TL;DR - In prioritizing weight, we wanted to find high-calorie, tasty meals to eat for dinner. Reviews suggested that Peak Refuel would fit that bill, so we tried a few. They were all tasty.
Fancy Ramen noodles!
We ended up with Peak Refuel meals after reading around online about various brands and deciding that the combination of pack-to-pack consistency, taste, and calorie count per pack were optimized with Peak. Then, we ordered several meals we thought we'd like and give them a try at home (having an always-hungry 14-year-old who is burning an infinite number of calories at sports practices every day helps in a situation like this).
To try at home, we ordered Chicken Pesto Pasta, Beef Stroganoff, Sweet Pork & Rice, and the Backcountry Bison Bowl. In the end, we ranked them:
- Sweet Pork & Rice - Pro: good flavor, nice rehydrated consistency, low(er) saturated fat content, reasonable quantity. Con: high added sugar content.
- Chicken Pesto Pasta - Pro: great flavor (best), nice rehydrated consistency. Con: low quantity, might have upset our stomachs afterwards.
- Backcountry Bison Bowl - Pro: best quantity, felt "good" afterward eating. Con: poor rehydrated consistency (biscuits never rehydrated), somewhat bland flavor (but not offensive).
- Beef Stroganoff - Pro: good quantity. Con: poor rehydrated consistency (too soupy), high(er) saturated fat content, might have upset our stomachs afterwards.
With those rankings, we ended up purchasing two 6-packs of Sweet Pork & Rice (pack) and Chicken Pesto Pasta (pack). That would mean eating each for two nights, but we saved a bit of money purchasing them in packs.
We also "went blind" into the hike with one pack each of three additional flavors to cover our fifth night on the trail: Beef Pasta Marinara, Butternut Dal Bhat, and Venison Country Casserole.
Fancy Ramen noodles!
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Look into Next Mile Meals. Protein heavy and the meat rehydrates beautifully (wouldn't even know it was dehydrated). My faves are Italian beefy marinara, beef tacos, deli roast beef and chicken & broccoli casserole. I do smoothies for breakfast but tried the sausage egg scramble and it was yummy. https://www.nextmilemeals.com/
Nice! We tried some of this Peak at home prior to leaving and the meat didn't totally rehydrate, so I like that the Next Mile Meals do. Thanks!