Kinda proud of myself, as you can see. This is my second successful attempt of three attempts at this dish on trail. One was absurdly overcooked. It’s all about gauging how hot your coals are.

Qualifies as hiker trash meal because it feeds two for under $10. Two Cornish hens ($6-$7) and a few sheets of foil and old bay seasoning.

Get the giblets out and season the night before then wrap in foil and throw them back in the freezer. Into a plastic grocery bag, then double bagged off the back of your pack for the first day out. Defrost while hiking.

Build a fire and get yourself a bed of coals, roast on hot coals for about an hour to hour and a half depending on how defrosted and how hot the coals are.

Enjoy😜😘

Everything kind of went wrong but I had a blast. I couldn’t find my long spork or my peak bag I’d set aside the night before and my friends were waiting on me so I grabbed a spoon, stanley cup, and boxed mac and cheese and went for it.

i just recently bought a jetboiler and i am curious if i could cook a butternut squash until softened in it. I plan to discard the skin of the squash and mash the insides, seasoning with brown sugar, vegan butter and salt/blackpepper.

for reference the squash i am planning to use (i need to prepare it before it rots) fits inside the jetboil with room for water on the sides.

if there are any relevant techniques that you think would help me that you know of that you’d like to share, i’d love to hear them.

Backpacked Dolly Sods in WV and cooked up the Annie’s Mac n cheese. Wasn’t sure if the Jetboil Minimo was big enough but it fit and cooked perfectly!

Yes, it’s cold.

more of a discussion i suppose, but curious on how the community is applying the UL hikertrashmeals ethic to their non-nomadic homes. and/or how they would apply it.

i'm thinking things like maintaining a consistent stock of hiker meal essentials. ramen is maybe a bad example :) but jerky, dried fruit, nuts, trail mix etc. obviously, because this is leaning into the sedentary lifestyle there can be opportunities to luxe it up. on the other hand, would like the option to be able to grab and go without much pre planning. not only for hikes, but for day trips to the park and road trips too!

thx, excited to hear back!

Was actually yummy on a desert hike today. Good burger!

When you find that perfect stick to cook an entire pack of cheddar fill sausages. Rotisserie baby!!!

A few things I've learned:

• Unfortunately, dehydrated beans (the best cold soaking food) are the one thing I can never seem to find on trail. I almost never send resupply boxes, but when I do, they're almost entirely beans
• Some rice noodle ramens out there actually rehydrate into noodles instead of stodgy sadness. Ramen has lots of oil that gunks up your cold soak jar and is hard to clean (relative to beans or potatoes). I prefer to just eat ramen dry
• Knorr rice sides kind of work. The rice re-hydrates fine, but the noodles liquefy into an unpleasant slime. It's edible and the Spanish/Mexican flavors work well with beans, cheese sticks, and tortillas for little trail burritos. The pasta Knorr sides have never worked for me
• I can live indefinitely on Idahoans. The flavors with the most textural variation are often the least tedious to eat plain (baby reds, buttery selects, pepper jack, etc.)
• Gotta get that protein. As a vegetarian, protein powder is the easiest solution on trail. While in town, a can of beans is often a dollar or two for 20g+ of protein, way more protein/$ than most shakes. I drink a crazy amount of sludge (recipe below)
• Vanilla protein powder is the most versatile, but whatever is available works. Walgreens, CVS, and most major grocery stores carry it, making it pretty easy to keep a good supply at all times
• Buying instant coffee in bulk is 10-20x cheaper than buying little Starbucks sticks. I carry a freezer pint ziploc and refill it about every other resupply
• Buying bulk electrolytes (potassium and magnesium) online and making your own drink mix with table salt is a great way to save money, and many/most electrolyte drink mixes I've found on trail often only have sodium. LMNT has a great guide
• Make sludge in your cold soaking jar, not your water bottles. It helps rinse out your jar/keep it clean, avoids spilling powder all over your stuff (wide opening), and who doesn't love additional bonus cheesy potato chocolate coffee?
• I've been considering an all-sludge thru some time, but I have yet to achieve the level of self-hatred necessary

Morning Sludge

• Protein powder
• Carnation (chocolate or vanilla)
• Instant coffee
• Hiker box mystery powder

Hydration Sludge

• Vanilla protein powder
• Strawberry Carnation
• Electrolytes
• Emergen-C

Green Sludge

• Vanilla protein powder
• Vanilla Carnation
• Greens powder
• Flax or chia seeds

Bean Sludge

• Dehydrated beans
• Courage

Heyo fellow hikers – I’m headed out on a trek through the Badlands next week and was planning to stock up on bars beforehand. I usually bring chips and trail mix and sometimes those freeze-dried meals. Anyway, when I was meal planning I started to wonder about what else bars can replace, like even not in an outdoor setting. I’m curious folks’ thoughts on this – let me know all the things you think a granola bar can work as a replacement for below. They’re kinda insanely versatile.

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Hello,

I unfortunately have a milk allergy. Breakfast essentials seems to be a staple for a lot of great no-cook liquid nutrition recipes. Does anyone have a dairy free alternative they use?

Thank you!

Anyone have any input on how much water to use for rehydrating Knorr rice and pasta side dishes? I’m planning on using a stasher bag and putting boiling water into it to rehydrate. Just not sure if the instructions on the package will be compatible with my method. Thanks much!!!

Salty, spicy, sour, fatty... Culinary perfection. Destroyed 8 on the West Island Way (Bute)

I understand that “too much fat” isn’t “good” in dehydrated meals. Not sure why. When I make dishes to dehydrate I usually use a tablespoon or two of oil and it always seems to be fine. I’m just wondering how others approach this? Has anyone tested the limits on how much oil is too much?

Hey friends! I went on a short trip recently and threw together a meal on the cheap with things on sale at the grocery store where I work my night job at. The resulting mess turned out really good, and I thought that I'd share it.

1. Nongshim Tonkatsu Ramen Bowl. (3.5oz, 450 kcal)
2. Nongshim Shin Ramyun (4.5oz ~570 kcal
3. Vienna Sausages (4.5oz, 260 kcal)
4. Jongga Kimchi packet (2.8oz 5kcal)

I used the broth packet from the Tonkatsu bowl and not the ramyun, it was just there for extra noodles and different texture. I also used the little packet of veggies that came with the ramyun. It was just a big dumb mass of noodles and meat and it was good. The kimchi was the standout to me, and I'll be adding it to future dishes. I could really see it being awesome a few days into the trip when something crunchy and tangy would shake things up. It produced a ton of trash, though. In the future, I'll probably just repack the stuff that I want into a big freezer bag and avoid packing in the trash. The black garlic oil and the sausages got together to make some gnarly burps, though. To cut weight, you could easily sub out the sausages for any kind of pouch chicken/tuna/SPAM or make the tin into a supercat stove in the field. I've done that with patés before. I enjoyed this. It was interesting, it was easy and it was filling all for about seven bucks. And it's a great platform to riff on.

If you'd like to see how it turned out, I made a crappy video because I'm a terrible hack. You don't have to watch it if you don't have to, it's your decision and I respect that. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJ8dJkhIQs

Just got back from a long weekend camping at the Russian River. Had a blast but got the sense a lot of the people we met at the campground were newer to the scene (which is kind of cool to see).

I'm curious how Covid impacted the hiking / camping scene. Vote below how long you've been doing this stuff. No judgement if you're newer -- just trying to get a general sense of what's changed.

Thanks y'all

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Hey there - I just got back from a camping trip out in Yosemite and a group of college kids at my campsite were eating those freeze-dried meals you see that come in like a plastic pouch?

I've obviously seen these around but never tried them -- I always thought they were kinda old school / ex-military vibes. But after seeing all those young people with them I'm kinda curious now?

What do people think -- are these any good? Are they more for geezers or young people?

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