Calories over weight

[alexsidles]

Next year I'll be kicking off a big Inside Passage solo. I want to take it real slow, with lots of wandering around in the various island chains and inlets on the way up. As a result, I'm anticipating the need to carry three or four weeks worth of food at a time - I'm not kidding when I say slow progress north!

Weight will obviously be an issue, so my question is: what foods offer the most calories for their weight? I'm thinking a few big ol' cans of Crisco and some spaghetti, but this doesn't sound particularly appetizing. So what do you experts here on WCP do when you need to pack a lot of energy without swamping the boat?

Alex

 

[SheilaP]

:lol: Dehydrate!
Make real healthy meals like chili, pasta suace, what ever you like and dehydrate. You can eat the same meal many times. Just add water in morning and heat later on. Simple, easy, light and small to pack and healthy.

Crisco? :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: Won't that just slide right out the other end? :lol: :lol:

TVP or textured vegetable protein is also a great thing to add. I even add it to granola, oatmeal and all the dinner foods too. (It is kind of like powered milk.) It bulks up the protein in every meal. Can get it at most health food stores.

 

[Astoriadave]

Alex,

Crisco is probably not far off the mark as the most efficient calorie source, weight wise. But, unless you also have a sufficient carbohydrate intake, your body will poison itself through ketoacidosis over time. In short, pasta (or similar) and a good, healthy protein and carbohydrate ration will serve the calorie machine. What you do for vitamin C and similar micronutrients (aka "vitamins") is important, also. You might take a look at the stuff polar explorers used, aka "hoosh" in Shackleton's journals.

In the end, I'd expect to harvest seafood for a journey like that, and budget the time and resources to get it. Not a lot time required each day, and will be a welcome break from hammering the water to make miles.

Anecdote: I did back-to-back two-week trips in the Charottes ten years ago when I was strong and fit enough to put some demand on my body. The first trip I had control of the menu and we ate as the picture below suggests. We took fresh vegies and ate durable stuff like carrots, cabbage, potatoes, oranges, and apples right up to the last day.

The second trip was one with some folks worried about their weight, who had constructed menus on that basis. Every day I was hungry, primarily from lack of fat, even though we had enormous quantities of fresh seafood to eat. There just was not any fat in the diet (or, minimal quantities). After this pair of jaunts, I had lost about 20 lbs, and when I returned home, Becky was stunned to see me. I had 20 lbs to give up, for sure, but nonetheless, it was hard on me.

Ling cod and vegies stir fry, Raspberry Cove, Houston Stewart Channel, Haida Gwaii, 1998.

Haida Gwaii; HSC is at the southern end.

 

[canoecat]

Have to agree with SheilaP. And dehydrating is fun.
As well as entire meals, snack food and desserts for variety.
Dried tomato slices, dried fruit, good ingredients for snacks. Fruit leathers, for snacks, rehydrated for pancake toppings, desserts, on bannock.

Let your imagination rule. A suitable dehydrator is not expensive either. Let the food prep become part of the trip planning. Store dried stuff in your freezer until the time.

Going beyond rice and large pasta, whole wheat couscous is a good carb addition, added to soups or stews, let sit. Quick prep, saves fuel.

If canned foods are OK where you plan to visit, one or two cans of good quality sardines, in oil, but you are stuck with the empties for the rest of the trip.

Find a place that sells dried powdered egg. Forget about making scrambled eggs with it, add it to your bannock and homemade pancake mix. Parmesan cheese seems to have a decent shelf life.

 

[SheilaP]

Find a place that sells dried powdered egg. Forget about making scrambled eggs with it

LOL Canoecat. I find that scrambled eggs work great IF you double the amount of water the recipe calls for. (Otherwise they turn out rubbery.) Plus throwing in rehydrated veggies and stuff makes for a great omelet. Fire it in a wrap with rehydrated salsa and you have a breakfast burrito! YUM. (Rehydrated hamburger too it ya eat meat.)

I like what Astoriadave mentioned about harvesting seafood. Yup, we do this too. Great books on the subject. A small hand line and tiny tackle kit is all you really need.

I guess I have enough extra weight that losing weight on long trips just becomes a big bonus, although I do eat well!

 

[alexsidles]

Canoecat: That's a good suggestion on the powdered eggs. I was doing some calculations last night, and the eggs pack nearly as much nourishment per pound as Crisco. Crisco's around 4100 calories per pound, and the eggs are around 2900 - and much tastier! Compare to carbohydrates like rice and spaghetti at around 1600 calories per pound (uncooked weight).

The dehydrated food option is a good point. I could run some nice fatty foods through a dehydrator and try to strike a balance between weight of packed food versus caloric benefit.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! Anyone else with thoughts on this topic?

Alex

 

[Dan_Millsip]

Crisco? Blech. I'd suggest items like eggs, cheese, peanut butter and complex carbohydrates. You could also try catching some fish.

*****

 

[canoecat]

Please forget about dehydrating fatty foods. The fat may go rancid, unless you are not dehydrating real food.

Most how to sources advise against fat, for instance, home dried jerky calls for lean meat.

You will need a good diet as much as calories, as you know.

 

[DarenN]

You could also try catching some fish.

*****

be careful with fishing from a kayak. target smaller fish. a big fish can give you quite a ride, and with a rod in your hands, you don't have any hands left to brace with your paddle. some years ago i got into it with a big salmon, and this past August i hooked something big that i never got to see (ling-cod?). i decided not to fish from a kayak on solo trips.

Daren........

 

[Dan_Millsip]

People have been fishing from the shore for thousands of years.

Bring some tartar sauce.

*****

 

[DarrenM]

tartar sauce could go rancid. :shock: Bring malt vinegar

 

[WGalbraith]

Dehydrate

The only way to bring enough food for that length of time is to make lots of chilis, spaghetti sauces, stews, etc. or if cooking isn't a favorite activity, buy sauces in cans or bottles. Locate a friend with an oven that will dehydrate and then pour the food into cookie sheets. An oven can take at least 4 trays at a time and they will be dried overnight. Frozen veges also work well f they are placed on those cookie sheets and dried.

We make jerky using the same oven using strips of cheap roast beef. The butcher will often slice it for you approx 3/8 inch thick . A quick bath and shake in a mixture of salt, brown sugar, soya sauce and garlic and ginger and then placement on teflon sheets in the oven at 140 degrees will yield jerky by the next day. We dry ours a bit longer so it cracks off easily.

Making a bannock mix also works to allow you to cook fresh bread like fillers that are great with peanut butter and jam or to soak up your stew.

 

[bigbear]

A number of years back I did a two month solo trip in a Klepper kayak from Sitka to Glacier Bay in Alaska.....I took my time! I'm into gourmet eating and on any trip I eat as good if not better than in the city. The sea is my food source, but you have to like sea food.

I took enough food for two months without replenishment in a single Klepper kayak. I ate well! My packaged food was..
1/ Lots of rice
2/ Lots of dried pasta
3/ Pancake mix (picked wild berries in mix)
4/ Dehydrated spaghetti sauce (made my own with my favorite Italian recipe, dehydrated into sheets and then those sheets put into a coffee grinder to turn into a fine powder). Two tablespoons into a cup of boiling water and voila.
5/ Grated Parmesan cheese (keeps well)
6/ Made my own Power Bars. Basically, looked at all the bars out their, looked at the ingredients, and put it all together in a blender. Pineapple, nuts, peanut butter, coconut, berries, honey, etc, etc. Put it in a blender and poured onto sheets to dehydrate. Came out like thick licorice BUT you did not have to each much to get POWERED. Takes no room.
7/ A handline......fish everyday. A crab trap. Gather clams, mussels for your spaghetti sauce.
8/ Take advantage of berries in the summer. Blackberries, huckleberries, salmon berries, wild strawberries, etc. Certain species of seaweed are excellent in soup....
9/ Fish, fish, fish.....

 

[ken_vandeburgt]

Mountaineering The Freedom of the Hills ISBN 0-89886-001-6

The book has a section on food planning listing calories and fat content. The book is meant for mountaineering where weight and bulk are serious issues as it is with your planned trip.

Your 3-4 week trip calls for lots of rice and pasta. You can get soup mixes and mixes for rice dishes such as Nasi Goring to add flavor.

The fat cravings are best satisfied with a ration of about 100g of mozarella or other hard cheese mixed into the pasta every day. Just keep the food bag out of the sun; the cheese will keep long enough for your trip. Eggs keep quite well though I would suggest hard boiling before leaving. Beef jerky is lower in fat but take a longer time to digest so its good for snacking during the day.

 

[The GCW]

Crisco is akin to poison.

Crisco? You are kidding, right? That’s bad juju!

I’ll explain from the angle of a bicycle rider. When We cycle for up to 30 minutes in a sprint type situation, We burn glycogen stores for fuel. When We cycle for hours, We burn fat for fuel. The last fat Your body will burn is partially hydrogenated oils; Crisco is pure partially hydrogenated oil. Yukkkk. Our body needs good fat. When We put bad fat in Our body, it’s not getting the good. Plus the partially hydrogenated oil clogs arteries. Lose, lose, lose.

Some people claim Our body doesn’t ever process the partially hydrogenated oils.

I recommend getting the Crisco out of the house. Replace it and products made with it, with products made with-out the crap. Read the labels on groceries. Avoid Crisco. There are always alternatives.

 

[wannabeaduck]

This recipe is a healthy yummy granola mix that would be easy to bring on a trip.

Maple Orange Granola

Ingredients: (use organic ingredients when possible)
7 cups large rolled oats
1 cup oat bran
1 cup walnuts coarsely chopped (or nut of choice)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp orange rind
¾ cups maple syrup
½ cup olive oil
1 ½ cup choice of dried fruit (apricots, cranberries, raisins, chopped dates)

Baking Instructions: 350 degrees F for 30 minutes
Makes 2 large mason jar servings
In a large bowl, combine the oats, oat bran, nuts, and cinnamon. Make a well in the center of the bowl and pour the vanilla, orange juice and rind, maple syrup and oil into the well. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones and mix until they are thoroughly combined. Spread half of the granola mixture onto an un-greased cookie sheet and place on the top rack of a preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove the sheet from the oven and stir the granola around on the sheet. Place the cookie sheet back in the oven and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. Bake the remaining half of the mixture in the same manner. Once all of the granola has cooled, stir in the dried fruit.

This recipe is care of Jaime Slavin Nutritionist BASc. (Hons.) jaime@humandetour.com
She emailed it to me so I am making the assumption that I can show it as long as I show where I got it.

From what was mentioned already, dehydrating is a beautiful method for lowering the weight of the food brought on a trip, but as Sheila said, fats do go rancid which is why lean cuts of meat are used for making jerky. If you were to have something like a pasta sauce and dehydrate it, I would suggest to make it a meatless sauce and add the meat on the day of use at the campsite.

I have a great sauce for pasta that I make, and this month I plan to try and dehydrate it. I will try and remember what I did to dehydrate it and also give the recipe so that others can yum out when they are possibly using it.

My only problem is that although I bought the equipment to dehydrate stuff, AND to cook it at the camp site, I have yet to use it. (read that as learn how to use it! grin.)

Working on it! But I would NEVER bring a pound of Crisco as the fat for a trip. the word YUK just comes to mind.