Meal Planning for 4 day hut-hut trip

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hikingfish

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Feb 28, 2005
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Montreal, Qc, Canada Avatar: Top of Gothics, Adk
Hi!
Once again, I turn to my fellow VFTT members to help me out with something. My girlfriend and I are going to the Monts Valin (Qc) for St-Valentine's day. We're doing a 4 day snowshoeing circuit. We're doing the circuit in the non-standard way, which means our first day should be very very easy (50m elevation change, no, I didn't forget a zero ;) ), however the second, third and fourth days should be much harder (600m elevation change on the second day, with a high probability we'll be braking trail since it'll be mid-week, in a region that's reknown for it's precipitation).

My question pertains specifically to meal planning. For the first day, we'll probably allow ourselves to bring more elaborate stuff, however we'll have to keep the weight down for the other days (read: dehydrated!).

I was planning on bringing some of the following:
instant rice
instant mash potatoes
instant oatmeals
couscous
sauce packet (Knorr or the likes)
beef stock cubes
salami and the likes, perhaps some of those tuna envelops (trash packs better than tuna cans)
powdered milk
dehydrated fruits and veggies (I got a dehydrator for Christmas, going to give it a try...of course I'll make sure I try anything I make FIRST hehe)

I was also reading in freedom of the hills about interesting stuff, however I haven't been able to locate some and would appreciate name brands of companies that make some:
dehydrated (instant) applesauce,
dehydrated (instant) pudding

Any idea how long dehydrated food keeps in a ziploc bag (assuming I do my very best to remove most of the air from the ziploc bag)?

Any light-weight / high energy suggestions?

Appreciate any info!

Fish
 
Four days of snowshoeing for Valentine's Day? Sounds like quite a woman...You can get ravioli and tortellini in foil bags at the Supermarket.
 
I like instant mashed potato at home :eek: , but I don't take it camping. I understand it's digested and the sugars released rather quickly vs rice and pasta. There are a variety of flavored rices available. A favorite is the Cajun Jambalaya style bean and rice mixes with diced Spam or MRE BBQ Pork mixed in. I don't take instant milk, I don't like it.
 
Lol, yeah I'll have to agree with mtnpa... she's a definite keeper :D (my girflriend and I went hiking for 3 days in the ADKs for her b-day ;) )

Your food list looks exactly like mine! minus a few things.

Some things I would add:
-a loaf of bread (compressible, light)
-jar of peanut butter, or jelly, or fluff?
-Can of SPAM
-Vienna sausages (how I treat myself :) )
-Cheese - yeah it's heavy, but it can be added to anything and makes it taste that much better
 
hikingfish said:
(I got a dehydrator for Christmas, going to give it a try...of course I'll make sure I try anything I make FIRST hehe)...
Any idea how long dehydrated food keeps in a ziploc bag (assuming I do my very best to remove most of the air from the ziploc bag)?
With very little work you are in for a treat. You can dehydrate just about any food you like to eat at home, assuming you start out with smallish relatively uniform sized pieces. Dehydrate your regular dinner leftovers. In general you will reduce the weight to 25% and volume to 30% of original. Casseroles work especially well, as do such things as one pot spaghetti (recipes exist for enhanced sauce), chili, jambalaya, mixtures of mashed potatoes and stuffing and cooked veggies and various mixtures including (cooked) egg dishes. Dehydrate cooked extra lean ground beef into gravelly granules that you can add to any dish on the trail (or not for vegetarian companions). Add some beef granules to dehydrated hash brown potatoes and packaged McCormick Country Gravy mix for a good hearty breakfast. All kinds of fruit dehydrate well, you are only limited by imagination.

I dehydrate a ton of food every year for guiding and courses I teach. I use freezer weight zip lock bags, double bagged. Vacuum seal systems might be better but I consider the bags to be overly expensive. I've had no problem with doubled zip lock bags. Properly dehydrated food will keep for weeks or longer at room temp with no degradation in quality. When I prepare buckets of it at a time in advance for future use I'll store it in the freezer until the trip just to be safe with other people's health. But a few days outdoors in summer heat has no detrimental effect.

If you don't already have it, get Mary Bell's "Complete Dehydrator Book" (the bible of dehydrating) to get you started. Then get Linda Yaffe's "Backpack Gourmet: Good Hot Grub You Can Make at Home, Dehydrate, and Pack for Quick, Easy, and Healthy Eating on the Trail" for some tasty ideas you probably never thought of.

The trick of all this is to get the food back to table quality on the trail. All I do is pour boiling water over the food in a mug, put it in an insulating fleece cozy and wait 20 minutes (don't peek or cheat on the time) for it to fully rehydrate. It stays hot and comes out just like fresh made, no cooking involved.

Take a look at trailfoods.com for an idea of the type of real food (dehydrated, not freeze-dried) you can prepare and dehydrate at home. My home style is much like theirs on a much smaller scale.
 
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Any idea how long dehydrated food keeps in a ziploc bag (assuming I do my very best to remove most of the air from the ziploc bag)?

question: Fait-il plus froid: a) dans un frigo b) dehors en Quebec en Fevrier?

In Quebec in February, any type of food will keep for at least a week at outdoor temperature, as long as you keep it out of direct sunlight.
A bigger worry is whether you can carry enough fuel to melt the water to thaw, rehydrate and cook all your food, but I see you're wisely focussed on dried/instant meals and not on anything that needs prolonged thawing or cooking.

Any light-weight / high energy suggestions?

A few little extras to add to your meal can make a big difference.
Carry a small amount of vegetable oil. It's a great way to add calories to anything you cook.
Powdered sugar makes a great addition to most hot drinks, as do powdered milk and powdered chocolate. I like to carry tea, some people like coffee or hot chocolate, but you will definitely want to drink something hot while watching the sunset.

Powdered milk is no substitute for the real thing, but it still can be added to many recipes to make them richer.
Powdered eggs can be good but take a little practice or you can end up with something truly degueulasse. My usual technique involves careful measurement and lots of stirring - might be too big a hassle in winter.

Peanut butter in a tube is an old favorite - tons of calories balanced between fats and carbohydrates, lots of protein too. That or a bagful of nuts of any kind (I like to make a different mix for each day, some with salt, some with chocolate chips, etc etc) is a snack you can eat while moving.

Also, don't forget to carry a variety of your favorite dried spices. Makes a big difference to how much you enjoy your food, and doesn't weigh anything. Carry a bit of extra salt too. You'll find yourself eating more salt on days when you sweat a lot.
(The beef stock cubes, though, are probably too much salt, and no calories. Plain old "cube soup" should be treated like tea or coffee - it's hot, and people like the flavor, but it's not food.)

Four days is not very long - whatever you bring, you won't die of hunger, so try to pack light but also bring something you'll enjoy eating.
Oh yeah, don't pack too many dried fruits. A snowshoe trip is not a good time to be eating too much fiber.
 
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One of the best parts of winter camping is eating! Since it's cold, unless you're concerned about weight, you don't have to dehydrate stuff.

Pull a sled and bring whatever you want... steaks, chili...
 
.... oh yeah, and don't dehydrate scrambled eggs :eek: It doesn't work :mad: and that's a hard lesson to learn when you're looking forward to eggs for breakfast
 
a few suggestions..

sandwiches on English Muffins-they're indestructable.
Uncle Ben's Rice Pudding-it's dessert-it's breakfast-it's yummy!
Any of the Lipton Pasta packs-most cook in under 10 minutes-they're tasty and cheap. Add a can of chicken or your favorite.
Knorr's Leek soup-keeps the campers happy while the main event is cooking

cheddar cheese-pepperoni-nuts-it's all good!
 
Hi All!
Thanks for all the great replies. I forgot to mention I was going to bring a multi-spice wheel (5-6 spices in a tiny container, got that at an outdoors store: Salt, pepper, chili powder, cury powder, paprika and another I don't remember). I was also going to bring cup-O-soups, those are amazing. I was planning on carrying cup-O-soups (chicken cream or something like that) as soups before meals and the vegetable soup kind as a "sauce" to put into the couscous. The olive oil was on my list from the start!

I was thinking of keeping it simple with the dehydrator, since this will be my first time trying to dehydrate stuff for an outing. I was thinking of dehydrating only simple fruits or veggies.

As for the fuel requirements, there will be a wood stove in the hut. It won't get hot enough to be able to cook on it, but hot enough to be able to melt snow in...Although, 3 nights, 2 people, I was planning on bringing a total of 650mL + 325mL of white gas for my whisperlite. We will basically only be boiling water on it (although, for the last breakfast, I was thinking of bringing some betty crocker pancake mix, with powdered eggs and powdered milk...as well as maple syrup crystals (reconstitute with hot water) hehehe). I should be covered gas wise, as I remember spending 2 days of "deluxe camping" with a friend and we cooked lengthy meals for 2 days on my 650mL bottle and still had 1/3rd of the bottle left.

Powdered sugar...hadn't thought of that! I'll add it to my list. As for beverages, I was bringing: apple/cinnamon powdered mix, hot chocolat mix, gatorade, tea, tisane, powdered milk and cup-O-soups in thermos to drink during the day. I think that's it.

nartreb: It's supposed to be +8C on Saturday, with possibility of rain. That's in Montreal though. Close to Lac St-Jean, I would hope it'll be much colder. The region is known for high precipitations...if it's too hot, we'll get loads of rain I would imagine.

I also like the suggestion about peanut butter in a squeeze tube. That's awesome.

Keep your ideas coming! I'll post the entire menu once my girlfriend and I decide on a final version (and yes, she's a keeper hehehe).

Fish
 
Note on the Peanut Butter - if you can find it, try to get some "organic" or natural PB - it's more runny than your store-bought kind, so easier to dispense.

Almond Butter is also a good substitute for PB - but it's a little stickier, so messier.

Also, plop a spoonful of PB in your couscous or noodles for an added nutty flavor - Delicious! ;)
 
sleeping bear said:
.... oh yeah, and don't dehydrate scrambled eggs :eek: It doesn't work :mad: and that's a hard lesson to learn when you're looking forward to eggs for breakfast
Cooked eggs by themselves don't dehydrate well at home, but if mixed in with something else, like a potato/veggie dish, they are fine. Always use cooked eggs when home dehydrating, don't take a chance dehydrating raw eggs. Commercially dehydrated powdered eggs are pretty good these days and can be made into scrambled or omlets the same as fresh. Several online sources have them, quite inexpensively.

Dried whole milk is another good item to look for as a much richer higher energy content alternative to the common nonfat dry milk powder. It is available under the name "Nido" in a yellow can. The only place I've seen it regularly is in the Mex/Hispanic food section of Walmart.
 
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hikingfish said:
I also like the suggestion about peanut butter in a squeeze tube. That's awesome.

People get jealous really fast when they see PB in a tube! :D

There are a lot of really good food suggestions on here. On thing to keep in mind with winter in particular, is temperature. All of this stuff is going to freeze. You'll never get frozen peanut butter out of a tube, or a jar for that matter. Same with cheese in a big block- you risk cutting yourself trying to get a usable piece off. This is where good planning comes in. Think about what's going to freeze, and in what size/form. Cut things like cheese and energy bars into little pieces before you go. Wrap things up individually, try and make things "glove friendly", generally think about the conditions you're going to be cooking in.

The jumbalaya rice suggestion is one of my favorites- throw in some sauteed kielbasa too (make sure you slice it before you go). Yum!

As a general reference you want to shoot for 3 to 4 thousand calories per day for winter activities, more if it's really cold. It takes about twice as much energy to do things in the cold as when it's warm.

Hot chocolate is awesome with some powedered milk and peanut butter. The nutritional value of a travel mug full is roughly equal to a warm power bar you can drink! It also helps keep you hydrated. :)
 
hikingFish said:
Coverage:
Feb 15: supper
Feb 16: breakfast, lunch, supper
Feb 17: breakfast, lunch, supper
Feb 18: breakfast, lunch


Breakfast:
12 Instant oatmeal (maple syrup flavor)
dried fruits (banana, mango, apple)
Peanut butter
6 English Muffin


Lunch:
hard cheese (parmesan type)
granola bars (vital: banana, strawberry: 16 bars total)
dehydrated fruits (2 ziploc bag total)
salty nut mix (2 ziploc bag total)
2 medium dry sausages (the ROMA brand)
6 pita breads
12 hot cup-O-soup (in thermos)

Suppers:
340mL (1 normal portion is 85mL) instant rice
240g (1 normal portion is 60g) whole wheat couscous
3 cups (1 normal portion is 3/4 cup) whole wheat pasta
dehydrated vegetables: zuccini, carrots, brocoli, peppers, tomatoes
1 big dry sausages
2 tuna bags
12 cup-O-soup


Desserts:
12 sachet of instant pudding
2x chocolate bars (the good kind)
**surprise** (these were actually 2 bags of heart shaped chocolat candies...I had to conceal it from the girlfriend ;-)

Drinks:
400g Dehydrated milk powder (for puddings)
4 Powdered hot chocolate
4 Powdered apple/cinnanon mix
1L Powdered gatorade (2 bottles), good for ~8L each
4 Tea bags
4 Tisane bags
Wine (for first day only)


Seasonning:
Multi-spice wheel
Honey
1 beef stock cube
Sauce packages (water based rose sauce for pasta)

Packaging: Big ziploc bags

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feb 15
Lunch (road Qc->Mt Valins): Cheese, chic-pea salad
Supper: 2 cup-O-soup, whole wheat pasta + dried zuccini + dried tomatoes + dried peppers + water based rose sauce + tuna bag, 1 cup of banana pudding

Feb 16
Breakfast: Instant oatmeal(2) + dried apples, english muffin(1) + peanut butter
Lunch: thermos(3 cup-O-soups), hard cheese, 1 pita bread, salty nut mix, dried fruits, 3 granola bars
Supper: 2 cup-O-soup, couscous + dried raisins + whole corn + sliced almonds + 2 cup-o-soup(veggie) as sauce + 1 beef stock cube + peppers + carrots + dry sausage, 1 cup of chocolate pudding

Feb 17
Breakfast: Instant oatmeal(2) + dried mango, english muffin(1) + peanut butter
Lunch: thermos(3 cup-O-soups), 1 pita bread, salty nut mix, dried fruits, sausage (1 for 2), 3 granola bars
Supper: 2 cup-O-soup, instant rice + dried brocoli + dried peppers + dried carrots, 1 cup of caramel pudding

Feb 18
Breakfast: Instant oatmeal(2) + dried banana, english muffin(1) + peanut butter
Lunch: thermos(3 cup-O-soups), 1 pita bread, salty nut mix, dried fruits, sausage (1 for 2), 2 granola bars

I just thought I'd show you guys approx. what we finally decided on bringing. The dehydrator proved to be amazing! Dehydrated mango and apples for breakfast and dehydrated zuccini, peppers and tomatoes for supper: WOW, what a great way to spice up your meal with great tasting food.
 
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