• prevent your crackers from crumbling
    Articles,  Menu Planning,  Technique

    Meal Planning: Stop Your Crackers from Crumbling

    If you’re a fan of Wasa Crispbread or crackers for your meals on a paddling trip, you’ve probably had crumbly crisps by the end of the package. This simply trick helps stop your crackers from crumbling when camping. On a camping trip, as you eat crackers from your Wasa Crispbread crackers package, the crackers start to sit more loosely in the package. That looseness allows them to move around too much. The movement causes them to start cracking, especially when under pressure in your food bag. When held tightly together, like in a new package, they maintain a structure that helps stop them from cracking. They key trick and the…

  • dave and amy freeman kayak on Lake Superior
    Articles,  Menu Planning,  Technique

    A Simple Menu for a 12,000-mile Backcountry Journey

    On backcountry kayak camping trips, a varied and robust menu seems a given. There are dozens of camping cookbooks devoted to the topic, and 100s and 100s of recipes and even magazine columns devoted to cooking tasty treats while on the trail. All that food planning and preparation takes time and effort, so you might be tempted to ignore all that advice and just pack mac and cheese. National Geographic Adventurers of the Year Amy and Dave Freeman did just that on their 3-year, 12,000-mile kayak, canoe and dogsled journey from Seattle, Washington to Key West, Florida. They ditched the fancy menus and simplified each of their daily meals to…

  • lunch served on the deck of a kayak
    Articles,  Menu Planning

    8 Lunch Ideas for Your Next Canoe or Kayak Trip

    On kayak and canoe trips, I like to carry simple meals that require little prep and take up little room in the portage pack or hatches. Usually that means that I pack one or two types of lunches for a 10-day trip. By day 10 that can get a little old. Recently, I asked online friends for lunch ideas. The responses were varied, some elaborate and some simple. But all were less complicated than those found in a commercial paddling cookbook such as The Back-Country Kitchen: Camp Cooking for Canoeists, Hikers, and Anglers. The ideas were so good that I thought I’d share with the rest of PaddlingLight’s readers. Main…

  • Menu Planning

    Creamy Wild Rice and Chicken over Potatoes

    Wild rice and paddling go together. Some of the first canoes were used to harvest wild rice, and if you paddle in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness chances are you have paddled through a rice field. It not only goes with paddling, but it tastes great. A wild rice soup poured over mashed potatoes fills the stomach and makes a satisfying end to a day of paddling. This recipe is quick, hardy and easy to carry. Creamy Wild Rice and Chicken over Potatoes Recipe (Serves 2) Calories: 425 per personIngredients Boil water. Pour 2/3 cup into a freezer bag with the potato buds, add ghee. Mix. Add rice, bouillon…

  • Menu Planning

    Canoeing or Kayaking Menu Plan for 10 days

    A kayaking menu plan for a 10-day canoeing or sea kayaking trip must be light, compact and crush resistant. It should also be varied enough to fight off boredom and maintain nutrition. The following menu plan provides about 3500 calories a day, and it’s light, compact, crush resistant and varied. Except for the fresh lunch items, this can be sent through the mail for resupply stops on longer multi-staged trips. I used this menu plan on multiple sea kayaking and canoe camping trips in the past, including trips where I resupplied. Hygiene & Misc Hygiene in this kayaking menu plan is simple. Bring a small supply of Dr. Bronner, which…

  • cooking breakfast on a kayaking trip
    Menu Planning

    5 Quick and Healthy Breakfasts For Canoeing and Kayaking

    On my first paddling and camping trips, I often overlooked making a good breakfast for canoeing and kayak in favor of eating a few quick snacks, like Pop Tarts, and as I paddled I noticed my strength fading quickly. It took me a few trips to figure out my breakfast wasn’t working for me. Although breakfast snacks like instant pastries have over 400 calories per package, they lack any significant fat or protein. Essentially, they’re just empty carbs and eating them in the morning creates high blood-sugar levels, which will eventually crash throwing the body into a battle that’ll will last all day. That’s no way to start a hard…

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