daddyflea,
I do pretty much the same thing. I camp a lot when I am coyote hunting and it is usually from an ATV or just backpacking. I mostly take things that I can cook in one pot, especially when going on foot with just a pack.
I use a vacuum sealer for my dry foods and pre-measure single servings of things like rice, instant potatoes, oatmeal, mac-n-cheese, etc. Then, when you are ready to eat all you have to do is add the packet contents to your boiling water.
For meat I carry the foil packets of tuna, chicken etc. Try the Ramen Noodles and add a pack of tuna and/or the packet of powdered cheese from a single serving mac-n-cheese. Leave out the seasoning pack from the Ramen noodles unless you want a huge amount of sodium in your diet.
For snacks I get the singles cup things of apple sauce, peaches and pudding. That is the ones that come in the little plastic cups with the foil top. Bananas survive a day or two in your pack if you can keep from squashing them. I usually carry a pack or two of something like toaster pastry's in my day pack for a snack while out calling.
For drinks I either buy the Gatorade individual packs that you just empty into a 16oz. bottle of water or buy a large container of flavored drink mix and then measure it out into single servings for a 16 oz. bottle and put it in small zip lock bags or cut and seal small vacuum sealer bags. I do the same thing with instant tea for summer and I carry tea bags for cooler weather. For my coffee I either take a small jar of instant or the single cup size coffee bags (like a tea bag).
My cooking gear consists mostly of a small kettle that holds about 2 qt. The lid for my kettle is the little pan from an old mess kit. I carry a small coffee pot for heating extra water for coffee, tea, etc. For drinking I carry a stainless steel double wall thermal cup, a quart canteen and usually at least one Nalgene bottle. My water filter/purifier for times when I need more water than I can carry is a Berky Sport Bottle. In fall or winter I usually also have a 16oz. stainless steel thermos that has a wide top. You can cook soup, instant rice or instant oatmeal in these by simply adding boiling water and let it set for a few minutes.
For cooking utensils I carry one of those multi things that has a spoon, fork, knife, can opener that all folds together. Along with that I keep a couple plastic spoons and maybe a plastic fork or two. I will also have my hunting knife and often a small folding saw.
I carry my sugar in a small plastic bottle with a screw on lid. Empty Pringles potato chip containers work good to carry crackers and other things that tend to get squashed easily.
If you get the individual Mac-n-Cheese containers that come in the little plastic container that are made for quick Microwave lunch, save the container from them because they make really good bowls for your oatmeal, soup, etc. if you are backpacking. The plastic container is really easy to wash.
If I am camping / hunting from the ATV I usually carry a small single burner Coleman propane stove to cook on. When backpacking I like to cook on the old homemade "hobo stove". If you don't know what that is just go to youtube and search for it. You can boil water on them with VERY little wood. Of course you could also use a small alcohol stove if you were somewhere that wood was hard to find or if it was really wet.
We have had some really nice fall weather here this year and I have camped and called coyotes and bow hunted for deer nearly every day for the last month. Sure hate to see this nice weather end but I do look forward to calling coyotes when the snow is on.
Feel free to ask away if you have more questions. There a lot of foods that you can take that are better and a lot cheaper than the MRE meals.
You also might want to head on over to Backpacker.com and browse through their "backcountry cooking" section of the forum.
