Tramping food: Homemade 24 hour ration pack

My 'take' on a 24 hour ration.....

By way of comparison with the Backcountry Cuisine 24 hour ration pack featured in my previous post...here is my own take on the same type of ration pack. This was produced with items of food and sundries sourced from supermarkets, Asian food warehouses and outdoor stores. 

I ate this ration on the first day of my recent trip to Nelson Lakes National Park....

Homemade 24 hour ration + snack pack

This ration pack contains all of the food and associated items I need for a day and comprises breakfast, lunch and dinner items....some snacks and beverages at a very modest weight of 580 gms. I would estimate the contents of the pack cost me approximately $30-40 dollars so on par with the BCC commercial variety. 

This is typical of the type of rations I make and carry when I am going out on a over night tramping trip. It also includes items like a Chux cloth in lieu of a tea towel, water purification tablets, salt+pepper and a scrubbing pad. 

Food items for a whole day

I usually only carry meals for breakfast and dinner...for lunch I usually have wraps or Arnotts Sesame Wheat crackers, cheese, salami or some other cured meat, sometimes fruit and a hot or cold drink depending on the availability of water. On this trip I had noodles as I was going to be at the hut in the early afternoon and would have the time & facilities for preparing hot food.

Usual lunch...crackers, salami, cheese and some drinks...

I usually take 3-4 snacks per day to be eaten on the trail during rest breaks or after dinner as a dessert item. I use a chux cloth to dry my dishes and carry salt, pepper and olive oil to flavour my meals. 

This 24 hour ration contains the following items;

Main meals: 

Porridge with dried milk, fruit and sugar

Two minute noodles + Continental simmer soup

Chilli Con Carne and Macaroni Cheese (Chilli Mac)

Snacks: 

1 pkt raisins

1 pkt salted peanuts

1 Teriyaki steak bar

Freeze dried pineapple

Drinks:

1 pkt Raro (sweet navel orange)

Tea bags (Earl Grey) and Splenda Artificial sweetener

Miscellaneous items:

2x salt sachet

1x pepper sachet

8x Aquatab water purification tablets

Medium Chux cloth

Green 3M pot scrubber

I like to pack all the food into a ration...I'm used to it from my army days but also it is a great way of keeping track of what you are eating. The contents are placed in a zip-loc bag usually with the day of the trip written on the outside. 

Homemade ratio pack: Freeze dried chili, macaroni, dried pineapple

For breakfast I had instant porridge with sugar, raisins, milk powder and prunes...to this I add hot water and eat it from the bag. I will have this with tea or coffee depending on what I packed in the ration. 

As mentioned before I had noodles for lunch on this trip....I added some cubed salami to the noodles for a bit of protein and a squirt of olive oil to improve the flavor. I had the Onion simmer soup in the late afternoon before my evening meal...I always start dinner with a soup by way of a top up...

Homemade Ration Pack:Snacks, Raro, chux cloth and miscellaneous bag

Dinner was Chili-Mac....freeze dried chili from Absolute Wilderness (the best freeze dried meals available in New Zealand in my opinion) and a packet of instant macaroni and cheese. This is really good...even better on a wrap or with a couple of crackers broken into it. I had the Raro drink powder with dinner and the re-hydrated pineapple for dessert.

Homemade ration pack: 2 minute noodles and pre-packed porridge

This is plenty of food for me for a 24 hour period and I never feel really hungry if i eat all of the contents of the pack. I sometimes add chocolate bars as a dessert but I'm not much of a chocolate person so it is a rarity. I carry my tea and sweetener with my cook kit as I sometimes like to stop for a brew if I am walking for more than 3 hours...nothing like a char enjoyed under a shady tree looking at the wilderness...

Nothing like swinging the billy on trail....

There is no limit to the type of ration packs you can make...it is only limited by your own imagination and available ingredients so it is definitely worth trying some of your own ideas out.