Touring - best value food

nutrition/cost/weight, what is the best?

If you have a way to heat a small pan, bread is great. Just place however much flour (cheap!) you want, and add a bit of baking powder, a tiny bit of salt if you want, then add water until doughy. Then cook until, well, it's cooked. Tons of carbs, and healthy if you use whole grain. A bit heavy though.

Oh, and peanut butter.

trafficcasauras, For how many nights? Use a stove?

Brad

If you have a way to heat a small pan, bread is great. Just place however much flour (cheap!) you want, and add a bit of baking powder, a tiny bit of salt if you want, then add water until doughy. Then cook until, well, it's cooked. Tons of carbs, and healthy if you use whole grain. A bit heavy though.

Oh, and peanut butter.

That would be bannock in Canada, or fry bake if you are in the West Indies.

Peanut butter, bananas, oatmeal, and eggs.

trafficcasauras, For how many nights? Use a stove?

Brad

its my planned 10 thousand mile trip. so far, i've decided against a stove and filtration system, just tablets and firesteel. i don't want to have to make more stops for supplies than i have to.

If you have a way to heat a small pan, bread is great. Just place however much flour (cheap!) you want, and add a bit of baking powder, a tiny bit of salt if you want, then add water until doughy. Then cook until, well, it's cooked. Tons of carbs, and healthy if you use whole grain. A bit heavy though.

Oh, and peanut butter.

thanks! i've never come across that suggestion. thanks again, that could change the whole cost of my tour! maybe i could get below $15 per day! that would be great! even if there was inflation in food prices, i could have a much better margin.

That would be bannock in Canada, or fry bake if you are in the West Indies.

Peanut butter, bananas, oatmeal, and eggs.

peanut butter is probably easier than getting the almond butter eveyone brags about.

And if you find them and know they have not been messed with, dandelion greens are one of the most nutritious greens out there and just need to be boiled for 10 minutes in a little salted water.

They provide a great source of many essential vitamins and minerals.

And if you find them and know they have not been messed with, dandelion greens are one of the most nutritious greens out there and just need to be boiled for 10 minutes in a little salted water.

They provide a great source of many essential vitamins and minerals.

yeah, i've heard that they absorb bad stuff easily, so i would have to be safe. boiling sounds pretty good.

Top Ramen noodles.

The best carb to carry is couscous. It uses less fuel than any other. If you want pasta, use the thinner varieties that cook more rapidly.
Packets of noodles are quick and convenient, specially for roadside midday meals.
Chorizo sausage keeps well and is a source of fat as well as protein.
Pesto sauce is another traditional standby for cycle tourists.

On a nomadic tour you have to buy (or catch/pick) whatever is available along the way.
Gathering/catching your own food can be fun. You need to be sure of ID for fungi and ask the locals for what is good/accessible/in season. On my coast we dont have the rocky pools for muscles and limpets but we do have mud for razor shell and some nice coastal plants.

You can get(make) small wood stoves which make efficient use of small dry twigs, which are easier to find dry than bigger branches.

its my planned 10 thousand mile trip. so far, i've decided against a stove and filtration system, just tablets and firesteel. i don't want to have to make more stops for supplies than i have to.

Where are you going?


The best for nutrition/cost/weight is whatever you can find that appeals to you along the way. The answer will vary depending on where you go and what's available.

If you want to tour on $15 a day for 10,000 miles, I suggest you revisit your plan to leave behind cooking utensils. You've already got a whole slew of suggested stuff that is highly nutritious but needs some sort of cooking. Like the dandelions and couscous, and bread and so the list goes.

I have found cooking oats to be a great source of cheap nutrition. But you still might need to cook them.

One of the things about extended touring and being intent on keeping to a short list of "simple foods" is that they become mighty boring after a relatively short time.

You really should consider thinking about the types of food that will be part of the culture of the areas you intend to visit, assuming that those areas are in different countries.

I also would suggest you seriously consider taking a big bottle of vitamin tablets.

$15 a day? 10 x $1.00 hamburgers + one $5.00 six pack!!!

One other thing to consider is ... if you are indeed planning to do a 10,000 mile trip, I presume you aren't planning to remain within one country. If you're travelling to other countries, you may not be able to bring food across the border. When you arrive in another country, there may be different food from what you're used to.

We could suggest all sorts of things, but it's possible you might not be able to get them.

FWIW, raw large flakes oats make a delicious alternative to regular breakfast cereal, you don't need to cook them and they're still edible if you only have water, but milk is nicer. Juice works too. The original museli... add whatever other seeds and fruits you can scrounge up.

Throw some peanut butter in your morning porridge and you'll be full for hours. I eat a lot of oats and they're one of the best foods going if you ask me.

Couscous could be soaked instead of cooked but you'd likely need to soak it all day. If you're really serious about not cooking, learn to eat the "raw diet" that is faddish these days; meaning it'd likely be more than 15$ a day unless you eat oatmeal and tinned veggies ever day.

Lentils are an easy, cheap and nutritious meal. Onions are cheap and tasty, the dehydrated ones are cheap enough if you want to save some weight/space. Textured vegetable protein is another cheap staple that is versatile. Wikipedia says not to eat lentils raw though, but you can make a small pop-can stove pretty cheap so I think I'll pile-on with the 'you should cook' suggestion too :)

It's not for me and for most people perhaps, but perfectly good food can be had out of dumpsters behind markets. The rats that ran over the food in the dumpster are only slightly less classy than the ones that ran over it within the market.

Roadkill, especially feral pigs, rabbits, and deer are perfectly acceptable if you are sure that their demise was recent. Cooking, however, would be needed unless one is especially hard core. Not for me either, but just sayin'.

This course (http://www.boss-inc.com/) offers instruction on how to live off the land.

Coconut milk, almond butter, cans of wild caught salmon, eggs if you are cooking. Also if you carry around a quality oil, like extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil, you will always be set. Meat is more nutritious than grains and fruits, but carrying it for a long time can be a problem. I like to make a bunch of jerky before I go. Bacon is something you can grab as you go, and will last a while after cooked.

Hard cheese packs lots of cals, protein, and fat into a small pkg. Vegetable juice will balance the diet and add essential minerals lost in sweat. Cheap cookies for variety and quick energy.

Being a social creature, I have taken advantage of homeless shelter food kitchens. Made a small donation and ate well. Some churches have readily available funds for aiding transients, if touring times get really tough. I've even heard of them springing for a motel.

Top Ramen noodles.

So true! Can be found anywhere in The Americas. Add a can of tuna, fresh veggies, garlic and other spices and you pretty much have a gourmet meal.

I like the suggestions in here (http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2009/10/what-long-distance-cyclists-really-eat.html)

I like the suggestions in here (http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2009/10/what-long-distance-cyclists-really-eat.html)

great link

Gathering/catching your own food can be fun. You need to be sure of ID for fungi and ask the locals for what is good/accessible/in season. On my coast we dont have the rocky pools for muscles and limpets but we do have mud for razor shell and some nice coastal plants.

You can get(make) small wood stoves which make efficient use of small dry twigs, which are easier to find dry than bigger branches.

i love the audubon guides, sentimental. its cool the have some for mushrooms!

I have found cooking oats to be a great source of cheap nutrition. But you still might need to cook them.

One of the things about extended touring and being intent on keeping to a short list of "simple foods" is that they become mighty boring after a relatively short time.

You really should consider thinking about the types of food that will be part of the culture of the areas you intend to visit, assuming that those areas are in different countries.

I also would suggest you seriously consider taking a big bottle of vitamin tablets.

vitamins are good. the travel wood stove i should get.

$15 a day? 10 x $1.00 hamburgers + one $5.00 six pack!!!

hmmm, maybe it won't take that much money...i've been thinking about this for over a year already, and i just remembered that i had calculated $15 SOMEWHERE on this lost spreadsheet.

One other thing to consider is ... if you are indeed planning to do a 10,000 mile trip, I presume you aren't planning to remain within one country. If you're travelling to other countries, you may not be able to bring food across the border. When you arrive in another country, there may be different food from what you're used to.

We could suggest all sorts of things, but it's possible you might not be able to get them.

i'm plannig on just going around some adventure cycling trails in the usa. i don't want to deal with borders, anyway.

Lentils are an easy, cheap and nutritious meal. Onions are cheap and tasty, the dehydrated ones are cheap enough if you want to save some weight/space. Textured vegetable protein is another cheap staple that is versatile. Wikipedia says not to eat lentils raw though, but you can make a small pop-can stove pretty cheap so I think I'll pile-on with the 'you should cook' suggestion too :)

i've never heard of vegetable protein, sounds cool, but it may be hard to find.

It's not for me and for most people perhaps, but perfectly good food can be had out of dumpsters behind markets. The rats that ran over the food in the dumpster are only slightly less classy than the ones that ran over it within the market.

Roadkill, especially feral pigs, rabbits, and deer are perfectly acceptable if you are sure that their demise was recent. Cooking, however, would be needed unless one is especially hard core. Not for me either, but just sayin'.

This course (http://www.boss-inc.com/) offers instruction on how to live off the land.

dumpster diving is illegal, won't do that.

Coconut milk, almond butter, cans of wild caught salmon, eggs if you are cooking. Also if you carry around a quality oil, like extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil, you will always be set. Meat is more nutritious than grains and fruits, but carrying it for a long time can be a problem. I like to make a bunch of jerky before I go. Bacon is something you can grab as you go, and will last a while after cooked.

all those fats are really good calorie to weight ratios, but i will have to eat them at the right time of the day. i guess that would be morning. i ate them at the wrong time of a tour once.

trafficcasauras, If you're going to take a stove, I recommend one of these: http://www.sterno.com/retail/pages/stove.html . They are good for heating small servings and light first time, every time and can be quickly extinguished. I don't know if they've ever been popular for biking/hiking, but I've used them for years on the boat.

Brad

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textured_vegetable_protein

regarding portable stoves there are many threads in the archives here about DIY stoves and pop can stoves specifically but the one that seemed to have most in-depth instructions was the penny stove: http://www.jureystudio.com/pennystove/stoveinstruct.html I haven't made one myself but it seems well thought out. Pretty cheap to make if you root through the recycling at a bar or something.

dumpster diving is illegal, won't do that.

Throwing away perfectly edible food should be a crime.

+1.

Dumpster diving is like stealth camping, anyway. Either make sure you don't get caught, or be fairly confident no one will care. In many cities there are communities of freegan types who comb the dumpsters and generally don't run into many problems with it. In some states, even taking roadkill is illegal. Sorry, but if I see a loaf of bread sticking out of a dumpster, or a car hit a rabbit in front of me, I'm eating.

10 minutes after reading this thread, by the way, I was up in the kitchen with my camp cook set frying bannock in ghee. It turned out like a KFC biscuit. Mmmm...

Some other foods I eat on tour:
- Damper. Similar to bannock, but without the butter.
- Boil in bag rice. Cheap as dirt for the nutrition you're getting. Most brands will cook in less than 10 minutes, and I've found that the water doesn't need to be boiling the whole time. I bring it to a boil, put the bag in, then turn the heat off and let it sit. With boil in bag rice, it won't gum up the pan and is great for a mess-free lunch. Especially good with some ghee or butter mixed in.
- Poor mans trail mix: cheerios, walnuts, and chocolate chips. The chocolate chips make the cereal seem less dry and a bit more palatable.
- You can make some pretty good energy bars with brown rice syrup + stuff many cyclists keep on hand anyway - a few packets of instant oatmeal, nuts, peanut butter, dried fruit or berries, raisins. The only cooking that is required is heating the corn syrup. Google homemade energy bars and adapt the recipe to suit your needs. I make mine like clif bars(As in, they look like raccoon crap rather than bars).
- I wholeheartedly agree with learning to identify edible plants and mushrooms. Some easy ones to start with are wild leeks/ramps, and giant puffball mushrooms. Both are seasonal, with ramps in the spring and puffballs in the fall, but they are very easy to spot and identify. Ramps grow in thick mats while the rest of the ground is brown, and smell intensely of onion. Giant puffballs come up in late summer/fall, and the only thing that'll look remotely similar to one would be a soccer ball lost in the woods. Stinging nettle, once heated to remove the sting, is extremely common and nutritious, but the thin texture of the leaves puts some people off.

In some states, even taking roadkill is illegal. Sorry, but if I see a loaf of bread sticking out of a dumpster, or a car hit a rabbit in front of me, I'm eating.

+1

Once I found a duck sitting in the middle of a 4-lane highway, obviously in distress, cars whizzing by him on either side at 70+ mph. When there was a break in traffic I ran out and picked him up. My plan was to take him to a rescue vet, but he died right after I picked him up.

Had duck breast for dinner that night. Yum, yum.

In rural parts of the UK it is quite common for cars to run over and kill pheasant. Usually they are hit at slower speeds so are in one piece.
The legal ownership of roadkill is a grey area, in law they are owned by the government roads agency but it is the responsibility of the runner-over to clear up the mess. Pheasants are owned by landowners ie private property, so the killer may owe someone some money. The commonly accepted pub-law was that the killer-driver could not pick up the pheasant but a following driver could.
In practice, if you see a pheasant, you accelerate and if you are lucky, bag it for the pot.

On a club ride we found a recent roadkill and a couple on a tandem took charge. The rear rider managed to pluck the pheasant before the ride finished.

You also find birds after organised shoots; ones that have not been found by the retriever dogs.

Cooking a pheasant on a stove is tricky, they respond best to slow casseroll. Slow roasting may work. It is quicker and cleaner to skin the bird rather than pluck.

Swans (those not belonging to the Vintners' and Dyers' Livery Companies) remain crown property and you are not allowed to eat them. I think we still hang people for this, or transport them to Australia or somewhere sunny. Quite a good law too, since swans are tough and stringy.

I dunno about your experience with firesteel, but I have 3 different flint and steels and have used them for years... Bring a pack of bic lighters instead. Firesteels are like a toy for playing survivorman. When you're tired and hungry and just want a fire, you reeeeeally want to have a bic.

The problem I've always had with foraged (from the wild) foods is that while they may have lots of vitamins and minerals, they often don't have much in the way of calories. When I'm touring (or even at home actually), I need food for the calories, it isn't vitamin deficiency I'm worried about.

There's nothing wrong with a nice back country salad to start a meal, but it doesn't have much in the way of calories.

$15 a day? 10 x $1.00 hamburgers + one $5.00 six pack!!!
That covers two of the four food groups!

The problem I've always had with foraged (from the wild) foods is that while they may have lots of vitamins and minerals, they often don't have much in the way of calories. When I'm touring (or even at home actually), I need food for the calories, it isn't vitamin deficiency I'm worried about.

There's nothing wrong with a nice back country salad to start a meal, but it doesn't have much in the way of calories.

good point. it should be fun anyway.

bread with dulce de leche!!!!!!!!
nothing beats dulce.. nothing.. impossible!

I always keep around some nuts as a sort of emergency supply in case any other food I may be carrying goes bad or whatever. They pack quite a punch and you don't even have to cook them. I don't drink coffee, but I do drink Cocoa (Hershey brand when I can find it). The rest of the food is whatever I can find, have recipes for and the tools to cook with. Oats are good for breakfast and easy to make if you thermos cook it the night before.

http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/highest-calorie-foods.php

Another recommendation towards learning about edible plant life. I favor acorns and cattail.

http://www.tacticalintelligence.net/blog/the-fantastic-four-4-essential-wild-edible-plants-that-may-one-day-just-save-your-life.htm

Another recommendation towards learning about edible plant life. I favor acorns and cattail.

http://www.tacticalintelligence.net/blog/the-fantastic-four-4-essential-wild-edible-plants-that-may-one-day-just-save-your-life.htm

How do you cook acorns? Every preparation I've had doesn't taste terribly pleasant.

Check out the NOLS Cookery book.
It has recipes for cooking from bulk supplies. The bread and calzone recipes are absolutely awesome.

i've never heard of vegetable protein, sounds cool, but it may be hard to find.It's not hard to find, Amazon.com has lots of it and they'll send it to your door. Also any health food store will have it, and many main stream food markets too.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_17?url=search-alias%3Dgrocery&field-keywords=vegetable+protein&sprefix=vegetable+protein

oatmeal, raisins, nuts, corn tortillas, eggs

Coconut milk, almond butter, cans of wild caught salmon, eggs if you are cooking. Also if you carry around a quality oil, like extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil, you will always be set. Meat is more nutritious than grains and fruits, but carrying it for a long time can be a problem. I like to make a bunch of jerky before I go. Bacon is something you can grab as you go, and will last a while after cooked.

According to whom? Sounds like a recipe for a heart attack to me.

I do most of my touring in Portugal. Free foods I've scarfed down include: grapes, figs, almonds, acorns (in small quantities--still looking for a good way to prepare these; eating lots of raw ones not supposed to be a good idea), pears, apples and plums.

How do you cook acorns? Every preparation I've had doesn't taste terribly pleasant.

Best way I've found is to turn it into flour and make bread or biscuits, then just top it off with some agave or if I don't have anything sweet I'll use hot sauce.

Best way I've found is to turn it into flour and make bread or biscuits, then just top it off with some agave or if I don't have anything sweet I'll use hot sauce.

condiments seem really important.