Australian Alps Walking Track - our HIking menu

So I've been weighing up in my mind a dilemma of sorts, "What can I eat that is lightweight, tasty enough to keep me satisfied for 36-39 days and provide me with sufficient energy to achieve my daily targets."
And of course it has to not go off whilst buried in the ground for possibly up to 8 weeks! (we will be digging them in about 2 weeks prior to our departure)

October last year Tim and I dug a sample into the ground up Mt Dandenong at a friends house of some of the staple items we knew we were bringing to see how they went and after 6 weeks in the ground I pulled them out and ate them all with a quiet confidence I wasn't going to get sick.  We added to the list since then but again with proper food preparation and vacuum sealing everything, we will be safe and well fed.

above photo is still missing 17 dinners and is for 1 person only

Breakfast 

I've read on a number of blogs of guys who have gone out in the bush with their favourite meals only to find that in the changed environment they cannot stand to look at the foods more less eat them, yet due to their location in the scrub and unable to just jump out and buy something else they had to shovel it down begrudgingly.  I experienced this 2 years back with packaged Oatmeal, that being said once a week I expect to wake up to cold and rainy conditions so I am none the less bringing 1 oatmeal breakfast per week.  The other 6 days a week i will be having either Honey or Berry "Light & Tasty" breakfast cereal (75g) and to keep my pack weight down I am just eating it with water ( no milk or powdered milk) I have actually been eating this for 8 weeks now every morning and to be honest I really see no need for milk on my cereal ever again.  The cereal taste isn't masked by the milk taste, my guts can digest the water easily and it doesn't cost me and the shops.

Energy created to start the day   In 2 oatmeal sachets (80grams) = 1280 kJ
Light & Tasty average (75g)    =  1155 kJ

Morning snack/Afternoon snacks

Again we are looking at variety as well as energy at a weight and a taste that will satisfy.
We will be rotating our menu daily between Energy bars, Dehydrated fruit and Trail mix for mid morning and mid afternoon snacks.
I have not calculated the energy values of the dehydrated fruit or trail mix but can testify to their benefits based purely on experience.







Pineapple, Banana, Granny Smith Apples and Pears have been lemon treated, dehydrated and vacuum sealed into 80 grams snack packs for convenience and hygiene.











Almonds, Pine nuts, Unsalted Peanuts, M&M's and cashew have also been vacuum sealed into 150g snack packs.


               

I have sampled a number of different energy bars and in the end have bought some of most of them and a couple standard grocery store bars to add variety to the menu.  All are high energy out put some slow release so fast release.  I can gage on the day what I want and it could definitely mean the difference between and enjoyable day or a miserable one.






Lunch

As far as hiking lunches go we have gone with the pretty standard stuff.  German Garlic Mettwurst (60grams), old faithful Parmigiano Reggiano (50grams) and Vita-Wheat Crackers (23grams)

Energy values;                    Mettwurst 60 grams = 843kJ
                         Parmigiano Reggiano 50 grams = 820kJ
                         4 Vita-wheat crackers 23.2 g     = 378kJ


                 


Afternoon hydration






Every other day we will also have a Powerade sachet to keep our electrolytes up









Dinner

We have tried some different things out over the last couple years since getting my dehydrator, the basis of my dinner meals is now to keep it easy.  1) meat 2) vegetables and 3) a staple to hold it all together.

We are rotating between Chicken and Tuna, mixing it in with a variety of vegetables (either cauliflower & Broccoli with Carrots or just corn and carrots) and for a third option 2 different spaghetti bolognese sauces.

We have taken all of the above and first individually cooked each item, veggies and spaghetti.  We have then blitzed each item in the Thermomix to make it either a paste or a powder.  Canned chicken or Tuna once blitzed becomes a powder.  These items are then weighed and vacuum sealed into a combined sachets for each dinner.  See below as an example of the canned chicken stages.

Canned chicken is best!

Blender into a paste

Spread evenly on dehydrator tray

Dehydrated

Blitz into chicken powder

Add to Veggie and Quinoa and seal it up

So as mentioned in the above photo our staple for each of these meals will be Quinoa, a protein - I wanted to mix up the rice content(carb).  I'm no health or well being guru but the basics of having a protein with Carbohydrate (in my mind) is that the protein will repair my body wwhile the carbs will energise it.


Desert

At every food drop we will be picking up some sweet supplies that are neither lightweight, healthy or compact.  Blocks of chocolate, a can of soda and bag of lollies are all on the menu.  We will also have every other night a hot chocolate to see out another glorious day in the wilderness.  Throw in a multi-vitamin every morning to make sure we have a balance vitamin and mineral intake and we set.

All these items will be organised and sealed up into our food drops.  Each food drop will have 6 - 7 days of food and supplies.  Our daily total food weigh varies depending on which snacks we have that day and whether we have hot chocolate at night but we will have between 3621grams and 4214 grams plus a chocolate block here or there per drop/week.