Food for hiking

Ja......the 'Backcountry' stuff is absolutely horrendous and quite expensive to boot. Stay away.....

For first day or two one could always Vacuumpack some pre prepared meals. I would avoid chicken here as its longevity is not the best. Our personal favorite is Beef Stroganoff, ie beefstrips and sauce on rice, vacuumpacked. For the rest of the days I will always use 2 minute noodles, some people dont necessarily like it but we do. That can/should be combined with Soya Mince if you can find a palatable flavour. The stronger the better usually. Look, soya is not real mince by any stretch of the imagination but its more than decent, take care to keep it sausy though. It is very light to pack which is a big advantage.

Other than that, nuts are very good and packed with energy. I eat peanuts and raisins, and for treat after lunch I'll pack some peanut brittle sweets.

Speaking of sweets, lovely to munch on some especially during strenuous parts of a hike. I believe its a mind thing....here we like Sparkles Fruit Salad.

For breakfast, by far the best is Jungle Instant Oats. Light in the pack but very nutritious. It also helps 'bind' the stomach in a good way, an important consideration on multiday hikes (nothing like stomach issues to screw up an expedition).

Oh, and we love Nescafe's Capuccino's. A bit heavier than your standard teabag but oh so nice.

The GT taught me one very important lesson: if you struggle to stop yourself from eating something when your at home, you can force yourself to eat it at 3000m.

The best I have heard of (2 people on the GT did it, they told me how to do it, but I haven't tried it yet:
- Make as much mince as you need for the entire trip
- Drain the liquid off it
- Put it on a baking tray and leave it in the oven on 40-50 degrees for 5-6 hours with the oven door slightly open
- Rehydrate by adding boiling water and leaving for a few minutes

Its cheaper than backcountry and is much nicer (not that its hard to beat backcountry). I find any backcountry beef to be disgusting, but their chicken ones aren't bad.

Other good foods for supper:
- Soup, never hike without it!
- Couscous, but it can be a bit dry, try mixing with something like a powder sauce
- A small amount of Woolworths 2 Minute Noodles (they taste much better than the other brands)
- Biltong, cheese or some other protein
- Some people are big fans of tuna, but I have never felt like eating it (or carrying it) on a hike
- A bar of chocolate or noughat is good for pudding
- Have some rehydrate with your supper...

Remember that when you are hiking, breakfast and lunch are more important than supper, eat a huge breakfast if you can (I have never got this one right though), it will make more of a difference than a large supper.

And to add to Ghaz's suggestions we do the following:

Backcountry - only some of the chicken and the best is Pasta Vegetariano with some biltong. The Backcountry dehydrated mince is very edible, mix with a pack of dry Monkey gland sauce, with smash or noodles. One packet mince (R60) makes 4 servings (R15 each)very reasonable.

Smash, 2 min noodles with various biltong and soups added make welcome changes.

Breakfasts are generally 1 Pronutro bar (or other) and Futurelife 60g self sorted into ziplock bags Under R3 per serving and can be mixed with hot or cold water.

Lunches are various salty biscuits with either salami (lasts for days), dry wors, biltong and laughing cow cheeses (don't need any refrigeration and last a couple of weeks). Frsh foods on the first few days are baby corn, sugar snaps, cherry tomatoes and berries - all last well.

And a real treat for pudding - a packet of instant custard, just add boiling water and those little packets of marie biscuits thrown in (almst trifle!)

NB: Use ziplock bags for packing and separating food, no containers. We also only carry a jetboil for ALL cooking, no pots or stoves.

Geordie & I did our GT last year with food for kings and pack weights of 18 & 14kg respectively, all up.

Lol, just noticed that this is filed under Passes - ironic...

I have to say that the Back Country mince did not smell edible to me . I used it for 2 nights on GT, my tent-mate insisted that I eat it outside the tent in the freezing cold (just after the snow, while there was still standing snow on the ground) because she couldn't handle the smell. I also struggled to handle the taste! Clearly Jax and I have had very different experiences with Back Country mince, maybe mine was from a bad batch... Maybe try it before you use it on a hike...

Not having a vast amount of experience myself having only been on two hikes but I can confirm couscous in ziplock bags works well. Add some dried herbs and crumble veggie stock or chicken stock to add some nice flavour. Split and keep in as many bags for as many portions as you need.
I like to add a packet or two of John West tuna packets over the couscous for some added flavour and sauce. The black pepper flavour was quite nice.

Breakfast for me is important.
2x boiled eggs (60g x 2 = 120g)
Some times bacon. It keeps well (100g)
Instant oats (50g)
Coffee

Total weight 270g.

I think this breakfast gives you a lot of energy

I'm looking for a small pan. The only suitable size I can find is in a 360degree pot, pan and mug combo from Outdoor Warehouse for R170. It's anodized aluminium, just wondering if the anodizing will last. Has anyone tried these before? Or have better suggestions?

The 360degree set sounds like a good deal. Have you checked either of these out?

www.capeunionmart.co.za/k-way-2-pot-cookset - I bought mine a few years back and it used to come with a non-stick coating - great set.

or,

www.trangia.se/english/2924.mini_trangia.html - very light and the pan is non-stick as well. Pricey if buying in SA, but you can pick up the set for about R200 in London which includes the stove/burner - buy the Trangia fuel bottle as well. Great piece of kit!

An old thread but here is my 10 cents worth:

B'fast: Oats (premixed with chocolate protein powder), mixed with home made trailmix of nuts, seeds, gojiberries, chocolate nibs, dried fruit and a tubesqueeze of coconut oil. All portioned off...
Break 1: 2 rusks and a Hammer bar and a coffee (one of those little sachets...)
Break 2: Provitas with a few squeezes of peanut butter and syrup (premixed)and some biltong.
Dinner: Precooked brown rice (Tastic do vacuum sealed ones) with three bean salad, tuna and some more coconut oil. And is that a bladder of wine I see before me... Well it was...

I also carry an accessible bag of said trailmix and some wine gums... in case of my sugar going loopy...