Suggestions for a newbie?

[off-kilter]

Howdy! I am (obviously) new to this forum and new to this kind of recreation. Tate, Nuclear Redneck, is my husband and he has convinced me to try out this insanity by embarking on that two-week trip to the Gila National Forest in NM next month. Somehow I’ve gotten the job of procuring the food items, but I need help.

We’re renting a Horizon trailer for the trip, which will have a propane stove and a small dorm-style fridge. We’re only doing camping/driving and day hikes, but I’m still not sure what to bring. Granola, yogurt, dried chili and soup mixes. Eh, what else would you suggest? We can and will replenish the fruits/veggies at local stores, I suppose, but what’s a typical menu for a trek like this?

Be obvious and redundant. I am starting from almost scratch here! Thank ya kindly. :chowtime:

 

[Tucson T4R]

Welcome to Expo. Your going to love the Gila area. Course I'm a little biased since I just got back from there.

You have a couple options since you now have the fridge/freezer. On short trips I use mine as a fridge but on longer trips I cool it down to be a freezer and compliment it with your standard ice cooler. By cycling frozen water bottles between the two and refreezing them in the freezer, you have unlimited cold storage. Also by going that route, you can take all your meats/fish frozen and just thaw what you want each day.

Breakfast can be as simple as instant hot oatmeal and an orange or banana or more complex like eggs and bacon if your in need of more colesterol.:chowtime:

Same with lunch - if hiking you may just have trail mix, granola bars, jerky, power bars, whatever you like on normal day hike. If in camp and you have the room, I take deli meats and tomatoes & lettuce for sandwhiches.

Dinner is wide open... with your two burner you can easily make a wide varity of pasta dishes with either chicken or sausage added and a vegie. We also pre-cook a spicey ground hamburger or turkey and then just reheat it in camp and mix with lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, tottilla chips, and salsa for taco salad.

Pre-marinated beef or chicken strips and peppers and onnions cook up some easy fajitas just slap them into a tortilla and enjoy.

If you want to use the fire, bring a small grill with sturdy folding legs that you can set over the coals. With that you can cook chicken, steak, fish, however you like it. I also precook Baked potatoes in a microwave (cheating) and wrap them in aluminium foil. Then in camp, wrap some corn with a little butter in foil and set them around the edge of the coals while your grilling. keep turning them so they don't burn and all the taters need is to be reheated since they are already cooked.

There are some good ideas in this thread too: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1851

Hope that helps....enjoy your trip

 

[rusty_tlc]

We stick to cold cereal for breakfast since we move camp often it's easy to munch a bowl of cereal while you pack stuff up.

Lunch is usually cold cuts or PBJ's sometimes we break out the back packing stove and boil a couple of hot dogs.

For dinner we usually BBQ on the portable gas grill. I always like to wrap stuff in foil and throw it on the grill. You can just steam veggies this way or make a whole meal.

Sometimes we will just heat a can of chili for dinner. It's good to have at least one or two meals planned that can be fixed fast with a minimum of fuss for those days when you get into camp later than expected.

In general we camp to relax so we keep meals simple and avoid clean up as much as possible.

Whatever you do keep the experimentation to a minimum, if possible test new meals at home. It's better to stick to stuff you are comfortable making. You can get fancier as you gain experience and know what works.

EX:I had an idea I could bake biscuits on my camp BBQ so I tried it at home. It works kinda okay, the method is to cover the grill with foil folded over to four layers. Then pre heat the grill and put the biscuits directly on the foil with the grill set to low. I found they cooked in about the same time as the directions called for but I had to flip them a couple of times. And I burnt a few of them. All in all it wasn't a great idea, but I found that out at home, not at meal time in camp.

 

[Ursidae69]

Often I overpack food and end up wasting stuff. Buying food along the way is a good idea for fresh foods. Welcome to the site and enjoy your trip, don't sweat the food too much, it will be a great trip even if you ate beef jerky the whole time. :chowtime: