I am going on a canoe trip in about 2weeks. I would make my own meals, but the school has banned stoves/fire, so no hot water for the trip. I was looking into MREs, but I’ve read that they taste horrible and are overpriced. I was hoping to be able to eat some hot food for the trip. It’s around 3 days, so 6 meals. (Dinner is provided)
Thank you!
They are providing dinner, and used to allow stoves. But a couple grade 10s set a tent on fire by cooking in the tent. So, they banned fire.
Maybe ban cooking in tents instead? Or have an adult bring one stove and provide hot water for those that need it.
The teachers get hot water, and actually decent meals, but they want us to “learn how to make and prepare your own lunches”. It’s also that they got sued by the parents
Asking young adults to prepare 3 days worth of meals with no ability to cook anything and without providing any resources on how to achieve this goal, then taking those people into the back county with you is borderline negligence in my opinion. Be prepared for people to have some serious stomach upsets from eating foods they are not used to without enough water in them.
On another note, do you have access to a dehydrator? Salsa and hummus both dehydrate well and can be stored as a powder. Then all you need to do is add some water (and the oil for hummus, don't put that in before you want to eat it) and soak it in cold water for 20 minutes. Rehydrates well and is tasty, with the hummus also having a good bit of protein and calories.
Sadly no, a dehydrator is out of the budget for a one time canoe trip.
Ouch. Dried sausages, cheese, flatbreads, protein bars, ECT will be your friends. Peanut butter and jam keep well for a few days too. Dried fruit and trail mix are good, but you need to be drinking lots of water with them. Pickled things should also last a few days depending on heat, but can be heavy to pack around. Not sure if there are any portages on your route.
I’m going to go with some crackers, tuna, chocolate, peanut butter, and some other stuff. It’s hard because I’ve always had hot food for my entire life, never gone without hot food
But you’re not going without hot food if they are providing dinner? You just need cold lunch ideas? Is that right?
Yeah, but I’m not sure if they are going to provide hot dinners.
…like not even for lunch? Like a deli meat sandwich and chips? Deli meat might be out for this trip, but there are a lot of substitutions. A whole lot of people in this world eat lunches that are not hot every day. I’m not coming at you, just saying there are options.
Won’t deli meat go bad after 3 days in a bag?
Personally I'd probably do a lot of cheese/pita/salami in that situation. None of the following options are going to taste great exactly, but might work for you. 1st--you can buy MRE heaters separately if you want to heat something you've made (but they are not a substitute for boiled water rehydration. 2nd--the heaters might work with Hormel Completes from a grocery store or something like the Taste of India lentil/bean pouches. 3rd--Heater Meals come with a flameless heater and would give you some more options.
Hopefully someone else has a better suggestion, enjoy your trip!
No stoves/fire equals no hot meals. I wouldn't count on those chemical heater packs.
So plan on dinner provided by the leaders (hopefully hot), and think about what you would eat if you were traveling on your own, hiking, driving around, and so forth.
A good choice for breakfast would be granola with powdered milk and dried fruit such as cherries, cranberries, or raisins. I eat this when backpacking if I don't want to fuss with oatmeal.
Good choices for lunch could be dried fruit such as cranberries or raisins, hard salami, meat sticks such as Duke's Shorty Sausages or beef jerky, hard cheeses such as Asiago or cheddar, dried hummus powder (just add water and stir), dried tabouli powder (just add water and stir), crackers, tortillas, different types of nuts, dark chocolate (at least 85% cacao), blocks of semi-sweet baker's chocolate, and so forth.
I did a long day-hike yesterday where I need to keep moving through lunch and did not want to bring a stove. I ate Asiago cheese, Walmart Great Value Snack Sticks (individually wrapped, unlike Duke's, though Duke's are better quality meat), chunks of 85% dark chocolate, macadamia nuts, dried cherries, and a Kind Zero bar.
I never cook my lunch on canoe trips and no food coolers - none of my friends do either. I do either PB and jelly in squeeze tubes or tuna packets and combine it with crackers of your choosing (wasa for me). Pouches of chicken work too, so you could do chicken, harder cheeses, and bread or crackers. I like crackers as they don’t take up as much space and don’t mash, but bagels also hold their shape well.
Apples also keep well, as will carrots. Pudding cups keep (though they produce bulkier trash) as do fruit cups. Pringles work well as they don’t turn into dust thanks to the can.
For breakfast, granola with milk made from Nido works great, or some sort of muesli or overnight oats.
Snacks - just make sure you have more than just sweet bars (they are okay but I can get too much of them). Bring salted nuts and peanut butter pretzels.
Another thought - stuff like Tasty Bite food pouches that are pre-cooked and you would heat in bag or pit can be eaten unheated, so you might feel like it’s a “hot” meal.
Maybe not tuna as it is only recommended that packaged tuna be consumed no more than twice a week (if labeled albacore) or three times a week (if labeled lite) due to its mercury contents. Even though I have eaten past those limits, at my own risk I guess.
Additionally, a case for the health and safety of the student body as a whole could be made if the institution forces them into such a situation where they have no option but to eat tuna every day. That would mean there would be no other option for them though outside of eating tuna or breaking the rules.
My question is what level of education is this? What I mean is around what age group are you. I ask, because I went on a school river rafting trip when I was 13 and if they hadn't fed me I would have died.
I imagine late teens but not college. I also recognize that I don't think of college as some others would because I didn't have the forced to live on campus and other restrictions that were forced on fresh out of high school freshmen from out of town. So maybe first year of college?
I also served in the military so if you go MRE two points of advice.
Firstly: eating an MRE or anything dehydrated requires you to drink more water to compensate. You probably won't die if you don't, but you'll notice the change throughout the day.
Secondly: if you choose MREs, mashed potatoes don't taste like mashed potatoes, cheese spread is always a good sign, chili Mac is sacred and burn anything labeled vegetarian to ash!
I’m bringing a shit ton of Tabasco to help with the taste. Also, I got 2bags of Mac and cheese and 2 bags of creole. It’s a massive group of high schoolers.
They aren't joking about fluid intake... have water you can drink, and add in flavor if you think you'll struggle. I like gatorade mixed half strength or lighter (pool water, as my sibs call it), or I add in fruit juice as I can (I'd do the other cool packet stuff but it all has aspartame in it and I'm allergic).
Pepperoni / salami / summer sausage Beef sticks / jerky Cheese / babybel cheese Nut butters, jelly packets Bread / crackers / tortillas Tuna / chicken pouches Protein bars Snickers Snack / trail mix / granola Dried fruits Apples, bananas, figs, oranges Celery, avocado Chocolate bars Cookies Tasty bites or similar premade meals, precooked rice pouches
Bring lots of Pop Tarts. Like, a huge number. And give them out to all the other students.
That way everyone will be hyped up on sugar and behaving badly, making life miserable for the teachers.
Then the teachers will change the rules for future trips, allowing them to bring actual good food.
You can totally survive off Pop Tarts for a couple days.
That is genius. I’m also planning to bring $50 worth of jolly ranchers
A canoe trip means you don't have to worry so much about weight, so dehydrating your food isn't necessary. You can just bring hummus if you want, you don't have to carry it, just throw it in the bottom of your boat.
I will advise you to bring gatorade powder/mio something to flavor your water cause it can get boring only having water to drink.
Thank you! I almost forgot to bring something to flavour up the water
If you're looking to bring dehydrated/freeze dried meals (like Mountain House or similar), I find MREs to be similar in taste quality, but they're significantly cheaper when accounting for calorie content. They also have flameless ration heaters, which makes heating them a lot easier.
That said, not my first choice for camping.
My preference would be to bring things like farm fresh eggs (no refrigeration required), and some shelf stable items such as potatoes, noodles, rice, and some stuff in a cooler that I can cook over a fire, but you say you don't have that option.
So given your limitations and a desire for hot meals, if it were me I'd take MREs. It's the only way I'm aware of to get a hot meal without a stove or fire.
If you're that opposed to MREs, then sandwiches (PBJ or other shelf stable ingredients), hard cheeses, crackers, granola, maybe some canned tuna or chicken, maybe some dehydrated fruits/veggies/jerky.
Would a gosun be allowed? It uses the sun, so no fire danger.
I don’t think so because it’s mainly the risk of burning yourself.
Only the inside gets hot. The outside is cool to the touch.
No hot water kills a lot of camping meals. I'd be eating a lot of tuna packets on crackers. Shouldn't this school be advising you on meals if they are drastically limiting your cooking methods.