[pct-l] Veggies on the trail

[Jeffrey Olson]

I feel like contributing but not writing...  I posted this a couple 
years ago, the last time in February of 2007, sometime in 2005 before that...  It involves heating water, so it's not cookless. I have gone cookless, but not for any more than a couple weeks.  I don't know how eating goldfish and far east mix, and mealpack bars and nuts and chocolate can go.  I'd be interested in hearing some realistic ways to hike and not even boil water.  

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 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 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.

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 fknow all this as I weight and measure and 
bag and tape.  Experience has me do what works for me.

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.  

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 to get that price, but that's not a big deal.

Jeff, just Jeff...