Recently I was planning a 7-day camping trip into a remote area to fish for native trout. I wanted my meals to be quick, easy and fast to prepare. Also I wanted the food to be lightweight and easy for me to pack. What I discovered has as much an application for planning meals and keeping them on hand for emergency use as it does outdoor meals on the bank of a remote stream.

I knew from a lifetime being spent in the backcountry that I would be shopping for freeze-dried food for my fishing trip. This led me to Mountain House and the wide selection of meals they have that are lightweight, good tasting and nourishing. I have used them hundreds of times during my career. The one thing I dislike is having to plan and select breakfast, lunch and dinner meals, then select and order the menu. This time when I went to the Mountain House web site, www.mountainhouse.com, much to my surprise I learned that they now have new pre-packaged “Multi-Day Emergency Food Supply Kits” that do all the menu planning for 5-Day or a combo of 2-Day, 3-Day, and/or 4-Day food supply. This makes meal planning short and easy.

For my seven day trout trip I simply ordered a 3-Day and 4-Day kit and my meal planning and supply was all done. Most of the meals in the kits, such as sausage gravy on biscuits, beef stroganoff, and lasagna were my favorites.  All I needed was to pack a one-burner backpack stove with enough fuel to boil water for each meal and I was ready to go.

This brilliant way of pre-packaging well thought out meals for multi-day periods of time was a good move on the part of Mountain House. It makes food storage for emergencies much easier and, as I accidentally learned, it makes planning and buying balanced meals for multi-day outdoor adventures very easy. And remember that if you have any of the meals left over after a camping trip just throw the package into the emergency food storage bin as these meals have a shelf life of 12 or more years.