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Food on the trail

Food on the trail


Postby Christos » Mon Jun 27, 2022 12:34 am

We all know the ready meals "just add boiling water" which are light and quite expensive in my opinion (£8-£10/meal) but this is the fastest and easiest option. As most of us seen recipes of meals prepared at home, cooked and then dehydrated overnight; which end up being quite expensive if you add the electricity bill for running a dehydrator for 8-12hrs and the hours spent on cooking all these meals.
The cheapest (in the long run) option that I found is buying dehydrated ingredients, such as:
Dehydrated mixed vegetables
Tomato powder
Milk powder
Whole egg powder
Beef jerky or biltong (in bulk, not from the supermarket)
And the list goes on...
This at the beging might cost you around £100 to get all the ingredients you need/want, but they will make you loads of meals. The time of preparation is similar to a cup of coffee, just add spoons of ingredients into zip lock bags.
Below I'm giving you some recipes you can try:

Breakfast:
✓ Scrambled eggs
1 tbsp of whole egg powder + 2~3 tbsp of water makes a whole egg. The amount of eggs you use is up to you, usually is 3-4 per portion. Add oil and they can go with oatcakes or crackers, mushrooms (dried or foraged) and cheese.
✓ Porridge
That's a classic. Just add a spoon of milk powder or two and some chocolate or raisins to make it extra tasty and extra nutritious.

Lunch/Dinner
✓Tomato pasta (V)
1/2 cup pasta of your choice (usually macaroni)
3 tbsp tomato powder
2 tbsp dehydrated veggies
1 pinch of dried thyme & basil

✓Beefy Mac&Cheese
1 pack of instant Mac&Cheese
1/2 pack beef jerky
1~2 tbsp milk powder

✓Beefy couscous
1/2 cup couscous
5 dehydrated mushrooms (porcini and/or black fungus from Tesco's and the Asian shops)
1/2 pack (15-20g) beef jerky

✓Curry rice or couscous (V)
1/2 cup basmati rice or couscous
1 star anise
50g (1/4) coconut block (usually at the Asian section of the supermarket, it's coconut milk dehydrated in a block from like a soap bar)
1 pinch onion/garlic granules
2 tbsp dehydrated veggies
5~6 dehydrated mushrooms
1 tsp milk curry powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/3 pinch cumin
2 pinches of dried coriander/parsley
*You can drop them all in your pot and cook them for as round 12' if it's basmati rice. If it's couscous keep it separate and add it in the end off the heat.

✓Orzo(pasta) in tomato sauce (V)
1/2 cup orzo
1 pinch onion/garlic granules
2&1/2 tomato powder
1 pinch dried thyme/oregano/basil

*all these recipes are one pot meals.

✓Simple bread recipe
150g strong flour
1 pinch salt
2g fast action yeast
--- --- --- add later --- --- ---
1 tbsp olive oil
90ml water
*Baked around a stick or on a hot rock or inside your Billy can.
Bannock bread, pancakes, scones... Are some other options.


Snacks
✓Homemade protein bars (lots of recipes on the internet)
✓Trail mix
Nuts&dried fruits

These kind of meals, together with some ready meals from my local supermarkets are my go to now for long distance hiking, from 4-10 days where there is no resupply option.

How about you?
Any other ideas on meal planning? :)
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Christos
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Joined: Sep 19, 2021
Location: Edinburgh



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