One Pan Wonders

When in doubt, throw it out!

I’ve been in my backpacking food bins a lot lately, prepping food for the thru hikers, but I hadn’t taken the time to dig deep and really clean out the old stuff.

I started pulling old ingredients out. There was some scary stuff in there. Anything that smelled funny or powders that had gone clumpy got thrown out.

Things like nuts and coconut flakes that contain a high amount of oil, don’t usually last from one season to the next. I had to toss a little of both.

I found an opened (but in a zip lock bag) pouch of Milk Man. Yikes. That was discontinued awhile ago. There was also a zip lock of marinara leather that looked okay, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember drying it. Out it went!

I found a bag of dried peach slices that I remember drying last summer, but they had developed a funky smell. Ick! Bye bye!

It is more important to eat food that hasn’t gone “off” than it is to save a buck or two and keep the ingredients around. Check your pantry!

Doing this helps me take inventory of my stocks too. I have an over abundance of brown gravy mix, but only a little bit of pesto and Alfredo sauce mixes. And I’m completely out of pre-cooked and dried quinoa and True Orange packets.

 

As I put everything back into the bins, I organized them by food type; pasta, beans, veggies, fruit, soups, sauces etc.

I have a total of three containers. The largest contains all of the basic backpacking food ingredients and a few soup mixes; another contains all the dried sauce mixes and coconut crème powder, and the third stores all my bars and other small ready-to-eat snack foods.

In my main kitchen pantry, I have things like tomato powder, cheese powder, bouillon powder (several kinds) and various flours and powdered milk. Nuts and dried fruit can be found in my regular pantry too. The kidling and I like snacking on them. I have to hide any candied nuts from hubby, though, if I want any for the trail.

Grocery store shopping has been very rewarding lately. I have been finding all kinds of neat hiker friendly foods. Now I have room for them!