Friday, July 08, 2016

Let's Eat: Food for a 3 day backpacking adventure

If all goes as planned (and when does that happen?!), we'll be hitting the trail for some backpacking this weekend. I've got a fairly solid gear list I follow (see it here), but we always seem to start from scratch, if you'll pardon the pun, with food selection. Hot dogs the first night is a given. But what about night two? And lunches? And snacks?

So as a note to Future Me, here's what we are planning to bring this weekend:

Included in the photo: Hot dogs, baked beans, crackers, Oatmeal Squares cereal, Cheerios, pretzels, Twizzlers, Goldfish, peanut butter, marshmallows, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, almonds, honey roasted peanuts, Tasty Bite Chana Masala, Tasty Bite Jodphur Lentils, pretzels with peanut butter, M&M's, baby carrots, raisins, mini Oreos, Nutella packets, tuna with jalapeno and olive oil, Kind Bars, hummus, Irish Breakfast tea.

And here's what it packed down to:

Weight: about 5lbs.

Oh, and Future Me, when Shira suggests using Tasty Bite for dinner, recall that you've already talked through how it's not that crazy an idea. Sure it has liquid in it, and "real" backpacking meals are dehydrated. But because it has the liquid in it, it's super easy to cook. Heck, you could it cold in an emergency. And at 10oz, it's just 4oz heavier than a box of Mac and Cheese. The benefits of zero cleanup and shortened cooking time, outweigh the cost of a few extra ounces.

I'm also planning to bring a few cooking staples with me:

This includes: flour, corn meal, olive oil, baking powder, salt and crushed red pepper. I have hopes of practicing some 18th century trail cooking techniques. Not likely to happen, but it's worth a shot.

Whenever we pack for a trip, my job is to be the voice of leave it at home. Surely I don't need to change underwear *every* day; that sort of thing. And Shira's job is to be the voice of reason. So if it were up to me, our food would consist of four Kind Bars and a cup of flour. Luckily, it isn't up to me and we typically eat very well.

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