Backpack gourmet: meals for a four-night adventure

So we’ve been busy. One of the things we’re busy with is planning for a five day backpacking trip. Based on the search terms used by folks who find my blog, we’re not the only ones, so I figured I’d share our dinner menus for inspiration (and I’d love to hear what others are packing, so feel free to leave a comment!)

Dinners

Pepperoni calzone: this is actually a new one for us, inspired by our friend Marlies. She suggested using the Jiffy-brand pizza crust mix (made with lard, sorry vegetarians). We’re drying a jar of spaghetti sauce, some olives, and a bell pepper that we’ll rehydrate all together, and we bought some fabulous pepperoni at Gartner’s Meats last weekend. Cheese is always a staple in our backpacks, and there will be plenty of mozzarella in this concoction. Dessert will be Jello No-bake cheesecake. More about desserts below.

Pad Thai: I’ve written about this already. Since it’s just the two of us I just bought the kit that includes the noodles and the sauce. We’re planning on adding a packet of chicken to this. Dessert after this dinner will be coconut pudding with dried pineapple.

Mexican mac & cheese: we decided to try our standard mac & cheese & tuna & peas with a twist this time. We bought Annie’s mild Mexican shells and cheese and a packet of hickory smoked tuna. We’ll see if this is as good as our normal combo…. We’re going to make a giant chocolate chip cookie to follow this.

Bean, cheese, & rice tostadas: pretty self-explanatory. We’re drying a jar of salsa and a can of pinto beans (we used to be able to find dehydrated refried beans, but we didn’t find any this time so we’re trying something else.) The rice will be instant brown rice cooked with a vegetable bouillon cube and some spices. I wanted to make our own tortillas for this meal, but Jeff wants to just take the ones we already have in our fridge. It’s pretty easy to make trail tortillas though–just mix masa with water and roll out with a water bottle (rolling the dough inside a bag is easier and cleaner). Fry in a hot pan, you don’t even need any kind of fat. This can be a little time-consuming (one tortilla at a time can get old) but they’re sooooo goood…. Probably have one more batch of cheesecake after this, or maybe just some of the sweets we brought along for snacking.

Desserts
I always like sweets, but dessert on the trail is extra exciting.

One of our favorites is Jello cheesecake. We’ve adapted the directions a bit, and it’s delicious every time. If it’s just going to be the two of us I usually split up the package at home. It comes in two packets, one for the crust, and one for the filling. I weigh each packet on my little food scale and then split the packet by weight into two ziploc bags. I add the right amount of powdered milk to the filling mix and write the amount of water I need to add on the outside of the bag. On the trail, mix the filling with water and fry up the crust mix with several tablespoons of butter. Pour the filling over the top, then set the whole thing aside to cool while you fix and eat dinner.

Pudding is always an easy choice. I prefer the cooked version to the instant (and the cooked version typically does not include gelatin, a plus for vegetarians). Sometimes we use powdered coconut milk rather than regular powdered milk, and we often cook up some dried fruit to make some kind of sauce as well.

Cookies are a new addition to our trail repertoire. Smaller-sized baking mixes sold in plastic packets are great for packing. Some are “just add water”, others require fat and/or egg, but all can be mixed right in the packet, then poured out into a well-greased (really well-greased) pan. Keep the stove on it’s lowest setting and flip the cookie(s) when they begin to set around the edges. We usually just do one big one, but if you’re feeling ambitious you can try to make them cookie-sized.

Needless to say, we don’t lose any weight while backpacking. There are lighter-weight meals out there, but nothing tastes better than a good meal after a long day of hiking!

Happy trails, happy campers: trail pad thai

One of my proudest trail food accomplishments was producing a decent pad Thai about seven days out. We packed in a couple of carrots and a tiny lime that really made the dish. Some day I’d like to try making bean sprouts in my pack; that would be the ultimate garnish!

Ingredients (for four)
4 T. vegetable oil
2 eggs’ worth of dehydrated egg
1 lb. rice noodles
2-3 T. dehydrated green onions
2 bricks freeze-dried tofu (can also use packets of chicken or shrimp)
2 packets pad Thai sauce (we used Taste of Thai)
2 carrots
1 (small) lime
1/3 c. peanuts, chopped

There’s not much to do at home for this recipe–I recommend putting the carrots into a paper, rather than plastic bag though. You also might want to measure the dried egg into its own plastic bag so you can mix it without dirtying a dish. It’s really easy to add water, mix by squishing it around, and then cut or tear a hole in the bag so you can empty it right into the pan.

On the trail:
Boil enough water to cover the rice noodles. Add noodles and onions to the boiling water and set aside. If you are using dehydrated tofu rehydrate it at this point too.

While the noodles, etc. are soaking pour a couple of tablespoons of oil into another pan. Mix egg powder & water, then scramble the egg mixture. Set the cooked egg aside (maybe in someone’s cup or bowl). Squeeze the water out of the tofu, crumble it up, and fry it up a bit, then add to the cooked egg.

Drain the noodles & onions.

Add more oil to the pan and let it get hot, then add the noodles and onions to the pan. Stir-fry for a few minutes until noodles are dry and browning a bit in places. Add the packets of sauce, the egg, and the tofu and heat through, stirring to avoid scorching.

Divide the mixture into four bowls and top with chopped peanuts, carrots, and wedges of lime.

Happy trails, happy campers: trail tuna casserole

It looks like there are a lot of folks out there looking for good backpacking meals. I’m happy to share some of my favorites!

A food dehydrator will give you all kinds of options (we have an American Harvest that we like). In addition to the stuff you’d expect like fruit leather and vegetables, I’ve also successfully dried cream of mushroom soup, salsa, spaghetti sauce and canned beans. While it sounds disgusting, “mushroom soup leather” makes a great base for:

Trail Tuna Casserole (serves 3-4)
1 can cream of mushroom soup, dehydrated
just veggies or home-dried veggies (about 1 cup)
2 cups (dry) egg noodles
2 small or 1 large pouch tuna ( I like the cheaper “chunk light” kind)

optional, if you’re feeling fancy:
1/4 c. seasoned breadcrumbs
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

At home:
Use a fruit leather tray or line a dehydrator tray with plastic wrap. Dehydrate the can of cream of mushroom soup–this may take several days. It will be pliable and a little sticky to the touch, but not wet when it is finished. As you peel it off the tray it will probably break into pieces that you can stack up and wrap with plastic wrap. Put noodles and veggies into a quart-sized recloseable bag and add the packet of dried soup. If you’re bringing the breadcrumbs and cheese, mix them together in a snack-sized recloseable bag and put that in the larger bag too.

On the trail:
Fill a two-quart pan about 3/4 full of water. Bring to a boil and add noodles and veggies. When the noodles are almost completely cooked, pour about half the hot water out of the pot (you might want to save it in another pot or mug). Start tearing off pieces of dried soup and tossing them in the pot to rehydrate. You may need to add more water (this is why it’s good to save it), but that’s easier than taking it out once you start to mix the soup in! Once the soup is totally rehydrated and the “casserole” seems like about the right texture you can stir in the tuna and sprinkle the breadcrumbs and cheese over the top. You’ll think you were at grandma’s house.

A word of caution: I “cook by feel” a lot so I’m trying to be as accurate as possible with the measurements and number of servings but it’s really just an estimation. If you don’t cook much at home you might want to test the recipe out before you hit the trail–it’s better to have to call for pizza at home than to go to bed hungry 12 miles from the trailhead!

I’ll post more trail recipes in the next few weeks–we’re getting ready for a backpacking trip too!

Backpack gourmet

(update: if you’re looking for some good backpacking dinners check my posts tagged with trailfood.)

I pride myself on my backpacking dinners–no one-pot mystery slop for me. My most recent trip, however, I made the worst backpacking dinner I have ever had to choke down. It’s the first time we packed food out rather than finishing the meal. I’m glad we were just out for an overnight and not beginning a multi-day trek!

What went wrong?

Our first mistake was not planning our food very well. We couldn’t figure out what we should make, so just picked up some kind of unrelated items like cheese-flavored cornbread mix (if you think that sounds really yucky, you’re right), black bean soup, and some dried veggies. We forgot to bring any kind of oil or butter for the cornbread pan. We didn’t toss in any of the packets of hot sauce, etc. that we hoard from fast food restaurants. We broke boy scout rule #1 and were not prepared.

Next, we were using a new stove that I hadn’t tested beforehand. In fact, I forgot we even had a new stove until Jeff pulled it out of the bag! Our old stove, an MSR dragonfly, was designed for fancy camp cooking with a range of temperature that beat my stovetop at home. Unfortunately we’ve had the burner cup come unwelded in two dragonflies, so when Jeff returned the stove the last time he decided to try the SimmerLite instead. This stove weighs about half of what the dragonfly weighs, but it’s not nearly as adjustable; we managed to have a dinner that was both scorched and undercooked. Not a good combination. I need to play with the stove a bit more before making a final judgement, but for now, I miss the dragonfly!

Tried and true

Luckily we’ve made lots of good backpacking meals to redeem this particular failure. Food really matters when you’re on the trail all day–I’ve met people who ended trips early just because they were so sick of eating the same thing day after day. The trail meal I’m most proud of was a passable version of pad thai about 7 days in (Update: I posted this recipe). I’ve also made a mean apple crisp, kick-butt smoked salmon potato pancakes, and tuna casserole that I’d eat at home (Update: I posted this recipe). Jeff lists our trail dinner with the most fun name as his favorite: mac & cheese & tuna & peas (I’ve been known to repeat this over and over like a march when I’m getting hungry and tired….) The key to all these meals was some serious planning ahead (well, ok, the mac & cheese & tuna & peas is pretty easy to pick up at the grocery store.) The pad thai was a success partially because we found dehydrated tofu at Uwajimaya. The apple crisp only happened because we dehydrated cooked spiced apples and the secret to trail tuna casserole is a dehydrated can of cream of mushroom soup (sounds nasty, I know!) Before my first big (10 day, no cache) trek I spent hours wandering through the grocery store (and the co-op and the Asian market) looking at all the mixes and boxes. I also spent hours searching for ideas online. I wish there were sites like onepanwonders.com five years ago!