Description

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
Net Wt. 4.06 oz. (115g)

Rating

Category

Entree

Nutritional Information

Serving Size: 1 Package (115g)
Amount per Serving: Calories: 480, Calories from Fat: 110

Ingredients

Enriched Spaghetti (durum semolina, niacin, iron [ferrous sulfate], thiamine, mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Tomate Paste, Cooked Beef (beef, flavoring, salt), and contains 1.5% or less of the following: Texture Soy Flour, Salt, Sugar, Dehydrated Cheese (cheddar cheese [milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes], cream, salt, sodium phosphate, lactic acid), Hydrolyzed Corn Torula and Brewers Yeast, Wheat Gluten, Soy Protein, Spices, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Soybean Oil, and Caramel Color.

Contents

Wheat, Soy, Milk

Shelf Life

7 years.

Preparation
Makes one 16 oz. serving.

1. Open package at tear notch. Remove and discard oxygen absorber from pouch (the enclosed oxygen absorber contains powdered iron oxide to ensure product freshness).
2. Carefully add 1 3/4 cups (14 oz.) boiling water to pouch.
3. Stir thoroughly and close zipper. Let stand 8-9 minutes. Stir and serve. For your convenience, eat right out of the pouch.

Taste

This entree tasted great from the very first bite. However, if you are expecting long strands of spaghetti like you get at Papa Luigi’s down the street, you will be mistaken. Mountain House has chopped up the spaghetti into one inch pieces. This makes it more manageable and less messy when you are eating it out on the trail.

The dish has just the right ratio of sauce, meat, and spaghetti. I found the sauce to be very tomato-ey and very tasty. It was also slightly spicy, but I rather enjoyed that. From what I could tell, the meat was ground beef, which tasted great. Also, the pasta was just right. Not overcooked or mushy.

Leftovers

This was a one serving pouch, but I did save some to have leftover. Like all Mountain House entrees I have had, this dish tasted great leftover. The sauce tightened up a bit and the dish settled into itself. So, if you have this dish in your food storage, you can count on it tasting great the second time around.

Bottom Line

This was a great dish. It lives up to the high standards of quality that Mountain House is known for. It would be great on a backpacking trip or as part of a long term food storage program.

When you are looking for quality freeze dried meals, look no further than Mountain House Freeze Dried Food.

Click here to read the article, “How Freeze-Dried Food is Made – Mountain House Freeze Dried Food”.

Click here to read the article, “The Shelf Life of Mountain House Freeze Dried Food”.

Click here to go to the Mountain House website and read about the shelf life of Freeze Dried Pouches and #10 Cans.

Description

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Net Wt. .7 oz. (19g)

Rating

Category

Dessert

Nutritional Information

Serving Size: 1 Package (19g)
Amount per Serving: Calories: 160, Calories from Fat: 70

Ingredients

Milkfat, Sugar, Nonfat Milk, Corn Syrup, Whey, Stabilized and Emulsified by Mono Diglycerides, Guar Gum, Cellulose Gum and Carageenan, Artificial Flavor, Vegetable Annatto Color, SemiSweet Chocolate Chip Drops, Sugar, Chocolate Liquor, Cocoa Butter, Dextrose, Lecithin, Vanilla, Mint Green Flavor/Color, Propylene Glycol, Natural Flavor, FD&C Yellow #5, FD&C Blue #1.

Allergens

Milk

Shelf Life

This Mountain House freeze dried ice cream product has a shelf life of 2 years.

Preparation

None

Taste

This tastes very good and is very different from the Mountain House Freeze Dried Ice Cream Sandwich I had in the past. If you missed that review, you can find it here:

          Review of Mountain House Freeze Dried Ice Cream Sandwich

This Freeze Dried Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream has a rich, creamy taste, and is slightly crunchy. Whereas the Ice Cream Sandwich I had in the past was crunchy and the ice cream had a fine malted-milk-like texture, this mint chocolate chip ice cream is much closer to the original frozen ice cream treat. Still a little crunchy, but in my opinion, much closer to the original.

When eating it, I can’t really distinguish the chocolate chips from the ice cream. I think that both of these ingredients just combine together to create the final taste.

For fun, I rehydrated a portion of the ice cream and then ate it. I added some water on a piece and let it soak in. Upon tasting it, it is even closer to the original frozen ice cream than the bites I took of the dry freeze dried ice cream right out of the wrapper.

Leftovers

This was a one serving pouch, so none was leftover.

Bottom Line

This ice cream slice was delicious. I can see how astronauts would really enjoy this in Space. Also, if you buy a bunch of this and put it into your food storage, you won’t be disappointed. It will be a welcome treat when times get rough.

Again, I understand why parents love to buy cases of this stuff for their kid’s birthday parties.

Remember, it’s okay to be a Space Cadet when you eat freeze dried ice cream.

To read an article on how Freeze-Dried Food is made, click here.

To read an article on the Shelf Life of Mountain House Freeze Dried Food, click here.

To learn about the Shelf life of Mountain House Freeze Dried Pouches and #10 Cans, click here.

Description

Chicken Teriyaki with Rice
Net Wt. 4.06 oz. (115g)

Rating

Category

Entree

Nutritional Information

Serving Size: 1 Package (115g)
Amount per Serving: Calories: 470, Calories from Fat: 45

Ingredients

Chicken Teriyaki: Cooked Chicken, Soy Sauce (soybeans, wheat, salt), Brown Sugar, Bamboo Shoots, Mushrooms, Red Peppers, Green Peas, Modified Corn Starch, Sherry Wine (contains sulfite), Onions, Green Peppers, Garlic Powder, Alcohol, Spice, Salt, Vinegar, Lactic Acid. Rice: Precooked Rice.

Contents

Soy, Wheat

Shelf Life

7 years.

Preparation
Makes one 16 oz. serving.

1. Open package at tear notch. Remove and discard oxygen absorber from pouch (the enclosed oxygen absorber contains powdered iron oxide to ensure product freshness).
2. Carefully add 1 3/4 cups (14 oz.) boiling water to pouch.
3. Stir thoroughly and close zipper. Let stand 8-9 minutes. Stir and serve. For your convenience, eat right out of the pouch.

Taste

I did not find this to be a spicy dish. In fact, I could not tell what spices had been added for flavor. The teriyaki sauce was on the mild side. This is not the teriyaki sauce you would expect to find in hundreds of restaurants across the U.S. However, I thought it was delicious.

You could taste the red peppers and peas. I could see the bamboo shoots, but did not really taste them. I mean they didn’t stand out. The rice was fine. Even though the rice was precooked (says it on the package), it wasn’t mushy when rehydrated. I could not tell that there was sherry wine in the sauce. But that means they did a good job of cooking. Sometimes when wine is added to a dish, it isn’t properly reduced, so it’s a little overpowering. Not the case here.

I prepared this dish according to the instructions. You might want to experiment with adding a bit less water. That would probably tighten the sauce up a bit.

Leftovers

This was a one serving pouch, but I did save some to have leftover, just so I could comment on it. Like all Mountain House entrees I have had, this dish tasted great leftover. So, if you had this dish in your food storage, it would also taste good the second time around.

Bottom Line

This was a very good dish. It wasn’t my favorite Mountain House entree, but that is a personal issue, and doesn’t reflect at all on how well it would fit into a backpacking trip or a food storage program. I would have no problem eating it in any situation.

All in all, this dish lives up the high standards you can experience from any of the Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods.

Click here to read the article, “How Freeze-Dried Food is Made – Mountain House Freeze Dried Food”.

Click here to read the article, “The Shelf Life of Mountain House Freeze Dried Food”.

Click here to go to the Mountain House website and read about the shelf life of Freeze Dried Pouches and #10 Cans.

Description

Scrambled Eggs with Ham and Red & Green Peppers
Net Wt. 2.54 oz. (72g)

Rating

Category

Breakfast

Nutritional Information

Serving Size: 1 Package (72g)
Amount per Serving: Calories: 370, Calories from Fat: 180

Ingredients

Freeze Dried Precooked Scrambled Eggs (whole eggs, egg yolks, nonfat dry milk, modified corn starch, corn oil, salt, yeast extract, sunflower oil and smoke flavor, xantham gum), Ham (ham, salt, dextrose, sodium tripolyphosphate, sodium erythorbate, smoke flavor, sodium nitrite), and Red and Green Peppers.

Contents

Egg, Milk

Shelf Life

7 years.

Preparation
Makes one 8 oz. serving.

1. Open package at tear notch. Remove and discard oxygen absorber from pouch (the enclosed oxygen absorber contains powdered iron oxide to ensure product freshness).
2. Carefully add 1 cup (8 oz.) boiling water to pouch.
3. Stir thoroughly and close zipper on top of pouch. Let stand 5-6 minutes.
4. Carefully drain excess water from pouch. Serve. For your convenience, eat right out of the pouch.

Taste

This dish tastes almost like what you would expect fresh-cooked scrambled eggs, ham, and red and green peppers to taste like. Mountain House did not add any additional spice from what I could tell. Certainly, no black pepper and I could not detect any more salt than normal. Some people complain that Mountain House dishes have more salt than they prefer. However, I have not ever found that to be true, but then I haven’t had every single dish that they make.

This was the first time I had eaten freeze-dried scrambled eggs, and I thought the ham and peppers were perfect. I didn’t think the scrambled eggs were perfect. The freeze drying changes them somewhat, and makes them a little spongy. However, I would still give the eggs 4 out of 5 stars. The other ingredients get 5 stars.

I prepared this breakfast dish according to the instructions, so there was a bit of excess water that had to be drained off after rehydration. I tasted the water, and it tasted like scrambled eggs with ham and peppers. So, if you wanted to leave it in with the dish, it would be fine.

I would say that you would probably get better at preparing this dish if you did it a few times. You could tweak the amount of water, how long you let it rehydrate, and whether or not you drained the water off at the end. That was my perception from eating them for the first time.

Leftovers

This was a one serving pouch, so no leftovers.

Bottom Line

Overall, I would give this dish 4 out of 5 stars. Only because I didn’t think the scrambled eggs were perfect.

However, let me be clear. I would have no trouble eating these on a backpacking trip or in an emergency situation taken right out of food storage. I would always look forward to eating them in whatever situation, because if you can’t have fresh cooked eggs, these are the next best thing.

Click here to read the article, “How Freeze-Dried Food is Made – Mountain House Freeze Dried Food”.

Click here to read the article, “The Shelf Life of Mountain House Freeze Dried Food”.

Click here to go to the Mountain House website and read about the shelf life of Freeze Dried Pouches and #10 Cans.

Description

Chili Mac with Beef
Net Wt. 4.06 oz. (115g)

Rating

Category

Entree

Nutritional Information

Serving Size: 1 Package (115g)
Amount per Serving: Calories: 500, Calories from Fat: 120

Ingredients

Cooked Beef (beef, flavoring, salt), Enriched Macaroni (durum semolina, niacin, iron [ferrous sulfate], thiamine, mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Kidney Beans, Tomato Paste, Chili Seasoning (chili pepper and other spices, dehydrated onion and garlic, hydrolized soy protein, potassium chloride, paprika, sugar, maltodextrin, beef extract, disodium inosianate and disodium guanylate, autolyzed yeast extract, caramel color, natural flavors, citric acid), Modified Corn Starch, and Contains 2% or less of Salt and Dehydrated Onion.

Contents

Wheat, Soy

Shelf Life

7 years.

Preparation
Makes one 16 oz. serving.

1. Open package at tear notch. Remove and discard oxygen absorber from pouch (the enclosed oxygen absorber contains powdered iron oxide to ensure product freshness).
2. Carefully add 1 3/4 cups (14 oz.) boiling water to pouch.
3. Stir thoroughly and close zipper. Let stand 8-9 minutes. Stir and serve. For your convenience, eat right out of the pouch.

Taste

This entree has a nice spicy sauce, but it’s not overly-spicy. I really liked the seasoning, because I like spicy food and think they added just the right amount of spice for this one. If you are not fond of spicy dishes, then you might skip this entree. But of course, you’ll be missing out.

The combination of macaroni, beef, kidney beans, and spicy sauce create a winning dish in my opinion. Also, I thought it had just the right proportion of sauce to the other ingredients.

I prepared it according to the directions, and the macaroni turned out to be perfectly-cooked, as did the other ingredients.

Leftovers

Even though there this was a one-serving pouch, I saved some to have leftover the next day. As is typical of Mountain House entrees, it seemed to be even better the second time around. The dish settles into itself when leftover.

Delicious.

Bottom Line

I thought this was a great dish. Perfect for backpacking, as part of a food storage program, or during a disaster. You’ll find that your kids will like this one too.

An all-around winner in my opinion.

Click here to read the article, “How Freeze-Dried Food is Made – Mountain House Freeze Dried Food”.

Click here to read the article, “The Shelf Life of Mountain House Freeze Dried Food”.

Click here to go to the Mountain House website and read about the shelf life of Freeze Dried Pouches and #10 Cans.

Description

Strawberries
Net Wt. .5 oz. (14g)

Rating

Category

Snack

Nutritional Information

Serving Size: 1 Package (14g)
Amount per Serving: Calories: 50, Calories from Fat: 0

Ingredients

Strawberries.

Contents

Not applicable in this case.

Shelf Life

2 years.

Preparation

The package states that there is no preparation. As you eat the fruit, your mouth will rehydrate the strawberries, restoring them to their original state.

Taste

When just placing the freeze dried strawberries in my mouth, and letting my mouth rehydrate them, I was not that entralled with the taste. So, I did some experimentation.

I placed some on ice cream and found that to be a delicious combination. The freeze dried berries complemented the ice cream very nicely. I also took a small amount of cold water and rehydrated some of the berries. Then, I ate the berries and drank the water. The berries tasted like fresh strawberries and I found them to be delicious. So, that was my preferred method of eating them.

If you were in a survival situation, where the strawberries were part of your food storage, you could add a bit of sugar to the berries and make a nice juice for them. You probably wouldn’t have sugar on a backpacking trip, where weight is an issue. Either way, this was just a suggestion, and the strawberries are great on their own.

This is a snack where each person will have their own preference on how they want to eat it. I can see why the astronauts would eat them in the freeze dried state, with water being such a premium in space.

Leftovers

Since there was just one serving in the pouch, there were no leftovers.

Bottom Line

I enjoyed the strawberries very much, although not in the manner the package outlined. Each person will eat them in the manner they desire and will find them to be delicious.

To read an article on how Freeze-Dried Food is made, click here.

To read an article on the Shelf Life of Mountain House Freeze Dried Food, click here.

To learn about the Shelf life of Mountain House Freeze Dried Pouches and #10 Cans, click here.

Description

Macaroni & Cheese.
Net Wt. 6.81 oz. (193g)

Rating

Category

Entree

Nutritional Information

Serving Size: 1/2 Package (97g)
Amount per Serving: Calories: 470, Calories from Fat: 200

Ingredients

Enriched Macaroni (durum semolina, niacin, iron (ferrous sulfate), thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, and folic acid), Dehydrated Cheddar Cheese Blend (cheddar cheese [milk, milk culture, cheese culture, salt, enzymes, annatto], cream, salt, sodium phosphate, lactic acid, yellow no. 5 and yellow no. 6), Nonfat Dry Milk, Modified Corn Starch, Corn Oil, Salt, and Spice.

Contents

Wheat, Milk

Shelf Life

7 years.

Preparation

1. Open package at tear notch. Remove and discard oxygen absorber from pouch (the enclosed oxygen absorber contains powdered iron oxide to ensure product freshness).
2. Carefully add 2 cups (16 oz.) boiling water to pouch.
3. Stir thoroughly and close zipper. Let stand 8-9 minutes. Stir and serve. For your convenience, eat right out of the pouch.

Taste

This macaroni and cheese has a rich and creamy flavor. However, I would say that it’s a milder macaroni and cheese than some others. Now, when I say milder, I mean that the cheddar cheese it’s made from is probably a mild cheddar. But make no mistake, this tastes like macaroni and cheese, and it tastes great.

Mountain House is generous with the sauce on this one, which I prefer to being on the dry side. I prepared it according to the instructions, and to me the macaroni tasted like it was perfectly-cooked.

The sauce was very light, creamy, and somewhat fluffy. Overall, it is a lighter dish.

Leftovers

Since there were two servings in the pouch, I had some leftover.

I have to say that this macaroni and cheese tasted even better leftover. I enjoyed it more the second time around. This is good news if you are considering adding Mountain House Freeze Dried Macaroni & Cheese to your food storage.

If you thought this dish had too much sauce when you first prepared it, you’ll find that it was just the right amount when you have some leftover.

Bottom Line

I thought this dish was delicious. I could easily eat this during a backpacking trip, or as part of a food storage program, or even during a disaster. No problem.

To read an article on how Freeze-Dried Food is made, click here.

To read an article on the Shelf Life of Mountain House Freeze Dried Food, click here.

To learn about the Shelf life of Mountain House Freeze Dried Pouches and #10 Cans, click here.

Description

Delicious vanilla ice cream between two chocolate cookie wafers.
Net Wt. 1.13 oz. (32g)

Rating

Category

Dessert

Nutritional Information

Serving Size: 1 Package (32g)
Amount per Serving: Calories: 150, Calories from Fat: 50

Ingredients

ICE CREAM: Milkfat, Sugar, Nonfat Milk, Corn Syrup, Whey, Mono and Diglycerides, Guar Gum, Cellulose Gum, Carrageenan, Artificial Flavor, and Annatto Color. CHOCOLATE WAFERS: Bleached Wheat Flour, Sugar, Caramel Color, Dextrose, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Corn Flour, and Contains 2% or Less of Cocoa, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Modified Corn Starch, Baking Soda, Salt, Mono and Diglycerides, and Soy Lecithin.

Contents

Milk, Wheat, Soy

Shelf Life

Mountain House freeze dried ice cream products have a shelf life of 2 years.

Preparation

None

Taste

It tastes great. I was surprised.

The ice cream has a rich taste, just like a regular ice cream sandwich. Of course, since it has been freeze dried, it is crunchy, not creamy.

The closest comparison I can make is this. You remember those malted milk balls with the chocolate covering? Well, the center of the malted milk balls has nearly the same consistency and texture as the freeze dried vanilla ice cream. However, where the malted milk center has larger holes, the freeze dried ice cream has smaller holes, and has a much finer consistency. So overall, I would much rather eat this than eat a malted milk ball. But then, I’m not really a malted milk ball fan.

The chocolate cookie wafers taste just like they do in a regular frozen ice cream sandwich. The freeze drying process just makes them a little crisper. But they have the same familiar chocolate cookie taste.

In the past, I read one review where they said freeze dried ice cream tasted like cotton candy. I disagree. I don’t think it tastes like cotton candy at all.

Bottom Line

Is it delicious? Yes. Does it taste like a frozen ice cream sandwich? No. But it doesn’t require refrigeration either, and it lasts for 2 years. I can see how astronauts would enjoy this in Space. It provides a familiar taste, just with a different presentation to your taste buds.

Also, I understand why parents love to buy cases of this stuff for their kid’s birthday parties.

It’s okay to be a Space Cadet when you eat freeze dried ice cream.

To read an article on how Freeze-Dried Food is made, click here.

To read an article on the Shelf Life of Mountain House Freeze Dried Food, click here.

To learn about the Shelf life of Mountain House Freeze Dried Pouches and #10 Cans, click here.