vegetarian

[Fetter]

I am planning a thru hike and am a little concerned about non meat food. Me and my partner plan on mainly red beans and rice (complete protein) and peanut butter but I know that I will quickly get tired of that over 5 months. We were also toying with the idea of pee mixing oatmeal and protein powder for a morning boost. Has anyone thru hiked on a no meat diet (surly) and what was on the menu.

[Lone Wolf]

PM Serial. he's done 4000 miles or so as a vegetarian. he and his girl are hikin' this year. both vegetarians

[Hooch]

[QUOTE=Fetter;1264003]. . . .toying with the idea of pee mixing oatmeal and protein powder. . . ./QUOTE]You should probably just use water.

[ATSeamstress]

The book Vegetarian Lipsmackin' Backpacking might be helpful. I use some of the recipes from it.

Two of my favorite non-meat meals are vegetarian chili (I use the recipe from the Libby's Chili Beans can, then dehydrate) and bean burritos (made with Fantastic Foods refried beans, rice, onions, cheese, and taco sauce - better than Taco Bell!)

[RodentWhisperer]

Do you follow a vegan diet, or ovo-lacto? I'm ovo-lacto, and have always found it easy to incorporate dried or aged cheeses into my dishes. Powdered eggs are, uh, edible but not especially tasty IMO. Some friends who are vegans have made extensive use of TVP, nuts, and nutritional yeast-- and Bac-Os, which are made from soy. And there's always tofu and miso. I've never tried drying/dehydrating seitan, but it might be possible to emulate the classic dried-ground-beef method.

If you're looking to rely upon local stops for resupply, just think about what's commonly available, and you should be fine. It might mean compromising your diet for nutritional reasons, though.

If you're planning on regular mail drops, you might want to check out the selections on wildernessdining.com -- plenty of freeze-dried veggies that can be easily combined into your dishes.

[Fetter]

I'm trying to do it bear grylls style, seal skin vest and the like...PRE mix oatmeal and protein powder

[Fetter]

And im not opposed to eating eggs or milk but substitute when able

[Feral Bill]

You may want to make your stove choice based on longer cooking times for some items. Lentils, nuts, peanut butter and such should be easy to find, along with whatever grains you like. Try some recipies at home to see what suits you. I find Indian food has many excellent vegetarian options, and I'm not even a vegetarian.

[YohonPetro]

Harmony House makes some good meat substitutes that I'm taking this year.

[JAK]

Oatmeal is a very nearly complete protien by itself, and is 17% protien by calories. The trouble is that you can only eat so much oatmeal because of the fibre, so if you add alot of dried fruit and oil and such the percent protien goes down. Nuts and seeds keep the protien up while adding calories. Also, lentil based soup at night is high in protien and makes up for the slight lysine shortfall. Adding up to 1oz of mild herbs like parsley, and paprika, will add vitamins and minerals and a fair share of protien. Add up your protien before you decide whether you need to add any concentrated form. Even just 10% of 4000 Calories is 100g of protien, which is plenty.

[HeartFire]

What do you eat at home? make and dehydrate what ever you want. rice and beans can be cooked up and prepared at home and then dehydrated. All you have to do on the trail is boil water and soak them for about 10 min to rehydrate. Any one pot meal, casserole etc can be prepared at home and dehydrated. Soups - just add soem tvp or couscous to thicken and then dehydrate.

BTW, you do not have to eat the rice and beans in the same meal to get the 'complete protein'.

[Hawkwind61]

Due to food sensitivities I have to prep all my food ahead of time.

I rely on powdered, freeze-dried and dehydrated. I like to bring Quinoa, rice noodles, and instant brown rice. Found it worked best to run my Quinoa through a coffee grinder first. I do freezer bag cooking. Emergency Essentials (http://beprepared.com/) is my 'go to' website for my veggies, cheeses, and some of my fruit (Also my meat as I am not vegan/vegetarian.). I have also had very good luck with Harmony House.

I use a lot of powdered coconut milk and powdered goat's milk. I also buy powdered egg whites to mix in with my 'milk', oatmeal, and fruit for my morning breakfasts. I also bring protein powder that I pick up at Trader Joe's and mix that in with some of my meals, especially my breakfast. At mid-day I mix up a protein shake that also has my berry or veggie greens added. When I finished my section hike last year I had some left over and a vegan SOBO was very happy to take on the few extra packets that were made without goat's milk (I always save that for breakfast.).

This year I'll be pre-cooking some of my beans and dehydrating them so I don't have to pre-soak prior to making my meal. I got into the habit of pouring half of the water needed for my meals into my brown rice based meals at breakfast and letting it soak all day while I hiked. That way I just needed to add boiling water at supper time. The rice was tender and the wait time was greatly decreased.

I will also be getting myself a seal-a-meal so that I can make up packets of all my favorite nut butters to bring with me as those are a staple for me at lunch time (Tired of the price of the pre-packaged packets!).

I know it seems like a lot of work, but I've been doing it for a couple years now and have come up with a fairly simple system using the freezer bags and as long as I don't inadvertently dump my pack upside down on the days I need to add water to my rice I'm good.

All 'pre-packaged' stuff is stripped out and mixed into the meal baggies ahead of time, I add all spices and such when I put the veggies and grains or noodles together. I carry a small bottle of extra virgin olive oil as some of the packets will need a little bit. I write across the baggies with permanent marker any information needed like what is in the bag and how much water it needs, and the wait time once the boiling water is added.

Hopefully this will give you some ideas to work with.

[garlic08]

I hiked the AT and some other long trails as an ovo-lacto vegetarian. My main energy sources were rolled oats, nuts, cheese, breads, dried and fresh fruit. I hiked the AT with little weight or muscle loss--I returned to my career as a firefighter with no noticeable loss of strength. I believe JAK is right about the protein in oats and nuts (and I'll add cheese). You get enough calories, you'll get enough protein (if you're sensible about it and don't live on candy). I bought all my food as I hiked. Trail food cost me $750 in '08.

I have never tried pee in my oatmeal (sorry, that really cracked me up).

[burger]

As a vegetarian, as long as you're getting enough calories and eating a diverse diet, you don't need to worry about protein on a long hike. I've thru-hiked the PCT and done half the AT in the last few years while subsisting on standard hiker food that I picked up in grocery stores along the way: various bars or cereal with powdered soy milk for breakfast, clif bars, cookies, chips, and other junk food for snacks, and mac 'n cheese, tortellini, couscous, or Knorr's sides for dinners. If you're eating 3,500+ calories a day (which you should be!) and have a reasonably diverse diet, you'll be fine on protein. Don't bother with the supplements or going crazy.

Most Americans eat far more protein than they need. I'd wager that that's also true for thru-hikers. Lots of standard hiking food is relatively high in protein: Clif Bars have about 10g each. Kraft Mac and Cheese has 30g for a box. Don't worry about protein.

[Papa D]

Seitan Bars (Primal Strips) Almond Butter, Peanut Butter, Spiruteen Protein Shake Mix, TVP (textured vegetable protein), fantastic foods dehydrated refried and black beans - hard boiled eggs on the way out of towns, dehydrated baked tofu ....... tons of protein sources -- I've hiked thousands of miles as a vegetarian ..... P/m me if you want more.

[jdg]

great info, i am sure it takes a bit more planning then sad diets

[daine.scott]

I too prefer the vegetarian meals at hikes, non-veg makes it tougher for me.

[off-pher]

We were also toying with the idea of pee mixing

[quilteresq]

I picked up "Another Fork in the Trail" by Laurie Ann March - I'm not vegetarian, but on the trail I don't like too much meat. GREAT recipes.

[Mountain Manatee]

I picked up "Another Fork in the Trail" by Laurie Ann March - I'm not vegetarian, but on the trail I don't like too much meat. GREAT recipes.

This is a great book, and the recipes are awesome. Just a heads up if you didn't see it on another thread under towns/services. New Veg/Vegan/Raw restaurant and health food store opening in Damascus in March. new survey up for you veggies: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P8T7RWV