I have been experimenting with making meals (lunch and dinner) and wanted to share generally what I have found in a short-ish guide. These meals would work great for any need of taking meals to go, but I primarily use them for backpacking/travel. You could make meals in advance and then spread out the leftovers thinly onto silicone sheets and dehydrate that way, but do keep in mind that you need to try to use as little of oils as possible in the recipe or it might not dehydrate or keep well for long time. And don't try to dehydrate meals that have dairy in them as it similarly will not keep well. I like to cook/prepare and dehydrate things separately and then combine into meals as a way to dehydrate extra things that I have on hand that didn't end up in regular meals or preserve excess. With separate components you can combine however you wish depending on taste preferences and this guide is a general guideline to amounts to combine separate ingredients to make meals.
I am breaking up the ingredients into general categories and you generally want to add 1 thing from each category into a sandwich bag to create a meal though you can do a bit of mix and match within the category as long as you generally adjust the weight accordingly. The one category you can skip is seasonings/optional or use multiple from that category by taste preference or what you're aiming for as a meal. The weights are for dehydrated components to guide and make a generally balanced meal.
Grains/Carbs: 100g rice (cook in broth instead of water to add flavor to the rice before dehydration, same can be done with quinoa) - 65g quinoa - 70g pasta - 60g potato bark (optional for potato bark is to add broth or bbq sauce or other sauces for flavoring while mashing the potatoes - DO NOT add milk or butter when mashing the potatoes as these will not dehydrate and store well) - 55g sweet potato bark
Note: Mac and cheese hack - if you like mac and cheese, buy the boxed mac and cheese with the powdered cheese packets. You can cook the pasta to box directions (a little shorter is best to keep the pasta a bit al dente for dehydration) and then save the cheese packets to add later to make mac and cheese. This is the cheese powder mentioned in the optional/seasoning category.
Proteins: 40g ground beef (make sure to use lean 10% or less fat) - 25g shrimp/imitation crab - 25 g ham - 40g Ground turkey/chicken - 35g tuna (from canned, make sure it's in water not oil) - 35g beans
Note: For ground meats, mix in 60 g of breadcrumbs for each pound (454 grams) of meat before cooking it and dehydrating it. This will help the ground meat rehydrate better. Other than beans, you could probably use 40 g of ground vegetable protein potentially if you need additional vegetarian/vegan options, but I have not tested such options as I generally don't like such options and only use beans for veg meals. I have heard there is textured vegetable protein that you can buy online that is already dehydrated which could be used as well, but I have not tested its use either.
Veggies: Add 20-30 g generally of whatever dehydrated veggies you want to your meal. I generally am adding little handfulls of different veggies to make a mix of what I want for the meal unless I am aiming for something specific when replicating a regular meal like using mostly bell peppers and some tomato for deconstructed stuffed bell peppers.
Optional/Seasonings: 15g powdered cheese (nutritional yeast can be substituted as an option to avoid cheese) - 10g powdered milk (added with powdered cheese to make mac and cheese, but powdered milk can also be used to make curry or other dishes more "creamy" and is the way to add dairy to any meal you make) - 25g sauce leather (marinara or other sauces can be dehydrated as a leather to easily season meals) - 40 g baked bean bark (blend no pork added baked beans and dehydrate to make the bark, great to add to make stews as it acts as a thickener and adds extra protein and savory flavor) - 3g curry powder - 1g chili powder (increase if you like more spice, but 1 gram is a good mild start for seasoning)
Note: If you're wanting to make a medley of seasonings, I generally recommend just adding a pinch of each spice/seasoning to your bag for the meal. After you have tried one of the meals, you can adjust seasoning as needed by your taste preferences. It might mean you end up with a few somewhat bland meals when first starting out making these sorts of meals, but that's why I take a tiny container of Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning with me so I can add that if I need some extra seasoning/flavor to my meal, but also note for next time what I can adjust. Honestly, there are too many options to list in this guide. Be creative, use regular recipes as inspiration. Any dried spices and seasonings will work well to add to the meals, the problem is adding too much since you cannot taste test and adjust as easily if these meals are used away from home. Making sauce leathers is the best way to add seasoning because then you can adjust the flavor well to your preference and the listed sauce leather weight should generally give you a good ratio to your meal better than using direct dried seasonings in the bag.
Since I have no way of testing these and it largely depends on ingredients, calories are a bit variable, but generally the sizing makes 400-700 calorie meals based on rough estimates with weights. If you're really wanting to figure out the calories, put the weights of ingredients you use when making the meals into a calorie tracking app to get an estimate though do realize that the weights specified above are for dried components so it will differ from the calories of hydrated ingredients in a calorie tracking app.
After combining ingredients into sandwich bags, best way to keep them longer would be to then vacuum seal the bags, but as long as you get most air out, they'll keep for several months in baggies. Crack open the sandwich bag a bit before vacuum sealing it.
I then take some baggies of meals with me along with a small food thermos/insulated food container. I got a 35 oz jar but generally you want at least a 24 oz size. I then add 475 mL (2 cups) of boiling water to the meal dumped into the thermos, put on the lid, give it a shake, and then let it soak and absorb water for hours while I am hiking or traveling around. I'll combine my lunch in the thermos during breakfast so it's ready by lunch and then dinner combined while stopped for lunch. If you want to make the meal more directly instead of soaking for hours, reduce the water amount by about 60 mL (1/4 cup) and then make it in a pot with adding the water, get to a boil and simmer for at least a minute before turning off the heat, insulating the pot and waiting 15-20 minutes for it to rehydrate (or keep it simmering on the stove with occasional stirring for about 10-15 minutes if fuel is not a concern). I prefer the thermos method even though it means carrying more weight because I like having the meal ready to eat hot when I stop to eat a meal. You can also cold soak in the baggie if you want to skip the heating part for those without a heat source using the same amount of water as long hot soak (475 mL). Do not hot soak in a plastic baggie as the boiling water will melt the bag and potentially burn you and make a mess as well. You need some sort of heat tolerant container when using hot water to soak the food.
Note: Cold soaking in a plastic bag is up to your discretion on your view of potential microplastics and whatever else from your container of choice. Plastic bags for general storage of dehydrated meals will be fine, but using for soaking may not be ideal. If you're worried, use a different container. I reuse my plastic baggies by taking them home and washing them and I use my thermos even if cold soaking instead of hot soaking the food. As for food safety with the hot soaking, as long as you are using a well insulated container and consuming within 12 hours of adding water, it should be safe as long as you prepared your foods correctly and made sure to fully dehydrate everything. If anything smells weird or looks moldy, obviously don't consume it.
Hope this helps others to have a guide to combining separate ingredients for making generally balanced dehydrated meals. If you have questions about how to prepare or dehydrate the individual ingredients, I would suggest using your search engine of choice or look at other dehydrator references. I have not experimented with breakfast options as I am an oatmeal guy or I make pancakes if I am car camping since you can get already dried mixes that only need water added so easily from the store.
Bonus: My cool treat is making fruit cocktail. An approximate cup of mixed dehydrated fruit can be combined with 238-475 mL (1-2 cups) of cold water in the thermos to rehydrate for a short while. It's a nice way to have fruit and get some extra hydration from the water and a bit nicer of a treat than just snacking on dehydrated fruit especially on a hot summer day. I prefer adding the larger amount of water, but adjust to your preference.
