Re: [Paddlewise] Dehydrating Complete Meals

> You can dry fruit, if you don't dry it to the point of
> complete dehydration, but you may find (as I did) it's
> cheaper to buy dried fruit.
>
> I played with a drier in the past, but nowadays I buy
> most of my camping foods in the supermarket- prepared
> couscous mixes are my staple, with canned
> seafoods(tuna, sardines, mackeral, octopus, squid,
> etc) added. Breakfast is instant oatmeal. Lunch is
> usually something I can eat in the boat, or on the
> trail- dried salamis, hard cheeses, pilot biscuits,
> hardtack, nuts and dried fruit. Homemade granola bars.
> Dessert? Mix powdered cocoa mix, powdered milk, grape
> nuts and dried or freeze-dried fruit. Add boiling
> water. Mmm.

Same here. Even menu is largely the same - there isn't much to chose from,
when the goal is calories with some taste and minimum cooking (the latter I
can pursue in comfort of home).
Supermarkets don't have all I need. Recently I scouted through local
Chinatown, looking for dry bananas (couldn't recognize them, and no English
words on the pack, of course - luckily the store was big and they spoke
English).  They foisted on me some other pack as well, - Chinese Yam, tasty,
but probably has no more vitamins or calories than dry crackers.

There are also dry lemons (I didn't like the taste), costly dry pineapple,
mangos, papaya, and routine apricots and raisins (cheap in supermarkets).
Dried cranberries are good in boiled water - better thirst-quencher than tea
or cacao, and more vitamins (also cheap in supermarkets).  Grape (raisins)
and nuts (walnuts) act as laxatives if you eat them a lot, alas.  Powder
milk - well... little calories, but source of calcium (not too importantin a
trip shorter than a month :-).  Hard cheese - yes, of course.
Unfortunately, in hot weather it melts in the sealed pack, and then dries
when you open it (but doesn't return to its original condition).  Good for
3-4 days in hot weather, I guess (it didn't have a chance to live longer in
my trips).
Canned seafood is largely a water, and not much calories, not weight- or
volume-effective.
I didn't try making my own granola bars, and use PowerBars and CliffBars
(preferably with little or no coating, so it wouldn't become a messy goo in
my hands).  Good thing too, more balanced than dry fruits, tasty (if you
take different sorts), and a lot of calories.
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