Eco-Conscious Backpacking Food

Well, I am off once again for another trip with the Outdoor Leadership Program.  This is their fall White Mountains trip and the first official "backpacking" trip of their year.  We will be carrying everything on our backs for the week in the beautiful national forest in NH.  I love this trip!

This year I have tried to make less of an impact on the earth by making most of my own food.  This means that I have been dehydrating things like a mad woman and hopefully they will be delicious and satisfying!  A couple great benefits of making my own chow is that I am throwing away much less plastic packaging and using way fewer Ziploc (my mortal enemy) and much of the produce I have dried has come right from our front yard!  That means the only carbon impact on the planet is the small amount of energy used for the dehydrator.  Whoo Hoo!  Now hopefully everything will be edible.  And on a side note, I impulsively bought a bulk bag of rolled oats at our Co-op.  Bulk bag being 50 lbs...might be the first time I regret buying bulk.  But our first attempt at granola was awesome and since we use oats a lot I am hoping it won't go to waste.  I will keep you posted.

Here's what I have made for the trip...

Breakfast: Oatmeal with homemade granola (putting that 50 lb bag to good use), earl grey tea.
Lunch: Instant soup (bulk), pepperoni, cheese and ciabatta bread.
Snacks: Dehydrated Cajun Sweet Potatoes, Beef Jerky from Hager's local cows, Salt and Vinegar Pumpkin Seeds, Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Power Bar and homemade Coconut Brownie Power Bar, honey roasted peanuts, vitamin chews.
Dinners: Tortellini with Village Veggies Tomato Sauce, Eggplant and ground beef (Hager's Cows of course).
Annies Whole Wheat Mac & Cheese with Spinach and Italian Sausage (Hager's own sausage).
Red Beans and Rice with Hager's Kielbasa and Chorizo sausage (kind of like a Jambalaya).
Asian Noodles with Teriyaki Tofu and Eggplant.
After Dinner Treats: Peirce Brothers Hot Cocoa (Greenfield MA company) with mint tea or decaf chai tea.  Dark chocolate squares.

It has been great experimenting with the dehydrator.  Who knew you could just make extra dinner and dehydrate the leftovers?  Pretty great!  I have saved a boat load of money by making my own and hopefully I can inspire some of the students to try the same in the future.