Post your 3 day menus....

[Martyn]

Post your 3 day menu's....

I thought it would be a good idea to have a thread with lists of people choices for menus, together with packing totals. So see if you can come up with one, or post your if you already have one...

I'll start...

Full substantial menu for 3 days, including condiments and sundries.

This menu is something I've knocked together to help me plan what food I need to take with me on camping trips. You can chop & change or just multiply it according to your taste and duration of your trip, though for longer camping trips, some perishables would need to be replaced with other things. The menu is for 3 full days and 2 nights. This assumes you arrive at your location before 6am on the first day and leave late on the 3rd day. If your travel time eats into the day, then you can adjust the menu accordingly, replacing meals with trail snack and coffee with water. Or, you can extend the menu for 3 full days and 4 nights by adding a very few extra's.

It's not a menu for through hiking or ultralight backpacking, but more for backwoods camping trips. The kind of trips where there are no pressures on time, where you have the options to brew up often, cook easily on an open fire or stove and have a good supply of water. I like to eat and drink well.

Cooking equipment: One 12cm zebra billy plus British army mess tins, knife, fork, spoon and a mug or cup. An open campfire is preferred, but a stove will be fine.

Day 1:

6am:
1 cup of coffee

7am:
1 cup of coffee
1 Oat so Simple & maple syrup (or jam)

10am:
1 cup of coffee
1 pitta bread, melted cheese & bacon sandwich

1pm:
1 cup of coffee
1 savory rice & salami chunks
1 pitta bread & butter

5pm:
1 packet of chicken curry, plain rice & salt
1 pitta bread, peanut butter & maple syrup (or jam)
1 cup of coffee

7pm:
1 cup of coffee

9pm:
1 cup of instant soup

11pm:
1 cup of malted milk

3am:
1 cup of malted milk

Day 2:

6am:
1 cup of coffee

7am:
1 cup of coffee
1 Oat so Simple & maple syrup (or jam)

10am:
1 cup of coffee
1 pitta bread, melted cheese & bacon sandwich

1pm:
1 cup of coffee
1 savory rice & salami chunks
1 pitta bread & butter

5pm:
3 fresh pork sausages, instant mash, instant gravy, salt & pepper.
1 pitta bread, peanut butter & maple syrup (or jam)
1 cup of coffee

7pm:
1 cup of coffee

9pm:
1 cup of instant soup

11pm:
1 cup of malted milk

3am:
1 cup of malted milk

Day 3:

6am:
1 cup of coffee

7am:
1 cup of coffee
1 Oat so Simple & maple syrup (or jam)

10am:
1 cup of coffee
1 pitta bread, melted cheese & bacon sandwich

1pm:
1 cup of coffee
1 savory rice & salami chunks
1 pitta bread & butter

5pm:
1 packet of chilli-con-carne, plain rice & salt
1 pitta bread, peanut butter & maple syrup (or jam)
1 cup of coffee

7pm:
1 cup of coffee

9pm:
1 cup of instant soup

11pm:
1 cup of malted milk

3am:
1 cup of malted milk

Totals:
20x heaped spoons coffee
40x heaped spoons of coffee mate
3x Oat so Simple
9x pitta bread
1x block of cheese (enough for 6 good slices - or tube of primula)
3x full rashers of bacon
1x chunk of salami
3x pkts savory rice (or instant noodles)
3x fresh pork sausages
1x instant mash (enough for 1 meal)
1x instant gravy (enough for 1 meal)
1x pkt chicken curry
1x pkt chilli-con-carne
2x plain rice (enough for 2 meals)
3x cup-a-soup
6x malted milk
1x tube of butter (Olivio works for me)
1x tube of peanut butter
1x tube of maple syrup (or jam if preferred)
1x bag salt
1x bag pepper

Sundries:
1x bag chilli flakes
1x beef stock cube
1x chicken stock cube
1x bag of mixed spices

This err's on the side of the greedy, you could easily leave out the melted cheese and bacon sandwich, which would save you 3x pitta breads, the lump of cheese and the 3 rashers of bacon for example. You could leave out the peanut butter, jam, salami, malted milk and the cup-a-soups with minimal effect and still have a decent menu.

Whatever.

 

[moduser]

Wow martyn that is a very detailed menu plan.

Mine goes something like this - this is assuming I'm walking and have to watch the weight. If I'm in a fixed camp site menu is as varied as possible and always fresh ingedients.

Breakfasts
In portion bags - Oats, milk powder & sultana's -just add water & honey

Lunch
Often bits from a ration pack, biscuits brown & pate
Cheese and digestives
Fruit - dried or fresh

Dinner
Rice, fresh or dried veg, seasoning - I carry a mixure of herbs and spices and a small bottle of olive oil always.
Salami or tin of makeral/sardines if I fancy some meat
This is my staple. I'll alter the seasoning to give me taste variety

Snacks
Jordans special Museli bars, dried fruit (partial to figs) and nuts/seed mix (sometimes added to the dinner pot for added texture)
Biscuits fruit
Chocolate - weather permitting

Supper
Waitrose Tomato & Basil SOUP (not making that mistake again Pete )

Beverages
Lyons Coffee bags, dried milk & honey
(I always have a bottle of squeezee honey in my pack
Tea bags - a selection of herbal and normal - taken black with a drop of honey

It may not sound like much but it's filling and meets my needs of carbs/protein/fats reasonably well.

david

 

[stovie]

Difficult one this, as I don't have a set menu. And if we are talking fixed camp I like to cook from scratch...so rabbit and pigeon is often on the menu (as are other meats), veggies are cooked from fresh and I enjoy experimenting with making breads. So the menu will always be varied depending on my mood and ingredients.

Fresh coffee is probably the only constant (now that the smokes have gone )

A sweet bannock with honey for afters

 

[Martyn]

Wow martyn that is a very detailed menu plan.

It is a bit OTT isnt it, but I think it helps with working out your quantities.

I can trim it down to...

3x oat so simple
3x instant noodles
3x curry/chillie
3x rice
1x bag of instant coffee
1x bag of coffee mate
salt, pepper & spices.

I can live off it, but it's a grim diet.

 

[Martyn]

Fresh coffee is probably the only constant (now that the smokes have gone )

Good luck with the tabs. I managed 3 months earler this year but I'm back to square one.

What kind of coffee do you use? Bags?

 

[torjusg]

Difficult one this, as I don't have a set menu. And if we are talking fixed camp I like to cook from scratch...so rabbit and pigeon is often on the menu (as are other meats), veggies are cooked from fresh and I enjoy experimenting with making breads. So the menu will always be varied depending on my mood and ingredients.

Fresh coffee is probably the only constant (now that the smokes have gone )

A sweet bannock with honey for afters

If you go around obsessing about your smoke you will soon start again. You should be happy to get rid of that filthy, stinking stuff.

Anyway, back to food. I usually bring too little food (a very bad habit indeed). And usually very boring food. Usually it is one big piece of meat per day + rice.

 

[andyn]

Martyn, How on earth do you survive till day 3 with only 3 hours sleep each night!!!!! :notworthy

 

[spamel]

I have a cereal mix for breakfast, weetabix are normally in there and some raisins for sure. I pre pack them in ziplock bags as otherwise I'd eat the lot day 1!! I brew up quite a bit, but I use the small folding cup now as I find it better to just have small hot drinks whilst I'm out otherwise I spend the rest of the time peeing!! I use condensed milk in a carton as I can't get the brand of milk powder that I used in Britain which seemed to be the only stuff I could use without it going lumpy!

Midday meal is usually something simple and quick, maybe rice but I think I am eating rice a bit too much on my trips so Ineed to reconsider this. I could go for pasta. I get cartoned beans so that the pack can be burnt or if I am stovie cooking it weighs little so I can carry it out. I don't like to leave any rubbish at all, especially a I have a few places where nobody else goes so why spoil them?

My wife gets me pork belly from the shop which I take and cube up when I get out on the ground. I use this in stews and the like and it is a bit fatty so you sleep really warm. I take rice from the Uncle Ben range, it is heavier as it is quick cook rice and therefore not dry weight. It comes in various flavours so there is variety. I also take a sommer wurst salami which is sliced and spitted or cubed and chucked in the pot. Oxo goes in to the pot to boil the pork with some home dried onion and then the excess water is drained off before adding rice to the meal. The drained off stock is used as a filling and tasty soup with pitta which seems to be a good durable bread for the pack.

At present I am supplementing my meals with funghi growing in the area, last trip I went on at the weekend saw myself and Jamie picking parasols, Boletes and puffballs. I had only ever eaten Boletes before and I think the same for Jamie so it was interesting to try them out. When they were added before draining off the stock, the resulting soup was absolutely fantastic!!

Add some choccy bars, they are always a good boost for morale and energy.

At the moment I am trying to decide whether to eat two times a day with a massive meal or three smaller meals with snacks and brews thrown in in either case. We don't tend to roam around too far though, last trip I think we used about a square kilometre, but the good thing was we never saw another person in four days! Bliss

 

[Martyn]

Martyn, How on earth do you survive till day 3 with only 3 hours sleep each night!!!!! :notworthy

The 3am drink is for when I wake up in the middle of the night dude. Often happens - in fact usually. Sometimes I sleep through, but I budget my brews for one in the middle of the night.

 

[andyn]

The 3am drink is for when I wake up in the middle of the night dude. Often happens - in fact usually. Sometimes I sleep through, but I budget my brews for one in the middle of the night.

Oh , Im not as impressed anymore.

 

[stovie]

Good luck with the tabs. I managed 3 months earler this year but I'm back to square one.

What kind of coffee do you use? Bags?

Wash your mouth out young man! A fine arabica in the trusty pot (see below)

But i have been known to roast and grind dandelion roots and acorns....but only out of curiosity

To be honest, as far as the smoking goes, I'm doing okay....one day at a time.

 

[Martyn]

Oh , Im not as impressed anymore.

The other thing is, I cant remember the last time I actually went out for 3 full days, ...it was definitely a long time ago.

 

[Chance]

For the lightweight trekking part, a cornish pastie: a fully-balanced meal in every bite; with edible packaging. And pork scratchings, replacing those important salts, fats and additives that you sweat out during the day.
(you'd probably want to take some other stuff as well, but you'll have forgotten them by the end of the trip)

 

[Martyn]

Wash your mouth out young man! A fine arabica in the trusty pot (see below)

But i have been known to roast and grind dandelion roots and acorns....but only out of curiosity

To be honest, as far as the smoking goes, I'm doing okay....one day at a time.

Aha, looks fantastic. Bit of a weight penalty though I would think?

 

[Martyn]

My wife gets me pork belly from the shop which I take and cube up when I get out on the ground. I use this in stews and the like and it is a bit fatty so you sleep really warm. I take rice from the Uncle Ben range, it is heavier as it is quick cook rice and therefore not dry weight. It comes in various flavours so there is variety. I also take a sommer wurst salami which is sliced and spitted or cubed and chucked in the pot. Oxo goes in to the pot to boil the pork with some home dried onion and then the excess water is drained off before adding rice to the meal. The drained off stock is used as a filling and tasty soup with pitta which seems to be a good durable bread for the pack.

Love the sound of that (apart from the UB rice, I dont like the stuff). I'd not thought about belly pork.

 

[spamel]

I had to scoot off and make some food after posting that, it made me really hungry!!

 

[Feygan]

Martyn thats a whole lot of coffee I hope you increasing your water intake to counteract the dehydrating effects of it??? Personally Id be needing an addition 2-3 litres of water just to stay upright on that much.

 

[dommyracer]

I was thinking the same. Strictly Rooibos for moi.

 

[Martyn]

Martyn thats a whole lot of coffee I hope you increasing your water intake to counteract the dehydrating effects of it??? Personally Id be needing an addition 2-3 litres of water just to stay upright on that much.

Yeah, but I'm addicted to the stuff and have kind of adjusted over the years.

 

[stovie]

I was thinking the same. Strictly Rooibos for moi.

Ooooo errrrr! La di da!!!

Makes good tinder though