[MNichols]

From MY experience, Ceiba does the best meals, they also cost the most, but you get Rachel's help, and get exactly what you want. Boil in bag meals are definitely worth the extra $$.. They as well accommodate special menu's. If I wasn't doing the food pack myself, I'd always get their meals even if we didn't rent anything from them. There's that much of a difference..

PRO's meal are prep heavy, carb and starch heavy, and a LOT of food. It's not that they aren't ok, and taste good, but spending 1-2 hours chopping and peeling and prepping takes a lot out of enjoying the trip in MY opinion.

Canyon REO is about the same, but a LOT of things cooked in the DO's, which can be a pain especially on shoulder season trips where the light wanes. Seems we had pancakes a lot.. DO desserts, which we pretty much stopped making cause of the hassle.

Moenkopi falls to the bottom of the stack for me, I was truly glad I had a stash of mountain house meals for when I didn't like what was being served, I wish I had brought a lot more than I did on that trip. They did great everywhere else, top notch gear, super service, hard to beat everything other than their food..

At the end of the day, once you have a menu put together, circulate it amongst your group and ask for input.. Saves a lot of bunched panties once you've launched.

 

[Montet202]

I should have prefaced this by saying the menu is done, PRO is paid in full. I’m now doing the last of the prep work and getting the rest of our group gear together. Now I am just wondering what I’ve missed or forgotten; what are the things you thought you’d have provided, but weren’t. Or what little things you wished you had in that food pack and missed.

 

[MNichols]

I should have prefaced this by saying the menu is done, PRO is paid in full. I’m now doing the last of the prep work and getting the rest of our group gear together. Now I am just wondering what I’ve missed or forgotten; what are the things you thought you’d have provided, but weren’t. Or what little things you wished you had in that food pack and missed.

Spices.. Past Salt / Pepper..
Decent SHARP knives, and at minimum a steel, or sharpening stone to keep them that way
In March, a string of LED battery powered lights for over the kitchen are worth their weight..

 

[Montet202]

Spices.. Past Salt / Pepper..
Decent SHARP knives, and at minimum a steel, or sharpening stone to keep them that way
In March, a string of LED battery powered lights for over the kitchen are worth their weight..

Perfect! Thank you!

 

[bfish]

.... Or what little things you wished you had in that food pack and missed.

Used PRO back in Sept. Things have probably changed (due to price increase), but we had lots of eggs. Plenty of herbs/spices in the box. Hot sauce was there too, but I really like lots of hot sauce on my eggs. I probably should have thrown in a small bottle or two of my favorite small brand hot sauces, just for variety. As others have said, a few boil in bag meals, especially good for those non-chef kitchen crews. I didn't find veggie chopping to take anytime at all, but I do enjoy cooking. Soup was the surprise meal that lots of people enjoyed, but that was a function of weather as we had 5 days in a row of rain. We ran out of butter on day 5, but I think that was a PRO error (4 sticks instead of 4 boxes I am guessing).

I would think of adding 2 or 3 non-sandwiches lunches, if it were my trip, I know I could have used them. We didn't do any chicken salad or tuna salad in wraps or pitas either (TL decision based on group preference). We had no main dish leftovers (6 big eaters), and usually 2-3 servings of side dishes leftover (several of the ladies would have salad with/for lunch). We had plenty of fruit (breakfast and lunch but available for supper, if desired). Pack a few containers and extra ziplocks for leftovers.

I'm not much of a snacker but I though the snack pack had plenty of variety. I might have added some cheese for snacking (but I love cheese). The people on my raft were good about sharing snacks they brought from home, which added to the variety. If you have a sweet tooth, I would suggest bringing a few Little Debbie's or M and M's