Eating More than Dried Food

During our annual boys' trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, we had two primary goals... being old farts we didn't want to over-extend ourselves physically, and we didn't want to eat those crappy dehydrated meals all week.

We succeeded admirably in not working too hard. We paddled and portaged no more than a few miles per day on our way out. Furthermore, we had two days where we didn't really paddle anywhere. In fact, we were so lazy on our way out that we were able to make the entire trip back in one day. Don't get me wrong, that last day was a long, hard slog, but the point is that we managed to fulfill our goal of not over-extending ourselves.

Planning our meals required a bit more creativity. We could travel extremely light and eat only dehydrated backpacking meals all week, or we could add some extra weight and eat a bit better. And of course there is a happy medium. This is where my culinary expertise, creativity, and camping experience came in handy. Here are a few of the meals I managed to throw together for our trip...

-Chicken Broccoli Alfredo Pasta. Ingredients: Instant Broccoli Alfredo Pasta, Cooked Chicken Pouches, Powdered Milk, Butter Buds, Parmesan and Romano Cheese, and Lowry's Seasoned Salt

-Split Pea Soup and Spam. Ingredients: Dehydrated Split Pea Soup, 3 individual Spam pouches, Lowry's Seasoned Salt

-15 Bean Soup and Bacon. Ingredients: Dehydrated pack of 15-bean soup, Fully cooked peppered bacon, Parmesan and Romano Cheese and Lowry's Seasoned Salt

-Chili. Ingredients: Beef Jerky (which was reconstituted during the cooking process), Dehydrated Chili, 2x condensed tomato paste, Lowry's Seasoned Salt and Parmesan/Romano Cheese

We did have one evening of the dehydrated meals designed for camping/hiking/backpacking, and I must admit that they weren't that bad. With that said though, we ate MUCH better for a LOT less money. Yeah, it would have been possible to eat nothing but the dehydrated meals. We would have traveled a bit lighter, but we wouldn't have eaten nearly as well, and we would have spent a LOT more.

Let me close today's post with a picture from our trip...