Light Lunches?

[tasadam]

I'm interested in what other people do for lunch.

Typically our lunch would consist of Ryvita biscuits, a red onion, salami, cheese, hommus as a spread instead of butter, or maybe the Ryvita with the tuna or salmon packets, they come in a foil bag from the supermarket. The fish packets would work well with the mountain bread as well.

But I am interested in lighter weight lunches.
I'm right with other meals and with snacks, just don't know what to take for a healthy lunch that will fill a gap while keeping the weight down. 2 minute noodles and cuppa soups are what we normally have as an entree of an evening. I don't mind cooking some lunches... so the Continental pasta packs may come into play, biggest problem with them is they need simmering for like 10 minutes (in my opinion don't buy the other brand as they don't have the taste).

Mowser when you did Feders, what did you take on such a long walk? I know you had a food drop but you would surely have had to start with 2 weeks supplies...
Anyone else got any ideas?

[Mowser]

Adam, your lunch sounds very similar to what i would normally carry. Generally mine consists of Vita-Wheats, Mountain Bread, Cheese (the Kraft long life stuff), Salami, a tube of Vegimite, Salmon or Tuna packs and some dried fruit. This stuff is pretty good for a quick lunch i reckon plus it fills you up. When you divide weight between a couple of people it's not too much really. Dehydrated half bananas are good also for a snack at lunch. I think it's hard to lighten the weight of lunch much more than this.

Whenever i do an extended walk (for example my epic walk for a month) we carried 15 days worth of food at the start of the walk then collected another 15 days worth of food from our air drop at Melaleuca. I work on 1kg of food per person per day and on a long walk you really need to weigh out all food. This means weighing out pasta, rice etc for each person for each meal and dividing it into separate 'meal packs' that are easy to whip out and prepare a meal. It also makes it easier to divide between people. It takes a lot of preparation and organisation, especially for a long walk.
Now, 15 days worth of food (15kg) is a lot to carry with everything else and at the start of that walk we were carrying huge weights. If you're not keen on that there is the option of a quick walk in prior to the big walk to dump supplies at a predetermined location. Thats a story for another day.

[tasadam]

If you're not keen on that there is the option of a quick walk in prior to the big walk to dump supplies at a predetermined location.

I bet you were wishing that you did this about the time you were passing Junction Creek!
Seriously, though, thanks for such a detailed response. There's some good pointers there.
My problem is that my wife and I are usually the entire party so with all the gear, plus our food, plus our camera gear (2 DSLR bodies, tripod, 5 lenses, batteries etc) It is really stretching things, particularly when I only weigh 62 kg's.
I'm thinking about going prepared for 10 days on the overland track later this month extending into July. Might have to limit the days a bit, will have to see.

One bit of advice I will give here (to keep things not too off-topic), is that Sustagen powder that you can buy, the chemists sell big tins of the Sport version, go the chocolate!
We use a wide mouth 1 litre bottle to mix up the milk for breakfast then that bottle gets used for sustagen for that day - not if we're taking it easy but if we have to put in a big one, that stuff really does help! It's usually gone before lunch but it's a great boost!
Once I walked Vera hut to the road in 4 hrs 50 mins coz I was in the zone and I had the sustagen. And I travelled alone that time so the pack wasn't exactly light. Oh, and I go through the mud not around.
Sustagen - Don't leave home without it...

[Son of a Beach]

My lunches are usually fairly similar. Either Mountain Bread, Ryvitas or Vita Wheats (on a long walk, I'll take two or three of these to get a bit of variety), and fillings or spreads including:

• butter
• salami
• cheese
• semi-dried (at home) herbed tomatoes
• vegemite (in a squeeze tube)
• peanut butter
• phili cheese varieties (various flavours)
• homus

You can end up with a fairly good variety on a long walk this way. If I think the weather might be bad, I'll sometimes make the lunch up before leaving camp, and put it in a zip lock bag in the front pocket of my pack. Then I can stop to eat without unpacking anything in the rain.

Sometimes I'll take 2 minute noodles, but will usually only do these for lunch if expecting to be at campsite for lunch (eg, short day, or 2 nights at same camp site).

[kantonysen]

When I go bushwalking/flyfishing ( day trips ) I take fruit buns, chocolate and snack bars. It gives me the opportunity to keep moving while eating, and its possible to be looking out for trout if by a lakeside while moving slowly. It's the lack of having to prepare something that I like about it.

When going into places such as Frenchmans Cap years ago for breakfast I'd have a tin of plum pudding. Didn't need to eat much for quite a few hours afterwards!!

[under10kg]

I dry humos, place in a small plastic bag, just add a little water and mush.
Make a little hole in the end of the bag and squeese out.
I cant taste the difference from fress homos.