I have recently been looking at adding Mountain House to my food storage to supplement the other long term dry goods I have been putting back.  The downside is the expense of Mountain House but it is hard to pass on their quality of taste from my experience.  How have others used Mountain House or other freeze dried food as a staple in their storage to supplement or even all of your storage?  I am curious as to the opinions and experiences of others.

i have added some stuff from them.  Its good stuff.  I got a couple of the 3 month supply and it gives a good variety of items..  I am pleased.

I never wanted to invest in a bulk amount so i just buy 1-2 every trip to walmart. Its good stuff but pricey.

The only freeze dried items we add are fruits and vegetables.

Although we do have one #10 can of MH bacon and eggs, bought before I knew what it tasted like.

ETA:
Almost forgot.
One other freeze dried item we store is the MH freeze dried ice cream - neapolitan and ice cream sandwiches.

thanks for the input so far! For those of you who have a negative opinion of something can I ask what it is?   I have only tried a few things myself such as Chilli mac, beef stew, and a few others and have liked them.  However, I have heard more then once that the breakfast skillets aren't that good.  I have started adding a few things to add variety to the dry goods I have stored.  What if any items would you all recommend as tasting good?

Thanks

The problem with the freeze dried meals at my house is that we don't eat like that now.
Meaning that we don't eat frozen dinners, canned chili, etc.

Most of the MH meals I have tried have tasted OK.

We store ingredients rather than prepackaged entrees.
We don't even buy kraft mac and cheese in the box,
my wife makes it from scratch.

I have a pretty good variety of there stuff from the #10 cans to the pouches.
My family and I have tried and like the Mac'N'Cheese,Chicken and Noodles,Lasagna,Chicken and Rice and Beef Stew in #10 Cans.I have to say it is pretty good and I am a pretty picky eater,my wife "likes" them so far but it is not her first choice.But as she says it is better than going hungry.My kids would eat cut up tires if you put it in front of them so they are not the best gauge for how good the food is.

The pouches I like but I need to perfect my MRE heating skills a bit.

Just my .02 but I would buy Mountain House yes it is pricey try some out before you commit

I stock cans of it.

Add to rice to extend in times of activated paranoia.

Tastes great and easy to store, cans are good for 25 years.

Stock what you eat as a rule of thumb but there is a great place for freeze dried in preps.

QFT

Good stuff in that statement!

I think as a supplement you can't go wrong with having a percentage of your meals be "instant" as in freeze dried goods. Hard times, or shtf, there will be those days when you want something warm, in a hurry and with a minimal effort. 5% of our stash is MH #10 cases. We started out with the foil packs, decided what everyone likes(two teens and my wife) and selected cases of meals as well as some freeze dried veggies and fruits that we eat and could be added to prepared meals. You will tire of eating MH quickly and long for "familiar foods", so I wouldn't be in a big hurry to go out and buy a pallet of MH and call it a day.

I'm glad to see some positive reviews as well as honest not so positive reviews.  My plan with adding in the Mountain House is to supplement the endless supply of rice and beans many of us are putting back.  I also have the staples of flour, sugar, corn, wheat, and other items but figured that some other flavoring such as mountain house could go a long way to keep up morale.  I have no desire to buy things like cottage cheese as I hate it normally and can't even imagine it freeze dried but beef stew and chili mac are hard to screw up and offer a nice change to beans and rice after a few days.  I really need to and plan in the near future to add in some more fruits and veggies like those from Honeyville to supplement things even more and also to treat ourselves if we are out of power for weeks or months.

Keep the info coming!!

I pick up a few pouches from time to time at Wal-Mart. I see them as one off meals (due to size) in an intermediate or bugged out situation.

I have a "bunch" of the #10 cans I mostly  bought back in the good ole group buy days.  I also keep some of the pro-packs in my truck bag, as well as some "lifeboat rations".  It is just one part of my "food" preps, and not the end all.  But at the very least it will add easy variety to day to day meals.  With the 30year shelf life, I can always eat it during my retirement years if the world doesn't end.

FB

I have several totes full of pouches and cases of cans from the BS group buys. It is just another layer to blend into food prep. Is 5 gallons of soy sauce too much?  Not if you have 300# of jasime rice. But beans and rice, pasta will get old so its just a layer that doesn't have to be rotated.  The pouches are good for camping and hunting trips.

Does not seem so easy or inexpensive. Why dehydrated food in a GHB? You need to have water or a source to make fresh water. MREs for me in the GHB so the water can be used for drinking. Beef jerky is not cheap and this guy states he eats a bag (approx $8) + the knorr side ($1). Doesn't seem like much of a bargain. He looks like a big eater so maybe he does polish off all that stuff in 1 sitting. I would not. Thinking family style it would be cheaper than a few MH meals I suppose. I have to also factor in the salty beef jerky +salty pasta = significant need for drinking water.

Does anyone know the shelf life of jerky stored in sealed pouches with absorbers? I suppose in terms of safety the clock starts ticking (slowly) once the bag breaks down. If I could store a bucket of jerky to add to meals (jazz up rice and beans) for 10+ yrs it would be worth it. <2-3 yrs may not.

Does anyone sell dehydrated fruit in less than 10lb cans? would like to add to preps but as other posters have said once you open a 10lb can you eat that until it's gone.

I am a big fan of Mountain House food.  I've been eating these meals since I first went camping as a little guy in the early 1980's.  I have a significant amount of two serving pouches that I accumulated from Walmart over the last few years.  I also have some #10 cans.  I love most of the entrees and I'm seemingly one of the few people who doesn't mind the eggs and bacon.  I supplement MH food with a lot of canned soup, Chili, and beef stew.  Walmart and Sams Club occasionally have cans of Campbell's Chunky soup and chilli for about $1.25 per can.  I also have a few dozen fresh MRE's that I keep for emergencies.  Rice and beans are something I'm starting to get into for a longer-term event, but I felt more comfortable accumulating least a couple months worth of canned goods, MH, and MRE's first because I eat these items on a regular basis already.    

While I live at my BO location in a very rural part of PA, I also incorporate MH meals into a BO bag.  I prefer MH meals over MRE's if traveling on foot.  To deal with the need for water, I carry a Katadyn water filter and purification tab's.  I have no intention of carrying three days worth of water on my back.  Because water is plentiful here, if bugging out on foot, I'd much rather purify a gallon or so at a time and remain relatively fast and light.  MRE's don't require water because they are fully hydrated and as a result pretty heavy (especially if you carry several of them).  I carry 5-6 MH meals which weigh nearly nothing.  If I was bugging out in a vehicle, I probably prefer MRE's due to them being slightly more convenient.      

Costco.com has a nice Mountain House kit.  It includes 15 double serving MH meals in their most popular flavors along with enough self-activated heaters to heat all 15 meals.  This is a nice kit because all you need to add is water and you get a tasty steaming hot meal (no camp stove or fire is needed).  The kit is about $85 shipped and is a good way to get started.  I bought several as Christmas presents.  

Costco Mountain House meals with meal heaters

I picked up a huge stash a few years ago and got a huge variety. I've had a some of the pouches but none of the cans. I can't imagine they are too different. I got numerous cases of protein and veggies. I figured I can supplement my other stash of rice, beans and pasta pretty easy. Though they are expensive you can't eat money when you get hungry. I have enough to last our family 6 month but well over a year supplemented with other preps.

I pick up one or to everytime I hit Walmart. I keep them in a large green Hardigg footlock that serves as the get out of dodge via vehicle food supply. I also keep dried soup and pasta meals and a few MREs in this box.The down side is needind water to cook these meals.I live in an region of the country that has plenty of water.In so far as eating the same dish everyday if your hungry you'll eat. You may not enjoy it which effects the mind but you'll eat.It may become harder on younger children, thats what hard candy is for to bribe them into eating. I do store flour,suger,spices, etc. but in some cases is easier to open one pouch or can instead of several plus utensils.I would think if you are limited by space then FD or DH would be a way to go. I do keep them in my bugout bag along with some "quicker" foods.If you have to bugout its because of some stressful event and just the simple thought of having that Beefstew or snickers can give you a boost to help you keep the proper mindset.

I ate one of the breakfast pouches that "expired" in 2008, two nights ago. It tasted great and I didn't get sick.

I like a layered approach to my food storage.

1st layer - I usually have 3 month's worth of pantry items - canned goods, home canned goods, cereals, etc..I try to buy the ones with the expiration dates furthest out. When it comes time to use, I'll use the ones expiring soon first. (first in, first out). I also count in my ability to harvest vegetables from the garden, wild foraging and game, both trapped and shot.

2nd layer - MH pouches - for camping, hiking, GHB usage, etc.. - between work and home, there are plenty of places to find water, filtered of course. I keep 1 month's worth of these.

3rd layer - MH #10 cans - 6 month's worth of these.

I have all of my food storage tracked on Excel spreadsheets. A really useful tool keeping track of all of this.

I would like to see a how you do that.

Grove

If you have Excel it is fairly easy to set up a spreadsheet.
I use it to keep track of purchases, costs, total amounts in the pantry, etc.
You can also estimate yields from rice, wheat berries, etc.

On one page we enter the date of purchase and the price paid.
For example I know that on:
12/08/10 - we purchased 36 #10 cans of Hard White Wheat for $102.60 which = $2.85/can.
Every purchase we make of Hard White Wheat gets added to the spreadsheet
and another column keeps a running total of cost per lb. (i.e. our dollar cost average.)
Excel scans the list for every Hard White Wheat entry, totals the purchases and amounts, then divides the total amount bought by the total amount paid.

On another page we keep track of total amounts in the pantry. Which helps us know when we need to buy more products.
For example: I use it to estimate how many days supply of different grains we have on hand:
Hard White Wheat:     59 #10 cans = 324.50lbs  = 811 cups of wheat = 1,216.5 cups of flour = 405 loaves @ 3 cups/flour per loaf.

This works out for a lot of products.
For example, I know that right now we have enough Morning Moos to last 518 days @ 1qt a day.