food without a cooker

[jonesy792]

I think I may have stumbled upon the best bikepacking food ever.  Peanut butter, dried cranberries, and a couple strips of precooked bacon all on a little tortilla. mmmmmmmmm.  Can't wait to try it out on the AZT this weekend!

[FeloniousDunk]

Here's my variation on something like a cookie dough, more like oatmeal cookie dough.  It's awesome! 

You can put in a lot of things, but I mix together:
Primarily instant rolled oats, peanut butter, honey, and a little bit of each of these or something similiar.  Molassas, sunflower seeds, coconut flakes, slivered almonds, M&M's, dried fruit bits, salt.  I mix it together into a big lump about the consistancy of stiff cookie dough.  Stuff a ziplock full of it and naugh on it all the time.  I'm leaning toward something like this replacing breakfast, lunch, and snacks.  It's best to make it a day or more in advance of a trip and let it sit so the oats get a bit softer, but not neccesary.   

I was eating alot of salami and cheese on crackers or tortillas for lunches but after my last trip I think I need something higher in the carbs and lower in the fat for lunch.  I'll save the fat for dinner. 

[ScottyJ]

There is a lot of more advanced foodstuff available from your local outdoor shop but for long lasting calories in small light packages go old school, make your own pemmican!

Cook and then thoroughly dry some meat, I use grilled tri-tip and pork chops (very well done) be sure to cut all the fat off first.
Shred the meat really fine.
Render the fat and as it starts to cool only save the clearest part.
Mix up the meat and the fat in a 2:1 ratio by weight, this is the time to add any herbs (rosemary and dill are good).

Press it into bars and you've got meat cookies. Be sure to wrap them tightly in something sterile.

This stuff lasts a few weeks and can be eaten cold, fried or boil it to make a soup.

Oh, and it's really cheap.

[jhl99]

I've never done a backcountry backpacking trip longer than five days, but I just don't understand the point of camp stove cooking...

Everyone has there own theresold of discomfort.  A stove or means to heat liquids adds some redundancies:

1.  Sometimes I screwup, or the temp drops lower than expected at night and waterbottles partially freeze.  In this scenario, it nice to be able to warm a pot of water to dump in the waterbottles and convert the ice back to liquid. 

2. If your have a marginal sleeping bag for the low temps, a bottle of hot water in the sleeping bag is kind of nice to help keep the feet warm.

3.  Boiling is a backup method to treat water

[Jilleo]

Stoves also are the only method of generating water in winter conditions. I defintely understand their use as a survival mechanism. I'm just not the type of person who carries one for pleasure. $5.99 packets of freeze-dried dinners just don't do it for me, especially when you can achieve the same number of calories in a $0.89 king-sized Snickers Bar, deliciously, in seconds! Mmmmm ... chocolate.

That said, I'm certainly not a candy bar purist. If one of my traveling companions insists on cooking up a box of Annie's pasta, I'm definitely not going to turn it down. But as far as I'm concerned, my Whisperlite has one and only one purpose ... melting snow.

[Chad B]

+1 on using freeze dried food with lukewarm water. It packs a huge amount of carbs, up to 600 per a dinner at times.

[dave54]

I've never done a backcountry backpacking trip longer than five days, but I just don't understand the point of camp stove cooking, other than as a feel-good activity or a way to kill some time. The same lightweight nutrition can be found in sandwiches, energy bars, smoked salmon, lots of things. Maybe that's just me, though. I don't cook at home, either. ...

You can get the same nutrition in uncooked foods, but after a few days cold food just loses some of its appeal.  I end up craving a hot meal.  Some things just taste better hot.

[Blackhound]

Cous Cous.  Needs very little hot water you can probably blag when in town and can be eaten cold.  High in carbs, low in fat.

[stevage]

>but I just don't understand the point of camp stove cooking, other than as a feel-good activity or a way to kill some time

Nice to hear the other replies (defrosting ice etc). I always considered the main advantage to be that you can carry totally dehydrated foods, like noodles, rice etc, saving weight. Then again, that's usually in the context of a week long hiking trip with zero chance of restocking, rather than a couple of days of biking within range of towns. In Australia it doesn't always work out that way since water can be so hard to find... So for bike trips, I never bother with a stove.

To answer the OP, Snickers, lots of museli bars, jerky for snacks, then bread, cheese, tomatoes (within reason), prosciutto or ham for meals. I like dried cereal for breakfast (miniwheats or those little chocolate balls are good) - can't really be bothered with powdered milk and a bowl.

I find it quite  interesting that I can easily demolish 4+ snickers bars per day when exercising hard, but find them very unappealing otherwise. I guess your body knows how much energy it needs.