plain pasta with some freeze dried bits in it or plain pasta with good quality olive oil, chilli flakes, sliced chorizo and dried tomatoes. topped with some cheese and a sprinkling of crushed black pepper and flakes of sea salt?

and how  much would you pay in a restaurant for this?  

My philosophy is this...I can afford to be a bit calorie light for a few days without effecting me in any way at all...but if I am left eating food I niether like nor enjoy, my general bad feelings will stretch into my overall experience and I become a grumpy bugger....just ask my mates....

So...less is more in my view!

Well... here we are getting into the realm of "living to eat" (me) or "eating to live" (Russians). I'll put up with a (very) few more ounces of hydrated retort pouch meat every 2nd day just to have a great meal. That means I've already cut back the weight of "The Big 4" i.e.

1. PACK > REI Cruise UL 60 @ 3.1 lbs.

2. SLEEPING BAG/Mattress > Western Mountaineering Megalite & sac @ 1.2 lbs./Thermarest Lite & sac @ 1.5 lbs.

3. TENT > TarpTent Contrail (W/5 MSR Groundhog stakes) @ 1.6 lbs.

4. COOKSET/STOVE > 14 oz. W/O fuel canister(s)

But you do have a point about carrying hydrated food and I'm going back to the drawing board (hydrator) to see how well it works on retort pouch salmon, chicken, etc. I'll begin experimenting this week as I have a southern Sierra Nevada backpack in August and a Ruby Mountains backpack in September and I ned to cut food weight.

 The Sierra Nevada trip (E. Califiornia) requires food be carried in a Forestry Serviice approved "bear canister" which itself weighs over 1 lb. (0.5 kg.). Believe me, having bears around camp is unnerving at times. We place our canisters 30 M. from tents and cook in another location 30 M. from tents. Then we keep our bear spray in our tents at night... in the off chance we hear loud sniffing outside the tents.

Cant say we have that issue...but I have seen a tent trashed by a fox in the Lake District.