Basic Staples:
* A plastic container of olive oil
* Instant milk
* Parmesan cheese
* Packets of clarified butter (available from distributors of freeze-dried food)
Breakfast:
* Pop tarts
* Cereal
* Bagels (they pack well for a couple of days).
* Cereal or granola bars
Lunch:
* Cheese
* Salami or other preserved meats, like beef or turkey jerky
* Peanut butter
* Crackers, tortillas, chips, or breadsticks.
* Nuts and other snack foods.
Dinner:
*Freeze-dried meals. You can’t beat freeze-dried foods for ease of use, so take a few along if weight or weather is a real issue. It’s true that these just-add-water foods have come along way since they were first introduced. But a diet of all-freeze dried food can be monotonous and expensive. So be sure you vary the flavors.
*Convenience foods. Mac and cheese, Lipton noodles or rice dishes, and Ramen soups are big backcountry favorites, mostly because of the no-fuss factor. You can add variety: A can of tuna goes well with Mac and cheese; a dash of fresh Parmesan adds flavor to noodles dishes, and packets of freeze-dried vegetables go well with practically anything.
*Pasta. Thin is better than thick because it cooks faster. Some hikers swear by less processed pastas, such as whole wheat and corn pasta (available in health food stores).
*Other instant foods. Instant rice, instant potatoes, and stuffing mix can also be mixed with sauces, cheese, veggies, or canned meats.
*Sauces. You can make your own tomato sauce by combining a six-ounce can of tomato paste, a package of spices for making spaghetti sauce, and water: it makes enough for two hungry hikers. Other instant sauces are also available, but check to see that they don’t require other ingredients.
Camp Cuisine
Part 2 - Spicing Things Up
*Spice kits. Hands down, the easiest thing you can do is pack along a few spices. For a short hike, you can use mini-zipper-locking bags for storage, but on a long trip, you’ll find that over time the zipper channels get blocked with a combination of dirt and spices. To avoid that problem, buy tiny plastic containers, available in outfitting stores. (Don’t use film canisters, which are contaminated with chemicals.) Here’s what to put in them:
* Salt and pepper
* Cayenne pepper sauce
* Soy sauce
* Garlic and oregano (can be mixed together)
* Onion flakes
* Dried mushrooms or sun-dried tomatoes (lots of flavor per ounce!)
* Boullion cubes
*Home dehydrating. If you can cook it, you can dry it. Dehydrating meals brings home-cooked food right to your tent. Dehydrating works especially well with sauces, chili, thick soups, and fruits and vegetables. If you think you’ll be doing a lot of dehydrating, spring for a multi-tray dehydrator. Warning: it takes a little bit of experimenting to get the quantities right.
*Health food stores. Health food stores carry an interesting assortment of foods that work well in the backcountry, including quick-cooking grains (cous-cous and polenta are practically instant), unprocessed cereals (more nutritious), interesting instant soups, and just-add-water foods, including black beans, refried beans, and hummous.
*Asian food stores. If you like noodle soups, but don’t want to eat the same thing day after day, try the offerings at an Asian market, where soups come with a wide variety of noodles and species, including packets of dried onions and spicy oils. Also check out packaged miso soups.
*Fresh Foods. Onions, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and garlic can all survive a while without refrigeration. You can’t take too many, because of the weight, but a little bit of fresh flavor goes a long way to add zest to soups and sauces.
Cold-Weather Food
As we all know, calories are units of heat — which is why you use more of them in winter than in summer. So that freeze-dried glop and oatmeal glue doesn’t only keep you moving, it also keeps you warm. While an average summer hiker snarfs down approximately 2 pounds of mostly dried lightweight food per day, a winter hiker needs 2 1/2 pounds. That extra half-pound is what’s going to stoke your furnace when the temperatures drop to the frozen zone.
But quantity is not the only thing to consider. Here are some cold-weather food tips that’ll help you stay cozy:
* Plan for simplicity. A couple of just-add-water-and-boil meals is the ticket when it’s cold and snowy.
* Pack some hot drinks: Herbal tea can warm you up, and flavored mixes like Tang or Gatorade can perk you up. But avoid caffeine: It contributes to hypothermia.
* Have some quick snacks on hand that you can eat when you’re feeling cold.
* Eat something a few minutes after you stop hiking for the day — it’ll help prevent the chill you’ll feel when you stop the heavy exercise.
* Remember that foods in cans can freeze, especially if they are packed in liquids (like tuna fish). If you’re carrying canned food, warm it up before you try to open it by putting it in an inside pocket of your jacket.
* Packets of instant soup or bouillon cubes will help you rehydrate, replenish salts lost to sweating, and warm up at the same time.
* Don’t take foods that need lots of cutting and chopping: In cold weather, those otherwise simple chores can become a major stumbling block.
* Packets of clarified butter (sold by trail food companies) can add calories and flavor to almost anything. If they are frozen, put them between your hat and your head for five minutes and they’ll soften up.
Water vs. Sports Drinks: Which Is Better?
It depends.
On what? you ask (Of course, I should have known you wouldn’t let me off the hook that easily.) On three things: the type and amount of exertion you’re getting, the heat, and your own body.
In general, water is best. After all, humans and almost all other land animals except a few rare desert species have evolved to thrive on water—not sports drinks. However, in certain situations, usually when doing prolonged and strenuous activity in hot weather, you may sweat so much that your body’s electrolyte balance is compromised. That’s when sports drinks come in.
Hyponatremia is a dangerous condition in which hikers sweat so much that their electrolytes go out of whack. It usually occurs when strenuous excercise takes place in extreme heat, and it’s more common among ultra-endurance athletes and high-mileage long-distance hikers than among casual dayhikers, although dayhikers can be affected in places like the Grand Canyon, where it’s common for people to overextend themselves in severe heat. Drinking water alone doesn’t solve the problem. In fact, drinking too much water after depleting your electrolytes actually makes things worse.
Perhaps the best way to deal with the problem is to prevent it. First of all, be reasonable about your exercise in extremely hot weather. Second: Eat! GORP is great as a trailside snack: Banana chips (potassium), salted nuts (sodium), and raisins (sugar) can help replace some of those lost electrolytes. Another field treatment for dehydration is to prepare a mixture of one liter of water with a couple of teaspoons of sugar and a pinch of salt. And then, there are sports drinks, which work on the same principle. Grand Canyon rangers, who have plenty of experience treating dehydration, keep sports drinks on hand to help rehydrate hikers. Most experts recommend that these be used in diluted strength (as you suggest in your question).
Note: Hyponatremia is a serious condition that can lead to kidney failure, coma, and death—it is a true medical emergency and requires medical attention.
One other thing: Caffeinated drinks (tea, coffee, some sodas) are definitely a bad idea in hot weather, because they are diuretics. That means that they actually contribute to dehydration. They’re not such a hot idea in cold weather either, because caffeine can contribute to hypothermia. Leave the java and chai at home!
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