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RightOnTrek reached out to me during the Texas Snowpocolypse in February about trying out their adventure meals. I am always looking for new backpacking meals and innovative products to try out and this fits both!
How RightOnTrek Adventure Meals Work
First, let me point out that RightOnTrek Adventure Meals is not just simply a place to go and pick out some dehydrated or freeze-dried meals to buy. It is so much more, to my surprise!
Setting Your Preferences
RightOnTrek Adventure Meals lets you plan your entire backpacking trip by choosing how many days you will be gone and if you are planning for just yourself or a group. From there you choose how many calories per day you want to eat as well as several other options (like vegetarian only, spicy foods, no dairy, what hot beverages you like, and your favorite condiments). Or you can be spontaneous and choose “Surprise Me”.
Watch the Magic Happen
Once you have set all of your preferences, you click “See My Plan” and watch the magic happen as it builds a meal kit for you. The picture below shows a Dinner meal plan for a single person for 4 days based on a 3000 calorie plan. Also included (but not shown) are the Breakfast, Lunch, and Snacks categories.
I love how it breaks it up per day, showing you exactly how many calories per meal, total calories for the day, and total cost per day.
Swapping Out Items
What if you don’t like the food it chooses?
Simple! It lets you easily swap it out! Just click the swap product button (to the right of the calories under that product). It will pull up the selections you can choose from. Make sure to look through the food type categories as well as the meal type category. They can be easily overlooked (see below).
What if that food is listed multiple times?
Again, it is super simple. Say you want to replace all Cream of Wheat Porridge within your plan with the Egg & Cheese Scramble (yum)! Just click swap all, and bam, they have all been swapped out for Egg & Cheese Scramble.
Notice it also shows you if you are gaining or losing calories with the item you are choosing to replace.
Placing your order
Once you are done and everything looks good to you, just click Add to Cart and then proceed to check out like you would at any online retailer. In less than 5 minutes you can have a 4-day meal kit bought and paid for. Forget dealing with a crowded grocery store, wondering what you should get, trying to do math in your head as you try and get the number of calories you need for each meal! This is simple and they do all the math for you (I really hate math, btw).
What I Thought of RightOnTrek Adventure Meals
Ok, so my first impression when they reached out was that this was just another place to go buy pre-packed meals. I did not realize this was an all-in-one service. I was very pleasantly surprised when I realized just what RightOnTrek Adventure Meals were! I did the 1 day, 4000-calorie plan for this review, and man is it A LOT of food lol.
What I Tested
Everything arrived pre-packaged and ready to be placed in my backpack. It was even split up by day. How convenient! They did throw in a couple of other meals for me to test out in addition to what was in my meal plan.
Egg & Cheese Scramble – I had high hopes for these, but they just didn’t pass my patience level or taste test. Following the directions on the package, it took me almost 35 minutes to cook these!!! I could have made an entire breakfast spread within that time frame! It would have taken even longer but I decided to throw caution to the wind and turn the heat up to medium instead of low which it calls for. Once done, the texture was ok but it had a weird flavor, I assume from the powdered cheese. Not something I would eat again.
Backcountry Chili (regular) – Cooking was simple and the texture came out great. The flavor was on point (despite there being beans, I am Texan and in Texas, it is a sin to put beans in your chili lol). It was actually really good. It was spicy despite it saying regular on the package. My husband devoured the rest of it (me and spicy foods do not mix). My only complaint was that on the package it says to add the cheese last but there was no cheese in the package.
Peanut Butter Cup Oats – Since I am not a fan of oats (and therefore my opinion would be biased towards the fact that I loathe oats) I let my son/hiking buddy try these out. The cooking directions are a little confusing. It tells you to uncover the pot after bringing it to a boil but never tells you to cover it in the prior steps. It also says to add additional butter and cream packet if desired but there was no butter or cream packet provided. The consistency and the portion size were perfect. It smelled just like a peanut butter cup, but according to my son, it did not taste like it. He said it was lacking flavor and had an aftertaste. He gives it a 4 out of 10.
Cheesy Mashed Potatoes with Chicken – The texture of this was off. I felt like I was eating some kind of very very thick soup. It just didn’t fluff up enough. The flavor, however, was really good. I would like to see it come with more chicken (which was good).
What I liked
Where do I even begin!? There were definitely more pros than cons!
Meal Planner: I love that you just answer a couple of questions and it builds complete meals to your specifications.
Easily Swap Items: I love how easy it is to swap out items that you don’t like (for me it is any kind of oats) with items you would like.
It Does the Math for You: I am not a fan of math at all. I find one of the most tedious parts of resupplying or gearing up for a trip is going to the grocery store and making sure I have enough calories for a day of hiking. This does it automatically for me.
Healthy Options: There are several healthy options (in both meals and snacks) to choose from, so that is nice. I like trying to eat healthy as much as possible but I still love my not-so-healthy items (especially when hiking lol). They have a good variety for the most part.
Pricing: The price is very reasonable for the quality of food you get. Sure you can go get a bunch of junk food with no real nutritional value for cheaper, but why would you want to.
Add Additional Items: Think you need more food for each day than what they chose for you? You can easily add snack items to each meal or snack section.
Portion Size: For me the portion size is perfect. I prefer to eat smaller meals with more snacks throughout the day. With other brands, I always have leftovers if I do not split them beforehand.
Convenience: Raise your hand if you also hate going to the grocery store and dealing with crowds and people that don’t know how to park!? RightOnTrek Backpacking Meals service just makes it so convenient to plan meals for trips. They do the “shopping”, planning, prepping, and packaging. You just need to shove it in your backpack, RV, or car and go!
Needs Improvement
More options: For the health-conscious, there are plenty of options. I, however, cannot stand oats of any kind and in any form. I don’t like the taste or texture. You could mix them with a pound of chocolate and I’d still spit them out! I would like to see more breakfast options (maybe biscuits and gravy) as well as dinner options (maybe turkey & stuffing). Can you tell I am from the South?!
Packaging you can cook in: I personally like an easy clean-up and therefore don’t like cooking in my pot. I’d like to see packaging that you can pour the boiling water into, let soak, and then eat out of. Currently, you cannot do this, due to how the foods have to be cooked (see below).
Cook Time: The cook time is rather long due to these being air-dried. It means having to boil the food in a pot (and sometimes even simmer) which uses a lot of fuel. Not something that would be feasible on longer backpacking trips.
No A-La-Carte Ordering: As of right now you cannot buy RightOnTrek Adventure Meals individually. The only way to get them is to do a meal plan.
Final Thoughts
It is definitely a pretty awesome service that RightOnTrek Adventures Meals provides. While I won’t be able to use them when I head back to the Appalachian Trail with my son on June 1st, due to the cooking time each meal requires, this would be great for shorter hikes and camping trips!
I love how I don’t have to go to a crowded grocery store (I hate shopping btw) and spend all that time trying to figure out not only what to eat, but how much!
RightOnTrek Adventure Meals (at least these four) were a hit or miss. I know they are pretty new to the scene and I have no doubt they will continue to work tirelessly to fine-tune their meals and recipes. I would like to see more options added for their brand-name meals. They do have several pasta-style options and those may cook up better than the couple I had issues with.
Overall, with the convenience of RightOnTrek Adventure Meals service and affordable pricing, I’d definitely give them another try and trying some of their other meals. I really wish they would offer a-la-carte options for their meals so you could taste test those before ordering an entire plan. As of right now, I give them a 4 out of 5 stars.
Unboxing Video of RightOnTrek Adventure Meals
Where to Buy
You can buy RightOnTrek Adventure Meals directly from them on their website.
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