Mountain House Cheesy Beef Enchilada Bowl is a newer entry to the freeze-dried meal market. At $11.99, it falls into the lower end of pricing for outdoor meals.
As is typical with Mountain House, it being 2 servings is a suggestion.The protein listed on the front is per pouch, not per serving. It doesn’t make a lot for portion size. Most men, and many women, would need almost the whole pouch to feel full.
Based on it being a single serving, it offers:
660 Calories/34 Grams Fat/32 Grams Protein/1560 mg Sodium/10 Grams Fiber
The hardest part is getting over it visually. It’s something I cannot get past with Mountain House, and haven’t, for the past 25 years. It’s always somewhere between soup and gruel for texture. Whereas most of the newer companies go for a more pilaf texture with meals, so it looks like something you might have made at home. Recognizable meat and vegetables.
On the pouch, the photo has you thinking it is more like a bowl, with each ingredient shining through, and it is drier. In reality, it is a stoup in a bag.
It isn’t bad tasting, though. I actually liked the flavor. It isn’t heavy on cumin, like so many “Mexi” inspired meals are. If you didn’t look at it, you’d think you were eating an enchilada filling, minus the tortilla. I kept thinking, “This meal needs a bag of tortilla chips to scoop it with…like a dinner dip.”
Be sure to let it sit for the full hydration time to avoid crunchy beans. And stir well.
They have to work on the visual. Or maybe their target audience doesn’t care.
If you like a good, messy enchilada or wet burrito, you might like this one. But don’t expect it to look good.
And bring a bag of chips, ok?
~Sarah