Italian Dinner

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

I got a great idea from another forum poster, and took their idea, and made it user friendly :-) While not a super UL meal, you will eat well, and this meal is perfect if you have 3-4 people on a trip.

Pizza in a Pot:

At home cook up:

16 ounces rigatoni pasta
1 lb ground meat (beef or turkey), cooked with onion, mushrooms and green pepper as desired before dehydrating

Mix in:
1 26 ounce jar spaghetti sauce

Divide into 4 portions, on 4 trays of your dehydrator. Leave on till fully dry. Measure each portion and note on the bag how much it was. Bag into 4 quart freezer bags.

Also take:
1 string cheese per serving
Parmesan cheese (to taste)
pepperoni (you can find shelf stable pepperoni slices in most grocery stores)

In a quart freezer bag, add the pepperoni and cover dehydrated meal with a 1:1 ratio of boiling water. (You can also do the 'just covering with water' method.) Stir well and put in a cozy. Let sit for 10 minutes.

When ready, stir well and top with the cheeses (shred the string cheese).

Note: Nic likes to usually add garlic and Italian seasoning to the sauce before dehydrating.

While this is rehydrating, prepare cheese cake.

Garlic Toast: (done ahead of the trip)

Buy a good loaf of bread (ie: Italian) Slice into 1/2 slices. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with garlic. Place in 250 degree oven and slowly dry. Bread will be hard (sorta like a crouton) when done. Is pretty durable to pack. Can't store for long periods of time (months) because of the butter but will hold up well for most trips.

Cheesecake:

At home: In a quart freezer bag, add correct amount of powdered milk plus dry mix. (For every cup of fluid milk called for add 1/3 cup dry instant milk + 1 cup water.)

In camp, add cold water to mix in bag. Close and squeeze mixture as till it starts to thicken. Set aside (it sill continue to thicken as it sits). When it is time to eat, sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs. Enjoy! (If you got an instant cheesecake mix with a fruit topping, top with it.) If you would like to do individual servings, prepare the mix in the bag and then cut a corner off the bag. Squeeze into muffin liners and proceed as noted.

A very easy meal, and one that will impress! Serves up to 4.

[Kathleen B]

Great idea, Sarah! I've opted to let harmonyhousefoods.com do my dehydrating for me. Their products are amazingly tasty, and their service can't be topped. I bought their vegetable pantry stuffer (16 quart jars of different dehydrated vegetables) and have been having a blast trying different combinations. So for Sarah's Italian dinner I would use a packet of spaghetti seasoning and add the Harmony House dehydrated onions, peppers, tomato bits, and tomato powder to make the sauce. I do dehydrate hamburger in the oven, because it's the one thing I can do without losing patience. As an aside, a friend of mine bought your book at the recent Trailfest, Sarah, and it's motivating her to try more backpacking, just for the food!

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

You could also use the TVP that comes in that pack (I am thinking the Harmony House deal comes with that, right?). Beef flavored TVP would work well :-)

[Kathleen B]

I may try their small sample package of the 5 tvp flavors. I'm packing around a lot of scar tissue from using tvp in the 70's. We called it Terrible Vegetable Product. However, everything else Harmony House makes that I've bought has tasted good (I also bought their bean and legume pantry sampler), so I'll dredge up my spirit of adventure. Back to the Italian food ideas – I use ramen noodles, without the seasoning packets, with great success by pouring boiling water on them in the ziploc bags. I even beat on the re-packaged bags of noodles so they take up less space.

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