Food for hiking

mmm... with a nice bolognaise source! That would be a convenient and tasty option. Slightly heavy compared to freeze dried stuff from Backcountry though. Those fresh pasta packs of linguine are also great and are lighter?

Serious tribe wrote: A carb which we started using was gnocchi. This is really quick, tasty and does not leave a very dirty pot. Also it rises to the surface when ready, usually after about 5 min, so that you know when it is done.

ST, do you buy the pre-made gnocchi in the plastic pack? A mate used that on our Fish River Canyon trip. I thought it was a bit heavy. I do love gnocchi though!

For the first night: Vacuum-packed fillet medallions, boiled baby potatos fried in butter, garlic spice and olive oil, and stir-fried green & Red peppers and onions. Fillet is vacuum sealed and pre frozen, as is the stir fry veggies. Baby potatoes are par-boiled prior to the hike. A little heavy, I concede. But who cares when its gourmet cooking in the berg? We'll be dining on this again on Friday night in Xeni Cave. Sweet...

STOP! I'll never be able to go back to freeze dried!

@Josh

Yes just the std gnocchi one wld buy at Woolies or PnP. I think we were able to fee two people easily for two nights on a 500g pack, with a decent something else on top. That with a bit of choc for dessert shld be fine.

This weekend we are taking the kids for their first ever hiking trip in the Berg involving sleeping over in caves. They've done day hikes before but not a 3 day 2 night sleepover. Packing food for myself and my wife is fairly easy as I know what works for us, but I must confess it is turning out to be quite an issue with getting the right food for the kids. They obviously only want to eat chocolate and chips but mom would have none of that. Also, 2 minute noodles for 3 days is a bit much

Any suggestions from other parents on the forum?

On a slightly different note, I read with interest that 100g of a typical 2minute noodle pack supplies around 1800KJ of energy. This is quite a bit more energy per gram than the typical Back Country meals we have for dinner on hikes, although it is not nearly as filling or tasty, or nutritious. On a short hike i'm not that concerned with nutrition, high energy for low weight is more what I am looking for. So far Macadamia nuts seems to be the food source with the highest KJ count I've come accross (3300kj/100g). Any other suggestions?

I don't have children, so can't help there.

Just check the nutritional/energy info on the 2 minute noodle packs, you will be surprised how big a variation there is between the energy content of the different brands. I have settled on Maggi, which is generally the highest, the logic being to maximise/optimise the energy content per weight, and always mix something else with the 2 minute noodles, which I find works for me.

Nuts are also very high on the kJ count, but don't rely solely on nuts for your food. I am aware of several cases where people have done this with disastrous results.

Soup and not chocolate is a good idea as liquid intake is more important than food. Peanuts and raisins are also an easy source of energy which is less rich and can be consumed in quantity..

tonymarshall wrote: Nuts are also very high on the kJ count, but don't rely solely on nuts for your food. I am aware of several cases where people have done this with disastrous results.

I don't know what you're talking about

But yes, nuts don't work. You need something easy to eat.

Dried fruit is a good one to use.

I don't have any kids either, but I have been taking Hobbit hiking since he was 11 - so that probably kind of counts. Chips are actually good hiking food funny enough - he lives off the things on a mountain. They are high in energy and salt - that is a bad thing at home and a good thing on a mountain.