One pot meals. -Cooking off of the bike

[Frank]

Anyone have anything to share in regards to cooking off of the bike? I am well aware of Ara's website: http://store.theoasisofmysoul.com and Living Overland: http://www.livingoverland.com/ but would like a bit more info and insight as to what others are doing.

I have a nice MSR stove and sno-peak cookset I carry but have never used it.

[Mechanical]

I was backpacking before I got into motorcycles, so I usually just take freeze dried backpacking food. Freeze dried food has come a long way in the last ten years, and now it is actually pretty good. The stuff from Backpackers Pantry is pretty tasty, cheap (you can get it at Walmart), and very lightweight. Just add water, heat on the stove, and you are ready to go. You can cook it right in the bag so you don't even need a pot. When we are backpacking we usually take some tortillas with us as well to make burritos of sorts. One bag of this plus four tortillas is easily enough to get a substantial amount of calories into two people for one meal. Hope this helps.

http://bit.ly/IA94Ug

[FLYFISHEXPERT]

Subscribed! I am looking forward to this discussion.

[Mechanical]

Oh, and don't forget about booze. A plastic blatter full everclear 151 and powdered grape cool aid will always get the job done, and has an amazing alcohol/weight ratio.

[Cody1771]

i usually pack depending on the length, first day is good to do meats, they pack small and are hardy, pastas are good to, you can get pretty creative with pasta. if im just doing a weekend trip i can take pretty much anything i want. i havnt put to much thought into long distance trips but i imagine those hiking meals would be pretty good, the ones where you just add water.

oh and for breakfast... oatmeal. its the only thing ive found so far that doesnt just end up making a mess :P i like the quaker single serving pouches. you can pack a TON of them i your gear all over the place lol. im pretty biased to the apple cinnimon myself.

[CoastalDefender]

Oh, and don't forget about booze. A plastic blatter full everclear 151 and powdered grape cool aid will always get the job done, and has an amazing alcohol/weight ratio.

+1 However, I prefer bacardi 151 and coke.

I usually carry MountainHouse foods, a 1qt stainless steel water bottle, and an MSR pocket rocket stove.

Gourmet options are a luxury, and luxuries are not conducive to a light packed trip on a motorbike. Enough food to keep me alert the next day and enough booze to get me lightly schnockered each evening by the fire.

[zolo]

I do a lot of Mountain House as well. They make breakfast and dinner. I keep about 3-4 days worth on the long rides. Restock as needed.

Jerky, almonds, and power bar type energy stuff. During the day. Its easy to find and it quick energy.

Oh and one big one for me is some type of water flavor. I find nothing but water sometimes sucks.
So I bring water drink mixes like crystal light or what have you. Flavor. It helps me drink more.

[FAW3]

On the MC travels...I love having a small stove. Had the backpack type and when that gave up (after about 10 years), transitioned to a Jet Boil. Very happy with either for a quick hot food item...the Jet Boil is clearly more focused on heating liquid based foods (and quickly), but can do other duties.

I usually carry some Mountain House...wide variety, taste good, travels/packs great and very easy to cook. Kinda high sodium content in most freeze dried stuff (esp. soups) may be something to watch...

I carry normally 2 small (1.5 cup?) tupperware type containers some Ben's Instant Rice, some powdered milk; also take along with prepacked oatmeal, tea, hot chocolate, and a commercial mix of spices (like an Itilian spice mix, or a jerk mix). I often do a 1/2 cup of rice, and add in some small package/can of tuna, salmon, shrimp, chicken or the like to bulk it up, add some spices...there you go. The powdered milk I like for the oatmeal and hot chocolate - using straight water is for me too bland. Sometimes instead of the instant rice, I'll take instant mashed potatoes instead...just to change the variety.

I carry a nice Le Cruzet (sp?) enamaled heavy bottom iron skillet about 6" wide. This thing is heavy - but the heavy bottom makes use with a small stove possible for decently cooking a caught fish, or doing some eggs or other food item. I collect and carry a few butter packs (as well as salt/pepper) from restaurants along with about 1oz of cooking oil in a squeeze bottle.

Most frustrations I hear about small stoves is the high heat makes "cooking" hard...yep, turn it down, and attend the skillet or pot full time is the key...you cannot just put food on and leave it sit.

Flavored water packs are really great as mentioned..."potable water" covers a broad range of taste throughout NA...nice to have!

[WU7X]

It's amazing how you can make even freeze dried food a bit more pallatable by bringing along some small plastic shakers of spices. I like Italian seasoning, white pepper, lemon pepper, Johnnie's seasoning salt, boullion cubes, and even a small container of tabasco sauce. For the first couple of days, I like to bring along fresh fruit. My favorite is a big orange. High water content and lots of Vitamin C. Perfect for that first get off in mid-morning! Seems to suck the dust right out of your throat.

[INSAYN]

Anyone have anything to share in regards to cooking off of the bike? I am well aware of Ara's website: http://store.theoasisofmysoul.com and Living Overland: http://www.livingoverland.com/ but would like a bit more info and insight as to what others are doing.

I have a nice MSR stove and sno-peak cookset I carry but have never used it.

Be sure to visit your local $0.99 Store. I have found many pasta dinners that just require some boiling water. Various tuna in Mylar pouches, SPAM singles, oriental soups that just need boiling water, instant mashed potatoes, corn bread and biscuit mixes that just needs water added and baked. You can easily bake small batches of corn bread or biscuits by steaming them in a plastic bag, or being creative with tin foil next to a fire, or even with you camp cookset pots.

Here's a great example of steamed corn bread.




Then there are many items that you can make at home, dry on a food drier and then rehydrate with just water and heat.
I don't usually promote youtube channels specifically, but I have run across a pretty creative guy that does a lot of food drying for his backpacking trips.

Check out Babelfish5's Channel (The Hungry Hammock Hanger). He does a lot with beans, and all look awesome!