Favorite dehydrated/semi-lightweight camp dinner?

[Cookannapurna]

I'm always looking for new ideas! I want your favorite, reasonably light weight, extreamly tasty, camp dinner.

I have a bunch of cookbooks, and a lot of time over a stove/campfire, and a good stable of recipes, but I always looking to add something new. I tend to like them best when there not from a book, but from someone saying "I make this all the time and it's my favorite".

I'd love to here your ideas, I have 10 days in the Adirondacks coming up early in the fall, and I'd like to try some new things.

 

[Iskweo]

I make a beef stew that is pretty good. Just dehydrate the beef, some diced carrots, celery, and frozen peas. Put it all in a zip lock. When it is time to cook throw all that in a pot with water and cook it a while...drain excess water, add a diced fresh potato and some onion...simmer. Add a half packet of brown gravy mix to the thickness that you prefer. If you can make some biscuits with it that is super. Quick, easy, and tasty. The fresh potato is the secret. I have used moose or deer for the meat and it is good that way too.

Christy

 

[Sturgeon]

Okay this is gonna sound totally lazy and a bit "downscale" after that awesome-sounding stew recipe, but...Kraft Dinner + tuna from a pouch + ketchup. Easy. Cheesy. Proteiny. And yummy.

 

[tump_lion]

pretty amazing what you can do with KD, i like to add veggies into the noodle-water too...

 

[yellowcanoe]

Ramen, shrimp in can or pouch or dehydrated (asian store) and mixed veggies dehydrated.

Also dried tortellini, garlic and clams and olive oil. Sub tuna for can free areas.
Knorr Creamy Alfredo sauce, pouch salmon, dried peas and parm cheese.and macaroni shape of your liking.

 

[Marten]

I have used a lot of Knorr Rice Medley and mixed in a Tyson Chicken packet but Harlan at Red Lake Outfitters got me using a hot and spicy tuna instead of the chicken. Fantastic for my taste buds.

 

[APPaul]

Anything with dried veg. We just buy the bags of flash frozen veg from the grocery store dump into a dehydrator, then use them for different meals. Along with dried pasta sauce you can do a lot of different meals from just those two things.



Chili with TVP and bannock.



With dried tortellini from Bulk Barn (sorry my American friends, who would not have access to a Bulk Barn. Its a Canadian store of just bulk food, its kinda a must visit before any trip because it is just aisles of bulk ingredients, dried, powdered, freeze dried, candy, chocolates, tea, coffee, spices, pasta, just add water mixes, juice crystals, nuts....they have multiple kinds of GORP/trail mix and if you don't like what they have, they have all the ingredients so you just make your own.)



In Lasagna





There are other ones to like, burritos, pizza, stew...Dried veg and pasta sauce (either from a jar or home made) is a good base for a lot of things!

 

[snapper]

We try to make dinner time as easy as possible because I find fewer students having any cooking background these days. For that reason we tend to use the Knorr side dishes as a base for a lot of our one pot meals. We'll use the beans & rice, adding shrimp and chunks of sausage along with some hot sauce for a jambalaya type dinner. Another favorite is to use a rice & cheese base w/ broccoli and then add chicken and cashews with a bit of curry powder; add raisins if you'd like as well. A third option is tortilla based where we'll make quesadillas, adding chicken, peppers, onions, or whatever each person wants. The last favorite is a pan pizza using pitas as the base with sauce, cheese, pepperoni, peppers, onions, etc.; again, whatever the person wants. None of these are particularly difficult to create but you will end up with four dinners that are different enough that you don't get tired of them; at least we don't

That's all for now. Happy dining and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[Cookannapurna]

These all sound and look great, I'm just a habitual recipe collector!

Venturer, am I allowed to ask what you do that you take students on canoe trips? Just curious.

 

[yknpdlr]

For the past 24 years I've been on the instructor staff for BSA National Camping School, High Adventure Wilderness Trek Leader Section. My job is to train, evaluate, and certify guides in wilderness canoeing and backpacking leadership skills for BSA summer camp employment. One task I have enjoyed doing every year for when we get to the 4-day outdoor field training portion of the course is to demonstrate and provide variations of what I come up with as either fully home dehydrated complete meals, or hybrid home dehydrated combined with simple supermarket components. I have several favorites that I rotate from year to year, but one I particularly like is what I call Thanksgiving Dinner. Always a big hit.

Thanksgiving Trail Dinner (Serves 5-6)

(approximate amounts)
1 box chicken or cornbread dressing mix (one that makes 3 cups) 

2 cups dry instant mashed potatoes
2 t onion flakes 

4 T dry chicken or turkey gravy mix

4 T powdered milk (Nido brand whole milk powder is best)
2/3 cup dried cranberries

2 t poultry seasoning 

1 t salt 

1/2 t black pepper 

12 oz. foil pouch chunk chicken

6 cups water

Plus – Sauté 2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables in a small bit of oil with finely diced onion, season well with your favorite herbs. Dehydrate and package separately.

Optional – Instead of the chicken, cook and season 1 pound of ground beef. Dehydrate and package separately.

Prior to departure: 
Combine first 9 ingredients in a Ziploc bag.
Preparation at camp: 
Rehydrate veggies separately (20 minutes). If using ground beef instead of pouch chicken, rehydrate separately (20 minutes). Bring 6 cups water to boil in large pot, add dry ingredients and stir vigorously to mix well. Then stir in chicken (or rehydrated beef) and rehydrated veggies. Remove from heat, cover and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

 

[tump_lion]

dehydrating the flash-frozen food was so easy it felt like cheating. i like to bring some instant mashed potatoes...i tend more towards pasta and rice, but the mash is a nice textural change from time to time...some gravy, some tvp, dried veggies...a not bad shiphard pie...

 

[Cookannapurna]

Yknpdlr,

I wonder if you were one of my voyagure instructors in 1992 when I went thru NCS! I guided at camp Floodwood for a bunch of years, and spent several as their trek director!

I've wondered, since I've joined the site, how many Voyagures are members here.

I've done the thanksgiving thing before and it's always a big hit. People are always amazed at what you can do with a dehydrator.

 

[yknpdlr]

Cookannapurna..... yes, no doubt about it. I had the wood strip canoe at NCS that year and I taught land navigation. Caleb Davis, the traditional flatwater canoe paddling expert and paddle maker was also a student in 1992. I might not have been dehydrating food for the trek portion until the following year, so I am glad you discovered it on your own.

Every once in a while at maybe a canoe race, or some other kind of event someone will come up to me and recognize me as "Paddle Paul". My memory is not always so great in remembering names of individual faces from more than 400 students over the years, but I very much appreciate the hello.

 

[Cookannapurna]

I remember you and your canoe, it was in partial thanks to the staff of voyagure school, that I have developed a life long love of not just paddling, but for the Adirondacks!

So a very overdue thank you!

 

[Cookannapurna]

I believe you were even one of the instructors with my group "in the field"! I espically remember finding the tri-county marker!

 

[yknpdlr]

For sure..... I am the only instructor who plans the trek for student crews to find their way to the 3CM. You must have been very capable, because not every class is successful in finding it (the student guide navigates, I only monitor and evaluate that portion). I believe "Leech" was my Voyageur instructor partner in 1992.

 

[Cookannapurna]

If I remember correctly "leech" also tought first aid as well. I do remember being quite proud of finding the marker!

 

[red langford]

My favourite dehydrated meal I can think of at this moment, because when I'm out there they all taste like epic gourmet meals, is Spaghetti, with a sauce leather and dried mushrooms, green peppers, carrots, celery and meat plus spices. That was from scratch. My favourite Pre-Packaged FD Meal is from Mary Janes Outpost and was Spanish Chicken and Black Bean with rice.WOW! was it good but looks like they no longer sell it. I've had a few from MJ's and they have all been excellent.

 

[yknpdlr]

Try pureed canned kidney beans mixed with your spaghetti sauce and veggie/meat mixture. Throw in some black olives too, puree it all together before dehydrating. You can either dehydrate the sauce separately, or mix it with cooked pasta before dehydrating the whole thing all at once - doing this makes it easier to rehydrate. Use a higher sauce to pasta ratio than you might think. Rehydrate at camp with boiling water for 15-20 minutes while insulated in a cozy. High calorie and very tasty stuff.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I have to try whorehouse pasta.. literally.. Pasta Puttanesca. Mushrooms, red sauce , dried tomatos. parmesan, olives. This is the at home version. I like portobellos for their meatiness. I have not dehydrated this ...yet. Not enough of it makes it past dinner at home.

• 1 pound dried spaghetti, spaghettini, or linguine fini
• 5 garlic cloves, forced through a garlic press
• 2 teaspoons anchovy paste
• 1/2 teaspoon hot red-pepper flakes
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes in juice (preferably Italian)
• 1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives
• 2 tablespoons drained capers
• Pinch of sugar (optional)
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped basil