[pct-l] Eating while backpacking...

[Jeffrey Olson]

I contributed this in 2004.  I thought it worth sharing again..

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.  3 oz for the first couple weeks, 4-6 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 -3 oz is enough.

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 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.  Depending on the meal I 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 quart freezer bag and
in it put all the ingredients.  Secure with a small strip of duct tape.  
You'll put
in two to three cups of boiling water, let ist, and eat. Some meals fill 
the
freezer bag.  Most don't

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 (1995 dollars).  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 less than a buck at http://mealpack.com/.  You
get 440 calories for less than a buck!!!  You have to buy a minimum of 50
bars, but that's not a big deal.

Jeffrey Olson
Laramie, WY