Menu and Food

After researching the various ways long distance hikers approach the logistics of eating along the trail, I decided to combine dehydrating food with a pantry challenge. My goal was to make as much lightweight food as possible without spending lots of money at the grocery store since the cost of shipping food boxes was bound to get expensive.  After taking inventory of the pantry, I set my mind to creating healthy meals, with as much veggies, protein, and calories as possible to compliment some the cheaper starchy stuff I will be able to buy along the way. I decided against sending any energy bars, chocolate, or trail mix, since this stuff is typically heavy and just as cheap to buy along the way.

A lot of the dehydrating process was an experiment and some things turned out much better than others.

Successes:

• Lentil dahl
• Banana, chocolate protein powder, and hempseed fruit leathers
• Pumpkin pie fruit leathers (these were so good, I ate them all before I got a chance to pack them!). Ingredients: 1 can of pumpkin puree, all spice, maple syrup, and a bit of banana mixed in a food processor.
• Dried peas, kale and zucchini to add to other dishes
• Vegetable spreads. I know it sounds gross but they are delicious and super healthy.
  Ingredients: Yams, potatoes, onions, spinach, kale (any veggie really), spices and nutritional yeast. I combined everything as if I was making a stew with a bit of stock and extra salt. Once everything was cooked I added tofu, and hemp seeds and put in food processor. It dries into flakes and only needs a little bit of water to rehydrate.
• Brown rice and quinoa. This turned out way better than expected. It just takes a 10 min soak in hot or cold water to bring back to life!
• Bean hummus to spread on crackers for lunch.

Not So Successful:
If you're ever wondering if you can dehydrate tofu...don't bother. It's impossible to rehydrate, and if you thought it couldn't really taste any worse out of the package...well it can.

Peanut butter and banana fruit leathers. Sounds genius right? Especially for a peanut butter lover like me. Unfortunately, PB has way too much oil and spoils eventually. These still ended up tasting super good, but I had to put them in the freezer so they would keep longer. I highly recommend this as as snack for day hikes.

All in all, you can't really go wrong with a dehydrator. It' so fun and easy, and saves so much on weight. It' amazing to turn it on and come back 10 hours later and see the magic! I didn't do any meat, and I wouldn't recommend doing anything with dairy or lots of oil. I paln on hiking with individual packets of Coconut oil to add for flavour and calories. My only concern with having a bunch of dehydrated food is needing enough water on hand to rehydrate. In dry sections this could mean having to carry a bit more weight when water sources are far apart.