The local Walmart just started stocking these in place of Mountain House meals, so I figured I would buy a couple and try 'em out. They sell for $4.88 a piece and carry a 'Best by' date of 6/2013.



This one happens to be 'Cilantro Lime Rice w/Pinto beans.' As it sits, the package weighs under 5 ounces on my scale. It's a nice size for backpacking, if I had to compare it to something, I would say it's a little bit larger than a typical paperback book.



Here's the back side. As is typical with pre-packaged meals, the sodium content is extremely high. This one is 41% of your Daily Value. For hiking or strenuous activity, where you will be drinking a lot of water and loosing a lot of salt through perspiration, it's probably not a big deal. However, I wouldn't really want to eat these things day in and day out. If you notice, it also has a neat little clear window on the side that lets you use the bag as a measuring device, so you know exactly how put water to use to prepare the meal.



Preparing it is pretty simple. All you need is the bag itself, some water, and a way to boil said water. I'm using an MSR steel pot and an MSR Pocket Rocket Stove.



*Warning: Make sure to use stove on level ground in a well ventilated area.



While the water is boiling, I decided to open the package and see what's inside. Apparently, it's more packages. It appears to be one package of spices and one package of beans/rice/cilantro. I really like that. While it's more garbage to throw away, it does allow one to use different spices if so desired, or to only eat the beans/rice and save the spice packet for something else. It also allows one to use the main pouch as a way to roughly measure the necessary amount of water before boiling.



I started by opening the package of beans/rice/cilantro and emptying it into the main pouch. It looks like pretty typical dried rice and beans.



I then added the boiling water to the bag. *Warning: Boiling water is obviously very hot.



From there, it says to seal the pouch (which has a ziploc-like zipper along the top edge) and wait 5-7 minutes. I figured I would just split the difference and set the timer for 6.



After the 6 minutes were up, I added the spice packet and stirred.



I poured it into the pot and, Viola!, Cilantro Lime Rice with Pinto Beans. I don't think it looks too bad.

Taste wise, well, it tastes like what it is. Dried beans and rice, in a kind of soupy Mexican spice sauce, and a hint of lime. If you're expecting Michelin Star quality food, this ain't it. The beans and rice themselves are pretty tasteless, it's obvious all the flavor comes from the spice packet. It's a little hot, but I didn't find it to be excessively thirst provoking. The hint of lime is nice, adding to subtle sweetness to the dish. All in all, I found it to be filling and inoffensive enough that I wouldn't mind eating it again, at least when I'm hiking. It's definitely better than some meals I've eaten for under $5.

Thanks for the review.

I think I'll stick with the excellent treking and camping foods that can found at the local supermarket rather than the products from Reiter, Mountain House et all (although I haven't tried Expedition foods yet). I really couldn't in all honesty pay $5 for just beans and rice. This is typically what I would spend for around $5 at the supermarket for a easy to cook meal ready to eat for a days fishing outing.





These boil in the bag combo meals really are quite excellent, even though they don't quite match freshly caught sea trout cooked on a open fire.

Looks remarkably similar to the beans and rice sides that Lipton (now Knorr) used to sell for a buck (similar to the noodles/pasta/rice ones they still sell). I still have some of them. Bet they haven't sold them (here) for 20 years lol. Mmmm, vintage beans and rice, that's like vintage scotch, right? I'll eat just about anything, and have a cast-iron stomach...

I got hungry just looking at the pics (yup, I don't watch food commercials...) and am considering the old Lipton stuff. It is kept here as emergency emergency food, to go with the old emergency bottled water...like for when death is the alternative. Better to have and not need...they're sealed so how bad can they get???

Great idea

I'm still alive!

Usually, when I eat stuff with a lot of spices like this, it gives me heartburn, indigestion, a stomach ache, inflamed hemorrhoids, or some combination thereof. Surprisingly, it didn't bother me in the least.

A well done review and great pictures to accompany. Thank you for doing it. I'm with Am_Fear_Liath_Mor on trail foods. A tuna packet and ramen or minute rice does it for me for most situations for under $2.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tilda-Steamed-Basmati-Mexican-Chilli/dp/B0048F5J7M

Mexican Beans and Rice boil in the bag avialable for around $1.50 available at the local supermarket.

BTW was the Coleman trail foods actually a freeze dried product as the shelf life seems quite limited for such as expensive product. A freeze dried product should have a 5 year shelf life such as with the Mountain House range.

Does anyone have a source for these type of food grade resealable strip Mylar packaging baggies that the freeze dried food manufacturers use. They would be really useful to home vacuum seal individual portions as 500gm portions (5 days use) although useful for multiday hikes are a little large to carry for 1-2 days

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=268486797

Ramen and tuna is ok. Ramen and chicken is better. When I was forced to eat outside by my Uncle Sam, I carried Ramen, cocoa, canned chicken and canned tuna. I'd go through the MREs and take out what was semi edible or stuff I could mess with and make edible. The difference in weight usually was in my favor - dropping most of the MRE off and replacing it with lighter stuff.

I also carried spices, like salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion flakes and tobasco.

You got to eat, but you don't have to eat bland crap unless you want to.

These are single use and not resealable but close

http://www.amazon.com/50-Gallon-Absorbers-Dehydrated-Storage/dp/B003WSUPDY/ref=pd_sbs_misc_5

Thanks for the review, Paul.

The supermarket is cheaper, but having a few of those "just add boiling water" meals in the supply box can make a last minute trip possible. The Coleman ones seem to be cheaper than the ones at REI.

HJ

Enertia makes the tastiest of dehydrated meals I've found- their Max Patch Mac'n'cheese is very yummy, and their Bear Mountain Mush is amazing (and packs more calories than any MRE entree!). Their downside is they are only good for a year according to the package, but I've eatten three year old Enertia meals and they tasted fine. And if you really, really want, it's an excuse to go camping for at least one night a year.

Diabolically clever

Thank you for the review and especially for the tasty photo set! I have been testing other meal types from Coleman this weekend with great success. To compliment your review with my experience: I've found that these meals' taste is much better if you use the entire content of "spice" packs, probably because they have proper amounts of ingredients for that (i.e. salt). One of the meals I've got was actually an omelet kit, which requires some raw eggs (it was good in other meals though).

By the way, I've found them for $3.45 on sale at the local Target. Also it seems to me that I saw them sold online for $1.98 once (but that could have been just some similar looking package).