Over the last couple of weeks, I've been buying some of the boil in a bag style meals from 'Look What We Found' (http://www.lookwhatwefound.co.uk/). I purchased all these myself and have no connections with the company in any way.
Although not specifically designed for the outdoors, these can be boiled in the bag in your burner. Plus they are very well priced - £1.50 to £2.50 in price. I'd also add that when doing a boil in the bag meal that's a 'wet' one (as opposed to the freeze dried), it's always advisable to rotate the bag when cooking to get it to cook through (or shake the bag halfway through cooking) - taking it out of the pot first...
If we compare these with (for example) the 'Beyond The Beaten Track' meals, the BTBT meals are 300g and give a slightly higher calory intake - for £4.00 for a meal (or £6.00 for a self-heating meal). I've had the Pasta Bolognese meal and it was pretty tasty and reasonable value. The chocolate dessert was pretty tasty!
If we take the Wayfarer meals, these are also 300g (££4.00 - 4.49 each or so) and with a similar calory count and taste to the Beyond The Beaten Track ones. I really enjoyed the sausage and baked beans from Wayfarer.
What I'd advise is that you either eat 2 of these at a time, or add in some other food with them - be that raisins, pre-cooked pasta, pre-cooked rice, pitta bread, regular bread, crackers etc. With that, you'd have a very tasty meal!
So here's my mini review of the meals! These are rated against the other Look What We Found meals and not against other meals. These are my personal preferences and opinion only - your favourites and intended uses may well be different! I have mainly heated these by microwave (did this after a tooth extraction as these meals are quick and easy!) but have mentioned when heated on the stove.
1. Chilli Con Carne
This has a good balance of minced beef, kidney beans and red peppers. Very tasty and not too spicy. Definitely could be eaten on its own but would also be great with some added in extras like rice. 270g providing 262kcal of energy (97kcal per 100g).
Score: 8/10
2. Chicken with Mushrooms
Very tasty and would work well as a sauce. Wasn't a huge amount of chicken in this and it's more runny than (for example) the Chilli Con Carne. You'd definitely need to top this with rice or pasta etc as I think this is what it's designed for. 250g providing 200kcal of energy (80 kcal per 100g).
Score 6/10 (but if used as a sauce it'd be 8/10!)
3. Red Thai Chicken Curry
Again quite spicy but not overly so. Lots of bits of chicken. I added in a bit of rice to this one to see how things would taste and it was pretty good and quite filling. Again, this seems designed to be eaten with rice etc. 250g providing 345kcal of energy (138kcal per 100g).
Score: 6/10
4. Lamb Hotpot
The Lamb Hotpot is a little bit more than the other meals (at a whopping £2.49!!) So for this extra 50p or so, what do we get? Well, we get a really tasty meal. I must admit, despite microwaving this, it didn't taste like a microwave meal but was tasty - good meat and lovely potato! 250g gives you 215kcal of energy (86kcal per 100g).
Score: 9/10
5. Beef Meatballs
Beef meatballs is slightly harder to review considering I never normally eat any! However, the food tastes better than you'd imagine in a microwave format. I think there were 5 meatballs and these were a reasonable size and tasted good. The tomato style sauce is tasty and not at all bland. Another solid tasting meal and could be eaten on its own. 250g gives you 265kcal of energy (106kcal per 100g).
Score: 7/10
6. Chicken Korma
The Chicken Korma was another tasty offering. Again, probably just the right kind of level of 'spice' (not really spicy but a nice edge). The meat was pretty much in one single lump. I cooked this in the burner as a boil in the bag style meal to test it. I'd recommend cooking for the same kind of time as other meals - up to 10mins or so - just to make sure the chicken is piping hot. I then ate it with some pre-cooked rice which I'd recommend as it needs this. 250g gives you 320kcal of energy (128kcal per 100g).
Score: 8/10
7. Chicken Tikka
And for my final test... Chicken Tikka. This was pretty good - probably as spicy as anything else but nothing too hot. Cooked up some regular rice with this and added it in to make a great and tasty meal. Around 6 solid bits of chicken in there with some smaller bits too. 250g gives you 338kcal of energy (135kcal per 100g).
Score: 7/10
