One Pan Wonders

Ignore the best by date... I ate this before that date. This is just an old review I hadn't posted yet.



This is pretty yummy! And at 3 ounces it is just the right size for lunch. No need to repackage anything.

I found this tiny little salami at World Market. If I remember right it was less than $2.

It is very pink and fatty looking in the package, but the salami itself is nice and moist. That's right I said it. Moist (those who know me know how much I hate that word...)  The taste is more  sweet than salty and goes nicely with some cheese and crackers or tortilla.

Ingredients: pork, salt, corn syrup solids, wine, sugar, dextrose, natural flavorings, sodium ascorbate, lactic acid starter culture, sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite.

No, I don't mean Andrew Skurka. That was yesterday.

Hero Apricot Preserves



At home, we don't buy jam. Ever.  I make my own.  That doesn't work very well for the trail. Enter mini packets. And minimus. Again.

These contain all good ingredients: sugar, apricots, citric acid and fruit pectin.  The same stuff I put in my own jams.

They are a product of Switzerland and come in little 1/2 ounce tubs.  That is just the right amount to spread on a mini bagel or tortilla.  Or one piece of toast. The photo below used two tubs.



The jam is thick, but spreadable, with obvious bits of fruit sprinked throughout. The fruit taste is obvious. Nice and apricotty. The jam isn't overly sweet either. I hate that.

You don't have to use jam just for sandwiches and toast either. Try mixing apricot jam with some barbecue sauce. Then use that on rice and chicken.

Be warned, however, that the tubs may be a bit difficult to open with cold fingers.

My guest this week is an adventurer, author, public speaker, and all around good guy.   He has logged 10's of thousands of miles both on and off trail.  In 2007, he was named National Geographic's Adventurer of the Year, and was featured again National Geographic last year for his Yukon Alaska trip. 

He even has his own bobblehead doll.

I don't have time or room here to discuss everything he has accomplished, so please visit his website to see more.

I met Andrew at the ALDHA-West Gathering in 2009, where he was the key note speaker for the weekend. Our conversation quickly turned to food and trip planning.  Despite having done food for several thru hikers in the past, my mind can't quite wrap around the idea of planning for multi-month trips. The organization that has to go into that just blows me away.

Knowing how well thought out Andrew's trip planning is, (he is the king of excel spreadsheets!)  I invited him to write a piece for One Pan Wonders on how one tackles planning food for epic adventures such as his. Andrew posted this on his own blog as well.



Please welcome... Andrew Skurka!!!









Food planning for multi-day hikes and thru-hikes

I plan for a trip in two stages:

1. The theory. On my computer, I develop, refine, and perfect every aspect of the trip, notably my gear, supplies, route, and logistics. To do so, I rely heavily on applications like Excel, Word, National Geographic TOPO!, and Google Maps.

2. The tangible. I obtain everything that is a prerequisite to start. For example, I order my gear, bottle my stove fuel, print my maps, and reserve my air flights. This stage can be intimidating because I am now committing my financial resources, not just my time.

In the remainder of this post, I want to explain how I theoretically plan my food for multi-day hikes and thru-hikes.

The tangible planning stage is less interesting so I will not discuss it here. I simply need to go shopping (using the shopping list I developed in Excel), package the food (hopefully with the help of family and friends), box it up, and ship it to my planned resupply points.

Multi-day hikes versus thru-hikes

For a multi-day hike, there are three steps in determining how much food I need:

1. Specify the composition of my daily rations;

2. Determine the duration (in days) between the start and finish; and,

3. Multiply (1) x (2).

For example, if my daily rations consisted of just five Snickers, and my trip was 4 days long, then I would bring 20 Snickers. This is a very simple example, but it makes the point.

A thru-hike is really just a series of consecutive multi-day trips. On my 208-day Great Western Loop, for example, I resupplied about 50 times, or on average about every 140 miles, or 4 days. To determine how much food I need for an entire thru-hike, then, I modify the steps just slightly:

1. Specify the composition of my daily rations;

2. Determine the duration (in days) between each resupply point;

3. Sum the days between resupplies;

4. Multiply (1) x (3).

For example, if my daily rations consisted again of just five Snickers, and if my thru-hike had four resupply points that were 4, 6, 7, and 10 days apart (27 days total), then I would need 135 Snickers.

Daily Rations

Of course, my daily rations are not as simple as just five Snickers. Rather, they consist of a breakfast, four to six mid-day snacks, desert and dinner. I prefer these small, distinct meals because they keep my energy level sustained. But they also make planning easier because they can be broken apart in orderly rows.

Below is an example of what my typical rations looks like:

My experience is that most backpackers only need about 3,000 calories per day, so in most cases I do not recommend that you replicate exactly the food plan above. Instead, use 3,000 calories/day as a starting point and adjust up or down as you see fit.

If a pile of food worth 3,000 calories seems like it's way too much or way too little, adjust the amount before you even start your trip. If the 3,000-calorie pile looks reasonable, then make adjustments before your next trip based on the results from your first.

Predicting duration

Even if I determine correctly the amount of calories I need per day, I may not necessarily leave the trailhead with the correct amount of food for the entire trip because this calculation depends on whether I determined correctly how many days it would take to reach the next resupply point, which itself is a function of the distance I cover each day, i.e. my pace, noted as MPD, or miles per day.

If I underestimate how much time it will take by overestimating my MPD, I will have to ration my food so I do not run out, as happens in the example below. If I overestimate how much time it will take by underestimating my MPD, I will be free to eat more each day than I originally planned. During a thru-hike, I never arrive in town with food leftover.

My ability to accurately predict MPD has improved with experience. I've learned how my pace is affected by:

• Travel mode, e.g. hiking, skiing

• Daylight, e.g. long summer days, long winter nights

• Terrain, e.g. flat, mountainous

• Elevation, e.g. oxygen-deprived Colorado, oxygen-rich Appalachians

• Ground cover, e.g. good trail, game trails, tussocks, deep powder, Spring corn

• Pack weight, e.g. heavy, light

• Physical fitness of myself and others in my group, e.g. peak form, off-the-couch

• Group size, which affects group efficiency

• Trip objective, e.g. speed record, casual

If you are new to backpacking, you need data points before you can start predicting your pace on a multi-day hike or a thru-hike. The best thing to do is go on "practice hikes" to better understand your abilities and comfort level. Also, if you have a friend who is an experienced backpacker and who understands your capabilities and comfort level from other athletic pursuits, then consult them.

Complexities

So far, I've stuck to simple examples: one person, one meal, one ingredient. But, more realistically, the situation is more complicated:

• 2+ people

• 2+ meals

• Intentional duplication of a single meal, e.g. two "chocolate" snacks per day

• Meals with multiple ingredients

• Meals with multiple ingredients, some of which are also used in other meals (e.g. butter)

These complexities can be easily accounted for in Excel, as I've had to do. I'd like to share my solutions but I do not have a planning file that is currently ready to be made publicly available. I hope to offer one eventually.

Some of these complexities can be addressed by using "COUNTIF" or "SUMIF" formulas or by adding a "group size" variable into the formulas. In the case of meals with multiple ingredients, I break down the meal by ingredient and determine the weight of each ingredient per meal, similar to how I break down my daily rations into individual meals. These three tactics are all used in the tables below.

I'm so happy Tater Tuesday has returned, aren't you?

Legend has it that John Dillanger once stole a raw potato, carved it to look like a gun, then dyed it black with iodine (remember that from high school science class?). He used the fake gun to escape from prison.

I don't know if that is true or not, but the idea amuses me.

Anyway... onto today's recipe. It is a new one.  It uses grocery store items as well as some roast beef dices from Packit Gourmet. I have it linked below.  Yes, those dices seem a bit spendy, but a little bit goes a long way.  And they are good.


Beefy Taters

Serves 1

1/2 cup Idahoan brand mashed potatoes - the Loaded flavor
2 T mushroom or brown gravy mix
1/4 cup freeze dried roast beef dices

At home: put the potatoes in a small tupperware. You can also use a ziplocking freezer bag, but I find it difficult to eat taters out of a bag.  Combine the grazy mix and beef dices in a ziplocking freezer bag.

In camp: add 1/4 to 1/3 cup hot water to the gravy bag and let stand. Squish the bag a little to make sure all of the gravy has been incorporated.  Add 1 cup hot water to the mashed potatoes and mix well. You don't want any dry spots.  When the potatoes are ready, top with the gravy and enjoy.

Dave's Gourmet Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce



I found this at World Market. It is a little on the spendy side for a pasta sauce $4ish but it is soooooo good!

No, you wouldn't lug the big heavy jar into the backcountry. This one headed straight to the dehydrator.



There are 6 1/2 cup servings per jar. 100 calories per serving.  I would serve this on cheese ravioli.

The sauce is both vegetarian and gluten free.  It is a lovely orange color too. You can see the veggies and spices in the sauce.

Ingredients: butternut squash, water, tomato paste, red bell pepper, evaporated cane juice, butter, celery, onion, garlic, sea salt, citric acid and black pepper.

Now I need to figure out how I can make this myself... Squash is pretty cheap.

Nong Shim Neoguri – Udon Type Noodles

Remember the Ramen Box? This is one of the yummy noodle packages that came with that order. Spicy Seafood flavor.

Looking at the package, I was sure this was a Korean product, but it isn’t. It is made in the USA. Yes, this one does contain MSG.

Each 4.2 ounce package makes two servings, or one humongous serving. 240 calories per serving, 7 grams fat, 1040 whopping mg sodium (whoa! Remember to double that if you eat the whole package) 38 grams carbs and 2 grams fiber.

Like a lot of Korean type noodles, the disk of dried noodles is in a large circle. There are two seasoning packets included, one with a bouillon type powder and the other containing dried vegetables and seaweed.

You cook the noodles in about 18 ounces of hot water. The noodles are nice and fat with a great chewy texture. They are thick and firm and not at all sticky. The noodles are really good for soaking up the salty broth.

I can never leave well enough alone, so I added a boiled egg and some broccoli. The noodles would be a bit plain on their own. This would also be good with a tin of clams or mussels added. Or some dried shrimp. They are not, however, lacking in flavor. When they say “spicy” they are not kidding! This went very well with the thick chewy noodles.

The noodle bowl had a nice spicy seafood-y scented broth (think Korean/Asian). This would be a great “I feel like I’m getting sick” food. The spicy sinus clearing broth will knock out whatever is ailing you.

I loved the bits of seaweed that came in the packet of dried vegetables. I don’t know what kind it was, but it was green and chewy.

The only sort of “bad” thing about this is the serving size. You pretty much have to make the two full servings. There was no way I could have finished an entire package. I highly doubt I could eat the whole thing even in the backcountry. So be prepared to share with a friend.

Annie Chun's Ramen House.

I saw this at the supermarket the other day and knew I had to try it. I found it in the ethnic foods aisle (not refrigerated).  $2 per package.



I had high hopes for this. I usually like Annie Chun products. I was disappointed.

The noodles fell apart, there were no veggies and the sauce was very salty.  Even the kidling did not like this one and she LOVES all noodles.



There is a long list of ingredients, but nothing in there too bad in there except the amount of sodium. There are 230 calorie per 4.9 ounce package.

This needs some veggies. The broth was very gingery. VERY gingery. Too much.  The noodles were chewy, but I don't like eating broken up noodles.

I won't buy this one again... I have another flavor to try too. Meh.

Sanukiya Udon Oriental Flavor - Shirakiku Brand



I found these at Uwajimaya for less than $2 per package.

They contain no msg and no cholesterol. They are a product of USA.  Each serving is 250 calories and 53 grams of carbs.

The noodles are nice and fat. Firm and chewy.  They soak up the broth very nicely.  There is nothing bad in the ingredients, bu they are (predictably) high in sodium. 1550mg, which mostly comes from the seasoning packet.

I added fresh broccoli, boiled quails egg and octopus. Okay, so maybe you wouldn't bring the octopus backpacking, but the other ingredients work. Any dried veggie would be good with this.  Hmmm... One of the bento bloggers I follow makes SMOKED octopus. I wonder how well that would pack for backpacking...




The broth is nice and salty with a slight fish/seaweed flavor. I mean that in a good way.

Because this is a fresh product, it may not be the best choice for ultra long hikes, but it is perfectly fine for shorter trips. It's nice to have fresh noodles for a hot lunch or dinner.

This takes as long as it takes water to boil to make this. Easy peasy. And Delicious! I will definitely buy this one again.

Mama Brand Oriental Style Instant Noodles

You may remember awhile back, my order from Ramen Box. This was one of my selections. I have seen this brand of ramen elsewhere.

I tried the pork flavor. Reading the ingredients, the flavor is listed as “artificial pork flavor.” Could this be vegetarian?

Each 2.12 ounce package serves one. It has 280 calories, 13 grams of fat, 7 grams protein, 35 grams of carbs and a whopping 1000 mg of sodium*. No, that isn’t a typo. There are three zeros in that number. On the other hand, this ramen contains no cholesterol.

*disclaimer: most of the sodium in instant ramen comes from the seasoning packets.

This looks a lot like the ramen I am used to, but the seasoning packets are a bit different. First of all, there are three of them; a broth powder, chili powder and a squishy packet of garlicky paste.

To the noodles, you add 1 ½ cups of boiling water. And let the noodles stand for a bit before adding the seasonings.

The ramen has a nice fiery spice if you add all of the chili powder, which I did. The noodles had a nice texture to them, not at all mushy, and they rehydrated very well.

This was good, but I think it would be even better with a sliced boiled egg and some veggies added in. There were not a lot of visible vegetables in the seasoning packet.

I am often asked, "I am on a gluten free diet, what can I eat on the trail?"

Well did you know that taters are gluten free? Mashed potatoes are a fantastic choice for trail food.

But...

This is noodle week. I can't post about mashed potatoes!  How about potato noodles instead?  You read that right. Noodles made out of potatoes!  Well.. sort of.  They are mostly made out of mung beans with some potato starch in there too.

Here are a couple of examples that I found at 99 Ranch (Asian market) recently.   They are very similar to rice stick noodles (also gluten free) and can be used in the same manner.

And not only is today Tater Tuesday, and this week Noodle Week... Today is also National Peanut Butter day!  So in honor of that, I give you a very dorky video of me making some peanuty noodles.  I'm using rice noodles in the video, but the potato/bean noodles would work just as well.

Arg... I can't get the stupid thing to post (it shows in my blog preview! WTF?)    Here's the link to the video.