Touring - What do you eat on tour?

Hi all,

My trip is approaching full speed ahead! I'm curious to hear what sorts of foods you eat when on tour. I can manage my ride food just fine, and am specifically interested in what you eat in camp (breakfast and dinner sorts of things). I am considering buying a small camp stove to cook pasta and the like, but with no previous touring experience I'd greatly appreciate any feedback.

Thanks!

Oatmeal is great for breakfast and easy to make. You can buy the boring plain stuff which is fine but gets tiring. Quaker makes instant oatmeal sold in convenient packages with great flavors. That's my current favorite breakfast.

Lunch I normally stop somewhere for a sandwhich/muffin/bagel. Or if I'm in the middle of nowhere I go for bread complemented with packages of jam and peanut butter "borrowed" from restaurants. Granola bars and fruit are also great but fruit is very heavy and bulky.

Nothing beats Kraft Dinner mac and cheese for dinner.

breakfast: oat meal is ok, as long as you eat it before it gets cold. rice with cinnimon and sugar on it makes a good breakfast too. coffee is gotten at the first gas station i see (cant make instant to save my life).
lunch: i stop somewhare and get what sounds good (as long as its within a certain price range).
dinner: tuna helper is a pretty good meal. then again so is mac 'n cheese or ramen noodles. just about anything out of a can works also.

note: breakfast is simply the first meal of the day, not a specific kind of meal. for example, if you wanted you could have chili for breakfast.

We ate a lot of stuff like red beans and rice, boxed noodle dishes doctored up with foil pouch tuna or salmon, boxed rice dishes, pasta and sauce, and just about anything we would cook at home if we were near a store before dinner.

Breakfast, we often have instant oatmeal or a granola bar in camp, but like to stop at a diner later for second breakfast. Once in a while we cook pancakes or something.

breakfast: muesli with apple juice, coffee
during the day: peanut butter sandwiches, peanuts, bananas, orange juice
evening: beans and rice (a beer sometimes)

just about every day more or less the same menu/fuel... :)

It varries from craving protein to craving carbs, depending on how hard I'm working and how long I'm in the saddle but I almost always have a banana with me

I wrote up an article about what we eat here: http://familyonbikes.org/resources/food.htm I really should go back and update it someday, but I think the basics are there.

These are all very helpful suggestions. Thanks!

For those who suggested mac n' cheese, which happens to be one of my favorite recovery foods at home, how do you negotiate the milk and butter? Just go without?

I guess this means I'll be getting a little stove as well.

Did someone say stoves? http://zenstoves.net/LinksGeneral-DIY.htm

I'm trying to decide which stoves to bring with me.. I have a couple wood stoves and about 15 alcohol stoves that have passed initial testing. I'm thinking one wood and one alcohol for wet or banned conditions.

I never even thought of Kraft Dinner... That would be awesome except for the milk and butter.

There are a number of options. If you camp in town like we often do it makes things easier, but even if you need to buy ahead it is no problem.

For butter...

Neither butter nor margarine really goes bad all that fast other than melting. It will keep for weeks without refrigeration. The thing is, do you want to carry that much. The little serving sized packets from a restaurant are an option.

Another option is to beg a few pats (offer to pay).

Something like squeeze Parkay works out well. I have kept it for weeks without refrigeration.

Just doing without is another option.

Milk...

The ultra shelf life milk in boxes requires no refrigeration.

Powdered milk works fine.

Buy a serving size carton of regular milk. Buy it the same day you use it and it will be fine.

Skipping the milk works too.

Additionally there are different kinds of mac n cheese. The ones with a foil pack of cheese (like velveta, not the powdered stuff) are great with no milk or margarine. I like to add a can of well drained peas.

The little serving sized packets from a restaurant are an option.

You sir, are brilliant!

sort of thaught the packet bit was a given... than again, i'm cheap. most gas stations also have packets of stuff.

sort of thaught the packet bit was a given... than again, i'm cheap. most gas stations also have packets of stuff.

One caution... It is kind of addicting and the stuff can really accumulate. It winds up being "we can use this" and "that would be nice". On the Trans America, my daughter forbid us from picking up any more. She was carrying the condiments and it turns out that there was about two pounds of them; ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, crackers, you name it. After issuing the ban on further condiment collecting, she chucked most of them :)

Since then we learned to only collect stuff that we actually needed right away or nearly so.

Agreed about the condiment collecting! I've gotten to the point where I don't carry ANY! I even got rid of my garlic (and I cook garlic in EVERYTHING!)

My basic, eating, rule of thumb while touring: Eat the biggest breakfast you can hold. Oatmeal, juice, meat, eggs, toast, coffee, whatever I can get. Shovel it in. Start riding slow(obviously).

Begin to snack on easily digestable, high carb stuff almost immediately. Pretzels, bananas, bagels, bread, Clifs, apricots, throw in a snickers every once in a while, maybe even a muffin or something. Eat that stuff all day. An apple or two somewhere along the way works well also.

At night, load up again. If I'm doing a restauraunt, I'll have a steak and potato and all that. I want a big load of protein and carbs to simmer in my gullet and help me recover over night. I've found that a big plate of regular camp pasta and a quart of milk works well for a meal at days end, and will make you sleep like a dead person as well. Morning start all over.

Eat heavy in the morning, light all day, heavy at night.

I eat whatever I want. If you're riding long hours and if you're dealing with hills, then I really feel like as long as you're eating foods that are "agreeing" with you, then don't worry about it. Carry snacks like granola and powerbars for the between meal times when you're riding and it's not feeling quite like meal time yet, but yet the hunger is there.

I've eaten gelato, cake, spaghetti/pasta, hamburgers, cereal, pie, brownies, ham sandwiches, etc. I've had gyros, pita rolls, baclava, steak.... geesh... I just don't discriminate. I stop. I eat. I go. I stop. I eat some more. I go some more. Repeat cycle!

koffee

I eat whatever I want. If you're riding long hours and if you're dealing with hills, then I really feel like as long as you're eating foods that are "agreeing" with you, then don't worry about it. Carry snacks like granola and powerbars for the between meal times when you're riding and it's not feeling quite like meal time yet, but yet the hunger is there.

I've eaten gelato, cake, spaghetti/pasta, hamburgers, cereal, pie, brownies, ham sandwiches, etc. I've had gyros, pita rolls, baclava, steak.... geesh... I just don't discriminate. I stop. I eat. I go. I stop. I eat some more. I go some more. Repeat cycle!

koffee


Welcome back stranger! :)

I got to agree with koffe . I say eat what you want.

I like to eat at restaurants. I think you really miss out cooking for yourself. Some of the best meals I have ever eaten where on tour. Most of the food on the PCH was just fantastic.

What do you eat in your non-touring life?

My basic, eating, rule of thumb while touring: Eat the biggest breakfast you can hold. Oatmeal, juice, meat, eggs, toast, coffee, whatever I can get. Shovel it in. Start riding slow(obviously).

Begin to snack on easily digestable, high carb stuff almost immediately. Pretzels, bananas, bagels, bread, Clifs, apricots, throw in a snickers every once in a while, maybe even a muffin or something. Eat that stuff all day. An apple or two somewhere along the way works well also.

At night, load up again. If I'm doing a restauraunt, I'll have a steak and potato and all that. I want a big load of protein and carbs to simmer in my gullet and help me recover over night. I've found that a big plate of regular camp pasta and a quart of milk works well for a meal at days end, and will make you sleep like a dead person as well. Morning start all over.

Eat heavy in the morning, light all day, heavy at night.

Good to give that kind of perspective. The whole strategy of eating during the day is really relevant. That said my approach is VERY different. In fact in some ways it is just about the opposite.

I like to get up in the dark, eat a granola bar or at most some instant oatmeal and hit the road. I don't take it particularly easy figuring this will be the best part of the day to rack up mileage since neither the heat nor wind will not be up.

I don't tend to snack the first part of the morning and stop after 20 or so miles if there is a diner for a moderate second breakfast.

Then once second breakfast has settled for a while I start snacking and continue to do so all day. That will be fig newtons, jerky, snickers bars, or whatever else I crave.

Lunch is either at a diner or fixed by the side of the road. It is a moderately large meal.

After lunch I tend to take the pace easier because by then the wind or heat have likely kicked up.

Snacking constantly continues.

Dinner is usually cooked in camp but might also be a restaurant meal. It is usually of moderate proportion and never a pig out. In fact I tend to eat very few really large meals on tour, probably even less so than at home.

So for me it is eat very light early, have a bit larger second breakfast, snack all morning, have a moderate lunch, snack all afternoon, and have a moderate dinner. There is a general lack of huge meals and gorging with only the rare exception like one stop in a really good all you can eat Italian buffet.

Good to give that kind of perspective. The whole strategy of eating during the day is really relevant. That said my approach is VERY different. In fact in some ways it is just about the opposite.



Certainly. Everyones metabolism is different.

I've met people who can tour, and ride roughly the same mileage and log the same daily hours in the saddle as myself and eat hardly anything. I know a vegetarian who seems to have limitless energy and eats very little on tour, usually just one moderate meal in the middle of the day and a few snacks, it's amazing to me.

I eat a lot on tour, mostly because I enjoy it. That said, if I ate the same way at home that I do while touring, I probably blow up. I rarely eat a heavy meal within 4-5 hours of going to sleep at home, and most of my meals are smallish, almost snacks, consumed in the first 8 hours of the day. But when I'm riding 6-8 hours a day, for days on end, my diet changes dramatically. Some people eat the same on tour as they do day to day. I guess individual metabolism's are like saddles. Different for everybody.

I'll tell you what I do and why, but others will have quite different and equally valid practices. Read what we say, decide what you want to try, then go out and do it. You'll settle into your own best practices before long.

I'll start by saying I'm a type 2 diabetic, which affects my eating habits a lot. I used to consider it mandatory to have a Snickers bar in my handlebar bag for reserve energy. Those days are gone. Also, when I'm on tour my appetite is enormous. If you haven't toured before and my description sounds gluttonous, wait until you try it.

One of the pluses of bike touring as opposed to backpacking is that you don't have to carry all your food. However, campgrounds aren't usually near restaurants, so I cook first breakfast and dinner. For first breakfast I have instant oatmeal most of the time, sweetened with Splenda. I love coffee, so I have a cup when I first get up and a cup with breakfast. After my oatmeal (occasionally bagels and cream cheese) I pack up and hit the road. I like to ride about 10 miles before stopping at a restaurant for second breakfast. The 10 miles is, of course, not always possible, but I find that the process of getting everything packed up and getting back on the road takes awhile and my oatmeal is starting to wear off. Sometimes I'll ride 2 miles before second breakfast, sometimes 20; it all depends on where I can find a restaurant.

Keeping my blood sugar at a good level is harder on tour. It goes up when I eat, then down from all the pedaling. I also have to cut down on the amount of medicine I take because I don't need much with all that exercise, but it's hard to get just right. There's usually an adjustment period at the beginning of the tour when I'm bonking a lot. For that reason, and just because it's good in general for diabetics to eat lots of small meals throughout the day, I need to have ready snacks available. This is hard on the road when the only services are often gas station convenience stores. I carry a loaf of wheat bread, a small jar of peanut butter, and some sugar free jam. I make myself 2 P.B.&J. sandwiches in the morning and eat them gradually throughout the day. In a pinch (when there are no stores) I can survive on P. B. & J. sandwiches for dinner too.

I stop at a restaurant for lunch (unless I can't find one, and then I've got my P. B. & J. sandwiches.)

I stop at the last grocery store before the campground (so I don't have to carry a bunch of heavy food too far) and buy stuff to cook for dinner. Again, my choices are somewhat limited by my diabetes. I try and eat vegetables and fruit a lot. Bags of salad are good, as are bananas, avocados, baby carrots, etc. I eat a lot of Ramen - it's my guilty pleasure. I like to eat Ramen as an appetizer. I eat cans of chili, fried chicken from the deli counter, soups, chowder, etc. And, of course, lots of coffee. I use a one-cup Melitta funnel. I like to sample different coffees in the different locales.

I don't think I'd tour without a stove (though I did when I was younger.) I like one that burns unleaded gas, because it makes it so easy to find fuel.

While bike touring is still a very cheap way to travel, eating two meals at restaurants every day is a bit of an expense. On my first big tour down the west coast I spent more money than I had planned. A big reason was all the food I ate. My nephew did the same trip a couple years back with limited funds. He didn't spend as much as I do, but he said he was ravenously hungry all the time.

If you have not cooked on a small campstove yet, get one or borrow one from a friend and try a few meals in the back yard first. That includes heating up the cleanup water on the stove too. And do it on some rainy or windy days. You want to be familiar with how your equipment works before you tour. When you are exhausted from a long day in the saddle, that is a bad time to learn how your equipment works. This way you will find out what size pots and pans and utinsels you need and what you don't.

There are rice and noodle side dish packets in the grocery store, if you get any look at the instructions first, some require a long simmer but others can be quick. I add veggies and maybe some meat to those and call it a meal. I use cooking oil in a small squeeze bottle and even use that as a substitute for butter or margarine in my mac and cheese at home. Sometimes also carry a small squeeze bottle of sqeezeable margarine when camping. These squeeze bottles get double bagged in freezer ziplocks in my pack in event of leakage. Lunch - pita bread is compact and light for sandwiches. If I might have a Betty Crocker hash browns meal (add onions and peppers) during a trip, I bring a large fry pan for that but otherwise only bring a large enough pan for a 3 egg omlette. Certain foods (package of brats) are best cooked on a fire if your campground will have a fire pit.

What do you eat in your non-touring life?

Yo Machka, my diet is a bit more varied in my non-touring life, but being a vegan it's still very limited. I eat more tofu, TSP and vegetables at home, but apart from that, muesli, fruit, bread, rice and beans are the staples (as on tour)... oh but NO peanut butter between tours ;)

Oatmeal is great for breakfast and easy to make. You can buy the boring plain stuff which is fine but gets tiring. Quaker makes instant oatmeal sold in convenient packages with great flavors. That's my current favorite breakfast.

Lunch I normally stop somewhere for a sandwhich/muffin/bagel. Or if I'm in the middle of nowhere I go for bread complemented with packages of jam and peanut butter "borrowed" from restaurants. Granola bars and fruit are also great but fruit is very heavy and bulky.

Nothing beats Kraft Dinner mac and cheese for dinner.

Grass clippings beat Kraft mac and cheese:rolleyes:;)
Oatmeal may be good for breakfast but it's something that has to be cleaned up after. The last thing I want to do in the morning is to wash dishes. Quaker makes oat meal bars that are convenient, easy to carry and don't require preparation.

http://www.quakeroats.com/Libraries/Products/ToGo-BrownSugar-Detail.sflb.ashx

Crows seem to like them too. (http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=RrzKj&page_id=147808&v=1A)


We ate a lot of stuff like red beans and rice, boxed noodle dishes doctored up with foil pouch tuna or salmon, boxed rice dishes, pasta and sauce, and just about anything we would cook at home if we were near a store before dinner.


Lots of grocery stores...and the dreaded HelMart...carry foil packed meats that carry nicely. Chicken can be added to boxed rice mixes (Zatarain's are the best and far, far better than Kohr's mixes). Red beans and rice are pretty good with single serving packs of Spam, which are also available at HelMart.

If I'm close enough to a market...which can be hard to find in HelMart Land...I'll go more elaborate. I have several recipes that I know by heart and are easy to prepare.

Yo Machka, my diet is a bit more varied in my non-touring life, but being a vegan it's still very limited. I eat more tofu, TSP and vegetables at home, but apart from that, muesli, fruit, bread, rice and beans are the staples (as on tour)... oh but NO peanut butter between tours ;)

On tour, I eat pretty much the same thing I eat when I'm not on tour. I don't see any need to change my diet just because I'm riding my bicycle somewhere different from where I usually ride my bicycle.

On tour, I eat pretty much the same thing I eat when I'm not on tour. I don't see any need to change my diet just because I'm riding my bicycle somewhere different from where I usually ride my bicycle.

You're so clever.

We use a dehydrator at home to prepare some dinners. Spaghetti bolognese, Curry, meats, fish. Pretty much anything can be dehydrated then re-hydrated.
It saves us a heap of weight and tastes great at the end of the day.

dried fruit and jerky kick butt on the go

We use a dehydrator at home to prepare some dinners. Spaghetti bolognese, Curry, meats, fish. Pretty much anything can be dehydrated then re-hydrated.
It saves us a heap of weight and tastes great at the end of the day.

dried fruit and jerky kick butt on the go

Do you tour in places where restocking opportunities are especially infrequent? If so I understand how drying foods at home would be helpful. Otherwise I don't get it.

I am guessing that most of us tour in places where they will usually see some kind of store every day and at worst every few days. In that case, carrying only what is needed to get to the next store with a bit of extra just in case will save a lot more weight than carrying a bunch of dried food for the longer haul.

We were once given a lot of dried food (much more than we wanted to carry) and we split it into small lots and mailed them ahead to various towns we would be passing through. It worked well in that case, but was just too much hassle for me to want to do it as a normal mode of operation.

Not saying any of that applies to where you tour though...

The Australian Nullabour desert is very remote. l only passed a roadhouse on average about every 100 miles, sometimes up to 160 miles between stores. You won't find any grocery stores there. Just fuel stations with very expensive and basic supplies. I had to make sure i had enough food for 3 days just in case.

I did mail food (dehydrated) to the roadhouses before i left. About 3-4 days worth of food to every roadhouse.

I understand this is an extreme case and most tours would not be so remote.

It's just another option if your not quite sure if you will be passing stores around where your touring. Or if your touring in remote country areas off the beaten track.

I totally agree with you that if it is not necessary it can be a bit of a hassle but sometimes hydrating your favorite dinner can be a real treat.

if you could be bothered dehydrating it to begin with :)

The Australian Nullabour desert is very remote. l only passed a roadhouse on average about every 100 miles, sometimes up to 160 miles between stores. You won't find any grocery stores there. Just fuel stations with very expensive and basic supplies. I had to make sure i had enough food for 3 days just in case.

I did mail food (dehydrated) to the roadhouses before i left. About 3-4 days worth of food to every roadhouse.

I understand this is an extreme case and most tours would not be so remote.

It's just another option if your not quite sure if you will be passing stores around where your touring. Or if your touring in remote country areas off the beaten track.

I totally agree with you that if it is not necessary it can be a bit of a hassle but sometimes hydrating your favorite dinner can be a real treat.

if you could be bothered dehydrating it to begin with :)

Very interesting. Thanks for the follow up.

On tour, I eat pretty much the same thing I eat when I'm not on tour. I don't see any need to change my diet just because I'm riding my bicycle somewhere different from where I usually ride my bicycle.


You're so clever.

We get heaps of threads started here on food. Do a search on the word food and you'll be flooded with them.

For some reason, some cycletourists seem to think that the moment they start a tour, they need to eat vastly differently from what they do in "real life". But why?

In the months prior to all my tours, I was cycling a lot, and in lots of different places - sometimes right from home, other times I'd drive somewhere and do day rides or hub-and-spoke tours. Sometimes I'd do weekend practice tours. I'd knock off 1000 km months and 1000 mile months. I commuted to and from work, I rode after work, I rode long distances on weekends such as centuries, double centuries, brevets, back-to-back centuries etc. ... and I ate a lot.

So when I started my tours, I knew what worked for me in terms of food both on and off the bicycle. The only time there might be a change was if I were in a shop in another part of the world and saw something different that looked like a good choice. Trying out the local food can be a great way to add variety in the diet. For example, when touring in Queensland, there were mangos everywhere ... ripe ones on trees that lined the road. I ate a lot of mangos there. :)

For some reason, some cycletourists seem to think that the moment they start a tour, they need to eat vastly differently from what they do in "real life". But why?


Most people don't ride a bicycle all day long in their normal everyday life. More riding=burning more calories=the need for more food.

Most people don't ride a bicycle all day long in their normal everyday life. More riding=burning more calories=the need for more food.


But you'd think, if someone was planning to do a tour in several months time, that they would ride their bicycle frequently and fairly lengthy distances ... in order to get in shape, ensure that their bicycles are set up correctly, practice with their gear, experience various weather conditions on the bicycle, and figure out their nutritional needs.

Someone asked, in another thread, what to do while on tour in order to be able to ride day after day. The answer there is the same answer I've just written in the paragraph above. There are so many benefits to riding lots prior to a tour.

But you'd think, if someone was planning to do a tour in several months time, that they would ride their bicycle frequently and fairly lengthy distances ... in order to get in shape, ensure that their bicycles are set up correctly, practice with their gear, experience various weather conditions on the bicycle, and figure out their nutritional needs.

Someone asked, in another thread, what to do while on tour in order to be able to ride day after day. The answer there is the same answer I've just written in the paragraph above. There are so many benefits to riding lots prior to a tour.

That may all be true, but it is not always the case for many riders. I know that these days I ride very little when not on tour. Some folks have very limited time for riding others like me prefer to do other things than riding when not on tour. In my case that would be trail running. For me I need to eat a lot more on tour than at any other time. Even during the last weeks of training for a half marathon I ate way less than I do on tour and I still lose weight on tour.

But you'd think, if someone was planning to do a tour in several months time, that they would ride their bicycle frequently and fairly lengthy distances ... in order to get in shape, ensure that their bicycles are set up correctly, practice with their gear, experience various weather conditions on the bicycle, and figure out their nutritional needs.

Someone asked, in another thread, what to do while on tour in order to be able to ride day after day. The answer there is the same answer I've just written in the paragraph above. There are so many benefits to riding lots prior to a tour.

I agree wholeheartedly. I do a lot of riding myself, regardless of whether or not I'm planning a tour. However, it is simply not the case for the majority of society. Most people don't have enough time to ride that much prior to their tours, and count on riding themselves into shape while on the trip. I don't neccessarily agree with that philosophy, I think it leads to injury and a miserable vacation for the most part. But the increased workload is bound to wind up the metabolism, and they are gonna get hungry. It's the body's natural reaction.