Well done.
I have not been successful in pre-packing each day’s food. Even on solo trips I’m not sure what I’m going to feel like eating at each meal. I need to pull out the breakfaststuff and see what works for the time I have, the effort I want to put in and what I feel like eating (or not) at the moment. On family trips it is an even more unpredictable consensus decision.
I use four different colored stuff bags, and as long as I can remember that breakfast is blue and dinner is red and the stove and cook wear is green I can just grab the appropriate bag.
On family trips with the 60L barrel the stuff bags prevent having to empty the barrel to find the jar of peanut butter that always seems to settle to the bottom. When I finish eating I put the next meal’s stuff bag on top, so it is the first thing I see when I open the barrel.
It is harder to Tetris-pack a barrel using segregated stuff bags, and at the beginning of a trip I’ll fill some nooks and crannies with loose foodstuffs and put them in the appropriate stuff bag as space in the barrel develops.
I am a heavy packer, but I use those (three-for-a) Dollar Store thin plastic flexible cutting boards. They take up no space, conform to a barrel curve, and at 3 for a buck I don’t mind cutting them to a specific size or shape or bringing two, one for cutting/prep work and one for final assemble of sandwich, wrap or snack plate.
They do need a flattish surface to rest on. I’m working on that.
I often cook atop my barrel, or at least run the JetBoil perched atop. Our various barrels (from 3 gallon to 60L) have minicel exercise flooring circles inset in the lid, with 3 notches in the minicel to accommodate the JetBoil base’s triangulated feet.
There is enough room on the barrel lids for the stove, but not much else. I’m working on that too.
http://s1324.photobucket.com/user/JoelBeckwith/media/10%20Day%20Green%20River%20Trip/IMG_2495_zps056036a5.jpg.html?sort=2&o=107