Favourite lightweight walking food

Quoted message said:

You must all have a favourite food that you take on walks. Something
tasty, filling and nutritious that cooks quickly, but doesn't weigh too
much or take up too much space.

Credit card and pub.

I'll get my coat.

Jell said:

You must all have a favourite food that you take on walks. Something
tasty, filling and nutritious that cooks quickly, but doesn't weigh too
much or take up too much space.

Quoted message said:

Do you use the packet stuff? Or have your own rice/pasta mix?

Assuming you mean main meals where a local foodery is not available...
We used the dehydrated packet stuff on a Mountain Marathon last year,
where minimising weight of both the food and the cooking gear is really
important, but MMs aren't "fun" in the conventional senne and we'd
generally take something else.

Cheese fondue is a staple, though it's not especially minimalistic
either in weight or prep time, but it's very nice, filling and easy.
Add dips according to taste (we usually use bread and veg).

Lighter weight, it would generally be pasta and /stuff/. The /stuff/ is
much easier to augment if dehydrated ingredients are available, either
bought from health food shops or done yourself. Strategic herbs and
spices make it much more interesting.

But if you're camping near a pub then the pub is a good call unless
you're on a very tight budget. Generally nicer, you don't have to clean
up and you don't have to carry the stuff.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Pete posted..

"Assuming you mean main meals where a local foodery is not available...

We used the dehydrated packet stuff on a Mountain Marathon last year,
where minimising weight of both the food and the cooking gear is really

important, but MMs aren't "fun" in the conventional senne and we'd
generally take something else."

As an alternate why not forget anything you have to heat and take a
combination of food like banana's, peperami's and cereal bars.

David.

Jell said:

You must all have a favourite food that you take on walks. Something
tasty, filling and nutritious that cooks quickly, but doesn't weigh too
much or take up too much space.

Do you use the packet stuff? Or have your own rice/pasta mix?

My favourite stuff is cous cous. I make up a mix of it with a crumbled
stock cube and dried herbs and porcini mushrooms. On the hike I also
take a small onion and a little olive oil. Fry off the onion in a bit
of oil add water bring to the boil and then chuck in the cous cous.
Put the lid on and wait five minutes, drizzle on more oil and a good
pinch of ground black pepper[1] and give it a good stir. Yummmmm.

It's easy to do variations on this by adding a few items of real food
(TM) bacon, chicken, fish, spring onions, chilies, whatever.

[1] I have a "cooking kit" with small PET bottles from Muji with salt
ground black pepper and curry powder in. The oil is carried in a
larger ( 150ml) Nalgene bottle
http://www.mujionline.co.uk/online/online.asp?V=1&Sec=5&Sub=27&PID=296
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

Jell said:

You must all have a favourite food that you take on walks. Something
tasty, filling and nutritious that cooks quickly, but doesn't weigh too
much or take up too much space.

As a vegetarian that doesn't want to carry air or water in my food - it
needs to be dense and dry, I find I don't have many options. I've tried
various supermarket packet foods, but recently have favoured cous-cous
and also instant custard. I've just been trying at home cooking lentils
and intend taking them on my next trip. What I did is to bring red
lentils to the boil with 1/4 of a vegie stock cube. When it boiled I
took it off the stove and put the container (MSR Titanium Kettle) into a
cosy made from radiator insulation. They're done after about 20 mins,
but can be left in the cosy for at least 1/2 hr and still be piping hot.

Jim Ford

"Jell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

You must all have a favourite food that you take on walks. Something
tasty, filling and nutritious that cooks quickly, but doesn't weigh too
much or take up too much space.

Do you use the packet stuff? Or have your own rice/pasta mix?

I'd love to hear your ideas.

Jell

I like a dessert in the hills so I take Satsuma's and instant custard
powder. Boil the required amount of water and chuck in the peeled fruit
segments for 30s or so then add custard powder. When you bite into a segment
warm juice explodes in your mouth. Gorgeous.

Dave

Jell said:

You must all have a favourite food that you take on walks.

In "normal" life, I enjoy good food and spending time cooking. But
I seem to be able to survive quite well on the hills (even for several days)
on the following. It's not very good food, but takes very little time
to prepare, and doesn't make any serious demands on the washing-up. I'm
a veggie, by the way:

breakfast:
ready-brek with dried milk, butter, maple syrup
mug of Horlicks light (just make with water)
mug of Lyon's coffee-bag coffee
make a flask of herb tea for the day

snacks (twice a day):
dried fruit bar
breakfast bar (Jordans make a good range)

lunch:
oatcakes and Primula
large piece of home-made [fruit] cake

supper:
cup-a-soup
dehydrated main meal
instant custard and dried fruit

For the supper main meal, I normally use one of Tesco's quick-cook pasta
or rice dishes, sometimes adding nuts or sun-dried tomatoes. I quite like
the Tesco penne in creamy mushroom sauce, or their biryani rice or wild
mushroom risotto. Easy, cheap (about 60p a packet) and surprisingly tasty.

Hope this is useful!
Mark
--
Mark Manning [email hidden]

Pub and a walking companion with plenty of cash!

Mark Thompson said:

Quoted message said:

You must all have a favourite food that you take on walks. Something
tasty, filling and nutritious that cooks quickly, but doesn't weigh too
much or take up too much space.

Credit card and pub.

I'll get my coat.

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

You must all have a favourite food that you take on walks. Something
tasty, filling and nutritious that cooks quickly, but doesn't weigh too
much or take up too much space.

Do you use the packet stuff? Or have your own rice/pasta mix?

Couscous, dried almond, dessicated coconut, dried fruit, dried onions,
other dried veg, pine nuts... mix together and add boiling water. When
the water has cooled enough to eat the resulting sludge, eat.

--
To reply see 'from' in headers; lose the domain, and insert dots and @
where common sense dictates.

Jell said:

You must all have a favourite food that you take on walks. Something
tasty, filling and nutritious that cooks quickly, but doesn't weigh
too much or take up too much space.

Do you use the packet stuff? Or have your own rice/pasta mix?

Agree with the cous-cous. Of all the ready made meals I recommend Vesta,
particularly the curries, which use real freeze-dried meat or fish (paella)
rather than the usual soya.

Also carry a few odds and ends like salt, pepper, butter, spring onions and
mushrooms to spice up otherwise dull dried meals.

Rice cakes are very light (if bulky) and make good padding for soups.
Favourite soup is Thai Lemongrass, look out for that one (one of those
exotic/world soups).

Instant mash makes good lightweight emergency food (not the bulky Smash
type) and is good for thickening soups.

Paul

eccles cakes - but watch the ensuant wind ;-)
"Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Jell said:

You must all have a favourite food that you take on walks. Something
tasty, filling and nutritious that cooks quickly, but doesn't weigh
too much or take up too much space.

Do you use the packet stuff? Or have your own rice/pasta mix?

Agree with the cous-cous. Of all the ready made meals I recommend Vesta,
particularly the curries, which use real freeze-dried meat or fish
(paella) rather than the usual soya.

Also carry a few odds and ends like salt, pepper, butter, spring onions
and mushrooms to spice up otherwise dull dried meals.

Rice cakes are very light (if bulky) and make good padding for soups.
Favourite soup is Thai Lemongrass, look out for that one (one of those
exotic/world soups).

Instant mash makes good lightweight emergency food (not the bulky Smash
type) and is good for thickening soups.

Paul

On 30 May 2006 04:16:13 -0700, "Jell" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

You must all have a favourite food that you take on walks. Something
tasty, filling and nutritious that cooks quickly, but doesn't weigh too
much or take up too much space.

Do you use the packet stuff? Or have your own rice/pasta mix?

I'd love to hear your ideas.

Jell

Honey-roast cashews+peanuts (mixed together). (From Co-op or Tesco in
the UK). And, despite not being an ultra-light food, I always take a
few fresh eggs (enough for one per day); I think there is something
satisfying about a boiled egg in the morning, and you can use the same
boiled water to make tea. I also usually take a few packets of
cup-a-soups.

Al D

Paul Saunders said:

Rice cakes are very light (if bulky) and make good padding for soups.

They're very light because they are made mostly of air. I can't see the
point of carrying air - it's bulky and of little nutritional value! ;^}

Jim Ford

The message <[email hidden]>
from Mark Manning <[email hidden]> contains these words:

(Tesco's)

Quoted message said:

wild
mushroom risotto.

Discontinued, alas! And, worse yet, most of Tesco's "new improved" range
of Quick Cook rice comes in 4 portion packs, not 2!

Richard

"Jim Ford" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Rice cakes are very light (if bulky) and make good padding for soups.

They're very light because they are made mostly of air.

Exactly, perfect lightweight food! ;-)

Quoted message said:

I can't see the point of carrying air - it's bulky and of little
nutritional value! ;^}

As I said, it makes a good padding for soups. I don't like liquid meals.
The rice absorbs the soup and gives a very nice flavour. Good for cutting
calories (if you need to) yet helping to give you a full feeling. Also good
for spreading stuff onto if you're carrying spreads of any kind.

As for the bulk, well if you're travelling really light there should be some
room left in your rucksack to squeeze them in! And if you pack them first
they'll help prevent you putting too much heavy gear in!

Paul

Jim Ford wrote:
I've just been trying at home cooking lentils

Quoted message said:

and intend taking them on my next trip. What I did is to bring red
lentils to the boil with 1/4 of a vegie stock cube.

Also veggie, I quite often carry lentils. Look up a recipe for a lentil
dahl. I usually premix the spices with the lentils, and use dehydrated
onion, which then does as a homemade dehydrated meal, but is somehow
better than the commercial ones (I often carry a few cloves of garlic also).

M.

I said:

Also veggie, I quite often carry lentils etc etc

.....then I remembered that I've also used a lot of recipes from:
http://www.netwoods.com/cooking/cookbook/trail.html

M.

Just out of interest, do the modern dried foods suffer - or at least
does the user suffer - from the problems that existed in the 60's when
I was using them extensively that if you lived off them for a number of
days, you got terrible wind. There was a lot of sulphur used as
preservative and the resulting emissions were not social to say the
least.

Memories of 6 of us away from base for 10 days plus in a remote part of
Turkey -- and we had 2 female botanists with us who were not that
amused at the way all our digestive systems functioned !

Rob

Jell said:

You must all have a favourite food that you take on walks. Something
tasty, filling and nutritious that cooks quickly, but doesn't weigh too
much or take up too much space.

I'm not a big fan of cooking outdoors (can't be bothered). I'm content
with muesli and cheese (not mixed!) for a couple of days, but if I can
get hold of a pub, I'd always go there. But I'm not a regular camper
anyway.
--
Rudi Winter, Aberystwyth, Wales
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