Paleo Meal Pack - Homemade Cheap

[Van-Wild]

I try and follow a Paleo diet. I'm not a zealot but I do make an effort to eat as clean as possible, without shying away from a meal out and pint with the wife and kids!

Work has changed and I now find myself spending long hours or multi-day trips in my van, with either tiny village shops or motorway service stations as my options for food. Neither are the best options for a clean diet. One has mostly zero options and the other is outrageously expensive. I needed a different solution, which meets my own specs.....

1) As cheap as possible
2) Paleo diet (Meat, fruit and nuts, basically no processed food)
3) Long shelf life if possible
4) Can be made in batches so I can just grab and go.
5) tasty and filling

So...... I started to do my online research. A lot of things caught my eye but I quickly saw that a lot of it was expensive. The main thing that interested me was a product called 'Steve's Paleo Goods' Paleo Pak. Now this looked the perfect solution. Problem was though, at £8.43 per meal (before import tax) they were way out of my price range!! But seeing what the ingredients were I thought 'I can make that myself'. So I did.... and here they are. A Paleo meal, all homemade and when you price it up against the market choices, my homemade paleo meals cost £3.57 all in, so a big saving per meal.

The meat is my own Biltong, and the fruit is all end of the day fresh from the local markets. Everything is dehydrated by me. For those who may be interested, in every meal there's 50g of Biltong, 30g of dried fruit and 30g of nuts.... which is my choice.

I'm pretty chuffed with the outcome. See what you think....

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[Man of Tanith]

ooooh i like that a lot

 

[Woody girl]

I eat a similar diet but less meat and more veg.
I do wonder where your greens are
I have tried to make a sweet potato butternut and maple syrup "leather" which is quite tasty.
I eat a lot of raw veg and salads, particularly the rocket,spinach and watercress variety with carrots and cucumber and a few tomatoes.
Boiled eggs are also a good protein hit.
I rarely eat bread or potatos.
Rice or corn cakes or oatcakes are my main fillers and plenty of porridge of course!
Preprepared stuff is awfully expensive and full of sugars salts fats and presevatives which I don't want.
I think you have hit on a great idea here. A paleo diet is very healthy and I'm glad you treat yourself occasionally. I would be suffering without a hit of chocolate every few weeks!

 

[Van-Wild]

I may try a few packs with raw veg. Good idea... I'm guessing that they will keep in the vacuum pack. As for greens, I don't think they'll keep in the pack . I'll look into it and let you know.

Edited..... yup... I can vacuum blanched greens!! Winner winner....

https://foodvacbags.com/blogs/foodsaverblogs/can-you-vacuum-seal-fresh-vegetables

https://foodvacbags.com/pages/storage-time-for-foodvacbags-vacuum-sealed-foods

 

[Robson Valley]

Any home-prepared meal, at the very least, you know exactly what's in it.
Good of you to point out the economics = can't argue with that.
How many of those meal packs would you make up at a time?

I like to batch cook meaty things and freeze in single serve pouches.
Little pot and a butane stove, water to heat for drink. Flat breads are convenient.
Last minute additions wil be cheeses and crackers, maybe salad stuff.

 

[Van-Wild]

Any home-prepared meal, at the very least, you know exactly what's in it.
Good of you to point out the economics = can't argue with that.
How many of those meal packs would you make up at a time?

I like to batch cook meaty things and freeze in single serve pouches.
Little pot and a butane stove, water to heat for drink. Flat breads are convenient.
Last minute additions wil be cheeses and crackers, maybe salad stuff.

I have enough of my own dried meat/fruit and nuts for 10 or so packs. As per my post above, I will start adding some greens as well and see how they last. I'm away all next week so I'll let you all know how it goes...

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[Woody girl]

I may try a few packs with raw veg. Good idea... I'm guessing that they will keep in the vacuum pack. As for greens, I don't think they'll keep in the pack . I'll look into it and let you know.

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Is it possible to keep a small electric cooler you can wire up to a spare battery with one of those small window solar panels that you stick to a window? You could keep greenstuff fresher for longer.
I spend a just over a pound every two days in winter on a fresh salad bag. Places like liddells and aldi are even cheaper. I've bought a bag of salad for 69p!
Mind you in the summer I eat my own home grown salads and forage a lot of stuff. I realise that if you are working you may not have the time or be in the right areas to do that.
Just a simple cool bag or box helps to keep stuff fresher, even if you only have a freezer block to start with for the first day or two.
Mind you if it's snowing and frosty get two and leave one outside to freeze overnight!

 

[Janne]

You need to add complex carbohydrates, you have protein, fat, sugar plenty.

The huter gatherers ate plenty of seeds, and roots containing complex carbo hydrates.

Complex CH keep you feeling full for longer, slow energy release.

but your 'packs' are good enough for a day or two, maybe even a week!

 

[Snufkin]

If you can keep it cool broccoli and spring greens last well and you can munch them raw. carrots are good too of course.
I've not tried it yet but I think cabbage may dehydrate well.

 

[Woody girl]

Kale dehydrates well and makes a tasty "crisp" type snack. I find the taste of Kale horrible myself but if you like it that might be an idea while the dehydrator is going.
I dehydrate "stew packs" and just add water and an organic stock cube to make a veg soup or add some jerky and a beefy stock and you have a stew. Hot meals are more important in the winter. I'm not so bothered in the summer as I live on veg and salads.
I blanch small veg like peas but 3/4 cook carrots and sliced potatoes or green beans and onions. Then dry them.

 

[Woody girl]

You need to add complex carbohydrates, you have protein, fat, sugar plenty.

The huter gatherers ate plenty of seeds, and roots containing complex carbo hydrates.

Complex CH keep you feeling full for longer, slow energy release.

but your 'packs' are good enough for a day or two, maybe even a week!

Yes that's a point. I make a bag of things that I can nibble at when hungry. Peanuts walnuts brazils hazels almonds.. whatever I've got and dried berries, wild strawberrys raisins dried blackberry and black currants apple peach and apricot.. again whatever is handy. I add sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.
I also like a bag of homemade popcorn sometimes.
Oats are my main grain so I make energy balls out of raw oats maple syrup peanut butter and dried cranberries. Very yummy and a great sweet treat but not too sweet because of the peanut butter. Sometimes I'll add some sesame seeds too or use tahini instead of peanut butter. Tahini is just a paste made of sesame seeds and also has a natural sesame oil as part of the package. I love humous too and often make a huge bowl of it. Doesn't last long around me! Carrots and spring onions cucumbers etc to dip into it. Oh gosh I'm hungry just thinking about it!
Sorry VW gone a bit off the subject here... but then you did post about food!

 

[Janne]

Sounds like something we used to cal, Student Mix.
Classic European energy boost for those long studying nights.

If you like oats, you would enjoy the old Swedish treat now having the Politically Correct name ( translated) ‘Chocolate Balls’

(IKEA sell a version that is an abomination, to be frank.)

 

[crosslandkelly]

I try and follow a Paleo diet. I'm not a zealot but I do make an effort to eat as clean as possible, without shying away from a meal out and pint with the wife and kids!

Work has changed and I now find myself spending long hours or multi-day trips in my van, with either tiny village shops or motorway service stations as my options for food. Neither are the best options for a clean diet. One has mostly zero options and the other is outrageously expensive. I needed a different solution, which meets my own specs.....

1) As cheap as possible
2) Paleo diet (Meat, fruit and nuts, basically no processed food)
3) Long shelf life if possible
4) Can be made in batches so I can just grab and go.
5) tasty and filling

So...... I started to do my online research. A lot of things caught my eye but I quickly saw that a lot of it was expensive. The main thing that interested me was a product called 'Steve's Paleo Goods' Paleo Pak. Now this looked the perfect solution. Problem was though, at £8.43 per meal (before import tax) they were way out of my price range!! But seeing what the ingredients were I thought 'I can make that myself'. So I did.... and here they are. A Paleo meal, all homemade and when you price it up against the market choices, my homemade paleo meals cost £3.57 all in, so a big saving per meal.

The meat is my own Biltong, and the fruit is all end of the day fresh from the local markets. Everything is dehydrated by me. For those who may be interested, in every meal there's 50g of Biltong, 30g of dried fruit and 30g of nuts.... which is my choice.

I'm pretty chuffed with the outcome. See what you think....

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

That looks great. Do you find 110g's enough for a filling meal? Admittedly everyone is diferrent, but I find rat pack sizes of 250g to 300g are good for me.

 

[Ogri the trog]

Seems like the sort of place where someone might know where to buy a reasonable pemmican - all I can find so far are recipes to make my own. That might become the case in the future but for now, I'm looking to buy. UK based if possible.

Any ideas?

 

[Robson Valley]

The Hudson's Bay Company records that Rocky Mountain House ( in Alberta) had an annual quota of 44,000 lbs pemmican which they made up in 9 days.
For the actual traders, not for the Fort personnel. Done up in 90 lb bison hide bags. The best was made in 60lb bags.
Don't believe any stories about added berries. They have sugar and the pemmican rots fast.

Cree indian elders told me that pemmican was 1/2 hard dried/smoked/pounded lean meat and 1/2 rendered fat.
If you have bison, that would have be back strap fat. I have bison meat and fat and it is just freakin' terrible. Gawd awful. Earwax.
Burgoo with root vegetables was the big evening daily meal out on the river. Maybe so.

I don't believe that you will find very much for sale. The preparation is so crude that the risk of bacterial rot is big.

Since 2001, I have eaten 5-6 bison. Fabulous meat. They live and die 15 minutes across the village from my house.
I made some pemmican according to the formula from the Hudson's Bay Company, a good league of British lads as you well know.
The pemmincan was clean and fresh. Still bluddy awful.

I'd make a huge pile of jerky, not sloppy biltong. Dried vegetables for burgoo.
Two fingers of good Canadian rye whiskey would wipe the smurky taste out of my mouth.

 

[Woody girl]

For pemmican just buy a can of Corned beef! It was a good enough substitute for Arthur Ransoms's Swallows and Amazon's to make pemmican sandwiches
(Nice with a bit of Branston pickle too.)
Seriously though, if you want to try making some with the real stuff try contacting the bison centre in Wiltshire. .. where the wilderness gathering is held. They sell bison meat.

 

[TLM]

I have been curious about pemmican ever since my first ET Seton book. As a first guess there are several recipies, has anyone met any of the native versions? Does a pemmican book exist?

 

[Janne]

How does Biltong 'behave' when vacuum packed and stored in room temp? Lasts well?
The commercial biltong and the US version of it always have a desiccating pouch in the pack, and are not vacuum packed.

( I store my biltonged meat in the wine storing room. Lasts for months so far.)

 

[Robson Valley]

I have made bison pemmican as I noted above. Just a couple of kg.
Did it the way the Cree indian elders told me to make it.
Does not get much more native than that.

You can come over to my place and make an arrangement to kill one yourself.
What happens next with the dead animal is entirely up to you.

I think it was the bison fat that really turned me off.
Nowhere near to the sort of taste that you expect from beef fat.
So, you trim the steaks and roasts, etc extra lean for fantastic good eating.

Bison jerky is for days of hunting to chew on.
You find a good cure and a good seasoning, slice very thin and dry.

 

[TLM]

OK, so change fat. I have a faint memory of having read that only certain kind of fat was to be used but very faint. I have years ago dried meat in a chemist's desiccator under very low pressure and that worked fine but it was not what one would call practical. I was also wondering about your comment on "no berries" because some berries are well preserved when dried, lingon- and cran- and blueberries at least. Thx for comments.

I don't know if you have the the same problem there that we sometimes have here with the Sami, they tend to answer the way they think the questioner would like to here. So sometimes one has to be slightly sneaky when asking them ...