What are some of your favorite foods to bring/make for backpacking?
Some of mine:
As an easy-to-cook grain, I recently discovered fonio, which looks and tastes a bit like tiny couscous. I combine a serving of fonio with a packet of ghee (Kroger sells those under the Simple Truth brand) and whatever dehydrated vegetables I'm in the mood for, and I have a great just-add-hot-water recipe for the back country.
Also, I learned from backpackingchef.com that you can make palatable dehydrated ground beef by cooking it with some bread crumbs, or in my case rice panko, before dehydrating. That little change alone has substantially improved the texture of my back country chilis, as dehydrating ground beef on its own turns it into something between a pebble and a piece of old gum.
It's all stainless and the controls are really nice. We got ours because making our own dehydrated meals is a lot more affordable than buying pre-made. That said, it's really nice to dump some hot water in a bag and 5 minutes later have pre-made gourmet meal.