Food for long hikes

I've been preparing dehydrated meals for my hikes for 8 years now, and I often get people asking about my meals so I thought I would write another post about food I take tramping.

My starting point was preparing to walk the Bibbulmun Track in WA. I wrote a post about the food I prepared for that trip here.

Since then I've had more practice, and I've changed my dietary habits, reducing carbs in my diet and moving to intermittent fasting, so I no longer eat breakfast, just surviving on a good cup of coffee. I've also become really good at finding suitable food in supermarkets and Asian shops that can be incorporated into recipes to take hiking.

The important issue for me (and it should be for anyone undertaking extended periods of hiking) is that hiking food MUST be healthy and nutritious. It's OK to eat a bit of junk if you only hike one week a year, but when it's your lifestyle for any longer than that you are not doing yourself or your long term health a favour by indulging in high fat, high sugar food. I may be accused of being an elitist, but if you can't afford to eat healthy food then perhaps you should save up a bit longer before going on a long hike. Don't just listen to me, read this anecdotal study and this more detailed explanation about why you should eat better. I've never experienced "hiker hunger", a phenomenon where you are so hungry you need to eat massive amounts of food on arriving in a town after days on the trail. Sure I'll eat a big meal, but not any larger than any other meal I would eat.

The easy, but expensive, option is to eat commercially prepared and nutritionally balanced freeze dried meals. In NZ where tramping and/or adventure racing are national pastimes for 20% of the population, there are an ever increasing number of options out there. You may have heard of Backcountry Cuisine, but there's also Radix, Real Meals, and Local Dehy.

The cheaper option is to do it yourself, and for that you will need to get hold of a dehydrator, though you can use an oven on the lowest heat setting with the door propped open a little to allow airflow and the escape of steam.

For me, I like to have variety, so I've created a number of meals that I've found filling, tasty and nutritious. 

The first is one of the meals I created for the Bibbulmun and I'm still eating it: 

Miso soup with tuna and soba noodles. Soba noodles take next to no time to cook, tuna dehydrates really well, and rehydrates as easily, miso sachets come in a packet of 12 for less than $2, and I now use half a sheet of nori per meal. This adds iodine and micronutrients. I also now add some dehydrated mushrooms (easily bought at most supermarkets) and dehydrated vegetables.

I've learnt to cook rice and then dehydrate it, (just add hot water and you're good to go) as a much cheaper option than buying those prepackaged rice meals so prevalent in supermarkets and on the menu of many budget minded trampers. I buy packets of frozen vegetables - the stirfry mixed veg are great because they are chopped already into bite sized pieces - and dehydrate them. Recently, when preparing for the AAWT, I found some frozen roast veg, so I dehydrated them and then incorporated them into a pasta dish.

For my Pasta dish I will use soba noodles, or, in an attempt to reduce my carbohydrate intake, vermicelli noodles, though they do have some corn starch in them. You can buy the vermicelli in packets of five. I no longer use dehydrated beef mince, because there are easier dried protein options available that taste just as good, and save time preparing. The obvious is TVP (textured vegetable protein) but I've recently discovered a lentil and walnut mix which is also excellent. Go check out the vegan section in the supermarket. One packet can be divided into individual meal portions, which hugely reduces the cost per meal. To my protein I add dried vegetables and dried mushrooms, and semi dried tomato strips (another thing I've found, usually somewhere near the olives, in the supermarket), and bind it all together with a sachet of pizza sauce. The pizza sauce sachets come in packets of four and are amongst the tomato paste options at the supermarket. I use the pizza base one because it's got some herbs added. More taste! I also bring a supply of dried onions and garlic to add, but often I forget.

Green chicken curry is one of my favourite meals and I've found my current recipe to be perfect. I buy chicken mince and cook it in green curry paste (add as much or as little paste as your taste buds prefer) then dehydrate the curried mince. Once dehydrated I package individually, adding a heaped spoonful of coconut milk powder to each package. This little taste bomb gets rehydrated with your choice of mixed veg, mushrooms and choice of carb. It used to be rice for me, now it's usually the vermicelli.

I use a vacuum sealer for a lot of my meals, because removing the air not only prevents spoilage, it massively reduces the packed volume of the food. I always vacuum seal the dehydrated proteins, but I also seal the vegetables and soba/miso/nori packages, the latter because it stops the noodles disintegrating in my pack. In theory you should store the proteins in your freezer, but I don't anymore and haven't had a spoilt meal yet. I usually package up the dried vegetables and mushrooms in larger portion sizes because I'm using them in a number of meals on the same trip. I store the opened package in a ziplock bag. I just use ziplock bags for the vermicelli, though I always vacuum seal cooked and dehydrated rice, because rice can spoil.

I almost always take olive oil, or MCT oil, to add to my meals to give me healthy extra calories. No, fat isn't bad for you when eaten with whole foods and a fairly low carbohydrate intake. 

I have a few more meal options that I've found tasty for me. I adore beef rendang (I really must get back to Indonesia) so I will cook up beef cubes in a rendang sauce and then dehydrate them. I've also found some spicy tofu slices in the snack section of asian supermarkets and have made up a concoction with them as my protein source instead. I once dehydrated sauerkraut which was a wonderful tangy accompaniment to my meals. A bit of creativity and you can make some really interesting and yummy meals.

I haven't dehydrated pesto for a while, but it's still a great option. Making your own pesto allows you to omit the oil and then just add it back in when cooking. Same with hummus.

I'm aware that dehydrating food does lose some nutrients, which is why most commercially available tramping food is freeze dried. It's also probably more cost effective. But even so, what I eat is always going to be better nutritionally than eating two minute noodles and junk food.

Since I've changed to intermittent fasting I make sure I have a nutritious first meal. My usual options these days are:

Low carb chia pudding consisting of mixed nuts and seeds, dried cranberries, chia seeds, protein powder, milk powder and MCT oil. Just add water (and the MCT oil) in the morning and it's ready in a few hours.

Savoury mix consisting of dried hummus, dried peas, dried mushrooms, semi dried tomato strips, dried tuna or cut up salami, and sometimes cheese as well. Again, add water and eat a couple of hours later. I will often bring fresh mushrooms and fresh baby spinach, because both keep well for a few days.

I always pack snacks to eat between meals, but I usually don't eat them unless I feel my energy sagging and it isn't time to stop for a real meal break. Aside from homemade sugar free chocolate I no longer make my own snacks, but try to purchase ones that are made of natural ingredients and not too high in sugar. Pic's Peanut Butter Slugs are a favourite, as are Choc and Manuka Honey One Square Meals. In Australia I just put peanut butter in a ziplock bag (messy though) and eat it by the spoonful. I'm yet to find an energy bar in Oz I like as much as the aforementioned OSMs. I've tried the keto bars and they not only don't taste great, I feel that they are just another type of processed food to be avoided. Same with protein bars.

From time to time I make beef jerky, which always tastes better than the store bought options. It gets consumed far too quickly though....

Dessert? Whittaker's Chocolate of course!!

Sunday

A solitary strawberry whilst watering the vege garden, an iced coffee, an omelette with chives and asparagus for breakfast, then off to the Farmers' Market for my week's supplies.

2 small rockmelon ($2), a bag of cucumbers, a dozen eggs, a couple of onions, a zucchini and a kaffir lime ($10), a bag of locally grown garlic, 2 avocados ($8.40), a tub each of goat's feta and haloumi ($13) then into the supermarket on the way home for a kilo of Aussie sultanas ($7.45). That's my shopping for the next week done.

Time to make another batch of thai curry paste. This time I went a bit easier on the chillies - fresh red ones straight out of the garden - after I went a little overboard on the quantity last time and gave myself heartburn! I still have a freezer full of chillies from last year and the plants are madly producing more. I'm drying some for camping trips and one of the ladies at the market says if I have a fresh supply during winter she can sell them. Who knows, I may be bartering for veg this winter.

I forgot to buy coriander, which is really hard to grow here in Geraldton. The heat makes the plants bolt to seed very quickly, except during our mild winters. However, I'm trying something different to see if I can grow them year round. I only planted seed on Friday so we'll have to see how they go..


So, chilli paste made and my arms having had a good workout pounding everything in the mortar, it's time for lunch, but I'm not that hungry so half of a small rockmelon will suffice. I cannot describe how tasty and juicy it is - so much better than a store bought rocky.

Too sore and tired to brave the wind today I've been planting more vegetable seeds and installing shelves in the laundry. Not to mention a little nap and finishing a book about Sicilian food. A case of the munchies mid afternoon solved with more nuts, then an early dinner.

This is a variation on a Turkish stuffed eggplant dish, but because I only have a teeny tiny aubergine I decided to make a few alterations. Chop half an onion and a clove of garlic and fry in olive oil. Add chopped tomato and capsicum, a handful of sultanas, another handful of cooked chickpeas and some cinnamon and sugar and cook for about 5 minutes. Season to taste. Remove from heat. In a small dish layer the grilled eggplant slices with vegetable mix and top with some haloumi. Bake in oven at 200 degrees for 12 minutes. Top with chopped parsley and a drizzle of  olive oil.

Nom nom...wash down with a hearty glass of vino rosso!

Money spent today on food: $40.85

Saturday

This morning, with coffee, I had muesli and yoghurt, supplemented with two fresh strawberries and a few passionfruit from the garden.

I don't know where the morning went, and with the wind rattling the windows it was time for lunch and to go windsurfing.

The lettuce seedlings aren't yet big enough to harvest daily, so today's greens consisted of lots of Italian parsley which grows everywhere in my garden. It self seeds from previous crops and makes a great salad accompaniment.

The rest of today's salad were chives, a Black Russian tomato, more haloumi fried in olive oil, another slice of beef chopped into cubes and the last of the current batch of chickpeas. Also a handful of mung bean sprouts and a spoonful of those yummy fried shallots again!

The afternoon was a wild old day out on the waves getting tossed and smashed in some big swell. The waves weren't quite as good as yesterday and the wind a bit gusty. Just can't please some people can you...

A handful of nuts saw me through to dinner, by which time I was far too exhausted to cook anything special so I went for an old favourite: pilau. Out to the garden to pick some veges and greens.

Chop 1/2 onion finely and add to oil in a frypan - I used coconut oil - with a generous teaspoonful of curry powder and a couple of fresh red chillies. (Feel free to omit the chillies!) I was out of garlic, but I'd usually add a clove if I had some. Once the onion is soft and the aromas are releasing, add your chopped veges. From my garden I used a small aubergine, 2 small red capsicums and one small green capsicum and one large Roma tomato. Fry these for about a minute then add 1/2 cup of rice and fry for another minute. Add a small slice of cooked meat that has been cubed and one cup of water, bring to boil then cover with a well fitting lid and turn the heat down to low. Allow the rice to soak up all the liquids (about 3-4 minutes) and then add chopped greens - in my case some Asian spinach and parsley from the garden. After a minute turn the heat off and allow the meal to fully soak up all the liquid - don't take the lid off.

Pig out - I've earned it. Celebrate 2 great windsurfing days in a row with a nice glass of Margaret River Shiraz/Cabernet Savignon.

No money spent today, all the fruit and veg except the onion came from the garden. Must put some chickpeas to soak before I go to bed...

My week in food

As promised, a week of food porn!

Every day begins with coffee, because I'm a serious addict. I only drink real coffee though, that instant shit hasn't passed my lips for years. I have my own coffee machine that I bought about 10 years ago for about $1000 that grinds the beans and makes an espresso to my personal taste. I tend to make a pretty strong long black and rarely froth my milk. My preference is to add a few chunks of ice and a dash of milk and voila: espresso iced coffee. Mmmmm..

Expensive coffee machine yes, paid itself off many times over. Coffee costs $4-5 retail and I'll have up to 5 or 6 coffees some days, but my usual is two to three. 2kg of Colombian beans costs $39 which lasts me just over 3 months. I use rainwater because not only does it taste better, Geraldton water is very destructive to plumbing and would likely have destroyed my machine's innards by now.

Breakfast is a single egg omelette with greens from the garden. Slowly I've reduced my egg intake, helped by using a smaller omelette pan, and find that this simple meal is enough to sustain me through the morning. I cook my omelettes with butter - margarine is not welcome in this house. One large block of butter can last me months. Oh yeah - I ignore use by dates...

Eggs: $4.50 a dozen. 2 dozen eggs per month. Source: Farmers Market from a farm where the hens run around outside all day.

My alternative breakfast is muesli with yoghurt. 1 1/2 cups of skim milk powder added to water, add one heaped dessert spoonful of live yoghurt from the last batch, makes one litre of yoghurt. I use the Easy-Yo setup - I use their yoghurt sachets to start then just make ongoing batches with skim milk till the culture seems to tire, which is about 4-5 batches. The Easy-Yo yoghurt containers are made from crap plastic and they crack and leak - I now just use a yoghurt pot from a commercial yoghurt, which I buy from time to time when I'm too lazy to make my own. It fits perfectly in the Easy-Yo thermos. Skim milk powder from 2Brothers: $9 a kilo. I've only just started buying my skim milk powder in bulk, so I'll see how I go. I think I go through a kilo a month.

My muesli is home made. Two scoops each of rolled oats, rolled rye and rolled triticale. One scoop each of pepitas and sunflower seeds. Mix. One scoop of muesli and a generous helping of natural yoghurt makes a nutritious breakfast - and sometimes a lazy dinner as well....

3kg rolled rye cost $8.70, 3kg organic rolled oats $8.90. Rolled triticale cost about the same but I haven't bought any since earlier last year and I didn't keep my receipts. Those nine kilos of grain lasts me at least half a year - omelette being my preferred breakfast after all. Pepitas $10/kilo last bought in October, Sunflower kernels $5/kilo last bought in June.

Midmorning a small handful of mixed raw unsalted nuts gives me a little boost. If I remember. Often I'm just too busy at work to stop for a snack. At home I rarely snack between meals and sometimes even forget meals. I get so involved in some home project the hours just fly by. Anyway, 2kg nuts costs $30.50 and will last me about 2 months. By the way, these nuts are the freshest yummiest tasting nuts I've ever had. Even the ones from the local health food store tasted stale and bitter compared to these.

Lunch is a salad. Chives, lettuce, parsley from the garden. Tomato - sometimes from the garden, or else from the market - cucumber - sadly my current crop carked it, so also from the market - avocado or feta or grilled haloumi - from the market - and either chickpeas or a mix of pepitas and sunflower seeds. Mung bean sprouts. Add a dash of extra virgin olive oil - sourced from a local producer and friend at $24 for 3L - and vinegar and that's it. Sometimes I also add fried shallots from the Asian shop. I feel a bit guilty about this because I think the shallots are cooked in palm oil. Crunchy and yummy though.

Chickpeas. I have a bit of an addiction to these nutty tasting pulses. I buy the dried uncooked peas in 5kg lots ($22.50) which lasts me 3 months. Simply soak overnight then boil in unsalted water for just over 10 minutes to maintain their firmness and nutty flavour. Boil a bit longer if you plan to puree them. Make in batches so you have a ready supply of cooked peas in the fridge. You will NEVER buy canned chick peas again.

Evening meals are either based around rice, quinoa, noodles or none of the above. Sometimes I just have a sandwich. I'm probably at my most versatile for my evening meal. There is often a side splitting amount of chilli involved.

Often with a glass of red wine from the cellar. Did I mention the cellar? Oh well, another time...

So that's the starting point. I'll photograph my ingredients and meals for the next week and post a daily piece of food porn. I'll tell you how much I spent on food too.

A word of warning: my food photography sucks, so if it's a little out of focus I apologise, but hey, it is porn after all!