By: Blonde Two
With fifteen days out on expedition in July, I am getting a bit concerned about what I am going to eat. Eating, you must understand, is not usually a problem for me. I am very good at it, not at all fussy and believe in quantity. I can pack a picnic like Mohamed Ali could pack a punch.
The problem, however is that I am often so concerned that I am going to get enough calories when I am out walking (a hungry Blonde is a grumpy one) that I eat more calories than I burn. I have been quite careful recently (I probably have rocket growing out of my ears) and I don’t want to undo the good work.
Calories are interesting things and can hide in places where you are not expecting them. A bit like Dartmoor bogs, they are on the map but you still wince in surprise as the water comes over the top of your boot. A pork pie used to be my favourite walking food, all that tastiness all packaged up nice and tidily in pastry. If you like them, here is a Blonde warning – never, ever look at the calorie count bit of the packaging, you won’t ever enjoy one again.
So, this week’s Blonde challenge is to suggest something that will make me feel like I am eating well, pack safely into a rucksack and render me in perfect calorific balance. Now where is my pasty?
It all depends if you’re backpacking any distance or not because of weight. If you are Smash instant potato is good mixed with a tin of Stag chilli con carné, or a tin of cheese macaroni or something similar. You only need to boil a small amount of water for the potato so minimal gas usage. Cup a soup makes a good starter or accompaniment, again only need to boil water and it is light to carry. If you have access to milk at the end of your day Angel Delight is delicious in those circumstances and again light to carry. Bananas also.
Smash, I had forgotten about that. It was long a guilty pleasure of mine and may be useful for our Isle of Man trip. Am trying out bread and a small pot of beef paste …
Hee – bananas and milk! That brings back lovely memory – in Scotland, remote place, 2 large Belgians wearing kilts, one with a whole crate of milk in cardboard boxes slung from his rucksack, which inevitably included a burst pint. Trying to clean the milk off the kilt with cold water – a whole gallon of it – they explained that they were going to a remote hostel where the warden would make them bannanna custard if they took the milk out there, so they did, each year!
Now, protein! A packet of ready-cooked sweet chestnuts – eat ’em cold, or heat them in boiling water for a moment or two – yummy with Smash & a tiny tin of garden peas. (Don’t take fresh chestnuts in shells – use the ready-cooked variety!)
I have never been a milk fan but we do have a banana mountain here at home at the moment!
Wouldn’t climb a mountain or walk all day without a good chunk of homemade flapjack!!!
Flapjack is indeed the perfect walking food but if you are not walking very far … ouch calories 🙂
I once went to the Lake District with a man who took nothing but a machete and a coconut for a whole weekend…
I hope he took some clothes or else that machete would have been a bit on the risky side! Well done for being our 3000 commentor 🙂
sounds like John Muir in drag!
At least he took some bread with him.
He would never have been my favourite walking companion.
Bread? Bread? Surely one should at least take cake …