We all lived through the frigid temperatures and are now basking in 7 degree mornings. Life above zero degrees is easy compared to minus 27. For one thing, I can run outside in my winter jammies and slippers and not worry about frostbite
Furthermore, our horrific winds, which forced me to cancel a warranty appointment for Half Moon (camper) and dinner with my son in Denver, subsided last night. So, I have no weather news and no travel stories. I am simply “stuck” up here for now.
Ah…..food. One favorite topic remains. A few weeks ago, I ordered a variety of dehydrated food from Harmony House Foods. I ordered the deluxe sampler which has many dried veggies (e.g., carrots, spinach, leeks, potatoes, tomatoes, broccoli), dried beans, and TVP (soy protein products). I purchased dried fruit as well.
The goals behind this purchase:
- Learn how these foods can improve my diet when camping. I do not like canned foods, especially canned meat. The sodium in canned foods is a problem too. My small camper frig is filled often with beer and yogurt, so I cannot store much fresh food. Therefore, when camping I do not eat enough fruits and vegetables or healthy protein, other than the yogurt.
- Lighten the load: I hope to overnight at a boat-in site (in my inflatable kayak), which means my foods must be non-perishable and lightweight.
- Increase my fruit intake at home. The Harmony House fruits are freeze-dried (not dehydrated), which means you can eat the fruit right out of the package, without rehydrating. I bought the berry assortment and the fruit is GOOD (the raspberries are a bit tart, but excellent on cereal). In the warm weather, I will mix the fruits with nuts for a hiking snack.
- Increase consumption of plant-based protein at home and when camping. Beans take so long to cook from scratch, and again, I do not like canned beans. TVP is something I enjoy a great deal and these are flavored (chicken-ish, ham-ish, beef-ish), which make them more versatile.
Here is what I have done so far:
- Cooked potato cubes, tomatoes, leeks, and peppers in water for 10 mins. I let the water boil out, added olive oil and made hash browns
- Rehydrated raspberries overnight in fridge and ate with cereal
- Eaten half the blueberries as snacks
- Simmered navy beans, onions, peppers, spinach, and ham-ish TVP, added homemade tomato sauce from freezer: yummy soup.
I like everything so far! The fruits are lower in carbs/calories than dense dried fruits. The veggies have a great taste, including the potatoes. The onions are strong, so I need to add less to the soup pot.
Harmony House uses quality foods and no preservatives, giving a shelf life of 2 years. In contrast, regular dehydrated camping food has a shelf-life of decades due to preservatives. Yuck.
If you check out the Harmony House website, you will also find soup mixes. However, they have a bit more sodium, so I avoided them. Someone told me about freeze-dried ice cream too! Got to find that before spring.
Freeze-dried ice cream sandwich (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So, I am still dreaming about camping weather. When the warmer days arrive I will have good, lightweight grub!
