How Do YOU Cook Homemade Dehydrated Meals On Trail?

[JWreno]

We dehydrate our own meals. We often just eat cold stuff but decided last summer to cook dinners again for the first time in about 12 years. I like to have a ziplock for each dinner meal dump the contents in the boiling pot of water and let it boil while stirring for a few minutes and then cover the pot in lid and cozy and let it set for 20-25 minutes. I use the empty ziplocks to hold tissue and other trash. I don't want a bunch of bags with leftover wet food in them to deal with. We would only be using the stove for dinner. Breakfast and lunch would still be grazing the cold stuff. We can break camp in about 15 minutes when we graze breakfast on the trail. We don't drink coffee so we don't miss it.

I hike with my wife and son so it takes a larger pot to rehydrate food for the 3 of us. I just bought the 1.8 liter version of the MSR WindBurner. It's not crazy light but is very reliable in heavy wind and efficient with fuel. The weight isn't bad for a system supporting 3 people. We would use the included WindBurner bowl for my wife, a larger bowl for my son and I would eat out of the pot. I will make my own custom cozy to cover the pot while it sits.

We use home dehydrate 1 pound cans of chicken in broth or lean ground beef well rinsed of fat and then add in a bit beef base to add salt. We added soup mixes or dried pasta sauce, home dried vegetables cut on small pieces, and home dried brown rise or angle hair pasta. It can be fun to work out your own recipes and portions when practicing making eating meals at home.