Thread: Light weight food options

Calorie dense foods nuts salami cheese all good. Last trip I thought I'd done a reasonable calculation on how much to take in. Ended up carrying over half back out but maybe being a bit more aware on eating what i needed for fuel rather than mindless snacking through the days helped. Boiled eggs not that lite but a good option for a filling snack. Travel well and already being preboiled save on time and fuel when you want something to fill the stomach before you get out walking first thing in the morning. Biodegradable wrapping too

Originally Posted by Happy Jack

For breakfast I mix quick oats, milk powder and milo or other hot chocolate powder. Once in the hills add hot water and eat.

Similar for brekky

Zip slide bag for each breakfast with a mix-

Equal measures

Milk powder
Toasted Muesli
Berry Muesli
Vanilla Protein Powder
Rolled oats
Bran flake cereal

Pour in the hot water from the daystarter cup of tea, mulch the lot around and in 5 mins it is a low-GI meal that costs sod-all and lasts for a fair while

Bejasus - just as well none of you blokes ever had to do Artillery OP's in the 1980's, we had to live on shite rat packs for 3 or so days sometimes without any support, somehow we survived and I never recall being tired or lacking energy. BC's are luxury compared with rat pack stuff.

Those Rat packs were graded below C4
Cat food is C5
Downward sliding scale
Wonder how many kaimanawa horses those RatvPacks used

My breakfast go to after 10,000km of through hiking is:
100g of either granola or oats
30g milk powder
30g ground almond
30g desiccated coconut
25g serving of protein powder (alternatively, if protein isn't a requirement swap with a tablespoon of cocoa powder)

This makes a pretty big breakfast and is around 1000 calories using protein powder. Lots of fat in the almond and coconut. I just add cold water in the mornings.

Personally I don't think Back Country meals provide enough calories to justify the cost. Fats don't dehydrate well, so you won't actually find they're very calorie dense. Fine if you're just going for a few days hunting or tramping, but if you're planning long multi day trips or thousands of km's you need plenty of fats. Carrying olive oil is a good way to boost calories. Carbs and protein are 4 calories per gram, while fat is 9 calories per gram. Higher fat content equals more calories for less weight on your back.

For lunches I tend to just snack. Calorie dense muesli bars, scroggin mix of nuts, dried fruit eg. dates, peanut m&m's, dark chocolate.

@joelhenton and @Huntfisheat , how do you blokes cook those oats ? I am the self-proclaimed foremost NZ porridge expert and being qualified as such I know that Oats must be properly cooked to burst the starch molecules. Without doing so we cannot digest that starch fully. At home I soak my oats in the cooking pot overnight - the water breaking down the plant Lectins and thus improving our digestion. The addition of a spoonful of yogurt at soaking also helping as the Lacto bacillus breakdown the plant proteins.
Lemon juice also helps.
Most times if people say " I cant eat porridge it makes me bloated and fart like a horse" it is because they didn't cook it enough and didn't use enough water to bring it properly to the boil.

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

@joelhenton and @Huntfisheat , how do you blokes cook those oats ? I am the self-proclaimed foremost NZ porridge expert and being qualified as such I know that Oats must be properly cooked to burst the starch molecules. Without doing so we cannot digest that starch fully. At home I soak my oats in the cooking pot overnight - the water breaking down the plant Lectins and thus improving our digestion. The addition of a spoonful of yogurt at soaking also helping as the Lacto bacillus breakdown the plant proteins.
Lemon juice also helps.
Most times if people say " I cant eat porridge it makes me bloated and fart like a horse" it is because they didn't cook it enough and didn't use enough water to bring it properly to the boil.

Hmmmm - that explains quite a few things - like why my dear old mum (since passed) never liked her porridge done in a microwave . . .

Without in any way denigrating the efforts of our local freeze-dried food producers, I have never found anything quite as good (and lightweight) as Mountain House foods from the US, and (heavyweight) Yoder's canned meats. I guess it is an inevitable economy of scale that we can't have what other people regard as routine.

Originally Posted by Tentman

Hmmmm - that explains quite a few things - like why my dear old mum (since passed) never liked her porridge done in a microwave . . .

That is funny.

Originally Posted by Tentman

Hmmmm - that explains quite a few things - like why my dear old mum (since passed) never liked her porridge done in a microwave . . .

Just like good old mum and grandma used to do, add a some cream brown sugar Yummmm!

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

@joelhenton and @Huntfisheat , how do you blokes cook those oats ? I am the self-proclaimed foremost NZ porridge expert and being qualified as such I know that Oats must be properly cooked to burst the starch molecules. Without doing so we cannot digest that starch fully. At home I soak my oats in the cooking pot overnight - the water breaking down the plant Lectins and thus improving our digestion. The addition of a spoonful of yogurt at soaking also helping as the Lacto bacillus breakdown the plant proteins.
Lemon juice also helps.
Most times if people say " I cant eat porridge it makes me bloated and fart like a horse" it is because they didn't cook it enough and didn't use enough water to bring it properly to the boil.

Never been a problem for me, I just add the hot water to my quick oats and eat

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

@joelhenton and @Huntfisheat , how do you blokes cook those oats ? I am the self-proclaimed foremost NZ porridge expert and being qualified as such I know that Oats must be properly cooked to burst the starch molecules. Without doing so we cannot digest that starch fully. At home I soak my oats in the cooking pot overnight - the water breaking down the plant Lectins and thus improving our digestion. The addition of a spoonful of yogurt at soaking also helping as the Lacto bacillus breakdown the plant proteins.
Lemon juice also helps.
Most times if people say " I cant eat porridge it makes me bloated and fart like a horse" it is because they didn't cook it enough and didn't use enough water to bring it properly to the boil.

I often use oat bran (countdown brand) or just blend it up to a fine powder myself. Maybe you can tell me if I'm not getting the benefits from the oats by doing so. I cold soak for a while and then eat. I've switched to granola for the most part now, some crunch makes it more interesting.

From a nutrition standpoint, I've never been too concerned with getting a balanced meal while hunting or hiking. I've never heard of someone having nutrition problems... 90 back to back marathons and months of eating high calorie junk foods, I survived. Pop a daily multi vitamin, too easy. I would be interested to know what's going on after I've swallowed my breakfast though... I'm not a trained dietitian unfortunately

Originally Posted by gonetropo

bacon!!!
i wont use freeze dry meals as they are full of vege, evil horrid stuff from the depths of hell

Yea that's why hells pizza do a vegan option now...but seemly it tastes like meat , fuck that you don't get to offer a meat or sausage option if it aint got meat in it , any bull shit alternative is false advertising ...hells pizza can suck my sausage .

Originally Posted by Huk

Just like good old mum and grandma used to do, add a some cream brown sugar Yummmm!

For the ultimate - do what my Grandad did (and I still do too as long as the cook isn't supervising) add butter and brown sugar to yer pog . . . rocket fuel for hard men/women