I have always been a minimalist but figured maybe I will go beyond to enhance my son's anticipated experience. I bring olive oil, fish batter, jetboil, most of my food is Hot Water Cooking...add water and eat. Weight is always an issue for minimalists. Is there anything that is "unsafe" to dehydrate and save for later?
Thinly sliced steak, chicken?
Vacuum Sealed small pancakes?
How long will eggs really keep and in what kind of weather are we talking about here?
Microwave Ready Bacon...basically dried bacon?

I will not spend much money but am willing to put in the work prior.
Expanding my menu beyond snack bars, jerky, fish, Idaho Instants, ramen noodles is stretching it for me. Thanks

Rich,

How old is your son? We started dehydrating two years ago and our go to meals are now chili and sloppy joes. You could easily do taco meat as well. Beans rehydrate quickly and taste normal.

Freezer Bag Cooking

Spend some time on this site. Good stuff.

Son is 9.

Lots of easy menu items for kids:

Bkfst - instant oatmeal, Pop Tarts, dry cereal with powdered milk (whole milk), scrambled eggs (frozen egg beaters or even fresh) and pre-cooked bacon (excellent!)

Lunch - PB&J, foil tuna, foil chicken, summer sausage, Ritz crackers or soft flour tortillas, cheese block, cookies for snacks (stores have individual 2 or 4 cookie packs for school lunches), dried fruit, mixed nuts, gorp, etc

Dinner - spaghetti, pasta sides by Knorr, potato sides by Knorr, red/black beans and rice with summer sausage, Jello instant puddings, etc.

Spend a few minutes in the grocery ailse looking for dried goods where you simply add water. If it needs milk, you can take powdered milk.

Old Hoosier

My son is 8 and has been on three trips with me. He loves cold cereal. Last trip we packed cold cereal and Nido instant milk. It was a hit.

About three years ago I started dehydrating food. You can do a lot with dehydrated ground beef. I bought the cheapest dehydrator from Menards and it works pretty well. You tube has some videos and could give you some ideas on how to do it. To me, food prep is part of the fun of a trip.

So true for me when I trip by myself. I am going to involve him in the process from some menu selection to prep. Thank you, I will have to check out some of these brands. We do alot of dehydrating but never beef. Translate beef to venison for us. So we cook it then dry it? We do veggies but not meat other than occasional jerky.

Unless you go in the hottest time of summer and set them out in the sun, eggs will keep for 4-5 days unrefrigerated with no problem. Just cook them well, not sunny-side up. Or if you are able to get Davidson's Pasteurized Eggs in your part of the country, there is no risk at all.

Another possibility is OvaEasy, which are the best powdered egg product. Make great scrambled eggs, especially if you add a bit of chopped bacon or cheese.

The chopped real bacon that they sell in a glass jar for salad toppings is good for this. Just transfer to a ZipLock bag right before your trip and it will keep for a long time.

Pre-cooked microwave bacon is wonderful! Keeps with no refrigeration as long as the package isn't opened, and will keep for the second day once it is open. Since it usually comes in 14 slices per package, two people can eat a package in one breakfast anyway. :-) Just warm a bit in the pan and it is yummy! Is also VERY lightweight and no grease to dispose of; makes just enough grease in the pan for your scrambled eggs not to stick. :-)

Our grandson likes the instant oatmeal, and with a little Nido stirred in before you add the water, it tastes just like you had added milk.

Just add water pancake mix is heavy, but is a pleaser. I add chopped pecans to mine, and I use Krusteas Honey Wheat mix, but that is just a family preference. (more whole grain and more fiber.) But then, we also take REAL Wild Country Maple Syrup, as breakfast is our big meal of the day.

For lunch, as others have said. Crackers, PB and J (PackIt Gourmet has handy little packets of PB and also Almond Butter, some mixed with honey or chocolate.) Summer sausage. Cheese. Nuts. Little packets of fruit snacks. Freeze-dried fruit is very light weight and makes a good lunch snack, as well as dried fruit (which is too heavy.)

NIDO is better than the low-fat powdered milk. Mixes better, tastes better. Usually can be found in the Mexican foods section.

Dehydrated hash browns: Hungry Jack or even a store brand. Good for a dinner meal or breakfast, too. And noodle mixes, soup mixes, etc. from the store. Good old Mac and Cheese, too.

We usually have freeze-dried for our dinner meal, and some of those might appeal to a child. I am thinking of the spaghetti, the stroganoff, perhaps Chili-Mac if he isn't afraid of spicy. But of course if you do your own dehydrating, you can do what you like.

How long is the microwave bacon likely to last if I vacuum seal it? I think I will try the eggs you suggest, my son is into eggs, and I never thought of fruit snacks as I wouldn't eat them.

quote Richwon4: "How long is the microwave bacon likely to last if I vacuum seal it? I think I will try the eggs you suggest, my son is into eggs, and I never thought of fruit snacks as I wouldn't eat them. "

Get some nido milk for sure too. Some nido milk with Ova Easy eggs and your sporting a great breakfast. Ova Easy eggs are good alone, but with the Nido Milk are great in my opinion.

Check out this website for ideas:
Trail cooking.com

quote Richwon4: "How long is the microwave bacon likely to last if I vacuum seal it? I think I will try the eggs you suggest, my son is into eggs, and I never thought of fruit snacks as I wouldn't eat them. "

As to your first question, I have no idea. I take it out of the box and just take the inner plastic envelope in my food box. It is already sealed and very lightweight and convenient. Personally, at home I would never eat a fruit snack, either. But on a canoe trip, they are sort of refreshing at times; a quick little bite that quenches that thirsty/hungry need, and isn't a lot of sweetness, just a bit. I often keep one in my pocket for after a portage.

quote Old Hoosier: "Lots of easy menu items for kids:

Bkfst - instant oatmeal, Pop Tarts, dry cereal with powdered milk (whole milk), scrambled eggs (frozen egg beaters or even fresh) and pre-cooked bacon (excellent!)

Lunch - PB&J, foil tuna, foil chicken, summer sausage, Ritz crackers or soft flour tortillas, cheese block, cookies for snacks (stores have individual 2 or 4 cookie packs for school lunches), dried fruit, mixed nuts, gorp, etc

Dinner - spaghetti, pasta sides by Knorr, potato sides by Knorr, red/black beans and rice with summer sausage, Jello instant puddings, etc.

Spend a few minutes in the grocery ailse looking for dried goods where you simply add water. If it needs milk, you can take powdered milk.

Old Hoosier

"

That's a great list.

A few random other easy/minimalist/jetboil kid things:

* Hot chocolate - premix the nestles rich milk hot chocolate with milk powder (or nido if you can find it), in a big Ziploc. Go a bit heavy on the milk powder - that way even if they have pop tarts for breakfast they get some protein.

* Mac and Cheese. Not much to say here - maybe a different shape each day? You can just add water with the cheese powder when you make it, you don't need the milk and butter like the box says.

* Flatbread pizza - toast both sides of a piece of flatbread, pour on some sauce that you heat in a pot, sprinkle on some shelf stable parmesan and some of that shelf stable pepperoni packet. You can dehydrate tomato puree at home for the sauce, or you can buy these small boboli sauce packets at the store.

* Flatbread. I like these better than plain tortillas. Good for trail pizza, also good for lunches - peanut butter and jelly, or peanut butter and then you sprinkle on strange stuff like banana chips, craisins, M&M's etc.

* Precooked hot dogs or bratwurst for your first one/two days. Frozen. Cook these over the fire on a stick (that's the fun part). Or, in a pinch you can actually boil them in the jetboil.

* You can dress up the ramen with foil pack chicken, and some dehydrated peas or mixed vegetables with almost no extra work.

* Fruit leather (the real kind), granola bars, M&M's, red licorice, etc.

* Tang!!

I've never trusted myself enough to dehydrate meat or dairy in the dehydrator. But you can do it. The thing is, does a 9 year old want a great dehydrated chicken tetrazzini, or mac and cheese and some beef jerky? But for yourself, there is a really good dehydrator thread on BWCA.com by ripple if you search around for it.

I really like the jetboil. But, I never bought one because I didn't want to be limited to one type of cookpot. Something like a Primus Classic Trail or an MSR Windpro with a big spread out burner head, and a cheap thin Walmart frying pan can give you a lot more cooking options.

I have actually considered the primus, great price point. I have the fry pan bowl and two cups for Jet boil so it can get quite versatile. It really does not do a good job on fish though.

I cooked bacon (nitrite free), put it in the dehydrator for a few hours, blotted it with paper towels, and sealed it in the food saver. The bacon lasted 8 days on my August Quetico trip. This is a picture from day 8. Bacon and blueberry "scones."

Looks like a great plan with some good bacon from the local meat shop, some good quality thick cut bacon. Thanks

We got a huge can of freeze dried chicken at the start of the season two years ago, portioned it into two people amounts, vacuum packed and froze it. It is so good. It wasn't the cheapest, but a little goes a long way. It lasted us two years, and there are 5 of us and we take a lot of trips. My favorite is to combine it with rice noodles, aseptic packs of curry paste, and envelopes of coconut milk powder. Also good with home dehydrated zucchini and gravy mix over mashed potatoes.

I have had great luck with home dehydrating ground meats, my attempts at finely dicing and dehydrating meat were all a disaster, they just wouldn't rehydrate. Though I was thinking shredded or pulled meat might do better.

My kids are crazy for the dehydrated hummos they sell in the bulk department of the co-op. I bring a little bottle of olive oil and pita chips to go with it.

We mix whey powder in with milk powder to make 'smoothy" mix. Chocolate whey powder with instant coffee is popular. I keep thinking I will be some powdered freeze dried strawberries and try making strawberry vanilla smoothies.

Just get some of the already cooked shelf stable bacon. Then just cook it up a little when out camping.

On our trip last summer our kids loved 'Pizza Quesadillas'. Large soft tortilla with some pizza sauce (you could dehydrate if you wanted), some cheese, and some shelf-stable pepperoni. Heat it up in a pan until it's hot and the cheese is melted and you're in business!

quote bposteve: "On our trip last summer our kids loved 'Pizza Quesadillas'. Large soft tortilla with some pizza sauce (you could dehydrate if you wanted), some cheese, and some shelf-stable pepperoni. Heat it up in a pan until it's hot and the cheese is melted and you're in business!"

My wife made some similar to this only we used freeze dried chicken we had with us to use in another meal.

Some great ideas above.

My 9 yo daughter has done 3 trips with me and my 7 yo gets her 2nd trip this summer. For breakfast they love dry cereal like fruit loops without milk. Light and as simple as it gets. They just eat it right out of a ziplock bag.

My girls love these Instant Idahoan mashed potatoes. There are several flavors and they come in 4oz packages. Only about $1, small and light package, and very simple.... boil water, dump in package, stir, and eat. Idahoan Instant Potatoes

Yes these simple potatoes are a hit here too. our kids call them "camping potatoes." My son loves dry cereal but would eat an entire bag for breakfast if we let him. thanks

quote Richwon4: "Yes these simple potatoes are a hit here too. our kids call them "camping potatoes." My son loves dry cereal but would eat an entire bag for breakfast if we let him. thanks
"

LOL.... I often catch the girls sneaking the box downstairs and eating it right out of the box because we make them eat it with milk. They think it's a huge treat on a canoe trip that I let them eat it dry :)