J,
There are a lot of possibilities at any reasonable supermarket to supplement a hikers menu beyond your basics without over-taxing your stove or interest in cooking. Here are a few quick ideas off the top of my head (i.e., the kind of thing I'd pick up at a resupply stop.)
- The first thing is to be able to change up flavors, which gives you variety. Whenever you can, pick up packets of condiments (the odder the better) and use them to change trail food flavors. Soy sauce and mayo are common ones, but you can get really neat stuff in packets (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, etc.) online. Try Minimus for a whole selection of these to pack ahead, but you can also just pick them up at resupply and town stops, though with a more limited selection.
- In the market, look for the packaged sauces (especially Knorr) and gravies. These are great for changing a dinner standard as well. Just throw them in when you cook your Liptons or potatoes and you'll get a whole new taste.
- Vegetables are do-able on the trail. Most supermarkets now have pre-cut vegies in the produce section. Onions, celery and peppers are common, as are carrots, mushrooms and other vegies that keep fairly well on the trail. Softer vegies like onions, celery, etc. will need to be eaten in the first two days, but things like baby carrots keep longer even in heat. You don't need much to change a meal (don't try to carry serious produce), just saute some vegies in a little oil or parkay for two or three minutes before you cook the staple (throw the vegies in your bowl or the freezer bag of your meal while you boil the water.) Easy and a real change to dried vegies.
- There are also a number of meats you can try these days beyond the ubiquitous tuna. There are often other seafood choices besides tuna in foil packs; baby clams, oysters, baby shrimp, crab, I've seen all these in fairly small markets. Chicken now comes in foil packs too, both as seasoned breasts and as chunked chicken (like the canned stuff, but better.) Both are very good and have good nutritional profiles for extra protein. Ham is also found foil packed this way (Sweet Sue brand is common) and is excellent. Try adding a 7oz pack to a Lipton broccoli and cheddar noodles. Then there's the shelf-stable bacon bits; not the fake bacon (like Bacos) but real bacon in shelf-stable packs (3oz) that can really make a meal.
These are just a few ideas on what's available. Here's a quick recipe to show you what's possible if you think inventively when confronted with the store shelves as your larder:
Take one packet of Knorr Potato/Leek soup mix, one pack of baby clams and one pack of bacon bits. Boil enough water to make the soup, add it in, and boil it for about two minutes. Then stir in the clams and bacon and cover it. From here you can do one of two things depending on how you cook. You can either simmer it for about five minutes (assuming you have a stove that will simmer) or put the pot in a cozy for about 15 minutes. By the time you're done, you have a very good clam chowder from nothing but resupply ingredients (be sure to bring some oyster crackers, you can often get them in individual packets at diners and other places that serve soup.)
Hope this helps some with ideas. Try going to the
Freezer Bag Cooking site for many more than this.
Strategic
