I'm reading these threads about stoves and cooking and pots and recipes and I'm thinking if you don't know what you're going to eat how can you decide what to cook it in, what to cook it on and what to eat it with.

One of our goals was to NOT eat Ramens or Liptons - so we made all our meals in advance based on our theoretical trip.
We carried a whisperlite, 2 pots with a lid, 2 bowls, 2 cups and 2 spoons. We had 6 basic meals (2 noodles, 2 rice and 2 potatoes) in one pot and a sauce with veg's & meat in another pot. We premixed all the sauces with powdered mild in zip locks so we just had to add water. We didn't carry olive oil we carried butter. We carried coffee , hot chocolate and lemonade mix.

Our other food items were granola bars, cookies, candy bars, packets of cheese 'n crackers, cheddar cheese(Cabot), yogurt leather.

We ate well and we thought we were going be attacked a few times in camp. We were eating noodles with Knor tomato sauce and re-hydrated mushrooms and beef, or mashed potatoes with gravy and re-hydrated corn and turkey or instant rice with gravy and re-hydrated mushroom and beef.

If we left town in the afternoon we usually would carry out sandwiches, chips and chocolate milk. If we left town in the morning we usually carried out frozen concentrated juice and the fixin's for grilled cheese sandwiches ( bread, cheese & ham). And no matter when we left town we always carried out some fruit.

What didn't work for us was jerky, dehydrated apples and gorp. Why I don't know - we just didn't like it after a while.

I'm just saying that you don't have to be a minimalist to have a sucessful hike.