A demanding schedule has hindered my cooking time as of
late, which has translated into very little time to experiment with dinners.
This week, I finally made time,
prepped a few simple dishes and tossed ’em into the dehydrator.
Before I get to those, I’d like to mention that my previous experiments were a success!! Even after 21 days in ziplock bags, the
lentils and black beans look and taste great!
A day after I made the lentils and black beans, I made rice
noodles with olive oil, mushrooms, asparagus, dried dill, salt and a pinch of cayenne
pepper. After 20 days, the rice noodles look good and taste even better. I
think I will be eating quite well on the trail after all :)
Ok, back to my current experiments. The first meal I prepared this time around
was macaroni salad. I used curly (spiral shaped) macaroni, vegenaise (vegan
mayo), celery, bok choy, garlic, cilantro, curly parsley and dill. Can you say
YUMMMMMMY?? After about 8 hours in the dehydrator at 135 degrees, I removed the
dried salad and placed it into a ziploc bag. I tell ya – if this dish doesn’t
spoil (and I don’t think it will), I may be the only person to reek of garlic
on the trail :))
The second meal I prepared was rice – made with olive oil,
curry powder, turmeric, cayenne pepper and a dash of salt – with a side dish
consisting of eggplants, carrots, onions, garlic and parsley. The rice dish was
in the dehydrator with the macaroni salad so it too dried for 8 hours. In all
honesty, these meals taste better when dehydrated than they do just after I
make them. Or it might just be that I get hungry at night (I turned the
dehydrator off at 10pm).
I’m not sure about the caloric content of these meals in
relation to their weight, but I'm almost certain that the ratio is close to
100(calories):1(ounce). Although eating calorically dense, hearty meals on the
trail is most important to me, it is more important to consume nutritionally
dense and tasty meals. I’m willing to lug a few extra ounces of food per day on
the trail and look forward to dinnertime than stick to the ratio religiously
and languish each time I open my bear canister.
Please don’t hesitate to comment! I would love to hear your
thoughts, observations and even suggestions for recipes that work for you!
Bon appétit
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