For the last few years, I’ve purchased ingredients and packaged a bunch of meals once in the spring, instead of doing that for each trip. None of my lunches or dinners are prepackaged, so it takes some effort to buy and assemble them. A few items I buy fresh for each trip, like tortillas or flatbread.
Advantages:
– One less excuse for future trips – food is mostly ready to go
– Trash the kitchen just once per year. Repackaging is messy (Why do couscous boxes explode when you open them?)
– Consistent marking and packaging, which reduces mental effort in the back country
– I can change the recipes based on recent experience and needs
Some of my tricks:
– Most recipe ingredients listed in grams – weigh out each one using a digital scale with tare.
– Use a plastic bag keeper-opener gadget that speeds up loading stuff into zipper bags.
– Super simple instructions written on the plastic bags with magic marker, e.g. “1.5 cups, 10 minutes” meaning boil 1.5 cups of water, dump the package in, wait 10 minutes.
– Tea powder goes in first, THEN Nido on top. Much less tea dust clogging zippers.
I prefer each meal packaged separately, you might not.
Anyone else doing something like this?
Any tricks you’d like to share?
— Rex
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