berner

I've used Mountain House or Backpackers Pantry freeze dried foods. Since we are not talking gourmet cooking here, I find them acceptable. My favorite is Beef Stroganoff. I get rid of the supplied pouches, which are heavy and bulky and repack into sandwich size freezer bags. Breakfast I do as you do, usually granola with different dried fruit and powdered milk. Supplementing breakfast with protein powder would help with recovery.

There is good selection of dried soups in supermarkets these days such as bean or lentlis that can be supplelmented with other off the shelf items. I agree with Machka, prowl the aisles. Also hard cheeses last well as does flat bread and very dark bread.

Happy Feet

1 lg. bag granola.

1 lg. bag GORP.

1 sm. jar peanut butter.

Starbucks instant iced coffee (sweetened caffeine you can drink cold).

You need a spoon or stick for the PB and one water bottle to shake the iced coffee in.

Lick the spoon clean and rinse and repeat as necessary.

andrewclaus

I had to laugh at this. I forgot my spoon one trip, but before panic set in I noticed there were these little sticks all over the place. Chopsticks, and I could pick new ones up at every meal. One less thing I had to worry about packing from then on.

J.Higgins 

Chopped almonds in your muesli? Do you sweeten it? How do your prepare it in camp? Can I assume that you use powdered milk in it?

I typically drink 2-4 cups of coffee a day. The heavy days are for when I need mental alertness because of one reason or another. Sometimes I just like an afternoon cup. The Starbucks instant is a good choice I think. Hot or cold, its good to go and certainly beats the pants off the other brands as far as quality taste. I drink it black, which is a habit I fostered years ago just because dairy doesn't last for long in the woods.

J.Higgins 

How long does this menu provide for you? Is this your sole means of nutrition when you are out? I like simple foods, so very curious here.

FBinNY 

Morning coffee is probably the main reason I carry a small camp stove. I rarely cook anything for dinner. Those who like cerial or muesli for breakfast can always carry powdered milk, but I don't. I simply eat it straight out of the package, or stir it in to applesauce to make a thick chewy paste.

J.Higgins 

Right! So why bother even having an expensive stove? A simple canister stove that will heat a pot of water so fast that you'll almost go back in time is the thing to have. Make some coffee. Fill your thermos or whatever. Pack up and get back on the road. That's what I'm-a tawkin' about!

Roughstuff

I have one many tours where this is an issue, from stretches in the Canadian rockies to a tour of the Sayan Mountains in Siberia when I lived in Irkutsk. I have never had Mtn House on a tour: i tried it at home, and found that the food tasted surprisingly like the package which contained it.

I do a couple things. First, I just accept that I am gonna have less food to eat overall for those next few days, unless I am gonna pack food heavy. Sometimes I *DO* the latter, because I travel light and often have a lot of spare space.

Anyway: to the issue...lets assume you are worried about 4 consecutive days without access to food but with some sources of running water which is pretty pure but should still be treated...

(1) A dozen eggs, broken into two six packs, on the top of the interior of each rear pannier to absorb the shock.
(2) A pound of bacon, sliced half and put wherever the weight fits. Sausage works well too. Dry stuff like jerky can work but you'll get very thirsty eating it.
(3) cookies/crackers for carbohydrate,
(4) eight bags of ramen noodles
(5) fruit...i usually use oranges, their skin protects them best.
(5) veggies: potato/carrot/onion/pepper.
(6) tincture of iodine as water purifier. If you have a filter you are already set.
(7) a block of ultra sharp cheddar.
(8) for cans of tuna in oil (i find oil tastes better and adds calories you need).

I usually have a stock of peanut butter with me. I don't take the whole list above every time; but it is what i look for.

My breakfasts can be eggs, maybe with some bacon and home fries cooked in the bacon grease; sometimes I save the eggs for other times. Breakfasty type dinners work as well. Breakfast of Champions

A scrambled raw egg into the ramen soup makes a nice meal..any one of them. The egg adds some "nourishment" and also takes the sharpness off the salty flavor.

The fruit is good for quenching thirst (your body gets thirsty for minerals, not just liquid). It also keeps your bowels moving.

Lunch, if I stop and have it at a specific time, can be any of the above or just some peanut butter and cookies if I want to. Or just one of the tuna cans.

Dinner is usually the ramen for the carbohydrate and anything else I want to fill me.


But man did I love reading all the answers above. Love the variety and have gotten many other ideas!


Breakfast one morning in the High Sierra.

andrewclaus

Powdered milk is hard to find in small quantities sometimes, so I tried going without it and now I actually prefer not having it. I sweeten my mix only with raisins. I buy a box of rolled oats (prefer 'old fashioned' though 'quick' works), a bag of walnuts, a box of raisins, mix them all together in a ziplock bag in front of the store, dispose of the trash, and I'm good for a week. The bag packs very well. Dip in the cup, add some water, or eat dry as a snack. Very simple, whole grain carbs and protein, nut fat and protein, fruit sugar. At home I add cinnamon, sometimes chopped almonds, fresh berries in season.

Many people don't know that rolled oats are cooked in processing and don't need to be cooked again. They have a pleasant nutty flavor and texture. In my opinion, cooking oats turns them into a foul mess. Thankfully I was never forced to eat them that way as a child--my wife still hasn't forgiven her mother for that, fifty years later.

J.Higgins 

Good stuff. Thank you very much!

I love oats and muesli. I spent most of the 80's in Deutschland, working. Nothing better than a breakfast of cured meats, butter, and brotchens, but a seriously healthy breakfast can be had with a basic muesli recipe. Its also cheap... which is very good, because then you can afford to have the blown-out big-time extravagant breakfast in towns along the way. Simple. Reliable. Good.

Happy Feet

A bit tongue and cheek but really what we used to take when I was a young climbing bum. I wouldn't hesitate to do the same again if I were to tour off the beaten path where resupply was limited. As it is, on my last tour I packed canned beans and canned spaghetti o's for all my dinners and subway veggie subs for breakfast. During the day I ate cliff bars and peanut butter as described.

If you think about it, the GORP/Granola diet won't go bad, requires no cooking or rehydration and has no artificially fixed portions - eat as needed. Granola is basically oats with some sugar (slow release carbs and glucose), peanuts are protein fat and oils, raisins are another source of glucose with fiber and peanut butter is the same as peanuts. If you want to get a little more technical add some salted almonds or something for electrolyte replacement.

I like my coffee but if I am not cooking I bring the Starbucks iced coffee and add one pack to a water bottle in the am and shake, drinking it as I ride. When I'm done I rinse out the bottle and add more water at the next stop. It's basically sweetened instant coffee.

Take it to another level and carry only Soylent bars and drink powder https://www.soylent.com/?utm_source=...3YEaAmqW8P8HAQ


Funny topic as I'm just starting a month long experiment by eating only one meal source repeatedly - in my case Veggie burgers. Day two and 7 burgers in.
This is the result of a conversation game I play with my residents while we are exercising. "What would you choose if you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life?" It can be something like spaghetti and meatballs or roast beef and yorkshire pudding but you have to like it enough to eat it every meal, every day, no snacks - and it has to sustain you. Lots of interesting answers based on a lot of life experiences.

I always say veggie burgers (because I'm a vegetarian) and decided to put my money where my mouth is by testing the hypothesis for one month (Feb.). It's winter and I need a challenge. At first it was a bit of a lark but now I'm quite keen to see what effects it will have on weight, appetite, mood, will power etc...

One lady told me Rye bread because that was all they had to eat in post revolutionary Soviet Russia, along with a watery cabbage soup. Given that comparison doing a week with GORP and granola or a month with veggie burgers seems pretty easy... I think.

DropBarFan

Indian split lentils like mung & urad dal cook in 30 minutes; also have nice mild flavor & quite digestible. On tours one can also sprout legumes which further reduces cooking time.

Happy Feet

Also Quinoa which cooks in about the same time.

Ty0604

Very impressive... The days I don't find a gas station/store to grab coffee at in the morning are the worst. I don't function very well without coffee

J.Higgins 

I'm glad that I didn't ride behind you on that tour.

I'm not one to eat a lot of peanut butter, especially hydrogenated peanut butter. Peanuts (to me) are good but in moderation, and they definitely do not follow good Paleo protocols anyway so I avoid them if I can. Instead I substitute tree nuts, and my favorites are Almond, Pecans, and Walnuts. I'm going to create a GORP-style mix using whole rolled oats, dried blueberries, dried cranberries, chopped walnuts and almonds. I'm also considering a shake or two of cinnamon. Tell me if you think this mixture would be okay - I guess the only way to know is to try it.

I'm not fond of sweetened drinks, especially white sugar. I'm a coffee person, but black only. The Starbucks instant is worthy of being in my pack for sure, and totally better than crappy gas station coffee. I also take a few teabags along. A nice hot Earl Grey with some pine needles is a welcomed drink if you need some warmth after dinner, and not too much caffeine so that you have difficulty falling asleep.

I always say veggie burgers (because I'm a vegetarian) and decided to put my money where my mouth is by testing the hypothesis for one month (Feb.). It's winter and I need a challenge. At first it was a bit of a lark but now I'm quite keen to see what effects it will have on weight, appetite, mood, will power etc...[/QUOTE]

Let us know how this works. Variety - as they say - is the spice of life, but I'm sure that many of us love touring because it simplifies some things for us. I would be all for bringing one food that I could easily prepare, enjoy, and clean-up afterwards. Simplicity can also be close to perfection - at least that's one of my philosophies.

I like the way you think.

andrewclaus

It may depend on how much of it you plan to eat. Some people can't handle more than 1/4 cup of rolled oats a day (the normal serving). It tends to quicken the digestive process. It has no effect on me--I can eat oats all day and all's normal. I suggest you find out before you go on tour.

On one trip, a 180 mile hike without resupply across the Sierra Nevada, I tried eating nothing but nut-rich muesli. I was going for calorie density and "packability," since all supplies had to fit in a bear-proof canister to comply with national park rules. By the end of that trip, I caught a whiff of a hiking partner's salami and had a craving for it, first meat craving in twenty years. I needed more fat, or something. I find if I add bread and cheese (I'm ovo-lacto veg) or nut butter, I do fine.

The nuts and berries are perfect, but the berries can be hard to find if you plan on resupplying along the way. You can usually find walnuts in almost any baking aisle in the US, and raisins in most stores. And most of the time you have to put up with inferior peanut butter.

staehpj1

I agree with that 100%, I've been know to salt them I figure that on tour getting too much sodium has never been a problem. Getting enough might be.

As far as how good Mountain House or Backpackers Pantry freeze dried meals are... I don't like the taste, find them too expensive, and to make matters worse they generally are not available at restock points. If you like them you could possibly use mail drops sent to yourself via general delivery, but I'd rather buy stuff available at grocery or general stores.

On the other hand I did have some really delicious freeze dried meals that I got out of a hiker box on the JMT. I forget the brand, but the label was in French, so they were probably left in the hiker box by European hikers. They are likely not available here in the US.

I also have really enjoyed a lot of the dried and freeze dried items from Honeyville Farms. The refried beans are my favorite ones even at home and most of what they sell is quite good and some really excellent. Items generally come if great big cans and need to be repackaged in smaller amounts. Since i don't take much food from home on bike tours i have used the Honeyville stuff mostly for backpacking.

cyccommute 

To be clear, I don't use freeze dried meals on a regular basis. I used to carry one for emergencies on road tours and have had to eat it...that's how I know to avoid ones with zuchinni. Blah! Over the years I've found that I don't need to worry about not being able to find stores regularly on road tours but I still carry 2 to 3 days of meals on a regular basis because grocery stores are further between than they were 20+ years ago.

I do, however, eat freeze dry on mountain bike tours because there are no stores or even restock points on the kinds of mountain bike tours I do. It's the only option I have so I suffer through the freeze dried.

Squeezebox

A few basic ideas.
Try cooking / eating this way for a few days at home to get some experience, and work out any kinks in your food program.
Depends on the outside temp how long perishables will last. perishables will last overnight better than during the day.

Powdered milk- In the mexican section of the grocery you might find Nido, it's a whole milk powdered milk. Tastes way better than the instant stuff.
Do hard boiled eggs last longer than raw?
Do you carry a skillet? my 6" weighs about 6 oz. a bit less if I replace the handle.

cyccommute 

No. Recommendations for hard boiled egg storage is 2 hours without refrigeration. American eggs are iffy to store raw for more than a few hours as well. We don't vaccinate against Salmonella in the US and our eggs are more likely to cause problems as compared to European eggs where then do vaccinate.

J.Higgins 

Just got back from the store. I took Mancha's advice and strolled the aisles a little. I found all kinds of soups in mylar bags!



The bottoms are transparent so that anyone can plainly see that it looks like barf.



I'll just have to take Squeezie's advice and try it.

Here's the king of meats...

Squeezebox

Also Americans wash their eggs. Apparently fresh eggs have a sorta anti-bacterial slime/coating that washes off. Washed eggs don't last as long.

staehpj1

Me too. I used to carry one or even two for emergencies, but decided that it was easier to carry a bit of extra regular food and/or snack food. For me that meant that the emergency meal might not really be a regular meal. I figure that for that once in a while emergency, having jerky and granola bars for dinner isn't the end of the world and when I had a sleeve of fig newtons for dinner it was even OK. I'd rather not need to resort to Gu packets or even power bars for dinner, but even those would be OK in an emergency. As long as there is water and calories it isn't the end of the world.

I can see where that is convenient if you like the meals well enough.

I have another option that works for me regardless of how long between restock or remote the trip is, at least for as long as I care to be away from restock points. For backpacking I like to restock at least once a week, but prefer to restock every 3-4 days or so if possible. For back country MTB trips, I'd be willing to carry more as long as water is available. I refuse to carry more than a couple days of water and will go elsewhere rather than do a trip that requires that I become a pack mule loaded with water for too far.

Most of my trips where I am really away from any restock point for long are backpacking trips or in the past canoe or kayak trips, but I can see myself doing more remote MTB stuff at some point in the future. I have and in the future would likely use self packaged dried, and freeze dried meals made up of individual Honeyville and grocery store items, forgoing the pre-packaged full meals from Mountain House. My meals might include stuff like foil packed tuna, tortillas, Ramen noodles, dried rice dishes, and peanut butter and jelly, in addition to the dried and FD stuff. I figure I can make up a much more palatable meal out of that stuff than Mountain House meals while still keeping it light weight and compact enough.

If I knew where to buy FD meals like the European ones I found in the JMT hiker box, I'd be more tempted to use them.

Ty0604

We've kept hard boiled eggs out on the counter for a week and they were fine. Longest we've kept them on tour is 3 or 4 days. Don't tend to carry much food. However, we use eggs straight from the farm so we don't refrigerate even our raw eggs. Pretty sure Americans are the only ones who do that. We leave them in a bowl on the counter where they were intended to be. I wouldn't touch eggs from a grocery store if my life depended on it.

Happy Feet

Having grown up on a diet of kool aid, spam, beaded fish sticks and hot dogs and being able to still kick some a$$ I don't sweat the small stuff much - but to each their own.

You can buy fresh ground peanut butter that only contains peanuts at a lot of places now if you want to avoid additives. Ive also made my own hazelnut butter when we used to have a tree in the yard. Add a little cocoa and you have nutela.