Homemade trail meals without a dehydrator

[HangNhike]

I do not own a dehydrator. But I would like to try and put together homemade meals for my 4 day trip in a month. Normally its just Knors packs, ramen, instant mashed potatoes and so on. I find breakfast easy (pop tarts, grits, oatmeal) Lunch and dinner however can be a little more difficult.
I am looking for recipes or ideas that I can put together using store bought items. One recipe I found for Tuna Noodle casserole had Pouch tuna, ramen, mayo and dehydrated peas; all of which can be found at my local grocery store.

So give me your best recipes!

[Spiffy]

http://www.trailcooking.com

Hope that helps

[HangNhike]

That site is great!

Any personal recommendations?

[Another Kevin]

I'm quite fond of the mango chicken curry. So are all my hiking partners that have had it.

[Dogwood]

Unless on sale or get a super deep discount I rarely buy dehydrated pre packaged meals aimed at the outdoors/camping/backpacking/survivalist market for long distance hiking anymore. So much cheaper making my own with just dry ingredients. I get recipe ideas by perusing ingredient lists on dehydrated meal packages, trail cook/recipe books, the BACKPACKER MAGAZINE monthly section offering trail food recipes, etc. I'm so obsessed with backpacking that every time I go grocery shopping for at home I come up with new ideas for trail food just by looking at what's available on common large grocery store shelves. I often buy at grocery stores that sell from bulk bins. Some of my favorite places to do this, since I'm also seeking to eat on trail as healthy as I currently know, is by shopping for ingredients at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Harry's Markets, Organic Farm markets, Health food stores, etc. This enables me to tweak portion sizes, nutritional content, etc and saves the litter, wt, and cost of pre packaged meals. If on a tighter budget, have a less restrictive diet, and don't find the need to buy organic Even mainstream grocery stores, like Krogers, have good trail food finds. Even with my trail food diet goals I can still find plenty of good trail foods and trail food ingredients at place like Walmart. I prefer not giving any more biz to Wally World then they already get though. The one down side that YOU MIGHT have to work out when buying foods in bulk through the net though is that there are sometimes minimum amounts in terms of costs and sized packages that you have to purchase. Also might have to figure in the costs of shipping. Potential ways around that though if you are creative.

[Dogwood]

If you are creative your trail foods variety can go WAY WAY beyond the all too typical Ramen, Knorrs Sides, Instant Mashed Potatoes, tuna in a packet, hard cheese, jerky, beef sticks, Vienna sausages in a can, etc selections

[Dogwood]

That mango chicken curry combo sounds pretty damn good. No need to buy it already made and packaged up though. Dried mango - Trader Joes sells small amounts(I think 3 -4 oz)reasonably priced packages of it in different versions - hot chili flavored, sweetened, no sweetener added, green mango. Whole Foods sells dried mango in bulk enabling one to buy just one tiny piece of it! Dried mango is yummy! Dried curry powder is readily available in spice sections at grocery stores. I like red curry powder. Dried curry even is sold at Dollar General stores. Chicken in pouches, cans, and even dried is available. The Sue Bee chicken in a pouch(I think in the 7 0z size, would be enough for two trail dinners for me on back to back chicken eating days) is readily available in many main stream large grocery food stores. Canned chicken in various sizes is available virtually in every grocery store even convenient stores. Throw in some fresh or dried cilantro(Dried is found right in the same place where you'll find the dried curry powder) and perhaps some dried coconut flakes(I prefer dried coconut milk though, CHEAP, I have even bought dried coconut milk in 2 oz packages at some Wally Worlds, some excellent cal/oz with coconut!, no hydrogenated crap trans fats either). Might want to add some dried cherries to that combo too and ooh la la. Those are available in many large main stream grocery stores. How about adding some more good fat cals and a higher cal/oz ingredient with the addition of some cashews? Bon apetit

[perrymk]

If the issue is just a lack of a dehydrator, an oven can be used as a dehydrator. http://www.ehow.com/video_12160005_use-oven-food-dehydrator.html. If the issue is you don't have the time or prefer not to take the time and effort to dehydrate, that is another matter.

[Another Kevin]

That mango chicken curry combo sounds pretty damn good. No need to buy it already made and packaged up though.

Uhm, the original poster was asking about the recipes on trailcooking.com. I make my own mango chicken curry (using approximately the recipe there) already. With lentils and rice in a separate ziploc, there's dal bhaat tarkari. I cooked up a mess of lentils a while ago, dehydrated them on parchment paper on a cake rack over a cookie sheet in a slow oven, and put them up in Mason jars.

Since I'm a clueless weekender, I don't worry about boosting the calorie content. I'm never out long enough for the hiker hunger to start. If I lose a little bit of weight on a section hike, that's all to the good.

[fiddlehead]

Dried hamburger (done in the oven, not a dehydrator) does wonders for any meal on the trail.

[Wise Old Owl]

It is so tough to get the oven down to 160 - some don't go there.


Bear Creek soups for me...

[Snowleopard]

Trailcooking.com is run by someone on WB, I think her name here is Sarbar. There are a number of recipes that don't require a dehydrator at all, and others that you can get commercial dehydrated ingredients. Sarah also has a cook book that I've been intending to buy.
Kevin's mango chicken curry: http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/mango-chicken-curry-over-lentils-and-rice
A standard for me, I make it at home when I'm lazy: No-Cook Chicken Cranberry Couscous Salad: http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/no-cook-chicken-cranberry-couscous-salad Commercial dehydrated ingredients: instant rice (buy anywhere),
lentils and lots of other stuff: http://www.packitgourmet.com/Lentils.html (I haven't used these myself)
My favorite: Taste Adventure Black Bean Instant Refried Beans (add garlic sauteed in olive oil, red pepper, cumin):http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=taste+adventure+&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ataste+adventure+

[Farr Away]

I have Sarah's book, and I probably use it more than any of my other trail cooking resources.

I like http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/smoked-salmon-pasta, except I leave out the tomato powder, and substitute cubed velveeta for the parmesan and tuna for the salmon.

I also liked this one: http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/thai-coconut-seafood-soup, although I left out the cilantro (tastes like soap to me) and the true lime powder (at the time I didn't have any).

My husband's favorite: http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/apple-pie-pudding.

Note: I find her serving size to be extremely generous. Serves one usually translates to plenty for my husband and I to share.

Hummus with pitas, cheese and whatever makes a good lunch. You can find dried hummus mix a lot of places - even some grocery stores. Cold water to reconstitute.

I also found some dried black bean mix at WalMart; supposedly required microwaving, but hot water in a ziploc did fine.

-FA

[HangNhike]

These are great....

My oven only goes as low as 170 so I was concerned I couldn't dehydrate in an oven...

Fiddlehead, the dried hamburger... How long is it good for?

[Crusinsusan]

DAYS??? It takes days to dehydrate in an oven?? Not for me. Even though my oven goes down to 100*. I need that gizmo for other things.