Camping And Hiking Gear

Sonny answers:

Specific camping food can be quite expensive, your local supermarket has dehydrated food to use. Look in the pasta, rice and couscous isle. Nutritional value all depends on what you are doing - you can live without a few minerals and vitamins for a couple of days when you are away, so really just looking at the essentials. Take some desert - cake or something for the extra energy and some fruit as well (apple is good). Pepperoni is a good protein addition. I used to take Pasta 'n sauce, pepperoni, spices and herbs to add heat (like it spicy), Custard with desert is OK however it takes up pans - had 1 pan for pasta, 1 pan for custard, and 1 pan for hot water... Or 1 pan for pasta, 1 pan for hot water.

Sonny answers:

I kayak and canoe camp pretty regularly - we use the small soft sided coolers, and bring a small amount of perishable foods. Here's an easy one:

Cook up a batch of stew or chili or soup - something hearty. We did Irish Stew with beef, onions, turnips, potatoes, in a hearty red wine tomato sauce. It had lots of kick to it. Cooked it 3 or 4 days before the trip. Let it cool, put it into quart sized ziplock bags, and froze it. It went into the soft cooler, along with frozen water bottles - it stayed frozen until the 2nd day of our 3 day trip. Pour the stew it into the pan, and heat it up; dinner was amazing! We were on a cold running river, so we threw some cans of Guinness into a drag bag in the river to cool them down to go with our Irish stew.

I've also used some freezerbag cooking - check out these recipes:

http://www.freezerbagcooking.com/dinnerricedishes.htm

If you prep the rice and dried spices in a freezerbag, you can add in canned tuna, salmon, chicken, etc.

Also, Lipton noodle mixes from the grocery store are pretty easy to make on the fly - just make those at camp, and add canned chicken.

Also remember that some vegetables keep just fine without refrigeration - potatoes and onions, for instance. You can throw them in the kayak hatch and go. When you are ready to cook, slice up the potato, add chopped onions, and wrap them in foil (spray a little PAM on the foil first) and cook them in the coals of your campfire, and they'll provide good complex carbs for paddling, and they're so tasty with just a little salt & pepper.

Have fun!

Sonny answers:

I got one for you--where can i get enough dry ice so i can melt it and go swimming without getting wet?

Sonny answers:

REI Lunch Cooler, $16.50. Fasten the strap to your kayak and drag in the cool stream water, except when crossing Class III or above rapids. Using the natural cooling assist, your beverage should remain cool for a few days.

Sonny answers:

Try these links:

http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=226&categoryId=237&catalogId=40000000226

http://www.rei.com/search?vcat=REI_SEARCH&query=food

http://www.aaoobfoods.com/freezedried.htm

http://www.packlitefoods.com/index.html

Sonny answers:

Unless you really know what you are doing, it's best to just buy dehydrated meals at a "survival" store which are tried and tested. Most home made "meals" by amateurs come out slimy, unappetizing and sometimes toxic. If you want, you can make individual dehydrated items from fruits like pineapple, mango, apricots. Best to use fruits that are not too watery at their fresh state. Then just make a "meal" put of them with nuts, vegan crackers/pretzels etc. You can also bring dried pasta, rice and other grain and cook them later, There also military MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) that I think are vegan like the spaghetti with marinara sauce.

Sonny answers:

Noodles , savoury rice , biscuits , mint cake , black pudding , salami , dried milk , nut bars , boiled eggs ( for first three days you can take ready cooked ), i'll think on , good luck enjoy yourself you lucky thing , Don't forget get above so many hundred feet before you can pitch and they don't like it even then . Cleanliness is essential so soap and warm water and clean utensils thoroughly and i would not depend on purifier alone take some tablets but up to you . Toilet roll .

Sonny answers:

If you use Avery's Design Pro software it has the template for the 8160
This software is free to download and is included with many Avery products.

Sonny answers:

You will have to convince your parents to get out of it.