Paleo/Primal backcountry meals

[captchet]

I will be doing a 5-7 day backcountry hunt this fall. This past fall I made a lifestyle switch to Paleo. Those of you who eat Paleo, what do you do when in the backcountry? Heathers choice is out for me. They are not good and over seasoned with odd flavor combos. I am considering making my own dehydrated paleo style meals. So my questions are:
-Do you fellow paleo eaters cheat during your backcountry hunts?, if not,
-What do you eat and how do you prepare meals?

Thanks
Chet


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[Jordan Budd]

X2, I'm going to dehydrate this year too. Or attempt. Good post.

 

[PantherCity]

I think you have 2 questions there: #1-should you just cheat? #2- How do you dehydrate meals?

I am only equipped to answer #2. The answer to #1 depends on you and how you feel you will preform on what ever diet you decide upon.

Any Stews or chili that is paleo and made with lean ground meat will dehydrate and re-hydrate easily. Fats do not re-hydrate well. You probably want more fat in your meals, but oils coat the dried foods and don't allow the water to penetrate and re-hydrate the foods.

What I have done, and it worked well, is filled ice cube trays with EVOO, Bacon grease and butter then froze them hard. While working in small batches so they don't melt, I vacuum sealed them into small bags I made with the by the roll vac bags. Then you can store at ambient temp in your pack and cut the corner and add to your meal after it has been re-hydrated. They are like big ketchup packets. This was alot of work and it may be easier to just pack a small bottle of EVOO to add to your meals.

The main point is that you should prepare the meals with minimal oils for dehydrating and re-hydrating reasons, then add what ever fats you want after it has been reconstituted.

The dehydration process is easy. Get a dehydrator and the fruit leather sheets so you can put wet foods down. I weight the amount of food I put on each tray and that is a serving. Then I dehydrate for 8-12 hours until it all dry and weigh it again the difference is how much water you should theoretically add back to it. Say you fill a tray with 16oz of chili and after it is dry it weights 7oz, you add 9oz of boiling water to re-hydrate.

I have attempted to re-hydrate foods in a bag like a mountain house. This doesn't work that well and the food cools during the 15-20 min it takes to re-hydrate and now I just boil the water and dump the meal into the cook pot and cover. Sometimes you need to add a bit more water and heat to get a good re-hydration.

I only eat hot meals for dinner. For lunch I usually eat summer sausage or salami and cheese in a 6" tortilla with mustard, or a butt hole burrito(bacon, peanut or almond butter and honey on a tortilla). You could omit the tortilla. For breakfast I eat a bar or oatmeal. I snack on nuts, jerky and trail mix during the day and I eat a candy bar before bed. The grocery store sells peanut and almond butter packets that are great and I grab handfuls of honey packets when ever I see them.

typical day:
bar or oatmeal
salami or summer sausage & cheese wrap (or butt hole burrito)
bag of nuts or jerky
Another bar
re-hydrated meal
candy bar

Editor's note: The butt hole burrito is a variation on the popular butt hole sandwich that is traditionally made with a bagel. When you squeeze it together the PB tends to squirt out of the bagel's center hole... the open end of the burrito has a similar effect.

 

[captchet]

Thanks for the reply but my question isnt how to dehydrate. I am an avid dehydrator. My question is how to handle eating paleo in the backcountry. Most meals are potato, rice, and pasta based. With oatmeal in the AM. These are all no go for paleo.
Panther- make a coozy out of duct insulation that fits your freezer bag or mtn hiuse bag. Weighs nothing and solves your cooling prob. Ill post pics after I get home today.

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[Ray]

It depends on why you are paleo in your daily life. Are you going grain free? Are you going low carb? If low carb is it to improve health and loose fat? Blood sugar issues? I have a blood sugar issue and my body does not like wheat more than once a month. Peanuts will make my mild RA in my hands brutal in just a day.

If you want to make dried paleo meals then do so with minimal fat content, but add the fat back into the meal in the field with olive oil, ghee, or coconut oil packs. Carrying the oil is a weight penalty but its worth it. Do the math on what your calorie needs will be and carry a little more than it pencils out to. You can even get C8 MCT oil in packets now for your bullet proof coffee.

I make sweet potato bark that is mostly salad with nuts. The process is here on the cooking sticky some place. It will also be published in Heather's choice e-cookbook this spring some time. These are for breakfast and snacks. I carry a lot of coconut meat and macadamia nuts as those provide the best bang for the gram. I am considering some of the modern sea weed snack chips found in Asian markets, but I am guessing that they will have a lot of soy products in them.

I learned that when working hard in the mountains I needed more carbs than 50 grams a day. I use thin rice noodles to make spaghetti, and mashed potato to make a dinner of dried veg and meat. Both of the products I have used do not require cooking - just add boiling water and sit for 10 minutes - and both have worked well. Add lots of olive oil back into the meal as it heats up. With the increased popularity of butter coffee there are now ghee and grass fed butter packets on Amazon. Looks like I don't have to make my own.

 

[mtnrunner260]

I've dehydrated spaghetti squash meals with great success.
I've also been making a sweet potato and carrot hash that I think would dehydrate well. Could add some dehydrated veggies and ground meat to it like an idahoan potato packet.

 

[freediver111]

I eat mostly primal/paleo, but during hunting season I cheat. I usually eat hardboiled eggs or granola in the am depending if I'm by the truck or packed in. Snacks are cashews, bars, dehydrated fruit, etc. I'll usually have a sandwich with salami and cheese. I normally don't eat burritos or bagels, but when I'm hunting I just cheat for convenience. Dinners are Mtn houses if packed in or steak/salad if I'm by the truck.

I eat paleo/primal for maintaining my weight and it just plain works well for me. The only thing I notice when I add bagels or more carbs when out hunting is that I fart more. Otherwise I don't feel different from a one month cheat period. I usually lose weight in September anyway.

 

[mike vines]

I dehydrate most of my own meals. It's really hard to go completely paleo when doing so, but I do the best I can. Venison spaghetti with gluten free noodles and Vigo Redbeans and rice mixed with either ground venison very lean ground beef. Dehydrated shrimp are fantastic either dry or rehydrated. I'm going to try dehydrating some grits next time I make some, so I can try shrimp and grits rehydrated to see if it will make it into the hunting meal rotation.

Just about anything you cook at home for dinner can be dehydrated. If you have one of those cheap round dehydraters, give it a try. I'm not to scientific when I go to rehydrate. I measure out a serving, dehydrate it, and when I rehydrate, I always do 2 cups of boiling water. It's usually a bit to much water, but I don't care. The extra fluids are always a good thing.

One of my buddies found a company that sells dehydrated scrambled eggs. I don't recall the name of the company, but a few of my friends now swear by them due to his recommendation.

Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time dehydrating chicken. Hard and chewy when done. I cannot stomach the stuff once rehydrated. Also, stay away from fatty foods. For Paleo, just bring along your oils. Find a place that has olive oil in the little ketchup sized packs. Personally, I like the small mayonnaise packets as a way to get my fats, along with plain old almonds.

Carry along some of those foil packs of tuna. Couple that with some of those mayonnaise packs, and you are knocking on Heaven's door.

 

[captchet]

Thanks. If you like chicken, dehydrate canned chicken instead of home cooked. It rehydrates excellent.

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