Touring - No-Cooking-Required Foods -- Tips, Favorites, Recipes, Preparation?

Although some NCR foods are ready to eat, with little or no further attention, others do need some sort of preparation.

Any good recipes, or other tips for preparing these sorts of foods?

Any favorite NCR foods?

Or any especially useful containers, tools, or techniques?

I could have sworn we've done this before ... several times. You, Niles, have started a thread on this topic at least TWICE before. Did you forget?

1) http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=363723&highlight=food

2) http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/599448-Good-Food-Combinations-that-Don-t-Involve-Cooking?highlight=cook



And here are a few other threads as well (they are also listed in the first thread above) ...

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=530462&highlight=cook

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=444628&highlight=cook

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=432573&highlight=cook

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=265198&highlight=cook

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=241346&highlight=cook

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=103396&highlight=cook


And some more ... the first link below has even more links...

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/775738-Simple-cooking-recipes?highlight=cook

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/617858-Dehydrated-meals-on-toruing-I-m-a-lousy-cook...?highlight=cook

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/559116-how-to-pack-meat-and-cheese?highlight=cook

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/530462-Suggestions-for-SIMPLE-quot-just-add-water-quot-food?highlight=cook


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Maybe the mods should start a new Food On Tour sticky thread with:
-- All the links to threads about cooking on tour and not cooking on tour (and while there are a lot of links above, they are not comprehensive ... there are lots more)
-- Suggestions for good cafes and restaurants in various parts of the world
-- "Don't Miss ..." trying this or that type of local food
-- Great finds in the grocery store
-- And other food-related discussions

Let's look back at the first inhabitants of North America, and what travelers then carried.
Pinole. It is basically toasted cornmeal, more or less. They would just eat it and wash it down with water. Or you can mix it with water and drink it. I have used it hiking and it's actually pretty good. Gives good long lasting energy too.
Pemmican. Fat, jerky, and dried fruit mixed together. The ultimate travel food. About 16000 calories a teaspoon, keeps for 1000 years, a teaspoon keeps you going for about two days, but it is absolutely disgusting.
Short of energy bars, or the more hippie type food bars, I don't really know of any no prep food that is any good. With the European classic....wait for it... Bread! Just get some bagels or buns or whatever.
When you are really hungry, potatoes with nothing on them are really good. When I was in Afghanistan local villagers would always have a bunch we could buy off them, and after days of infantry rations they were a real treat.

Most cultures have some kind of a journey food, there's pemican, pinole, or my personal favorite, Tibet's Tsampa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsampa)and Yak butter tea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter_tea)

Learned some new things here. Thank you.

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

Gofio is a highly versatile product which can be added to soups (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soup), stews (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stew), desserts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dessert), ice cream (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream), sauces (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauce), and more. It is very rich in vitamins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin), proteins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein), fibre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_fibre), and minerals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_mineral). It was favoured by Canarian mariners as it can be stored for long periods while retaining its goodness.

Zamita sounds like a good variation, and one that I would like to try,

In Morocco, toasted flour is also mixed with among others, almond paste, honey, argan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argan) oil, anise, fennel, and sesame seeds to make "Sellou" (also called "Zamita" or "Slilou" in some regions), a sweet paste known for its long shelf life and high nutritive value. It was amongst the provisions of the crew of Thor Heyerdahl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)'s "Ra II" expedition to cross the Atlantic aboard a papyrus ship using the Canary Current (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Current) in 1970.

There are also some interesting comments here,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinole_%28staple%29

Herbs and flavorings added to pinole include ground mustard seeds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustard_seeds), ground chia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvia_hispanica) seeds, ground cacao (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_bean), sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, achiote (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achiote), and other grasses and annual herbs. The mixture is sometimes beaten with water to make a hot or cold beverage (also called pinole)....

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

Rockihominy, a popular trail food in the 19th and early 20th centuries, is dried corn roasted to a golden brown, then ground to a very coarse meal....

No Bake Energy Bars (from http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2011/03/diy-on-bike-food.html?m=1)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup (I use honey instead)
1 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups quick oatmeal
1 1/2 cups rice cereal (I like granola)
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 tsp sesame seeds

"In a saucepan, combine the brown sugar and syrup. Bring to a boil while stirring. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter and vanilla until well blended. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Press into a greased 9x13 inch pan. Cut into bars once cooled.

There are a ton of variations you can do with this, my favorite of which is to add in some fresh coffee grounds for an extra kick. You can also play around with dried fruits and different types of nuts. Just stay away from chocolate chips, as they can get pretty messy on a hot day."

Short of eating sticks of butter or lard,Pop Tarts have tons of calories and weight nothing.

There is lots of stuff,take a walk through the store sometime,looking just for no cook stuff.

I like to make my own trail mix. I'll sometimes start with a package of trail mix, the add more of the things I like...mixed nuts, Cheerios, Wheat Chex cereal, pretzels, dried fruit, etc.

I made these energy bars this week, added in some dried bananas and even my kids tore into them! Would certainly be in my bag this summer...