[pct-l] Food

[Rick Ostheimer]

Sean,

Sounds like you're resupplying from the supermarkets.  Here are some of 
my staples.

I got a small, plastic juice container and filled it with olive oil, 
availa ble at larger supermmarkets in 250ml containers.  The olive oil 
went into anything I cooked.

I had another which I filled with dried milk that I used in any of the 
dinners that called for some milk to be added.

I only cooked dinners.  Samples include:

Mac n Cheese with the contents of a Spam single cut up into it, and a 
couple dollops of olive oil

Knorr Lipton Pasta Primavera with a small foil-pack of smoked salmon or 
regular salmon with a couple dollops of olive oil.  (add dried milk with 
the pasta)

K-L Noodles Alfredo with a foil pack of tuna in oil with olive oil and 
dried milk added with the pasta.

K-L Rice sides with chicken from foil pack

etc.  There are lots of good, instant pasta or rice dishes that give you 
some variety.  I never tired of these dinners on the trail.  You could 
also add grated parmesan to almost any of these dishes for additional 
calories and flavor.

For dessert, I always had an extra large dark chocolate bar and 
sometimes added an instant pudding mix which I made with the dried milk

For breakfast (I never cooked ):

Carnation instant breakfast with cocoa mix----good cold and lots of 
calories, ....plus

Pop tarts (raspberry was my favorite)---I can't handle them off the 
trail, but on trail they're pretty good, .... plus

carried and eaten while walking as a second and, sometimes, third 
breakfast ----various bars such as oatmeal to go, yogurt bars, etc, 
found in the breakfast foods aisle

For lunch:

I packed whole wheat bagels which I squished down as flat as I could.  
That way they get pretty compact.  I had one of these with peanut butter 
or cheese (Cheddar keeps about a week with no green fuzzy stuff growing 
though it can get a little oily), plus ...

either a large handful of Fritos (great trail snack and they hold up 
well in the pack) or shoestring potatoes (found in a cylindrical 
container near the potato chips)---great fuel.

For snacks:

Of course, Snickers and any other candy.  Great, even if they sometimes 
were gooey after riding in my pack on a hot segment.  Also, licorice red 
and black and other candies. And of course bars, Clif, Power, and my new 
favorite, if you can find them, Pro-bars.

In other words, there's plenty of variety available on the supermarket 
shelves.  Experiment a bit and you'll find a lot of stuff to fuel your hike.

Cheers,

Handlebar
AT06, PCT08