quick and easy meals

My sugestion is to only use mince meat and small vegetable chunks. I have tried small chunks of meat and they can still be rock hard in the centre even after an hour of rehydration, so mince is the best. So far i have only used beef mince but chicken mince should be fine. For vegetables i use packs of frozen vegtables with things like peas, corn, broccoli and cauliflower and other things. Avoid anything too large though. The method i use is to fry the mince in a pan with some oil untill brown and then add a maggi or other brand flavour sachet(such as beef casserole but anything is suitable) or powdered stock and a cup or so of water and then simmer for about 10 min. Cool and then put in dehydrator untill done. At the same time put a bag of frozen vegies into dehydrator while still frozen untill done. When done put the meat and vegies into sealable airtight plastic bag and freeze untill needed. These should last about a year, maybe more, but be wary of the fat going rancid. To pad it out you can try and put a packet of 2 min noodles,crushed,into the mix, with flavour packet included.

I am interested in this thread and would like to expand on it seeking other trampers opinions on what light foods they bring on tramps apart from the Backcountry dehydrated meals (of which I have sampled most, Morroccan Lamb being best I thought though some were disappointing). I have found those new metal sachets containing tuna are a great improvement on the cans and a good shape for fitting in a pack.

Yep, tuna sachets are fitted well in a pack. Lighter sachets of 50-60g are awaited for. I often have tuna served with Kraft, Easy Mac (Cheese), Ready in 3-4 minutes. Also like Pasta Pronto, 3 minute cooking. Adding to this, I also carry Vietnamese sausage (lap xuong) that is something like western Salamie (spelling?) For soup (my entree) I pack in Continental tiny stock cubes.

I find meggi noodles and indian snack the best.Indian snacks like nut balls in jaggery,mathis(cumin salted cookies) and besan burfi ( fudge)are very much energy giving and healthy as they are vegetarian with saturated fats.They have herbal benefits as well.And the thing NO COOKING Thanks Rajita -Logo Design http://www.logodesignnewzealand.co.nz

If you have a dehydrator, cook your rice first. Cut to size some greaseproof paper sheets to spread the rice thinly over. Once dehydrated, it will only take a couple of minutes to be ready. It is a big improvement on the twenty or so minutes it may take to cook rice in the field or even the six minutes required to prep Jasmine rice. I often vacuum seal it, label it and travel o'seas with it.

Fruits are superb to put through the dehydrator. Kiwi friut and pineapple are really nice. Slice it thin. A real treat is fruit yoghurt poured on greaseproof paper, dehydrated and cut to size.

I'm amazed after all these years that there aren't more people using oven bags. From heating milk to cooking a cake in a billy the oven bag saves cleaning, gas, water, use of detergents etc. You can eat your dehydrated meals from the bag you heat it in. Be sure to put a little water in the billy before placing the oven bag with contents in.

I have a dehydrator and have dried lots of stuff in it. One of the best meals is simply dehydrated pasta sauce, mushrooms and capsicums. Dehydrate each on its own tray as they take different times. The sauce will become like fruit leather. You can rehydrate it all together for about 30 minutes (less if you're in a hurry) chop in a pepperoni stick and mix into pasta. As Aardvark said, pre-cooking and dehydrating rice saves time and fuel when you're tramping. Works very well. Dehydrated pineapple is delicious, either as a snack or in meusli. I have also tried recipes from a new cookbook called "A Fork In The Trail" which is available on Amazon. All of them have worked well so far. Lentils seem to turn out particularly well. Just keep trying stuff!

My friend in Auckland dehydrates all the meals for his tramps. he has some great recipies. You can find him on his websight www.fatmando.co.nz