[sarge]

On extended walks we usually find the following option best for keeping pack weight down and 'filling the tummy'. Both my husband and I tend to be large eaters.

-breakfast 100gm muesli measured out in individual zip lock backs with powdered milk (1 tablespoon) mixed in. Very quick to prepare and fills us up until mid morning. Simply add a cup of water to prepare.

-snacks usually meusli bars of various types or some dry crackers with a tube of vegemite

-dinner ideas - our favourite light hiking meal is a packet of freeze dried beef mixed with surprise peas, some deb potato and tomato sauce. Sounds simple but it is relatively cheap and very filling and hearty. We also use the freeze dried meals as a base and add other items to them to save money and make them more interesting. For example we will use a single freeze dry meal for both of us and add some flavoured cous cous or deb and dried veges and mushrooms. These meals also use very little feul to prepare and they do not require simmering or frying.

Lunches are a toughy as I find cuppa soups not to be filling enough. Usually I just have some snacks or sometimes instant noodles with cuppa soups mixed in.

[Son of a Beach]

I usually try to avoid doing anything for lunch that requires cooking. This keeps the weight down (at least as far as fuel goes) but it also means that I don't need to unpack too much stuff during the day when not at a campsite. So lunches for me are usually similar to what other people have included in the Lunch Ideas topic, and at last I've managed to change my walking lunches from being very boring to being rather tasty, and with a lot of variety on long walks (see my post in the above linked topic).

[tasadam]

Not the cheapest option, but quite light...
My wife left on Sunday from Cockle Creek and will be gone for around 9 days on the South Coast track. She is with other people, but is fully self sufficient on this walk. I'm supposed to be there too but my knee stuffed up - tore a cartlidge so operated on a week ago and slowly recovering (in case you were wondering why I didn't go with her).

Anyway, the food she took -
9 x Breakfast - her normal cereal which is Fibre Plus - 60 gram serves which is a cup full. Weighed into individual Multix medium sized freezer bags (these are the best and lightest bags). Milk powder - 9 x 30 gram bag fulls, cheap & nasty Coles freezer bags, tied into a knot then the tails cut off. All together in a Glad sandwich bag.
Also, 20 tea bags, a quantity of milk powder in a bag for extra cups of tea, and a small bag of sugar.
Total for 9 x Breakfast with mentioned extras = 983 grams. 109 grams per day.

Dinner - the expensive freeze dried single serve bags that you get in the bushwalking shops. Approx 110 grams total. Also, a quantity of dried beans and some cuppa soups.
Total for 8 dinners plus extras = 1047 grams. 131 grams per day.

Lunch - a bit more tricky but still managed okay -
Mountain Bread, 8 sheets plus bag = 250g.
Thickly sliced cheese enough pieces = 274 grams
Stick of salami = 317 grams
Semi dried tomatos in a sandwich bag with oil drained off = 88 grams
Mango chutney in a food tube as a spread = 109 grams
2 carrots cut into quarters (1/4 carrot per day x 8 days) = 220 grams
Total for 8 lunches = 1258 grams or 157 grams per day.

Nibble bags - 8 bags of nibbles consisting of dried fruit (fruit cake mix - sultanas, raisins, fruit pieces etc), dried apple, scroggin (bushwalkers mix from Wholesome house, Deloraine - I swear by that stuff), Dried banana, sweetened dried banana, dried apricots.
Total = 983 grams or 117 grams per day

Extra food - Full packet of GingerNut Snaps = 270 grams
Half a 200g block Toblerone chocolate (one piece per day) = 110 grams
Bag of cashew nuts = 100 grams
She also had 3 x 75 gram portions of Sustagen powder to make 3 x half litre energy drinks = 225 grams
Total extras 705 grams or 88 grams per day average.

Total food weight for 9 breakfast, 8 lunch and 8 dinner plus all the extras = 4976 grams.
Total per day = 608 grams.
And she carried a chicken salad roll for a couple of hours on the first day to have a luxury lunch.

This could be cut down by -
Losing the carrots - new daily total 580 grams
And talking only half a packet of biscuits New total 563 grams
And lose the sustagen powder (if it's not your thing) New total 555 grams.
Wouldn't want to go too much more extreme than that - lots of energy burnt up when walking.


EDIT - A bit of follow up.
The sundried tomatoes weren't such a hit, still too sloppy...
The bushwalkers mix of nibbles, there are similar bags of stuff you can buy in the supermarkets - easy to spot - with the nuts etc in the fruit and veg section. Pre-packaged in a 400 gram bag. Walnuts, almonds, sultanas, dried fruit, seeds - I think they are pumpkin and something else, etc you get the idea. But I think I prefer the stuff from Wholesome house more... It tastes "better". This stuff keeps you regular too. I find about 100 - 120 grams a day is enough.

[sarge]

Have noticed a lot of people take things like cheese and butter. In the past I have not taken these types of foods with the expectation they would go rancid within a few days. Do you find this happens?

I absolutely love cheese and butter!! What a luxury to take them hiking.

[tasadam]

I never take butter but always take cheese. Lunches are the hardest meal to work out. A block of something like tasty bega or a good cheddar generally does it. Stored in a plastic bag with a rubber band around it, and in the billy to protect it, it has lasted me a week no probs. Don't know how it would go in the height of summer in 30+ degrees days though.
Would be good if there was a light weight alternative.

[Son of a Beach]

I usually take the pre-sliced cheese (not the individually wrapped slices of fake cheese though!) and pre-sliced salami, too.

I often take butter (for cooking as well as for spreading), but would avoid it on a long walk if I thought it was going to be hot. Haven't had any problems on short walks, or on long cold walks (even in summer, it's often cold in the highlands).

[Joe]

i always take a block of cheese (cant remember the breed) but its chive/chedar/sundried mix tomato bit like neopolitan icecream. It and a box of savoys does me 2 days lunch and snacks when im sick of jerky/scroggin.

[norts]

I carry vita wheats and those safcol foil tuna or salmon packs. Tuna in sweet chili sauce mmmmmm.
I carry vita wheats in cut off 2 litre milk bottles. The make a very light container and it stops the biscuits from being crushed. Just slide 2 halves together.
I also carry my cereal (Sustain with extra nuts and currants) in a 2 litre milk container. I can usually get 8 days in a milk container. Again it doesn't come out as crumbs. Cant stand crumbs as cereal.
Takes a bit to get it in there but I think its worth it. Milk container is usually RS by the end of the walk. Usually from shoving in down into a space that I cant quiet fill with anything else.

Roger

[Canuck Trekker]

If people are concerned with cheese going bad, you can dip a piece of cheese cloth in vinegar and then wrap the cheese in that - it keeps it edible for up to 2 weeks without refridgeration!

[Natt]

I take peanut butter

unfortunately you have to carry the container out (plastic)

but for sheer concentrated nutrition I like it - mountain bread & peanut butter is not too bad either!

[Son of a Beach]

I usually take the pre-sliced cheese (not the individually wrapped slices of fake cheese though!) and pre-sliced salami, too.

I often take butter (for cooking as well as for spreading), but would avoid it on a long walk if I thought it was going to be hot. Haven't had any problems on short walks, or on long cold walks (even in summer, it's often cold in the highlands).

Last week my butter all melted on me before dinner on the second last day. Didn't go off, just melted. So we could still use it for cooking (and for spreading on mountain bread and bickies after it congealed again, if necessary), but we had plenty of phillie cheese for spreading instead of butter, and that was still fine.

I take peanut butter

unfortunately you have to carry the container out (plastic)

but for sheer concentrated nutrition I like it - mountain bread & peanut butter is not too bad either!

We also took peanut butter last week (and vegemite in a squeezy tube). I actually ended up taking 4 hard plastic containers for various things that I didn't want crushed or leaking. So long as they're packed well, they don't take up much extra space, and they don't weigh much: 1 large one for ryvita and vita wheat biscuits, 1 small one for peanut butter, 1 medium one for butter, and 1 medium one for weet bix (for if/when we run out of porridge). As time goes by, I can pack more of the other stuff into the large biscuits container, so it takes up less space as the walk progresses.

[Josef]

Ill take any old cheese anywhere! Ive had it on 4 week walking trips in the simpson desert and never had it go off. Just keep it in its bag and wrap it in a bit of newspaper to adsorb oil if it gets hot.
Joe.

[Joe]

http://www.theprofessors.com.au/crunchy-ice-cream.html - ice cream for desert anyone? Just tried some, its kinda like merangue crossed with icecream. Not bad at all.

[corvus]

Looks very similar to the one I tried around 17 years ago which was called Astronauts ice cream (I think) a nice crunchy dessert good to see it has been revived

[Darren]

Sarge
On extended trips i work on around about 550 g dried food a day. For lunch try aninsley harriot flavoured cuss cuss or similar. I slice about 15mm of a salami stick in small pieces with it in my bowl, boil 150ml of water and tip it in.
Eat, no mess.
Best in cooler areas but that’s Tassie most of the year
Darren

[corvus]

Always try to have a non cooking walking lunch ,couple of cream cheese triangles a couple of salami sticks, pkt Kraft (4) premium crispbread crackers ,4 Glucodin tabs and perhaps a winners power bar if I have a big climb in front of me
Breakfast Lowans Cup of Oats (just add water) and perhaps a trail bar and 2 glucodin tablets +cup of black tea.
Dinner selection of cup of soup and Back Country Cuisine add hot water meals cup, of black tea (wine and Vodka if I take it )
Supper Ginger Snap Biscuits and tea for supper if required.
c

[gorby]

hello corvus,
being a country boy who has not experienced the world like you,I have not heard of Glocodin ?
I did a google search and came up with no results.
could you share your knowledge with me .

[walkinTas]

I have not heard of Glocodin ?

Glucodin Tablets

[corvus]

G'day gorby,
My magic little pills Glucodin Tablets (sorry about the spelling error in my earlier post) you get them from any supermarket in the same section as the "sports drinks or sports foods " depending on which one you go to .
50g pkt costs around $3.50 with around 33 tabs per pkt each tab yields 24 kilojoules,the are basically 97% glucose with flavour added and they work a treat.
c

[flyfisher]

Just had a delivery from The Professors Tasty Technology p/l --3 sample packs.
The icecream is only 17gms so wont add much to pack weight.
The chocolate desert pasta looks interesting as well.
Also included are MOONSTONES, GALACTIC PEANUTS, and CHOC ASTEROIDS, in 100gm packs.

FF

[tasadam]

I take peanut butter

unfortunately you have to carry the container out (plastic)

but for sheer concentrated nutrition I like it - mountain bread & peanut butter is not too bad either!

On a recent walk we put peanut butter in a food tube, that worked quite well. A bit messy getting it in to the tube, got there in the end.
Spoon it in the big end, put the lid on and bash the thing down vertically onto the bench, hoping you don't split the lid. Gravity forces the contents down and gets the air out.
These are the tubes I speak of -
http://www.hiking.com.au/p/1081917/coghlans-squeeze-tubes.html

[north-north-west]

Have noticed a lot of people take things like cheese .. .

I usually take a bit of cheap (Tasmanian) camembert. It doesn't go off if it's kept wrapped, and a warm day just means it's runnier and yummier. A brilliant lunch that, sitting on a peak somewhere, munching on camembert and crackers. Pity I can't get the smoked salmon to co-operate as well . . . *sigh*

[corvus]

Have noticed a lot of people take things like cheese .. .

I usually take a bit of cheap (Tasmanian) camembert. It doesn't go off if it's kept wrapped, and a warm day just means it's runnier and yummier. A brilliant lunch that, sitting on a peak somewhere, munching on camembert and crackers. Pity I can't get the smoked salmon to co-operate as well . . . *sigh*

May be worth trying Safcol Atlantic Salmon in Oil Naturally Smoked, no where near as good as the real thing but quite nice nevertheless, or have you tried freezing your portion of Smoked Salmon and insulating it wrapped in alfoil then in a small Jiffy postage bag for day one lunch (worked for me) but then again it was not such a warm day.
My "cheese" for multi day walks is Processed Cream Cheese foil wrapped triangles (gives me 197kj of energy plus protein ,fat,carbs and sodium 0.19g per serve ) big bang for your dollar, the one I use is Happy Cow made in Austria and cheaper than the others ,again not like real cheese but a suitable substitute
corvus

[north-north-west]

I've thought about freezing a bit, for cooler walks especially - although it's rare for me to get a full weekend off in winter or spring. Worth trying.

[lightfantastic]

It seems to me that butter is the most concentrated energy that i can find, at around 3000kj per 100gm, its around double cheese dried fruit and nuts . If we can keep it cool its really good value [easier in Tas]

[22F]

Have noticed a lot of people take things like cheese .. .

I usually take a bit of cheap (Tasmanian) camembert. It doesn't go off if it's kept wrapped, and a warm day just means it's runnier and yummier. A brilliant lunch that, sitting on a peak somewhere, munching on camembert and crackers. Pity I can't get the smoked salmon to co-operate as well . . . *sigh*

Geez, youve got me thinking about the smoked salmon now.
What about breaking down individual servings into separate vacuum packed bags to try to prevent oxidation and exposure of the whole lot??

[Macca81]

Have noticed a lot of people take things like cheese .. .

I usually take a bit of cheap (Tasmanian) camembert. It doesn't go off if it's kept wrapped, and a warm day just means it's runnier and yummier. A brilliant lunch that, sitting on a peak somewhere, munching on camembert and crackers. Pity I can't get the smoked salmon to co-operate as well . . . *sigh*

Geez, youve got me thinking about the smoked salmon now.
What about breaking down individual servings into separate vacuum packed bags to try to prevent oxidation and exposure of the whole lot??

what about a plastic jar, filled with the salmon, then a bit of olive oil to cover. minimise oxidation and you can use the oil to add a bit of flavour/calories to your other meals if you wish... i reckon a jar would be easier to handle that a vacuum pack IMHO