Alternatives to Freeze Dried Meal Packs

I think it was our host, Matthew who put me on to dehydrated refried beans. I bought mine from Aji's in Opawa Rd, Waltham. I chuck them in to bulk up dehy mince.

dehy refried beans. Nachos might be my next menu

Thanks, Honora. I'd been looking for dehydrated refried beans when I started this thread, had another look and found them available here: http://www.mexifoods.co.nz/shop/santiago-refried-beans-vegetarian-style-835gm Yes, good to bulk out deny mince or on their own with oil and lots of spices. Take flour and make tortillas / chapattis to go with them on a longer trip. Just need to find a source of (cheaper than parmessan) cheese powder. Might try buying a packet of grated tasty cheese and spreading it out in a cardboard box in the airing cupboard, forgetting it for a few weeks and see if it dries to something useable. That suggestion for pork scratchings might be worth pursuing. Buy a couple of pork roasts, cut off the skin, dice the rest for sweet and sour pork and put it in the freezer, cut up the skin and put it in the oven till its crisp and dry, a bit of salt on it and it should keep through a longer trip. Thickening up dehy mince with lentil flour (just put red lentils in the blender) also works well. Experiments with dehydrating mince myself seem to have been successful: Cook mince down, rinse the fat out in a sieve with lots of boiling water then continue to cook till it's dry, leave it in the wok on top of the woodturner with lowish heat overnight till it's completely dry. 1 kg went down to about 250 g.

I tried dehydrating grated cheese in the dehydrater. It was my only dehydrating fail - a helluva mess to clean up with cheese embedded in the trays. I know if you leave stuff long enough in the fridge, it dries up and shrivels eventually!

My dinner matrix: Choose at least one item from each heading. Gives you hundreds of different combinations. Obviously some combos work better together than others. Starch: Pasta (spaghetti, macaroni, orzo, risoni) Rice Noodles (ramen, 2-min, egg, rice) Couscous Corn chips Potato chips Instant mashed potato Protein: Bacon Salami Sausage (spicy types my fav) Precooked chicken Precooked mince Nuts (cashew, almonds, peanuts) Eggs (either precooked, or raw whole eggs stored in air/water tight plastic jar/bottle - good for 2-3 days) Cheese (cheddar, parmesan etc) Veges: dehydrated (surprise) fresh (pre-chopped, good for 2-3 days if in ziplock bag) Fats (good dose added for extra calories): Butter Olive oil Coconut cream powder Whole milk powder Sauce/Flavours: Maggi sauce packets (lots of different flavours) Curry paste or powder (any one of a hundred indian/asian mixes) Satay UHT Cream based sauce Tomato paste based sauce Tagine spice mix Soy, ginger, garlic, sesame, brown sugar Mixed herbs Chilli!!! Standard cooking method: Cold soak any dehy veges Bring minimum amount water up to boil, add starch and fresh veges. Take billy off stove and wrap in sleeping bag, leave until starch almost cooked. Add protein, sauce/flavour, fats and reheat. Eat.

I've collated my tramping recipes on my blog at http://waitakathlete.blogspot.co.nz/p/tramping-recipes.html Generally we dehydrate our own mince dishes, but for last minute packing something like macaroni cheese (with instant cheese sauce & dried peas) or couscous & a foil pack of tuna works well.

Excellent ideas, Briar. Going to try dehydrating raw eggs as I get a lot from the lady next door. I grated my cheese on to baking paper and then dried it at the lowest heat. It worked.

@phipipw wrote "Good dry bacon is pretty lightweight for what it is, tastes great and lasts at least 10 days." Has anyone tried taking bacon for this long? Does the writer mean dehydrated bacon? Or cooked till its crispy bacon? Or dry-cured *uncooked) bacon?

I've got some dried bacon in the fridge right now (the dehydrator cooked it). Vacuum sealed last october. It is fine. I simply chose the eye of the bacon, so no fat. I used it in caches over 11 days for our last Scenic Rim walk in Queensland.

when you buy those "bacon bits" from bulk stores/supermarkets, is this real bacon? Or just some vague protein of some kind with flavour added? If its real - this could be a good option. The dehy instant mashed potato option is amazing, it really puffs up once water is added, great food to weight ratio. And its yummy as hell.