Paleo Camping Food 2

My light-weight camping while paleo eating was a success! And some meals were definite wins that I will make again. In addition to meals, one thing I had not realized was just how much energy I would need for portaging/paddling, particularly because of eating paleo and lower carb. I figured out early that by eating more fruit/sugar than usual, the Boink Phenomenon (feeling a sudden loss of all muscle mass and motivation to continue) can be eliminated.  So I ate more dried fruit and sugar - including beverages like Emergen-C, sun tea with sugar, dates and figs - on travel days than I thought I would.

Below are the meal hits of the trip; they utilize products listed in my earlier post: Paleo Camping Food. All of these things are shelf-stable and lighter weight for backpacking/canoeing.

My fave meal of the trip was Fish Chowder. This used the heavy cream powder, 1 slice of bacon per person, dried onions, dried peppers, dried celery, and a small bit of potatoes or sweet potatoes, along with the fish du jour (which in my case was either small mouth bass or pike). A big spoonful of ghee was added in at the end. Oh my god! This fish chowder was pretty much to die for at the end of the day. The bacon adds a smoky flavor, and the cream and ghee made this so delicious.

The cereal looked like this, minus the prunes. Yum!

Breakfast on travel days was Carrot and Sweet potato cereal (with maybe a little jerky for the road).  Soak the dried carrots and sweet potatoes overnight in plenty of water (these veggies expand, so play around with amounts and err on the low side at first) in some kind of sealed container. In the morning, add nutmeg, cinnamon, and powdered cream and it is like a sweet breakfast cereal. Coconut flakes and nuts would also be amazing on here. (Incidentally, while looking for the photo to post, I found a recipe for Sweet potato, carrot, and dried fruit casserole that sounds incredible.)

No more flour than in this photo!

Fried fish was excellent with a very light coating of coconut flour: you need very little flour because it absorbs so much more than regular flour. I put on too much one time and it soaked up all the oil and didn't fry as well. So just toss a little bit (as in a Tablespoon for a decent size fish) in a bowl, add the fish fillets, and stir so they are all lightly dusted. Fry in coconut oil.


Of the dried veggies from Harmony House's variety pack, I recommend the cabbage, carrots, sweet potatoes, onions and celery (for flavor), tomato powder (for chili), and mixed peppers. The broccoli and sliced mushrooms were also good. The peas and corn took way too long to cook and thus were basically inedible. The potatoes were fun in chowder because I usually don't eat them, but I found I liked the sweet potatoes better. The veggies hydrated pretty fast, and though they didn't taste like large bite-fulls, they did add bulk and flavor. They also take up a lot of space, even though you don't need many because they expand a lot. So if space is an issue, be choosy! My favorite stand alone veggie was the dried cabbage (cooked) with bacon.

Dried burger, aka hamburger gravel

The other win of the food supply was homemade jerky and homemade dried venison burger. Both were made by My Charming Companion, but I plan to participate in the jerky making next time around. I will share a how-to then, but really, the taste of homemade jerky is phenomenal, and the main technique is to marinate it in braggs and a little pepper, then cut the meat with the grain while it is half frozen. The dried burger is not difficult, you just need to get all of the fat out so that it is shelf stable (venison or really lean beef work best). There is a good link here with directions - and this stuff tastes exactly like regular burger and is really light weight. I mixed it with a variety of the aforementioned veggies, bacon (for smokiness), and ghee and spices to make chili or a vegetable/meat stew-y sort of thing.

A few other notes about other meals/food: the OvaEasy eggs were amazing, I give them a 10 and ended up eating them almost every day (if not for breakfast, for dinner). The coconut manna was also good, though I ate it more as a snack than I used it in soup. I would bring it again because it made really good curry (with a curry sauce pouch from local Asian grocery: United Noodles), which was a welcome change in flavors.