Spike camp food - In the grocery isle

[americanbwana]

Yet another part of my summer planning activities is trying to figure out what kind of food to bring up to the Spike camp this fall. Yes Mountain House is fine, and I\'ll probably bring a few. So I\'ve been trying different grocery store items.

Today I tried Near East Couscous Roasted Garlic & Olive Oil, with a small can of walmart chunk chicken breast thrown in. Over all not bad. It cooked up pretty quickly (Boil the water, spices, and olive oil, then add the Couscous let sit covered for 5 minutes) and tasted pretty darned good.

Assuming two servings (one is good enough to test at the house, I\'d probably eat both in the woods) this meal would have the following nutritional values using 1 TBsp of Olive Oil.
Calories 397
Sodium 1055
Fat 2.5
Protein 21g
Carbohydrates 60g

Not to bad for under a buck fifty. Way less than MH.

Oh, and I\'d probably opt out of the canned chicken, replacing it with one of the envelope packages, or a can of chicken at home.

AB

 

[cohunter14]

Looks good to me Dana! The only thing I would be curious about is the calories. At less than 400 calories, I would think you would be hungry again in an hour, especially when you are burning as many calories as you are while hunting. That could just be me though...I like to eat

 

[americanbwana]

Derek,
True, but remember was only half the batch. Plus it would need to be doctored a bit. There wasn\'t enough chicken for one thing.

I have a MH beef stew here. It has 2.5 servings, each with 210 calories.

The other grocery store meal I\'ve tried is Annies\'s creamy deluxe Mac and cheese. This little gem is pretty good with one of those spam packets added. The whole box, without the spam is a bit over 1000 calories.

The goal is figure out an affordable 4000 calorie diet that I\'ll actually eat.

 

[iccyman001]

What do you use to cook on up there?

Do you try to cook on a budget or just be thrifty?
Are you looking for easy and quick stuff to make or whatever?

One of my favorite parts of camping or hunting is COOKING!

 

[mtnmutt]

Bulk freeze dried meats are available.

I bought some from packitgourmet.com They had chicken, sausage crumbles, ground beef, and roast beef dices. Not really what I call affordable. I was desperate to replace MH with something more appealing.

I have heard there are places in the CO that sell bulk freeze dried meats, beans, potatoes and veges. I have not yet looked for them locally. Local bulk freeze dried meats may be cheaper.

 

[americanbwana]

I\'m using a Snow Peak Butane stove for now. This is primarily due to the almost certain fire restrictions that will hit in the next month or so in the high country. I\'m planning on one or two scouting trips in the back country before the season starts.

The fire restrictions are \'normally\' lifted before the hunting season starts. If that is the case then I may cook over a small fire.

Cooking for me is part of the entire experience. It helps me unwind at the end of the day, and gives me something to look forward to as I\'m climbing that blasted slope.

I found another site, trailcooking.com since I originally posted. They have some pretty interesting freezer bag cooking recipes that I\'ll probably try out.

 

[Bob Frapples]

I\'ve started doing the same thing, I found some .88$ chicken noodle things that turned out way better than I expected.

I\'m using a rucus burner and an evernew titanium nonstick pot. I added some bacon bits to it and was pretty darn good.

Anyone tried to us a dehydrator on bacon?

 

[bowhunter]

Anyone tried to us a dehydrator on bacon?

I usually buy the pre cooked bacon. It will keep for a long time. Plenty long enough for a hunting season.

 

[cnelk]

I came across this link that seems to be quite helpful for back country meals

<!-- m --><a class=\"postlink\" href=\"http://www.trailcooking.com/\">http://www.trailcooking.com/</a><!-- m -->

 

[Bob Frapples]

I?ve been cooking on my ruckus alcohol stove playing with boil time and fuel consumption. My favorite so far has been an el-cheap-o .88$ chicken noodle pasta thingy. It calls for butter in the two cups boiling water, but I\'m having little luck finding some of those prepackaged margarine, much less some that don?t require refrigeration.

As I?m typing this I?m wondering if olive oil could be used in place of the butter. Any of you pro chefs ever use a butter substitute that is packpackable?

 

[cnelk]

Olive oil is an excellent source of calories
1 oz has 251 calories and much easier to pack

 

[americanbwana]

I\'ve heard of people using butter buds also.

Make sure to try your recipes at home, using the pot and spoon you are taking on the trip.

I really like olive oil, but it tasted funny when I mixed in with the Mac and cheese. I might have used to much.

I tried a knorr side the other day with a package of chicken. That was pretty good.

I\'d say about half the recipes I\'ve tried so far ended up as a treat for the dogs.

 

[Bob Frapples]

That Korr chicken is one of the ones that Is in the \"yes\" pile.

Ive never seen the butter buds, I was of the thought process that part of the function of adding butter is to help keep noodles/pasta from sticking together in addtion to flavor. Do these butter buds do that?

 

[americanbwana]

Probably flavor.

I went with the deluxe Mac and cheese rather than mess with the butter / milk problem. It is a touch over 1 oz per 100 calories.

And I used a quarter cup of Nido in the knorr side and was pretty happy with the taste.

I\'m also trying different meal replacement bars. The pro meals and most of the clif bars are pretty good. They really give me boost of energy if eaten about 30 before a work out.

Nuun hydration tablets are pretty good to. Not much sugar, ok flavor, easy to pack (in a tube).

 

[WW]

Try dehydrating baked beans or pork & beans. But remove the pork fat. Fat doesn\'t dehydrate very well. Beans are always a good source of protein .

 

[Zpd307]

we are starting to talk about food for the hunt. since we will be camping 5-6 miles from the truck weight will be a concern. I recently saw all the talk of these alcohol stoves. they will really fit the bill for light weight. so I started looking at freeze dried foods and mtn house obviously pops up right away. but, man they are expensive. I really do like the fact that they are all in one. so all you need is a small pot to boil the water and a spoon! I also looked at backpackers pantry. either way I am worried that even though they are 2 serving packages that I will still be hungry... thinking of adding some foil packaged tuna and chicken. any other ideas? I have used those knorr sides before and think they are tasty but i cant remember if you have to add butter or margarine, which would be a problem where we would be camping...

 

[americanbwana]

Yea I\'ve been thinking about the same stuff.

One thing I\'m also trying is to dehydrate leftover spaghetti and such. In fact I re hydrated some the day and it was pretty good.

This particular recipe was 1/4 cup of dried spaghetti sauce (bark), 2 cups of cooked & dehydrated noodles, and 1/4 cup hamburger \'gravel\'.

I dumped all the ingredients into my cooking pan, covered with water and let stand 5 minutes. Firing up the stove (used the home stove), I boiled the whole thing for 5 minutes. Then transferred the cooking pot into the cozy, and let set for 15 minutes. Done. And it was too hot to eat. I had to let it sit for a few minutes.

The whole thing cost maybe a $1.

As for adding butter / margarine, you may want to try it with olive oil (Per Brads post). But do try all of your recipes before heading out in the woods. A couple that I\'ve tried where not suitable for human consumption :ill:

You can actually dehydrate tuna and chicken if you really want to keep the weight down.

Here is one my go to sites to figure out how to dehydrate stuff Backpacking Chef. :rtfm:

I\'m planning on toting in about 2# of food per day. This should provide about 3,000 calories. I\'ll have to life with the calorie deficit (about 1,000 a day).

 

[cnelk]

My son and split a military MRE for lunch on Saturday. [Chicken,Vegetables and noodles in sauce]
We were quite impressed.
While the alcohol stove was heating the water that had the entree, We dined on a vegetable cracker with spicy cheese spread for appetizer
After about 4min - Then we ate the chicken/noodles [ I saved the water]
Along with that we ate the raspberry applesauce.
For dessert we shared the fig bar and I made cocoa with the 2 + cups remaining water.
There was even a bag of Skittles for snack later.

We weren\'t hungry afterward

The MRE had and nice long plastic spoon and a water induced heater, but we didnt use it the heater or spoon

I saw on eBay that these meals are cheaper than MH meals.

After eating this MRE, I could honestly say that one of these would be sufficient for me for 1 day, but I dont eat alot when hunting.

 

[Zpd307]

so I looked and we some knorr rice dishes in the cupboard. margarine is optional! I have to cook one up to see if it will be enough to eat. they have plenty of different flavors too. I would add some foil chicken or tuna for some protein. I plan on seeing if wally world carries dehydrated food, mainly beans and vegetables to add some filler... and then a snickers for dessert!
I see people are using Ziploc freezer bags to cook their meals in. wayyyy cheaper than mtn house!!!!

 

[Zpd307]

so I went to wally world today to look for meals. my plan was to build a meal around the Knorr side dishes. they have plenty of flavors to choose from and also between pasta and rice. 1.5 cups of water= perfect.... with the altitude it will be even less. the packages are between 2 and 2.5 servings. I picked a package of creamy chicken fettuccini to see how full I would get. entire package is 440 calories. wally\'s price $1.00. it does take a 1/2 milk so I picked up a package carnation instant milk. just have to figure out how much is needed for 1/2 a cup. the package was $1.98, so each serving would only be a few cents.... I then checked out my foil packed meat selections. single serve tuna was $1.08, didn\'t check the calories. I did pick up a package of Tyson chunk chicken. 3.5 servings per package for $2.08 with 245 calories per package. by the feel of it, there seems to be plenty of meat inside to fill me up along with the pasta. I also picked up a 34 count box of Ziploc freezer bags for $4.62, which equals out to be $0.14 a bag. so the meal was $3.25 including the bag with around 700 calories! throw in a snickers bar for dessert....
in the dried noodle isle I also found a microwaveable chicken noodle soup meal from Nissin. it contains 2 servings and has 560 calories. I picked it up because it had vegetables in it along with the noodles. it only cost $0.78. so that meal would only cost $3.02.....
single servings of spam were only a little over a buck also. corned beef was much more expensive. these will definitely bump up the calories compared to chicken.
now I have to get crackin and see how filling these meals are going to be.