Food for Seven Days

“the Altoid Wintergreen ones are great when used with certain activites


pink, try smoked oysters in 4 cheese instant potatoes”

“oh gawd....i bout the 4 cheese instant mashed potato...ya think it's worth taking? do they still sell the smoked oysters in the pouch in your area? I cna't find them anymore. I still have a couple at home I think. they are the best, the smoked oysters and the smoked scalops.

okay...lets not go into the altoid XXX stuff. we don't wanna know. hahahahahaha”

“damn Gem, I may not have to take a lot of food on this trip. It seems you are taking everything. Whew at least my pack weight low..oh yeah I will bring the Altoids =)”

“oh heck no! I am gonna try to really look at carb/calories per servings and of course lbs. I don't wanna overpack on food for sure.

I may not even bring alcohol 8-O”

“I may not even bring alcohol 8-O”
Gemini
8:49:14 AM
6/29/05

yeah right, sure ok wink,wink ..lol”

“I must be too boring with my food. I am planning a 7 day trip in August and I am taking 14 mountain house or enertia meals. Of course there will be snacks, but not too many and salt and pepper. That's all I usually take. Hopefully the fishing will be good so I can supplement but 14 MH doubles only weigh 3.75 pounds.”

“14 MH doubles only weigh 3.75 pounds

Plus water.

Do you guys generally figure in the extra water weight for rehydratable foods when calculating? Is it significant?”

“Squirrelbait...how can your tummy handle that? Eewwww.....I know I'd be in the nearest privy constantly!”

“I don't add in the water weight because under normal conditions you are at a spring, creek, etc when you camp or one is close by.

I don't like MH but the Enertia brand is good.

I have made up some meals for this weekends trip to the Smokies. I used my vacuum sealer last night on some meals to see how well it works.”

“I bring enertia, but thought some mashed potatoes would be a good idea in case I am starving and the enertia arent' enough...i can add some potatoes.

That's all. I am NOT cooking!! I hate to cook on the trail.”

“I'm with you Gem...I prefer to NOT cook. I've taken week long trips with a non-cook menu and did just fine. Variety is the key to enjoying the non-cook menu.....but I must admit I'm usually having cheeseburger fantasies by mid-week.....ummmm.....I guess that's not saying much because I pretty much have cheeseburger fantasies all the time. :p”

“Looks like he'd be lucky to get 3,000 calories per day from what he's carrying. I'd definitely lose at least 4 pounds in that week. Not bad for a one week trip if you can afford to lose the weight, not a good idea for a thru-hike though.”

“smoked oysters in a pouch are great! Where do you find smoked scallops? That sounds even better! :-)

Has anyone brought Bisquick instant biscuits with them? I put the mix into a ziploc baggie, add water and squeeze the dough into small foil muffin cups, and then "double boil"/steam them in my pot... :-) hot biscuits are awesome on a chilly morning... They're steamed vs. baked, but the garlic and cheese ones still taste great... ;-) with a small mess kit, I can make 4 muffins at a time... :-) Great with dehydrated veggie chili, too... ;-)”

“4 lbs in a week...I am following that diet to a T. I always gain about 4lbs. yea, Yea...prob'ly water weight but 4 lbs?!”

“I got 9 days of food in the Expedition, with the pot, lid, stove and windscreen and toiletries (and there's still room! I feel like I'm forgetting something.”

“As for water, it's like Ewk said, I am almost always near water, gererally along a stream, sometimes a lake.

And as for my tummy Sarbar, not to get into details but those foods tend to bind me up pretty good. Saves on the TP.

I can definately afford to lose the weight. If I went by the 30% rule I should be able to carry over 100 pounds in my pack.”

“Hay squirrelly,
Is the 3.75 lbs the weight of the food in the 14 packages or the total weight (including packaging)for the 14 meals? It works out to only 4.28 oz. per meal. Just the noodles for one meal for me weigh 4 oz. But, I don't do freeze dried stuff.

It sound like you are not going to the potty because you are not eating enough.”

“Sarge:

I definitely don't count the water weight for rehydration. First off - as Ewker said, you are usually near a water source. Secondly, even when you aren't you need to only carry water for one meal (or perhaps dinner and breakfast) - as you will resupply with water during the next day. Calculations for desert travel would be different.”

“Gemini - I don't like cooking either. When I go solo in Summer, I don't cook at all. I carry things that don't require cooking and contain almost no water. Old style cheeses and hard salamis and sausages, for example, have lots of calories per ounce (usually more than freeze dried foods) and there is no prep, clean-up or cooking gear to worry about.”

“That's about right BS. The two person Mountain houses average right around 4 oz, some are more, some are less.

I also hope to eat lots of trout of course. I usually hike where I can fish.”

“pink, the scalops are awesome and yes, even better. same company. I can't find them anymore. Next time I see some I'll buy the whole box.

Glad I am not the only one that doesnt' like to to cook. Hope no one on the Cali trip will start cooking gourmet. Cus then I am out a luck, and will prolly be jealous.

Pedxing, the hard salami is a great idea. I need to get me some of those. I found smome small sized ones in Cali, but ate them, should've saved them.

I don't have cheeseburger fantasies, I am more of a pizza kinda gurl.”

“How hard is it to dehydrate your own meat? I like the vegetarian pasta dished but would like to add chicken or tuna or something to it. Can I just dehydrate strips of chicken and they keep just fine for extended trips?”

“I'm gonna go to the health store and to the outfitter today to see what's available. Maybe there is something I haven't thought of yet...

I did buy me some organic veggy powder yesterday at the GNC store. Suppose to give you energy and it has vitamins. I thought in case I didn't pack enough food...this will not hurt to have. it's called "livingFood Energy"
http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/detail/775161.html”

“Gems pack weight keeps going up and up...see I told you there is no need for me to bring food. You are gonna have enough to feed everyone.”

“bastards...”

“SB,
I bake a couple of chickens in the oven, then pick the meat off of the bones, then chop it into about 1/2" cubes, then put it in the dehydrator for about a day (I dry stuff excessivly). It makes a bunch of meals. I pack it in ZipLoc Snack bags and store it in the freezer. It will last at least a week on the trail before becoming questionable. The more fat you can get off the meat before dehydrating the better. When I bake the chicken I put it on a roasting pan so the fat and stuff drips down to the bottom pan and cover them with a foil tent.
When you get ready to cook, you just add boiling water to it and let it set a while. The longer the better. You can rehydrate with cold water and then cook. It works great. Better seasoned than canned or foil.

I guess you could do the same with beef, pork or fish. I've never tried. Just as long as you cook it first and then dry it at high temp (165), you should be okay.
For rehydrating, the smaller the pieces the faster they will reconstitute.
You can also dehydrate leftovers, like when you cook chicken and rice or hoppin-john or chili beans, etc. They work great on the trail and taste much better than freeze dried.”

“How about buying a rottiserie chicken and using that? That gets alot of the fat off I think.”

“All this talk of trail food has me thinking I might just make my own. Buy some pasta and some dry sauce mixes, alfredo for me thanks, and some dried up chicken, what more do I need?”

“Rotissory chicken sound good... the dryer the better.

Get noodles/pasta that cooks fast like:
Somen noodles (in the oriental section)
couscous
most of the others take about 5 to 10 min. to cook.

To go "boil and pour", you can precook the noodles with the sauce and meat and then dehydrate the finished product. Then when you get to camp you can "boil and pour" with a ziploc and a cosie (sp?).”

“How do you dehydrate sauces? I know some of these are kinda dumb sounding but my dehydrator is just a white plastic thing with 4 trays for fruits ans meats, do I need something different?”

“sb..I am going thru a testing phase with the dehydrator.(American Harvester with 8 trays) Do a search on dehydrating, and get the list of books mentioned in some of the threads. There is some great info on foods, temps, drying times, etc. Also a great book on recipes (High Trail Cookery)for building your own meals. My wife and I are having a riot learing how to prepare our own stuff instead of buying it. Good luck.”

“sounds like a plan pak
Thanks”

“I dehydrate sauces on one of those plastic "fruit roll up" trays you have to purchase extra. You could put down aluminum foil or something like that and do it. The purchased trays work great for even the most liquid sauces.

I also have some of the fruit trays that have a smaller mesh that work for thick stews and noodles.”

“i dont know if this has been said, but the amount of food will also depend on how many miles you are going per day. if youre pulling 20 mile days, youll probably want half a dozen snacks in addition to meals, 10 miles or less, half that....roughly”

“You can line any dehydrator tray with parchment paper for liquids :-) It works great!”

“you need to buy the trays for doing fruit rollups. Wally World should have them.”

“i don't like the parchment paper... tried it and it sticks to my foods, I guess that's why I stopped dehyrating.

I have a cheap dehyrater. Shoudl I get a better one? what makes them better?, do they have different temp settings?”

“gem i got mine at wally for $40. its cheep but good and has diffrent tempreture settings and a fan to blow the air around. I'm going to buy extra fruit roll up trays. My chili mac came out great!”

“$40? I paid only $20something... it' was really cheap, but the only one I found. Yeah...I may need to find a better one.”