Soy curls have got to be a backpacker’s best friend. TVP may pack smaller, but once you rehydrate it, it’s still TVP. Soy curls, on the other hand, plump up into real food. Easily spiced up, throw them in a tortilla or on top of some instant mashed potatoes or toss them in pasta.

Super great shortcuts for camping foods are Simply Organic sauce and spice mixes. Completely ignore the directions on the back and just use them when you’re rehydrating your foodstuffs. And what really comes in handy is the one bulky luxury item I’m willing to pack in: olive oil. I pour it into a plastic flask so I’m not dealing with a glass bottle and I just think it’s worth its weight and space. Sure, you can do without it, but I would rather cut the handle off my toothbrush and all the tags off my belongings to offset those extra ounces.

We were cooking for four on this trip, but I’ll give you the recipe for two. I split this recipe into two small bags and packed them into a third bag, a Ziploc steamer bag. This was a bit of an experiment, but it worked well. The steamer bag can handle having boiling liquid poured into it so it can rehydrate your pasta (or mashed potatoes or couscous)—way handy if you’re just rehydrating and don’t feel like washing a pot.

Bag 1
• 1 c soy curls
• 1 T Butler seasoning

Bag 2
• 1 c cooked and dehydrated macaroni (as simple as it sounds—saves time and water at camp)
• 1 envelope Simply Organic pesto mix
• 1 T nutritional yeast
• red pepper flakes
• pinch o’ salt

In the pot (on your responsible little camp stove)
• Boil 1¼ c water, then add contents of Bag 1 to the pot.
•When the soy curls are softened up, drain the water into the contents of Bag 2 (now in the steamer bag), leaving the soy curls in the pot. Depending on your stove and the weather, you may need more water.
•Add some olive oil to the soy curls and slightly brown.
•When the macaroni softens up, add it and the remaining water (shouldn’t be much left) into the pot and cook it all up until the water evaporates.
•Dig the dig in.

And here’s a little collection of snacks. I was a bit weirded out by the consistency of the Stonewall’s Jerquee, but when you’re hungry you’re hungry. The marionberry chocolate bar was fruit-leathery, easy enough to handle. Then of course are Cilf bars and the bulky but trusty peanut butter-filled pretzels.

We only got to go out for the one night this time, but it was enough to remind me that I need to do this more often. Hard to believe there’s anything magical about eating rehydrated foods out of a plastic bowl using a spork or waking up to instant coffee, but there so, so is.

The gear’s out of the closet and the roads around the mountains are beginning to open after the winter…’tis the season for just-add-boiling-water recipe development. I wrote before about backpacking food, and I just added a new category (look to your right) because I’d like to add a lot more to this. On a multiday hike, sometimes you don’t even want to think about food, but with some creativity and planning, you’ll be able to surprise yourself with simple yet hearty treats.        

Having been playing around with orzo, I’m finding it’s ideal for backpacking: it soaks up water like rice (nothing to dump out), and it’s compact and solid, unlike many pastas, so it takes up less space than, say, macaroni or ramen. And with either a small bottle or individual packets of olive oil, orzo takes on a creamy texture—pretty deluxe when you’re sitting on a rock.

The only downside to this recipe (and it’s a little one) is that the spice/veg mix is added halfway through the cooking, so it’s a 2-bagger. But that’s really it. I’m giving the amounts for a single serving—it might sound like a lot, but you’re burning thousands of extra calories each day, and dinner is when you really need to replenish. I’d eat this, followed by some Tofurky Jurky to repair all that muscle tissue I abused during the day. My vegetable and spice choices may not be yours, but stick to the ballpark amounts whatever you choose—if you add more dried stuff, you’ll need more water.

The recipe:
•1 c water
•½ c orzo
•½ T dried herbs (I used parsley and basil)
•2 T nutritional yeast (at least!)
•1/3 c dried vegetables and spices, including a pinch of salt and red pepper flakes (I used minced onion and garlic, red and green bell pepper, and sun-dried tomato…will try kale)
•1-2 T olive oil (2′s better, but you can scrimp a little)

Add orzo to boiling water and cover. After 5 minutes or so, when the water really starts to soak up, add your veg/spice mix and simmer another 5 minutes, covered, stirring after a couple of minutes. (These times are approximate, given altitude and stove power variables.)

With all the crappy, gray weather, I can’t help but look ahead to the hiking and backpacking the summer will bring. This photo is from a trip to Shenandoah in Virginia, but I imagine we’ll be able to see about the same up here.

The whole time we lived in LA we weren’t able to take any backpacking trips, so our next will be the first vegan trip. It was hard enough to find vegetarian just-add-hot-water meals, but there’s next to nothing vegan. But I’ve been brainstorming and here’s some stuff I came up with. This is mostly grocery-store stuff, although Wilderness Dining has some great bulk ingredients. And for packing/cooking/eating, I saw some ziplocy steamer bags  the other day that I’ll look further into—if you can steam in them, they’ll hold hot water.

While hiking, in the morning I just want to break camp, pack up, and get on my way—you never know what the day’s going to bring you, and I don’t want to kick myself for a late start. That means no oatmeal or breakfast couscous or pancakes and hashbrowns. Clif bars are fast and good for you. I do love me some coffee, so I’m willing to boil water on the quicky Dragonfly burner for instant coffee. We always take wide-mouth bottles for coffee since they’re easy to rinse out.

My snacks for the day? Mostly easy carbs—you don’t want to load up on protein while you’re hiking. It’s tougher to digest, so you might as well wait until you can take a break.
•peanuts & raisins
•fruit leather (I make my own with my food dehydrator)
•chocolate-covered espresso beans or blueberries or cranberries

Little compares with lunch on a rock next to a waterfall. Here’s some no-cook stuff for a bit of protein and more carbs.
•Torfurky Jurky
•peanut butter & crackers or pita (you can get individual packets of peanut butter and store the crackers in an old plastic jar)
•dried fruit pieces
•roasted edamame

Dinner is where I’m willing to put in a little more time. Someone starts setting up the tent while you get the water started. This is also a good time to get some more protein, when you’re winding down and your body can use it to repair some of that muscle you ran into the ground throughout the day.
•couscous or instant rice (white or brown) with veg bullion, dried herbs, and freeze-dried vegetables
•instant pasta with olive oil (available in individual packets), dried herbs, and vacuum-packed sun-dried tomatoes
•instant pasta with ChReese or dehydrated pasta sauce (sauce dried in the dehydrator like fruit leather)
•instant mashed potatoes
•TVP, instant felafel or Fantastic Nature’s Burger with taco spices or bullion, in tortillas or pita

Yeah, I know, I’ve got at least four months to go. But it was fun to daydream.