TRAIL MEAL: Mushroom Rice With Salmon

Cooked some lunch out at High Cliff State Park today, decided I'd try a cheaper alternative to the Mountain House Bag Meals. I'd heard that the Knorr Pasta Sides and Rice Sides were a popular "trail food on the cheap" option. Most of the pasta ones talked about using a small amount of milk as well, so I figured I'd go for the rice, which didn't require any. I just don't feel right though, if I don't have some meat in a meal, and I've had good luck with single serve packets of tuna in the past, but I was curious how the salmon packets were. So I decided today, I'd mix the Knorr Mushroom Rice Side with a packet of Salmon after cooking.

The Rice called for 16 ounces of water, and I eyeballed it. I actually put a little more in than I think was needed, and I dumped the rice packet in as it called for bringing the water to a boil with the rice already in. Turns out that this titanium pot is just the right size for this serving, Lucky Me! I wondered if I was going to have to halve the serving or not.

The Stove did a great job of heating it, and as we'd seen previously, the heat goes straight through the titanium pot, and into the water. It wasn't long at all before we had a nice boil rolling

Most of the time, I actually had the lid on, to help hold heat in. The instructions called for it to simmer for 7 minutes while covered.

The rice DID foam up, and while I was reading on my kindle it actually did push the lid off, but after adjusting the heat down to the lowest setting, it remained in place after that.

Put my Kleen Kanteen Water Bottle ontop of the pot to hold the lid down tight while it sat for two minutes. After that I took a couple test bites to make sure the rice was done. It was pretty good by itsself, even without the salmon.

Adding the Salmon:

All mixed in:

Devoured! Cleaned the pot out with a splash of water, and then drank the dregs:

And then, for dessert as I walked the muddy trails, a Carrot Cake Clif Bar:

My verdict? Delicious. The salmon taste was pretty strong, but I liked that. I like salmon. It took a lot more fuel than boiling water for mountain house would. I'd be more comfortable cooking this over the BioLite where I can scavenge fuel for it, rather than my gas stove where I'm reliant on being able to find gas cannisters. Price-wise, even with the fuel consumption the Knorr+Salmon meal is still ahead of Mountain House, since most of those run $7-8, and this was less than $2 for the side and less than $2 for the salmon packet. Mountain House has the edge in speed, weight and fuel efficiency, but I could afford to buy a new gas cannister every two knorr meals and still come out ahead.