I always try to eat fresh/local/organic (which lets be honest hasn't happened much in the last year and a half because that is not what is served in the Employee Dining Room - hell, we're lucky if it's cooked all the way!) but we've found that the prepackage, full of salt and preservatives meal usually fits the bill over other foods (mostly the can't spoil and lightweight thing - potatoes are just not very light).
With the prospect of spending 6 months out in the woods (I don't think I've mentioned yet that we are planning a trip on the Appalachian Trail for next summer - more details to come with the next post) with the usual go-to's: Kraft Mac and Cheese with a can of chili (which is too heavy realistically anyway) or (newly discovered to us) Indian food in a bag with Minute Rice (which I then have to take Pepto and/or sit on a tree over a hole for 30 minutes - dang! Indian food is tasty but it does NOT agree with my belly) and then no matter what it is you have to wrap it up in a tortilla because it just makes it taste better (seriously, on the Mr. Bubble trip, Graham literally ate a chunky peanut butter, snickers and gummy bear "sandwich" wrap) - I have been on a mission for better health choices. (This paragraph should probably be more than one sentence - but I think it has character so I'm going to leave it.)
(I'm writing rather rambly - but it's currently 4:27 a.m. and I just can't sleep.) I started this blog as a food blog and I'm going to start back down that path in detailing what we make; how we package, store and transport the food; and then the actual preparation on the trail. The pictures probably won't be pretty in anyway but hopefully they will be helpful to other campers/backpackers/hikers (or as I've learned in my recent research - people who think the world is going to blow up or something so they need massive amounts of emergency food supplies - not kidding, click here). I have found a few pretty good sites but most of them seem started and then forgotten (the best one that I've found is from the Backpacking Chef) so hopefully this isn't some late night, sleep deprived dream that I soon forget about as well.
We are getting ready to head home (Memphis, Texas and Oklahoma) to visit the respective families. During this time, we are going to cook some foods that could then be dehydrated - or if it would be possible to dehydrate the ingredients and then quickly make the meal after rehydrating. It's not the same as fresh/local but hopefully we'll pick some of that up along the way too. I have learned that you can dehydrate almost any food (like rice and then it'll have more nutrients than the Minute Rice but not noodles - but we can just bring those raw, which is basically dehydrated anyway, and add them into the cooking process). I'm currently working on a list of recipes I think might work - and since this all currently hypothetical since I've never dehydrated anything in my life up to this point - I'll just let you know how they go so we discover together.
The other idea that we had is to make super muffins or biscuits but the concern is that they'd get too crumbly. We might still make some, freeze them and have them shipped to us periodically. By super muffin I mean one that has protein powder, flax seed, nutritional yeast and anything else we can throw in to it to add more calories (I did say we wanted lots of calories right? specifically protein. The average AT hiker burns between 3000 to 4000 calories a day! and we have to carry the food to replenish that on our backs.) I believe we could make tasty ones (and I love to make muffins!) and they would be good for breakfast or a snack - it's just the crumbly part.
Any other food preparation ideas?
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| I played golf for my birthday. Graham said I looked like Hunter S. Thompson in my golfing attire. |
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