Coleman dried foods....

Scanning through Walmarts camping section I noticed Mountain House has disappeared and Coleman freeze dried entrees have replaced them. For down and dirty overnighters, the Mountain House meals sold at Walmart are pretty good. The Coleman versions are smaller portions and more expensive. Anybody tried the Coleman meals?

Yes, and I believe that they are mostly Enertia entrees being sold under the Coleman label. (They've kept the old Enertia names.) One of my favorites is the Max Patch Mac-n-cheese - I added one of those pouches of seasoned salmon to it a couple of weeks ago, and it was great!

Picked up the San Juan stroganoff awhile back, haven't tried it yet.

I saw a pretty good selection of these in our WM, and I think they were about $6.99 each...seems to me these and most other pre-packaged freeze dried foods are overpriced, and I am suspicious that the portions would not be adequate.

For example I can take two packages of instant mashed potatoes and a big pouch of tyson chicken and mix them and have a decent portion for 4 of us for less than $5, probably closer to $4.

But I have not tried these meals, are they generally good enough to justify the expense, especially over a multi day trip for 4?

I use to like the Enertia brand of foods but I did have some problems with the switchback spag. I couldn't get the powdered sauce to break up enough so it would become a sauce. I was harder than a rock and I know that because I broke a rock trying to breakup the sauce

When I saw the Coleman brand and heard it was by Enertia I had high hopes. I was disappointed in the product. I won't waste my money on it again.

Walmart politics probably crowded out the Mountain House meals. I belive MH had 1 product on the shelves and Coleman has several shelves worth of products.
I might try one of the Colemans as a 'test' meal and report back. Mountain House used to be awful years ago but when I gave them another chance last year, they were dang good!
Hard to beat for a down and dirty meal.

Dryer,

hope you have better luck than I did

Yeah I don't understand all the Mountain House haters. Gourmet it is not, but they are fairly tasty, filling and super convenient.

My issue with both Enertia and Coleman meals are the ingredients. You are paying a premium price and not getting anything above Sysco quality. Same with MH. The problem is anything designed to last that many years is going to have questionable ingredients, We can all do better. If you are going to spend $4 to 13 a meal, it should be better!
http://blog.trailcooking.com/2010/12/19/meal-review-coleman-chocolate-chip-pancakes/
I wrote that back in December of 2010. 6 pancakes for $4.50...no syrup, no oil. Way too pricey!!

+1 for Sarbar's comments about expense VS ingredients. Enertia's sales staff has said that the meals are compatible with added meats (maybe fish), but they are vegetarian meals. For basically carbs (rice, pasta, potatoes, flour/biscuit mix) they are way too expensive. Tasty or not, most of us will be better served to buy foods from the grocery store and mix up our own. Better yet, dehydrate our own, but for those who don't, try adding soup cups to readily available "instant" foods.

CM

Nice review, Sarbar. I had totally given up on all of the dehydrated meals years ago. Now days, better options are available at the grocer, as you know.
A couple of MH meals were on the clearance rack at Walmart and the price was right, $3, and I shatched em' up as more of a novelty. My wife and I tried one on a kayak overnighter and were really impressed! For a quickie, heat water only meal that required no utensils other than a pot for the water, it worked very well for a couple of tired paddlers. I doubt I'd ever depend on that kind of thing for a serious hike or paddle but it did give me another option. Sounds like the Coleman version is a few notches down from MH.