[Paddlewise] Catering Madness

My backpack and kayak meals are all pretty simple. You may not find them 
exactly tro your liking but you may find some ideas you can adapt.

  Breakfast is almost always oatmeal, with dried or freeze-dried fruits, 
though sometimes I alternate with instant Chinese rice porridge. For a 
two week trip you'll need some variety. I don't like the mess of making 
pancakes or freeze-dried eggs. I usually like a cup of espress to go 
with this.

Lunch is generally something uncooked. Sometimes it's just nuts and 
dried fruit. Often it's peanut or almond butter on pilot crackers or 
homemade hardtack along with the fruit and nuts. I used to carry the 
peanut butter in those neat clear plastic toothpaste tubes until I found 
out last summer what happens when someone sits on your pack. Kind of 
depends on the trip. For me, lunch is usually a short break.

Dinner is almost always based on either quick rice or couscous to which 
I add some meat or fish. I like using the packaged, flavored couscous 
which I repackage in zip lock baggies and seal with tape. You need some 
oil, and I carry olive oil in a squeeze bottle. The meat or fish comes 
from a can, and there you have a tremendous variety of choices. My 
favorites are canned Spanish octopus with vegetables, tuna in olive oil, 
and a marveous Chinese tuna with vegetables I get at my local Asian 
market. They also have a wide range of vegetarian things in small cans 
made to be eaten over rice, like fried, flavored gluten, mushrooms, etc.

Anotehr dinner alternative is dried soups, but I don't use either the 
Knorr packets or the expnsive freeze-dried stuff. There's a brand called 
Bear Creak that is really yummy and comes in packets that serve 8. I 
repackage this into single servings for myself. Takes about 20 minutes 
to cook. I've also seen restaurant-sized resealable cans of their sopups 
at Costco. The chili is not bad and the cream of chicken is outstanding. 
I think they have close to a dozen different flavors.

If you have a reliable supply of fresh fish, you can add that to the 
suggestions above, or make a simple chowder from fish, dried onions and 
potatos, dried herbs (parsely, mainly) salt and pepper and dried milk.

Dinner is always accompanied by hot tea.

Desserts: A friend taught me this years ago. Mix (ahead of time) grape 
nuts, dried milk, instant cocoa and/or freeze dried fruit. Add boiling 
water, stir and eat. Instant flummary. I used to enjoy a cup of hot 
cocoa with a shot of Yukon Jack for my dessert, too.

-- mike

http://foldingkayaks.org

***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************