I’m off to the Knoydart for a 3 day hike soon and I looking for recommendations for meals either dehydrated or otherwise.

Where do you guys get your meals from?

I’ve tried a few, and my favourites were Adventure Foods. I’m veggie though, so my options are pretty limited (which is a point in itself, I’d love to hear other recommendations for veggie ones).

http://adventurefood.com/en/

I can’t remember the name, but I read a round-up review in Trail a while back and the clear leader was a company who made hydrated pouches. I’ve never tried them myself.

EDIT: I think this was Wayfarer.

I order mine online as I get a biggest selection. Foil-bagged MREs (Meal Ready to Eat) generally taste better, but the downside is they weigh more, about half the calorific content by weight in comparison to dehydrated – I took mainly dehydrated on a 5-day event in the arctic for that reason. I tend to stick with curries and chillis too as the spices add flavour / make it tolerable. Creamy sauces and some of the pasta ones I’ve tried are bland and barely edible. High street shops like Cotswold, Blacks, Millets also stock them.

Breakfast – The instant porridge stuff is great these days – honey stuff for me! (The sachets are not big enough when out and about, so I do two per morning).
Lunch – any kind of simple bread with spread or cheese or similar works for me, depending on how much weight you want to carry. I do Pitta for lightness, with some squeezy cheese, marmite, peanut butter or jam, but often find that I use bagels (or at this time of year, hot cross buns).

Cous Cous of various kinds is ace – the Ainsley Harriot ones go down well in our household. Mix up with some choritzo or similar for taste (I take thin slices already). I also take plain pasta, with one of the many sachets of tomato sauce type things. Pudding is of course a packet of custard with suitable accoutrment of cake/fruit/choccy.

More importantly – how are you brewing up fresh coffee?

I make my own lean chicken or veggie chilis and dehydrate them at home in batches using an electric dehydrater.

A small volcano kettle suffices to boil water using a variety of foraged fuels. Greens etc also foraged from the wild. Salads from pennywort, young dandelions etc. Dried pasta is a given..

Beef Space Raiders 8)

More importantly – how are you brewing up fresh coffee?

http://www.outdoorgb.com/p/GSI_Outdoors_Ultralight_Java_Drip

I’ve not used them but there’s a discussion about Firepot meals over on the Bearbones forums.

Calorie wise there’s little if any difference between cold and hot food, psychologically there is, especially on a cold, wet day. The choice is between dehydrated foods which while light require a stove and water to be edible and hydrated foods which are heavier but can be eaten cold.

Second the Ainsley Harriot cous cous, decent flavours, can cook in its own bag. Cous cous doesn’t require a long simmer time like rice, pasta or even noodles – just add boiling water and allow it to absorb the water. You can get foil pouches of tuna and the like so not carrying the extra weight of tins.

Boil in the bag type meals have the advantage that you only need to boil water in your mug/pan so you don’t need to clean that between courses or to make a brew.

Away from that, I go for high energy density foods which is basically anything that has a high fat content – things like nuts. Also a variety as you’ll invariably want something you don’t have.

couscous will” cook” in cold water it just takes longer

Stoats Porridge bars for breakfast, fig and date is particularly good. Probably heavier than carrying sachets of instant porridge, but tastier and less faff in the morning (gives you more time to prepare your artisan coffee 8) )

Oatcakes, cheese and or salami for lunch.

Cous-cous with feta/olives for dinner, I usually pre-chop these and put in a wee plastic jar to carry them as every other sort of packaging inevitably leaks olive oil everywhere.

More importantly – how are you brewing up fresh coffee?

handpresso?

I struggled with a coffee drip – it was too cold.
I now have this – one pot of hot water = double mug of coffee, and it all stays warm. 8)

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Tu2AWm]Dunblane BB's DofE Silver Practice 2017[/url] by Matt Robinson, on Flickr

And that is?

All depends if you’re really concerned about weight, if so dehydrated foods are good but can be dull, think about things that are calorie dense too such as chorizo and peanut butter.

I find food can make a big difference to not just energy levels but also to mood when out and about for a few days.

I like these bags:

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/10914/20-Soup-‘n’-Sauce-Press-Seal-Clear-Freezer-Storage-Bags—1L

They seal well, no washing up, bags can be re-used, stand upright on own and as i cook a curry or a chilli, i’ll place a portion in there with rice or cous-cous and place in freezer and defrost as when they are needed.

Not the lightest, but a proper meal, better for the soul and a good size portion instead of many of these meals where i eat it and doesn’t fill up at all.

And that is?

http://www.gsioutdoors.com/shop/beverages-partyware/coffee-espresso-makers/personal-javapress-blue.html

Pour and store bags, pre filled with cous cous, chorizo, feta and some spices/bits of stock cube. Pour a cup of boiling water in there and tuck inside a jacket or bag etc for 5 mins. Eat straight from pack.

I ‘invested’ in a vacuum bag sealer (linky) which has worked fairly well for the last 2 years. I’ve brought everything from a full cooked breakfast (scrambled eggs in another smaller bag) to a full Indian take away. Simply boil everything in the bag and it’s good to go.

My son did his DoE last year and by all accounts the smell of Indian wafting across the moors made everyone a tad envious!

The down side and as others have suggested is the weight of BIB meals. I also have a fairly compact cook set for the bike which consists of a Alpkit BruPot with a 650Ti mug / stove / gas / meths & spork all packed inside. The BruPot is slightly too small for BIB meals especially if you’ve got several things to heat up but it works well.

I’m going to mess about with more dehydrated stuff this year to see if that’s any easier / tastier.

Oatcakes / nutella / salami / boil in the bag rice / fresh eggs held in this all work for me. I try not to take many sugary things until last thing at night as too much sugar gives me gut rot on longer rides.

I’m all for eating from a bag as opposed to from the bowl / mug. Washing up is always a chore when camping.

Based on a limited sample size of one I’d recommend the Firepot Orzo Bolognese 🙂

I refuse to carry water in Scotland! My meals when trekking are based around pasta and sauce for the main meal or noodles and oatcakes and cheese for the main bulk of the rest of my calorie intake with sweets and various crunchy / fruit bars ( and now halva thanks to stw) to add a bit of variety.

Coffee is done in the areopress attachment for the jetboil which adds 8grammes!

You need around 4000 calories a day for this. Very hard to get that under a kilo a day in dry weight food
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/food-for-multiday-trek

I refuse to carry water in Scotland!

Is that because its always raining?

Yes – and the corollary of that is water is just lying around for you to use any time you want.

yep fresh fresh water almost everywhere its lovely isnt it Teej.

I use an ortlieb drip and filter paper for my coffee.

i cook in a 350mm ti mug on a bearbones 8gram meth stove.

Supernoodles and tuna pouches are a staple for evenings for me and breakfasts are poridge – unless ive passed a shop late the night before in which case i will see if they have ambrosia ricepudding – great breakfast for the day on the bike that stuff 😀