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

[logboy at airmail.cc]

Do you have any recipes? That curried lentil sounds good :)

Logan

On 2017-02-12 14:58, Jeffrey Olson wrote:
> I sent this out 10 years or so ago, and post it periodically.
> 
> 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 binder 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 (Nido) 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.Use a quart freezer bag
> to put everything in.  Secure with a small strip of duct tape or
> newspaper rubber band.
> 
> I make dinners so they take about 16 to 20 oz of water, less for 
> thicker
> stew, more water for more souplike.  Boil the water and pour it into 
> the
> freezer bag.  Let it sit, as you stir, and eat when ready.  I carry an 
> 18 OZ
> capacity titanium pot and a 1 oz burner.  The lighter, aluminum foil 
> windscreen
> small size canister and the burner all fit in the pot.  Pretty small 
> and light.
> 
> 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...  In 2005 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 (2005) 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
> Laramie, WY
> 
> 
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