Food for travel

The only thing I have eaten while on outdoor trips are military rations. I no longer have access to these. Only from the high street but these are ridiculously expensive.
I like to become a bit more creative when it comes to eating outdoors. More than just boil-in-the-bag but still easy to make and not having to worry about the huge dishes afterwards.
So I’d like to see your 24 hour menu sheets and all your cooking utensils.
(the only thing I carry with me is my blackened metal mug do I need to start carrying more?)(hope not)

Reinhardt 4/4

Reinhardt, try having a look at these sites.
http://www.geocities.com/lighttrailfood/
http://www.frc.mass.edu/bbraate/packlite/index.htm

or alternatively try any of the "light" hiking orientated websites.

Hope this helps
Johno

The only extra i would carry would be a spoon! I have a wooden one i made in the field and it has served me for over 20 years!

Backpacking....

I carry a Trangia 28 alcohol stove, which includes a pot and pan, burner, simmer ring, windscreen, and pot lifter in a very compact, clean, and convenient package.

I also carry a titanium mug and a spoon.

Everything I "cook" is prepared by adding boiling water. Lunch doesn't even get cooked.

I use about 3 oz of alcohol (stove fuel) per day.

Breakfast: Instant oatmeal and a granola bar. Tea.

Lunch: Foil packet of tuna or chicken with prepared condiment mix (relish, mayo, mustard) to make chicken or tuna salad. Water or water with Emergen-C mix.

Dinner: Various flavors of Ramen noodles. Maybe add some leftover meat from lunch. Granola bar for dessert. Tea or coffee.

That's it. A full day's menu fits easily into a 1 quart freezer ziplock bag, which gradually becomes the trash bag for that day.

You'll find lots of compact, lightweight menus at:
http://www.backpacking.net/bbs.html
in the Lite Food Talk forum.

Bear

My menu might seem to some of you very odd. Well, cultural difference. I like to eat my national food (contains a lot of fat!). I found a few receipts on the web. Warning: some receipts may offend you!!!
http://www.russianfoods.com/recipes/item001B9/default.asp
http://www.russianfoods.com/recipes/item001C0/default.asp
http://russia-in-us.com/Cuisine/Dadiani/asia.htm
During military training we often ate Russian “Soldatskaia kasha”. Fry potatoes (not deep-fry) and later add stewed beef and onion. The closest in taste to the Russian stewed beef is the canned beef from France, but, unfortunately, not precise. When we travel for fishing or hunting to Kazahstan we eat what we catch or shoot. Again, no complications: collect wood for fire, dig out hole in the ground and cook any way you want. Utensils: big pot of about 3 litres (because there are a few people to eat), knives, metal cups and wooden spoons (there is a joke that Russians eat everything with spoons only). But this is if we travel for a week of longer. Eat twice a day. And we have a lot of bread and cookies with tea between meals. And, of course, Vodka!
When I travel for shorter time, I take canned food-salmon, beef, or anything else- or my wife cooks something (except soup) and puts food into containers for food. Also: boiled potato, eggs, sandwiches, nuts, chocolate, etc. My favourite dish - boiled lamb meat!!! Just boiled in water with salt! Simple and tasty. What utensils do I take? I go to the nearest supermarket and take free plastic utensils from the cafeteria, knife and vacuum flask. I usually eat the same food all day long during my trips. I also keep a few canned fish, crisps, water and chocolate in my car because it happened a few times to me that I arrived to some place late at night and could not get any food.
The food I eat may sound too simple, but I find more fun to eat this kind of food when I travel because it gives extra feeling of the wild nature. Otherwise I would go to a restaurant!
Regards

Wow.
Sounds like you guys have a veritable feast when you go camping /hunting compared to what the rest of us usually eat!
So much for granola bars, instant oatmeal and freeze dried backpacking foods!

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Once again looking back can give some interesting options. Before the MAINSTAY type survival bars there was another staple ration,fruitcake <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />. Take a look at the ingredients; flour,milk, eggs,fruits and nuts. All jokes aside, this is what our grandfathers carried in the great wars. Pemmican, a rather sophisticated food was the survival ration along with parched corn for 3 centuries of New World history. Look to your local people for inspiration. Fishermen, Livestock Herders and their world kin almost always have a simple staple for the outdoors. I personally carry the German Esbit stove and a small, carbon steel pot and spoon for minimal gear. Remember that aluminum and stainless steel tend to stick to many foods. Hot food is both a moral booster and physical help to tired mind and body. Tea,cocoa or cider, instant soups or reconstituted dehydrated fruits with quick oats are easily prepared. Canned foods are out of favour soley on wieght and the issue of trash. Much of that wieght is water which we anquish over anyway. Canned foods WERE the freeze dried,MRE miracles of their day. If I was looking at a 24 hour scenario a few quality canned foods are not without merit. You have a ready made cooking container that is hardly useless empty until properly packed out. I sometimes pack a can of franks and beans, chicken noodle soup with matzos or beef stew. Heavy? Yes, but unlike some of the gizmos people carry it is soon translated into fuel for the bearer. <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Here in Brazil the standard fare is rice and beans. Brazilians eat it twice a day.

I usually carry a few sacks of Kraft Minute Rice if I'm going out for the weekend. They also sell a freeze dried bean mix that cooks in 2 minutes. I usually boil the rice (5 Minutes) in extra water and use that water to mix up the beans. Start to finish you can feed four people in less than ten minutes cooking time. Actually once you boil the rice you can stop cooking. The hot water is enough to mix up the beans.

If you want to go really light you can just boil the rice and add a bullion cube for chicken and rice. Add to it any wild birds you happened to kill and you eat pretty good. Mac

<<If you want to go really light you can just boil the rice and add a bullion cube for chicken and rice. Add to it any wild birds you happened to kill and you eat pretty good>>

I second that (done it many times, with and without the bullion cube), and it brings up a topic - from a nutrional efficiency stand point, boiling meat and using the broth is the preferable cooking method, visions of meat roasting on a fire notwithstanding...

AyersTG,

Here in Brazil hunting is officially banned (not that it gives anyone pause). When I take teens out to teach survival skills I bring along live quail. They only cost about $.25 each and it gives the kids a chance to kill, pluck, and prepare their meat the way God intended (Acts 10:13). I figure this is better than turning them loose with slingshots.

I usually bring along roots we have available in the local market similar to ones that you can find in the bush here. They clean their birds, cut off the meat and slice the roots up real thin. That and a bullion cube and they never complain. A bit hesitant to lop the heads off at first but hunger has a way of working on people. Mac