[Conifers]

I like delicious salty foods as much as the next guy, but I'm pretty sure I still have salt poisoning from the Mountain House meal I ate on saturday night. Do you have any ideas for something not so salty, lightweight that doesn't involve home dehydration? I need to put together my meals for a 3 day trip this weekend. I don't think I can handle those salt bombs 3 days in a row. I think I saw dehydrated "refried" beans at a bulk section somewhere, and that would be good with tortillas. Any other ideas?

[Kim Brown]

I'm recommending this meal assuming you're not on a doctor-prescribed low salt diet (otherwise you wouldn't have purchased the dehydrated meal). This is regular salty stuff, not the high salt of a pre-packaged dehydrated meal. Grab a pack of Lipton Garlic & shells and one of the smaller sized envelopes of albacore tuna or salmon. You don’t have to boil the pasta for 9 minutes as the package says. Boil for about a minute, then turn off the stove, add the powered crap, and let them set for several minutes. Add the tuna and there’s your meal. I’ve been eating this stuff in the back country for years, and it apparently has the right stuff; if I have a dehydration headache, it goes away, it fills me up, it tastes good.

[Conifers]

That sounds pretty good. I'm not on a doctor prescribed low-salt diet. I just need something with lower salt than the off-the shelf meals. That includes just about anything devised by humanity.

[Conifers]

Here's some other stuff I'm considering. MEAL: taters & bacon Potato Buds Bacon Bits or Dry Sausage Salmon packet MEAL: Beans & Tortillas Dehydrated Refried Beans Flour tortillas Cheese?? Hot sauce?? Fritos MEAL: Noodles Good asian noodles, repackaged from bowl. Miso? Tofu? What else goes with this? Chicken? dried mushrooms

[Conrad]

Funny, with the amount I sweat backpacking, I tend to look for as much salt as practical (I'm pretty sure you pee out any short-term excess).

[Conifers]

Maybe that means I'm not drinking enough. I feel like salt dispersed throughout the day is OK (beef jerky or other snacks) but when I have it in one Beef & Chili Mac Mountain House serving, I feel horrible.

[Maria]

Dilute dehydrated meals with lower salt fillers: potato flakes, dehydrated hash browns, more pasta, rice, beans etc. I do it at home, and bring some flakes with for when the meal ends up too soupy. I pretty much steer clear of the really salty ones though.

[nuclear_eggset]

I'm a big fan of those thin rice noodles. They cook up just fine with nothing but boiling water and five or ten minutes.

[Randito]

Seems like checking the sodium content on the MH food pouch seems like a good place to start -- and compairing that the sodium content of other meals -- some of the ideas you listed above included bacon -- which typically has a ton of sodium. FWIW: MH does offer four "low sodium" pouches if you want to be lazy http://www.mountainhouse.com/category/MHLSD.html

[contour5]

If you can't find bulk beans on the cheap, I recommend Mary Jane's Farms Bare Burrito- it's just beans with maybe onions. Don't forget the taco sauce powder!

[Conifers]

I bought a bunch of stuff at the bulk section last night. I tried out dehydrated "refried" beans at home and they work pretty well. I used hot water out of my tea kettle. I had to heat it a bit to get the consistency right. Next time i will just use less water. Tortilla + rehydrated beans + cheese =

[Frosty]

If you have the plain beans- i get the dehydrated black beans- then add cumin (a lot!) and dried chiles, a bit of coriander, garlic powder and mexican oregano, and salt to taste, they taste fine. I accidently ordered small boxes of pre- seasoned beans last time and find they have a fair amount of salt in already and still require seasoning of the flavor variety anyway.