Light, tasty food options?

I'm a fairly inexperienced camper here. Haven't done much since I was a kid, but I've been getting back out into the woods the past year or two.

One thing that continues to vex me is food. It's either too heavy or it tastes horrible. I've tried the Mountain House freeze-dried stuff and I found it darn near unpalatable. After a day of hiking, that's demotivating.

What are my options for camp dinners that will actually taste good?

Well, if you didn't like Mountain House I don't know what to tell you. You could try Backcountry Pantry stuff(or maybe it's Backpacker's Pantry?) which is freeze dried, but it isn't terribly different from Mountain House. Of course, I'm sure it depends on what you ate, though "unpalatable" seems like a great exageration. However, everyone has their tastes I suppose. Some things are always going to taste better than others. I know there are a few other brands out there but having never bought them their names don't come to mind.

You could always go for making your own stuff, then freeze drying it and then vacuum packaging it yourself. That's really probably the only guaranteed way to get something you know you'll like.

There are other improvisational ways to provide yourself with food that I'm sure others will explain shortly.

An easier question would be "What are my options for camp dinners that will actually NOT taste good?"

There are a LOT of foods you can take into the back country that tastes great. So many, that I am not going to bore you, plus I don't know what you like to eat. Taste is very personal.
Go to the food section of this forum. Go to the food section of other backpacking forums. Look at Freezer bag cooking. The list is enormous.

http://www.hawkvittles.com/

There are other options of dehydrated foods (as opposed to freeze-dried) as well. In my experience, Hawks are not only the best tasting, but also the least expensive per serving. Others may appear cheaper, but the amount you get per serving is not comparable. I estimate the ratio to be 2:1. A 2-serving Haw Vittles I get 3 full meals out of, where other brands a 2-servng portion is a single meal. Do the math on the price!

Get the book Freezer Bag Cooking, Trail Food Made Simple by Sarah Svien Kirkconnell. The recipes are amazing. I promise you will be impressed!

Randy

trailcooking.com, aka freezer bag cooking, will give you a starting point to create less expensive and healthier options.

You can go a long way with instant potatoes, couscous, dehydrated veggies and fruit, nuts, precooked/dehydrated pastas, soup mixes, sauce mixes, and even some meat and cheese - all available from many grocery stores.

Packitgourmet.com fills in gaps. Love the meals and protein drinks.
Harmonyhousefoods.com has a backpackers kit - it's a great option for people who don't want to dehydrate their own stuff.
Trader Joes - I love their nuts/fruits, mixes and lots of their stuff from the pasta/rice aisle are perfect backpacking food. Shelf stable gnocchi goes with me often. Flattened banana for the win! Good prices on Clif bars and similar. Huge bottles of Dr Bronner's soap.

lori speaks truth, Fish in a Barrel.

You may have to do some of the work of assembling some ingredients together and deciding which combinations suit your taste, but unless you absolutely insist on nothing but fresh food that spoils easily and requires fancy cooking techniques, you can succeed in feeding yourself rather well.

Not cheap but tasty and easy.
Enertia Trail Foods.
Get the cook in pouch ones and you do not even get a pan dirty. It is nothing that you could not do yourself with freezer bag cooking but it is all done for you and they taste good.

http://www.trailfoods.com/

Book a two week survival course, it makes every bag of food taste wonderful.