Dehydrated meals

Hi Team.

So got a wee trip in March. Been doing homework on meals. Needs to be Gluten free as I'm awaiting a diagnosis on either IBS or crohns disease and want to maximize what I get out of the food. So been eyeing up the options. So with that and cost being a factor what meals is everyone going to? Really meals I've tried and liked, had radix before they went vegan and loved them, had bc and will eat them but am yet to tro go native meals. Or is there a brand or 2 I'm missing? Like say a MRE?

Cheers for the replies.

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Originally Posted by Rock river arms hunter

Hi Team.

So got a wee trip in March. Been doing homework on meals. Needs to be Gluten free as I'm awaiting a diagnosis on either IBS or crohns disease and want to maximize what I get out of the food. So been eyeing up the options. So with that and cost being a factor what meals is everyone going to? Really meals I've tried and liked, had radix before they went vegan and loved them, had bc and will eat them but am yet to tro go native meals. Or is there a brand or 2 I'm missing? Like say a MRE?

Cheers for the replies.

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Radox are GF as are most BC Real meals aren't well not many.
I've been trying Radox but not overly liking them.
I'm on the search as well as I need Gluten free as well.

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I tried and liked the old Radix meals but not their new vegan stuff. Back Country also make the Outdoor Gourmet brand, more expensive but much nicer.

I don’t know about GF but give Real Meals a go. Nathan makes great dehy’s:

https://realmeals.co.nz/our-food/dietary-requirements/

I liked Radix too but won’t touch them now

You wont find many freeze drys that don't have gluten in thenlm unless you go with the new woke Radix meals. I've been trying a heap of different ones lately to determine what I'll take in wapiti ballot and real meals are pretty good the Wilderness stew is really good. Still have a couple of the old Radix pre woke era meals that haven't expired yet so will be taking them also. Outdoor gourmet have bugger all calories for their weight compared to normal backcountry so something to be aware of if needing fuel to sustain you on a big hunt
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Just don't go for the BC honey soy, I had one Monday and couldn't eat it way too sweet for me.

After just carrying in all my family's food in the form of ready-made pasta (effin heavy!!)I have found Back Country freeze-dried meals in New World for $13.50 I bought some just then for me and the kid's next outing.
I dont know if they have all what you are after but I have also just bought a food dehydrator and you can dehydrate all what you want yourself with that to your needs. $60 Kmart

Real meals are 1000% nicer than Back country. As Ryan said the Wilderness stew is amazing.

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Originally Posted by stug

Real meals are 1000% nicer than Back country. As Ryan said the Wilderness stew is amazing.

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Just really hard when looking for GF

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That's a bugger about the gut, mate. Have you looked at buying a dehydrator and a vac sealer and making your own? I did a couple - take a bit of time, but bloody easy, bloody delicious, and you know exactly what's in them. I just made 1.5kg veni mince mix with tomato and veges, dehydrated it to about 50% weight, then vac sealed and froze. On the hill, just added back water I took out, stirred it up, add rice and you're away. There's a thread on DIY Dehy somewhere.

If that's not your thing, I really like GoNative. Dehy's wreck my gut, so with that and a 20% discount thru NZDA, I'm willing to accept the extra 80-100 grams per meal for GoNative. A mate tried Real meals and was raving about them. A bit too pricey for me, but could be worth a look if they are GF.

People thinking Radix have gone woke have no idea, I'd leave my number and have a chat to anyone who thinks so. More to duscuss the reality of the business decision which their primary business is fueling athletes travelling worldwide.

I run a mixture of realmeals & radix.

I use radix as well, they require about half the water a back country needs to re-hydrate. Important when tops hunting in summer

Cheers for the replies folks! Litterly food for thought.

Have tried the real meals before and I liked them. I'm looking at the go native range too as their boil in a bag.

Real Meals are good, but small. I'm not a big eater, but they're not big enough for me. Radix? Whatever their motives, I don't want a vegetarian/vegan meal, they are gluten-free though.

Really rated the Real Meals when I was using freeze dried. But, found that when in the tops/big country I prefer carrying my own frozen homemade vacuum sealed meals. Bring a pan - just love it. Normally have a 350-450g meal, but don't need to source water and much, much kinder on the gut. Maybe run a combo, frozen meals for a couple of days, and then freeze-dried after. Did a 6 day roar trip and carried in eggs, bacon, pita pockets for breakie, along with homemade granola (not GF), snacks for lunch and frozen homemade meals for dinner. Kept meals together and on the bottom of the tent floor, and kept really well. The other thing you can do is vacuum seal cooked rice/potato and mix and match your proteins or add venison while hunting. So good!

There is a new player to NZ called "Firepot" that do dehy meals, pretty sure they're from the UK.

Anyone tried them yet? They look expensive but sound tasty.

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Originally Posted by SAUM

I dont know if they have all what you are after but I have also just bought a food dehydrator and you can dehydrate all what you want yourself with that to your needs. $60 Kmart

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The advantage of this is also that you can be sure that the ingredients are GF. It may be a bit more time consuming to prepare, cook then dehydrate and pack but the upside is that you can have food that you really know you like.

Funny timing, had to shop in New World today and discovered an option similar to Go Native. Haven’t tried it yet, brought a chicken & vegetable
Here is a link to check out
https://www.moanameals.co.nz/

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Originally Posted by Happy Jack

Just don't go for the BC honey soy, I had one Monday and couldn't eat it way too sweet for me.

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It's the only one my 10 year old boy likes apart from Sweet & Sour. Sweet tooth!

General comment about Back Country Cuisine. The nutritional profile varies enormously from product to product. Most of them don't suit me, but I've found one I'm happy with in terms of taste and salt content and stick to it.

Went and did a bit of a test yesterday. Tried one of the radix breakfast meals on a empty stomach. It lasted me a good 5 hours on the river before I needed fuel. So safe to say I've got the breakfast aspect sorted out now. Had looked at the de hyrdator for $60 which caught my eye. Only catch would be needing a vacuum sealer also

My go to breakfast in the hills for years is 2/3 cup quick oats mixed with a little drinking chocolate, milk powder and dried fruit. Just add boiling water and eat. Quick,cheap and just works.

No fancy packaging or prices. However the one I struggle with is lunches as I need a decent amount of fuel to keep this body going despite its size.

I like the radox breakfasts have them for dinner all the time

Hotsoup made me feel bad about calling Radix "woke" yesterday so I decided I might try some of their meals as I haven't tried any since they went.. vegetarian (PS: it's not hard to find examples of Mike Rudling spouting rhetoric about "short sighted" "environmentally damaging" food production when talking about why Radix now uses plant based protein... which probably comes from massive monocrop agriculture systems...) End of the day it's their company and they can run it how they see fit, the model obviously works well for them.
Anyhow, tried the Indian curry last night. Managed to get one fork load down the hatch and that was me done, yuck. Might be some people's cup of tea but certainly not mine.

I’ll be the newbie to ask the dumb questions (hopefully for others too).

What does “easy on the gut”?
Does this food block you up or give you the runs?

These are very different expectations to manage and plan for. We’re hoping to be hiking/camping in a few months.

Or is it specifically related to being GF?

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Originally Posted by 199p

I like the radox breakfasts have them for dinner all the time

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Just had one of their Mango Breakfasts and must admit it wasn't too bad

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Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Just had one of their Mango Breakfasts and must admit it wasn't too bad

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Smash some brown sugar in there and i try carry in cream too its bloody good that way. I normally do the apple pie or mixed berries

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Originally Posted by Plaas Japie

I’ll be the newbie to ask the dumb questions (hopefully for others too).

What does “easy on the gut”?
Does this food block you up or give you the runs?

These are very different expectations to manage and plan for. We’re hoping to be hiking/camping in a few months.

Or is it specifically related to being GF?

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Well for me, they sure don’t result in any form of blockage. Quite the opposite

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Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Hotsoup made me feel bad about calling Radix "woke" yesterday so I decided I might try some of their meals as I haven't tried any since they went.. vegetarian (PS: it's not hard to find examples of Mike Rudling spouting rhetoric about "short sighted" "environmentally damaging" food production when talking about why Radix now uses plant based protein... which probably comes from massive monocrop agriculture systems...) End of the day it's their company and they can run it how they see fit, the model obviously works well for them.
Anyhow, tried the Indian curry last night. Managed to get one fork load down the hatch and that was me done, yuck. Might be some people's cup of tea but certainly not mine.

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I'm with you on that I'm sure they are good at fueling the body, but they taste like crap.
Their breakfast is pretty good.

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Originally Posted by chainsaw

Well for me, they sure don’t result in any form of blockage. Quite the opposite

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Thanks mate. I had to ask the biology question. It makes the difference between packing more fluids or extra undies.

I’ll keep this in mind when tracking as well, so I know if it’s deer or a hunting party on the dehyd. :thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Hotsoup made me feel bad about calling Radix "woke" yesterday so I decided I might try some of their meals as I haven't tried any since they went.. vegetarian (PS: it's not hard to find examples of Mike Rudling spouting rhetoric about "short sighted" "environmentally damaging" food production when talking about why Radix now uses plant based protein... which probably comes from massive monocrop agriculture systems...) End of the day it's their company and they can run it how they see fit, the model obviously works well for them.
Anyhow, tried the Indian curry last night. Managed to get one fork load down the hatch and that was me done, yuck. Might be some people's cup of tea but certainly not mine.

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Wasn't my intention Ryan, sorry about that. I see Mike on a regular basis, he's a good friend. I guess knowing Mike and his background, he's hardly the woke type.

In regards to meat. If you can picture an Olympic cycling team from NZ, they're traveling to Egypt for an international event. They're fully loaded with all of their meat based Radix meals which give them the exact nutrients they need to perform. On arrival to Egypt they have all of the meals confiscated as meat is banned in said country. This obviously creates a huge problem for international athletes travelling worldwide. With plant based there is no issue with this. Each country has their own strict rules around meat products being brought into each country, its a major headache for a brand like Radix.

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Originally Posted by 199p

Smash some brown sugar in there and i try carry in cream too its bloody good that way. I normally do the apple pie or mixed berries

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Carry in some milk powder works awesome too.

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Originally Posted by hotsoup

Carry in some milk powder works awesome too.

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Hot tip

i repackage them into a vacuumed pack bag and add in milk powder, brown sugar sometimes ill add Honey Crunch or this other cereal to bulk them out.

Yep, just throw my usual breakfast cereal mix into small clip seal plastic bag , add milk powder. & brown sugar for extra calories. Job done. Just add water & the clip seal bag makes a perfect breckie bowl. Lunches are my issue. Take plenty of snacks, nuts, dry fruit, etc. Add a small block cheese & salami …. But that’s not so great in summer temps. The sachets of tuna are a good option.

Those Moana meals look little more than a snack. Only 1000-1500kj. (Many muesli bars are 5-700kj, for reference)

Got a Real Meal here that I grabbed at the supermarket a while back, hoping to finally have reason to use it next week. 2450kj, so still a bit light for a dinner IMO, in line with the lowest yield backcountrys, most of those are more like 3-3.5k. (About the same as the Radix 800kcal =3,347 kJ)

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Originally Posted by 199p

I like the radox breakfasts have them for dinner all the time

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Since no body else has asked I will.

Do you have to eat it in the bath?

The Radix works for me, the chilli for dinner and the apple cinnamon for breakfast. I joke they are about 90% the same, just pumpkin seeds and powders with different flavours added. But I will give science its credit, they fill you up and work just fine. I go the 800 size and find I don't need to eat lunch, the tank is full.
Then when I'm out of the bush I have a decent steak and a beer.

If the meals are a bit light, I take those single packs of udon noodles or little packs of quick rice things and bulk it out.

Mainly Radix for me too with the odd Real Meal in the mix .Really enjoy the flavors, was a bit skeptical when they went plant based but haven't noticed any difference tbh.
Love the Real Meal's chocolate pudding!!

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Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

You wont find many freeze drys that don't have gluten in thenlm unless you go with the new woke Radix meals. I've been trying a heap of different ones lately to determine what I'll take in wapiti ballot and real meals are pretty good the Wilderness stew is really good. Still have a couple of the old Radix pre woke era meals that haven't expired yet so will be taking them also. Outdoor gourmet have bugger all calories for their weight compared to normal backcountry so something to be aware of if needing fuel to sustain you on a big hunt
Attachment 267046

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I grabbed a couple of those BC smoothies. I really liked them. Quick and easy and pretty good if you leave then to hydrate for a few minutes.

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Originally Posted by kiwijames

I grabbed a couple of those BC smoothies. I really liked them. Quick and easy and pretty good if you leave then to hydrate for a few minutes.

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They're awesome at home if you put them in the freezer for a bit, they come out like soft serve