Although I don't talk about it on An American Housewife as much as I really planned to, I am a huge proponent of having emergency food storage on hand. Food, water, power sources, cooking sources that don't involve powder, skills and more. With that in mind.....
Two years ago I decided to camp from the eastern border to the western border of South Dakota. During this trip, I decided to stock up on freeze-dried and dehydrated foods so we (my daughter and I) didn't have any concerns about meals! I ordered a lot of pouches and cans of emergency storage food ahead of time that I knew I loved, as well as some new ones like this Bacon Flavored Potato Chowder. I opened the cans and food-sealed the freeze-dried vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, and dehydrated butter powder into smaller portions. Then I fit everything into one small suitcase that was our 'food' case for our 2 week trip.
When my daughter and I had this soup for dinner one evening, it was fabulous. We absolutely loved it and finished off the whole pouch, which is basically 4 cups of chowder. But since I don't use our food storage for our everyday meals (that would be expensive!), I've not had it since.
Until now.
I kept out a pouch and today, decided we would have it with dinner tonight.
This is actually a photo I took of the product on that camping trip... we were serving it with freeze-dried corn.
And here is a close up I took on that camping trip, because apparently I really, really loved it!
So how did it measure up to my memory???
At first... it didn't.
When I added the hot (almost boiling) water to it and gave it a stir, I was thinking it was watery and smelled... chivey? Chives or onion was about the only smell it had. But I knew it would thicken up upon setting so I waited the 7-10 minutes it takes per directions.
However, it still wasn't all that thick. It does best with boiling or almost boiling water, and in a container you can seal (like the pouch it comes in). Because I was only making 1 cup, I popped it into the microwave for 75 seconds. And it thickened right up!
And? The first bite was fine. The second bite was... fine. The third bite... wow, this really is good. The rest of the bites? Oh yes... I remember now why I loved this one!!! Yum!
The bacon flavor is faint, so it's not overwhelming at all. The chive/onion I thought would be too strong also mellowed out once it was thick and heated through. It was just so, so good. Great for a cold or chilly day or night.
Is it healthy? Depends on what's important to you. My answer is 'not really' because I mostly eat fresh, unprocessed foods. This is made with sunflower oil, corn syrup solids and modified corn starch in the ingredient list. I also don't eat sugar, and this has 3 grams. But I don't plan on eating this every night for every meal! Camping trips, emergency storage, and quick and easy, no work on a cold winter night? Sure!
