The Backpacking Kit - 18Ct Premium Lightweight Meals in 1 Cup Resealable Pouches by Harmony House Foods, Single Set White

I had seen several videos on how to spice ramen up with additional flavors. I got this multi pack of pouches to test things out before buying bigger packages. The kids and I loved them. The potatoes did need additional cooking or rehydrating time to get the best texture. Well worth the money to buy.

I bought this package for a 5-night backpacking trip and was extremely pleased with the quality and quantity. I'm a health-conscious foodie and outdoors enthusiast, and I refuse to sacrifice eating delicious, healthy meals just because I'm in the backcountry. The veggies were extremely fragrant and tasted wonderful, my trip mates with their factory-produced, pre-packaged meals were super jealous. I mixed and matched the items in this package (plus some additional outside ingredients as noted) to create the following meals: -Mexican-style bean and veggie blend: black and pinto beans, potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, corn, and onions. (Outside ingredients: corn tortillas, fresh avocados, herbs and spices, and dehydrated egg mix for a tortilla breakfast soup) -Italian white bean and vegetable soup: white beans, green beans, onions, celery, carrots, bell peppers, peas, and cabbage. (Outside ingredients: dry pesto sauce mix packet from Safeway, sun dried tomatoes, herbs & spices.) -Creole red beans and rice: red beans, bell peppers, celery, onion, corn, tomatoes. (Outside ingredients: minute brown rice, herbs & spices) -Deluxe vegetable ramen: cabbage, peas, green beans, carrots. (Outside ingredients: instant ramen package, dried shiitake mushrooms, dried nori, wakame, kombu, and dulse seaweeds) -Indian-style curried veggies and lentils: lentils, carrots, potatoes, green beans, peas. (Outside ingredients: curry powder, minute brown rice.) I really enjoyed mixing and matching the ingredients to make my meal plan for the week and the package included enough for 2 people (breakfasts and dinners, that is) for a 5-night trip like mine. Would definitely order again and recommend to all vegetable loving backpackers.

Overall, I rate this backpacking kit with 4 stars because there are a few veggies that take a very long time to hydrate. The peas would be a good example. The green beans don't seem to get too soft either. But overall everything taste fine in soup or whatever you're making. I definitely agree with the other reviewer who said the cabbage taste great alone. Actually, the cabbage is so good I plan to purchase a gallon size container of it from harmony house's website. I purchased the sample kit so I would know what I could order in larger quantities later on. As of right now, I love the cabbage, mixed peppers, carrots, celery, onions, northern beans, and tomatoes the best, and will order all of these in larger containers next time. The most simpliest way to use these samples is by adding any of them to chicken or beef broth or even use bouillon cubes, and that's all you really need. Taste just fine. And I make my own salad dressing so I take the onions and mixed peppers and hydrate them in oil, vinegar, water and seasoning, and it makes some really tasty salad dressing. UPDATE: During the holidays, I travelled via plane to several cities and I included some of these veggie packets in my carry-on. I ended up staying in a hotel that had a small kitchenette and making soup was a breeze using these dehydrated veggies. I'm on my way on another trip and I already have a few of these stashed in my carry-on. If you're a backpacker or not, these veggies/beans go great with rice. If you carry along some rice in your backpack and a few of these pouches, you can add the rice and red beans in a pot with water and seasonings and simmer and have a great lunch.

I love how clean and simple this food is. So many backpacking/camping meals are filled with nasty chemicals and additives; there is a definite shortage of clean camping food on the market. This is it- simple bags of ONE ingredient each. If you want to make meals out of it, you must combine ingredients yourself, but at least you know it's not going to make you sick or give you cancer. I do strongly recommend supplementing the meals you create with seasonings. Eating this stuff without seasoning is less than thrilling, but a little bit of spice, hot sauce, or just salt & pepper goes a long way to making this food delicious. If you're hiking or doing other high-energy activities, I recommend supplementing these meals with noodles or rice. This is primarily veggies and beans, which are great, but not enough for sustaining high energy levels. Overall, I LOVE the taste and ease of preparation, and I will definitely be a repeat customer.

Great for camping and emergency food

foods good, needs to be cooked a little longer and a little more water than recipes indicate for my taste though.

I got these because I was tired of buying whole bunches of celery, etc., when we ordinarily only need a little bit. Even when buying canned foods, we'd end up throwing out expired foods, when we just needed smaller amounts on hand for longer term storage to use in soups, casseroles, recipes, etc. For us, this solution is perfect. These are pricey, but for us, no more expensive than driving back and forth to the store, having to purchase more than we can use, then throwing it out.

I got this product for my girlfriend for her birthday, and we were very happy with the food. We took the cabbage, onions, celery, potatoes, and carrots with us on our last camping trip, and it was so nice to have hot and hearty food for supper after hiking all day. Additionally, since I was the pack mule, I was happy because the dried food added little noticeable weight to my pack. I cannot recommend this product enough. Some things to note: 1) Since these foods are dried, they use up a considerable amount of water and take a bit of time to cook; however, we figured out that this can be remedied by cooking the product in a pot with a lid on. 2) A little goes a long way. Unless you have a big pot, you should only need a couple of tablespoons of each item you are adding to your dish. Next time, we plan on measuring our ingredients before the trip and mixing them together in separate bags. 3) You only get the vegetables; seasoning is up to you. We plan to alleviate this issue by adding seasoning to our premixed bags of the vegetables. (see number 2)

Really useful variety of vegetables, handily packed in individual resealable packets. We used these for every dinner for 8 days for 2 people and have barely used a quarter, they really do go a long way. We took them on a kayaking trip and they packed small, giving a huge variety of different meal options. For example we used them to cook pasta with vegetables, a jambalaya (rice, spices, onions, peppers, tomatoes and some salami), a green risotto with dried parmesan cheese (risotto rice, stock cube, parmesan, peas, green beans, onions, celery), mexican rice with beans, and a biryani (rice, spices, a whole mix of different vegetables). Using just one pot for the carbs and vegetables worked really well for us and meant minimal washing up which is always a bonus when camping! Impressively the vegetables all looked and tasted remarkably normal once cooked, you would struggle to tell the difference between these and normal vegetables. My only critique would perhaps be the balance of vegetables - you get double of a small number of the packets and perhaps if I could select myself I would have gone for just 1x potatoes and 2x onions but this is just personal preference. I think I would struggle to do camping food without these again - having experienced how lightweight, versatile and high quality these vegetables are I will be buying them again in future.

Designed for camping, but a really good storecupboard item. There is a very good range of products which will have retained their nutritional value better than some other methods of preservation, some recipes for easy meals for people to see how useful dried vegetables can be, and enough to experiment and supplement a range of foods such as soups and casseroles. Very useful for holidays, being snowed in, having difficulty getting to the shops or access to fresh veg for whatever reason. Well worth having in the house as well as the rucksack.

I love this kit. Perfect for hiking/camping trips. Ingredients cook in about 10 minuts so you can easily add raw rice and have it done at the same time. Great product.

I am genuinely impressed with this product. No messing about, it is exactly what it says - a bunch of dried veg. When you cook them, they smell and taste GREAT. Light and easy to carry, I got them for camping but have mostly been experimenting at home so far. You can add maybe half a stock cube or some meat jerky or maybe a little spice to the recipies, but you hardly need to - the veg is so full of flavour. The 'serving' size is enough for a light lunch, but I would double up or add some bread/rice to get a good dinner out of it, especially after a day hiking. Even so, these represent exceptional value for money and are really light to carry - proper nutrition on the go. Cannot recommend highly enough.

So pleased with this collection of dehydrated foods. They are just what I was looking for lightweight for my backpack and long lasting. I’ve cooked up the recipes from the enclosed sheet and mixed up my own all tasted great. I’ve camped at some remote areas with just my water and gas stove with these foods. I would highly recommend them as an alternative to wet pouch style camping foods.