I got back last week from my solo trip to Gabimichigami and I thought I would share a few food items that worked out well for me. First night , ring balony and mashed patatoes. After 11 hours of travel time I was too exhausted to cook my originally planned meal. The balony and patatoes were don in less than 15 minutes, just heat water. The second and third night were chicken fajites and steak fajites with fresh green and red peppers and fresh purple onions. They sure tasted great and took only about 20 minutes to prepare. Fourth night it was chicken in a foil pouch and couscous. Quick and easy, boil water and ready in 10 minutes. One of the lunch items that I tried this year was salmon in a foil pouch. It was great and will deffinatly go on future trips. Things that didn't work. Some of the crackers that I took did not hold up to the trip in and all I got was crumbs. So I will have to look for different brand that will hold up better. I had some Peta bread in the freezer before the trip, when it came time for lunch and I got them out they were all moldy. Next time I will deffinitly buy fresh before the trip. Anybody else have food items that worked well and are easy to perepare please share them. I always like to try at least one new meal on my trips.

How was the fishing??

I also just got back from a trip. I took 2 of my daughters for their first time.
What worked well:
Each meal packed in it's own ziplock bag with fire starter and matches.
Steak kept very well in a soft sided cooler, I froze it before we left and it kept 3 days and would have gone more. However, I would trim it first and cube it up. I cooked the steak in butter and it was fantastic.
Potatoes - I wrapped fresh ones in foil and roasted over the fire turning often there we good but heavy.
Pizza - I bought a crust and added sauce, pepperoni, and cheese cooked in a pan over a low fire it was good.
Eggs - they kept well
Tuna - the new foil packs are great
Chili - Stagg chili in boxes were good but heavy I thought too heavy.
I used boil-in-the-bag rice and that was easy to cook and serve.
Pita bread kept well
Tortillas kept well
Didn't work well:
Crackers - they were crushed
Pizza crust got broken up, no big deal just made several small ones.
Boiled eggs were heavy and plain tuna salad would have been OK.
Had to deal with fat trimmings from the steaks.
Jiffy pop is great but the left over foil is a bit too much to deal with
I took some cookie dough that was frozen it thawed and it was hard to work with, if you had a reflector oven it would be OK.
I thought a 10 and 12 year old would eat more so we had leftovers to deal with. Next time smaller portions for them.
Packed too much gorp brought home half
Cereal bars and pop tarts got broken, maybe next time I would get a hard container for those and the crackers.

I would like to hear from some others. I am going again this fall and next spring for a solo trip.

One of my "trademarks" is to partially thaw a storebought frozen pizza beforehand. Fold it in half, or cut it in half and fold the halves in quarter. Refreeze and pack come entry time. Cook on grate over fire fairly slowly as to not torch the outside and leave the inside "raw".

Voila, homemade calzones.

What worked well?
• Individual Ziploc’s for each day, with smaller bag for each meal – all marked.
• One-pot meals for long paddle/portage day dinners -- yellow Spanish rice with carrots and chicken or fresh fish. The water for the rice took care of the carrots and we used a cut up roma tomato to add something to the dish.
• First Night Out steak, asparagus and baked potatoes -we brought some wine and dried mushrooms and some beef stock. Made a great sauce to top off the steaks and after such a long day it really hit the spot. Worth the extra weight to splurge on night one.
• Tortilla shells and rye crisps – super food for the trail. We used them for dinner as bread, with peanut butter or with some summer sausage and cheese for lunch.
• A small amount of dried spice and dried fruit goes a long way. Blueberries and cherries to add to breakfast cereals make the powdered milk much easier to take.
• Air sealed baggies of food to keep it fresh – worked great for cheese, celery and carrots.
• One-quart pre mix baggies for the drinks – works perfect for the Nalgene containers and we have just a small plastic bag left over.
• Ditto on the gorp bags – grab and go each morning.

What didn’t?
• Some “odor proof bags” we bought – they didn’t hold up very well, despite our being very gentle with them.
• Not enough fish fry! We caught too many fish, so next time we will be more optimistic.