Food Finds · Trail Cooking

Commercial Meal Review: Alt Route Meals

Often, commercial meal companies treat vegan/plant-based meals like restaurants do. You get one or two options in a vast menu of meat-based options. I found Alt Route Meals through a follower on our Facebook page, so I checked them out. I was intrigued that they had a sampler pack, where you get all the meals,… Continue reading Commercial Meal Review: Alt Route Meals

Food Finds · Trail Cooking

Commercial Meal Review: Two Vegan Paella Meals

There is a growing (though still not big) market for vegan and plant-based backpacking meals. The two companies in this review both make vegan/plant-based meals. Nomad is also gluten-free, while Firepot offers meals with gluten (pasta). The difference between the two companies is how the meals are dried for long-term storage. Firepot is one of… Continue reading Commercial Meal Review: Two Vegan Paella Meals

Trail Cooking

Trail Cooking: The Quinoa Thermos Method

Years ago, I found a way to cook quinoa without cooking it. And it didn't need to be instant quinoa (back then, you could find pre-cooked quinoa flakes, but it would be mushy like oatmeal). You only needed a heavy-duty thermos, boiled water, and time. While this might not be the best method for backpacking,… Continue reading Trail Cooking: The Quinoa Thermos Method

Trail Cooking

Plant Based Hot Cocoa Mix

Finding a plant based (vegan) hot cocoa mix is a mixed bag. For example, if you can find Swiss Miss's Non-Dairy Hot Cocoa Mix in the store, here is the ingredient list: Sugar, Cocoa (Processed with Alkali), Nonfat Dried Coconut Milk, Tapioca Maltodextrin, Coconut Oil, Modified Corn Starch, Corn Syrup Solids, Gum Acacia, Less than… Continue reading Plant Based Hot Cocoa Mix

Trail Cooking

One Pot Mushroom Soup/Gravy

When we started doing recipes that were not just FBC (Freezer Bag Cooking) (we changed our website from FreezerBagCooking to TrailCooking around 2006 to 2007, to widen the range of recipes we were developing), some of those first recipes were soups. This recipe was one of the first I posted. The mushroom soup isn't a… Continue reading One Pot Mushroom Soup/Gravy