I need some new ideas for trail food. Preferably ones that I can have made at home and sent to me.
_Airborne_Trail Food - Appalachian Trail
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#1
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#2
Fantastic Foods makes great refried and black beans. Just add a cup of boiling water, wait five minutes, throw down a tortilla, cheese, and some "leftover" taco bell hot sauce, and you've got a great burritto!
_Matt_
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#3
Airborne,
Depends on how much you want to cook. I’m not into “boiling” a cup of water to fix a meal. My pard and I do some real “trail cooking” when we go out. For the two of us we figure about 2 1/4 lb per day but its all out of the store stuff. We also carry a Coleman gas stove and 3 light weight alum. pots. Total kitchen weight is about 8 lb.
Try chili mac. 1/2 C Mrs. Grass Chili, 1 pkg of Mac and Cheese. (I doouble this for the two of us) Make up 1/2 C of chili cook it for about 15 min, and set it aside covered. Cook up your Mac and Cheese, add teh two together. We also add 1 C of freeze-dried corn (Reconstituted). We also fix up a package of pudding and then top it with rehydrated dried fruit (favorite is 1 C dried cherries). At out noon break I put the fruit into a small sealable 2 Cc plastic bottle with 1 C of water and 1/4 C of brown sugar and let it soak all day while hiking. Heat it up add 1 Tbls of corn starch and it thickens into a nice sauce to put over the pudding.
I also use a lot of ground beef jerky. I make Rice-a-roni and add it like you would hamburger while cooking. We ues the soft beef jerky and cut the sticks in 1/3’s and add it to beef stroganoff while cooking.
Lots of other ideas if you are interested.
Hardcharger
_Hardcharger_
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#4
by the time you get yer trail legs, you can carry any amount of weight...thus real food becomes entertaining. some folks carry fruits that have water...a really nice orange really tastes best 1 or 2 days in, so think 3 fruits...a nice apple, and 2 oranges...i carried heavy duty aluminum foil and made real foods like, pizza, fresh caught trout, pork tenderloin, lasagna that fed 4...hobbo meals on the 1st day out are great in tin foil. hambuger or steak, 1 potato, a carrot and an onion can be bought seperately and then added to the meal....spices seem wise, but salt and pepper packs from your breakfast at mcdonalds will do for a pinch of flavor.
i have done all of these on 1st to 2nd day out meals…even hotdogs were great for an evening meal at peak’s corner shelter in 04. the pizza was just out of pearisburg, i think i fed 8 people half a pizza…think boboli’s and peperoni and coals for smoking pizza.
other foods that last besides candy and cheese can be the standards but upgrade…like tuna packs…think salmon for an upgrade…you can get curry spice and a whole chicken and do chicken on a spit and have indian curry to rub on it for the true hobo…what’s a chicken cost now 5 bucks…use extra plastic to keep your pack dry…use it to start your fire…the sierra club told me it was ok to burn plastic, since you are hiking, you gain eco credits for not driving a humV around all day…i know you’ll get weird looks…but trust me…it wouldn’t matter if you never burnt any trash…people give people dumb looks, then they go about their own quirky rationalizing ways themselves.
enjoy dreaming up your own foods…think real food.
_Burn_
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#5
It can't be mailed from home, but the first night out I LOVED having those "salad in a bag" that you can buy, complete with a dressing packet, little croutons, etc.
Some grocery stores have “Tasty Bite” Indian and Thai food in foil packets - http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce/ExecMacro/tastybite/home.d2w/report - can be mailed, and it’s ready to eat, just boil it right in the bag. Serve with rice. Heavy, but yummy.
Justtomatoes.com - has a wonderful variety of freeze-dried fruits and veg.
Soba noodles cook quickly.
Can buy coconut milk powder, curry powder, and add freeze-dried/dehydrated veg and make a coconut curry…
Fantastic Foods hummous, with crackers…
Good luck!
PS - Hardcharger - yes, more ideas please! I’d like to hear them! 
_Sophie_
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#6
Sophie,
Everything that we try to use comes from the local grocery store or Sam’s for bulk items. A couple of things that I use are Beef Jerky, both the original kind and the soft jerky. The original kind I like to shredd it into hamburger sized pieces. Then I can soak it in water for the afternoon (1 Cup of ground jerky + 1 Cup of water) while I hike. I can then use it like hamburger in most dishes. I like to do rice-a-roni on the trail and add the “hamburger-jerky” to it just before the rice-a-roni is done. I also used dried mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes that I can get in a local bulf foods store in our area.
If I do something like beef stew I use the Mrs. Grass Beef Stew mix from the soup aisle and add soft jerky that is cut into 1/2 sized pieces. Also I add some 1/4ed sun-dried tomatoes and a package of potatoes from a potato-au-gratin package. When the jerky, potatoes and tomatoes are soft enough and the “stew” is done I thicken it with about 2 tbls of cornstarch. Makes a huge pot of beef stew and for some reason I never find any of it going to waste!:lol
Try spagetti on the trail. (remember I am cooking for two so you’ll have to adjust the menues for one) 1-lb uncooked spagetti boiled until done. Sauce is a package of the prepared spagetti sauce (French’s is good), four or five catsup pouches from McDonalds, 3 tbls of dried tomato powder (I get it at the local bulk foods), 1 pkg of sun-dried tomatoes (which I soak with the ‘hamburger’ during the day), and 1 C of “hamburger” I add the dry ingredients together, add the catsup and enough water to make it slightly “pasty” then I add then hamburger and tomatoes and about 4-5 chopped up dried mushrooms and you’ve got one heck of a sauce. (Season to taste). I usually make it up on the “dry” side because I can never get all the water drained from the noodles and the sauce will sorta take care of some of the excess water. Add some Parmasan cheese and you’ve got a great meal.
If you’d like some more ideas drop me an e-mail and I’ll send you my 14-day menue.
Hardcharger
_Hardcharger_