First Night Meals

I thought there use to be a thread on here about Favorite First night meals but I can't find it.

Maybe it's time to start a new one!

I'm getting ready for my annual hike on the Florida trail next month, I was looking for something to take on the first day that's not too hard to make, but ends up being tastier than the freezer bag stuff I'll be eating for the rest of the trip.

Any suggestions??? I don't know whether we'll be able to have fires or not so steak and lobster are out

Don't be so quick to wright off the steak. A small steak just the right size to fit in your cook pot can be frozen and allowed to thaw in your pack. Add a little butter and cook over a camp stove. Way better than glop stew.

My wife's wicked curried sausages with couscous.

Freeze the lot (in a freezer bag) or you can cook the couscous on the trail. Take whatever is frozen out of the freezer not long before you leave. Wrap it in paper towel and/or some aluminium foil. Bury it in your pack. Gently re-heat and enjoy as a tasty dinner. I can taste it now.

Once I took this meal to an overnight camp and it was 36C+ (that's 96F+) during the day and when I dug the meal out it was still frozen solid.

Well that's my suggestion.

Cheers,
Michael.

Whatever you can prepare that's frozen will work. A lot of foods will keep for a day or two. AS a boyscout my mom used to make a meatloaf think with onions, potatoes on the side etc. a freeze it in aluminum foil. At camp,(winter camp), I would lay the whole thing in the fire until done. It was a decent first night meal. You can also carry a potatoe wrapped in foil and put it in a fire. Although heavy stuff. The Scoutmasters would cook duck on a spit over the fire. I don't build fires anymore and rely on freezerbags etc. I do like pancakes sometimes for breakfast if I'm spending a lot of time at camp. You don't have to eat glop. There are tons of decent things you can take in bags that only require hot water. One thing for sure. Your pack weight will lighten very quickly as you consume the first and or second day frozen foods.

I'm a big fan of foil cooking.
I went on a four-night camping trip in Arizona with some classmates from college a few springs ago, and by the last night we were all sick and tired of plain camp food, but we didn't want to truck everyone into town for dinner. So I suggested going to the grocery store and getting a roll of aluminum foil, some veggies and such and cooking over the fire. We all ate well that night.

The process is just as easy when backpacking. Place chopped peppers, onions, potatoes, or whatever vegetables you like in foil with pre-cooked sausage (works better than raw chicken or beef; less chance of undercooking it and getting sick) and stick it in the freezer. Wrap it in a blanket and stick it in your pack, it'll stay fresh until camp that night. All the work is already done; just drop the bundle on the fire and you're eatin' good!

During our last trip, my wife and I made pita pizzas (idea came from [url=www.hikeitall.com]www.hikeitall.com[/url]) Take some pita pockets, cut in half. Have the rest of the ingredients in containers of some sort (ziplocks and small nalgenes). Open the pocket, pour in some pizza sauce, add toppings (pepperoni for us), and top with cheese.
In a heated skillet, pour a touch of olive oil, then brown the pita on both sides. My wife at two, and I wished I had four.

It takes only a few minutes to get everything ready and cooked. Tastes great at the end of a trail. Other than the cheese (we used string cheese), the ingredients will last a day or two, so you could have this as a second night's meal.

String cheese wrapped in its plastic wrap will last a couple days without an issue - particularly if you get low fat.

Most cheese is fine for week trips. It will get limp and have oil show, but that is fine.

Ziplock omlets are always tasty on the first morning. If you can boil water you can make them. Fill a ziplock bag with some eggs, and your favorite veggies. Throw the whole bag in some boiling water. Let it boil for a while. Pretty soon you have a no mess omlet in a bag.

We usually do weekend trips, and Friday night is typically a car camp before we hit the trail Saturday morning...so we indulge and eat big. A gallon-size freezer bag of homemade chili is often the favorite in our group for Friday nights.

I hope everyone has their own tents

indeed

I didn't figure we'd have too much trouble with the string cheese. Good to know that we've got a few days in there, though. Thanks for the heads up!

"A gallon-size freezer bag of homemade chili -- "

"I hope everyone has their own tents."

Ha! But even if they did, although campsite flatulence can be amusing, it can also be destructive. (This clip taken near ground zero right after the "blast.")

Another approach to this is to think of what you'll be missing some days into the hike and find reasonably lightweight ways to bring that for the first day's worth of eating. Your packweight is maximium at the beginning of the trip, so there's some argument for not going overboard on first night meal stuff.

For many people, I think it's fresh fruits and vegetables, that and perhaps just variety from the freeze dried or whatever stuff they've brought for the other meals.

Fresh stuff doesn't have to be heavy --- Apples are heavy, but lettuce is light. A handful of carrot sticks aren't bad.

You can get variety in dinner meals without a ton of weight by just expanding your recipe repertoire.

I'm a fan of freezer bag cooking to make meals easy on the trail; you can find some recipes there or just buy Sarah's book for a lot of variety options.

Genius!!! I love it.

I use a vacuum sealer bag. The poly lined nylon holds up if it brushes the side of the pot instead of melting, and the vac sealer seams the bag shut until you're ready to boil so the zipper has no chance of leaking.

Great idea! Do you have to open the seal a bit to prevent it from exploding?