One Pan Wonders

I got an email a couple of days ago from Piper. She has completed her two season journey on the PCT. Piper, you rock!

I had met her on the trail earlier this year (when doing my own little section hike) and she not only knew who I was, but she had been getting some ideas from the website. Awesome!

Her email to me was a couple of ideas of what she actually eats while on the trail. I promised her I'd share them with the hiking community, so here they are! These are great because they not only utilize ingredients you can find in small stores along the trail, they are easily switched around for variety. Thanks Piper!

Homemade mac and cheese

-Some kind of bulk noodles, either Orzo which is great because it lacks air space so packs small or small elbows or whatever

-One packet of alfredo cheese sauce which is in the aisle where the taco and brown gravy and other seasonings are

-Two cheddar cheese sticks

-Optional: A pinch of garlic powder, a pinch of sun dried tomato flakes, a pinch of basil or some other seasoning

Boil about 2 cups or a little less of water

Dump in the noodles and cheese powder and optional spices

Cut up the cheese into chunks and dump them in

Stir and then wrap pot in a cozy of some sort and wait until the water has soaked into the noodles

Much better than ordinary mac and cheese

Curried cous-cous and tuna

-1 packet of tuna

-2-4 packets of mayo

-To cous-cous add a generous spoonful of curry powder

-Add a small handful of raisins and chopped pecans

-Add a pinch of garlic powder

You can use hot or air-temperature water. If you use air-temperature water it takes longer. Heat the water, dump in the cous-cous and spices. There amount of water should be just a little more than the cous-cous so that there's about 1/4 inch of water above the cous-cous in the pot. Wait 5 minutes if the water was hot. Wait longer if the water was not hot. Once the cous-cous has soaked up all the water, add tuna and mayo. A bonus is to add fresh broccoli to the water before you boil it. If you added too much water, it's good to dump in a spoonful of dried hummus to soak it up.