Thread: Meals in the bush

See below for a bunch of random observations thoughts and wisdom? that will hopefully give some inspiration...

Always try new bush camping meal ideas at home first, where you have the fall back of fish and chips.

Not surprised that instant mash is getting a lot of traction in this thread. I mix it up at home with a bit of soup stock, grated cheese and milk powder to give it more horsepower. On the day just add gravy powder and boiling water for instant potatoe and gravy that will put KFC to shame. Once the potato mix is done, I normally just make a hole in it and mix the gravy in that hole, saves dishes.

We also keep an icecream container of half filled with whole oats and cranberries cinammon and other bits, whenever there is a little bit left of something in a packet it just goes into the ever changing mix. Soak the mixture the night before breakfast and in the morning just heat it up and add soft brown sugar and cream. It won't need cooking like normal porridge if soaked from the night before.
The cream thing works well on single night trips or trips with two nights in the same place. During daytime just put it in a small creek and weigh it down with rocks to keep it cold.

Boiled eggs, too easy, do them at home or for breakfast if you like to eat them hot.

Invented or re-invented in our house, mixed roasted veges (potato, kumara, carrot, garlic etc) with chopped camembert/brie, just put them all in a resealable bag and snack on as required, its like a savoury scroggin.

Anything that involves oily fish, carbs and cheese is always a winner in the bush, normally on walk in day I like to take a packet of fresh pasta, smoked salmon, some sundried tomatoes and cheese, basically just get the pasta ready and mix the rest in.
But basically any combo of fish, cheese and carbs goes well.

Bacon travels well and is great to cook in a hut if you like attention, doesn't need oil and doesn't taste too bad either.

I like to caramelise onions at home, drain the oil and take them, you can add to just about any savoury meal and it will enhance things. Hopefully your tent has ventilation if there are five of you eating this.

Chocolate is a good pick me up when people are running on Elvis. Always carry plenty and distribute during lunch times.

Jerky is good for snacks.

I usually take honey sandwiches on walk in day. There is a fair bit of milage in honey.

A packet of chips easily straps to the outside of a pack, great for hangry snacks at the hut while dinner is cooking.

Electrolyte powder, weighs hardly anything, when you have been doing a lot of walking, drinking plain water starts to feel like you are just rinsing your throat, if you drink electrolytes, even if the advertising is lies, at least it won't taste totally boring.

Fresh food after a few days, I carry a few oranges, I like to start eating them on day three, see comment above regarding bacon.

I like to mix up a batch of drinking chocolate, milk powder and soft brown sugar at home at start of the trip, when you add this to hot water, add plenty, like 1/3 cup of mix to 2/3 cup of water. Plenty of milage out of that.