Food on the track

Try this for all your needs

Site Link

Cheers

hi geetee
we have done a few 3 week trips, also going to the simpson in june for 3 weeks in june,
our butcher vacumn packs our meat free of cost for us and although they say not to freeze the meat we have found that freezing the meat at home before we leave and having the fridge set to keep it basically frozen it will easaly last for more than 3 weeks , also try & use the chicken ,sausages, mince and shorter lasting types first. we take a lot of rice , pasta , stir fries because they are light and easy to prepare, we use salada or vita wheat type biscuits for lunch inplace of bread because it takes longer to go stale & takes up less space, lebanise bread is also a good variation, knobs of small goods eg devon are good to put on the biscuits for lunch and can be fried up for breakfast ,we also only take a cast iron frypan as it cooks quickly when pre heated and is good for cooking stir fries & steak, similar to a bbq . and a billy to cook pasta rice & veges in . wrap vegies & fruit in newspaper individually to protect them and use the paper to light your campfire when you have eaten the fruit etc, we only take a camp oven on shorter trips or if we are staying in locations for longer periods . we find when travelling and only staying for one night or short periods in one location we dont seem to be as hungry .small cans of fruit & small boxes of sultanas are good snacks for latter in the trip when the fresh fruit has spoilt or run out .also long life milk & fruit juice can be packed out of the fridge until the ones in the fridge have been used . if you enjoy a beer cans stack and are stronger than stubbies
hope something in this is of help
cheers shep

Hi GeeTee

We tend to take a slightly different approach in our management of long term
remote area trips.

Essentially we take very little food which has the potential to spoil and
requires big fridges and support equipment, or has more complex cooking requirements.

The other side of the coin is to take things that generate little of rubbish.

Our fridge is only about 23lt, mostly holds just a few drinks, margarine ,cheese
, spray cream, few vegies at start - never meat - maybe packet of fish fingers/pasties for first couple of days if pushed.

Just a few examples ----------->

Water - 10lt supermarket Casks -> Cheap, fresh, immune from odd accident.

Wine casks - cheap, just carry small amount in fridge and top up.

Kids soft drinks,juice etc ,3 per day each in Aluminium cans or burnable containers.
also with cordial/water in fridge.

Main bulk of meals from dehydrated soucres like potatoes beans etc and importantly
pre cooked package meals (but not-dehydrated) in own eating containers from
supermarkets that people have liked before they go. E.G. Pasta mixes.

These meals are bulked out with things like T.V.P./ Deb / pre-cooked rice
which makes them go further and more satisfying.

Always daily fresh coleslaw is added from base mix of hardy vegies like carrots
cabagge etc.

The hardy vegies, fruit, loaves of bread etc are carried in plain stackable cardboard boxes with lids and labels (e.g office A4 paper containers ).
These things last for some weeks with care like ventilation where carried and a few little tricks like sucking the air out of sliced bread bags to double its life, and consuming most perishable fruits etc first.

Robin Miller

Thanks so far friends. Helpful advice. Forgot to mention 2 adults but we will be in convoy with a couple of others.

As above. Longer life veges etc.
Plenty of pasta and rice. We usually carry plenty of pasta, rice and flour just in case we end up stranded for a few days.

Something we did with the kids which I havn't seen any where else is to make what we call 'mini dampers'.
Use some jaffle irons in the fire, or on a stove, make up the usual damper mix, but to the consistency of tooth paste.
Drop a table spoon of mixture in a jaffle iron for about 5 minutes on the fire.
Open and add syrup, jam or honey etc.

Easier than cooking a whole damper in the camp oven, and fills any empty corners left after the meal. Kids can cook them themselves.
Can keep a couple for the next day and use like a scone.
It was invented by my son when he was about 13, and still hungry after a meal, and he wanted to cook a damper. But we didn't want the hassle of cleaning up after him. :o)

There is any number of approaches. The important things to know is that hard veg does not need cooling. A vented cardboard box will keep stuff for a few weeks. You need to not be relying on a fridge for everything. There is any number of dried/dehydrated meals. Watch out as they are often loaded with MSG. This can be an issue for those with Asthma. I certainly can't eat them without adverse effects. Dehydrated veg is also available. Vacpacking is always an option. Choose items with care as VacPAcing is not as effective with all foods. There are quite a few flat breads that will last 6 weeks if left in the packet without cooling. Keep meals simple to prepare. If you want to do curries etc you can premix spices in a locTite bag. Pasta, rice and couscous can be used as a base for a lot of things, travel well and do not need cooling. Fruit cakes last, don't need cooling and travel remakably well.

Other idea's I have seen but not tried.
1) Take lots of cans and do a lucky dip each night. Ham/cheese for lunch. Cereal/pwdered milk for breakfast. Have seen this done for the entire length of the CSR (17 days).

2) Mixture of hard veg with a selection of canned foods.

3) take 1/2 as much food as required and bludge of of everyone else.

There is no need to have a bland diet. It just requires a bit of thought. If you are heavily in to protien it is harder without 2 fridges.

Steve

Well I like a good steak or snags when out camping so usually have them packed in meal lots. The trip later this year I will be looking at more rice dishes

I used to cook a roast if staying in one spot for a few nights and use the left overs as sandwishes the next day and maybe in a onion and gravy mix with mash the following night (simple).

I'm not into dehydrated veg etc (personal choice) but would carry some just incase I get stuck rather eat that than think about eating food :)

I will be doing my list up very soon as its only 8 weeks before I depart. Basically it will depend this time wheather I take my camp oven or not, If travelling alone on this outing most likely will not so be simple meals no fuss. I will also not have the room in the fridge to carry a roast around.

Brian

have done a few 3/4 week trips with 4 people and just a 39L engel.
we write down all the days on a piece of paper and decide what we are having for brekky,lunch & dinner for the whole trip.(with an extra 4/5 days worth just in case)
this way you can count up nearly exactly how many spuds/onions/carrots etc to take.
you don't have to strictly adhere to the list, but at least you know you have got enough food.
as mentioned above, vegies wrapped in newspaper last ages.
get all your meat vacuumed in 1 x meal size portions.
our meals are based around meat with tinned stuff and/or vegies, pasta & rice
eg stew/chillee con carne/bangers and mash/curry/spag bol/steak etc
lunch meat you can buy already vacuumed or tinned ham.
some good cakes eg 'big sister', last for ages.
tinned plum pudding/custard in packs. bread "wraps" last for 2 months or more.
the list is endless.
have a good look around the supermarket.
you might bump into me, i'll be the one reading the use-by dates on everything.
enjoy the trip and eat well

GeeTee,
I pack and cook for 2 adults and 2 kids and we eat very well when travelling. When doing the CSR, I prepared a menu for dinners - and listed every ingredient. I then worked on adding breakfast and lunch foods. Don't forget that good ingredients are available right up to the very start of the track at at the very end (ie. Wiluna, Halls Creek, so you probably only need about 16 - 20 days of food and you can top up a bit at Kunawarritji at the half-way point). Actually, you'll be surprised how good the Gunbarrel Groceries at Wiluna is.

I keep my dinner and breakfast ingredients packed in the harder to get to areas (for us that is tubs) as you'll be at camp with time to access these. I keep the lunch ingredients in the fridge and drawer slides with just enough for a few days, and then replenish from the tubs.

Good lunch foods that use minimal packing space are: Cruskits, Salada, Vita Wheat biscuits, Mountain Bread (in resealable plastic bags perfect for wraps). I normally only carry 1-2 loaves of commercial bread and use that for toast at breakfast, but then bake bread as per instructions in our cooking articles.

Some left over meats from the previous nights meal can be added to lunch, but I focus on having tuna and/or salmon which you can buy in foil sachets (no fridge, nor tin bulk) to put on the biscuits/mountain bread. Even a tray of smoked salmon is possible as it has a long life and is very thin and practical to put in the fridge and is devine with cream cheese. I also take the thin cold meat packets (125g) that you can buy near the bacon section of the supermarket - these have a useby date of up to 3mths so you can really stock up on ham, chicken loaf, pastrami, etc. There are numerous options for spreads - but best to avoid too many jars that don't reclaim space when running low. Mayo is good, as is spreadable cream cheese, and a good jar of gormet chutney can really spice up cold meat, or cheese. I also prepare a couple of day's worth of salad vegies for lunches as we go - eg. grated carrot, grated cucumber etc and pop them in snap lock bags or containers in the fridge. I find it is worth making the effort at camp to prepare and repack/resort as I go to maximise the usability of fresh foods - otherwise it all expires at the same time before you've used it.

If buying fruits and vegies, select things like avocadoes etc in various stages of ripeness so you can use just the ones that are ready.

We rarely snack between meals and do not drink any softdrink or junk food which is convenient as these foods tend to be the most bulky to pack and generate the most rubbish which is an issue for the CSR. For our 2003 trip, we were able to rely on many wells for water and had capacity to carry around 80L. I think this makes quite a bit of difference to avail. space. Also, we accept the limitation on alcohol which is very bulky so limit the quantities but do not abstain!

I also do not use my water to make up powdered milk - instead I carry 2L UHT cartons - only 1 at a time is in the fridge, the rest are in a tub. My kids have always consumed gallons of milk so this is a crucial item.

On the CSR I also made up my own mixed jar of nuts and dried fruit (far cheaper than buying pre-mix) and this is good for incar snacks and provides long-lasting energy if it's going to be a long time between meals. We store these items in little pockets in the vehicle (and some sugar lollies like snakes, jubes etc) so our food is not packed in one location - this maximises and simplifies the available packing space.

For dinners, we try to eat meat at more than 50% of meals. I rely on vacuum packing and the bottom half of the fridge is dedicated to store that. I just adapt the same meals we'd have at home with simple ingredients and try to reuse the same base staple ingredients. I use stock and tin tomatoes often for casseroles. Just a few dried herbs, no packet sauces - they're a waste. I always pack tins of legumes and use them as meal bases, such as chick peas, cannolini beans. I almost never prepare dried pasta anymore - takes too long to boil the water, uses too much water etc. Instead we cook a lot of couscous and it's actually really nice to eat with lots of foods, and can be eaten cold or hot (ie. salad, or side dish).

I'm a bit fussy and don't like to eat package or dehydrated foods so we carry fresh produce at all times, including on the CSR or go without. I certainly start a trip fully stocked with fresh items in the fridge and a box of hard vegies and fruits and as we get towards the end and this depletes you change your menu and use the more staple ingredients. Just keep your menu simple - but nutritious so that the food you do eat is worthwhile. Deb potato is about the only substitute I do have to use on longer trips - round hard vegies just use up so much valuable space and potato is an important ingredient and makes great patties if mixed with tuna etc.

At the end of the day, everyone's food liking is so different that you really have to take the foods you normally eat, or at least adapt those foods/meals for practicality as best you can. There is no point in following someone else's menu or recipes if you would not normally eat that type of food. After 10yrs of bush cooking, that's the realisation I've come to anyway and it works for me. One trick I will mention is to estimate the likihood of using an open fire vs gas cooking when planning your menu. Base your decision on what to cook on what is possible that night. You need to plan a few really simple non-meat meals for long driving days that come in late.

I hope these ideas help. One day I'll finish my cookbook!

We have found that putting fruit and veges in separate old pillow slips and then in a cardboard box works well and is less messy than news paper. Also we keep the box under our bags and blankets during travel. We were in the Simpson last September with temps in the low 40,s and were eating nice cold oranges that had lasted from Mildura two weeks before. Cheers, Chris.