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Lefty Red
03-18-2013, 11:13
Are there any other gluten free hikers out there? My wife and I are preparing to join the AT Class of 2013. Because of her gluten free diet, we're going to be Using mail drops is areas without larger grocery stores. I thought I'd share some of the meals we're shipping and hopefully get a few suggestions.


Instant Rice and Dehydrated Beans
Soup made from dehydrated vegetables, onion soup mix and quinoa
Rice noodles with reconstituted pesto
Mashed potatoes
Dehydrated sweet potatoes with peanuts


Any other meal suggestions would be great.

We still have some time to test dehydrated chili made with TVP, more quinoa dishes. She also can eat, tuna, salmon, cheese, oatmeal, trail mix, certain energy and meal replacement bars, jerky, dehydrated fruits and other things that can be bought directly from the grocery store.

Chaco Taco
03-18-2013, 11:19
Mrs Leppers, Mac and Cheese, brown rice pasta's, great for backpacking. Maybe something to throw in the maildrops They are selling in lots of co-op style stores and the natural food sections of bigger grocery stores. Starting to pop up in more major grocery stores. Pack out greens, like collards for wraps with smoked salmon and cheese. They keep for a day or 2 in your pack if you can pack them correctly.

FarmerChef
03-18-2013, 11:41
I could go GF in a snap by eliminating pasta in our dishes and replacing it with rice. Or I could just buy GF pasta and be done with it. The rest of my recipes are all made from scratch and almost all do not contain wheat.

Chili can be easily made by making the chili sauce and then dehydrating it into "bark" (credit to Chef Glenn). Dehydrate your "mix ins" separately then add hot water to the bark and your veggies/TVP, etc. and rehydrate. Enjoy! You can do this with a variety of other low fat/no fat sauces.

Dirty rice with pork jerky can be very tasty.

Cheesy rice dishes with vegetables and protein also delicious.

Consider cooking then dehydrating beans then running them through a blender/grinder to make bean flour. Pinto bean flour can be used with spices to make refried beans. Also, chickpeas can be done this way for hummus on the trail (bring some Tahini in a separate container).

When I made all of my gravies from scratch, I just used a couple packets of bouillon, dried onions/mushrooms and corn starch. Assuming the bouillon was GF then you can open a world of sauces in dishes from creamed hamburger over mashed potatoes to cheesy rice (add parmesan to powdered milk, olive oil and corn starch) and more.

Another idea is to dehydrate white button mushrooms than grind them into mushroom flour. Bring powdered milk, onion and garlic powder, salt and a pepper and you can make cream of mushroom soup. With this and GF noodles and a can of tuna or two you can make tuna noodle casserole right on the trail. Mmm good. :)

Make your own dehydrated mashed potatoes (sweet or white) by cooking the potatoes, mashing them up, diluting them with a bit of water and mixing to get a real smooth consistency. Then dehydrate on fruit rollup trays or parchment paper. Once dry, run it through your blender/grinder. The resulting powder will still have small bits in it that will rehydrate fine but the flavor tastes just like potato. Commercial potato flakes sort of taste like potato.

Make your own instant rices by cooking then dehydrating. We like whole grain brown rice but it takes forever to cook raw. When rehydrating it, it takes only a few minutes in warm water. No more Uncle Ben's for us!

Mountain Manatee
03-18-2013, 19:56
When you're in town in Damascus, stop by Mountain Manatee: Living Food Cafe and Healthy Market. We have gluten free menu options, as well as a health food store that will sell hiker and gluten free friendly hiker type meal choices like pasta, etc. Hope to see you there sometime!
http://www.mountainmanatee.com

Ginger Snap
03-25-2013, 14:13
My partner and I also eat gluten free, and have struggled with our food choices for backpacking. I don't mind dehydrating my own stuff, but i'm not very good at it yet, and feel like i'm not doing a good job of packaging it for longevity. Some of the prepackaged meal companies do have some gluten free choices, I like the Mountainhouse fajita filling- over rice, its very tasty. Backpacker's Pantry's Shepherds Pie and Pad Thai are also tasty. I am getting tired of eating the same dishes over and over again now, so this camping season its definitely going to be a project to come up with some new meals!

Also watch out for drink mixes and energy bars/gels. All the Lara bars are gluten free, and shot blocks are gluten free as well.

V Eight
03-25-2013, 19:21
http://www.trailcooking.com/

FWO
05-14-2013, 23:20
I to go a GF and also dairy free while hiking / camping. I eat a lot of beans and rice. My wife comes up with a ton of great ideas. She makes a great BBQ beef noodle (GF). She also makes country ham biscuits that are to die for.

Dogwood
05-15-2013, 00:55
I'm a pesce vegetarian and AVID ingredient label reader. I've heard from many a hiker that my trail diet is the best they have ever seen. I don't belabor my on, as well as off, trail diet though. I can usually go through a store quickly when resupplying along the way and not make a HUGE deal about what I think is healthy. I don't eat gluten free but this I know. I like pasta - all kinds and all shapes. Problem is most pasta is made from durum wheat which has gluten so it's a misconception that some, like those with Celiac Disease, need to totally avoid pasta. I say "WAIT A MINUTE!" Gluten free pasta can be made from brown and white rice(Annie Chuns, Lundberg, Notta Pasta, Pastariso), corn(DeBoles, Mrs Leppers,), soy, potato(Bionaturae), quinoa(a complete protein!, high in protein for a pasta, Ancient Harvest), lentil beans(Papadini, high in protein for a pasta), buckwheat(Annie Chuns, King Soba), etc. Wheat free and gluten free pastas are rather common in the pasta section of most med-lg grocery stores. I notice Ancient Harvest, Annie Chuns, DeBoles, King Soba, Lundberg, Mrs Leppers, and Notta Pasta GLUTEN FREE pastas offered in mainstream grocery stores.

In addition, grains such as amaranth, millet(high in protein), sorghum, TEFF, etc, all of which can be found in bulk bins at places like Whole Foods rather cheaply, can be purchased in small inexpensive amts and you can experiment with or add to dishes to see if they appeal to you. Heck on the trail I eat millet and amaranth mixed with some seeds or a gluten free nut butter, some dried fruits, a dried milk(coconut, goat, soy - all gluten free!), and cinnamon for a quick b fast on cold mornings.

Many seeds such as chia(GOOD amts of protein!), hemp(SUPER nutritious lots of aminos), pumpkin(pepitas, GREAT to add to trail mixes), sesame, and sunflower, etc are gluten free. All these seeds are high in cals/oz too so you can factor that benefit in!

Many types of nuts are gluten free too. The same goes true for nuts. They are HIGH cal/oz.

MANY mid priced nutritional bars(not candy bars or protein bars targeted for the male body building crowd that are disguised as nutritional bars) are GLUTEN FREE too.

These are just some suggestions off the top of my head. I didn't realize until just now how many GLUTEN FREE foods I eat! If you investigate further and are creative you'll find you have a HUGE HUGE variety of common GLUTEN FREE trailfoods to choose from. And, if doing resupply boxes in key locations the GLUTEN FREE sky is the limit!

Chaco Taco
05-15-2013, 06:06
Annie's Organics makes a really good gluten free mac and cheese. We tried it on the trail last week and it works great. Takes about 7 minutes of boiling time to cook the pasta. Mi Del Cookies are so good as well. Lots of options in the box stores if you know where to look.

sbhikes
05-20-2013, 13:31
I go more than gluten-free, I go grain-free and soy-free. I use a lot of dehydrated cooked sweet potatoes and yams, dehydrated cooked and raw vegetables and dehydrated cooked meats. Also pemmican, dried fruit and nuts. I have to make a lot of this myself. I must disclose that I'm only a section hiker these days and were I to do another long distance hike I'd probably eat a few grains like oats and rice and a lot more candy.

Dogwood
05-20-2013, 13:38
I'm with Farmer Chef IF i wanted to go totally gluten free it would be a snap.

Curious Sbhikes, why grain free? You can get plenty of ORGANIC gluten free grains. I get why some would avoid soy though.

Lefty Red
05-23-2013, 20:39
Just wanted to say that after 18?days on the trail, we are having no problems keeping the Mrs. fed. We've been through MD and most of PA and will be entering NJ tomorrow. With our mail drops, visits to the occasional supermarket and some restaurant chow we've had variety and taste.

T.S.Kobzol
05-23-2013, 22:55
HawksWittles and AlpineAire offer gluten free dehydrated/freeze dried meal options.

Butterfly58
06-19-2013, 18:04
I am also a GF eater and I went on an exploratory shopping trip today to see what was available for my future 2014 AT hike. I found so much stuff it was incredibly exciting. If you have a Fresh Market near you, that's where I found the most stuff. They have packets of freeze dried fruit that weigh next to nothing. I also found so many varieties of soups and pastas and rice dinners. I found GF oatmeal, which is difficult to find. At the health food store I found a GF version (several flavors) of ramen made with rice noodles. I added a teaspoon of dehydrated veggies to it to experiment and it was delicious. I also brought home several meal replacement bars/protein bars that are GF to try. I'm going to keep experimenting to find out what I like and what will be the easiest to deal with while hiking because I don't want to cook, just boil water and rehydrate, but I was really encouraged!

Venchka
06-19-2013, 22:01
Walmart even has GF food. I thought that oatmeal, by definition, is GF. Is someone charging extra for labeling oatmeal GF? Sam's Club has a decent selection of dried fruit. The Earth Fare chain based in Asheville, NC is vegan/GF/DF Nirvana. Check their web pages for store locations near the Trail. The store in Boone, NC is quite nice. They have a great selection of African Market Baskets. I bet that a dedicated SUL backpacker could use one for a thru hike.
Have fun Y'all.

Wayne

Butterfly58
06-19-2013, 22:13
Many plants that process oats also process wheat products so that oats can't be certified gluten free. This is important for people who have Celiac so that there is no cross contamination. If you don't have Celiac and are just trying to eat healthier, then no problem.