Category: food

Sarah’s Freezer Bag Cookingâ„¢ | Outdoor Food Simplified is simply the best on the net for hikers looking for great grub.

Check this post as an example:

Often I get asked if one can actually save money by doing their meals at home versus running down to the local REI for meals.

The answer is always “Yes!” but I hadn’t really ever run how much one could save. And simply put, I decided to see if it was more than just money that one could save.

Could you also eat healthier and save money? …

Sarah compared the $6 Mountain House Spaghetti and Meatballs meal-in-a-bag vs preparing her own:

Made at home Spaghetti (16 ounce serving):

600 calories
700 mg Sodium
13 g Fiber
29 g Protein

As you can easily see, you can save a lot in cost, sodium and you will get a LOT more fiber if you make your own. You will also know exactly what is in your meal. At a savings of about $4 per serving and half the sodium, that alone makes it worthwhile to make your own. You are also avoiding potential hidden MSG, and fillers.

Freezer Bag Cookingâ„¢ | Outdoor Food Simplified

Tom Mangan’s Two-Heel Drive blog is the hub of the hiking blogisphere. I count on Tom to alert me what’s new and cool on the net.

I read Two-Heel Drive more often (88% of the time) than any other in my RSS reader. And I’m not the only one. Search for “hiking blog” on Google, Two-Heel Drive comes up #1.

When Tom said he was tempted to “to link to everything” posted by “Trailcraft Russ”, I got intrigued.

Russ is the editor of Wilderness Trailcraft. I’ve linked to it on the right hand navigation under BLOGS.

Please, just shoot me in the head. I’ve gone over the top this time. I have created an Excel spreadsheet with a whole bunch of different types of foods in the hope of finding the best lightweight food. Please don’t laugh; bear with me, this actually is interesting.

In the quest for lightening my load I finally made it to the food in my backpack. I have already created spreadsheets with the calorie intake for each meal so I know I’m not carrying too little or too much food. But one analysis remained, how can I lighten the per day weight of the food that I carry? I have read in multiple places that long-distance hikers use “1 1/2 lbs per day” as a rule of thumb. But when I weigh my food I am always over 2 lbs per day. What are they doing different than me?

I now understand the errors in my ways. Check out the table below. This table is sorted by Cal per Oz. The topmost items are the lightest foods for the number of calories they contain. If you carried only Mountain House Mac & Cheese then you would only have to carry 19oz to achieve 2500 calories (a typical daily intake). Here’s another way to look at it… If you want to carry 1 1/2 lbs per day and you need 2500 calories then you have to average 104 calories per ounce. So in the table below you need foods like Cheese Nips Crackers or Instant Oatmeal. Flour tortillas won’t get you there and neither will Tuna Creations (both are my personal favorites). You can eat these less efficient foods but you have to compensate with foods like Swiss Mix or Mac & Cheese to up your daily cal to weight average.

Seeking lightweight food

Tom Mangan pointed me to a post extolling the pleasures of Night Hiking on an outdoors blog called As The Crow Flies.

Here’s another fascinating, original post on As The Crow Flies:

I love mornings. I’m usually awake by 5am, and love getting an early start but I also enjoy drinking hot beverages and appreciating the morning. This is my usual morning routine, on the trail.

From the comfort of my sleeping bag, I reach out of my tent, start my stove and heat up water to make a 16 oz nalgene bottle full of instant coffee. I put the bottle in my bag to warm me up while I eat my breakfast.

Breakfast is usually cereal, nuts and powder milk mixed with water. After I eat, I drink my coffee and enjoy the morning. Then I heat more water and make green tea in my nalgene bottle. While I drink that I look over the guide book pages for the day. Then using the same tea bag I make another nalgene bottle full of tea. When I finish that, I wash my face with the warm tea bag, and stow it in an outside mesh pocket of my pack until it is dry and can go in my ziplock garbage sack.

Then I leave the comfort of my bag, pack up (I can pack up in 2-4 minutes), and go. This way I start the day hydrated and with little or no water that I have to carry.

As The Crow Flies – Mornings on the trail