Food ideas

[bartspedden]

Nice idea on the canned food!  If there's only a few hours until shut eye, why not grab some easy calories?  Yeah, the can is a little heavy on the way out, but not that big of a deal if a trashcan can be had early the next day.  I'll have to take a look at calorie count the next time I'm in market.  It's been a long time since I thought about bringing canned food on trail, I guess the last time I ate some Dinty More (sp?) I was a teenager in the Adirondacks.

[mmeiser]

I've had to change my plans away from doing a few weeks on the divide this month, I think I'll do the west coast of Michigan instead, returning south via the North Coast Inland Trail, doing some backroads and trails in the manistee river area. This will allow me to go really light, sub-10lbs of gear. A tarp, a sleeping bag, a couple auto-shades. I'll probably start with little to no food and just stock as I go.

It's a completely different proposition when you're on a bike as opposed to hiking because you're in and out of civilization multiple times in a day.

[chrisx]

Most cans have a coating sprayed on the inside.  heating the can on the fire = dislodging the coating from the can and putting the chemical coating in the food. 

I felt foolish lugging a couple of cans up to 2600m, until  I discovered the valve at the pumping station was guarded by a be hive.  Sometimes a heavy can is worth it weight in gold, if the nearest water is noon tomorrow.  The pears and peaches were good.

[Curtis C]

For breakfast and ride food I've switched exclusively to cookie dough. Most calories per dollar by far of anything else. After 3 weeks on the gulf coast we were still plowing down a pound a day and loving every bit of it really. soo good.

Cookie dough? are you using the premade dough in a tube from the refrigerated isle?

[bartspedden]

wow - I'm shocked I've never done cookie dough before! Sounds good to me! The toughest part for me about food and racing is getting food down. Too spicy and it's a no go. Not spicy enough and it's a no go. Too thick and mucous like (i.e. oatmeal) and it's a no go. But I'm fine with all sorts of sweets though. Especially baked goods. I just looked at the nutritional information for the Nestle cookie dough bar... There's plenty of carbs, a little bit of protein, and enough fat to make me want to eat it at night when my body has more time to process everything.

[mmeiser]

enjoying this thread.  I have not done cookie dough while touring, but it makes a lot of sense. Wouldn't keep long though.

Now then... who hear has slammed on multiple occasions a half gallong of chocolate milk in one sitting (while eating) and hopped right back on the bike and ridden their arse off like it was nothing??     

Funny that a gallon will make anyone puke without fail, scientifically proven, but I can slam a half gallon and get right back on the bike and go hard. No vomit belches or sluggishness at all.

In 90 degree heat as well.

[mmeiser]

You know... I've never done this, but I want to try bagels and honey/jam/nutella/peanut butter for breakfast on my next trip.   Or maybe not bagels, maybe just big flattened french loaves/bagettes. Those should flatten and pack well.

[mmeiser]

BTW, there is a theme here.... something without a lot of calories, but decent carbs + something with lots of calories per ounce

farina, creame of wheat, grits, oatmeall... all are about 100 calories an once

drown in 190 calorie an ounce butter, or 240 calorie an ounce olive oil... awesome.

Bagels, baguettes, tortillas... covered or wrapping chease, penut butter, nutella, honey.

ramen noodle, any noodle... smothered in mac'n'cheese chease... or pasta sauce with sausage.

a bag or two of low calorie density instant rice, onion soup, chicken noodle.... add high calorie peporoni, sausage, tuna + sauses in whatever mix you like.

It's a repeated motif again and again.

Basically just get yourself some stone soup going with some carbs and then add calories rich foods = deliciousness.

[bartspedden]

I've done bagels for years while hiking/climbing/mountaineering without any issues. I used to to toast them and add peanut butter or jam.  Loved it! So I tried bagels for the BV to Silverton section while on the CTR and hated it! I had cinnamon and raisin bagels which I typically like and just suffered trying to choke them down.  I had plenty of water and stayed well hydrated the whole race, but I just didn't have enough saliva to get these things down. Since it was my only food for breakfast, I suffered through it... usually taking about 30 minutes. I would start eating it as soon as I got up and would still be eating it when I started riding. As soon as I got to Silverton I got my trusty apple pie at Conoco for my last morning on trail.

I like your observation mmeiser about the general "theme" = "dense calories" kinda helps when walking the aisles of the market.

[Area54]

Yes for Nutella, peanut butter, honey shots, dates are dense little energy packets. Licorice. All good fast yield energy.

Then bars - powerbars etc

oatmeal with dried fruit - I prepack with milk powder, sugar then rehydrate cold or hot.

[cocokeelers]

You can't beat a hot meal when you've finished a long ride. I go for the usual stuff: rice, pasta, noodles.

If you smash up your noodles, they'll be the most economical of all, size-wise.

Don't worry about carrying a stove, as long as you're good at building a fire. Place a large, flat stone in the middle of your fire and leave it to heat up before popping your pot on top - hey presto... boiling rice!

For quick fixes of energy, I love a Mars Bar or bannana.

If you're staying at a hotel, make sure you take a few sachets of jam with you as you leave the breakfast room - they're ideal for storing in your back pocket and squeezing down your throat as you pelt down the freeway!

[Bedrock]

A convenient and tasty meal for the first or second night out is brats and mashed potatoes. I precook a couple of brats and then wrap them in foil. If you insulate them in your kit somewhere with clothes etc. they will be fine for a day or two in moderate temperatures. There are a fair amount of preservatives in those little suckers. I bring dehydrated mashed potatoes. They are cheap and good. (Idahoan) At camp, boil water, remove from heat add potatoes and chopped up brat, let sit for five minutes and you are done.

[Area54]

Hungarian salami, full flavour and can eat straight , cut into pieces and into rice/noodles/couscous/macaroni/ dehy mash spud.

Always buy the heat treated one though, this is the one that will remain fresh for a few days without refrigeration (in moderate ambient temps of course). Lots of fat, high protein, already oily so great for dishes that need a little oil like couscous.

[hikernks]

Here's a couple of great websites from friends of mine that can give you some really great and easy food ideas.

http://onepanwonders.com/

http://www.trailcooking.com

Enjoy!

[Dustin]

I haven't actually tried this yet, but for my next trip, I am going to place the following mixture into ziplocks for all my breakfasts:

--two parts oatmeal (carbs)
--one part powdered coconut milk (pure fat)
--one part grass-fed whey powder (mostly protein)
--hand full of nuts and dried fruit for texture

You could easily tweak the balance of carbs, protein, and fat depending on what you feel your body needs.

[JReeves]

I mixed up some similar baggies on my last trip and they worked great.  I did about a cup of granola, few table spoons of Bacpacker's Pantry Whole Milk powder, some dehydrated cranberries and blueberries, and some almonds and walnuts.  Then I just added about 4 ounces of water(hot or cold) and gave it a quick shake.  Cheap, easy, and quick. 

[gregclimbs]

For dessert, pudding with whole powdered milk.  More calories than I realized.  Premix the pudding powder and milk powder then just add water. 

brilliant!  I like dessert...

g

[Eastman]

One I like to do and I don't think I saw it mentioned here is zip-loc bags of crushed potato chips - a mix of fat and carbs.  For those worried about salt content buy low/no salt chips.

I also read here that some people like to use butter as a source of fat.  To increase the range in which you can use butter I would suggest clarifying your butter (in India this is called ghee).  To clarify butter simply melt it over a low heat.  Skim off the stuff that floats to the top.  Then pour off the fat being sure to leave the white solids that settle to the bottom of your pot behind.  These solids are the milk solids which cause butter to go rancid.  Clarified butter (or ghee) can keep at room temperature far longer than regular butter.  The other upside of clarified butter is that it has a higher smoking point than regular butter meaning you can use it to fry things with less likelihood of the oil burning.

[Yogi the Barry]

I second WHOLE powdered milk and cooked bacon [sorry to the vegans out there]. Cooked bacon is Heaven after a few days of biking.

How much food to carry? I can say with experience, because I made this mistake twice, that make sure you do the math when shopping for food. During the CTR, I made the mistake of going to the grocery store after having just eaten a huge meal. Instead of accurately adding up the food I was going to need for multiple days, I relied on guestimating how many calories by how full the shopping cart was. The big pile o' food looked like enough, but it wasn't. So, either go to the grocery store in a state of starvation or take along a list, paper and pencil/pen to do the math.

One more edit: Butter substitute >> Ghee or clarified butter, you can buy it, it's expensive, or just just make your own.
To make your own ghee [Wiki it]:
Simmer a few sticks of butter on the stove, skim-off the stuff that floats to the top until no more stuff surfaces and you are left with a clear-as-honey liquid. Pour into a tub, jar, or heavy duty bag to let cool and solidify. Best part about ghee, other than it tastes awesome and is probably the most calorie dense material [other than plutonium] in the universe, is you don't need to refrigerate it.

[Tommi]

This thread is making me hungry....
I always carry a stove of some kind, as one can never underestimate the power of a hot beverage from the brew kit: either a CampingGaz Bluet butane cartridge stove, a  Swiss Army Volcano stove [with twigs as fuel] or a hexy stove by Esbit; also as a morale factor, fire cannot be beat. It can be very chilly in the Canadian rockies, even on a mid-summer night. Also, a campfire is often times not practical, if the fire hazard is high. I do like craigs bean can idea, though....I have to try that.
Little packets of coffee, cream and sugar tend to be finicky, but worth it.
Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix, smuggled home from a holiday to the U.S. is the best hot drink ever. Add coffee in the morning.
I like Lipton Cup-a-Soups, or Ichi-ban noodles, so jammed with crackers that it has the consistency of oatmeal; very starchy and filling yet not bloaty;I call it Cracker Stew. Bit of a bugger to clean up, though...
Vector bars are also a tasty boost; even if the chocolate melts, they are good grub. My favourite trail mix combines the usual nuts and seeds with papaya, cranberries, raisins and banana chips in a Ziploc bag inside an old chalk bag on the handlebars. I try to stop at food and water breaks, though, or I tend to over exert and make it an unenjoyable personal toughness test. Gotta slow down and take in the scenery.
We fed our kids Ferber biscuits when they were babies; they can be gnawed on if toothless, eaten as a cookie, or crushed up with water added for gooey breakfast. I don't know if they make them anymore; we also used to get cake in a can to supplement our rations when we worked north of the 60th parallel.