Hmmm what to eat, how to cook,how to package?

  Some one recently mentioned the availability of fresh lightweight options for backcountry food.  Unfortunatley fresh food and lightweight dont always go hand in hand.  There are lots of options in your local grocery  and to keep it on the healthier side/ less processed food side you can start with grains and pasta's.  Several ways to go about this you can either design and build your own individual meals or take a bulk amount of rice, pasta, couscous, quinoa, bulgar, barley or grain of your choice.  You can then add a handful of vege slices of your choice to give it a freshful/zestfull zing.  Your enemy here is water!  Fresh things have more of it and its always best to add the water from the place where you are camped rather than carrying it in your food.
  Explore Cheese!  It is calorie dense and ohh so delicious.  The varieties are as numerous as the stars and you can mix and match according to your tastes.  Nut butters, peanut,almond and cashew can add tastiness to curries and thai dishes and are also calorie dense enough to warrent carrying them. 
  When it comes to carrying larger quantities of vegetables you have to figure out a way to economically get rid of that heavy water weight.  If the freeze dried thing freaks you out try drying your own vegetables.  A oven setting of 200 degrees makes short work of drying your fruits and vegetables!  Make sure to check on them so you dont over do it and experiment experiment experiment.  Find your favorite recipes and convert them to a backcountry feasts!  For spicy thai dishes look for rice noodles add a small container of your favorite spicy thai sauce and a handful of mixed dry vegetables.  Add a topping of crushed peanuts and presto!
  You can always save weight in other areas if fresh fruit and veges are the priority.  We will discuss some alternate cooking methods using small campfires.  These methods would only apply in certain areas i.e. designated campsites or wilderness areas that permit fires.  Stay tuned as we will discuss some of these methods in upcoming blogs!  Until then.....Bon Appetite!