My sister and I have the idea that we will walk Tasmania’s Three Capes Track in the near future; the date depends on when she can get four days clear from her busy work and life schedule, and whether we can choose good weather days (or, at least, not foul weather days).  We agreed to determine our own breakfast and lunch meals, and that I would create three different dinners for the evening meal.  At each of the specially built huts we expect to find a stove and saucepans and other cooking utensils for shared use.

When walking with a backpack over days, keeping the weight down is essential. With this in mind, recently I have spent hours drying a variety of vegetables to create distinct meals for us. 

Now that they are packaged, I suspect each meal may be sufficient for lunch leftovers the next day – depending on how much water I add to cook the meal.

Night one:

The meal is an Asian inspired concoction with tofu as the main protein, and sesame seeds as the garnish. The ingredients are dried parsley, mushrooms, peas, broccoli with 2min chicken flavoured noodles (not a chook in sight of these packages, so fine for vegans) plus tofu and sesame seed.

Night two:

The meal is a Moroccan inspired concoction with lentils as the protein and a chopped preserved lemon wedge for a tang, with slivered almonds as the garnish. The ingredients are dried garlic, potato, cauliflower, wild celery, pumpkin, and onions with Ras el Hanout spice, turmeric, orange lentils, wholemeal couscous, dried apricots (not dried by me – I have eaten all those dried from my own tree!), the preserved lemon and almonds to be added to the mix.

Night three:

The meal is an Italian inspired concoction with chick pea/pulse pasta as the protein, tomato paste mixed into Mediterranean vegetables, and topped with black olives. The ingredients are dried zucchini, celery, parsley, green marjoram, oregano, capsicum, silver beet plus pulse pasta, tomato paste, dry yeast powder, salt, white pepper, and I will take a small container of a few black olives.

The weight of these dinners is roughly 1.4kg to be shared. With the weight of breakfast and lunch to be added on, let’s say each of us will carry no more than 1.3 kg for all the food required for 4 days. I will be aiming to get that as close to 1kg for me – I am increasingly inclined to always add more water to each evening’s meals and then take cold leftovers for lunch each next day.  I am averse to carrying unnecessary grams.