BPL Forum-Created Paleo Cookbook

Ok, I've had a chance to try these a couple of times now and to decide that I like them. To start with, I refer you to http://www.backpackingchef.com for instructions on how to make pumpkin bark and sweet potato bark. I actually used butternut squash that I brushed with olive oil, salt and pepper, roasted in the oven at 375 F for 45 min, then mashed.

For sweet potatoes, if you don't want to dehydrate your own, Emergency Essentials has dehydrated sweet potatoe chunks. For breakfast, I recommend whirling them in a food processor to make gravel–they will rehydrate faster.

I get my dehydrated veggies from http://www.packitgourmet.com

Sweet Potato Pie or Pumpkin Pie
1/2 cup dried sweet potato chunks, whirled to gravel consistency, or homemade dehydrated pumpkin bark.
1 T Maple syrup granules (if not in with bark)
1 T chopped toasted pecans
1 T dried raisins, apples, cherries–your choice
1/2 T hemp hearts
1/2 T coconut flakes, unsweetened
bacon pieces or bits
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Add 3/4 c boiling water to quart zip-loc bag and place in cozy 10 minutes.

I like the consistency of the sweet potatoes better, the pumpkin pie is a rather thick paste consistency. I thought the above might need a fat source, like coconut oil or ghee, but it seemed fine without it–I think the pecans and hemp hearts, plus the bacon, provide enough fat.

I love spaghetti, but since going paleo, noodles are out. It's really the tomato sauce (well, ok, the Parmesan cheese too) that gets my taste buds going, so I created the recipe below to have something to pour sauce over.

Italian Chicken and Squash
1/2 c butternut squash bark
1/2 c of dehydrated veggies–broccoli, asparagus, zucchini, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, black olives, mushrooms, onion, mix and match to your desire.
1/4-1/2 c freeze-dried chicken
1/2 c home-dehydrated tomato sauce, dried as a leather–I found directions for this in Sara's book Freezer Bag Cooking
1/4 t Italian Seasoning

Add 1 1/4 c boiling water and cozy for 10 minutes. If you are Primal rather than Paleo add 1 T Parmesan cheese. Paleo people might like some olive oil in this for added calories/fat at the end of the day.

Thai Chicken Satay
1/2 c butternut squash bark
1/2 c dehydrated veggies
1/4-1/2 c freeze-dried chicken
1/4 c cashews, raw or roasted

Place above ingredients in a quart zip-loc bag

Sauce:
2 T almond or cashew butter
2 T Let's Do Organic Creamed Coconut–easier to work with at room temperature at least, or warmed slightly
2 T coconut aminos
1/2 packet True Lime, or 1/2 T red wine vinegar
1/8 Teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 T coconut sugar
a drizzle of sesame oil
crushed red pepper to taste

Mix the above sauce ingredients. Makes a very thick paste. In camp, add 1 1/4 c boiling water to the quart ziploc with the chicken and veggies, dump sauce in, moosh around and put in cozy 10 minutes.

I freely admit the above sauce is pain to transport, but the result is worth it! I tried it the first time in a snack-sized ziploc, left way too much of the sauce behind. I'm trying it in a small 1/4 ziploc container this time, but I hate having hard sided food containers along–they create packing difficulties. I'm thinking the way to go might be to make single use packets with my Food Saver. That way the bag is just the right size, and should be easier to squish all the sauce out of the bag.

That's all I've come up with so far. Hopefully as the hiking season really takes off, people are experimenting and can post other ideas on this thread.

Diane said" I love spaghetti, but since going paleo, noodles are out."

have you thought about using spaghetti squash. You can really kick it up by using all types of spices/herbs or mixing it with homemade sauce

Oh, sure, that's what I do at home–in fact, my boyfriend says he prefers the spaghetti squash to the gluten-free noodles I was eating before I started Paleo.
I just wasn't sure that they would dehydrate, then rehydrate well without turning to mush. I've heard about turning zucchini into julienne "noodles" too. Those might fare better, I don't know. The butternut squash is already mooshed, so no worries about texture issues.

Just reviving this thread. Anyone have anything new to add? I just got a spiralizer and am going to try dehydrating zuchinni 'noodles,' which I have found that I LOVE.

Good luck with the zucchini noodles! I tried it last year and ended up with tiny shrivelled strands that only partially rehydrated. Maybe I dried them TOO well. Report back!

Excited to find other paleo backpackers out there! I feel like my last "frontier" for figuring out paleo has been backpacking food. I don't like a lot of dried foods I've bought online. But I got a dehydrator a few years and have had success in making my own stuff. Foods that have worked for me:
– spaghetti squash – poke a few holes in it, put in the oven until soft, cool, open, clean out insides, spread out into mostly one layer and dehydrate. I rehydrated it with hot water in a freezer bag (usually mixed with other stuff)
– marinara sauce – I like trader Joel's jarred stuff, blend if too chunky, dehydrated, tear into strips. Again, rehydrate in freezer bag with hot water.
– chicken – Trader joe's canned chicken dehydrates well. I've read that canned chicken is good for dehydrating because it's pressure cooked in the canning process and therefore rehydrates better. TJ's has some that's just chicken and water. Just flake it out well with your fingers onto the dehydrator trays. Rehydrate with hot water in freezer bag.
– mashed sweet potatoes – Steam sweet potatoes, purée, dehydrate until leather and tear into strips. Rehydrate in freezer bag with hot water (helps to knead while rehydrating)
– butternut squash soup – steamed b.nut squash with apples and onions, purée, dehydrate.
– tuna – flake canned tuna out onto dehydrator trays. Again, really "fluffing" the tuna before it dries makes it rehydrated with out any crunchy bits.

Been trying to figure out some more veggies. Tried pure carrot "bark" but it was a little too intense. Thinking about trying it with half apple sauce. Want something to snack on without having to boil water. Dried zucchini chips are almost palatable, but a little dry. Thinking of drying eggs too. Wish something like a sliced hard boiled egg would dry into a "chip", hah.

– Ellen (Andrew F's wife)

How about plantain chips? I don't do paleo but a quick google shows plantains are acceptable in some contexts.

I often buy plantain chips… high calories/oz and great when I want a salty snack. I only buy the ones fried in "palm olein"; if they list a non-palm oil (like vegetable or canola oil) then I don't buy them.

Is this idea still alive? While I love the idea of a reader-created cookbook, having a "final" version seems impractical. It would be nice to allow new submissions over time, and as people field-test a recipe, there might be tweaks. And of course, as new techniques or new products come out, it'd be nice to keep the cookbook up-to-date. So… what about a wiki cookbook?
I was poking around for wiki-based cookbooks and found this article: (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/dining/23recipes.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0).

What would you all think about starting a group on Wikia?
Actually, it seems like there's sort of 4 distinct groups of backpacking recipes out there:
1. Backpacking recipes
2. Ultralight backpacking recipes
3. Paleo backpacking recipes
4. Ultralight paleo backpacking recipes
I'd say most people on BPL are interested in #2 or #4, and this thread is about #4. But when I google around sites other than BPL, I find a lot of paleo backpacking recipes for what I'd call category 3 (things like a bag full of fresh carrots and celery are not ultralight). Is there already agreed-upon objective criteria for ultralight meals? Say, at least 100 calories per carried ounce?
Anyway, I'm tempted to say let's make an ultralight paleo backpacker recipe group on wikia, but probably there are people out there interested in all 4 categories. So maybe it's better to just make a generic backpacking recipes group, and let recipes within that be tagged as ultralight and/or paleo, so that the actual ultralight paleo category doesn't get polluted. Building in a decent tagging system from the get-go could also nicely support other interest groups (vegetarian, gluten-free, winter, summer, cook, no-cook, etc).
Thoughts?

I am in the process of going on the Paleo diet because my carb intake is pretty unhealthy. I will be going on a backpacking trip soon and I'm not ready to go full transition before this. So I am making beef jerky to keep my protein up and lower the carbs while I'm in the back country. Here is my recipe that works just fine.

-London broil from grass fed, grass finished beef cut thin into jerky strips
-cocoanut amino sauce

place ingredients in a plastic ziploc bag or a covered bowl and let the ingredients just sit for several hours or longer in the refrigerator. Dry in the oven or on your dehydrator until done. You don't want it crispy or too soft.