High Sierra Topix

In 52 years of backpacking, I have never used packaged freeze-dried meals. And I also dislike salt and use as little as possible when cooking. All my backpacking meals use ingredients you can buy at any modern supermarket - Trader Joe's is my favorite. However, here is where I diverge from kpeter's request: I actually cook dinner in the backcountry, rather than just expect that pouring boiling water on something will make it edible. To be specific, I use various quick-cooking pastas, grains, legumes, and grain-like foods as my base, with seasonings and some protein (usually cheese and nuts) added. This requires simmering the pot for 15 minutes at very low heat. My favorite bases include buckwheat (high in protein and a nutty texture), those little split red lentils (more protein), vegetable flour pastas (from chickpeas, beans, and cauliflower), a couscous-lentil-quinoa mixture from Trader Joe's called "harvest grain blend" and brown "minute" rice.
-Phil

I find that the "10-minute" boil grains do fine with about 2-3 minutes of simmering and then put the pot in a cozy for about 5 minutes, as long as you do not mind them a bit crunchy. I have never simmered any grain 15 minutes. Trader Joes "quick barley" and red lentils are good. Angel hair pasta is really fast. Couscous even faster- just boil water, add, stir, and put the pot into a cozy. FD vegetables (onions the worst) seem to need more soaking, or I get indigestion. I am not sure they even add enough nutrition to bother with. The dried shataki mushrooms you get in the Asian isle of the store work very well. As does nori if you like that kind of taste.

You can order FD ingredients on the internet. Some come in #10 cans (a lot to use) only. There also is a brand called "just vegetables" and "just fruit" that come in smaller, but expensive, packets. Whole Foods used to have these. I have been having trouble this year finding the FD re-fried beans. Wall Mart has a soup mix called "Darned Good Chili" that is good. You could sift out the salty soup base that it uses and keep the vegetables and beans.

If you really look at the ingredients in FD packaged meals, a lot of it is TVP, which you can get at most stores, like Safeway in the bulk isle. Or minute rice. The actual FD ingredients are often a small percentage of the package. I think you can put your own meals together if that is what you want to do.

I came across this website which has half a dozen homemade recipes using some freeze dried ingredients. Looks interesting to me since you can control the sodium.

https://www.theyummylife.com/Instant_Meals_On_The_Go

every time I watch a Food Network cook-off show, if the contestant hasn't seasoned right (salt), they get eliminated.
I only add salt/pepper to meat before I cook it. Also use salt to brine turkeys before I cook them.
I have nothing against salt as we all need it in our bodies.

I'm not talking about anything extreme--I want some salt too, both for flavor and because when working out hard your body does lose more salt and it needs to replace it. An older adult needs around 1500mg of salt each day, if you have borderline hypertension it should normally be less than that. Working out hard you may need 10-20% more than that. If you are young you can use up to about 2300mg. But the average American gets 3500mg of sodium.

If you take in that much you will eventually drive up your blood pressure and if you do it consistently it will lead to hardening of the arteries, which elevates your risk of stroke. My grandfather used gobs of salt and died of a stroke--so that risk may run in the family.

Mountain House Beef Stroganoff, for example, contains 1570mg of sodium per serving. Eat a large package of that with 2 servings and you will consume double the sodium for the day in one meal alone. Throw in sodium for breakfast, snacks--which tend to be salty--and you can easily wind up at 300-400% the daily dose for sodium.

Despite all that, I wouldn't have worried about it--each trip is only for a few days after all. But I was diagnosed with Stage I hypertension and am trying to control it without have to take medications. The symptoms of high blood pressure are also somewhat dangerous to have when out by yourself at high elevation. I suspect that this may have contributed to my anxiety and an abbreviated trip last summer.

Keeping the salt down when out there makes a lot of sense for me. I'm just trying to follow doctor's orders I'm losing weight, eating better, exercising more, and trying to get healthy for a full season of backpacking, celebrating my (partial) retirement.

I put no salt on my trout and the freeze dried meals are backup. I love to cook and yes, I have to take hypertension drugs, but off them by half when I backpack.. Need the BP to do it. I tend to take fresh veggies (lemons, oranges and onions) and Tuna with tortillas for my meals. Not big on breakfast, but if I do, it is malto-meal. Fresh veggies are heavy but one can't beat fresh. Via on layover days helps. Also good for the liver.

The degree that salt impacts blood pressure is somewhat genetic. It is good to reduce salt and see what happens. But if you simply have the genetics that makes this less effective, there is nothing wrong with going on some medicine. But medicine is not an excuse to overdo salt either.

I was poking around websites today to find the refried bean flakes I can no longer find at WinCo and ran across several sources, mostly "survival" websites. Still check the salt and read the labels. My local WinCo used to have some FD bean flakes that had no salt, and some that had salt plus spices. Unfortunately, a lot of the items I wanted that were reasonably priced and in mylar packets were out of stock. I suppose that there is some hording of survival supplies or supply chain problems due to COVID. Google "bulk freeze dried", "instant" (whatever you want), or "survival supplies". There are also some specific organic suppliers that look like they have some good stuff. And much is available from Amazon, although Amazon jacks up the price a bit. The survival sites tend to sell more larger quantity items . The FD vegetables usually are salted, so be careful to read the labels. FD fruit is a good bet for low or no salt. If you like instant potatoes, buy the plain-jane boxed, not the flavored packets. I bet there are many variations in the salt in cheese, perhaps some low-salt varieties.

Meat of any kind (being muscle tissue) usually has some natural salt and needs little added.

I have a friend who cooks her own regular meals and puts it in a dehydrator then in a "seal-a-meal" packet, and freezes it. Then she takes out what she needs just before going on a trip. It stays pretty insulated in her bear can so lasts quite well up to a week or more. Rehydration is simply putting it in a pot of boiling water for a while. This another method you may look into. You would have to buy a dehydrator or figure out how to do it in your oven.

I make and dehydrate my own refried beans. That way, you can season them to your liking.