Tasty no-fridge, no-cook shelf stable meals

October 11, 2013 1:47 PM

In the past few months I have found two different brands of shelf-stable meals that I love: GoPicnic and St. Dalfour's Gourmet on the Go. The key things for me are: these meals don't require refrigeration, they don't require cooking, they taste good, they're usually less than 400 calories per container, and they are both healthier and cheaper than the fast food near my school's campus. Do you know of any other brands like this? I didn't even know these existed until earlier this year, and googling keeps getting me things that require cooking and/or are not tasty.
posted by ocherdraco to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

By "No Cooking", is microwaving acceptable? 'cause I use the Trader Joe's Indian food packs as my "I'm too lazy to pack lunch for work" fallback. I suppose they're edible cold, but they taste better warm.
posted by straw at 2:01 PM on October 11, 2013

Just had a quick look at GoPicnic: very heavy on the carbs there, be aware - a random one I looked at had all of 41g per serving.

I prefer nuts myself: cashews, almonds or pistachios.
posted by Dragonness at 2:07 PM on October 11, 2013

Best answer: Tasty Bite stuff is often supposed to be heated up but you can just eat it straight or with chips or something. Lots of veggie options. You can check this list to see which ones are more healthy and which ones are less.
posted by jessamyn at 2:16 PM on October 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: I'm looking for things that don't need to be microwaved. No cooking or prep of any kind (except stacking things on top of other things).

And Dragonness, I know they're carb-heavy, but don't worry, I make sure the other things I eat help balance my macronutrients out over the course of the day. (I use MyFitnessPal to track calories and macronutrients.) Nuts are cool, but super calorie dense--and I'm not good at stopping when something is tasty. Part of why I like these meals is that the way they're packaged hits my satiety buttons, even when I've only had like, eight crackers with cheese and turkey, six gummy planes, and an applesauce cup.

(That said, if you know specific purveyors of very small packages of nuts, I'd be interested. All the packages I've found are at least 300 calories each--I'd love to find them at more like 100-120 calories, so I can eat them with other things.)
posted by ocherdraco at 2:21 PM on October 11, 2013

Response by poster: The Tasty Bite packages fit the bill.

Anyone know of others?
posted by ocherdraco at 2:23 PM on October 11, 2013

100-cal packets of chocolate-roasted almonds

Emerald probably has other varieties too; I can verify these are delicious.
posted by Fig at 2:52 PM on October 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Similar to tasty bite (which I discovered while living in Alaska in rough conditions and it was the best thing that happened), there is Kitchens of India.
posted by rmless at 3:22 PM on October 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

I've been living off of vegetarian indian food pouches like Kitchens of India for the past few months... pricey at the supermarket, but 2 bux each at the Job Lot. Enough variety where I don't get sick of them. There are usually similar no-cook Thai food nearby as well, and on a rare occasion, mini pappadum packaged like pringles.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:38 PM on October 11, 2013

Oh, these look like cousins to the inflight snackboxes that United peddles. I wonder if you can just find enough sources of single serve snacks (maybe kids' versions will be the right size?) to assemble your own shelf-stable meal options.
posted by spamandkimchi at 5:41 PM on October 11, 2013

Best answer: I used to keep some of these tuna salad packs in my desk drawer.

I'm not going to vouch that they are gourmet or necessarily tasty, but I found them at the dollar store (without the fruit or cookie) so they were cheap and low cal. And pulling that up on Amazon opens up a whole line of "people also looked at this..." items, including the St. Dalfour that you mentioned (which I had never heard of), so you might go searching for these on Amazon and see what other related products it recommends.
posted by CathyG at 8:29 PM on October 11, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks for all these suggestions! (And Fig, if only I liked chocolate, those almonds would work, too!)
posted by ocherdraco at 10:03 PM on October 11, 2013

The no- drain pouches of tuna, and in particular these awesome tuna salad kits, in a bunch of different flavours, have been a lifesaver for me. (The kits even come with a little spoon and napkin). With an apple they are a good light lunch.
posted by Kololo at 12:20 AM on October 12, 2013

FWIW those foil packages you like are called retort bags (not to be confused with Mylar). The food is "canned" in them using the exact same process as when pressure canning food in cans or jars. It's now possible for home canners to buy retort bags.

And since I'm here, I think Tasty Bites cold are pretty darn disgusting. In a survival situation, sure, but not for regular meals. YMMV. I like mine steaming over a baked potato and a bed of spinach.
posted by AnOrigamiLife at 2:43 AM on October 12, 2013

Best answer: Here's some natural ones. It looks like both Blue Diamond and Emerald have multiple varieties of 100-calorie snack packs, so you are in luck.

Also, the Go Picnic lunches can often be found on Amazon Warehouse Deals (normally for returns, but they have food that is somewhat close (months away) from expiring) for really cheap. Right now, for example, they have 6-packs of the Turkey/Cheddar ones for under $20.
posted by Fig at 7:44 AM on October 12, 2013