my obsession with trail mix

Post by Jenna.

I love trail mix. I could seriously sit and eat it all day, because there is so much variation that you never get bored. And thats probably a good thing, because it is going to be a staple of mine and Tom's diet on the trail. People suggest that you should have 2 cups of trail mix a day to snack on all of the time. The other day while riding up the chair lift, I started wondering how much trail mix that would really be for the whole trip.
Lets do some simple math (the best kind):

2 cups of trail mix
x
30 days a month
x
6 months
=
360 cups of trail mix (per person).

Thats a whole lot of peanuts and raisins.

The Great Lentil Experiment

If you are a reader of this little hiker blog, you will know that Jenna is gluten-free (and a vegetarian) and I am a preachy vegan (is there any other kind?). This is forcing us to be rather creative when planning meals for the trip. For breakfasts, this means countless variations of instant oatmeal and dried fruit. Dinners are some sort of cooked then dried beans, spices and minute brown rice. Lunch, however, has at least me stymied. How can we have a gluten-free vegan lunch that is full of calories and we don't have to cook? My typical hiking lunch of smashed bagels and peanut butter won't cut it for Jenna and I refuse to eat only gorp for lunch for five straight months. With this in mind, let me introduce you to the "Great Lentil Experiment."

"What if," I thought, "I soaked lentils for a couple of hours. Could this be the lunch I am looking for?" Lentils cook quickly, are rich in protein and are super delicious. I really enjoy cold Indian food. With visions of dahl dancing in my head I set up two different soaking experiments. In one container I soaked half a cup of red lentils in room temperature tap water. In another container, I soaked half a cup of lentils in boiling water (with spices). I let them sit for 4 hours while Jenna and I went to the Woodland Park Zoo (which is, I know, not a very vegan activity) and went to the Ave. for some pho chay (Vietnamese veggie noodle soup).

When I came back I tried both lentils, and to my surprise, they both had sprouted! They were soft enough to eat, but both tasted earthy and nutty. Now, I don't mind that "sprout" taste, but only in salads and sandwiches, not when I am trying to make no cook lunchtime dahl.

So the "Great Lentil Experiment" has not yet succeeded in producing what I want: a no cook, delicious, nutritious, gluten-free, and vegan meal. Any lunchtime suggestions, now that I think of it?

Okay, so all is not without hope. Here are the future plans for the Great Lentil Experiment, Party Two: 1) Boil the lentil for a very short time and then soak them (in hopes of killing whatever enzymes that start the sprouting process). 2) Make a delicious dahl and then dehydrate and see how it re-hydrates in cold water.

More to come...

A word about food

This year for Christmas Tom got 2 great hiking cook books from my parents, and we spent last night pouring over them. One is Lipsmackin' Vegetarian Backpackin' by Christine Conners and Tim Conners, and the other is Trail Food: Drying and Cooking Food for Backpacking and Paddling by Alan Kesselheim. They are both fantastic- full of amazing recipes, tips, and ideas. Full reviews will come later once we have entirely devoured the books, and tested some of the recipes, but just reading them is making me so excited to be crouching over a small alcohol stove on the trail. Tom and I are currently looking for a food dehydrator on Craig's List, because we think it will make our lives easier and more pleasurable, especially with our dietary restrictions. There is very little processed, prepared food that is vegan, and/or gluten free, so we are going to need to make most of it from scratch. Both Tom and I love to cook, and we love a good activity, however, so we are excited by the prospect.

Maybe this is a good time to explain a little about our diets. I have been an ovo-lacto vegetarian (meaning I refrain from eating meat and fish) on and off since I was about 15. When I was 20 I became vegan, and followed a strict diet void of all animal products until I realized I was gluten free when I was 22. I tried to be a gluten free vegan for a while, but it became increasingly difficult to find things to eat, so I reverted to vegetarianism shortly after my gluten free diagnosis. For those who are unfamiliar with gluten intolerance (also known as celiac disease), it is an auto-immune digestive disease which that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, spelt, kamut and barley. Gluten intolerance presents itself differently in each person, but I was plagued for years with many medical issues (mainly a terrible rash covering my body), and mis-diagnosed numerous times until Tom and I eventually figured out my problem on our own. Although it requires me to follow a strict (and often inconveniencing) diet, I feel so much healthier now that I have cut gluten out of my diet.

Tom has agreed to discuss his dietary choices at a later date, and to refrain from too much "vegangelicalism". To make our lives easier on the trail, we will both be eating to accommodate one another, with the exception of me having some cheese or powdered milk, and Tom having pretzels or other gluten-containing foods. We plan on eating a lot of corn pasta, lentils, rice, and dehydrated vegetables and proteins such as beans and tofu. We have also found hummus mix and powdered soy milk in bulk, as well as soy jerky products. In the end, it is practically impossibly to go hungry in today's modern world. And as both vegan and gluten free diets are growing in popularity, acceptable foods are becoming more accessible. While this is the case, however, we are going to be mailing most of our food to ourselves along the way to ensure that we don't need to survive a week on peanut butter and almonds.