OK, I know how to make light breakfasts and suppers I like, but for lunch I lack ideas.. apart from Ryvita.....

With that in mind I just wondered whether anybody had any suggestions for a reasonably filling lightweight lunch.

I'm new to this site but an ooooold backpacker & lunch has always been a challenge.

I get powdered humus from health food bins, but into little ziplocks, & on the trail add water, squish, & spread.

I also use tabouli(bulgar) salad mix- add water & instant lunch.

I like Bear Valley Meal Packs- a high calorie pemican-like bar.

Dried apricots are another favorite & of course lots of nuts.

Instant split soup mix in ziplocks is wonderful when it's wet &/or cold.

Nutella on tortillas allways gets me going. Or put it in a squeeze bottle and eat it right out of the bottle. Snickers bars, trail mix, penut butter all do well. Bagel with cheese works too.

If you like Reeses peanut butter cups:

Take a small container of peanut butter and take out/eat the center, making a "well" with peanut butter along the sides.

Then take some nutella and heat it in the microwave for a few seconds, just enough to soften it so it can be poured. You can then pour the nutella into the hole in your peanut butter container. Let cool.

This makes a delicous spread. Yum.

The company "John West" sell foil packets of tuna with varying flavours, for example "Tuna with lime juice and red pepper." The foil packets do not need to be kept refridgerated, are less than a centimeter thick and are relly handy to keep a few in your pack. If you soaked some pasta at breakfast in some of the spare water used for making tea etc, you could put the pasta in a spearate food bag. Then at lunch time, open up the now cool and cooked pasta, tear open the tuna packet and you have a delicious pasta salad with tuna with a hint of lime & red pepper etc. You could always add few freshly picked young dandy lion leaves for a salad.

*** To clarify the above, once the pasta has soaked and cooked in the hot water, transfer it into the plastic bag for storage, or an other air tight container you have. Don't cook it in the plastic bag, you don't want hot water in a bag to handle. ***

Crackers are also a lightweight food that you can carry for a light lunch and there are various spreads etc that you can now buy in small sealable tubes etc.

Edited by waterloggedwellies on 08/17/2005 04:21:31 MDT.

Try this at home first.
Have you actually done this? Seems like it would have to be some very thin pasta to cook in just hot water. If you soak uncooked pasta in water it's going to turn into a glob of raw flour in water by lunch. I've dehydrated cooked pasta and then turned it into salads for trail lunch as you describe, and it does make a yummy special lunch. So,tonight, I've poured some boiling water over a few pieces of raw little shell pasta and wrapped the container in a towel. We'll see if it cooks.

This is why I fail to make it as a proper ultralighter - I love my grub! However, one or two things have worked for me, for example, handfuls of toasted muesli eaten in place of biscuits. This is the one situation where Kellogs Country Store is tolerable. Bread made from a rye/wheat mix lasts well in a rucksack. Being able to make sandwiches - my staple - ten days since seeing a shop is very satisfying. In the Pyrenees I passed a cabin where cheese could be bought. The cheese was hard and did not sweat in the heat. Dried fruit goes well with cheese and together they taste a bit like chocolate. At home chocolate confectionery has no appeal but, when working hard in the hills, a Mars bar can taste good. They last surprisingly well in a rucksack if protected from crushing.

Beware of over-doing the nuts as they can turn your insides sulphurous!

Patti, I have done the pasta thing numerous times. Using pasta such as found in pasta snack meals that you can buy in the shops work on the principle of add hot water, wait five minutes then eat. For other types of pasta you can always use something like one of the numerous pot cosys to save using extra fuel. After pouring the water to make your tea, pop in the pasta and depending on type, may need to boil for a few minutes before popping in a pot cosy to contiue the cooking process. Once its cooked, don't leave it in the water. Drain the water off before storing and then protect from the air to prevent it drying back out and keep in a coolish place as best you can. My pack works okay. Sometimes, when I have come back to eat it and can just have started to dry out but I usually just place a little spot of cold water back in, mix up and it's okay for me. It's no different from taking pasta as a packed lunch to work for me.
Regardless of how you prepare your pasta, the point of the thread was that a cold pasta meal, prepared earlier is an ideal snack and that there are numerous products out there, such as the tuna sachets, that when mixed in with the pasta and are really tasty! I probably did'nt make that bit very clear but i was thinking more of the eating / meal suggestion than the cooking bit. Typical bloke!!!

Edited by waterloggedwellies on 08/17/2005 10:52:33 MDT.

I've found that soaking ramen noodles works extremely well for setting myself up for a good, fast, cold lunch on trail.
What I do: After breakfast on the trail, put one package of ramen minus the spice pack, along with a handful of dried veggies into a screwtop nalgene bowl or ziploc freezer bag. Hike. At lunch, drain the water, add a packet of Italian salad dressing. Voila, yummy pasta salad.

Edited by RenMan on 08/19/2005 06:18:12 MDT.

-N.