...I cracked open a #10 can of Mountain House lasagna last night and made a few cups. Food was great, but the clean-up is terrible. The pan, plates, utensils are gummed up with the sauce and whatnot and required more scrubbing, hot water, soap that anything I can think of. Because of this, I'm switching my purchasing over to the individual bags that you just dump hot water into.

Lots of folks keep some paper plates around for messy meals, let the good solid plate hold the paper plate and yeah the grease might soak through but most of the mess is on the paper plate.



Utensils are a toss up, I dislike cheap plastic stuff but don't often buy the good plastic stuff.  I have some surplus silverware that I got and it just becomes a matter of cleaning your utensil.



To some extent letting them soak a bit and having a decent brush might be what is needed.  Just talking a little scrub brush or scrubby pad.



With most stuff letting it soak works great.  I still remember a pot of something tj apparently told us to put water in at a campout and we did not, so it went home the next day needing some soaking time and then it would be easier to cleanup.



Some of the dutch oven cobbler threads show aluminum foil lining the dutch oven to make cleanup easy.



Overall I learned a lot of shortcuts in boy scouts but I don't always use them.

during the 2004 hurricane season 9 day power outage, I used this inexpensive tailgate grill for a lot of my cooking, to save on hot water for cleanup...most of my perishable food of any value was frozen meat, and could be made into kabobs on bamboo skewers, or cooked directly on the grill....when cooking with the neighbors, they had more canned foods, so I used the fish cooker and its aluminum pot to heat canned foods in a water bath....eat directly from the can... split 50/50 if condensed soup with an empty clean can... left over water to clean cooking utensils... place the cans in the pot first to determine the water level... usually a good idea to open the can first, and you need a pair of needle nose or multi tool to retrieve....with the tall lid on the tailgate grill, you can probably do some baking... the grill needs to be cleaned up

as biere commented... a ground beef patty layered between some thinly sliced potatoes, drizzled with olive oil, salt/pepper, tightly wrapped in aluminum foil and thrown on some coals, brings back memories of Scouts

I've been worried about the same thing OP. People have no idea how much water they actually use in their day to day lives. Its insane.

Handy hints to use less water when washing up after meals (aka, things that use to be taught in scouting before liberals/helicopter moms/urbanites got involved):
Lick everything clean, just rubbing it with your finger won't do. If you can't reach part of the pan, use a rubber/silicone spatula to scrape out as much as possible before it dries.



Dogs also work wonders at cleaning foods that are safe for them (no onions, hot peppers, chocolate, etc). Canine saliva is antiseptic and will leave nothing on the pans that a very small amount of soap, minimal water and bleach won't remove.
Get some fine white mason's sand and put this on your scrubbing pad with the soap to help boost the scrubbing power. You can also use fine sand to clean cast iron without the use of soap by simply mixing it with water (a little more water than would be needed to saturate the sand), scrubbing any large particles out of the pan before rinsing it, and then heating it back up before putting in a light brush of oil to keep the pan's/dutch oven's seasoning fresh.
Stainless steel utensils and cast iron pans can be charred clean over a fire, allowing the remaining carbon to be scraped/scrubbed off while dry. Edit note: Remember not to grab your utensils right out of the fire after the food remains have burned off!


 

I keep a quart-sized bottle of 91% Isopropyl Alcohol around, with a Windex spray nozzle screwed into it.

It works great for cleaning cooking and eating utensils - Just a couple of spritzes, and most food bits just wipe off.

The fact that it's a pretty decent disinfectant is a bonus.

Also works great for waterless hand washing, and general first aid.

Heh heh, Labradors absolutely can lick cooking pots clean.

Try this at home, before emergencies.  It's so effective, it's amazing.  Tell your spouse, "I'm doing research, honey."

The worst I have come across is cleaning a canteen cup after heating and eating oatmeal.

Just got back from a 6 day trip in Montana. All foods were repackaged into qt freezer bags. Just add boiling water and put into a cozy for 15 minuets. Only clean up is a spoon. No problem.

Same here!

Yup. There'a really no reason to rehydrate MH in a pot, or to use a plate for that matter. If you don't like the idea of freezer bags (which do work extremely well), you can purchase ziploc mylar bags in 1qt and 1 gal capacities as well. A bonus with these bags is there is normally enough material above the "zipper" that you can seal the bag with an iron if you need to use them for long term storage.

In this order I use sand, or clay, or dirt for scrubbing. Water just rinses the dirt off. But I am a redneck so.....