For wilderness backpacking I'm a big fan of Jet Boil and their clones. You can make your own freeze dried / just add water meals pretty easily, only using it to boil water for that and drinks. They make a french press insert that actually works ok. Personally I just converted over to earl grey tea. It's crazy convenient to just do one boil for food, one for coffee / tea, and nothing to clean or pack out but a zip lock bag.

For urban backpacking the more high end thermoses are really effective at keeping stuff hot once you've made it.