Forum Index > Food & Grub > Trail Grains - baked and dried - Jardine's opinions
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Luc
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Luc
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PostFri Jun 08, 2007 2:33 pm 
Hey All, I've been readin from Jardine's lightweight hiking manual (not sure what edition) and am planning on adopting a few techniques, while others are a bit extreme for me. Especially when "mega hikes" are kind of prohibited in this stage of my life due to work. THe chapter that i find especially interesting is the food chapter. Particularly when he talks about grains and the different parts of grains and the foolish/deceptive labeling that many foods have - including swanky backpacking foods. I really do believe that the quality and amount of food consumed on a trip can affect more than just the hunger quench. I have felt my body and spirit poo poo on the the trip when I am eating just "bars and jelly beans" for a few days. But Jardine's suggestions on how to get around crappy BPing foods are a bit over the top for me. Especially hit rant and suggestions for trail grains. I can see that all the "instant" crap is crap for authentic reasons. But I don't know if I can always plan on soaking grain for 2 hours prior to eating, or boil for 30 minutes just to have the "good stuff". Also, trail breads have always fascinated me and I have been searching for years on a healthy, whole grain bread to make ON THE TRAIL. Jardine also suggests to buy your own grain mill to use at home but that's a bit extreme for me too. I'm wondering what some of you do who have either read this and taken the info to practice or already knew the stripped down nutritional nature of BPing and "instant" foods. How do you use whole grains on the trail without it taking 3 hours to eat, 45 minutes to boil, or be crunching on your hot breakfast cereal. Also, any suggestions for on the treal Breads - particularly pan breads that have more substance than the honey or cheese you put on them later that day during lunch?

GNGSTR
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Dane
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PostFri Jun 08, 2007 2:43 pm 
Ray Jardine = KOOK! hockeygrin.gif Sorry, can't help you with the trail grains. Good luck.

Without judgement what would we do? We would be forced to look at ourselves... -Death
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Allison
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Allison
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PostFri Jun 08, 2007 2:49 pm 
Luc, sorry, gotta agree with Dane on this one. There are a lot of good trail food resources out there that are less k00kY.

www.allisonoutside.com follow me on Twitter! @AllisonLWoods
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Luc
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Luc
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PostFri Jun 08, 2007 2:58 pm 
coming from someone with that avatar?????!!! so, what are they? brands? etc? show me an instant breakfast that isn't sucked free of nutrition and taste (and not fortified either) show me a pan bread that is more than bleached flour show me'um! oh yes, and i should also say, i'm also looking for home recipes.....

GNGSTR
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sarbar
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PostFri Jun 08, 2007 8:38 pm 
Luc, Ray has good ideas..and er, um....some kooky ideas wink.gif Food is one area that Ray is well known for having odd thoughts (ie..corn pasta and eating raw foods were things he got into as well.) It isn't hard to eat whole grains and do it light. One thing I started doing was cooking and dehydrating whole wheat pasta, it comes back to life in about 10 minutes of sitting in hot water in a cozy. Add in olive oil and cheese, and toss in some dry pesto with it, good eats! I also dry canned beans and add that to my pasta and rice dishes. Another way to add protein, and lots-o fiber as well. One of the best things you can do is invest $50 in a dehydrator and start drying smile.gif

https://trailcooking.com/ Eat well on the trail.
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sarbar
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sarbar
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PostFri Jun 08, 2007 8:39 pm 
Btw, you can eat stuff like Bulghur and oats, and not have to cook them excessively either.

https://trailcooking.com/ Eat well on the trail.
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jenjen
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PostFri Jun 08, 2007 9:47 pm 
Re-hydrating for a few hours really isn't all that hard. I carry an empty Pringles can (or Lays... one of those round potato chip can things) that lives in one of the side pouches of my pack. I carry that Pringles can so that I can re-hydrate meals prior to cooking them. I add water to the meal baggie at lunch time, stick it in the pringles can so it doesn't leak or mush all over the place, and then come dinner time the meal only takes quick cooking. This works great for re-hydrating your own de-hydrated chicken sausage and spaghetti sauce. It works great for cooked, dried, and then re-hydrated wheat berries. It also works well for brown rice. Those are the grains I've tried. Couscous is easy to work with on the trail. Quinoa is also easy - add boiling water and let it steep for 15 minutes or so. If you're looking for a whole grain breakfast, add water to the grain baggie and stick it in the Pringles can overnight. (I haven't tried this, but that's how I'd do it)

If life gives you melons - you might be dyslexic
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sarbar
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sarbar
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PostFri Jun 08, 2007 10:22 pm 
Jen, my friend Catzia does the overnight soaking of grains for breakfast. She likes it that way smile.gif

https://trailcooking.com/ Eat well on the trail.
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hermes
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PostFri Jun 08, 2007 11:24 pm 
Grizzlies Swiss Muesli available in bulk at PCC (organic and not) is crushed raw grains with some raisins, rolled dates and nuts. I pre-portion it in small ziplocks (a little goes a long way) and add a tablespoon of dried milk powder. Each morning on the trail I add cold water to a bag and let it sit - by the time I'm packed (~15 mins) it's ready to eat.

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Allison
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Allison
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PostFri Jun 08, 2007 11:35 pm 
Ray Jardine has a lot of interesting ideas about lightweight backpacking, but he is also paranoid about bathroom doorknobs and forks having bacteria between the tines--he recommends using your own fork in restaurants. Stick with the advice here and the principles of Jardine and you should be fine.

www.allisonoutside.com follow me on Twitter! @AllisonLWoods
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nuclear_eggset
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PostSat Jun 09, 2007 4:20 pm 
"show me an instant breakfast that isn't sucked free of nutrition and taste (and not fortified either) " quinoa flakes with flax meal. add a touch of brown sugar and cinnamon (and vanilla powder!) stored in a ziploc bag. to cook, mix with boiling water, sitting for a few minutes. protein, fiber, fat, and carbs! and tasty. smile.gif add dried apples if you've got 'em. you can also get grits made from buckwheat, a combination of sorgum/corn/buckwheat/rice, or sorgum. quinoa, as a whole grain, is a good one to take - let it boil for a couple minutes and sit for a bit after that, and you've got a very healthy, high-protein grain without soaking or a lot of work. amaranth is much the same, because it's also very small.

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grannyhiker
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PostSun Jun 10, 2007 1:12 pm 
I'm just finishing up (a bit late) a project of cooking various whole grains at home (flavoring with plenty of herbs and cooking them in low-fat chicken or beef or vegetable stock--unless you use unsalted stock, you don't need to add extra salt to the grains) and dehydrating them. I've tried quinoa, "Seeds of Change" 7-grain pilaf and "Kashi" 7-grain pilaf. As with Sarbar's pre-cooked and dehydrated whole wheat pasta, the precooked and dehydrated grains rehydrate using her "Freezer Bag Cooking" method (add boiling water to the dried food in the freezer bag, stir, let it sit in a cozy for about 10 min.). No pre-soaking or cooking in the pot (with attendant pot scrubbing, aargh) is necessary on the trail. You can add home-dehydrated meat or TVP for more protein. Although I'm not a vegetarian, I've found that TVP (soy protein) tastes just as good as the dried meat--it picks up the flavor of what it's rehydrated with. I will therefore dehydrate much less meat in future. I generally throw in some dried onion and garlic and freeze-dried veggies with the dehydrated cooked grains before packaging to make a complete one-dish meal. Tests so far have tasted great. (As I found out the hard way, be sure to test every dish at home before taking it out on the trail--the "hard way" for me was home-dried peas that were still like buckshot after 20 minutes of boiling.) If you're leery about "instant" brown rice, you can do the precooking-dehydrating routine with regular brown rice. Whole-wheat couscous can be rehydrated out of the box with the "Freezer Bag Cooking" method. Thank you, Sarbar!!! My favorite breakfast is meusli of which my favorite brand is Bob's Red Mill. For longer trips I take a little homemade granola for variety, but I prefer the meusli, which I learned to love (with yogurt) in Norway. I pack serving sizes in sandwich bags with dried milk and a little freeze-dried fruit (unless, of course, huckleberries are in season), add cold water in the morning and eat it out of the bag (nothing to wash but the spoon). The only thing I wish I had is dried yogurt (is there such a thing?) instead of dried milk! Unless it's a really frosty morning (in which case I have a cup of tea), I don't use my stove in the morning.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.--E.Abbey
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sarbar
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sarbar
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PostSun Jun 10, 2007 1:15 pm 
Granny, you can dry yogurt! Good stuff. Think of it like fruit leather.

https://trailcooking.com/ Eat well on the trail.
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grannyhiker
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PostSun Jun 10, 2007 1:18 pm 
Great! I'll try it today! Thank you!

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.--E.Abbey
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Magellan
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Magellan
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PostSun Jun 10, 2007 3:24 pm 
I am lactose intolerant. (Some would say generally intolerant) I know soy powder is not dehydrated soybeans, but how would that work being added to the cereal in place of dried milk?

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