Winter Food Suggestion

[whitelief]

The best meal I ever had on the trail was a grilled cheese sandwich which followed the entire Dix Range and a big thunderstorm which chased down off the ridge, forcing a hike back up and over Hunter's Pass to return to our campsite at the N. Fork of the Boquet River. Our flashlight had turned on in the day pack, and was dead. With a borrowed flashlight we finally found our carefully stashed packs. So that long build-up helps explain why those grilled cheese sandwiches tasted so good. They were cooked from scratch on site.

So here was my Idea of the Century: Pre-Grilled Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Ingredients:

Two slices of Hearty Bread of Your Choice (My choice: Pigs Can Fly Sourdough)
Plenty of Excellent Cheese
Butter (plenty of butter )

Grill, as you normally would, but quit just before the final browning, but after the cheese begins to flow.

Insert in baggie and freeze. To instill outdoor qualities, use a snowbank. When you hit the the cold trail, the sandwich will stay frozen till mealtime.

To prepare: Cook it gently till it thaws, then finish with a nice toasting sizzle. HMMM. Protein, carbs, and plenty of keep-you-warm-at-night artery-jamming slow-to-digest-and-make-you-feel-full fat. YUM!

These worked splendidly. No reason to not add other ingredients of your choice, I would presume.

Happy trails,

David

[Kevin]

Not a bad idea, kinda like a pre-cooked MRE thingie .

I'm a big fan of deviled ham sandwiches. They're pretty toxic, so they don't freeze very easy and take a while to spoil in the summer heat.

[rondak100]

Eggs...

BReakfast ... I love eggs in the morning. For years I would eat oatmeal. then, vary quickly, I lost my tatse for oatmeal and i won't eat it anymore. I carry a silverstone pan and freeze eggs. they cook up fine, from the frozen state. I also love to bring onions and peppers, cheeze and ham. Its like having a Greek Diner in the woods. Its definitely worth the time and a silverstone pan cleans up very easily.

Lunch is sandwhiches, or sardines. Sardines really work to keep me going. Gatorade and Sardines really restore energy if i have gone to far without replenishment.


Chunked Kielbasa for dinner, cooked in the pan, then tossed into a pot of Noodles and sauce or the like.

Mike

[mtbnski]

Atkins diet vs. camp food

Anybody here doing the Atkins thing? I've been doing it for about 4 months.

If so, what do you do for winter food? All the traditional camp food is usually high in carbs.

With the cold temps, I bring lots of meat and cheese as spoliage isn't a concern.

Nuts are also a good source of protein and fat.

[redhawk]

If you winter hike/camp I would be more worried about not having enough carb intake as opposed to cutting back.

carbs become heat and thats important in winter.

[rondak100]

high fat / protein....

When your body is burning fat, it is because it doesnt have stored carbs, or carbs in your food. Burning fat creates more heat, and creates it in the right places. You don't NEED carbs, unless you have very low body fat or have a problem producing your own blood sugar.

This should be an interesting thread.

I did the Atkins thing two years and got into great shape. I put the weight back on because I broke down and went back to beer and ice cream, my two biggest weaknesses. I am still a convert however, avoiding, bread, rice cereal, refined sugars and flour.

When I go hike for more than two days, I eat low-carb, except for gatorade.

Call me Popeye, but I feel a real solidness and a continuity of energy when I eat spinach; so I have some most days and definitely while hiking.

Mike

[mtbnski]

i agree wholeheartedly with fat being a better source of energy than carbs. when i was pro-carb i used to get wild energy swings throughout the day. not anymore.

during the winter is a perfect time to take high-protein/fat foods (ie meat,cheese) on the trail. i imagine it might be a little harder to stick to the diet during the warmer months though.

[Kevin]

As far as caloric intake is concerned, hiking shouldn't require anything 'special' other than making sure you snack often enough to maintain decent blood sugar/energy, and hydrate often. I usually try to eat the same things I normally do when in the woods (eggs, meats, starch, nuts, fruits, etc). Especially in the winter when spoilage is not a concern.

[Rick]

You really need to think of nutrition & eating in terms of building a fire.

Calorie - a unit of heat equal to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree at one atmosphere pressure; used by nutritionists to characterize the energy-producing potential in food

You need all 3 elements - Protein, Carbs and Fats. Think of the Carbs as the tinder - It burns out quick, but does not leave much heat - Get sht efire started though. Protein (Building blocks) makes up the larger pieces that keep the fire strong, whereas Fat is the all-nighter log - it takes longer to burn, but throws out an incredible amount of energy/heat - An amazing 4,000 calories per pound (Carbs and proteins are merely 1,800 calories each per pound)

If you were with Steiger in the Arctic, you would have lived off of sticks of butter. In addition, many AT thruhikers carry big tubes of squeeze margerine and put huge dollops on all of their food as a source of dense, but somewhat lightweight calories. Folks in these situations are slowly starving themselves as their daily caloric output is greater than their input.

As far as what is proper nutrition, there are outliers on both ends of the balanced nutrition equation making wild claims - which may work in the short run, but I honestly beleive the long-term answer lies in the middle - A balance of all and avoidance of higly refined/highly processed foodstuffs.

Keeping in mind that if you have been out of balance for years, you cannot simply change overnight by going back into a blance - Many diets take it a step furhter by bringing you to the opposite end of the equation (Case-in-point Remember 10 years ago brush-cut fake blond susan powter - claiming that you need to live off all carbs and avoid fat completey)

[redhawk]

62 Years Old - 6'1" - Large boned - 205 pounds (between 195-205 since I was 18). Blood pressure low - cholesterol level so low that if I go to a new doc, they want to retest because they think they screwed up. My doctor says that I am in better shape (except for the emphysema which I caused from smoking) then most 30 years olds.

Secret? I eat beef, pork, lamb, bacon, ham, poultry, fish, venison, elk, lots of buffalo, all vegetables (and pig out on asparagus and spinach), rice, noodles, potatoes, bread, milk and cheese. My meals have always been balanced and I am more inclined to increase the entre or veg portions rather then the starches.

I do not read the labels on the foods, I do not shop for food that has any special nutritional benefit (other then hi energy bars for hiking). I was fortunate growing up poor on the reservation that we never had desserts because we couldn't afford it. Once in a while it was a special treat. So I never got the "craving". I hate fast foods except Wendy's on rare occasions (You can count on two hands the number of times I have been to MacDonalds, burger King, etc). I dislike potatoes chips, corn puffs, cheese puffs and all that stuff. I do lie white corn tortilla chips and frybread and have them on occasion (about 12 times a year).

I have exercised all my life, never in a gym, just backpacking or walking (I walk 3 1/2 miles every day to the post office to get my mail). I walk whenever it is possible. Always have.

So, my own opinion about eating healty is to use common sense. Balanced meals, reasonable portions and above all some kind of physical activity.

Biggest problem today is that everything is geared towards "oral gratification" (no smart a** remarks on that one) and exerting as little energy as possible. People today are just plain a lot less disciplined and a lot more lazy then they were years ago, and it keeps getting worse. It's pleasure today and to hell with the consequences are tomorrow.

Even "work" is easier. Carpenters and contractors use screw guns and nail guns, power saws and the like. And it's like that on every job. Think about it, today in an office you don't have to leave your chair and walk to a file cabinet to get account information. Used to be families went to the beach on real hot days to cool off. Today they stay in air conditioned houses and watch tv or use the computer or a video game. How many people do you know will get in their car and drive a block to the convenience store rather then walk?

Our bodies were built to serve functions to help us walk, run, stay warm, stay cool, etc. They have not yet adapted to doing almost nothing except at specific times. Wonder why people are getting fatter and more pear shaped? It's called EVOLUTION!!