Your favorite long distance food ideas/recipes needed

[MountainGoat]

Hi all, first time on here so please be nice. I would like to compile a recipe book for my husband who will be doing his NOBO in 2011 (thought it would be a nice going away present).

Things to keep in mind, recipes should use lightweight ingredients, we do not have a food dehydrator (yet), he uses one of those JetBoil personal systems, he will be receiving mail drops and picking things up the grocery stores while in towns. I believe that is all the background information you would need.

Thanks in advance for your contributions!

[Erin]

Hi Mountain Goat and welcome. Hopefully, one of the moderators will respond soon and point you where, as they keep track of common threads about questions such as yours, but there is a wealth of information on this site about recipe suggestions, really good ideas for your husband and his jet boil. I am also a jet boil user, but not a thru hiker. However, I will suggest the following:
The purchased meals are expensive although I like the green beans for a vegetable. A dehydrator is really worth the investment for mail drops. I made beef jerky on my first try on a borrowed one. Then dried fruit. The people on this site dehydrate everthing imaginable.
If not, many health food stores carry dried refried beans which is a great trail meal with tortillas, cheese, taco suace packet. Hard cheese preserves well. Protein is good.
One of my favorites luxuries is a packet of chicken and cornbread stove top stuffing. I am pretty simple in my choices, and there are wonderful suggestions on past threads on this site. Please look at them. Pesto and noodles, Knoor packets, instant mashed potatoes, how to make clarified butter, how to carry fresh veggies and fruit out of a town stop, on and on. You will get alot of great information. I look at them and take notes. There are recipes for every palate, the vegan, the health conscious, the gormet, the weekenender, etc. Lots of suggestions on bounce boxes and maildrops too.

[Farr Away]

You may also want to check with your husband about whether he is really going to want to carry a recipe book. Perhaps a few small lightweight laminated pages would work better? This would also allow you to send him an additional page occasionally while he's on the trail.

-FA

[Llama Legs]

Foil pack of chicken, stovetop stuffing, instant mashed potatoes, instant gravy, crasins

it's an old boy scout meal...

[BrianLe]

Best thing to do IMO is to be --- or learn to be --- a person who is satisfied with a limited repertoire of "recipes". This makes on-trail resupply easier, when sometimes all there is to choose from is what you can get at a gas station mini-mart. The vast majority of my trail dinners this year were Knorr sides, ramen "with stuff" (where "stuff" is subject to user discretion), and idahoan brand mashed potatoes. Shred jerky into the latter, add olive oil to all of them, add TVP for protein to all of them and voila! That's my entire trail cookbook, worked for me for over 4 months this year.

It helps a lot that on the AT in particular you can so often eat restaurant meals in towns! (or at least a hot dog in a gas station mini-mart or something hot that you didn't carry on your back ...)

[58starter]

3 min pasta, foil chicken package, pizza sauce ( sold in 3 packs in the pizza dough section in grocery stores.) make a quick meal.

boil water, drop in pasta for 3 min. turn stove off, pour off water, add pasta sauce and chicken, sure is good. cost less that a Mountain House meal, more food but weighs more that a Mountain House meal.

[daddytwosticks]

Tortellini with almost anything added!

[JAK]

Many people like to take non-trail recipes and non-trail behaviour onto the trail with them. Nothing wrong with that. I tend to go the other way. I like to go back to first principles, find or develop and adopt food and recipes and gear and clothing and behaviour that I figure to be most suitable for trails, and then use them on trails, and even back at home off-trail. It's still a work in progress. I don't expect I will every completely deprogram and recondition myself, but I think at least I have a sense of what I am trying to do anyways, and that is a good start. I think it is important to question what is essential, and what is not. I enjoy a hamburger or pizza as much as anyone, or some dish you might find in a restaraunt of some kind or other. I just think if we go to far out of our way to make trail food like everyday non-trail food, we are missing the point. I would be more apt to go the other way.

[Lead Dog]

foil packs flavored tuna with mini condiments of relish and mayo good for lunches. Suppers - enertia meals, Lipton noodles-add chick and some taco bell sauce in packet. Oh pepperoni and cheese sticks for snacks.

[Dances with Mice]

Basic menu: Take out all my noodle, rice and potato mix packets. Take out all my meat or fish foil packs.

Choose the heaviest item from each category for supper. Repeat each day.

[TD55]

Here is my two cents. After checking out the food threads here at WB, go to the grocery store and stock up on all the light weight easy to prepare stuff. Experiment with the stuff. Feed hubby the stuff for three or four day periods. Make notes. Play with cooking on his JetBoil. You'd be surprized at what you learn by doing this. Maybe he will become a samach guy like me. Minimum cooking. Love samishes. Bagels, english muffins, bread and biscuits wtih anything. Heat water for coffee, hot cocoa, oatmeal and only occasional meal. Otherwise, meat, cheese, peanutbutter, whateveer, between two slices of bread.

[JAK]

Oats.
Skim Milk Powder.
Raisins, Currants, other dried fruit.
Almonds, Peanuts, Sunflower seeds, other nuts and seeds.
Pearl Barley, Lentils, Dried Peas, Dry soup mixes.
Beef Jerky, etc.
Honey.
Tea, Coffee, Lemon Powder.
Herbs, Spices.

Buy in bulk. Pack in bulk. Make up recipes as you go.

[Wise Old Owl]

Here is my two cents. After checking out the food threads here at WB, go to the grocery store and stock up on all the light weight easy to prepare stuff. Experiment with the stuff. Feed hubby the stuff for three or four day periods. Make notes. Play with cooking on his JetBoil. You'd be surprized at what you learn by doing this. Maybe he will become a samach guy like me. Minimum cooking. Love samishes. Bagels, english muffins, bread and biscuits wtih anything. Heat water for coffee, hot cocoa, oatmeal and only occasional meal. Otherwise, meat, cheese, peanutbutter, whateveer, between two slices of bread.

Hmm what he said- I agree!

[coyote13]

I always carry a small amount of Braggs liquid aminos.it tastes like soy sauce but all the amino acids go a long way towards helping sore muscles and joints

[mdbuckman]

coyote - good advice on the Braggs - I'll add that to my camp pack...

[skinewmexico]

Foil pack of chicken, stovetop stuffing, instant mashed potatoes, instant gravy, crasins

it's an old boy scout meal...

I don't know, I'm an old Boy Scout, and I'm not familiar with it.