Menu planning

From BWCAWiki

Menu planning for BWCA trips is dependent on individual tastes subject to the constraints of carrying food in and garbage out and cooking on a stove or fire.

Contents 1 Food Planning and Packing Principles 2 Meal Suggestions 2.1 Breakfasts 2.2 Lunches 2.3 Dinners

Food Planning and Packing Principles

1. Easy and fast cooking to minimize fuel use, time in the 'kitchen', and time waiting to eat when you are hungry after a day on the lakes.
2. Bring plenty of food but not more than you can eat. You neither want to be hungry nor have to carry uneaten food out. (Unless you have a canine garbage disposal with you)
3. Food that is light, non perishable, and durable(in the packs). Canoe trips give you more flexibility on weight compared to Backpacking, where you must carry your food all the time. So you can balance your willingness to carry more on the portages with bringing food luxuries.
4. Pack meals in a separate bag or zip-lock with everything needed for that meal. This is what the outfitters do and it saves a lot of pack rummaging.
5. Have four different colored nylon bags for food, one for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and sensitive foods. An extra bag for the current days lunch is a good idea too.
6. A large heavy plastic bag to hold all your food in the pack can also be used to hang your food, a 50 gallon drum liner works great, but can be hard to find.

Meal Suggestions

Breakfasts

1. Instant oatmeal packets are great for a fast, boil water only, breakfast. Supplement with granola bars, dried fruit, instant juice, etc.
2. In late July and early August you can often have wild blueberries or raspberries in your pancakes.
3. Squeezable Margarine bottles hold up well on a week trip for pancakes, cheesecakes, dinners, etc.

Lunches

1. Bagels are probably the most durable bread product, some bring pita bread, and outfitters used to send bread packs with a carbord box insert filled with standard loaves which were compressed tighter than your sleeping bag by the end of the trip.
2. Instant sugar free drink mixes (Crystal Light or Wyler's) allow you to make large quantities of beverage without carrying a lot of sugar weight. Bring a 2-Qt plastic bottle to mix in.
3. Sausage that does not need refrigeration until opened hold up well on a week trip as does a firm cheese. Putting more sensitive foods in a separate bag that you are careful to keep out of the sun is a good idea, the outfitters used to tell you to put the bag in the lake to keep cool but we know better now (why?).
4. For the bagels, bring plastic squeezable Jam and Peanut butter and a small plastic squeezable mustard goes well with the cheese and salami.

Dinners

1. The first night you can bring frozen meat that will be thawed for dinner, i.e. frozen meatballs for spagetti.
2. The grocery stores have a variety of fast cooking (7-9 minutes) seasoned rice and pasta packages that make a good one pot meal with added foil packs of chicken or tuna.
3. Instant potatoes with a meat gravy is a traditional canoe trip dinner.
4. The NoBake Cheese Cakes work well for special desserts, sometimes topped with wild blueberries or raspberries. You can use an instant buttermilk instead of instant milk for better flavor (these are designed to be used with real milk and don't always set perfectly without refrigeration but our taste expectations are easier to please in the BWCA).