UKC

Please give me some ideas to vary my diet out in the hills. The advice I am after is for trips where we are up in the mountains properly for 4 to 10 days.

Where I live there isn´t easy access to dehydrated stuff, outdoor shops or carbo type marathon or triathlon gells etc. However, we do have fairly normal supermarket stuff.

-Breakfast tends to be quaker-oats packets with cinamon apple bits in, sometimes livened up with granola mix and dried fruit. Tea and/or chocolate drink.

-Lunch tends to be muesli bars, pepperoni-style meat-sticks, tinned fish and sweeties plus chocolate bars. Water or c-lite powdered squash to drink.

-Dinner tends to be either couscous, noodles or smash style potato, carrot, raddish or other hardy veg, tin fish or yet more pepperoni-style meat-sticks, spices to create taste. Powdered soup. Tea to drink.

Every. Day.

On these trips we are climbing and cooking as a pair. We are unsupported and have to carry everything in and out ourselves. Generally we tend to cook using a jetboil which we don't want to get greasy as we use it for tea also. (Basically melting snow and boiling water, then pouring it into lidded bowls where the "cooking" takes place.)

Obviously we want to try to stay as light as possible.

Any ideas or secret recipies very gratefully received.

Thanks,

Kamon


-Alex, if you spot this thread, your famous "power-flapjacks" are bang-on but how many consecutive days can you do?!!

In reply to kamon:

although not for the taste but for the nutrition something which i have started doing is adding TVP mince to couscous (high protein, very low weight, very cheap and no real cooking time)

In reply to lost1977:

I've eventually moved back to my outdoor food being more like my home food. If one or two days out I take some veg and cook a proper evening meal (stew or stir fry only takes one pot). Sandwiches for the first day lunch and then a tin of mackerel or some meat with extra bits like nuts, fruit, bars. For breakfast I always do porridge or muesli.

In reply to JayPee630: I tend to cook proper breakfasts and occasionally proper dinners, but more often than not, dinners are MREs bought from amazon. I actualy like them (for a couple of days anyway)

In reply to lost1977:

That I had to google to find out what TVP mince is means it is quite unlikely that I can get it in the supermarket here in Lima unfortunately. Sounds good otherwise. Short cooking time, light to carry, some texture and high in protein MMmm

In reply to kamon:

you may not be able to find it as TVP mince it's also known as soya mince

In reply to kamon: leaving oven on at really low heat and door open very slightly for about 10 hours has the same effect as a dehydrator.

In reply to Lorraine McCall:

have considered doing that before as someone else suggested it, any idea what thats like for energy consumption ?

In reply to kamon: ive found expedition foods freeze dried stuff to be pretty good, 800 calories per meal and it tastes pretty spot on. easy to make and no washing up either. i think they do normal calorie stuff as well in case 800 is too much. ranulph fiennes uses them apparently.

In reply to kamon:

Get yourself one of these

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Backpackers-Cookbook-David-Coustick/dp/1897784384

In reply to colinkeb:

I think I've seen US style MRE rations with a built-in heating element here once (in a shop on the far side of the city...) They weren't very lightweight and were pricy to boot.

The freeze dried meals aren't sold at the supermarket unfortunately. I've had them years back and they are not all bad - just not really an available option here.

In reply to kamon:

cous cous is good and easy to cook.

pasta is ok if you have the space and take some bits to add to it - sauce of some sort (packet soups are ok for a source provided you don't make them to thin), mushrooms, onions etc

porridge with a mars bar melted in is pretty good as a desert, just make sure the mars bar is melted and stirred in - although you'll probably want something to wash it down with!

the vesta meals are ok if you can get them.

stir fry if you can carry in the fresh stuff without it going off.

In reply to kamon: I always throw a fruit malt loaf or banana loaf in my bag when camping and on hill days/crag days/ and outdoor day. You can get those in the supermarkets and they are great for carbs and low in fat.

In reply to kamon: brioche is great to stuff in yer gob on the move, good dipped in tea and will scoop up the last bit of sauce from yer dinner plate.

it got more cals than plain old bread and i find it stays edible a bit longer.

if we are camping we go for porridge (quackers oats so simple in weee individual packets) boil in water add dehdrated milk, banana, brioche and tea. snack all day and the fish supper for dinner or dehydrated camping meal.

In reply to kamon:

You missed out the 'stuff in a tube' food group.

You might be able to find tomato or roast veg paste to give your dinners more taste. Ditto cheese in a tube. And for the dessert of champions, condensed milk in a tube. (Maybe dulche de leche or something like that bit also be available in tubes, now what would be amazing.)

In reply to kamon:
Hard boil some eggs before leaving home? Great protien source and keep for ages.
Banana loaf - and if you want it as dessert after dinner, take custard sachets to have with it
I make honey and banana flapjacks.
If you want something bready - bagels survive better than real bread

In reply to kamon:

id add a little bottle of olive oil to increase your fat intake (unless at very high altitude), and a soup option per day thats good for increasing your fluid consumption, getting calories into you you as soon as you hit the tent, and is good for siting out shit weather or long nights when you cant sleep.

id also add a bag of peanut butter or cream cheese - a great calorie hit, and can take heavy quality bread too as cracker bread soon becomes smashed up.

in general i dont do 'lunch'. rather a bag with a few thousand calories of minimal sugar/high fat/moderate carbs that i just pick at all day.

if its cold enough to carry butter, a little chunk in the morning oats is good.

In reply to Helen R: Ditto re: Tubed Food. Squeezy Cheese on crackers is my favourite outdoor lunch food - good mix of carbs, protein and fats. Condensed milk in a tube is also spot on. Last time in Morocco was dying for milk (I know, very sad!) and was able to quickly make a few cups of, albeit sweetened, cool milk just by adding water. Also useful for a quick energy boost when flagging on a route.

In reply to ice.solo:

Could you expand on the fat/high altitude thing please?

In reply to Helen R:

The OP certainly won't have any problems getting dulche de leche in Lima.

In reply to JayPee630:

fat metabolizes less efficiently as altitude increases (its an oxygen /heart rate thing). above 5500m many people start finding fat unappealing and crave carbohydrates.

if your ascending and descending to a bc often, loading on fat when lower down can work.

a mix of saturated fats and omega-rich fats are good.

In reply to ice.solo:

Thanks.

In reply to kamon:
If you are in Peru, then you should have easy access to dried potato. This makes an excellent base for all sorts of meals, and is very quick to cook, as is cous cous. If you practice, you can make polenta for variety, and if you get really good use it like fresh bread. Or you can take flour and make chapatti or some other flat bread.
Pasta takes longer than dried potato or cous cous, and you have the hassle of draining it. On the other hand, super noodles are really quick. Any pasta will add substance to a soup.

Rice is tricky at altitude without a pressure cooker (lots of rice cooked on expedition with portable pressure cookers at altitude in India).

As has been said above, there's lots of stuff you can buy in tubes, like tomato puree. Some places sell tomato puree with olives, or basil, or garlic, for some different flavours. Small amounts of spices or other flavoursome sauces can add to you enjoyment of meals. Another favourite is some sundried tomatoes - you can get some that are ready to eat, and they make a great snack, or add flavour to tonight's stew.

Tins of tuna or other fish. Chorizzo or other dried sausage. Some cheese. All of these can add protein, fat, energy, vitamins, and taste to your cooking. And all can be eaten cold, so there is no health risk from not cooking them enough, and you can eat them cold if you lose or break your stove.

A small number of fresh veg will greatly add to the taste (and health) of your diet.

Take all of these, and mix and match throughout your expedition!
Experiment at home if you like.

Finally, in the UK we can now buy small cartons of wine, and we can buy olives in vacuum packaging. So there is no weight penalty from the packaging.
It is nice of an evening to sip some red wine and nibble olives and cheese as you wait for your meal to cook.
And in my homeland we have something called a "dram." My current preference is Laphroaig quarter cask, but I am very open to change (based on direct evidence, of course).

> You missed out the 'stuff in a tube' food group.


Ah yes, the "stuff in a tube" food group! I had missed that one. There are some good things in tubes with screw caps. Tomato and spice style sauces to add to couscous. Lighter packaging than tins too.

We do have dulce de leche in a tube (with a mini screw cap). I've used it before as "emergency food" to keep going on descents. Will think about a dessert option now but often feel like avoiding sweet stuff at the end of the day.

In reply to ice.solo:

Tortilla bread, philadelphia creamcheese and jam sachets or dulce de leche. It is all coming back to me!

We already do quite a bit of soup on a trip - often crumble a stockcube in so we can double the liquid intake without it becoming really thin flavourless warm dishwater.

We are at 4700m or above the majority of the time. I know what you mean about fats though we sometimes do bring a mini-bottle of spicy olive oil. Weirdly my partner can't face pasta at altitude but likes it normally.

In reply to almost sane:

Thanks for the reply. Sundried tomatos are available here. Never thought to take them up although we do take dried fruit sometimes. Nice one.

Wine and olives??!! Next I'll be taking my slippers!

Some locals take the local firewater to drink at basecamp - Pisco. We save the drinking till we are back in town!

In reply to kamon:

I'm serious about the olives!

Lots of gourmet food now comes in low-weight packaging. And much of it is full of stuff that is good for you. And when the appetite fades, its nice to have something tasty and that feels a bit "special" to keep you eating.

Besides, why not enjoy tasty food on expedition!

In reply to kamon:

Tablet. Salame. Fruitcake.

In reply to lost1977:

wot, no TVP in Peru?
half the world's soybeans come from brazil and argentina alone..

In reply to kamon: do you have any chinese supermarkets near you?
i've just discovered crisp cowpeas in chilli sauce- 59p for 150g