One-pot recipes

imported
#1

Anyone have good suggestions for dinner, preferably one-pot recipes? Variations on Annies? Soups? Fillers?

Thanks

gumwood

#2

Gumwood, You can do like I do and make all your meals at home–then you dehydrate, vaccum seal, and enjoy! I have tried the multi-pot cooking system and it’s not very efficient and takes much weight to carry ingredients individually.

Also, there are many backpacking-food books which are good resources I have used many times. Often I will add/delete ingredients to my taste.

Dawg

Dawgtrekker

#3

Good brand of buds and; gravy pack, cheese, soup mix, butter, pesto, t-bone steak sideways. In the soup isle at your store are a zillion instant mix packages. Make up the taters and stir in. Buds are super light and almost no cook time, add hot water and they’re done. Olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper and a dash of balsemic vinager, num num.

Bushwhack

#4

this is a pretty good one. since u now can get salmon in vaccuum seal pouches like tuna; or u can get tuna with flavor (rosemary; lemon pepper) cook an packet of alfredo sauce with noodles lipton meal (if you’ve thought ahead; you’ve brought some grated parmesean or a nice block of provolone u can shave to add flavor), gently open and butterly packet of salmon to remove in a filet type portion (ok; presentation wise) slide gently over top of the cooked alfredo noodles and sauce. garnish with a sprig of fresh picked mint or fresh parsley from your grocery resuply. Serve with a robust chilled Gatorade, preferably red. For desert–maybe a jello no bake cheesecake if u want to make friends in the shelter. or; if u want to make enemies; eat it yourself. they are small.

Big Boy

#5

I’m thinking bread crumbs in the bottom of the pot browned in butter, tuna layer, cheddar layer, heat thru. Another fav is Shrimp Ramen with just enough water to cook, scramble in a raw egg, toasted bagels with butter and a little garlic clove rubbed on them, salt if you have it as a side. Do the bagels ahead by buttering the bottom of the pot and then pushing the bagel into it while heating over the stove. Takes about thirty second, do a few halves and then the main course. Finish with the nice 1999 Turning Leaf Zinfindel you hauled in from town.

BW

#6

I had this on a weekend trip after Thanksgiving:

One package of Vigo Red Beans and Rice, cook according to instructions, but add more water if your stove doesn’t simmer well. Slice up a summer sausage to throw in when you add the beans and rice. This fed two guys used to eating well, but it was just a weekend trip, so we didn’t have the thru-hiker appetite. I’m not sure how well the beans and rice would cook up if you tried to halve the package. Together, the ingredients weighed about a pound.

We did a similar thing the next night with a package of Vigo Yellow Rice and a pouch of Tyson’s chicken. (Be sure to add extra water for non-simmering stoves. We burnt the rice that night.) Weight was about the same, and we both got full even with throwing out the burnt layer.

Ardsgaine

#7

Some good ideas here. Rice, it cooks up quick and goes with practically anything. Also since it’s a grain, it has high protein content, good amount of calories, and lots of vitimins, minerals, etc. Since the grain is very small, it cooks quickly (unlike beans, which take a long time). BTW when cooking rice, you use twice the amount of water plus a little as to the amount of rice you’re cooking (i.e. one cup of rice, then you need two cups of water plus a little). This way you rice will have plenty water to absorb and rehydrate and cook well, and also your rice will not be too soup like or the absence thereof (char and burn).

I’ve noticed some have mentioned butter in some of their receipes. Love it. But how to keep butter being butter on the trail? Which brings up the dry ice question. Anyone ever hike with one of those dry ice packages, which you can use to keep frozen foods frozen? Seems to me that would be a great idea, but need to keep it far enough back in your pack and insulated well, otherwise frozen back and spine, which would not be good. Anyone ever hike with dry ice? I’m seriously thinking about it.

See you out there. :cheers

Maintain

#8

A lot of small stores way back when sold you partial boxes of butter, 1/2# sizes like when you could split a paper egg carton in half. Try that at Kroger and get a weird look. Buy a stick and an ziploc it, put it in you pot so its crush proof. Not great in hot weather but in the winter its great. We have some smaller smample size Nalgenes we keep sauces in, olive oil by the ounce. There is still Parkay in the squeeze if you like a lot.

Bushwhack

#9

Because I do not carry any measuring devise I was always putting too much water with my rice or freeze dried meals and making soup out of the meal. Now I always carry some potatoe buds to use as a thickening agent. They have very little tast but will turn the soup into a hearty meal. Does anyone have any other helpful hints?

Big B

#10

Good packable, portable things to add to common protein staples like rice, pasta, potatoes, etc. are veggies, esp. green peppers, onions, carrots, avacados; fruits, esp. apples, pears and dehydrated; cheese (parmesan or block); powdered milk and/or potato flakes (I always carry a little extra of each to add to meals or soak up extra water); olive oil; additional proteins from texturized soy protein or pouch meat. I can’t believe how many cans of SPAM i used to pack.

raru

#11

if your gonna cook rice or say spiral pasta etc. for rice, in the morning put some water in a soda bottle and about a cup full of rice (or however much you need). let it soak all day. pasta doesnt need so long.

this softens it RIGHT up and makes it cook loads quicker (ergo less fuel).

one thing with rice, if you wash it (wash the starch out) it cooks quicker, but you loose some of the goodness. so make sure you cook it with that cloudy water! :slight_smile:

throw in some dried spice or tumeric (tumeric rocks, just dont get it on you! :slight_smile: etc.

you can tell i’ll be a veritable spice rack next year… :wink:

Bloody Cactus

#12

I read or saw where someone said that their squeez butter would last for several weeks on the trail. Any experence out there?

Hawkeye

#13

During my hike I would buy a 1 pound squeeze bottle of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”. I’d put half in an 8oz. nalgene and give the rest to whoever I happened to be with at the time. Worked great, no problems. Refrigeration apparently isn’t really necessary. I noticed a few people used butter buds or whatever the dried, sprinkle-on butter flavoring stuff is.

Bohemian

#14

I’ve learned alot about outdoor cooking in the last few years. The main thing I’ve learnt is that cooking can be as easy or complicated as you want it to be. This along with a good choice of food can make life that bit easier.

I always hike with a small food pack (aside from the food I buy in towns). It is small, light and consists of only a few simple things. They are:

1 small tub Italian Herbs & Spices, a small selection of salt/pepper sachets, some TVP, a small bag of dried country vegetables, 1 small tub of curry powder, a packet of powdered garlic n’ chive sauce and 1 packet of powdered parsley sauce.

It sounds quite alot but actually is’nt. These small things are garunteed to make and Ramen / Lipton / rice / lipton or pasta meal that much tastier. That’s in my opinion anyway. I’m sure there are culinary experts out there who would beg to differ.

Ross

P.S Hauling some fresh stuff out of town, for the first few days back in the woods is well worth it. Not just for your appetite but also for your aching body.

Ross - England

#15

I’ve never had any issues with butter in 200 mile sections. It takes me about that long to use a stick or a round chunk found in what seems to be southern stores. I’ve always liked the Campmor squeze tube for peanut butter too.

Keep in mind, the majority of my hiking is Spring and Fall but I wouldn’t be afraid of using margarine all summer.

Shep

Shep

#16

Nothing better than the following combos:
Mashed potatoes with ramen…
Ramen and stuffing
Mashed potatoes with cheese
Rice with cheese and broccoli and cooked bacon bits
Potato soup with ramen

windex

#17

Fresh water clams and Ramen are also one of Windex’s favs. Add some Tabasco, a pinch of fresh chives and she’s in heaven…arncha? Tasty clams in the Hundred Mile, save the extra ramen flavor packs to cook them in.

Bushwhack