How about one of these:
Jetboil Flash Cooking System - Free Shipping for Members at REI.com
I bought this set up about a month ago and it works great. Just boil water and add to some freeze dried food. The Mountain House brand of freeze dried meals taste as good as anything you can make "fresh" while camping. Saves a lot of weight and space. You can get a coffee press for it, make some grits or oatmeal. I'll never pack pots/pans again.
Good deal at the sale price.
HTH
Edit: I had to give this item a better review. I think the Jet Boil is a game changer for the backpacking crowd. This product is well thought out and works very well. It will boil two cups of water in 2.5 min. which makes it very efficient. I bought the smallest gas can which will nest inside for storage. I have boiled water 12 times and it's still not empty. I bought the coffee press for about $15 and it works great, just use the jet boil for a mug. If you use the Mountain House freeze dried food, you use the bag to eat out of so no need for a plate. It has a built in piezo lighter that works with one push. Everything, including optional pieces, is nestable making for a very compact and lightweight unit.
Not a fan of Jetboil, or any other raw BTU unit of this style, they lack finesse, and I find canister stoves to be far to expensive for regular use, not to mention the limitations of finding fuel for them, the bulk, and dificulty in very cold temps. I do some pretty gourmet things while backpacking, and sometimes you need to simmer a sauce for your dinner or a creme anglaise for your morning granola, neither can be done with narrow pots and jet-engine stoves. They are great if everything's perfectly freeze-dried and reconstitutes in a few seconds flat, but I just don't roll that way, store-bought food generates too much trash.
Back on-topic: MSR makes a solid pot kit I think it's the Duralite kit, and I would not have replaced it had I not recieved the Optimus unit as a gift. That said, both are about the same in every way, lightweight, compact, and convenient.
I dislike the rattles and lack of and insulating cover for the MSR set, but am more bothered by the lack of a pot lid for the Optimus set. I must have a lid for my pots to save fuel and energy, and I use my MSR lid as a plate for eating, so I stuck the lid inside the Optimus set, and I'm happy.
I think the price is the cheif advantage for the MSR set, it's about 20 bucks cheaper thant the Optimus Terra, and it feels more complete, but I've come to find the non teflon surfaces of the Terra pretty handy because I don't ever worry about scratching it off.
Both have the cons of being a little undersized for anything more than three people.
GSI has the best anodized gear and lightweight hardware you can find, I have one of their tea kettles that I've stuck into my cookset, and it weighs nothing.
Brunton can be really hit-or-miss, some of their gear is just outstanding, while some of it is simply inconvenient.
Snow Peak is leading the pack with Titanium hardware, and I really dig their chopsticks.
Finally, Rusty:
I'm outright jealous of you, by the time I joined the Scouts, they were phasing out alot of their gear because they couldn't compete. If only I had a BSA cookset...
