Author Topic: Mustachian food for a week-long backpacking trip?  (Read 3822 times)

sunnyca

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Mustachian food for a week-long backpacking trip?
« on: July 21, 2014, 08:45:27 PM »
Hi everyone!

My parents are going on a week-long backpacking trip next month (their first experience with backpacking), and I'm kind of horrified at the cost of the dehydrated food they're bring along.  Does anyone have any ideas for inexpensive backpacking food (vegetarian preferred; Korean, if possible).

Thanks in advance!

Glenstache

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Re: Mustachian food for a week-long backpacking trip?
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2014, 09:24:06 PM »
Find a food dehydrator and you can have anything you like. For our trip last weekend, we had a delicious meal of black beans, veggie stir fry, and sliced up baked potatoes. Basically, made the meal at home, threw it in the dehydrator overnight, put it in ziplocs the next day, and we had a meal ready to go. At camp, we brought water to a boil, added the goods, simmered for a couple of minutes and we were ready to eat. For things like potatoes which are a bit thicker and slower to rehydrate, you can add them to the water earlier (before to a boil) to get them some extra time.

There are tons of recipes online, and you can find a dehydrator cheap on craigslist. We also dried blueberries from the CSA bin to add to our morning oatmeal. Google "dehydrator backpacking recipe" for ideas.

Enjoy!

neophyte

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Re: Mustachian food for a week-long backpacking trip?
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2014, 10:14:04 PM »
I used to eat the Ottogi Yukgaejang that comes in little dried up bricks. It's cheap in Korea, I don't know about here. They make bugeoguk too. Ramen is cheap. You can fry kim in a skillet and put it in airtight bags for a couple days. Doenjang would probably be ok not refrigerated for a couple of days and you could dehydrate the other ingredients for doenjang jjigae.  Hmm, this is a soup heavy list. I wonder if you can dehydrate kimchi jeon and make it into kimchi jeon chips. If fish is ok, you can get dried pollack jerky at the korean grocery store and that dried seaweed for soup.

lb

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Re: Mustachian food for a week-long backpacking trip?
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2014, 11:38:34 PM »
We get pre-made packets of curry from Trader Joe's. It comes in pouches and is ready to eat. Then we make couscous to put it on instead of rice because all you need to do is pour boiling water on it and let it sit for a few minutes. The hot couscous warms up the curry and you're good to go! Don't forget packets of hot sauce. Trader Joe's also sells packets of brown rice that is ready to eat but they are pretty awful.

There are also lots of dehydrated soups you can get in the bulk section of the grocery store that are not bad. We usually do oats with dried fruit and nuts for breakfast, or granola. Don't even need to heat the water, just pour some on the oats and let it soak for 5 min. For the granola, bring some milk powder and mix it in with the water. Tastes just like cereal milk! I'm serious, I thought it would be gross but it was totally good. I didn't like the reconstituted powdered milk by itself however.

Good luck!

sunnyca

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Re: Mustachian food for a week-long backpacking trip?
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2014, 09:28:40 PM »
Thank you all SO much for the great ideas!!

Russ

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Re: Mustachian food for a week-long backpacking trip?
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2014, 09:31:17 PM »
For the granola, bring some milk powder and mix it in with the water. Tastes just like cereal milk! I'm serious, I thought it would be gross but it was totally good.

+1 on granola and powdered milk

windypig

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Re: Mustachian food for a week-long backpacking trip?
« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2014, 09:52:02 PM »
Appalachian trail thru hiker here.

Breakfast: oatmeal is a pain in the balls to clean your pot after, I stuck to clif bars / granola bars.

Lunch: Tortillas + peperoni + string cheese. Peanut butter + bagel

Dinner: Knorr sides + spam / tuna  / salmon , Instant mac and cheese + spam / tuna / salmon pouch. Instant lentils / other grains + spam / tuna / salmon pouch. Ramen + spam / tuna / salmon pouch.

Snacks: Trail mix duh, dried fruits, snickers bars, dried seaweed.

Other tips: bring small amt of hot sauce, olive oil, dry sucker candies, and powder drink mix.

Hot sauce because you crave it, olive oil everything to add calories, dry sucker candies at night really are amazing, and powder mix because you get really tired of only drinking stream / pond water.

   

« Last Edit: July 22, 2014, 10:02:07 PM by windypig »

bognish

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Re: Mustachian food for a week-long backpacking trip?
« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2014, 12:45:36 PM »
Dehydrated hummus on crackers. Mix in some spices and olive oil and it makes a great light lunch that doesn't need cooking.

Couscous is simple and easy and does not use much fuel. Presoak and add some dry mushrooms for extra flavor.

I never had a problem with oatmeal for breakfast. We would premix bags for daily ration size with brown sugar and dried fruit. Put the oatmeal in the bowl and pour in boiling water. We were boiling water for tea or coffee anyways. Strabucks Via is pretty good for coffee too.