[pct-l] Food - A system...

[Jeffrey Olson]

My favorite dinners are a compilation of cheap, healthy components.  
There are four basic levels.

The first level is the base; pasta, instant rice, cous cous, polenta 
(grits) or potato flakes, my favorite.  4 oz for the first couple weeks, 
6 oz for the rest of the hike.

The second level is a dehydrated soup; split pea, black bean (with extra 
salt) or my favorite, curried lentil.  2 oz for the first couple weeks, 
and 3-4 oz for the rest of the hike.

The third level is the "binder."  I never knew about binders until I got 
disgusted with prepackaged freeze dried food - mostly price.  The binder 
is the ingredient that ties everything else together.  Rice and black 
bean soup mix gets old real fast.

The bind I favor is parmesian cheese - Kraft or some other generic 
version. The stuff lasts forever and has good fat content.  For the 
first two weeks - 2oz, and 3-4 oz for the rest of the hike.  You can 
carry oil or margarine, fake and tubbed, but I've found that good old 
Kraft Parmesian makes me smack my lips as I wolf down dinner.  I usually 
include an ounce of 4% dehydrated milk as another binder.

The fourth level is where you get creative, and can use the dehydrator. 
Anything goes.  An oddity I like is to include dehydrated blueberries, 
an ounce or two, in a dinner once in a while.  Vegetables, etc.   
Whatever the imagination can concoct.  If you use potato flakes, include 
fake margarine and about three ounces per person of soy baco bits.  
That's a lot of baco bits, believe me...  They are salty and absolutely 
wonderful.  Potato flakes makes the greatest volume per weight, but 
there are some issues with the hypoglycemic spike some people might have 
to consider.

I package dinners at home in the same manner.  Use a gallon freezer bag 
to put the rice/pasta/cous cous in.  Then put the soup in a quart 
sandwich, not freezer bag. Put the cheese in a quart sandwich bag.  Put 
both quart bags in the gallon bag, seal the gallon bag so there is the 
least air in it as possible, and then secure with a small strip of duct 
tape or newspaper rubber band.

I know all these bags sounds wasteful and lots of extra weight, but 
being able to get the water to boil, put in the instant rice, let it 
cook for 20 seconds, mix in the soup, turn off the stove, or some 
favorite order - makes controlling the process easier.  Finally, you can 
either add the parmesian just before serving to the whole pot, which 
means you have to spend more time cleaning it, or to your individual 
servings, which means you only have cheesy residue on your cup.  I know 
all this as I weigh and measure and bag and rubber band.  Experience has 
me do what works for me.

If eating individually, I found it pretty easy to rehydrate the base - 
rice, etc. - and then put it back into the gallon freezer bag and add 
the rest.  The cheese does stick...

You can vary your dinners so you don't have the same dinner but twice a 
month.  I found I preferred more curried lentil dinners and fewer black 
beans.  I really liked potato dinners once a week.  They make a LOT of 
food for the weight, and taste so, so, good with the margarine and baco 
bits. I'm a little suspect about the potato dinner's nutrition, hence 
they are a treat - once a week.

This stuff is all bought in bulk.  The idea of shopping as you go has 
its fans, but I don't like leaving the trail, and I know what I will eat 
on the trail.  Mac and cheese it ain't...  My package disappeared from 
the Big Lake Religious camp and I had to hitch into Sisters for a 
resupply at the store at the edge of town.  $50 for five days.  I 
figured that I was spending about $4 a day if I ate nothing but bulk 
food.  My folks live in the bay area and shipping the food was not that 
expensive.  I so appreciated my next food drop at Timberline Lodge...  
The store bought stuff just wasn't the same.  Where were the baggies?

When I added the mealpack bars, or power bars, or any of the "someone 
else does the work" foods, the cost easily doubled.  That said, I'm a 
convert to the 4oz bars you can buy for $1.30 or so with shipping - 
http://mealpack.com/.  You get 440 calories for not much more than a 
buck!!!  You have to buy a minimum of 50 bars, but that's not a big deal.

Jeff
Martin, SD