Food
When I first started hiking I always took too much heavy food and ended up taking a lot of it back home with me. Tips to keep the food weight down are:
What do you need?
The main things you need when hiking are carbohydrates and fat for energy and protein to repair muscles.
Some foods that follow my 350 calories per 100g rule include:
What to pack?
I tend to dehydrate my own dinners and avoid the freeze dried meals as much as I can. I don’t like the taste and they can be really expensive and upset my stomach. But sometimes I use them and can recommend checking out some of the new meals being made in Tasmania like Campers Pantry and Strive Food (no kickbacks to me they are just yummy). I also like to purchase meals in bulk, for example I will buy a serve five and break it down to three servings. Its cheaper to buy them in bulk and I find I need a little more than the "one serve".
The golden rule for food prep is to do everything you possibly can in the comfort of your own kitchen. Unpackaged items to save weight and separate to only take what you will use. If I’m being organised I actually cook my own meals and dehydrate them. Anything with mince I find works well (small chunks of meat). Then you just rehydrate with a little water when you want to eat it and it is delicious. The other wonder food for me personally is Deb – the dried potato. It weighs next to nothing and I actually really enjoy the taste. Mashed potato is a massive carb load exactly what you need at the end of the day.
Breakfast:
I do Mi gorang in a really liquid solution that I feel is almost like Gatorade full of salty goodness to stat the day. I’m probably kidding myself but I love it. Alternatives can be cereal or muesli. Once again make these up at home to save time in the field. Place your daily serve of cereal in a plastic zip lock including the correct portion of dry milk powder. Then in the field add water shake and go. If you feel bad about all the bags like I do be sure to wash them out and reuse when you get home.
Lunch:
I’ve struggled to hit the nail on the head. I like keep moving during the day so often avoid cooked meals. Often ill just snack throughout the day on nuts, dried fruit and muesli bars. I also like the tuna you can get in pouches but its not terribly light weight. Other options are wraps with salami feta and tomato, they are delicious but the tomato only lasts the first few days or you can use semi dried tomato.
Dinner:
I cook up a few really large delicious mince meals like bolognese, con cane, chicken stir-fry with mince. It’s a bit weird with mince but I really find the smaller size dehydrates better. I’ll often put the meal though a blender and then dehydrate. These keep really well. In the field I'll add dried shiitake mushrooms to add some chew.
I got my dehydrator on gumtree for $30 and upgraded it once I finished studying.
Ration it out food accurately per day and be very careful of throwing in extra stuff at the last minute. If you are worried about a trip that is delayed throw in a pack of Mi gorang and a couple of muliei bars.
When I first started hiking I always took too much heavy food and ended up taking a lot of it back home with me. Tips to keep the food weight down are:
- As a goal I try to carry no more than 700g of food per day with energy content of between 2000 to 3000 calories depending how strenuous the activity will be. Just Google “how many calories per day” and you will find some great online calculators that will estimate the amount of calories you need each day depending on gender, height, weight, and exercise level. I roughly need 2500 calories when hiking 20km per day. I always like to take a little extra (eg 2 packets of noodles) in case I am delayed a day for some reason.
- Another great rule is to try and find food that has at least 350 calories (or 1476kj) per 100g. Not everything you take will be this high in calories but these foods are brilliant for getting the calories up while keeping the weight down.
- Repackage food items into plastic bags or cling wrap. Never take cans of food and don’t take the whole jar of peanut butter if you only need half of it.
What do you need?
The main things you need when hiking are carbohydrates and fat for energy and protein to repair muscles.
Some foods that follow my 350 calories per 100g rule include:
- Almonds 576 cal per 100g
- Pecans 700 cal per 100g
- Powdered Milk 496 cal per 100g
- Olive oil 884 cal per 100g
- Peanut M&Ms 513 cal per 100g
- Pasta 352 cal per 100g
- Rice crackers 384 cal per 100g
- Peanut Butter 588 cal per 100g (protein rich)
- Dark chocolate 546 cal per 100
- Beef jerky 410 cal per 100g (protein rich)
- Salami 444 cal per 100g (protein rich)
- Protein powder 401 cal per 100g
- Dried potato (Deb) 324 cal per 100g
What to pack?
I tend to dehydrate my own dinners and avoid the freeze dried meals as much as I can. I don’t like the taste and they can be really expensive and upset my stomach. But sometimes I use them and can recommend checking out some of the new meals being made in Tasmania like Campers Pantry and Strive Food (no kickbacks to me they are just yummy). I also like to purchase meals in bulk, for example I will buy a serve five and break it down to three servings. Its cheaper to buy them in bulk and I find I need a little more than the "one serve".
The golden rule for food prep is to do everything you possibly can in the comfort of your own kitchen. Unpackaged items to save weight and separate to only take what you will use. If I’m being organised I actually cook my own meals and dehydrate them. Anything with mince I find works well (small chunks of meat). Then you just rehydrate with a little water when you want to eat it and it is delicious. The other wonder food for me personally is Deb – the dried potato. It weighs next to nothing and I actually really enjoy the taste. Mashed potato is a massive carb load exactly what you need at the end of the day.
Breakfast:
I do Mi gorang in a really liquid solution that I feel is almost like Gatorade full of salty goodness to stat the day. I’m probably kidding myself but I love it. Alternatives can be cereal or muesli. Once again make these up at home to save time in the field. Place your daily serve of cereal in a plastic zip lock including the correct portion of dry milk powder. Then in the field add water shake and go. If you feel bad about all the bags like I do be sure to wash them out and reuse when you get home.
Lunch:
I’ve struggled to hit the nail on the head. I like keep moving during the day so often avoid cooked meals. Often ill just snack throughout the day on nuts, dried fruit and muesli bars. I also like the tuna you can get in pouches but its not terribly light weight. Other options are wraps with salami feta and tomato, they are delicious but the tomato only lasts the first few days or you can use semi dried tomato.
Dinner:
I cook up a few really large delicious mince meals like bolognese, con cane, chicken stir-fry with mince. It’s a bit weird with mince but I really find the smaller size dehydrates better. I’ll often put the meal though a blender and then dehydrate. These keep really well. In the field I'll add dried shiitake mushrooms to add some chew.
I got my dehydrator on gumtree for $30 and upgraded it once I finished studying.
Ration it out food accurately per day and be very careful of throwing in extra stuff at the last minute. If you are worried about a trip that is delayed throw in a pack of Mi gorang and a couple of muliei bars.