The freeze dried/dehydrated foods are not your best choices. They have their place-mostly for light weight compact purposes- but there are better car-based options IMHO. None of these are great eating, but they're not horrible and useful to have in your repetoire if you do car camping where ice can run out. Do buy some powdered eggs. The contemporary versions are pretty good as dried foods go. If you eat fast food or visit convenience stores, stock up on mayo and mustard/ pickle relish packs. Do ask though and do make a purchase of some sort. YOu can also get these at Costco or some restaurant supplies. Shelf stable and packaged per use. Just what you need.
The MRE technology has improved and foods in that style are in your grocer. Shelf stable, cooked foods of generally higher quality than canned. And some MRE's aren't bad. I think the noodle ones are awful, but the whole meat cutlets such as cubed steak, chicken breast, ham and such are worthwhile. I also have a soft spot for the lemon pound cake. Nothing like a real pound cake but I like the one they make.
You'll find lots of kinds of Tuna and a few Salmon. Some actual crab too and chicken in these sorts of metallized plastic pouches. . Better quality than canned. And more expensive.
Rice-a-Roni has a couple of different flavors of rice. Uncle's Bens does too. Zatarains has a Jambalaya, Dirty Rice and a Red Beans and Rice. Some stews are also available from
http://www.pacificfoods.com/products-meals.php My grocers don't have it but others may. Even the micrwavable mac and cheese cartons.
Mix and match ,some tuna or chicken in a rice pilaf for example.
All of these types of food heat up easily on a dash board of a parked car.
2 cans corned beef hash, 1 can julienned beets, well drained with a little chopped onion and some pepper makes a decent red flannel hash.
Canned beans, spicy tomatoes (Rotel) and some fresh ground beef or sausage plus some seasonings can make a quick chili.
A can of chili, a can of stew, some canned mixed vegies, drained,some onion/garlic and spicy seasonings can create a navajo taco topping. If you're hurting for the ability to make a biscuit based fry bread, a non-pocketed pita would be OK. A guick toast on a griddle would be in order.
Creamed chipped beef as chipped beef is shelf stable, though made from powdered milk, it could get ugly. Rather than powdered milk, buy some super pastureized milk. It's shelf stable for months and just use it all up in one evening when you open it.
With that sort of milk, you can do instant pudding too.
Most organic/health food stores have an aisle full of cup of soups and other instant type things They're usually lmore interesting and taste better than the liptons and such in most grocers.
Ramen can be used in many ways, augmented with the foil/canned meats, eggs and other such things. There's a whole site devoted to ramen alterations. Most are scary, but about 1/3 have some limited potential.
http://mattfischer.com/ramen/
As to freeze dried foods, I think you're better off buying some dried basics and combining them into things as needed.
www.beprepared.com sells #10 cans of freeze dried hamburger, refried beans and such. Prep them in meal based sizes and make some burritos. Flour tortillas keep a while. Combine some freeze dried vegies and make some soup with some cardboard steripacked or canned stock. I believe they have lentils too. All of these cook quickly so the flavors aren't as well developed, but they're cheaper and more flexible than buying a prepacked dried meal.
That will get you started.
Phil