Following are some ideas for lightweight, easy to prepare, low cost food using only items purchased at supermarkets. We think commercial freeze-dried food is gross and expensive.

Dinners
We always have cup-a-soup (comes in an envelope, not a cup) with every dinner to get warmed up and rehydrated too.
Desserts are shown further down the list.

• Chicken and Rice - Minute rice, dried chicken, tomato soup, dried onions, bouilion
• Tuna Casserole - Lipton Noodles Alfredo, dried tuna, dry milk, butter buds
• Macaroni and Cheese - Packaged mac & cheese, sharp cheddar cheese, dry milk
• Beef Stroganoff - Hamburger Helper beef stroganoff, dry ground beef, dry milk
• Couscous - Couscous, dry ground beef, dried veggies, boullion
• Pizza Pasta - Hamburger Helper pizza pasta, dry ground beef, dry milk
• Spaghetti - Angel hair pasta (cooks faster), dry tomato soup, spaghetti seasoning, dry ground beef
• Chicken and Noodles - Hamburger Helper, dried chicken. dry milk
• New ideas: Try using instant rice, Rice-a-Roni, or couscous instead of noodles in the above dishes to reduce bulk.

Breakfasts
We always have hot cocoa available for a warm up.

• Apple Pancakes - Just-add-water pancake mix, dried apples, dry milk
• Hashbrowns - Betty Crocker hash browns, add seasoning as desired (soak in cold water first)
• Scrambled Eggs with Baco Bits - Wakefield egg mix tastes better and is cheaper than freeze dried
• Oatmeal and Powerbars/ClifBars/StokerBars/TigerMllkBars/You get the idea - When we need to make tracks...

Lunches

• Usually everyone brings their own gorp, etc., for grazing during the day, and we don't take a long lunch break
• On lazy days we bring sharp cheddar cheese, dry salami, crackers, peanut butter, and honey
• Dried fruit

Desserts

• Cheese Cake - Royal Instant Cheese Cake, using a little less and very cold water, don't make a crust but just sprinkle the graham cracker crumbs on top
• Pudding (Chocolate's best!) - Use very cold water and only as much as the box says to use for pie filling (about 20% less than usual)
• Apple Pie - Richmoor Freeze Dried Apple Compote, sprinkle graham cracker crumbs on it

Many supermarket packaged dinners (Hamburger Helper, Lipton noodles, etc.) say they require milk and/or butter. In most cases the dinner can be prepared without these hard-to-backpack items, although the texture and flavor won't be as good. For milk use Carnation nonfat dry milk mixed with water. Butter flavoring can be added using Butter Buds, although this doesn't add the creaminess of fat real butter or margarine does.

How to Dry Ground Beef
In drying beef, the key is to eliminate all fat as it is the fat that turns rancid. Therefore, the lower percentage fat you start with the better. Because of the cost, I usually dry 22% fat but have used 30% successfully. 15% is even easier, but the result is the same. First, cook the meat in a skillet until it is well done and can't be cooked anymore. Drain all the grease. Use paper towels to pat the meat and soak up as much fat as possible. Spread the meat in a thin layer on a rimmed baking sheet. You can line this with paper towels to soak up more fat but watch that it can't catch fire in the oven. Place in the oven at about 140 degrees F. or so and leave the door cracked open a couple of inches. Dry 24 hours (more or less - it once took me almost 2 days). Stir occasionally and break up so all the pieces are uniform size. When it is done it will be very dark and look and feel like small pieces of gravel. Store in an air-tight plastic bag. It should keep two weeks without refrigeration. To cook, add to the boiling water your recipe calls for as soon as the water starts boiling. It tastes a bit dry because there's no fat, but is a whole lot better than freeze-dried! You could also eat this dry like jerky. I suppose you could season it while cooking if wanted, but the dinners usually have enough seasoning as is. Add to hamburger help-type dinners as explained above.

Copyright Bill Jeffrey 2000. Rights to reproduce and use for nonprofit purposes given.

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