What food would you take with you on a 2 day hike? No food pakets

[FreshMint]

Heya
I wonder what food would you guys take with you on a two day (one night sleeping outside) with you.
Not the artifical packet food you get in the outdoor shops.

Here is what i have thought of so far:

1x Salami
4x Apples
1/2 bread
2x Banana
2x Cans of Red Kidney beans (high in complex carbs and relativly delicious)
4x Protein Bars (you get them in any BB shop)
3x Can of Tuna

[raskusdrotti]

4x Protein Bars (you get them in any BB shop)

Not the artifical packet food you get in the outdoor shops.

IMHO Breaking your own rules

I would replace protein bars with homemade mixed nut muesli bars or mixed nuts.

I would also include a small amount of brown rice (maybe half a cup) to make a kidney bean and tuna hotpot - adding some complex carbs.
Add a clove of garlic and some crushed chillies and a veggie stock cube.
LOVELY

Also swap the bread for brown pitta bread

Neil

[FreshMint]

IMHO Breaking your own rules

I would replace protein bars with homemade mixed nut muesli bars or mixed nuts.

I would also include a small amount of brown rice (maybe half a cup) to make a kidney bean and tuna hotpot - adding some complex carbs.
Add a clove of garlic and some crushed chillies and a veggie stock cube.
LOVELY

Also swap the bread for brown pitta bread

Neil

sounds good.

[jamesdevine]

My Wife has wonderful receipe for Fig bar which is really tasty. I'll post the reciepe later. Also making your own Jerky is a good Idea was well.

James

[RovingArcher]

A few spices, a leather pouch of parched corn and even though this method isn't lawful in the UK and other countries, to make the meat, I take my bow with a quiver of arrows.

[Brynglas]

I often take cous cous which is extremely quick and easy to prepare, just add boiling water and some seasoning, leave for 10 - 15 minutes whilst you prepare the rest of your meal and it's done, also it's extremely lightweight when dried and bulks up considerably when cooked.

Oats and pearl barley are another favourite of mine, excellent when added to soups and stews.

If you're happy to carry the weight of tins, why not take some fresh vegetables, a clove of garlic, an onion or a leek, a couple of carrots or potatoes, easy to cook and no packets to carry out when you're done.

[tomtom]

i would take a block of cheese!

but thats just me

i would also personaly replace the bread with rice or pasta.. only because a hot meal is always nice!

[Stuart]

I second cous cous, fantastic stuff for backwoods cooking

[sandbender]

I carry one of those small sigg bottles filled with olive oil and amongst other things I pour it onto bread as a butter substitute.

[Doc]

Lots of options here. I like to keep pack weight down so tend to go for dehydrated.

Pepperami salami - cheap, light,about 50% fat so calorie dense, pasteurised so no need to refrigerate, strongly flavoured so a useful ingredient to 'forager's stew'.

Pasta - tasty, cheap, dehydrated so low pack weight. Get the 3 minute cook version.

CousCous - see pasta.

Wayfarer pouch meals - effectively the same as tinned but in a pouch instead of a tin. Very hassle free and quite tasty but portions small, expensive, and as not dehydrated you're carrying unnecessary water.

Instant mash- Calvin Rustrum raves about it - I guess it was new technology in 1950 Still useful and rich in (artificially added) vitamin C.

If you're cooking over fires and fuel is no problem, rice is good too.

I'd avoid tinned food on weight grounds. You have to carry the tins out as well as in of course.

Again, if you're cooking with a fire consider a plastic bag of bannock mix and you just add water. Cooking utensils not required - you roll it into a long sausage and wind it round a peeled green non-toxic stick (birch is good) and prop it over the fire. No-one showed me this - I just read about it and tried it. Very easy and very tasty - nothing like hot freshly baked bannock when outdoors. Try it over the barbie at home.

[anthonyyy]

I second cous cous, fantastic stuff for backwoods cooking

I second that seconding.
Great thing is it is easy to clean pots afterwards, it is quick, dosent waste water like pasta.
I like to warm some olive oil in a pan and toss the cous cous in this before adding hot water.

Tastes great with feta cheese.

[Bumblebee]

I second that seconding.
Great thing is it is easy to clean pots afterwards, it is quick, dosent waste water like pasta.
I like to warm some olive oil in a pan and toss the cous cous in this before adding hot water.

Tastes great with feta cheese.

Mmmmm, nice. If you can find it try bulgur instead of cous-cous. More taste, less refined (helthier) and same weight/cooking time. Olive oil in a small Sigg botttle was an excellent idea!

[neo_wales2000]

I just take an Army 24 hour ration pack, its got everything you need.
If my lad comes with me we take more fresh food and knock up stuff like corned beef stew.

Dried veg, onions, peppers, mushrooms are good, about 85p a packet for the Batchelor stuff; pre soak if you can to save on cooking time, add hot dogs/corned beef, (and things like garlic, curry powder etc) for a hot meal with smash. 5 minute rice/pasta with sauce, pepperami, couscous, don't forget stock cubes or packet soup (chicken, mushroom and ox tail are good for stock also). Small zip lock bags of herbs, galic powder make a big difference, as does a small bottle (panda pop type) of good oil, and some sachets of brown/red sauce. I recently got some emtpy 'Tooth paste' type tubes you can fill at home, ideal for jam, butter etc.

A current favouite at present in 5 minute rice and a curry made with dried onions and tinned pilchards yum yum

[Graham_S]

i was out at the weekend. lunch was cous-cous with 1/2 a stock cube, 2"of garlic paste and a generous shake of chilli flakes. washed down with a cup of green tea with honey.
ready in 15 mins (this includes time spent looking for fuel and then lighting my volcano kettle)

[zackerty]

Three tins...two baked beans, one salmon.
1 habenero chilli, three Rooibos teabags, one bottle Montieth's Black Beer.

[simonsays]

Breakfast in the outdoors for me is nearly always a cup full of oats pre-mixed with milk powder, sugar and some dried fruit

For a really quick hot lunch I tend to go for a block of noodles (Currently retailing for 9 pence in Quicksave) with a packet of cup-a-soup mix thrown in once they are cooked. You can easily make this more interesting by adding things like garlic, chilli flakes, salami, dried veg/peppers/mushrooms/onions.

Given time and sufficient access to fuel I would tend to go for a stew as an evening meal. Spuds, carrots, turnips (All chopped really small), some ready made dumpling mix. herbs/spices and either some tinned meat or home made jerky.


Or a couple of ration packs

simon

[Rod]

As much homemade beef jerky as I can carry! (very moreish). Will munch/chew/suck on this throughout the day
Uncle Ben's boil in the bag rice x2 - carbs
super noodles x2-6 carbo/stodge
oxo cubes - flavour
sundried tomatoes/mushies/peppers - flavour
dried chorizo sausages - yum
oatcakes - carbs
primula cheese in a tube fat + protein
tinned mackeral x2 omega3's ++
broth mix - filling protein from pulses with carbs too
fruit leather - dried 'flat' fruit - from a healthfood shop


These are some of my current 'flavourites'

Remember, if you're not dining like a king - you ain't doin' it right!

[stoddy]

Egg Banjos!!

[Jamie]

As much homemade beef jerky as I can carry! (very moreish). Will munch/chew/suck on this throughout the day
Uncle Ben's boil in the bag rice x2 - carbs
super noodles x2-6 carbo/stodge
oxo cubes - flavour
sundried tomatoes/mushies/peppers - flavour
dried chorizo sausages - yum
oatcakes - carbs
primula cheese in a tube fat + protein
tinned mackeral x2 omega3's ++
broth mix - filling protein from pulses with carbs too
fruit leather - dried 'flat' fruit - from a healthfood shop


These are some of my current 'flavourites'

Remember, if you're not dining like a king - you ain't doin' it right!

And having been an official Grasshopper taster at the the Reading moot I can attest to dining like a king! It was awesome - i bags to pitch my hammock next to him at MM!!!!!!

[raskusdrotti]

primula cheese in a tube fat + protein

Hey I forgot all about that stuff!!

I gotta go get some

Neil

[Gripper]

I'd 2nd the cous-cous. Always have some homemade Roo jerky and some bannock pre mixed and just needing some water mixed in. Kidney beans are a good one and I have been making some pretty good curries from chunky veg soup with instant mash and indian spices added. We also have some great soup mixes down here made by Trident foods that tast fantastic and just need water adding - perfect for my snowpeak 700, trangia clikstand combo.

Mark

[Brixton]

Thread starter said no packets
Yet nearly everyone has gone for some kind of containerised or pre-prepared food.
Packets, tins, etc. even pasta's prepared by someone else from flour.
Don't know what cous cous is made from but I bet there isn't a cous cous tree (indigenous to the UK at any rate).
Me I like Oatso-simples for breakfast and pasta-n-sauce for supper; containerised sure but burnable packets and for lunch potato farls(cos they don't mush up like sarnies) containing bananas and plain crisps.
I mainly like these because my wife will not let me eat such crap in the house

a hidden bonus with the plain crisps is that if you get the original style Walkers as opposed to the new healthier ones they make brilliant firelighters even when damp.
Hula hoops taste OK but are pants at burning.

[Toddy]

Oatcakes
Home made muesli bars
Bag of home made dried stock/herbs; salt/oregano/sage/lovage/dill/f.l.parsley/mushrooms/ etc.,
Pre-steamed and dried barley.
Dried fruits
Hazelnuts & almonds & sunflower seeds
Cheddar cheese or maybe caerphilly or a white stilton
dried herbs for tea; spearmint, chamomile......

Breakfast; tea and muesli bars
Elevenses; fruit & oatcakes & cheese
Dinner; Savoury barley with any wild foods available, i.e. steamed vegetables & mushrooms
Nuts & fruit for pudding
Supper; tea & muesli bar

No cooking except to boil water Everything *home* grown too.

Cheers,
Toddy

[Firewyre]

Very new here, and only camped out once (so far) so here goes.

Meal 1 - Rice and Tuna.
Can of tuna.
Uncle Bens boil in the bag rice x1
Small tub of mayonaise.

Meal 2 - Fahitas.
2/3 tortillas.
Sachet of spice and salsa that comes with it.
Thinly sliced quorn burger and some sliced peppers in a sealable bag.

I've found (in my limited experience) that the little bottles you can buy for toiletries in Muji (Birmingham high street, Japanese 'stuff' shop) are excellent for putting things like cooking oil in to squirt into the pan. Also, if you buy the little boxes of sushi from Tesco they come with a little plastic fish-bottle for soy - reusable and just small enough for one meal's worth of soy (or vinegar, or other thin condiment).

[moduser]

For herbs and spices I normally use the 7 day pill dispensers with a piece of duck tape over it to avoid accidental opening.

I recently tried, for the Dartmoor meet, the screw together containers from Boots, used for holiday cosmetics.

The look good in clean hard plastic (almost unbreakable) however I found that you can overtighten them to the point you need two pairs of pliers to get them undone and granular items such as salt, garlic salt etc can get caught in the threads making them almost impossible to undo even with pliers.

I won't be using them again. Back to the pill dispensers. It's also worth inversting in a set of travel bottles from Nalgene
http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/store...ategorycode=19
for less than a tenner you get bottles that are ideal for olive oil, (my preference) cider vinegar, washing up liquid (the pack includes to lids with fold down spouts), and small canisters for whatever.

Great stuff. You can never have enough seasoning. It gives you variety even if the basics are pretty much the same each day.

[grahoom]

flat bread is a good one to take, as it packs down very small - and its light and not bulky but tastes great. ideal with home mad houmous.

also i generally take some apples and carrots as they are great for eating while on the move.

here is a good link of some flat breads
http://www.efn.org/~sundance/FlatBreads.html

[NickBristol]

Also, if you buy the little boxes of sushi from Tesco they come with a little plastic fish-bottle for soy - reusable and just small enough for one meal's worth of soy (or vinegar, or other thin condiment).

M&S ones are the best from the high street stores are they are of a bit more generous size. It doesn't have to be just thin runny sauces dressings that go in a sushi soy bottle.. just use a syringe (body only, no needle!) to inject it into the bottle - you can get much thicker condiments in, my favourites are tomato sauce, mayonaise, honey, mustard, jam and lighter gel (not in the same bottle!). Obviously make sure you label these properly and dont try putting lighting gel on your chips. When it comes to using the condiment, just give the bottle a good squeeze and it comes out no problems with a lovely gloopy sound

Yes I eat too much sushi and yes I have too much time on my hands to think of how to fill the little bottles...

[Graham_S]

i found a "poundland" type shop selling re-useable plastic bottles similar to nalgene ones. 7 tubs for £1. bargain i bought 2 packs.

ideal for spices, oils, and other stuff.

[dtalbot]

Dried TVP mince is a good one, add water some suitable fungus and some dried chilli and you have the makings of a good meal.

[spamel]

Maybe somebody from Sheffield/Rotherham can shed a bit of light on Savoury Duck? I had it at my parents and thought it was ideal for bushcraft as it expands so much. I had it with mashed spuds, but I imagine you couls use other stuff.

Spamel