Yes, We Survived!

Here I am, feeling overwhelmed with prepping food for this year's 100+ walk through the Sierras, and also wanted to touch base on this long-neglected site. I came back from last year's backpack full of ideas, but got distracted by work. Boo for me!

Obviously, we did not starve to death on the last hike. I didn't even get the hungries. I was, however, sluggish & peevish the first week of hiking. Maybe I just didn't have my groove on yet (or maybe it was hormonal timing), but after our re-supply at Red's Meadow where I found a foil-pack of PackItGourmet Freeze Dried Roast Beef Dices, my energy levels & my emotional doldrums lifted. Thank you, surplus box!

I ground the dried beef to dust in the foil pack & added a big heaping spoonful to my pease porridge each night. Amazing results.

So this year, of course, I am drying my own ground beef. I've discovered that my little quart-size crockpot will quickly & easily cook up 2 lbs of grass-fed ground beef. I drain off the juices for another use, break up the lump o' meat & spread it thinly on dehydrator trays lined with parchment paper. It dries overnight! Then I pop it into the food processor & grind it to dust. An ounce of this "meat dust" provides just over 15.6g of protein, so I'm planning to add that amount to both the evening and the mid-day hot meal.

Another way I'm planning to add a little extra protein this year is by substituting rice protein powder for the hummus mix in the Ginger Bars when I start whipping them up next week.

This year I am feeling especially rushed because not only have I (as usual) put food prep off until the last moment, but we are going to be out of town for a conference for 11 days in August, returning home just 2 weeks before we head out for Tuolomne Meadows.

I hope to make at least one more post in the meantime, but just in case, remember to carefully calculate your protein needs for your backpack! I am discovering that 1g of protein per each pound of lean body weight is not excessive!