On our recent trip to the Everglades, my husband and I decided to try different hiking/camping packaged meals instead of toting a huge cooler of foil packed and spoilable foods to cook and a ton of charcoal. We ordered up enough meals for the trip from REI. Everything fit in our Igloo backpack perfectly!
Most of the meals only required hot water to prepare. We’ll talk about a lesson learned a little later!
Since our Eco-Tent had electricity, we were able to “cheat” a little and bring our electric kettle instead of needing to build up a fire to heat water to make our meals. This was a lifesaver — especially in the early mornings when all I wanted was some hot tea and hubby needed his coffee!
Due to restrictions, we kept all food in our car and out of the Eco-Tent. Of course, our first morning, we saw why. A family staying in the campground area kept their coolers outside their tent and, overnight, the vultures had pulled them apart, flipped them over, and well, food was everywhere, except going into their bellies that morning!
Well, on to the reviews!
Dinner, Check-In Day: Alpine Pork Jambalaya
Our first dinner was, by far, the best! Maybe we were just hungry having driven over 5 hours to get to South Florida from the center of the state. There was a bit of heat to the meal, which hubs enjoyed and I could appreciate; I was concerned the pre-packed foods would be bland but it wasn’t. Four Stars.
Dessert, Check-In Day: Backpaker’s Pantry Creme Brulee
Dessert tasted good, but because we made it in the bag, it was difficult to split into two servings. Scraping it out into our two mugs was an adventure, I looked like a kid covered in batter by the time it was done. Three stars.
Breakfast, Day One: Trailtopia Adventure Food Oatmeals
Our breakfasts were good, but a little bland. This was more what I expected from these types of meals; I missed having the instant Quaker Oatmeal breakfasts as they would have been more flavorful. Luckily, we had some sugar packets to help breakfast along. Two stars.
Dinner, Day One: Firepot Beef Stew with Pearl Barley
Our dinner on the first full day was, well, okay. The potatoes and the meat rehydrated up at different rates and the meal was spicy hot, not flavorful. I wished for ketchup with each bite, but none was to be had. It filled us up, but we probably won’t do this one again. Two stars.
Dessert, Day One: Alpineaire Chocolate Mudslide
Another messy dessert which we tried to split. Okay taste, but we liked the creme brulee better. I’d rather bring Pudding Snacks next time! Two stars.
Breakfast, Day Two: Trailtopia Egg Scramble
This was our major meal FAIL. My husband was so looking forward to eggs too. This is when you learn to check all the labels! See, we tried the add water method, then realized the directions went on to say after the eggs are hydrated to COOK them in a pan! Well, we had a pan, but we didn’t have any fire to cook them on. Since we thought we had just add water meals, we weren’t prepared to make these the right way. One star, but that may be OUR fault!
Breakfast Back-Up, Day Two: Pro Meal On-The-Go Bars
Luckily, we had another set of breakfast foods along for one more day. We’d have to find a replacement for our check-out morning (and being in a park with our car, that wasn’t too hard!)…so we broke into our breakfast bars which were planned for the next morning. The Banana Nut Bread bars were a good backup. They were packed with protein and the taste was okay. Anything would be better than what we tried to do with the egg scramble! I prefer ClifBars, but these were still good. Three stars.
Dinner, Day Two: Alpineaire Tuscan Style Grilled Chicken Alfredo
Our last dinner on our camping trip was the Alfredo. I was looking forward to this meal, which is why we saved it to last. It was a good meal overall and we’d get it again if we try this again. Three plus stars.
Breakfast, Check Out Day: Store Bought Muffins!
We ended up grabbing some muffins from the camp store for our last morning in the Everglades just so we’d have some fuel for the morning. Since it wasn’t a pre-prepped meal like the rest, we’re not going to rate it. Sometimes convenience just wins.
Throughout our trip, we also has some other snacks as well as sandwiches one day for lunch from the camp store. We fell in love with the Sesame Snaps, shown with the Breakfast Bars above, and had packs for each day on our hikes as well as various jerky treats including Slim Jims and Lorissa’s Kitchen Korean BBQ Jerky.
Of course, we can never go camping or hiking without some form of trail mix or granola. Check out my granola mix recipe post for more info!
Share with us! What are some of your favorite hiking or camping meals?
BewilderedBrownEyes 
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