The new wears off of Cliff Bars pretty fast for me. I really only like the white chocolate macadamia nut ones myself. I prefer the Atkin's Peanut butter bars...pretty decent nutritionally and for whatever weird reason I like the taste of them.

Oh yeah. I fully agree they get old fast. That's why they are in my crash bag as emergency food. When I am going out kayaking or hiking or something I always pack tastier goodies and keep the cliff bars as just in case food. As far as "pack it and forget it" food goes I have experimented with this and that and just found cliff bars to be kind of hard to beat.

The fact that they don't melt in the heat is a bonus I forgot to mention. A lot of meal bars I have tried don't hold up very well in the heat.

mmmmm used kitty litter.... Makes me me want to run right out and buy some. Lol. I like Pure Protien Bars, they seem the best of sad lot. I must admit that I truly enjoy the old Tigers Milk bars, mainly the honey and peanut butter ones, but they're tiny and getting ever harder to find in stores. I rarely order off the internet.

I like no cook choices for short term but admit to trying to always have water and a small stove and pot so one pot meals is doable. I like Instant Rice, Dried soup mix with some seasonings to go with tuna or salmon or sardines, Wasa Bread, Peanut Butter and Pure Protein Bars.
Try not to get too exotic and these things keep well.

I'm a fan of clif bars for daypacks as well. They don't turn gooey when it gets hot, and the taste is OK but I never crave them, so I don't dip into them unless I need to.

I really wish someone would pack freeze dried rations like the military LRP rations -- vacuum packed and designed to take up little room in your pack. Being light is only part of the equation, being compact for me is a big one too. Mountain House has Pro-Paks which are vacuum packed but they still manage to find a way to make them bulky as hell. Which is kinda weird since they come from the same place.

Additionally, if they could get the cost of freeze dried food entree on par with the cost of an MRE entree (~2.50-4.00) I'd probably invest more heavily in them.

Yeah, I love the LRP stuff! It's kind of hard to get so when I do find it I'll often get a couple dozen of 'em. Very compact and pretty tasty.

Been considering a purchase of a 30 food supply bucket - to take apart for car, packs, etc

Survival tabs - my ultimate solution for every kit. Whole family loves them (that's a children's dream to eat candy only ).
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Reserves-Survival-Tabs-180/dp/B00JB2VO3A

One of the very well hidden benefits - you can also cut on sanitation supplies after just first day, as it does not produce any waste at all.

Also you can use the container as a watertight flask (there is a zip-lock bag inside allowing to empty the container when in the survival mode).

But hurry, the price is going up, and it looks like these are going to be replaced with the new breed, which new shape I don't like at all - it's ugly and impractical: https://thesurvivaltabs.com/

I looked at the Survival tabs and it is a little confusing.

One serving (12 tabs) supplies 100% of most of your daily requirement of minerals and vitamins. Good.

One serving supplies 10% of your daily value of carbs. Hmm, so you need 10 servings per day to get 100% of your daily value. That would 120 tabs or 2/3 of a bottle. They claim you only need one serving per day.

I think I would still be very hungry.

Oh, and they are $39.95 a bottle.

I agree, even if you had plenty of those Survival tabs at hand I think you'd still feel hungry. The problem with concentrated food is that it's just not very filling. Our bodies are used to getting real food, which includes plenty of fiber. If you're not getting that more or less regularly your stomach won't be too happy about it.

It's a bit akin to basing your diet on bodybuilding supplements such as protein powder or weight gainers. In theory, it should work because those supplements contain all the vital ingredients necessary for survival. But it's a quick way to ruin your digestion. I would treat those tabs as supplements at best rather than actual meal replacement. Heck, even the bad old MRE's would be better, at least they give you something closer to real food.