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    • BB wrote --I have pondered these pouches many times. They are available at our Dollar Tree stores up here for .... wait for it... a dollar each. My concern has not been weight. I have been concerned about attracting critters. Is that an "unreasonable fear"?
      As a former trapper, I am more concerned about the odors of oily meats then I am about mac-n-cheese and oatmeal. Again, it might be an unreasonable fear.

      Well put those fears aside, Retort Packaging is at times more meat and somewhat lighter packing. But the taste is the key - my wife claims she cannot tell the difference - but a ol can vs retort? awesome for the retort. easy to work with and the plate is included and can be added too once its open packs of hot sauce or Mayo may can be added. Oil packed is great - it lasts longer unrefrigerated.

      [IMG:http://higoodday.com/files/attach/images/8064/284/117/918059a3ce4677fc22995aa58c85ca3e.jpg]
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Wise Old Owl ().

    • Well this is the second attempt

      Try Knorr base vegetable add three cups and 1/2 cup of par boiled rice and seasoning other than salt... the rice will absorb some of the salt so 4 cups is too much. Boil hold for 3-5 minutes and wait on the pot or cozy some 15 minutes and the rice will be tender. 3 cups is huge, but some here will have an appetite and this is cheap.

      My son devoured it... as close to vegetarian as one can get.

      [IMG:https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRtYnKUisIUdymL25zIVGqaKukhuDzOTGYJ3BX39nzSpeYyt5sJRQ]
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • WiseOldOwl wrote:

      BB wrote --I have pondered these pouches many times. They are available at our Dollar Tree stores up here for .... wait for it... a dollar each. My concern has not been weight. I have been concerned about attracting critters. Is that an "unreasonable fear"?
      As a former trapper, I am more concerned about the odors of oily meats then I am about mac-n-cheese and oatmeal. Again, it might be an unreasonable fear.

      Well put those fears aside, Retort Packaging is at times more meat and somewhat lighter packing. But the taste is the key - my wife claims she cannot tell the difference - but a ol can vs retort? awesome for the retort. easy to work with and the plate is included and can be added too once its open packs of hot sauce or Mayo may can be added. Oil packed is great - it lasts longer unrefrigerated.

      [IMG:http://higoodday.com/files/attach/images/8064/284/117/918059a3ce4677fc22995aa58c85ca3e.jpg]


      These are a very logical way to carry protein. I just need to get by my fear. I am afraid I will never get the oily smell off my hands and some creature will try to eat me in the night.
      Non hikers are about a psi shy of a legal ball.
    • TrafficJam wrote:



      My next trail meal is going to be instant mashed potatos, gravy, chicken, and dehydrated cranberry sauce. There's something in canned/pre-cooked meat (except tuna) that tastes bad to me. Maybe a preservative? I hope the gravy will mask the taste of the chicken.


      Kathy and I spent one Thanksgiving in Harriman State Park, for a few days.
      We had a full Thanksgiving dinner all packaged in freezer weight bags.
      Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, brown gravy, and 2 kinds of vegetables were warmed up by putting the bags into our pot of boiling water.
      We also had cranberries, and get this, slices of pie that were carried in a plastic container.
      After eating we followed another Thanksgiving tradition and took a nap in the Fingerboard shelter, since it was pouring rain.
    • BB, I like this tuna. It has the perfect amount of moisture, not too dry and not too wet. I can get in all the corners of the package easily with a regular-sized spoon and never get any on my hands. There is no residual moisture in the bag so when you roll it for the trash bag, nothing squishes out. You should try it.

      starkist.com/product/tuna-creations-sweet-spicy
      Lost in the right direction.
    • 2.6 oz of food in a 4.5 oz package. Are they suggesting the packing material weighs 1.9 oz? I love the idea. I really do. However, I am having a hard time with a food that only has 35 calories per oz, comes in heavy packaging, and I fear the oil smell. I am hearing you guys that the oil issue is exaggerated by me. Right now I carry 1.3 pounds of calorie dense foods per day and I don't go hungry. I know you guys are eating much tastier meals. I would love to join you. I am thinking about it. It is all about priorities and what is important to each hiker.
      Non hikers are about a psi shy of a legal ball.
    • BirdBrain wrote:

      2.6 oz of food in a 4.5 oz package. Are they suggesting the packing material weighs 1.9 oz? I love the idea. I really do. However, I am having a hard time with a food that only has 35 calories per oz, comes in heavy packaging, and I fear the oil smell. I am hearing you guys that the oil issue is exaggerated by me. Right now I carry 1.3 pounds of calorie dense foods per day and I don't go hungry. I know you guys are eating much tastier meals. I would love to join you. I am thinking about it. It is all about priorities and what is important to each hiker.


      I totally understand where you're coming from. :)

      I don't know that I'm eating tastier meals. My food choices are much different than everyone else's because I don't want the extra fat and calories. I don't need them when I mainly do day hikes and sashes. A few almonds is all I eat between meals when I'm hiking...and most of the time I have to make myself eat them. For extra calories, I usually take a candy bar.
      Lost in the right direction.
    • WiseOldOwl wrote:

      last time I tried to eat the tuna it was drier than the Sahara - The Smoked Pink Salmon was mild and excellent.

      Sorry BB - you need to try this at home with a spork.


      Yes I do. I also need to add protein to my daily food intake while hiking. I skimp some there. It is hard to balance calorie needs, weight of food, and protein. So far, I have been getting as much protein as I can without raising the food bag weight. I will very likely add some of this stuff, but not much. Likely will try on shakedown from Norwich to Maine Junction of Long Trail.
      Non hikers are about a psi shy of a legal ball.
    • i buy the larger size starkist packets of tuna, more meat, less packaging. i tried those tuna creations and theyre tasty, but i just add hellmans tartar sauce to a packet, and sometimes throw in a little cajun spice and cayenne, eat with a spoon right out of the packet. no muss, no fuss, the packet folds neatly into my garbage bag. the tartar sauce packs more calories in too. mmmmm....fat.
      its all good
    • hikerboy wrote:

      i buy the larger size starkist packets of tuna, more meat, less packaging. i tried those tuna creations and theyre tasty, but i just add hellmans tartar sauce to a packet, and sometimes throw in a little cajun spice and cayenne, eat with a spoon right out of the packet. no muss, no fuss, the packet folds neatly into my garbage bag. the tartar sauce packs more calories in too. mmmmm....fat.


      I like the Cajun small spice shaker for this
      and a Helmans mayo packets from Chick Fil a
      [IMG:https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQpZfsdHAsq_Eg9MUAtSx14NYYqs3P_oITsL479AEckvJJg5gRpug]
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • Instant Pudding with Milk Powder, an easy, quick and delicious camping food This
      is the perfect treat for when you're craving something sweet. Mix up
      some water with milk powder. Then, add in your chocolate, butterscotch,
      vanilla, banana, pistachio, or fudge pudding. Mix well. Enjoy! So
      delicious! Lots of calories and nutrients, but light in your pack. It's
      perfect for hiking with kids.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • I am probably stating what everyone else on the planet has known all alone, but........



      Notice a difference? Over double the calories per the same exact tuna weight and packaging. This is where everyone says, "well ya', everyone knows that". I knew oil would add calories, but did not realize how much.
      Non hikers are about a psi shy of a legal ball.
    • max.patch wrote:

      i ate a lot of pistachio pudding on my thru. surprising good and really sets up well with just cold creek water.


      Never thought of that one. Used to love it when my Mom made it when I was growing up. I probably have not had it in over 30 years.
      Have to buy some and try it out. :)
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General
    • BirdBrain wrote:

      I am probably stating what everyone else on the planet has known all alone, but........



      Notice a difference? Over double the calories per the same exact tuna weight and packaging. This is where everyone says, "well ya', everyone knows that". I knew oil would add calories, but did not realize how much.


      Adds a lot of taste too.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.
    • BB I read the quoted part of Drybones quote and I have to say

      Anything that you learned in the 70-80s about oil and fat from school was so wrong.. education was well beyond stupid. Nutritionist have capitulated and have admitted the fraud & stupidity. There are two things that have stood the test of time - there are good fats and bad fats... and carbohydrates.

      couple of things we can take away..
      1. people that eat fast food on the trail - finish first
      2. Vegans - finish last and few but it can be done.
      3. there are good fats - EVO and bad fats "saturated" but butter is still king!
      4. a no fat diet will kill people, see "rabbit fever"
      5. Energy is derived from fat, fruits, and lastly bread.
      6. Beer is liquid bread - hense a beer belly.

      Care to continue? here is a dose of credibility and a slam dunk on Diabetes
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • Good fat and a bad fat... what we need to know good fats stay liquid at room temperature. Bad fats, Lard and others do not and are soft. Butter is the exception - it coats the arteries with protection, Margarine hardens the arteries and the combination is clearly bad for everyone. EVO is clearly why the Italians live so long and sugar is what overwhelms the pancreas. Feel free to do the homework.

      Before nutritionists? Wrap your head around this picture from the 60's

      [IMG:http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/photo/images/new-53.gif]

      There isn't a fat guy in the damn room This is 1960's Nasa command. They ate meat, some polish sausage, steak etc. YES CALORIES my friend.

      Yes there were some fat people in 1945 but they clearly were the minority.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • I agree WOO. Our food pyramid was built by politicians during the Carter administration, not nutritionist. Low fat equals high sugar. I eat eggs for breakfast almost every day, I am far from being a vegan, and have not had fake butter in my house for decades. I could go on. However, my issue with oil is not nutrition. It is the attraction of animals. It is not the smell of the oil. The oil just makes it harder to get the smell of the tuna off you and your surroundings. My mention of oil above was because I was shocked how many calories it adds. Calories are good on the trail.

      A good show to watch is this:
      imdb.com/title/tt1333994/
      Follow the money....
      Non hikers are about a psi shy of a legal ball.
    • WiseOldOwl wrote:

      Before nutritionists? Wrap your head around this picture from the 60's
      (...)
      There isn't a fat guy in the damn room This is 1960's Nasa command. They ate meat, some polish sausage, steak etc. YES CALORIES my friend.

      Yes there were some fat people in 1945 but they clearly were the minority.


      There is something going on that nobody understands. The lifestyle of Americans hasn't changed that much in the last fifty years - in terms of what we eat, how much we exercise, and so on - certainly not enough to explain the fact that tremendous numbers of people now struggle to keep weight off. Yes, I know, it's thermodynamics - calories in minus calories out - but interventions based on that simplistic view have been ineffective. The body fights the change. Many of the metabolically obese simply cannot lose weight without their bodies going into a starvation response, with intolerable symptoms of hunger and fatigue. "Eat less and exercise more" is a platitude, but many simply cannot do it!

      There was a time when infectious diseases such as tuberculosis were considered "lifestyle" diseases. Then the causes were discovered, effective interventions were developed, and we stopped blaming the victims. Many of us are old enough to remember when peptic ulcers were ascribed entirely to rich food and too much stress. It came as a shock to the doctors when it turned out that they were caused by bacteria, and it took quite a while for the medical profession to accept the evidence that antibiotics were effective and lifestyle interventions were not.

      I predict similar discoveries with obesity. The global (not just American!) increase in obesity has many patterns consistent with an epidemic rather than a universal adoption of poor lifestyle choices. If it were merely the latter, surely all the shaming we do of the obese would be enough of a motivator for change!

      This paper is quite a good summary of research along the lines that I mention. It certainly stresses that the symptoms are associated with many factors. I speculate that we are going to discover a single factor, perhaps not yet even suspected, that accounts for a great many of the cases. I further speculate that all the factors that the popular press trumpets are symptoms or incidental associations, not causes. (My guess? A family of viruses along the lines of Ad36 or RAV-7. But I'm just as likely to be wrong as anyone else.)
      I'm not lost. I know where I am. I'm right here.
    • Astro wrote:

      AK, watch it there. You might be killing my justification to my wife that the reason I need to buy new hiking gear and go hiking the AT five weeks each summer is for my health. :D


      Would it help if I told you that hiking has cardiovascular and cognitive benefits entirely separate from any putative effect on body mass?

      Five weeks? I envy you professors sometimes. :D

      I know, you paid your dues as grad students, postdocs, and assistants. And you still got lucky or you would have failed a tenure review and cast aside into the world of the permanent adjunct. I went into industry after the PhD because I didn't want six more years of living like a grad student before I had any chance at a decent life. On the whole, it's not been that bad a tradeoff.
      I'm not lost. I know where I am. I'm right here.
    • BirdBrain wrote:

      WiseOldOwl wrote:

      BB wrote --I have pondered these pouches many times. They are available at our Dollar Tree stores up here for .... wait for it... a dollar each. My concern has not been weight. I have been concerned about attracting critters. Is that an "unreasonable fear"?
      As a former trapper, I am more concerned about the odors of oily meats then I am about mac-n-cheese and oatmeal. Again, it might be an unreasonable fear.

      Well put those fears aside, Retort Packaging is at times more meat and somewhat lighter packing. But the taste is the key - my wife claims she cannot tell the difference - but a ol can vs retort? awesome for the retort. easy to work with and the plate is included and can be added too once its open packs of hot sauce or Mayo may can be added. Oil packed is great - it lasts longer unrefrigerated.

      [IMG:http://higoodday.com/files/attach/images/8064/284/117/918059a3ce4677fc22995aa58c85ca3e.jpg]


      These are a very logical way to carry protein. I just need to get by my fear. I am afraid I will never get the oily smell off my hands and some creature will try to eat me in the night.



      That's why I eat at shelters and move on.
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference
    • AnotherKevin wrote:

      Astro wrote:

      AK, watch it there. You might be killing my justification to my wife that the reason I need to buy new hiking gear and go hiking the AT five weeks each summer is for my health. :D


      Would it help if I told you that hiking has cardiovascular and cognitive benefits entirely separate from any putative effect on body mass?

      Five weeks? I envy you professors sometimes. :D

      I know, you paid your dues as grad students, postdocs, and assistants. And you still got lucky or you would have failed a tenure review and cast aside into the world of the permanent adjunct. I went into industry after the PhD because I didn't want six more years of living like a grad student before I had any chance at a decent life. On the whole, it's not been that bad a tradeoff.


      You probably do not envy me on payday. I miss the salary of my old corporate life, but appreciate the flexibility of my current job. I used to invest all of the flexibility on my 4 children (especially the 3 sons), but now that they are growing up it is opening up some more time for me such as hiking. I still teach heavily in May and June for the $, but looking forward (in a way) to when they are all grown and I can take 3 full months off.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General
    • Well I want to get back to what folks do like to pick up at the grocer's

      BB you are right _ I use sardines in oil and other things to attract animals for trapping - it works. the oil adds good calories - calories from fat is good - sugar is bad & the last bear incident was over gorp. Carry a bigger hiking pole my friend. Lets move on.

      A/K I didn't step into a Fast Food Restaurant until 1971. Lot's of things are different. Most people didn't order the fries at all back then. Most did a burger and a coke. It wasn't until McDonald's figured out the meal and the number that fries took off. To say the American diet hasn't changed in 50 years with the over sight of the FDA is short sighted as I watched it happen. My Mom went to culinary school in Paris and found it important that I start basics of cooking as the oldest boy at 13. I even know some things about American diet in the 1700's.

      I will take a look at the url you quoted.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Wise Old Owl ().

    • AnotherKevin wrote:

      WiseOldOwl wrote:

      Before nutritionists? Wrap your head around this picture from the 60's
      (...)
      There isn't a fat guy in the damn room This is 1960's Nasa command. They ate meat, some polish sausage, steak etc. YES CALORIES my friend.

      Yes there were some fat people in 1945 but they clearly were the minority.


      There is something going on that nobody understands. The lifestyle of Americans hasn't changed that much in the last fifty years - in terms of what we eat, how much we exercise, and so on - certainly not enough to explain the fact that tremendous numbers of people now struggle to keep weight off. Yes, I know, it's thermodynamics - calories in minus calories out - but interventions based on that simplistic view have been ineffective. The body fights the change. Many of the metabolically obese simply cannot lose weight without their bodies going into a starvation response, with intolerable symptoms of hunger and fatigue. "Eat less and exercise more" is a platitude, but many simply cannot do it!

      There was a time when infectious diseases such as tuberculosis were considered "lifestyle" diseases. Then the causes were discovered, effective interventions were developed, and we stopped blaming the victims. Many of us are old enough to remember when peptic ulcers were ascribed entirely to rich food and too much stress. It came as a shock to the doctors when it turned out that they were caused by bacteria, and it took quite a while for the medical profession to accept the evidence that antibiotics were effective and lifestyle interventions were not.

      I predict similar discoveries with obesity. The global (not just American!) increase in obesity has many patterns consistent with an epidemic rather than a universal adoption of poor lifestyle choices. If it were merely the latter, surely all the shaming we do of the obese would be enough of a motivator for change!

      This paper is quite a good summary of research along the lines that I mention. It certainly stresses that the symptoms are associated with many factors. I speculate that we are going to discover a single factor, perhaps not yet even suspected, that accounts for a great many of the cases. I further speculate that all the factors that the popular press trumpets are symptoms or incidental associations, not causes. (My guess? A family of viruses along the lines of Ad36 or RAV-7. But I'm just as likely to be wrong as anyone else.)


      All I know is that sitting is the new smoking. Smoking killed many of our grandparents generation and too much sitting is going to kill my generation.
      Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
      Dr. Seuss Cof123
    • Hey Rasty there was a thread over on the TOS about eating junk food and folks were not crashing as much and completing the trail

      With that in mind I am going to add baking ideas. Here is why its loaded in carb and fat and oil...

      I would suggest rendered low salt bacon fat as it lasts months in my car without refrigeration, I use it for mouse infestations. never mind.

      Cooking with fat works

      Add to the list this[IMG:https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51tnBzwTwhL.01._SR300,300_.jpg]
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup: