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  1. #1
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    Default Ultra Light Food Recommendations

    I usually do a 1 week section hike every month and I'm looking for some new UL food ideas or recipies. The common staple backpacking meals like pasta sides, instant potatoes, and so on make me want to gag after eating it so many times just thinking about it lol. Any recommendations or your personal favorite food to eat on the trail?

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    Quinoa. Cook and dehydrate at home first. Boxed stuffing mix. Dehydrated mashed sweet potatoes. Salami, hard cheese, crackers and olives.

  3. #3
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    I like to get a package of bacon bits to put into my instant potatoes.

    I've also recently discovered freeze dried Fuji apples at WalMart (name-brand "Crisps"). The fruit is bone dry (unlike some of the WalMart brand dried fruits) and retains a good apple taste. It comes in a box of 6.

    Walmart also has some other name-brand 'bone dry' freeze dried fruits. One is all strawberries. I didn't really care for it (but then I don't love the taste of normal strawberries), but the same name brand has some mixed berries (good if you pick the black berries out of it first) as well as a few other fruits.

    If you want tons of flavor, my newest recipe is the 'Beef FLAVOR' soup mix to which I add some more pasta and some beef jerky (so that the beef soup really has some beef in it).

    For lunches, I've been enjoying Jif Chocolate Silk 'peanut butter' (individual packs) on WalMart brand flour tortilla. The tortilla taste like normal white bread, but it's pre-compressed for your pack.

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    Rice-Lentil Curry. Basmati rice cooks faster than regular rice. Instant rice not required, but you may need to let set in a cozy for about 20 minutes or so, experiment. The lentils should be mostly done by then too. If they are a little crunchy, no big deal. Add some dried veggies and/or meat with curry, salt, and oil.

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    I like the Knorr's Broccolli and cheese noodles with bacon bits added. Also the Idahoan 4 Cheese mashed potatoes with bacon bits or jerky added is good too. Add a little olive oil and some Ms Dash to add a little flavor.

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    Try the Barrilla (sp?) brand dried tortellini. Add some of your own home-made dehydrated spaggetti sause and enjoy.

  7. #7
    Registered User quasarr's Avatar
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    The best way is to dehydrate your own meals. It's a lot of work, but you can make some real masterpieces! This website has a lot of good recipes and advice for dehydrating.

    http://www.backpackingchef.com/

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    Registered User Tuckahoe's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by HooKooDooKu View Post
    I like to get a package of bacon bits to put into my instant potatoes.

    I've also recently discovered freeze dried Fuji apples at WalMart (name-brand "Crisps"). The fruit is bone dry (unlike some of the WalMart brand dried fruits) and retains a good apple taste. It comes in a box of 6.

    Walmart also has some other name-brand 'bone dry' freeze dried fruits. One is all strawberries. I didn't really care for it (but then I don't love the taste of normal strawberries), but the same name brand has some mixed berries (good if you pick the black berries out of it first) as well as a few other fruits.

    If you want tons of flavor, my newest recipe is the 'Beef FLAVOR' soup mix to which I add some more pasta and some beef jerky (so that the beef soup really has some beef in it).

    For lunches, I've been enjoying Jif Chocolate Silk 'peanut butter' (individual packs) on WalMart brand flour tortilla. The tortilla taste like normal white bread, but it's pre-compressed for your pack.
    The particular brand at Walmart and other stores is Brothers All Natural -- http://www.brothersallnatural.com/
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    I definitely want to check out the fruit stuff.

  10. #10
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    these meals were good
    I'm so confused, I'm not sure if I lost my horse or found a rope.

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    santa fe pinto and black beans from amazon are a welcome change. i add some dried monty jack cheese and several shakes of texas pete and all is well with the world!

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tuckahoe64 View Post
    The particular brand at Walmart and other stores is Brothers All Natural -- http://www.brothersallnatural.com/
    Yea, that's the Apples.

    But the other fruits are Crunchies.

  13. #13
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    Here's a Pasta recipe I've come up with for my kids:

    Start with Barilla White Fiber Mini Rotini. While most pasta requires 9 to 11 minutes to cook, this one is listed as 5 minutes. I've found that you need about 250ml of water per 1 cup of pasta.

    I also take McCormick Italian Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce Mix. I simply skip adding tomato paste. I find that you need 1oz of water per 20g of mix for 1 cup of pasta. I place a measured amount of sauce mix in a ziploc and add hot water. I then kneed the bag to mix the water with the sauce mix. (I use a digital scale that can measure in grams to get the right amount of sauce mix).

  14. #14
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    Pita Bread
    SPAM single serving
    Mustard packet(s)
    Cheese

    Ham jerky, beef jerky, bacon jerky

    Dried fruits - lighter is better, I found dried plums at a local store, awesome tasty, super light

    Raw sunflower seeds

    Carnation instant breakfast (2), prefer chocolate for breakfast

    Hard pretzels, fritos

    Ramen noodles, can eat them as they are OR I like to crush up in a small zip loc bag, add seasoning packet, maybe some other spices from home.........add water at lunch break, by dinner you will have a FULL bag of hydrated ramen noodles

    Tuna packets with olive oil

    Bars - snickers, protein bars, etc

    Dates - packed with calories, lightweight

    Corn nuts

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    If you want to talk about ultralight foods, you really have to talk about the calories-per-ounce ratio. The good old Snickers bar doesn't seem light, but it packs a lot of calories into those couple ounces. Kind bars (the ones with "+ Protein") are a healthier choice with real nuts and fruit and have about 200 calories per 1.25oz bar. Nuts in general are going to have a high C/oz ratio. I can go on, but if you want to have ultralight food you have to think about it. More C/oz means carrying less.

    As far as dehydrated meals, I really like PackitGourmet.com. They have some tasty stuff and lots of variety.

    If you have a dehydrator then your options are endless. To bring regular foods with you it's all about removing that water weight.

  16. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by quasarr View Post
    The best way is to dehydrate your own meals. It's a lot of work, but you can make some real masterpieces! This website has a lot of good recipes and advice for dehydrating.

    http://www.backpackingchef.com/
    What isle would these be sold in? With the potato chips? cereal? other?

  17. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chair-man View Post
    What isle would these be sold in? With the potato chips? cereal? other?
    opps, I meant the fruit at walmart. what isle?

  18. #18

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    I take a two prong approach to jazzing up my trail food 1) I look for new recipes. Tons of places to gather this info: bookstore hiking sections(LipSmackin Backpacking is a good book, they even have a vegetarian recipe book), reading the ingredient lists on prepackaged pricey dried meals and then making them yourself, Backpacker mag has food bits each month, perusing grocery store shelves and amending the ingredients to fast, nutritious, and tasty Backpacking meals, etc 2) TWEAK the old stand bys. Think outside the box. For example, use Ramen noodles(I usually use SOBO Buckwheat noodles instead though), discard the MSG and salt laden spice packets and mix instead with peanut butter and dried coconut milk(you can use shredded coconut if you can't locate dried coconut milk) and add a pinch of sesame seeds, soy sauce(no MSG), and fresh chives/green onions(you can use dried chives but the fresh are tastier). Eat cold or warm. Add chicken if you want. Another example is jazzing up plain old taters with some dried wasabi, bacon bits, crystallized ginger(good with cinnamon), a nut butter, dried hummus(found in bulk bins), Butter Buds(dried butter), chives, spices(basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, etc). Taking the old stand by of a Knorrs Noodle side w/ chicken, beef, tuna, salmon, clams, oysters, shrimp(there are dried shrimp in the Latino spice section in some super markets), jerky, sausage, etc and just adding some fresh veggies(greens especially, onions, avocados, daikon, red radish, shredded carrot, fennel, potato, etc) and/or herbs(fresh cilantro and parsley are yum yum) can make all the difference. When I mention oatmeal it's as if i can hear all that read the word oatmeal yawning at the same time. It doesn't have to be. You can tweak oatmeal in an infinite variety of ways for a hot b-fast on a cold morning as you arise to make the summit bid at 3:30 a.m. Grains like kasha, millet, amaranth, quinoa, various rices, various pastas(ALL pastas ARE NOT MADE FROM WHEAT!), various quick cooking legumes, etc deserve more attention in not only your trail food but at home food.

  19. #19
    Registered User BigHodag's Avatar
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    My trail favorites are:

    tuna in oil packets with a mayonaise packet, salt and pepper.

    pork ramen soup with red pepper flakes.

    I've eaten both for breakfast, lunch or dinner at various times.
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  20. #20
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    Ultralight hikers don't carry different food, really, than anyone else. They typically just carry less of it per mile traveled, because they expend less energy by carrying a lighter load and can travel farther per day. I met one uber-hiker out on a 90-mile jaunt between resupplies who carried a picnic lunch, one dinner, and a few snacks--he was hiking that in two days. We had the same kind of food, just different quantities.

    They'll also carry different ways of preparing it, as in a lighter stove made of Pepsi cans and a pot made of a Fosters can, or even no stove at all.
    "Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning

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