According to the preserved diaries and letters of some of those who came across the Oregon Trail:

- the variety of meals was not so much in the different foods, but in the different ways of cooking the same foods.

-some people said that the simple diet actually agreed with them more than their rich diets in the east.

-one woman wrote that upon seeing their final destination after a very eventful trek across the Oregon Trail, "the Israelites coming into the Promised Land were not happier than we were upon seeing the end of the trail."

You can read more about it here http://www.isu.edu/%7Etrinmich/00.n.dairies.html

My favorite is the entry of Narcissa Whitman in 1836.