[pct-l] Food on the trail

[rpepper8 at comcast.net (Ron Pepper)]

I have some questions about food on a thru-hike. We'll be doing the JMT 
in August and plan to carry various dehydrated meals: curry lentils, 
black beans, split peas and corn chowder. We got these from the bulk 
food bins at Whole Foods and have been using them on short trips and at 
home to work up simple, yet tasty meals. They work pretty well 
especially when adding some meat to them. On the trail though, since we 
can't use fresh meat, we want to use freeze dried beef and chicken. So 
we got some bulk diced beef and chicken from Mountain House. They've 
told us, however, that once the cans are opened, the product will lose 
taste and quality after a couple of weeks. Do any of you have 
experience using freeze dried meat to mix with dehydrated beans, 
lentils etc? How did you store them after opening the cans? Are there 
other better options for getting meat into our diets?

For breakfast, we plan on using simple granola and raisins (cold 
mostly, but sometimes cooked) with powdered milk. This is pretty much 
like my normal breakfast, except I'll allow somewhat more on the trail.

What do others do about lunch? No lunch, just snack thru the day? A 
heavier lunch, maybe during and extended break in the middle of the 
day? What are you favorite foods for lunch? Snacking?

Thanks,

Ron