Hiking Food
My food philosophy is to keep things as simple as possible. The only meal that I cook is dinner and it is a no frills method in my homemade stove. All the food I use is bought from a small rural supermarket so more options should be available to those in large towns or cities.
I tried to make a rough calculation of how many kilojoules this diet provides me with and I came up with an answer of about 11,000kJ which is about what I think need to keep me going on a long hike.
I will review my food thoughts as I do the Australian Alps Walking Track and see how my energy levels go.
Breakfast
Muesli (150g) and powdered milk. There's not much else you can say about that.
Lunch
I eat the same thing for lunch everyday (except the first day of a hike where I may carry salad sandwiches). It is a basic sandwich spread that I found on my internet searching. The creator calls his spread Ultralight Joe's Moose Goo. I have modified Joe's receipe ever so slightly because I found it a touch sweet.
Ultralight Joe's Moose Goo
8 parts honey
8 parts corn flour
5 parts peanut butter
This simple little creation is full of energy and I find that one 375g peanut butter (plastic) jar is enough for four lunches. The bread I use is corn bread made by the Mountain Bread Co. It is flat, light, and yummy. Four pieces of bread each with a bit of 'goo' is lunch. On shorter walks I also usually carry a block of one of the hard types of cheese to munch on with lunch.
Dinner
At the moment I have four dinners that I try to rotate through. The basis for all meals is two serves of long life noodles. These noodles provide good energy and carbs and can be cooked easily with any flavour of meal. For all meals I first soak the ingredients for as long as possible, then heat the meal to boiling point with the lid on, and finally let the pot sit for 5 minutes, still with the lid on, to cook the food.
Dinner 1 - Noodles and Pesto
This is my simplest meal. There is a company called GIA who produce pasta sauces in 80g squeeze tubes. Lately I been having half a tube of their 'Red Pesto' sauce with my usual two serves of noodles. Chilli can be added for extra flavour. The sauces are supposed to be refridgerated after opening so I will usually have this meal two nights in a row to use up the entire tube as quickly as possible.
Dinners 2, 3 & 4 - Noodles & Vegetables
These meals are identical apart from the flavouring. The basis of all meals is 2 serves of noodles, one sachet (56g) of Dew Crisp Dehydrated Vegetables, two spoons of cous cous, and one spoon of N.S.M. Falafel mix (a powder of chick peas, broad beans, and soy beans).
Tomato and Herb
add two spoons of Ardmona Tomato Magic (tomato powder) and 3/4 spoons of mixed herbs
Tomato and Chilli
add two spoons of Ardmona Tomato Magic (tomato powder) and chilli powder to taste
Satay
add one spoon of peanut butter and three spoons of coconut milk powder
Dessert
I never used to eat dessert on hikes but I tried it out recently and decided it was something I liked. The simplest dessert is instant custard - just add water and eat. Instant puddings are also available but they require you to also carry powdered milk. They are pretty yummy though.
Snacks
I am a scroggin eater. My scroggin consists of mixed nuts, mixed dried fruit, and chocolate. I eat about 200g per day.
This page last updated on 16 January 2002