heating up water can take longer when using a fire or is a simple stick stove fire system. I like being able to heat something up fairly quickly without it taking too long. There are several options and I will show you below. I’m not enforcing any particle brand but just giving you my opinion on what I have and use.

There are small gas, wood-fired, and fire-based infernal can versions like below. I will test each one, and add the video below of the reviews.

Camping Mini Stove Setup

This simple stove from Sterno is very low cost and can be set up quickly. The Sterno cans ignite fast, and other brands can be used to reduce costs further. I have also used hand gel that contains alcohol within, and that does work in a pinch.

What you decide to use for the boiling of water can be an old canteen cup or if you want several items from places like Sportmans, Cabellas, and even Walmart’s lower-cost options. Keep in mind you just need a flat-bottomed metal surface to bol water. The dehydrated meals range in cost from $5 – $12 per package. This can be reduced if you become a distributor of a particular brand and order in bulk.

Camping Food Setup Using Mini Stove

Using And Packing Camping Food Mini Stove

Camping food has several brands these days, and I cover Mountain House, Backpackers Pantry, and Nomad Nutrition. These three will make up the bulk of the reviews with others later on in the article. With the video and the additional information we provide you should be able to develop a great list of camping food ideas.

Camping Food Main Courses

Here is the ongoing running list of Camping Food review videos. We try to cover several brands to mix it up and to keep up with the latest releases. Some are better than others, and allow us to have multiple flavors, and even with some international flair. From main courses, breakfast, and desserts we have you covered.

Omeals Pepperoni Pizza

Omeals is like an MRE for regular people, and with a heating option. This pizza surprised me and turned out fairly good considering it was re-heated.

Alpine Aire Spicy Sausage With Pasta

Today a new camping food supplier for you to consider. Alpine Aire is like an MRE for regular people. sometimes we have different tastes and prefer different brands.

Chili-Mac For A Quick And Easy Camping Food

Some of the best camping food has a traditional feel to them and used to be made the old fashion way. Today we can get these in a dehydrated form that is light and easy to bring along on your hiking or camping trips. Chili-Mac is one of those old-time favorites and I review this easy camping food from Mountain House in the video above. I personally did like it but need to do a dual-brand comparison to determine the spicy level of the entre.

Pad Thai With Chicken

This particular meal is very different and does help to break up the monotony with on a longer hike or camping deeper in the great outdoors. This meal is one of my favorites, and it’s like having an easy culinary adventure in the great outdoors.

Nomad Nutrition Katmandu Curry

Nomad Nutrition kind of specializes in vegetarian meals. As far as I know, they only make vegetarian meals, and this is the one called Kathmandu curry. I did a lot of research looking for somebody that could remind me of my time in Asia, I thought wow it would be nice to have some meals that I can just add water to have like a little spice to them a little curry feel like in India.

Alpine Aire Mountain Chili Vegetarian

This meal is also vegetarian, but not one of my favorites. It seemed to use filler like cornmeal, and soy meal to bulk it up, and the flavor seemed off for chili. However, after adding tobacco source it tasted better.

Creamy Beef Noodles With Mushrooms – Alpine Aire

A review on the taste and flavor of the Alpine Aire dehydrated Creamy Beef & Noodles With Mushrooms meal for lunch, dinner, or whatever part of the day you feel like trying something new. This is part of several Alpine Aire reviews that we have been doing recently, and other brands have been done and documented on the main website.

MRE Star Review White chicken and rice with vegetables

MRE Star Review White chick and rice with vegetables – I go through each component of the MRE and show you how easy it is to heat a quick meal in just a few minutes. Using each component of an MRE while camping, hiking, or hunting will provide you with a large number of calories, and the electrolytes needed.

Breakfast Camping Meals

Breakfast meals are something we are now picking up more often. Sometimes I hike in the early morning and having an old fashion meal before breakfast does help to lift one’s spirits.

Backpacker Pantry Granola with blueberries and milk

I have not made a video review of this easy meal yet but wanted to mention it. All I have to do is add cold water in the morning, and mix. It’s fast easy and tastes like having a real bowl of cereal in the morning. So far this is my favorite breakfast item.

Mountain House Biscuits and Gravy

When I review a meal I take into consideration several things like taste, convenience, ability to rehydrate, and how close it tastes like the real thing.

Camping Food Deserts

Desserts are really fun in the morning, and they are small. They travel well inside my day pack while on the trails and provide a fast energy spike while I’m hiking back or take a wrong turn making a short hike into a long one.

Mango Sticky Rice For A Delicious Easy Camping Food

Another great dehydrated meal comes from Backpackers pantry, and it’s called mango sticky rice. It has a coconut flavor along with a mango-sweetened rice dish. This could be used for dessert or just a great breakfast before a long hike. See the video above for my review. We found the flavor to be unique with a great Thai flavor, and it was surprising how good it was for dehydrated camping food. You can taste the coconut, mango, and cream, with standard white rice. I consider this my favorite dessert so far.

Dehydrated Ice Cream

Sometimes a light lower-calorie dessert does well for something quick. I recently did a taste test of the Mountain House ice cream bars. They carry vanilla, and mint and they are both pretty good.

Some Additional Camping Food Ideas

These days costs can be an issue and it’s important to keep things in balance. I do find and use low-cost solutions from Alberson, Safeway, Trader Joe’s or you’re a store of choice. Since these products can last in outdoors and can be used for several reasons such as long-term storage (Prepping) or for natural disaster survival. Getting low-cost items for camping is fun, and an important exercise in cost reduction. These meals should be used when it really counts. I prefer to use them when I’m hiking to boost my performance, So getting items that store well like tuna packets, and other condiments help spread them out over the long run.

Don’t forget simple classics like hotdogs, and smores that can be cooked over an open fire. These days it’s not acceptable to use tree branches so make sure to pick up and simply extend the fork. They work well and can be low-cost if you look around. Walmart normally has the cheapest brand. Everyone has a campfire favorite, and still necessary even today.

In conclusion preparation for the outdoors is an ongoing never-ending endeavor that we take seriously. Finding good deals on longer-term food is something we do, and then we use it to explore new areas for our adventure travel. These dehydrated meals can last up to twenty-five years if stored properly, and MRE’ and Sea Rations are being found to still be good even today. Now we don’t recommend keeping food that long, and being able to keep moving forward no matter what the world throws your way is what we strive to do. So get out, travel to your closest National Park, and find a fun place to visit.

A Camping Food List For You to Consider

On some of our latest trips to White Sands National Monument, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Bandelier National Monument, and the Petroglyph National Monument we used this stove and these particular meals. The videos were literally taken on the trips during the resting period of time, and before going to sleep for the night.

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