Jodie Weston
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Mountain House offers one of the longest product shelf life ranges in the industry. Their food is guaranteed to delight your taste buds even after it sits on a shelf for 30-years. How we cook food, is one of the key factors that impact taste and quality.
At Mountain House, they use a home cooked style which enhances the flavor of food naturally. Beyond tasting good, emergency food should be healthy, nutritious and satisfying.
This blog focuses on Eight of the best Mountain House meals to consider including in your emergency food stash.
Breakfast Foods
A good breakfast ensures you start each day off on the right foot. It jump-starts your metabolism for a healthy and productive day. One pouch of the Mountain House breakfast hash in a rush can feed two people, and it’s delicious and super easy to make.
Breakfast Skillet
The Breakfast Skillet from Mountain House is a delicious and nutritious option for anyone looking for a delicious, high-protein breakfast that’s easy to prepare. Every single serving of this meal contains 14g of protein, 23g of carbs, 260 calories per serving, 12g of fat, and 265mg of cholesterol.
The breakfast includes savory sausage, hash browns, scrambled eggs, and tasty veggies. These ingredients contain no artificial flavors or colors and are gluten-free. In addition to being delicious, the Mountain House Breakfast Skillet is rich in vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium.
Besides being packed with vitamins and minerals that keep you healthy every day of the year, this meal can help you stay fit by helping you feel full longer than other breakfasts.
Scrambled Eggs with Ham, Red & Green Peppers
The Mountain House Scrambled Egg Breakfast offers 190 calories, 15 grams of protein, and 7 grams of total carbs. All of Mountain House’s egg products are made using whole eggs with the naturally occurring glucose removed. This is a process that helps boost shelf life without diminishing the flavor of the product. While made with whole eggs, ham and peppers, this meal has 110 percent of your RDA for cholesterol.
Granola with Milk and Blueberries
To balance out the high cholesterol in the Mountain House Breakfast Skillet, plan on making their granola breakfast a staple. It has only 10 mg of cholesterol and still provides 250 calories, 8 grams of protein, and 37 grams of carbs. The ingredient list is good and includes wholesome foods such as granola, non-fat milk, and blueberries. Their granola consists of oats, coconut, wheatgerm, brown sugar, sesame seeds and natural vanilla. One of the pluses for this meal is that you can eat it without rehydrating it. If you want a hot cereal, rehydrate with hot water. If you prefer your breakfast cereal cold, just add cold water. Prep time is under 10-minutes making this an outstanding way to eat and get you day started.
Biscuits and Gravy
These meals have all the nutrients you need for a healthy breakfast: protein for muscle building and energy; carbohydrates for long-lasting energy; fat to help your body absorb vitamins A and D; calcium for strong bones; iron for healthy red blood cells; potassium for heart health.
Mountain House Biscuits and Gravy is a delicious breakfast that keeps you full all morning. It’s packed with 11g of protein, 37g of carbs, 280 calories per serving, 10g of fat, and 25mg of cholesterol.
This meal contains buttermilk, biscuit pieces, and pork sausages in a peppered gravy. These ingredients contain nothing artificial and are rich in vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium.
Scrambled Eggs with Bacon
This breakfast is rich in vitamin D, which helps your body absorb calcium more efficiently. It is also rich in iron which prevents anemia by increasing the number of red blood cells that help your body get oxygen where it’s needed.
The Scrambled Eggs with Bacon meal, per single serving, contains 23g of protein, 12g of carbs, 350 calories, 23g of fat, and 600mg of cholesterol. The ingredients contain nothing artificial and are gluten-free.
It has a good amount of potassium that is beneficial for heart health by lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of stroke or heart attack. It also helps control high blood pressure or diabetes by providing nutrients needed by the muscles that control blood flow through the body (blood vessel walls).
Veggie Chorizo Breakfast Scramble
The Veggie Chorizo Breakfast Scramble from Mountain House is a delicious and nutritious option for anyone looking for a delicious, high-protein breakfast that’s easy to prepare. Every single serving of this meal contains 14g of protein, 21g of carbs, 290 calories per serving, 17g of fat, and 255mg of cholesterol.
It also includes eggs, potatoes, peppers, and onions. These ingredients contain no artificial flavours or colours and are gluten-free. In addition to being delicious, the Mountain House Veggie Chorizo Breakfast Scramble is rich in vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium.
Besides being packed with vitamins and minerals that keep you healthy every day of the year, this meal can help you stay fit by helping you feel full longer than other breakfasts.
Lunches and Dinners
At Mountain House, lunch and dinner are interchangeable.
Chicken a la King
The Mountain House Chicken a la King is the ultimate Mountain House meal as it has the most protein at 18 grams per one cup serving and a boatload of carbs at 29 grams of carbs per serving. The total calorie count is 280 per serving making this our top choice for Mountain House meals. What impressed us beyond the excellent protein/carb ratio is the ingredients – chicken, mushrooms, pimientos, green peppers, celery without a long list of food extracts. Mountain House makes their food in such a way that it is naturally flavorful and it hits the mark as an emergency food store. While this meal is high in protein, it only represents part of the total calorie intake needed for a 2,000-calorie daily goal. You will need to add around 390 calories to hit the 667 calorie-per-meal goal.
Chicken Fried Rice
The Mountain House Chicken Fried Rice is a power packed meal. It offers more protein at 14 grams per serving to beat the 13 grams of protein found in the beef stew, and it makes up for that with 45 grams of carbs and 310 calories per serving. For a 2,000-calorie diet, you’d only need to add 357 additional carbs to hit that mark. The good news is that this meal is not overly laden with cholesterol, just 115 mg per serving. It also has five grams of fiber and only four grams of sugar. Their Chicken Fried Rice offers a nice balance of protein and carbs without a lot of negatives. The higher carb count makes this a better lunch than a dinner as you will likely need those carbs during the day rather than at night.
Beef Stew
The The Mountain House Beef Stew packs on the protein with 13 grams of protein per one-cup serving. As a meal, their Beef Stew is a good mix of protein and carbs. It offers 22 grams of carbs, which include three grams of fiber and two grams of sugar. This is a low fiber meal. The downfall is that this is not a meal that is high in calories. There are only 190 calories per serving making this a portion of a meal. If your aim is to consume 2,000 calories per day, then each meal needs to hit the 667-calorie mark. At 190 calories, you will need to add 477 additional calories to reach 667 calories. However, knowing that is half of the battle. As you prepare your emergency food stash, be sure to consider calorie consumption as part of the guideline that you use to establish how much food you need. The plus is that this meal offers 25 percent of your RDA for protein.
Chicken Stew
The Mountain House Chicken Stew offers 12 grams of protein and 24 grams of carbs. What is impressive about this meal is its ingredient list. It is made using potatoes, chicken, carrots, and green peas. Many processed foods use “flavouring” to imitate the wholesome taste of main ingredients. They do this to keep the price low. At Mountain House, their ingredients are whole foods – potatoes, not potato extract. Each one cup serving of Chicken Stew has 230 calories, 2 grams of fibre, and only 5 grams of sugar making this low fibre meal.
The downside to the Mountain House Chicken Stew is that you still need to add 437 calories to make a complete meal. The positive is that this is wholesome food and it is not full of an extraordinary amount of corn starch or other filler to boost the calorie count or total carb count.
Beef Stroganoff with Noodles
The Mountain House Beef Stroganoff with Noodles is a great option when you want something hearty, but you’re not going to have time to prepare it. You can have this ready in just nine minutes on the stovetop or over your campfire.
Each serving contains 12g of protein and 32g of carbohydrates, which will help to keep your energy levels up throughout the day. It also contains 12g of fat and 45mg of cholesterol. You can rest assured that it’s not just nutritious but also good for your heart.
A single serving has 280 calories and is made from quality ingredients like tender beef and savory mushrooms in a creamy sauce. You’ll also find onions in there for extra flavor and texture. What’s great is that all ingredients are natural—no artificial flavors or colors.
Rice & Chicken
Mountain House Rice & Chicken is a tasty, satisfying meal, and with 7g of protein in every serving, this meal will keep you full and focused throughout the day. Each serving also has 46g of carbs, which will help you keep your energy up with long-lasting fuel.
And at 250 calories per serving, this meal isn’t just delicious—it’s also super healthy. With 4g of fat and 15mg of cholesterol per serving, it’s safe to say that Mountain House Rice & Chicken is one of the healthiest meals on the market today.
This meal is the perfect choice when you’re craving a home-cooked meal but don’t have time to make it. It’s packed with chicken, rice, peppers, carrots, and celery, in a savory sauce that will leave you satisfied (and not stuffed). This meal is also gluten-free, so it’s perfect for people with food allergies.
Classic Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
It’s perfect for camping trips or an evening meal at home when you don’t have time to cook something from scratch. The Classic Spaghetti with Meat Sauce meal is simple to prepare: add boiling water and wait for nine minutes.
This meal contains 250 calories per single serving and 43g of carbs, making it one of the best options if you’re going to be on the move or at work all day. It also has a good amount of 10g of protein per serving, making it an excellent option if you try to maintain your workout regimen while traveling or working long hours.
The fat content in this meal is 3.5g, and the cholesterol is 10mg per serving which is very low compared to other options on the market today. This content makes it great for those looking for something low-fat while still having a lot of flavors.
Creamy Macaroni & Cheese
Do you crave something different? Try something new. The Mountain House Creamy Macaroni & Cheese meal is a perfect choice if you’re looking for something delicious and satisfying. It’ll also give you plenty of energy to get through your day.
It’s made with simple ingredients and no artificial flavors or preservatives—just real food, like macaroni noodles and rich cheese sauce. This single-serving meal contains 13g of protein and 33g of carbs per serving, 310 calories, 14g of fat (6g saturated fat), and 35mg of cholesterol. It also includes vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium.
You can spend your time outdoors and still ensure you have everything you need with the best Mountain House freeze-dried meals that are simple to cook and tasty. Add boiling water to prepare this meal; there is no need to add anything else. You’ll have a delicious meal ready to eat in just nine minutes.
Chili Mac with Beef
What makes this a healthy meal? You’ll feel energized after eating all that protein, which helps your body build muscles. It also has low fat and cholesterol that can help you stay fit and healthy.
The Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef per single serving contains 12g of protein, 32g of carbs, 230 calories per single serving, 6g of fat, and 20mg of cholesterol. This meal includes beef, macaroni, and kidney beans in a spicy tomato sauce. These ingredients contain nothing artificial.
If you’re seeking something lighter, this is a great option because it’s low in calories but still provides enough nutrients to keep you going throughout your day without feeling hungry again soon after eating. Have you considered shedding some pounds or improving your health? This recipe is the perfect meal for you.
Lasagna With Meat Sauce
Mountain House Lasagna With Meat Sauce is an easy and delicious meal for camping, hiking, and backpacking. It’s also an excellent choice for preppers and emergency food storage.
Lasagna With Meat Sauce contains 11g of protein, 30g of carbs, 220 calories per single serving, 6g of fat, and 20mg of cholesterol. The ingredients list includes meat sauce, cheese, and noodles.
These ingredients contain nothing artificial. Rich in calcium, iron, and potassium. This freeze-dried food features a delicious Italian-inspired flavor profile.
Mountain House Lasagna With Meat Sauce is easy to prepare: add hot water (or boil it in a pot). Add 1 1/2 cup water per serving and wait nine minutes before eating.
Chicken and Dumplings
The Mountain House Chicken Dumplings is a delicious meal that will leave you feeling full and satisfied. The ingredients of this meal include vegetables, fluffy dumplings, and layers of chicken in a white gravy.
These ingredients contain nothing artificial and are rich in vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium. The single meal contains 17g of protein per serving, 31g of carbs, 300 calories per single serving, 13g of fat, and 45mg of cholesterol.
This product has many health benefits, such as being low in trans fat and sugar, and it is an excellent choice for those trying to lose weight but still want to enjoy their favorite foods without sacrificing taste or quality.
The protein content also helps to make this casserole highly satisfying, while it’s a good and healthy lunch that will give your body the fuel it needs to stay energized throughout the day.
Mexican Style Adobo Rice & Chicken
Mountain House Mexican Style Adobo Rice & Chicken is a one-pot meal with protein, carbs, and flavor. It contains 33g of protein, 82g of carbs, 580 calories per serving, 14g of fat, and 50mg of cholesterol.
This meal includes rice, chicken, pinto beans, and veggies in an adobo sauce and lime. These ingredients contain nothing artificial and are gluten-free. It is an excellent source of protein that helps build muscle mass and helps you feel fuller longer.
It has a decent serving of carbohydrates that help fuel your body for energy during workouts or activities throughout the day. The adobo sauce provides nutrients such as vitamin D, iron, calcium, and potassium which help keep your bones healthy and maintain normal blood pressure levels by regulating sodium levels in blood vessels.
Meal Options to Boost Calorie, Protein, or Carb Intake
Mountain House offers additional products that help to flesh out a meal so that you hit the per-meal calorie goal based on your recommended daily calorie intake. Most label information skews to a 2,000-calorie goal. If your goal is different, you will need to adjust your meal planning to hit your mark.
- Diced Beef – Serving size is 2/3 of a cup and for that amount you gain 100 calories and 25 grams of protein. There are no added carbs making this an excellent option to boost both calories and protein.
- Diced Chicken — Serving size is 2/3 cup, and for that amount of diced chicken, you gain 170 calories and 25 grams of protein. There is no gain for carbs.
- Ground Beef — You gain the most calories from the Mountain House Ground Beef. In a ½ cup serving you gain 230 calories and 20 grams of protein. There are no carbs, but there are 16 grams of fat.
Uses for Mountain House’s freeze-dried meats are plentiful. You can easily add them to your lunch or dinner entrée, or you can add them to your breakfast skillet.
- Raspberry Crumble — If you just need to add carbs and calories, the Mountain House Raspberry Crumble is a good source for both. ½ cup of prepared Raspberry Crumble offers 140 calories and an additional 29 grams of carbs. This is the only dessert product that they offer in a #10 can. You can use it as a dessert to boost lunch and dinner calorie intake or add it to the Mountain House Granola to boost breakfast calorie intake. The downfall of the Raspberry Crumble is that it is full of sugar. It has 21 grams of sugar per ½ cup serving. Eating too much sugar can cause your blood sugar levels to spike or crash.
| Mountain House Meal | Score | No. of Servings Per Container | Calories Per Single Serving | Preparation Time Per Single serving | Protein Per Single serving |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rice & Chicken | 80 | 2 | 250 | 9 min | 7g |
| Beef Stroganoff with Noodles | 92 | 2 | 280 | 9 min | 12g |
| Chicken Teriyaki with Rice | 50 | 2 | 240 | 9 min | 12g |
| Creamy Macaroni & Cheese | 60 | 2 | 310 | 9 min | 13g |
| Chili Mac with Beef | 75 | 2 | 230 | 9 min | 12g |
| Chicken with Fried Rice | 79 | 2 | 300 | 9 min | 13g |
| Homestyle Chicken Noodle Casserole | 85 | 1 | 640 | 9 min | 42g |
| Mexican Style Adobo Rice & Chicken | 82 | 1 | 580 | 9 min | 33g |
How to Choose the Right Mountain House Meals for Your Needs
Mountain House freeze-dried food is one of the best out there when it comes to outdoor meals. The food tastes delicious and helps you save space in your backpack.
Determine what You Want to Do With the Meals
Do you want them for an emergency? If so, you can argue that the best Mountain House meals have the longest shelf life and are easy to prepare without cooking using fuel or electricity (If you’re not prepared with certain supplies, you may find it hard to cope in an emergency).
Are they for backup purposes only? They should be light and easy to eat, requiring minimal preparation time. Or do you plan on using them frequently during camping trips? This option is where weight becomes less important than taste and variety of food offerings.
How Many Servings Do You Need?
It all depends on the number of people you need to feed, how long you need to store your food, and how much weight and space each meal takes up in your backpack. Before purchasing a Mountain House product, ensure that the number of servings is appropriate for your needs.
Choose what You Like to Eat
It’s important to know that you’ll be eating the same food for a few days. Make sure you like everything on the menu. One thing you don’t want to do is run out of your three-day supply of Mountain House meals and still have half a can left over because it was too spicy or bitter for your taste buds.
Check the Sodium Content
Salt (sodium chloride) is a preservative in many foods. It’s also a common ingredient in processed and packaged meals. If you eat too much salt, you’re at increased risk of heart disease and stroke.
Knowing how much salt you’re consuming in your diet is important. People with kidney disease, diabetes, or high blood pressure should pay special attention to food labels when shopping for emergency food supplies.
Buy in Bulk, But Don’t Overbuy
You can save money on food storage supplies by buying in bulk, but don’t get carried away. Buying more than you need or can store and eat won’t do you any good. Ensure that what you buy can be stored properly in the available space to prevent spoilage.
FAQs
Here are questions and answers about Mountain House meals:
How do you prepare a great Mountain House breakfast without cooking?
Open the pouch at the notch. Remove the oxygen absorber, and pour 1 1/2 cups of boiling water into the pouch. Let stand for 5 minutes, stir well, reseal, and let it stand an additional 4 minutes. Stir again, then enjoy.
How long can you store Mountain House meals?
Mountain House meals have retained their flavour and nutritional value for 30 years. Whatever your adventure, you can count on delicious, satisfying food to fuel your journey.
Do Mountain House meals use freeze-drying or dehydration for preservation?
Yes. Mountain House foods are a tasty, freeze-dried, and easy-to-prepare solution for backpackers, campers, and emergency kits. Just add hot water, wait nine minutes and enjoy.
Final Word on the Top Mountain House Meals
Overall, the quality of the food is outstanding, and you cannot beat the long shelf life of 30-years. Mountain House has been in business for over 50 years, and all their products are freeze-dried both for longer shelf life and for ease of reconstitution. Simply add water – hot or cold – and your meal is ready in under ten minutes. While the Mountain House menu is vast, they did not offer dried fruit which would make it easy for consumers to boost calorie, carbs, and healthy sugar intake.
Mountain House meals are a great emergency food supply. They are convenient, easy to store, and won’t go bad in your pantry. These cheap Mountain House meals stand out among the others because they taste fresh, and if you buy in bulk, you can save money. The best part is that you can choose from many different options, so you’re certain to find something that suits your taste.
Let us know what your favourite emergency food is in your survival stash.
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9 Responses to “The 8 Best Mountain House Meals Worth Trying”
I have been buying the pouches at Walmart for years. They taste great.
I also get them on Amazon with free shipping. along with Hoosier Hills Farms milk and eggs and Red Feather Butter.
Carbs and sugars are not for a lot of us. Do you know of a site that caters to those of us approaching type 2 status?
While sugar is the enemy of diabetics, you need carbs for a balanced diet. 45 to 60 carbs per meal or you risk low blood sugar, and in a diabetic that’s just as danergerous as high blood sugar.
You need to do some new research. Cholesterol is NOT the monster that we were told for decades. Whatever the mainstream media tells you, do the opposite and you’ll be fine.
The shipping rates are ridiculous!
I’ve been a fan of Mountain House for many years now. Several of those on your list are among my favorites! I honestly can’t say I have just one absolute favorite. However, as a hypertensive diabetic (non-insulin), I have to pay close attention to cholesterol and carbs. I agree supplementing with an additional protein source would be beneficial. If the ship ever hit the sand (stole that from Todd Sepulveda), and I ran out of my meds, I’d have to monitor my intake and exercise VERY carefully. Even so, MH would be on my list of go to foods.
Where’s the chili mac?? Had my kiddo make Mountain House pouches with some home made biscuits over the grill for home schooling. Wonderful!
I use Mountain House foods quite a lot when camping. My only issue with the cans is that when opened, the shelf life is very short.
Mountain House is my favourite long-term food storage option, both for taste, nutrition, and convenience. As a single person, the package size is convenient for me (I am, as my father puts it, “A larger class of person”, and the supposedly 2 1/2 serving size meal envelopes is actually a satisfying single meal for me.) In an emergency, for travel, or for busy times like moving house, I find it extremely easy to simply boil water, add to the packet, wait, then cut down the packet and eat right from it – no need for plates or pots. If I had the option of starting my prepping journey over again, I would have started with Mountain House and forgone the 1-year plus worth of “one month’s food in a single bucket” products (which are more like 2 weeks worth of calories and pretty much all cheap carbs). It would be good if Mountain House had freeze dried fruits and veggies as well. However, I made of several buckets of Trader Joe’s freeze dried berries (I cram as many of their sealed bags as I can get into a 5 gallon bucket with mylar bag and hope the added oxygen absorber actually extends the rated 1 year life span) – I throw a bunch of freeze dried berries into the granola (or just munch on them dry – they make a great snack). I also add MH freeze dried beef or chicken plus some mother Earth freeze dried veggies to the various MH entrees for extra nutrition.