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My food has low caloric density. I need your help.


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Home Forums General Forums Food, Hydration, and Nutrition My food has low caloric density. I need your help.

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  • #1253983
    Justin Tremlin
    Member

    @notu

    Locale: Central Washington

    I need your help. For the past couple of years I have been using Mary Jane’s Farm freeze dried foods for hiking. Though they taste pretty good but the caloric density is pretty low. If you average out my current diet it comes out to 84kcals per oz, which is not good enough. I’m trying to get my diet up to 125kcal per oz.

    I do have a few preferences for my camp food.

    1. Freezer bag cooking or non-cook only. I really don’t want to have to simmer (I use an Esbit stove) or do dishes.

    2. I prefer pastas. If you know of any pasta that I can just add boiling water to and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes would be great.

    3. I would like to (if possible) have all of the ingredients for a meal put together at home, so when I am on the trail I can just add water (less packaging and pure laziness). This is probably my least important preference.

    Thank you for your recipes and your expertise.

    #1561383
    Sarah Kirkconnell
    BPL Member

    @sarbar

    Locale: Homesteading On An Island In The PNW

    Add oil or butter to EVERYTHING. Add in cheese if you like it.

    Both of those will bump up both calories as well as fat. Fat will fill you up at night and help keep you warmer.

    Pasta:
    Angel hair cooks in minutes and doesn't even need to be boiled – it can be soaked. Barilla tortellini that you find in the pasta aisle – you can soak it in hot water, in a cozy, for 15 to 20 minutes and then chow down. Baked ramen or Chuka Soba noodles work great soaked and then used as pasta.

    All of the above are FBC friendly :-) Over the years I have posted a number of FBC recipes here – I would do a search and you should get a number of them (and I love pasta like you do as well!)

    #1561393
    Justin Tremlin
    Member

    @notu

    Locale: Central Washington

    I know this is weird, and I know I let my butter sit on my kitchen counter for weeks and never get sick. But hiking with butter, is there anything I should worry about? I hike in pretty hot temps (high 90's low 100's). Are you ever been leery of eating butter on the trail (to many days in, temp got too high, etc)?

    #1561396
    Sarah Kirkconnell
    BPL Member

    @sarbar

    Locale: Homesteading On An Island In The PNW

    Two words:
    Clarified butter! (Or also known as Ghee)

    Easy to make:
    http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/homemade-ghee-butter

    You can also buy it but you will pay way more. It is shelf stable and heat resistant. You can carry it for a year!

    #1561401
    Jim Colten
    BPL Member

    @jcolten

    Locale: MN

    Justin,

    Sarah is extra careful about staying on the safe side of BPL's rules about commercial promotions. But if you look elsewhere on her website you'll see that she sells a cookbook that is all recipes meeting your preferred prep/cooking methods. There's probably enough pasta recipes there to feed a month long hike with no repeats. It also leads you to sources for single serving ingredients needed for those recipes.

    Bon Appétit!

    #1561406
    Ryan Linn
    Member

    @ryan-c-linn

    Locale: Maine!

    Nuts also make great additions to some meals, although they might be weird in others. There's a lot of fat in nuts (especially macadamia, brazil, walnuts and cashews).

    I've also found that single serving salad dressing packets (I got a bunch from packitgourmet.com, but you can probably find them at a grocery store's salad bar) are tasty and add a wallop of fat to the meal.

    #1561410
    Lynn Tramper
    Member

    @retropump

    Locale: The Antipodes of La Coruna

    Couscous with lots of cheese/oil/butter etc. Perfect for FBC, just add boiling water.

    Another often over-looked wheat dish IMHO is tabouli. Again, just add boiling water, olive oil and eat.

    Alphabet pasta is also quick cooking and fun to eat ;)

    #1561423
    Sarah Kirkconnell
    BPL Member

    @sarbar

    Locale: Homesteading On An Island In The PNW

    One more pasta item!

    Those small bags of tiny pastas they sell in the Hispanic section for often 25 to 50 cents a bag. No "cooking" needed, just time in hot water. You will see alphabet and stars and more!

    #1561427
    Justin Tremlin
    Member

    @notu

    Locale: Central Washington

    Thank you very much. I just looked at some of your suggestions and got to 125kcal per oz in no time. Thanx again.

    #1561432
    todd
    BPL Member

    @funnymo

    Locale: SE USA

    If you want snack recommendations let us know.

    #1561452
    Connie Dodson
    BPL Member

    @conniedodson

    Locale: Montana

    In any food, a hot drink, soup, side dish, entree or dessert use "calorie-dense" "add-ons".

    I have organized a list, by defining "calorie-dense" as 150 calories per ounce.

    Here: http://www.ultralightbackpackingonline.info/foodfacts1.html

    I have a number of pages about food: look at the "Site Map".

    There are great answers in this thread.

    #1561799
    James D Buch
    BPL Member

    @rocketman

    Locale: Midwest

    Boring Facts about Calories per Ounce

    Baseline Point Mary Janes Freeze Dried about 88 Calories per ounce (could be carbohydrates plus dietary fiber)

    Macronutrients
    Carbohydrates ([dry]sugar, pasta, rice , potatoes ..)have typically 114 Calories per ounce
    – Dietary fiber is carbohydrate, but isn't digested so 0 Calories per ounce

    Proteins from meat or beans or legumes or…
    typically have 114 Calories per ounce

    Gristle, collagen indigestible proteins 0 Cal per ounce

    Fats/oils typically have 255 Calories per ounce

    Water has 0 Calories per ounce

    Air has 0 Calories per ounce

    Alcohol has typically about 190 Calories per ounce

    Gasoline isn't digestible, so those calories don't count

    End Macronutrients

    Ingredients rich in fats are great calorie boosters, and this includes nuts which include oils and fats. Shortening, lard, fat, are good fats to add. Butter as well. Peanut butter combines proteins and fats, so it too is a good calorie booster.

    Without fat, or alcohol, dry digestible food is either carbohydrate of protein maximinzing at about 114 Calories per ounce. Wet digestible food will tend to be less is the wetness is from water, more if the wetness is from oil/fat.

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