When it comes to picking the best Mountain House meals you not only have to consider taste but the nutritional value. And below we’ve put out our recommended four.
Best Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs and Bacon
If you are in any outdoors situation, be it camping, hiking, or survival, the first meal of the day is typically the most important one. This is the meal that wakes you up and gives you the carbs and calories to keep moving throughout the day. From Mountain House, the best choice is the classic scrambled eggs and bacon. A hard truth to remember about any of these foods is the fact they’ll never taste homemade, but that doesn’t mean they taste bad. What makes the scrambled eggs taste good, and a good choice for the day is, of course, the bacon.
Bacon rocks, even after it’s been freeze-dried. Don’t get me wrong, it’s gonna lose that crispy texture, but it’s not gonna lose that awesome taste. You get enough bacon so that with every bite of eggs you get that awesome bacon taste. The scrambled eggs portion keeps things light but remains filling. If you have an entire day full of moving, hiking, adventuring, or just simply surviving, you don’t want to start too full and bloated. It’s a moderate meal with right around 10 carbs and 20 grams of protein. Your body would benefit even more if you mixed it with some bread or crackers. The meal is gluten free, and you get a cup and a half of food per pouch. It’s among the best Mountain House meals period.
Best Lunch: Chili Mac with Beef
Maybe I’m biased for choosing this as my favorite lunch, but it’s a holdover from the little time I spent in the military. Chili Mac is awesome. It’s simple, and easy to make, with ingredients that allow it to be easily freeze dried, and then cooked without losing its flavor. Chili Mac with Beef is loaded with pasta noodles, meat, beans, and sauce. It’s a pretty hard meal to mess up, even when it’s being freeze dried and preserved for 12 or more years. This meal is available in both the pouch and can configurations, with the patch being for individuals and the can for families. The pouch can last for twelve years and the can last for 25 years.
Nutritionally, you are getting enough to keep you going through the midday grind. When you hit that halfway mark you’re tired from working and walking all morning, and you still have the rest of the day so you need a boost. A cup of chili mac with beef gives you 31 carbs and 230 calories. The carbs will readily be converted energy if you are pressing forward throughout the day. The prep time is less than ten minutes, and there is zero cleanup involved. And, best of all, it’s among the best-tasting Mountain House meals you can buy.
Best Dinner: Rice and Chicken
Rice and chicken wins here because they’re incredibly filling. Rice tends to have that effect on people. If you’re eating dinner, the day’s over or close to it, so you can unbutton the pants and take a seat after you eat. Chicken and rice will give you that full feeling for the rest of the night. After a long day of camping, hunting, hiking, you want to take a load, off, have a full belly and sleep well that night. That’s the magic of chicken and rice. Chicken and rice is also a simple meal, easy to prepare, and agreeable in taste to most people.
This is a perfect can meal because rice and chicken tend to be mellow tastes, so they can be agreeable to the whole family. Chicken and rice also have very few simple carbs to keep you awake but tons of complex carbs to replenish what you lost throughout the day. This helps your body heal and rest as you sleep, and lets you wake up with a little fuel in the tank. Chicken and Rice can last 12 years in the pouch and 25 years in the can, and can be made in under ten minutes. Add hot water, wait a few minutes, and enjoy. This is one of the best Mountain House meals for the money.
Survival Pack – Just in Case bucket
If you are looking to have a variety of different meals for yourself or enough for a camping trip with the family, the Mountain House Just in Case Classic Bucket. This bucket contains 12 meals, with 6 different choices. So you get 2 beef stroganoff, 2 Chicken Teriyaki, 2 Beef Stew, 2 Lasagna w/meat, 2 Noodles and Chicken, 2 Granola w/Blueberries. You get a good variety of different meals. If I had to pick a favorite I’d go with chicken teriyaki, but if I had to pick my least favorite it’d be beef stew. This is a bias pick, though since my mom makes the best beef stew, nothing can fairly compare.
The Mountain House Just in Case bucket (see full specs) is perfect for long term storage, for either emergency preparations, or simply being stored for the next camping trip. The buckets are sealed against moisture and debris, and the food is already contained in a packet, so nothing short of a determined bear is getting your food. The meals will each last 12 years, and be ready to go with nothing more than hot water. Add a little hot water to the pouch of any of these meals in about 9 minutes you’ll have a ready to eat meal. Which is the best Mountain House meal? Eat them all and find out yourself!
The Best of the Best
There are a ton of different Mountain House meals out there, and taste is always a subjective experience. However, for this list I tried to pick the simplest and most universal flavors, and tried to match these MRE’s with those flavors we associate with home-cooked meals. Your list may look different, but for the first timer, I think these are all excellent choices if I do say so myself.
