I have done some reserch in animal proof food containers but I have yet to buy or try one out. The Ursack is the one I will probably get eventually as it is lighter and easy to pack. It seems many parks in the US have manditory bear proof container policies but I have never herd of anything like this in Canada. So far I have never lost any food to any animal and this is due to making an effort and also just a bit of luck. If you are on a multi day hike with no chance of restocking then the loss of you food could be a real crisis. I am rarely in a position where loosing my food would be any more than an incovenience as I would be able to get somewhere to buy more within a day or so. 

The most difficuld time I have had with keeping food away from animals is when car camping without a car. The usual rule of hanging your food 50 to 100 meters from your site does not work as you would be in someone elses campsite. I don't have much worry about bears in car campgrounds but racoons are a concern. I can't recall every seeing a racoon in the backwoods but in car campgrounds they are almost always around and just waiting for any opportunity. If lucky you can find two sutable trees to use but this is not always an option. One time I hung my food between the picnic table and a fence post 2 feet off the ground just to make it a bit more difficult for them to get at my food. Something else I have done, is to put my food in a pot and tie it upside down on the picnic table in a way that the racoons would need to chew through the rope to get at the food. 

When camping on the east coast of Newfoundland in a blueberry patch where there are no trees over 6 feet high I one time hung my food dangling off a cliff over the ocean to keep it away from any bears that may come around. 

Also keep in mind not to just keep your tent food free but also scent free as deoderent and toothpaste can attract animals into your tent as well. It can even be good to not use deoderant at all.

I used to hang my food from a tree (one tree), but that requires a large long branch to keep the food far enough from the trunk. Now I hang the food between two trees as you don't need any large branch, I just need to get the rope around a small branch close to the trunk 12 to 15 feet up and then tie the other end of the rope to the next tree about 5 feet up with the the food hanging between them. Works so far.

At home I use only margerine but on the trail I prefer to take butter as it lasts longer out of the fridge. I will also substitute olive oil for margerine in the summer as it is easy to keep fresh in all kinds of tempature. There are differnet brands of powdered butter that I have yet to try out as they are a bit on the expensive side however just by looking at the reviews it seems it makes a good substitute for real butter.

Dollar stores are a good place to get individually packaged pepperoni sticks  and some have pepperoni/cheese stick combo packs that don't need to be refridgerated.  The Hickory Farms type gift packs you can sometimes get cheap after Christmas have sausage and cheese that has a long shelf life and does not need to be refrigerated. I have also found Hungarian sausage at Winner's that does not need to be refrigerated and has a 1 year shelf life. 

I often freeze a couple of water bottles and pack them next to the food that makes it easier to carry meat and eggs for the first day or so. 

Processed meats like ham or sausage will last longer out of the fridge than fresh meat and you can also get precooked bacon at the grocery stores that does not need to be refrigerated.

Can tuna, ham, chicken are easy to take and last forever however besides being heavy you must also pack out the empty cans. Some trails I have been on recently have garbage / recycle bins along the way and getting rid of empty cans and packaging is easy. One problem with can tuna is that you need to drain the water from the can and if you dump it on the ground it can attract animals to your site.

Dehydrated meal kits  keep fresh for a long time but only saves weight if there is water at the campsite.  If you are bringing in all of your water these dehydated meal kits don't save any weight and you would be just as well off bringing in regular food. 

The only camping meal kits I have tried in the past few years is the Happy Yak eggs. They used to sell a couple years ago for  about $5.00 but I see that it is more like $12.00 now. One package is more  than enough for two people but really not that good.  I would buy the eggs again but only on a multi day trip when there is no chance of restocking along the way. I have not tried any of the camping meal kits recently due to cost and can't say much about the quality of any of them as most of my hikes are only 2 or 3 days between some kind of store to stock up. I would go with the Dehydrated meal kits on a multi day trip if there was no chance of finding a store on the way.

I used to use the  wide mouth Nalgene water bottles and had a set that lasted for 10 - 15 years however I now use wide mouth power aid containers. I get them at the dollar store for about $1.25 full of drink and after washing them they are good to go. They are lighter that the Nalgene bottles and can be used for many trips. I also fill them up at home and freeze them to keep food fresh for the first day or so.

I belive the titanium cook sets would be the best choice however due to the cost I still don't have any yet. Stainless steel is better than Aluminum in everyway except cost and weight and even though I have a nice stainless steel set I bought over 20 years ago I now take mostly  aluminum cookware to use. Another good thing about aluminum cookware is you can find them at thift stores cheap and I now have a large collection of different sizes to pick from.

Back in the day I used to carry a stainless steel mug to use for water, coffee and even to boil water on the stove however It never kept hot drinks from cooling down so I have now switched to a plastic insulated travel mug and it is worth the little extra weight and size. 

For cleaning both dishes and myself I use the multi purpose liquid camp soap found at outdoor stores. There are a couple different brands but they all claim to be good for dishes, body soap and as shampoo. I use it for all of this and works good for me. They claim to be better for the enviroment but you still need to take care and to keep it away from lakes and rivers.

For cleaning cookware I always carry a yellow sponge with the green scrub pad on one side as it does not weigh much and makes clean up much easy. I used to try the old scrubbing pots and pans with gravel trick but don't bother with that method any more.

When camping in a place where there will not be any drinking water you will of course need to bring your own in. Water is important and heavy. No one wants to do without and no one wants to carry water long distance for no reason. I recently camped near a lake that had algae issues and brought in 6 litres for the night. I used 5.5 litres and had a bit left when I got back to the car, but, I drank lots in my car before hiking in and although it was a nice warm day in May it was not hot and I was in the woods with no direct sun.  My total time in the woods was about 20 hours so I will consider 6 litres as my minimum amount for an overnighter. 

I carry a good water filter and will boil water when needed. You can filter out the algae and kill algae by boiling but the toxins created by the algae will still be there and will still make you sick.