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Do any of you forgo cooking food altogether?


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Home Forums General Forums General Lightweight Backpacking Discussion Do any of you forgo cooking food altogether?

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Viewing 12 posts - 26 through 37 (of 37 total)
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  • #1980273
    Marko Botsaris
    BPL Member

    @millonas

    Locale: Santa Cruz Mountains, CA

    "Not having hot chocolate, tea, or hot coconut milk would kind of suck though."

    Yeah, I would die without. I'm a coffee snob. I know a lot of poeplle say that but I roast my own beans and everything. LOL Nevertheless when outdoors I will drink almost any swill as long as it still resembles coffee. I'm sure heroin addicts feel the same way about their drug of choice.

    I like Mike Clellands comment somewhere here on BPL, which I remember because it cracked me up so much when I read it. Something like:

    "Coffee is not food! While people can survive days without food, when the coffee runs out it is time to call in the helicopters!".

    I suppose I could go with cold coffee, but ….

    #1980323
    Eric Blumensaadt
    BPL Member

    @danepacker

    Locale: Mojave Desert

    When I must backpack to hunt I do "forego cooking" to keep my smell signature to a minimum and to lessen the chance for making noise.

    Plus no cooking means an earlier start in the morning. By the time I've broken camp it's almost time to (legally) hunt.

    Let's face it, "cookless" meals are esentially lunch for every meal. I will say that GOOD fruitcake or oatmeal/rasin cookies make a great breakfast. Comb this thread for more lunch food ideas.

    P.S. As Nixon used to say, "Let me say this about that."
    At all other times when backpacking I "live to eat" and actually COOK, not just boil water.
    I consider lightweight backpacking cooking as an art, sometimes a science and always a joy.

    #1980325
    Justin Baker
    BPL Member

    @justin_baker

    Locale: Santa Rosa, CA

    I have yet to go completley no-cook, but I have gone with mostly no cook food many times. On my next trip I am going to go all no-cook.

    It's not about the weight, I just enjoy cold food. I also like the challenge of finding interesting no-cook foods.

    #1980328
    Dale Wambaugh
    BPL Member

    @dwambaugh

    Locale: Pacific Northwest

    It would be okay for an overnight, but the coffee thing would rear it's UGLY head. I would be a complete sociopath without my caffeine. It's a bit of the ol' Jekyll and Hyde, Gov'na :)

    But that doesn't mean much more than an Esbit wing stove and a mug. So I could have some soup and a sandwich or cheese and crackers for dinner with a little hot cocoa and certainly some instant oatmeal for breakfast. Once you have a little hot water, there are all kinds of light weight possibilities.

    #1980402
    Marko Botsaris
    BPL Member

    @millonas

    Locale: Santa Cruz Mountains, CA

    Humm. I really like the comments people made about going stoveless for certain meals. While it seems obvious, I never really thought of it that way for some strange reason. I agree with all the reasons for doing this – saving fuel, saving time, some evenings you just don't want the hassle. I think I will try this out. As long as I have the option to feed the coffee monster when needed, or have a warm meal when I really want it I think this would be a great way to go. I have of course carried no-cook food on occasion for dinners, etc. but I never really planned for them to be a certain percentage before.

    #1980429
    Mobile Calculator
    Spectator

    @mobile-calculator

    #1980812
    Bean
    BPL Member

    @stupendous-2

    Locale: California

    "Maybe we should have a thread to pull together creative cookless ideas? Or maybe there's already a good website or thread out there already?"

    We could all hijack this thread for now…

    One cookless item that is a must have for me, is lots of beef jerky. I'm always surprised as a person that rarely eats it normally, how I can easily devour my entire supply in one sitting.

    I am a theoretical fan of the tortilla, mainly for its packability in a bear canister. After a few days though, choking down a tortilla can be a challenge for me, and I've since cut down the percentage these make up of my trail diet when going cookless. I'm finding that salted crackers work better for me as a serving platform for most things, instead of trying to do wraps that end up being mostly tortilla.

    #1980849
    Sarah Kirkconnell
    BPL Member

    @sarbar

    Locale: Homesteading On An Island In The PNW

    Over the years there has been a TON of recipes/ideas posted in the cooking section for no cook meals :-)

    #1980855
    Mobile Calculator
    Spectator

    @mobile-calculator

    #1980882
    Bill Segraves
    BPL Member

    @sbill9000-2

    I don't know that this list will have anything new for most people, but here are some of my staples:

    Granola, favorite is Bernice's Bakery (Montana) or homemade imitation of Bernice's, but some more widely available ones are decent, especially if spiked with some extra raisins and nuts. Sometimes granola with Nido, sometimes granola then Nido, but lots of Nido is key to breakfast and snacks (can always add cocoa powder, too). Other high density cereal options include Grape Nuts. For a different type of cereal, less on the crunchy side (though not everyone will necessarily appreciate it cold), some of the instant cereals made for infants are decent, especially with some cinnamon and raisins.

    Major calorie source is dried fruit, the more kinds the better, for variety. IMO, must include dates. Same for nuts. I mostly eat almonds and cashews, but pistachios, walnuts and others can seem like a real treat. And same for various kinds of bars. Mostly, I use Bear Valley Pemmican Bars (Carob or Fruit&Nut, skip the Lemon Chalk), but I liked the discontinued Clif Nectar bars enough I'm going to start making some similar bars at home.

    Tortillas, as others said. In my experience, it's all about keeping them from drying out completely. For crackers, Stoned Wheat Thins hold up pretty well. I tend to get tired of Triscuits faster, but they're good for a change of pace.

    Corn chips, preferably Trader Joe's blue corn, partially crushed so they don't take up so much volume. I could eat these almost every evening on the trail. YMMV. There are all kinds of chips out there – vegetable chips, bean chips, etc, some of which are both nutritious and tasty.

    Jerky (various kinds) is good by itself and as a flavoring in other dishes. String cheese keeps well and is usually a staple for me. Other hard cheeses are great, I just tend to go for the tidy convenience of the string cheese. (I'm often in grizzly country and trying to keep smells down.)

    Powdered hummus is great with crackers, great nutritionally, and if you get the right brand, tastes darn good (even at home). Olive oil to add is optional. I find it a pain to carry leak-proof on trips with extreme altitude and temperature variation, so often skip it.

    Instant mashed potatoes. These rehydrate absolutely fine without cooking, and there are lots of good ways to make them into a tasty dish. My favorite is adding large amounts of grated parmesan/romano, some dried chives, and maybe some jerky pieces, but just plain potatoes mixed up with a little Nido, salt and pepper tastes darn good on the trail. Some people might like instant gravy, fake (or real) bacon bits, etc. If you don't mind all the additives, there are lots of pre-flavored varieties available.

    Coconut milk can be added into a number of things. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to see if I can make a decent cookless soup out of coconut milk, red curry powder or similar spices, and Packit Gourmet's dried chicken that rehydrates in cool water.

    Vegetables are one of the tougher things to do cookless, but veggies dehydrated into chips can be decent. I also like roasted seaweed snacks. When they get crushed into powder, they can always be added to the potatoes.

    IIRC, Packit Gourmet has some wrap recipes that are cookless, and I'm sure others out there have a range of other recipe ideas.

    Cheers,

    Bill S.

    #1980889
    Michael Gillenwater
    BPL Member

    @mwgillenwater

    Locale: Seattle area
    #1980892
    Randy Martin
    BPL Member

    @randalmartin

    Locale: Colorado

    Here is a link to some home made recipes for energy bars. I particularly am interested in the Logan Bread. Lasts for a long time and nutrient dense.

    http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=40938&skip_to_post=514012#514012

    In addition, another potential I am looking at is pure virgin coconut oil which is a solid at room temperature. A tablespoon is 130 calories and it is composed mostly of the medium chain fatty acids which your body is able to rapidly convert into energy unlike other fats that are long chain and more difficult to convert.

Viewing 12 posts - 26 through 37 (of 37 total)
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