Meal Plan for thru-hike

[Ron Babington]

I had a cold breakfast every day, and almost always the same thing– a brown sugar pop-tart with peanut butter spread in between the two halves. It was delicious (and caloric)!

[Sam Haraldson]

…not having everything shipped in a resupply box… …By the time you factor in shipping and the hard work put in by your resupply person you aren't saving much money.

I was on a 61 day, 1200 mile thru-hike this summer. Resupplies were three to nine days. The cost of total shipping was around $120. Factoring in the amount of time my support team put into that is subjective but worth LOTS.

[David J. Sailer]

I haven't been (lucky/bold/rich/stupid) enough to do a thru-hike, but I've come across some things that work for me for trips of one to 12 days.

First, I'll second the Just Tomatoes suggestion (http://www.justtomatoes.com/). I don't buy commercially dehydrated foods or meals, but I have found some of the Just Tomatoes berries and mixed vegetables locally, bought them, and found them to be excellent.

For food I'm mostly concerned with getting enough calories in a form that I can get down. If it keeps me going and tastes OK, it's good. I drink tea and bring candy for a flavor treat.

Generally speaking I concentrate on couscous, ramen, and instant mashed potatoes. Instant rice is good but isn't instant. Bulghur wheat would work, and I'll be trying it this year. It has the advantage that you can add cold water and let it soak for a while (an hour, or maybe overnight) and just eat it.

For hot meals I pre-package everything at home in ziplock bags, including seasoning. For most meals I add about four tablespoons of powdered milk, and another four of Parmesan cheese for the foods that it goes with.

Parmesan cheese is absolutely fantastic for me. Flavorful and salty. Contains protein. Keeps forever.

Mrs. Dash seasoning, garlic powder and onion powder work well, depending on the food, as would pepper. If it's a longer trip, like one to two weeks, I'll usually add two to four tablespoons of oil into the ziplock bag (works best with instant mashed potatoes).

Most of these foods can be eaten without utensils, especially the potatoes. When ready to eat, squeeze out the air, double check that you've sealed the bag tightly, then tear off one bottom corner with your teeth and squirt the contents into your mouth. I bring one largish ziplock bag for garbage and keep stuffing it with my empties, which I bring home.

The quart-sized freezer-weight bags work best. Light bags let oils migrate right through, and contaminate everything else. I found this out experimenting with bags of crushed potato chips for lunch. That was a great lunch (for me), but everything in my food bag got covered with oil that had gone right through the plastic. My hands too when I handled the bags. No really. It was horrible.

One favorite lunch when I don't mind the expense is crushed Doritos nacho tortilla chips. I crush them to reduce volume and make them easy to eat by being able to pour the contents right from the bag into my mouth (no oily or smelly hands). I get about three lunches for every two bags of chips, and it's salty and spicy. Quick too.

I have experimented with some home made brownies made with lots of milk powder, peanut butter, nuts, and oil, but wasn't able to dry it down enough. It was incredibly good but contained too much water and so it was much heavier than something couscuos.

I'm going to play some more with this.

I also have done a tiny bit of experimenting with shortbread. It's got carbohydrate, fat, and sugar, and you can add as much milk powder as you want. Simple but tasty. Some recipes use cheese as well. It seems like this might work if I can make it in thin sheets and dry it enough. Could serve for any meal of the day.

Hummus is something you might try. All you have to do is add water, mix, and eat. After a couple of days on this I started gagging and eventually threw it all away. Couldn't stand the lemony flavor, but maybe another flavor deserves another try. It has promise.

For longer trips I might try carrying oil separately, in a Platypus half liter bottle. I could add it to food just before cooking rather than worrying about oil leaking through pre-packaged food bags.

Final note: I'm the kind of person who can eat the same meals every day without a problem. As long as I get calories and kind of enjoy the taste, and have a little something else along as a treat (like peppermint patties or a bag of hard cinnamon or lemon candy) I'm OK.

[Joshua Mitchell]

wow… that's awesome… gotta remember that on…

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Dave,
Commercial hummus mix is pretty gross. Make your own! Then you can use other beans as well as garbanzos. I don't add oil when making, add that on the trail. I use onions, oregano and chili powder often in my hummus.

I also make my hummus hot and have it over pasta or rice as well.

[Joshua Mitchell]

Hey Sarah, have you tried grinding those HH Dried Garbanzo beans for your trail Hummus? (Realize you may have actually posted this as the way you do it and I simply missed it).

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

I haven't! But hey, I'll try it out ;-)

[Joshua Mitchell]

"I haven't! But hey, I'll try it out ;-)"

Really? Yay! I contributed something to food discussions!

[Darwin Roos]

Here's what I've eaten on the two treks I have done:

Breakfast:
-granola
-flax seed
-wheat germ
-sunflower seeds
-soy bean nuts
-powdered milk

Lunch:
-Bear Valley bar

Dinner:
-instant flavored potatoes
-flax seed
-wheat germ
-sunflower seeds
-soy bean nuts
-beef jerky

This plan has worked well for me. Actually, every meal I eat cold.

Darwin
[email protected]

[Monty Montana]

For years I relied on Quaker instant oatmeal packets even though they seemed too sweet to me. Then I came across Bob's Red Mill Old Country Style Muesli. I think this must be the original granola. It has about 5 whole grains, 4 nuts, dates & raisins and no sugar. Delicious hot or cold with milk. Since I like to be in the moment and not rush through things, the abundant crunchy/chewiness fits the bill, unlike oatmeal. I also like to savor something hot like a cup o' Joe or hot chocolate. That slow relaxed time in the early AM is a good time to let the mind streatch to new possibilities and discuss x-country excursions or fishing plans.

As for milk, Milkman tastes best; Nestle's Nido is whole milk but tastes like dehydrated milk.

I don't bother with lunch too often, as I'm snacking all day long. I stuff my pockets with homemade gorp (nuts, M&Ms, dried fruit), sesame/honey snap crackers, jerky and anything else that won't melt. Sometimes I'll pack along bagals stuffed with salami and cheese but end up not being hungry enough to eat all of them.

Dinner can be a Mountain House freeze-dried or something I make from a dried lentil soup base from the bulk section at the local natural food store.

Someone asked about extra protein. Try Bob's TVP (textured vegetable protein). These are little nuggets and can be added to anything, even cereal. Happy trails!

[Craig Lewis]

Other items not already mentioned include:
1. smoke salmon in the long-shelf-life, no refrigeration packages.
2. fresh carrots in the "baby-size" package can last 4-5 days w/o spoiling.
3. Dehydrated Fruit-rolls like the Ladies explain in Food forum.
4. Green tomatoes, or Tomatillos would pack well and just added to whatever hot dinner you make.
5. Chicken stock base comes in small jars next to boulion in the soup isle. Pricey, but the flavor is amazing. Ham, beef base available too.
6. Hard boiled eggs for the 1st few days on a trip.
7. Croutons instead of bread.
8. Corn Bread Stuffing
9. Ham Hock (smoked, salted ham neck) is great when boiled with green beans for an hour. Very simple to make. Packed in the coldest area of your pack could last a long time.
10. TraderJoe's applesauce poured into a Nalgene bottle.

[Adam Weesner]

I have learned the hard way that variety is key, at least for me. Some mornings I'll do some oats, tea maybe dried fruit. Others I'll just eat a cold breakfast and go. I try not to be on a rigid schedule so I just go with what sounds good. Mostly snacks through out the day like bars, bagels with p-butter, cream cheese, mix, etc. I generally always cook dinner.

[cat morris]

Breakfast: oatmeal or cream of rice with raisins, wheatgerm, & flaxseed meal

chocolate-covered espresso beans

Lunch: pretzel barrels stuffed with peanut butter (my new find)
snacks:dried apricots
almonds, walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds

Dinner: instant split pea soup

or instant pinto beans with chile pequin & red peppers or
instant veggie noodle soup
or Westbrae buckwheat ramen

Dessert: instant brown rice, coconut, raisins,brown sugar

[Denis Hazlewood]

I second the "Milkman". After the first time using this brand I threw away all my other powdered mild.

[Michael Crosby]

Where do you get this brand? I have been unable to find it.

[Jason Smith]

You can buy Milkman at REI.

[Brian Markey]

REI sells this brand. http://www.rei.com/product/520003

[ERIC PAYNE]

I'd like to see if anyone can state whether or not eating more nutritious foods on the trail helps them feel full while eating less food.

I have a suspicion that eating a diet high in refined sugars doesn't satisfy the body very long. Not only does it lead to the 'energy crash' (I've never experienced this..) that people speak of, but the body processes it too quickly and soon wants more. On my thru-hike last year, I had to eat a handful of gorp (m&ms and peanuts) every hour, following my breakfast of 2 poptarts. This year on the PCT, I'm hoping that a breakfast of granola w/ whole milk, and snacking on trail mix of assorted nuts/seeds/shredded coconut will keep me satisfied for longer. If so, I figure I can get 3,700 calories per day from 1.7 lbs.

[John Carter]

My trick for improving the taste of powdered milk is to add a touch of cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar. The nutmeg and brown sugar in particular really hide the bitterness of powdered milk, and the cinnamon gives it a festive aroma (something about camping under an evergreen tree with cinnamon in my breakfast does wonders for my holiday spirits, even if it is an August backpacking trip!). Here's my typical cold breakfast:

– Quick cook oats (I prefer these to instant for cold cereal)
– Chopped pecans (pecans are creamier and smoother than walnuts or almonds)
– Dried currants (more tart than blueberries, not too chewy, more like a huckleberry)
– Powdered milk
– dash of powdered cinnamon
– a bit more than a dash of powdered nutmeg
– brown sugar (a good Tbsp)
– Ground flax meal
– Fresh, cold spring water

This tastes better than many breakfast cereals with real milk, IMO. It can be made up in large batches and stored in your freezer all year. Also, if I choose to make a hot breakfast, I just add hot water! Gives me flexibility.

Small variations to the mix can make a huge difference in taste and give a real sense of variety. For example, substituting the pecans and currants with almonds and dried cranberry is a whole new taste. Other great combos are:

– walnuts and freeze dried strawberries
– cashews (or almonds) and dried apricots
– hazelnuts and chocolate
– dried bananas, coconut and macadamia nuts
– peanuts and freeze dried apple

Therefore sometimes I will make up a batch of the base ingredients at home and add the nuts and fruit on the trail depending on my mood.

The great thing about this is that these separate bags of nuts and fruit make great GORP bags during the day, and add much more variety of taste than if you just throw it all together in a big bag of GORP. At the end of the day I will still have eaten a bunch of nuts and fruit, but the variety keeps me interested. Sometimes if I eat the same jumbo-mix of GORP all day, the mere smell of it makes me sick the next day. Keeps my "Aww, ma, not GORP again!?" voice at bay.

[Denis Hazlewood]

I buy it at various Supermarket chain stores. Safeway, Lucky, Albertson's, etc. It comes in a large orange box containing 12 envelopes. Each envelope makes one quart. I just clip the envelope and spoon or pour out what I need in any given baggie of cereal, coffee, pudding, etc. Wrap up the unused portion and put a rubber band around it. If kept in a cool, dry place it lasts for a long time (next season, for me).

Milkman Box and Envelope.

[Anonymous]

I use to spice up Carnation powdered milk with the techniques described by John until several years ago I discovered Milkman “Whole” Milk that has been readily available in grocery stores as mentioned by Denis. Vanilla is also a decent additive for taste in the low fat powders but the whole-milk by Milkman tastes pretty much like regular milk to me.

[Rod Lawlor]

Okay,

I'm hoping someone can chime in with a recipe for this one. I bought some in Canada and it was acceptable (I was going to say great, but that might be stretching it)

I'm going on a five day family hike in two weeks, with my wife and six and eight year old. Realistically, I'll be carrying all the food, which will be great at the end, but not so hot the first 2-3 days. (You try lugging 20 person days of food!)

since the kids love houmous, this is a good option for lunch, so if someone has a recipe, I'd be rapt.

Also, I'd love to try treats such as muffins (Premix) Does anyone know if I can steam bake these in a foil and paper patty pan, or are these too weak?

Thanks, Rod

[cat morris]

Rod- something you might want to experiment with is dumplings. Make up a dumpling batter & drop it by the spoonful onto boiling soup or stew.

Or make a sweet dumpling & spoon it onto boiling fruit( use dehydrated) for a cobbler.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Cat, I LOVE dumplings if I am doing a one pot meal. I mix them up in a sandwich or snack bag with water, then snip the corner off the bag and pipe them out into said bubbling liquid.

I could eat chicken soup, full of veggies, with dumplings any day!

[Brian James]

response #8484 for cold cereal. My additions:

1) granola is delicious because it's high-fat. Shop around to find a fatty, fruity granola to get your day going right

2) with a decent cereal, you won't taste the powdered milk anyway. I buy granola with dried berries in it and the milk just tastes like berries

3) with a cup of hot coffee or tea, cold cereal doesn't seem so "cold" anymore. You still get warmed up and energized on a frosty morning the way a hot meal normally would. But of course a cup of tea has no cleanup.

4) you can add hot water or hot milk to most "cold" cereals and they're delicious!

5) you can find powdered whole milk; there have been several threads on it

Aah, finishing the thread I see that some of these were touched on…

[Author]

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