[Traildoggie]

I want more variety in our backpacking and hiking food. some things I can get at the supermarket but others, no. like instant refried beans. green lentils. coconut powder. I know I can get large quantities via amazon but I don't want to buy 12 of anything until I've at least tried the recipe. Backpacker mag routinely uses ingredients I've never seen. What's a good source for smaller amounts? I've built dinners around prepackaged supermarket food like quick cooking spanish rice, or envelope noodle dishes but they seem to be shaving down the sizes, one is not enough, two is too much.

[jenjen]

You list your location as Arlington. Have you tried Hagen's for the instant refried beans and green lentils? I ask because I can find those at the Hagens in Bellingham. I've actually found those ingredients at Fred Meyer as well. (look in the organic section) Coconut powder, you're probably going to have to find an Asian grocer for. I know they have at least one in Everett (or used to). If you're up for a drive into the city, Seattle has lots of Asian grocers with all sorts of instant sauces and different noodles and stuff. I know there's one on Aurora Ave and 165th - or around there. For mail-order ingredients, Packit Gourmet rocks. Fast shipping, good customer service, and their dehydrated food is seriously good.

[Traildoggie]

Was just at Haggen this afternoon. no green lentils or instant refried beans. Store stock varies considerably from store to store, as there are 3 Haggens near here, and Stanwood is usually the best. I might have seen green lentils at QFC and that's the next spot to look. There's a Freddies pretty close too. I'll check out packit gourmet. there aren't any decent size natural food places near here that I know of, so I'll want mail order rather than drive all over "looking". Thanks for the ideas. I saw some good sounding things on this web site so have gotten new motivation.

[Allison]

Any Asian market will have the dried coconut milk. (Got a recipe that uses it? Please share!) That big box retailer with the horrendous labor practices allegedly has the yummy dried refried beans. You know, the one with the name kind of like mall rat.

[Opus]

Some of these might not help out too much, unless you make a trip down south, but here are a few sources I've found: Ballard Market (and Greenwood Market): great selection of bulk ingredients. They have lentils and instant refried bean flakes (black and pinto) that are good. Also hummus and tabouli mix in bulk. Good selection of Indian foods too. Viet Wah supermarket (Renton, Seattle): Lots of interesting stuff, half of which I cant read. Good source for powdered coconut milk in larger packets, snacks, and other stuff. Uwajimaya (Renton, Seattle): Similar to Viet Wah. They have coconut milk in little single use packets for $.75 and other useful stuff. Again, I cant read half of it! There is a Ranch 99 Asian grocery in Edmonds, that might be the closest to Arlington. A lot of larger grocery stores will have instant refried beans from Fantastic Foods in boxes. It's usually in the natural section, or near Rice-a-Roni and other instant meals.

[Allison]

What am I Q, chopped liver?

[Traildoggie]

I don't have a specific recipe for the coconut milk but DH & I don't eat meat / fish except occasional canned chicken, so I look for ways to get protein or "richness" into dinner. powdered coconut milk sounds good. Nuts are good too. I'm not thrilled with curry for backpacking. the flavor and odor stick with me too long and I don't want to taste it for 3 days, and Backpacker seems to like curry a lot. They also just ran a recipe ( june) calling for 16 oz of penne pasta. 16 oz? Are you kidding me? for two people? for one meal? anyway, I always dry run at home if I'm not pretty sure. The recipe WTA ran last month for the broccoli slaw with peanut dressing was excellent. I tried it at home, a little messy for a backpack but workable. Fantastic foods instant refried beans was the one I was looking for but no luck at Haggen so will try QFC or freddies. there's at least 1 Asian market in downtown Everett to try. I'll do mail order before I drive to seattle. and I'll starve before I shop at mall rat. I don't care if it costs more, it's worth it not to patronize that place. If there's a thread somewhere here with a good recipe or two, please point me to it, or tell em what to search for. Thanks!

[sarbar]

For hard to find powders hit up www.packitgourmet.com - you will love seeing the possibilities. www.minimus.biz is the place for packets of condiments. For shopping I like Haggen when up North as well. Fred Meyers, WinCo, QFC, etc are also great stops. So are Super Wally-Worlds (for those that like it there). Glad you liked the Broc Slaw wraps - my husband and I are the ones behind that column in the WTA magazine If you look back in the food section Dicentra and I have both posted a number of tasty/easy recipes - or if you like certain things let me know - I can post some ideas you might like!

[sarbar]

Btw..on Fantastic Foods - they are often hidden in weird places. They can be shoved in with stuff you wouldn't expect it to be with. For example: at QFC they hide it in a narrow "natural foods" section near the stufffing/mashed potatoes. Ask if you don't see it!

[Traildoggie]

Congrats on the broccoli slaw... loved it. generally we like warm things for dinner so will use it for lunch. anything cooked in 1 pot, warm, juicy and cheesy- nutty, although chicken is OK too. we don't eat red meat, sausage, tuna, or mayo. and I don't like curry ( for backpacking) cause the smell hangs around and around... I don't mind searching for things already posted here, just a key word would help though. I pulled several things off another thread, the cherry chicken couscous sounded excellent as did the primavera one. I have a breakfast (warm) couscous recipe I'll post shortly that we've liked alot. I even had a Haggen person check with mgr for the instant refried beans, and no luck. I shop there all the time and know all the places they'd hide things. now QFC is a bigger store and "hides" things in more places but I'll look there this week. and maybe Freddies. there's a winco near here too but only been there once and didn't find most of the usual groceries I use so never went back. could give it another try. another thing that ticks me off is the ramen noodles. used to use the baked ones, won't eat the fried ones. I know, I know, it's only an occasional meal, but no, won't do it. Any good subs for the old baked ramens? Ideas for instant mashed potatoes? I see those with possibilities but need more texture than plain potatoes. I looked at the minimus and packitgourmet sites and will use them for what I can't find locally.

[sarbar]

Sure! Baked ramen = lo mein or chuka soba noodles. They are sold in the Asian section. They look similar to ramen in the packaging. They cook very similar as well. Great alternative! On the mashed potatoes I like the ones that Costco carries which the brand is slipping my mind....Earth something? Anyhow, they have the milk and fat added already so have more "texture" Idahoan brand ones work as well (they also said brand just mentioned) - the Idahoan ones that come in the foil packets all flavored, the add 2 cups water type. WinCo is a hit or miss kind of place but they can have hidden treasures Also...if you go through Mt. Vernon stop at the Co-op! They have a lot of the fun stuff like the beans.

[Traildoggie]

the soba noodles in the sort of brick shape on the reg shelf? Never thought of those. Haven't bought those in a while, but I'll bet they are a great sub. and going on the shopping list as we speak. totally pi$$ed me off when the baked ramen disappeared. Same with the Nestle "chocolate meltdown" instant hot chocolate. made all the others seem insipid but it's not being made anymore as far as I can tell. Figures, I loved it, it's gone! I've used Idahoan though Haggen had another brand on the shelf last week, betty Crocker I think? I've never used them for backpacking cause I couldn't come up with anything to add to them or put on top of them so it felt like dinner. Winco has great prices if they happen to have what you want. Not a wide variety sometimes. I do remember a good bulk foods section.

[sarbar]

The Chuka Soba will look like this - hope that helps. The Betty Crocker brand works fine for the potatoes, though I prefer the Idahoan. IMO it tastes better, but that is me

[Traildoggie]

Yep, those are the noodles I was thinking of. haven't bought them in a while ... every since the fresh ones are at costco... but now on the shopping list. geez, feel as dumb as a rockl how come I didn't think of those as a sub for ramen?? only the package size may not be perfect but will experiment. used to use 2 ramen packages per dinner. The costco used to have the Idahoan mashed potatoes but it was a pack of 24 or something so I just buy 1-2 at haggen. what do you put in or on the potatoes?

[Slugman]

Get yourself a Harmony House backpacking Kit This will give you numerous ingredients, no meat but several different beans, but not a huge quantity of any one thing. # Kit includes: Red and green peppers, potato dices (2), cabbage, carrots (2), celery, sweet corn, green beans, sweet peas (2) and chopped onions. # Kit also includes: tomato dices, lentils, red beans, black beans, northern beans and pinto beans. I got mine with a 20% off coupon, and it's a heck of a lot of freeze-dried food for $40.