Next-Level “CLEAN” Backpacking Recipes You Can Make At Home
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00:00 Hey Y’all 00:40 Mashed Sweet Potato with Nuts Recipe 04:25 Prepping For The Trail 05:36 Rehydrating 06:24 Unstuffed …
LoL.. this video really highlights her accent. Oil, Boil, Spoil.
Excellent content!
This is great. I've been looking for inexpensive healthier meals. I stopped buying freeze dried meals a while ago. I need to get used to using the dehydrator. Could save leftovers for backpacking meals instead of letting it go to waste.
For eggs:
1. Powdered eggs in a ziplock bag
2. A couple butter packs.
Put water in your ziplock bag with powdered eggs. Mix.
In your pot, melt your butter. When the butter is melted put your egg mixture in the pot. Stir continuously. Just before you think the eggs are done, take them off the heat.
I applaud your efforts at pre-making trail meals. While being more time-intensive, the payoff is in taste and cost.
I would encourage all people to try this at home. A small dehydrator or home oven can do wonders. I also encourage meat-free meals for ease of prep and how long meals will “keep.”🌿
If you are not going to use all the oxygen absorbers, just take out what you need and vacuum seal the rest. Protect the ones you are fixing to use in a small ziplock or jar to reduce the oxygen exposure prior to closing up your meal.
Dear Dixxy. Thanks for these great ideas.
Here are my Tips for you:
Eggs that are not washed after they where laid by the henn will stay good for 2 weeks without refrigeration.
If carrying fragile eggs is no option, you can crack them and put the egg into a tight container. Without refrigeration this should be good for up to two days.
Alternatively there is the powder option. Make sure to get the full egg powder (I don't like it).
If you need to speed up drying. Use a freeze dryer (quite expensive).
You can make tomato souce by using concentrate tomato paste (little cans).
If you try to dry tomato's they can release some of their oils.
But having this dry meal option (just add water) is neat.
My favorite clean meal prep is called "Grenola Dust" from Jamie Oliver. It's a breakfast and I eat it with milk. But I never tried it with milk powder, maybe that's an idea for you.
Be sure sweet potatoes are well cooked, otherwise, better to be alone in your tent. 😮
I also make my own meals for my thru hikes, wanting to stay healthy. In my research, I learned that you must be very careful with oxygen absorbers in air-tight packaging. If foods are over 10% moisture or are oily in an oxygen free environment, botulism may grow. Which is extremely deadly. So, from what I learned, it's not recommended for certain things. The following is a quick list of things not recommended to store that way.
Brown Rice
Jerky
Granola
Pearled Barley
Dried eggs
Milled grains (other than rolled oats)
Brown sugar
Any dehydrated fruit or vegetable not dry enough to snap when bent
Nuts
What can be used with those foods is desiccant packs. Which are silica and absorb any remaining moisture.
If you want to vacuum seal the Mylar bags above the zipper you can cut little strips of the regular vacuum seal bags (the ones with the little bumps) and place them in the opening. They allow the air to get sucked out and you can seal it right up. It’s a little tricky to get the hang of at first, but it works.
Is there an advantage to dehydrating the unstuffed peppers ingredients separately, rather than combining in advance and then dehydrating them all already mixed together?
Does it rehydrate better when the ingredients are separately dehydrated ?
Very Nice! Do you have a recommendation for a dehydrator? There are a lot of models out there – $50 – $400
How has your face swelling thing been? Did you ever nail down the actual cause?
Excellent ideas!
In Keto diets, ground pork skins are often added in place of bread crumbs.
Let me know if that would soften the dehydrated ground beef.
Store bought eggs can be kept w/o refrigeration if you coat the shell with mineral oil to keep oxygen out. If they are eggs that you gathered from your own chickens, don't wash them, and the membrane on the outside will allow them to be kept w/o a refrigerator.
Great video! Thank you! You are inspiring. I would worry about the plastic dehydrators and how they will off gas chemicals, I would choose stainless steel instead. Off gassing is high above 120 degrees F. I decided to dehydrate my food from now on, the backpacking meals contain too many chemicals and it is difficult to find organic.
I wouldn’t throw away the pouches – wash them out & reuse them – I do this this ziploc bags
The canoe trippers that do dehydrated meals suggest when doing ground beef, to rinse it under hot water after browning to get the fat out before putting it in the dehydrator.
The face swelling is likely inflammatory response from very high glucose spikes and the insulin your body has to keep high to remove that glucose (poisonous levels) from your blood. Keep the glucose spikes down and the insulin stays at normal levels. Less pain and inflammation in the joints and back. Took me too long to learn this. Feel 20+ years younger and back to high school fit weight. Low carb/keto/carnivore is the best especially for those who have inflammation or overactive immune systems. Worth a try with your chemistry set (your body). Nothing works for everyone. When you feel great don’t let anyone tell you to stop.
Ever wonder why hikers never lose weight? High insulin makes it impossible to burn fat. It is a fat storage hormone. It tells the body to store everything as fat. No one can burn as much glucose as hikers eat. The body must store it, but never gets to use those fat stores when people eat 5 times a day. Exercise all you want with high insulin. Never gonna lose fat. Only muscle.
If you get free range eggs that have not been washed yet they will last days at "room" temperature . In there natural state they are vary strong and can be stored in a regular cardboard carton cut down to the size of the number of eggs that you are taking. Once on trail if you are concerned the freshness of the eggs simply place in water…if they sink they are fine if they float dont eat them.
"If you're going through hell keep going." —Winston Churchill
Another way we do it is just make the whole meal and dehydrate it . Eg if cooking spag bol for dinner at home (Aussie for spaghetti bolognaise) just make a bit extra. You know exactly what ingredients are in it ie made your own tomato sauce etc. The extra/leftover goes in the dehydrator. At camp rehydrate the spag bol. Tastes pretty much like it did at home.
Dixie, look up a "Moong Dal eggs" recipe. The main ingredients that are harder to find are Moong Dal (yellow shelled Moong/Mung beans, not yellow split peas) and Kala Namak ("black salt" from the Himalayas, it's actually kind of pink). The latter helps give an egg smell and taste. You can make the egg recipe and then dehydrate it. Fresh, the recipe makes amazing omelettes!
Hi Dixie i make meatloaf and cut it into s;ices and put them into zip seal bags it keeps me happy…
@HomemadeWanderlust >>> 👍👍
Hi Dixie, I always bring freeze-dried eggs with me to make scrambled eggs. In the Netherlands we have a company called globetrotter that sells al kind of freeze-dried food that I mix to make healthy meals.
I like dahl. Filled with nutrion and taste and because it's vegan, it lasts really well. I just cook it all without any oils and bring the oil in a separate container on trail.
I also found a Mediterranean risotto I turned into a marrocan couscous. I seasoned ground beef (you can also use lamb) generously with ras al hangout spice mix, dehydrated it, and dehydrated olives and spring onions. I found som sundried tomatoes without oil, so I'm going to use those, but you can use red bell peppers or eggplants. To assemble I mix couscous (you can use minut rise for glutenfree option), a little bit of salt, dried munt and oregano, the dried beef and a table spoon of both dried olives and spring onion and two table spoons tomatoes (or other greens). If you wanna be really fancy, add some dried apricots or dates with some almond flakes. Again, I bring olive oil in a separate container. All olive and veggies are cut into very fine slices or cubes to get the real mouth feel of morrocan food.
Umm this was excellent please more videos like this!
As Dixie said, dehydrated eggs don't taste very good, but freeze dried eggs taste very much like fresh eggs. However, freeze dried eggs need to be cooked on trail which is inconvenient and requires a frying pan and burns more fuel. You can boil them inside of a boilable bag immersed in boiling water. Home use freeze dryer machines are very expensive, starting at about $2,500.00, so most people aren't going to purchase one. But for dehydrated scrambled eggs you can add salsa and mix it with dehydrated breakfast sausage crumbles, both of which disguise the poor flavor of dehydrated eggs. Single serve salsa condiments are available from Packit Gourmet, or you can dehydrate your own.
This is amazing! I too cannot have dairy, gluten or certain oils so I am so glad I found this! Can you do more recipes? Please 😊 maybe a series?
humidity has a large part in how long it takes to dehydrate things.
A great "clean way of getting eggs on trail, is to use a freeze dryer, or buy freeze dried organic eggs (in bulk is cheaper). They reconstitute into scrambled eggs, that taste pretty much no different than regular scrambled egg!
Uh, you forgot something! Cook the meal and eat on camera. Nice video otherwise. Thanks for the references, the Mylar bag idea is awesome. I think there is a time and place for ready made freeze dried meals but putting together your own menu is cheaper, healthier, and tailored to your tastes. Keep up the great work!
Freeze dry eggs. Absolutely killer. I was very skeptical but you really cannot taste a difference.
UNSTUFFED PEPPERS. You guys, it comes with me on every long hike. Or any hike I want a “nice meal.” TOTALLY worth it.
Thank you for the tater recipe! Bringing it next weekend 🤗
I did this for Pictured Rocks… I did spinach, mushrooms, scallops and rice. Used my Excalibur (WHEEE Got it second hand for only $130 Canadian!!!) and added spices to the rice before I dehydrated it. I despise minute rice, so cooked and seasoned my rice (no oil) in a rice cooker, then dehydrated in the Excalibur. It all came out super delicious on trail! I could make it soupy or stewy, depending on how much water I added.
For the first couple of days after resupply, hard boiled eggs are great. Pack them with some air (don't try to suck all the air out).
If you can buy them already hard-boiled, then the bag will last 2-3 days unopened (and unrefrigerated).
Obviously do a sniff test just to be sure.
Fancy Mae was on high alert! Loved seeing her, as always.
I look forward to seeing how this effort plays out. You always do your homework and put in the work to accomplish the task at hand, so I have faith in it working out well.
Great ideas! I've been making my own bp food since I started in 2014. I don't even add breadcrumbs to my ground beef and it dehydrates/rehydrates fine. I don't eat gluten for the most part either.
Dixie, on my trip down the Ohio / Mississippi Rivers prior to my first A.T. hike, I was testing meals for Alpine Aire foods. I had a bunch of freeze dried eggs "saved" up because just plain w/o any added bacon, sausage, peppers, onions, they were VERY bland. I was camping on the river bank on the Ohio River at Smithland, Ky., 2 days above the confluence of the Mississippi and I decided to walk into town and I bought 2 loaves of bread and maple syrup. I made French Toast with the eggs and bread and it was FANTASTIC! There were 3 of us in that group and we ate the whole 2 loaves of bread, the whole bottle of maple syrup and according to the packs of eggs, 68 eggs…..in one sitting! If you have the freeze dried or dehydrated eggs and they are just too plain, try French Toast!
geek
You can also make whole meals and then dehydrate them. Example…chili mac with your choice of gluten free pasta, beef stroganofff, ground chicken with veggies and potatoes, and soups. Make the meal and then dehydrate the whole thing. For storage you can put the meal in a vacuum bag and then freeze it till you go backpacking. Having a homemade coozie for your pot or bag helps. Boil the water and add to food bag or dump in pot, put in coozie and let sit for 10 min. Enjoy.
I have some food allergies- thankfully minor, but not something I want to deal with when out on the trail. I love the sweet potato idea, but I'll have to sub the apple juice, probably pear or white grape juice will work. I have some of the individual items already dehydrated for some of the recipes too. I have dried eggs and blitzed them in the blender to a powder, you can cook them into scrambled eggs, and add some dry seasonings and milk powder for taste. Augason farms has dried eggs too. Also, there is a kind of mylar vacuum sealer bag, and I've seen a trick with putting a piece of a vacuum sealer bag in the top of a mylar bag to vacuum seal them, but I haven't tried either method yet, but have the materials to do it.
Have you considered using a freezer drier instead of dehydrating?
Would love to see them rehydrated