Groceries

I made my first real effort to collect food for my backpacking trip yesterday. I've got about 15 lunches, maybe a month of dinners, and a few snacks (minus some of the more perishable items). I'm trying to decide how often I'll be able to buy some fresh produce while I'm hiking. I think that will be my biggest food challenge. I love my fresh fruits and veggies, but they are too heavy and too bulky to keep a lot in my pack. I hope to have some with me at all times though. I did get a couple kinds of dried berries, but that is for the berry cobbler I saw in my cookbook. I may have that as dinner when I finish a full week of hiking.

My trail food pantry, I was surprised (though I shouldn't have been)
at how light all of this is.

I got some of the prepackaged rice dishes where all I'll have to do is boil them and some Ramen soups. But since I don't want to live off of those for two months I also got some dehydrated refried beans and brown rice, to which I will add some taco-type seasoning and cheddar cheese and put it all in tortillas for some bean burritos. I also have a tube of squeeze tomato paste that I can add to assorted pastas, I got some wheat spaghetti, veggie rotini, and spinach cheese tortellini, and then I will add some dry Italian seasoning and some Parmesan cheese to make some Italian meals. I am also going to test some cheesy mashed potato recipe ideas.

For lunches I plan on having either tuna or peanut butter in tortillas or with crackers. I'd like a bit more variation there but haven't come up with any other no cook options other than some granola or something.

I had an aha moment at the store today, looking at the Valentine's Day candy that is all suddenly half price. I grabbed a few bags because I don't care if my chocolate is heart shaped or wrapped in pink, but I do care if I don't have chocolate. So I got some peanut M&Ms and a mixed bag of other chocolate. It should be (fingers crossed) enough chocolate for me once I get some of these really awesome candy bars that are a combination of chocolate, caramel, peanut butter, pretzels and peanuts.

I'll have to double or triple everything I have right now, but I want to start sorting it all into individual days' worth of food and really plan how long I may be gone before getting too much more. I also will need to get some corn chips to go with some of the meals, crackers, cheese, tortillas and my snacking foods. I don't think I am going to make actual trail mix, I find myself not eating it very much and instead pick out the pieces I actually want. Why take something if I'm not going to eat it after the first day or so?